Out Shooting

Did some portraits of a friend with the 4x5 field camera set up. Think I am rushing to much with technique and not flowing with the work. Am still learning all the tech stuff and do not have the control and communication during the session, not saying what I want to say. I need more time with the 4x5 and greater confidence with this machine, better photographs will follow.

I also shot some Landform images with the Xpan on the beach of the lake I visited, lots of weeds and foam from the windy days over the 2 days proceeding the photographs. It was fun to also visit a local historical village and try my hand at photographing pigs (fast smelly little suckers!).

Picking Over A Guys Parts

This week I went to an estate sale for a local photographer who had passed on late last year. It was rather sad to see all these people swarming over his things trying to buy things up cheap. A man spends a lifetime building up a collection of items, creating his little trove of treasures and in a few days its all gone and all that is left is a house of empty rooms.

I was lucky enough to get a brand new never used Cibachrome CAP-140 processor for $20. Over the last 3 days I have been using some of my old chemistry and donated color photo paper to print up some images for my camera club. The processor is designed for color slide positives (Cibachromes) but I have been using it for color negative prints and might try to do some larger B/W RC printing as well. This machine sure makes the color printing process (been replaced for the most part by digital ink jet printers) so much easier than dealing with tubes and pouring chemistry in the Jobo systems.

I did one of the rejected color heads, a color head of my father and also a portrait of Nit from 2008, will do a print of the ladyboy sex worker Cake from 2008 tonight.

Quote: Oliver Wendell Holmes (Writer)

"Photography is a mirror with a memory."

Goals

Was writing out my goals as a photographer to a friend in email today and this is what I came up with, #1 and #2 are far and above the most important.

1) Make photographs that speak to me, I should not compromise in these photographs. I should do work that I think is of value and not do something simply to be accepted/shown and sold.

2) Create a body of work that communicates a message that will inform and educate the viewer and hopefully lead to change that will help the subject of the photograph.

3) Have the work collected and shown by major galleries/museums around the world.
4) Have a high quality photography book/s made of the images.
5) Have the work shown in smaller galleries/magazines etc.
6) Have the work collected in private collections.

Khon Thai Thoughts

Photographs I want to make for the Khon Thai project keep flashing through my head. I like to plan what I shoot ahead of time when I am in Canada but I need to be careful I also need to be open to photograph in unplanned ways when I am in Thai. Sometimes luck and circumstance should take over when your in the field, you should be open to changing your preconceived notions. This photograph made in 1999 of a security guard keeps flashing into my mind, I want to do up close and personal portraits like this as well as shots that include a little more background information.

Blad Heads

On Sunday I did some square format availible light blad heads of mom and dad. Will be doing some more of these heads this coming Sunday of other family members but will not post them online without their permission.

Quote: Dorothea Lange

"The camera is an intrument that teaches people how to see without the camera."

What it is

Photography is about having something to say and then saying it. All the cameras/films/lens/technique only allow you to communicate your message and are no important than that, they are tools to help you say what you want to say.

The key is to have something to say and then saying it.

Alberta Open Photo Competition 2010

Went to the opening of the Alberta open photography exhibition (my 5 sex worker color heads were rejected by the jury). A nice night in a nice setting. The photographs were shown in the basement gallery at the Jubilee Auditorium a very nice pretigous facility. They had food and drinks and lots of folks looking over the work. I enjoyed myself, met and talked to 5 or 6 friends. Discussing photography and being around people who love photography is always fun.

Now the not so nice part of the evening. The photos overall were of a very poor quality. Little challenged the mind and nothing that I saw challenged my heart. I walked around and heard a lot of "Thats nice or Thats good." comments but thats about it, no one became involved in the work, there were no passionate discussions, all friendly friendly/nothing nothing boredom. The work shown was stuff you could take home hang in your washroom and forget about. It was fast food photography, that was quickly eaten, forgotten and left a bad after taste.

I did like a few of the landscapes and a few of the building shots especially some by a few photographers I know well but overall the quality was exceptionally poor even worse than last year. Of the 64 images on display there was 1 portrait maybe 2 (kinda), last years competition also had only 1 or 2 portraits. There are no people in the Alberta? No people in the world to photograph? Some photographers beside myself must have submitted some portrait work, documentary work, nude work etc. How many photos of wagon wheels, bales of hay and landscapes can we look at?

JUDGES OF THE ALBERTA OPEN, PLEASE BROADEN YOUR VISION, SHOW US MORE THAN THE SAME SAME BORING BORING PHOTOGRAPHS. SHOW US MORE THAN YOU CAN SEE AT A THOUSAND SITES ONLINE, SUPRISE US, EDUCATE US, STIR SOME PASSION IN THE VIEWER, REACH FOR THEIR MINDS, THEIR HEARTS!! PHOTOGRAPHY IS A GREAT ART FORM, PLEASE SHOW PEOPLE THE POWER IT CAN HAVE.

Last years show:

http://gerryyaum.blogspot.com/2009/08/vaaa-alberta-open-photo-show-2009.html

Double Rejection

I got rejected from 2 local shows here recently, the 2010 Alberta Photography Open Show and from the Profiles Public Art Gallery. Feel bad I could not get the work I feel is important seen that but no harm in trying. Hopefully someday some of the photographs that receive multiple rejections will be shown somewhere.

Here are the rejected sex worker color head images. Screw the rejections I am pushing forward and making more of these color/ringflash heads in the future already bought the film! : ) You got to make the photographs you think are important, photos that stir your heart, eventually some day some way they will be shown. If they never are seen outside of this blog then heck at least I went out swinging!

Quote: Minor White

"One should photograph a subject not only for what it is but for what else it is."

Quote: Sammy Davis Jr.

"Being a star has made it possible for me to get insulted in places where the average Negro could never hope to get insulted."

Quote: Sal Mineo (Actor)

Speaking about death:

"Before it happens I mean to do the things I want to do. I will not end up saying, 'I wish I had.'"

The Power of Photography

This wonderful story from Gordon Parks about his photographs of Flavio speak to the power of photography and how it can have a positive effect on the people who are photographed.

Gordon Parks Flavio Story, MOVING AND INSPIRATIONAL

Camping Shots

While camping this past week I did a portrait in the style I might use for Khon Thai. I think I will go with a stronger flash in the Khon Thai images. The flash adds an element of seeing, Diane Arbus said it best:

"One of the extcitements of strobe at one time was that you were essentially blind at the moment you took the picture. I mean it alters the light enormously and reveals things you don't see."




I also did some more traditional landscape photos. Taking photographs is fun even when it comes to landscapes which have been done to death.