Berber Portrait & thoughts on Film

This is one of my favourite shots from the films I got back from Morocco. Situated in the north part of Marrakech, he was actually sleeping in a big metal wheel barrow when I came across him. The streets are filled with smells, sounds, activity - sensory overload. So I think I was drawn to him because he was stationary. Anyway, he was one of the most willing participants I had. Sometimes a photo just falls into place, other times it takes a while to get it right. This one just fell into my lap.

I've finished editing the Portra Morocco shots. I just need some time now to put them up on my site. They are similar to my Cuba and Cambodia shots. I just feel so much more happy about them compared to my previous Morocco shots. The colours are right this time, I've got a lot more portraits too. First time I went to Morocco I came home with a few sparse portraits because I hadn't learned what it took to get them. The culture is difficult, people don't respond to tourists like they do in Cambodia (warm, welcoming) or Cuba (discreet, proud). The Moroccan is a distant person, privacy is valued much more, highly religious, general culture make for very difficult photo taking and I'm not going to do candid shots because it's so easy to offend someone.

Anyway, regarding film, my first shock was how grainy it is. After using digital for a few years now, it took a bit of adjustment to going back to looking at grainy film. But conversely, I had to do very little to the images - the colours were there, and that 'texture' or '3D' look or 'glow'. Conversely, digital is flat, you have to work at bringing the colours out, and when doing that, it really screws with skin tones.

It's hard to describe, and I guess I shouldn't need to. If you need me to describe the different look and feel that each medium has - then you can't see it.

Wool dyeing in the Souks of Marrakech

It was tough. Making photographs in Morocco wasn't easy. The more I go through the films from Morocco, It is all coming back to me. Here's a shot from the Souks of Marrakech. These guys are dying wool that is used to make a lot of the Moroccan textiles. I remember walking past them and thinking how great it would be to get a candid shot of them doing their work.

I could see two possibilities. One was that they would agree, but the image would lose any spontaneity that I found attractive in the first place. The second option was that I would get my candid shot. I had no idea until this evening if I'd got something, and as usual, it isn't what I expected, but in many ways, it's much better than I'd hoped for.

What I like about this shot is that the main guy on the left has a very serious natural look on his face while in the immediate background his work mate is unaware of the camera. Notice the steam coming off the dyed wool. Compositionally, both subjects balance each other out and give the image symetry.

On a technical note, this was shot using the 50mm Mamiya 7 lens - that's roughly equivalent to a 24mm in 35mm land. So it's a wide angle. I normally shoot people shots with the 80 and it's a real pain to have to anticipate which lens to have on the camera body most of the time. I don't fancy the idea of having two Mamiya 7 bodies, because I'm really going to stand out. Which isn't the point of street photography.

First Moroccan Film Scan

Today I received my Morocco films back from the lab. They're Kodak Portra shots, C41 Processing, which means they are negatives. No contact sheets, so I'm just going through each roll, blind. This is the very first image I've just scanned tonight, and it's apparent to me that I will be shooting film for portraits from now on.

I was shooting all my material on film until about a year ago. It's been a trial to move to digital because it simply doesn't respond the same way or look similar. Digital's biggest drawback is in the realm of portraiture. I'm sure I'll be rubbing a lot of people up the wrong way, but I know because I've tried both. Rather than browse the internet for opinions, look at the images for proof, or better still, try it out for yourself.

Digital just doesn't have this look to it. The skin tones are hard to reproduce in digital, and well, there's something organic about film to my eye.

This was shot in Marrakech, near the main square. He's quite hip isn't he? I like his gelled hair, and he was very approachable. He is a modern Moroccan whereas many of the others I photographed seemed to come from a much older time.

I found a lot of the locals in Marrakech were very warm and friendly to each other, but not to the tourists.

It was a hard place to photograph as the camera is treated as a serious intrusion to their lives and religion. But now and then I'd meet someone who was a willing participant. I'll post more in the coming days as I work through the films.

