My harbour rubbish project continues. Every afternoon I go to to water to discover new species, about one on average per visit.
Yesterday’s find could be a DNA strand.
Sigmund Freud once said he wasn’t a scientist but a conquistador. Similarly, I don’t see myself as a photographer.
At my recent exhibition one viewer wanted to argue the camera doesn’t matter.
I disagree.
My Nikon D4 is quite extraordinary if only for the ease of setting auto iso. Instead of having to go into ‘my menu’ I simply hold the iso button and rotate the subcommand menu. This means I can switch between flash to natural light photography in the blink of an eye.
The viewfinder is brilliant. I normally shoot in manual mode and with my Nikon D700, it was hard if not impossible to see the exposure bar. The Nikon D4′s exposure bar is always visible no matter how bright the scene.
The command dials can also be illuminated in low light – no more fumbling in the dark for a torch!
The auto iso, the legible viewfinder and the illuminated dials are small things but worth their weight in gold.
One setting that caused a problem was the brightness of the viewfinder. When it is set to ’0′, its default setting, it is too bright and I found that relying on it resulted in underexposed images. I’ve changed the display setting to auto and the underexposure problem has gone away.
The battery life is, well, I have never come close to exhausting the battery so would guess it’s around 2000 shots.
Some reviews have criticised the D4 for using the XQ memory card but even if it doesn’t take off, so what? The 16Gb XQ card that came supplied with the camera is more than enough for me and if it isn’t, the images spill over onto the second CF card.
Its focussing beats my Nikon D700 hands down and I now use my 105mm f2.8 Nikkor when shooting events in low light, something that wasn’t really possible with the Nikon D700. In normal light the D4 is unbelievably fast and accurate as evidenced by this shot on a beach where the subject was walking towards me.
Nikon D4 ‘s focussing is very accurate
But if I had to justify its purchase price, it would be for the Nikon D4′s supple rendering of tones in lowlight. This christening image below is taken at 6400 asa.
Nikon D4 low light capability essential at a christening
The portrait below is taken at 1600 asa, not the most extreme iso, but one which is sufficiently challenging for most cameras for the resulting images to be brittle.
portrait taken at 1600 asa with Nikon D4
Oh, it has video capability but this isn’t something I use so I’ve only used it occasionally and when I have, I am stunned by how primitive it is – not so much for its resolution but for its inability to accurately and easily autofocus – my iPhone is better.
Now that I am a fine art photographer, should I deign to photograph ‘old girl’ reunions?
Just as Judy Annear, Senior Curator of Photography at the AGNSW, couldn’t be bothered to visit my exhibition, or even decline my invitation in a friendly manner, should I snub what was my bread and butter photography?
Of course I should photograph ‘old girl’ reunions. How could I pass up the opportunity to capture portraits like this one photographed yesterday?
photographing an old girls reunion
Continuing my series about what will be left behind when earth has shrugged off humanity. More and more this submerged rubbish seems to resemble new species.
floating rubbish in the harbour
Continuing my series about what will be left behind when earth has shrugged off humanity.
The project has taken on another dimension. Every night when I photograph rubbish in the harbour it feels like I am discovering new biological species. An irony that these new species are all still births. The images also look like they are under the microscope.
harbour rubbish
What the project doesn’t lack, at least the final images won’t lack, is beauty. Photography without beauty is worthless irrespective of the subject matter. W. Eugene Smith’s image,Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, is a beautiful image and that is why it has such an impact.
When does an observation of any kind become a response, or even more powerfully, an intervention? Perhaps always? Does the observation have to ‘attract’ us to have this power?
Continuing my series about what will be left behind when earth has shrugged off humanity. Lest I be accused of being depressed, a report released on 13 May 2012 from the federal government’s Climate Commission found “NSW is becoming hotter and drier. Record-breaking hot days have more than doubled across Australia since 1960 and heatwaves in the greater Sydney region, especially in the western suburbs, have increased in duration and intensity….Very high fire danger days have already become more frequent, and will occur even more often in the coming decades. “
In response, acting NSW Premier Andrew Stoner said “Most people would consider a report warning about the devastating effects of climate change as alarmist”.With fools like him at the helm why would I be optimistic?
Continuing my series about what will be left behind when earth has shrugged off humanity.
floating rubbish in the harbour
Irving Penn is perhaps the greatest graphic designer that was ever a photographer.
Penn’s work is dauntingly elegant, even when photographing crushed cigarette packets.
Tonight I seem to have combined Irving Penn with Bill Henson when I walked around an abandoned marina at Berry’s Bay and photographed rubbish in the water.I normally don’t like photography that isn’t of the moment so I tend to avoid photographing anything that can be photographed with a tripod but this series of images could be justifiable. Essentially, it’s about what will be left behind when earth has shrugged off humanity.
floating rubbish in the harbour
Just a quick blog triggered by a question asked by a viewer at my exhibition today – I’m not really a portrait photographer because portraits are so fundamental to my work no matter what genre, whether it’s restaurant, funeral or even fine art photography.
Here is an 18 month old.
A pure portrait, foremost a human interaction.
No this isn’t another spiel, well it is, but not one which requires you to hand over cash to me!
On Wednesday night I waited at UTS before the opening of Valery Klamm’s show at TAFE. Val has many beautiful images of rural Russia definitely worth seeing.
UTS happened to have a graduation ceremony and graduates were spilling out onto the forecourt to be greeted by proud parents. It struck me this is an incredibly important ceremony, up there with births and weddings, so I pulled out my iPhone, the only camera I had on me, and photographed. The iPhone has many shortcomings so the image below is more a diary note but I am confident I could make money from this image had it been taken with any DSLR, or indeed any camera shooting at 1/60th of a second or faster in dim light.
After a UTS graduation ceremony
If you are thinking the money would come from the proud parent you are wrong.
Yesterday I met with Alan Davies, Curator of Photography at the State Library of NSW. I met with Alan after having heard Alan talk at a Headon seminar the previous weekend at which he presented a slideshow of images the NSW State Library has collected and he explained what he was after and what the Library would pay!
Essentially, the NSW State Library will buy images for between $100 and $500 if they capture a contemporary moment and there is sufficient context to describe the circumstances of that moment. So in my photo, the flags in the background document what’s going on and where (Graduation at UTS). The image is contemporary (the mother is clearly looking through the viewfinder of her camera). The moment is unique (proud mother photographing son) and never to be repeated.
Before you rush off and buy cameras anticipating rivers of gold, Alan Davies has a big proviso, the image must be unique and relate to NSW. So what to do if you live elsewhere? I would get on the phone and ring up whichever institution is responsible for your country or state’s archives.
