High ISO - My Thoughts

A connundrum exists here in the digital photography world. 

As photographers, we yelled and screamed at camera manufacturers to give us higher and higher ISO's with lower and lower noise so we could shoot in darker and darker situations.

Well, we pretty much have that now. Indeed the current and upcoming crop of cameras have tremendous ability to shoot in low light with great results.

The connundrum is that photodog's everywhere now do not know how to us high ISO to their advantage. Not just amateur photographers, but many, many, and did I say many, professional photographers.

I was shooting football, at night, recently and one of the guys was commenting about how nice it was to shoot tonight's game at 6400 ISO. I was incredulous. The light at this field is gorgeous and you truly need no more than 1600 ISO to get great action stopping, sharp photos. I have cranked my Nikon D300 to 2000 and 2500 at this field and they photos are fine, but here it is - the Joe Brown Theorum on High ISO:

LESS IS MORE.

That is it. LESS IS MORE.

If you can get away with a lower ISO, then do so. 

You will, in general be MUCH happier with your photos than cranking it up to a high ISO just because you can.

The Bestest Darn Softbox --- EVER

y of you know of my association with SOPHA Studio in Manchester NH. It is a fantastic place to practice the craft of controlled photography, and learn the craft from those who are willing to teach. 

Now since SOPHA has a drive in cyc wall, they have that lit with

 the biggest softbox I think I

 have ever actually seen. It is big enough to light a car front to back, and has something like 7 lights in side of it. Beautiful.

Well, I have found one bigger! And softer! And a joy to work with! Anyone want to guess ??

It is a FOG BANK!

Yes indeed. Fog. Which is a cloud at ground level. 

I know you all think I have lost it, but read on:

I have been shooting lots of sports assignments over the past few days, and the weather here in New Englan has been nothing short of murky. But this, I feel, is an advantage. The sun goes down around 4:30 which requires the lights at the fields to be the primary source of illumination for the soccer or football games. Now invariably there are areas of the field that are unevenly illuminated. It is the nature of the beast.

So here is where the fog comes into play. The fog scatters the light around, and that softens it. But it also fills in some of the shadows, as all thouse photons bounce around. COOL EFFECT!

Here is a shot from Reading High School in Reading Mass during half time of last night's Football game. I realize there are no players on the field, but I am posting this to show the conditions.

Even the kids playing pickup football are fairly well lit.

And that is what takes your photos from snapshots to well crafted photos, see the light and where it does and doesn't go and use it to your advantage.

A Nice Photo Find....

Hello all - welcome to the next installment of my blog, I apologize for not writing sooner, I am sure you all (all two of you who read this -hi mom!) have been chomping at the bit to read my next missive. Well kimosabe, your wait is over:

In photographic terms, more specifically in camera terms, I am but a youngster. Many of the friends and acquaintances I have can tell stories of olden days, with bigger cameras, and single shot Speed Graphic 4x5 cameras and more. And I have to tell you, this old technology (if you will) fascinates me. I love looking at the old cameras and trying to imagine covering a game or a fire with one of these. Certainly digital is different than all of that!

In that spirit, I have a small collection of cameras and I am always looking for ones to add to that. I am not hardcore, scouring the ends of the earth for cameras, more just a recreational, casual collector who adds what he can find as he finds it.

Well, in response to an internet posting, a gentleman from Tewksbury Massachusetts notified me that he had a couple of cameras to give away, and was I interested. Sure! So I went by his place and grabbed them from him.

First camera is a Polaroid J66. It is in minty condition, and has all the accessories including the original box - nice add to the collection!

But it was the second camera that had a little extra with it and really added to it.

The camera is a Kodak Duaflex II with a Kodet Lens. An interesting design, with a waist level finder using a mirror (so this is NOT a TLR in the true sense of the word) and a true plastic body. These were made in somewhat limited number in the early 1950's, and are still pretty common today.
So the camera is great, and it is in mint condition too, but can you imagine my amazement to also find the one thing I usually never find with old cameras - FILM !

Yes indeed I found 2 rolls of film!! BOTH ROLLS are BRAND NEW - NEVER OPENED!
But they have both long since EXPIRED! As you can see in the photo, they both expired in 1953! Yes indeed 55 years ago!