All change for Film

Well, it's been an inevitable eventuality for me. To go back to film. Not that I'm abandoning digital in the slightest. But today I was happy to receive a Nikon Coolscan 9000 scanner (it's been a long road trying to source one). You see I was missing my Mamiya 7 so much, that I opted for shooting with it and nothing else while I was in Morocco in February. So I have a batch of Moroccan portraits to process and scan now. Yes, I never got them processed at the time, because I would have been frustrated at not being able to scan them in and publish them.

It will be an interesting few weeks ahead for me. Going back to looking and admiring the smooth tones and grain of a 6x7 negative. And how I will feel about finally being able to look at the Morocco images I shot.

I loved shooting in the dark. I had no idea, no immediate feedback whether I'd got my shot and that was just fine. I was free to focus on shooting and immersing myself in my surroundings. It's a luxury to know you can't see what you got - it's one thing out of the way. No distractions. Just you and the camera and what is going on around you.

I'll be posting a Morocco portfolio at some point over the next month or so. I had a 'gut' feeling at the time that I'd managed to get a few very nice portraits. And the fun will be finding out what is hidden in the rolls of Portra that have been stuck in my fridge for the past few months.

March's featured Image ~ Cambodian Rice Fields

A fleeting moment is all it takes. One minute a photo doesn't exist, the next second, something has been born that you never, ever expected.

I guess that's what I love about Photography. The surprise, not knowing what is around the corner.

I shot this scene in Cambodia in 2006. It was the rainy season - October to be exact. I'd specifically gone at this time because I knew the sky would be thunderous and dark in the afternoons. As a result of this, the light would often be overcast and soft. Ideal for shooting in the middle of the day.

I find it interesting when people take their camera out on a sunny day because they think the light is great - it's possibly the worst time ever to shoot. When it's sunny, the shadows are deep and hold no detail, and the colour is washed out. Film, or a digital sensor cannot cope with this harshness.

The light during my visit was often overcast and soft. Ideal for shooting in. Yes, the camera sees differently from how you and I see.

I'd made friends with a local driver at the hotel I was staying at. I'd been in Siem Reap for a few days when I asked Deap where he lived. He told me he lived in a little village outside of the city. 'Do any tourists go there?' I asked to which he said that no one went. So I promptly asked him if he could take me there each day after the monsoon had ended.

So this photo was made on the way to Deap's village. Out in the rice fields people were working, and as we tried to drive through the mud slurry on the road I spotted this woman and her child. They were walking on the roadside and just as we passed, they stepped off the edge of the road into a waterway in the fields.

I could already 'visualise' the scene coming together in my mind. I remember tapping Deap on the shoulder and asking him to stop. I ran back to the scene and was lucky that I had the right lens on the camera. One quick click, and I raced back to Deap and his motto and we were off again.

When I got home, my mind was full of memories from the trip, but I have to say, this was one of them that had stood out and I wondered what the film would show. It was a great pleasure to see this shot when the film returned from the lab.

On a technical note, I shot it on a Mamiya 7II with a 150 lens and Kodak Portra 160NC with a Lee 3 stop hard grad.

You don't need to spend £££ to make fine images

This is the first image I made and thought 'wow'. I was around 22 years old at the time and I didn't know very much about photography at all.

I'd just got my first camera for a year - a Canon EOS 650, which at the time was very sophisticated. It had autofocus and a really impressive built in meter. But I was always coming home with really crap shots.

And that wasn't the cameras fault.

Then one day, I learned something that changed everything for me. I discovered the magical qualities of light and composition. I'd never really thought about it before, but if you get great light, great subject matter and are able to compose a shot in such a way that it just seems to 'work', then you're potentially on your way to creating a very fine image indeed.

So this was shot on Agfachrome, which I bought cheap in a bargain bin at my local photo place, with an EOS 650 camera which you can pick up for around £60 here in the UK, with a wide angle lens on it.

That was it. Oh, and stunning lighting, an exceptionally thunderous August evening around 9pm plus some great subject matter. I'm going to give myself a little credit too - an operator that recognized a potentially good image and after some stumbling around a field searching for a good angle of view, was able to pull off a nice composition.

I took other shots that night and although they all have the same lighting, and subject, this one really stood out because the composition was just 'right'.

So if you want to make good photographs, you just need a tool that you are comfortable with and gives you good enough resolution that you are happy with (I have this printed up to 24 inches wide, framed in my home).

