Re: Henk Thijs via Blurb
Hi Judy,
Mentioning your problems carrying heavy weight camera's (for that
reason i switched years ago from Leica to Pentax - never regret it)
for certain situations i bought a digital compact camera allowing RAW-
format :
the Panasonic DMC-LX2 'LUMIX', with a Leitz (!) Vario-Elmarit 1:2.8
- 4.9 zoom (6.3 to 25.2) about 222 gram.
all the best and thanks for your comments - without PostFactory there
would be no (tri)gum print in the book!!
cheers,
Henk
On 19 jun 2009, at 7:45, Judy Seigel wrote:
On Thu, 18 Jun 2009, henk thijs wrote:
I myself still love the feeling of a book in my hands, from
Malamud to Alex Web, from McEwan to Pentti Sammallahti .... and to
produce one myself was a great experience .
Especially a "picture book"...
But what I want to know is how Henk shoots these folks unawares.
Hidden camera?
Street photography for me is just a matter of always carrying a
camera without the goal of making 'street photography';
Exactly ... but my little digital camera, at 14.4 ounces, is kind
of a wreck, having spent years in the bottom of my purse with the
loose change and cracker crumbs -- tho I can't really upgrade
because all the "better" ones (especially the ones with changeable
lenses) weigh too much to carry always everywhere, including with
10 pounds of groceries...
....when i want to make a certain picture i make some to the
left , some to the right , some in the air and in between the
one i want to make ....
Very ingenious ... tho I don't know about in NYC -- as soon as
folks spot a photographer, they tend to pose, run, or give you the
finger, so your "scene" is over. Even with cellphone cameras
everywhere, those "photographers" are taking themselves and their
friends. If one of them started to photograph a stranger, they'd
freak. I think also a woman with a camera can't melt into the
background the way a man can...
I anyway tried one of those right-angle lenses, which was
impossible. The zoom lens is probably the best option, tho too
heavy for me to carry everywhere, every day (and, OK, I admit it --
I'm hooked on digital, & if there's a zoom for digital, the whole
setup would weigh practically as much as I do).
I'll add, tho, that crowds (as on Halloween in the subway, or Gay
Pride Day, etc.) are no problem... One of the reasons I was hooked
on Times Square (300 rolls in the late '80s) was crowds of crowds
and everyone with a camera. But, again, your scene with the guy in
white hair, hand on chin at the cafe, would still be impossible.
(And forget Times Square -- it's awful now.)
Most of the time a fairly -rather cheep- zoomlens 18 to 200 mm.
My other question is about the cover image, "Max" (tricolor gum).
If I remember correctly that's... a grandchild? (Exquisite head
in solemn soulful portrait.) What I want to know, Henk, is how
did you figure the cropping -- in that black surround. Did it
just "happen," did you try other ways, or...? (And what did you
promise or threaten the kid to get that look?)
This one is not cropped , the black is just Photoshop CANVAS SIZE
with black.
And yes , 'my botticelli' is my grandchild, and ' sitting' for me -
not too long !- wasn't a problem until now. No 'promise' for the
look, just love :-), but maybe i have to tell a short story:
When he was a baby, he had a cold, and he was too young to express
his feelings in words; in pain he only could cry.
But a holiday was planned in Spain, and we have to sit nearly 3
hours in a plane, and he really had severe problems with his ears;
during this three hours he sat on my lap and i tried to comfort
him . Since that time we have a bit of a special relation.
Which I suspect could have happened anyway.... (& didn't make the
kid so gorgeous, either).
The inkjet pictures are in the making for brom(oil) and (tri)color
gums for my exhibition in the OpenShutter gallery in Durango in
november; also some pictures taken in Istanbul (where i really
want to go back!!)
We had the Atlas out this evening to find "Burma" -- so I checked
"Durango" -- there's one in Colorado and one in Mexico. Tho this
Atlas is ancient: 1963. Where's your "Durango"?
cheers,
Judy
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