There was one other item in the old camera bag also, and I had really only heard stories about these, and that is flashbulbs. A sleeve of them. These are old Number 5 Synchro Press bulbs. They are basically the type you screw in, and I have been told that on dry days, if you happen to be charged with static electricity, you could set these off in your pocket, and get a burn!
Can you guess my next thought? Hmmmm, I have a camera, I have some film, I even have some bulbs. Should I ???? I think I might!!!

I will keep you posted !!

History and Influences

I started my photographic journey in about the 6th grade, with a Polaroid camera and a pack of instant film. As a 7th grader, I was allowed to use the family 126 Kodak camera. I will certainly never forget buying my first real camera - a Pentax K1000.

I was a ninth grader at Arlington Catholic High School, and just across Mass Ave from the bus stop was (and still is) New England Photo. The owner was (not sure if still is) a man by the name of Ara. I believe he was Armenian. Extremely nice man, from whom, I purchased several cameras.

As an aside, I will always remember the day a friend of mine came back from New York City and had lost all of his equipment in a car break in lower Manhattan. He really loved the Canon AE-1 Program he had and wanted another one of the same. However, it had been several years since the AE-1 Program had been in production, and they were hard to come by. I thought that if anyone had one to sell, it would be Ara. So we went to the store and asked, and Ara said he thought he had one. Well, after a few minutes Ara came out of the back room, in what could be called High Procession, with an AE-1 Program, but not just any AE-1, a BLACK one! NEW IN THE BOX, and as I recall, it was a kit with the 50 mm lens all wrapped up together. My friend bought it in heartbeat, and I was proud to have helped him.

Back to my Pentax - I got the K1000 and a 50mm F2.0 lens from Ara, and my parents paid for it. I remember the whole kit and caboodle being $119.oo plus the tax, and my mother was extremely skeptical about what would happen with this major purchase. Well, that camera served me well. I learned so much from that box, I was in heaven. I took that thing with me everywhere, and Mom constantly reminded me of it's safety and make sure it did not get stolen.

So it is that I cannot remember when I upgraded that camera, it may have been when I returned to good old Woburn High. But I remember moving up to the Super Program, then the ME, then the ME Super, and that camera served me through my brief stay in college, and then beyond.

It was late 1987 that I started with the Woburn Daily Times newspaper group as a freeelance photographer and I purchased my first Nikon FILM camera. An FE. May have been an FE2. Nice camera, and it served me well.

I upgraded on a fairly regular basis and used a pair of F4s's for film cameras for all of my assignments.

So why the walk down memory lane? Well two reasons.

First - I have been asked to be the guest speaker at the upcoming Reading Art Association's Annual Dinner on June 11th, and I need something to speak about, so I have been going over some of my old stories and photos for some inspiration.

But moreso there was a small article in the NY Times newspaper today (6-3-08) that spoke of one of my earliest influences in photography (though I am not sure I should be proud of this - read on.)

As a photojournalist at the Woburn paper, several freelancers came and went and we all had to share assignments and mostly darkroom space. It was a constant struggle to schedule time to get developing and printing done.

One of the freelancers who spent some time with us, was a man called Steven Senne. He is now a bigtime photojournalist with the Associated Press based in Boston.

As he was leaving to move on in his career, he presented me with a book of photography and told me that I was like this man - Arthur Fellig - also known as WeeGee.

I was chasing fires and news nearly 24 hours a day in those days, cutting my teeth as they say and trying to get established in the photography business. WeeGee was the ultimate in spot news or crime photographers - based in New York City - the crime capitol of the world. He was in some persons eyes, the ultimate papparazzo also, as he photrographed the seedy side of NYC when not chasing ambulances. His moniker of WeeGee was a play on the title of the Ouija Board a game which supposedly predicted the future - WeeGee could seemingly predict where the crime was and oft times was there before the police.

Have a look at this article and try to remember it the next time you are out perusing a yard sale - you never know what you may find.

Old Photos Found at Yard Sale

It makes me wonder - if I lose a box of my photos, will some museum want my stuff long after my death?? :)