But above all else, you need a desire to get out there with what you have and make pictures. That's what it's all about really.

The Marconi Pass, Viedma Ice cap, Patagonia

This little spot was my camp site for one evening, during a six day trek on the Patagonian southern ice field. After hiking for two days to get here, where the second day included climbing the steep Marconi glacier to the top of the Marconi pass, we arrived at this spot. It's pretty exposed up here and we used a lot of large boulders to peg down our tents for the night.

We'd hiked up from the pass below using ice axes and crampons. It's a challenge not to impale yourself with the crampon spikes whilst carrying an 80L backpack - and my backpack was by no means the heaviest or largest either. My guide and porter were extremely fit and very experienced. This kind of trek is not for everyone and you need to be versed in the use of crampons and know how to do an ice axe arrest (the final ditch attempt to save yourself when you've lost your hold on the mountain side).

Turning a full 180 degrees around, I had this view (below). This is what I'd come for. On the far left is Fitzroy and on the far right you can just see the tip of Cerro Torre peaking up with it's signature ice mushroom. I believe Art Wolfe has a similar shot, taken a little earlier in the day. It was interesting to find his shot in the book 'Edge of the Earth, Corner of the Sky' a year or so later. I wasn't surprised we'd both shot the same view point because you really can't move anywhere, and there is only one clear point of interest to shoot at.

These shots were taken on a Mamiya 7II camera. I took with me the 50, 80, 150 and 210 lenses for the camera, along with a Sekonic 608 light meter, Gitzo 1228 tripod with a Kirk BH-3 ball head and around 30 rolls of Velvia 50. The entire kit was contained in a tiny Lowepro Orion bag, stowed away in my Macpac Glissade 80L backpack.

The Mamiya 7 lenses are second to none. The wide angles are the best I've ever used with no distortion at the edges. This is primarily because there is no mirror in the camera, so the wide angles can be designed so the back element is very close to the film plane. I've just recently gone back to the 7, because quite franky I've been missing it. Although I do think digital has it's merits (it is the only solution in a commercial environment, amongst others), there is simply something very intuitive about the 7 for me, and the look and feel I get from using film from a 6x7 transparency is something I feel I've been missing whilst using 35mm digital sensors (5D).

I think I used the standard lens for both these shots with a Lee ND 0.9 hard grad to control the dynamic range between the sky and ground. I prefer the hard grads to the soft grads - because when the hard grad is placed so close up to the front lens element, it's pretty diffused anyway, whilst controlling the exposure of the sky. The soft grads are fine for very gradual changes, but I seldom use them (even though I have 9 filters with me at all times - 3 hard ND, 3 soft ND and 3 full ND filters).

I seldom use the built in meter on the 7, except for when I have the 80mm lens on and I'm doing street photography. For landscapes, I always use the Sekonic 608 zoom master I have. The reason for this is that the meter in the 7 acts like a spot meter when you have a wide angle on it, and center weighted with the 80 and an average meter with the 150 and so on. The other reason is that the meter has a scale. It shows me the dynamic range between the lowest value and highest value I want to record on the film. So for instance, if I see that the scene requires 10 stops of latitude, I know that Velvia can handle around 3 to 5 stops, so it's definitely time to put on an ND grad. I then meter for the ground and expose for that.

Preparation is key for a trip like this. I'd done a lot of research into the ice cap, and what I was expecting to see. I'd also been climbing hills for months before hand with a heavy back pack to make sure my fitness was adequate. If your fitness is good to start with, the trip will be enjoyable, but if you intend to get fit whilst doing something like this, you'll have a very hard time.

Dancing in the streets

This is a street scene from Havana, Cuba. I shot this on a little Voightlander Bessa R3a rangefinder camera on Kodak Portra film (my favourite film for people shots). There's something very nice about film that seems really 'organic' to my eye. But it was really the chance encounter with these children that makes the image for me.

Cuba is a country full of music. You hear it everywhere - morning, noon and night, in peoples homes, in passing cars and out on the street too.

These kids were really getting into the swing of things as I came around the corner, and I just couldn't resist taking this shot.