B.D. Colen - SmugMug PJ Artist-in-Residence
Andy
Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
[imgl]http://img.skitch.com/20090612-8iswyin79w3msqntj8r3ustda4.jpg[/imgl] We're thrilled to announce that accomplished and notable lecturer B. D. Colen has joined us as our Photojournalism Artist-in-Residence. An experienced teacher as well as having spent decades in the field, he's here to answer your questions, provide critiques, lead discussions, and much, much more.
Stay tuned and post any queries in this thread.
![http://img.skitch.com/20090612-8iswyin79w3msqntj8r3ustda4.jpg[/imgl]](http://img.skitch.com/20090612-8iswyin79w3msqntj8r3ustda4.jpg[/imgl]){kind=link}
Stay tuned and post any queries in this thread.
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Comments
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Thanks, Richard, it's really great to be here! If there's one thing I've learned over the years it's that we are our own worst editors. The best way for any of us to improve our photography is to be part of a community of photographers.
And if I may, I'd like to add something here that I posted at the end of a fast disappearing thread. I think this may give people a bit better sense of where I'm "coming from" and what I'm about:
First, while I have done photojournalism, I do not think of myself as a photojournalist. In fact, early in my life, after several summer jobs as a newspaper shooter, I decided that I did not want to spend my life as a photojournalist, because at that time - mid-to-late-60s, photojournalism was quite limiting and I decided I would ultimately be bored. (I ended up as a writer and editor instead, and had much, much more latitude than I would have had doing traditional photojournalism.) Today, that might be different, as many newspapers and magazines are using the web to allow photographers to spread their wings and do really creative and important work.
I think of myself first of all as a photographer, and second of all as a photographer of "real life." I am very much steeped in the documentary tradition, and most of my photo heroes are either dead or will be sooner than I'd like to think. I include street photography, and a lot of portraiture in that genre, and believe that the basic principles and concepts of documentary photography can be applied to wide range of photographic genres, including family photography, wedding photography, and corporate and editorial photography.
I do in Photoshop what I would do in a film dark room; I burn, I dodge, I adjust contrast - as I would with paper grades and filters. I work very carefully to avoid creating an alternative reality. Yes, when I am shooting for a client, I will sometimes clone out an annoying intrusion into an image, but that's because it's what I'm being paid to do - and I do it rarely. Otherwise, the telephone wire stays where it was.
"People" quite neatly describes what I shoot. Obviously, there are many ways to shoot people, and I will refrain from commenting on examples of those ways that are obviously outside my range of expertise and interest. Meanwhile, I hope to learn from all of you, because everyone here has something to teach, and I have a great deal to learn.
B. D.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
Thanks for coming aboard!
I look forward to your expertise, here on dgrin
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
My Gallery
Again, thanks for the warm welcome. I'm feeling my way here, and have been commenting on some photos. I'll comment on those where I feel my suggestions may make some difference.
Best,
B. D.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
My Gallery
Sadly, I have not. East Africa - Somalia and Kenya are the closest I have gotten. My daughter - a photographer and black and white master printer - just returned from a week in India raving, and my son - a photographer who travels the globe shooting skateboarders raves about Thailand. I, unfortunately, haven't done much traveling.
Best,
B. D.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
You do get right to the point, and they are good points. I suspect that such strong swoop in kind of opinions might draw some flak, but I have already felt like I have learned.
One concern I have is that within the dGrin campus there are many different ways of approaching photography, but you seem to have a strong and distinct (realist, photojournalistic) style, that might not always be what other forum members are going after. That's fine, as long as you don't digress into arguing with us, if we really do want to achieve a different look from what you would want for yourself. So far, you've been swooping in and dropping little educational bombs, which is edifying, but could also invite a little push-back.
I like it so far, but am a little trepidatious, although not so much that I will avoid looking for an image or two to invite your comments
Welcome aboard, and thank you sharing your insight so far...
www.steveboothphotography.com
Pool/Billiards specific...
www.poolinaction.com
It's an honor to have you with us.
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"If you've found a magic that does something for you, honey, stick to it. Never change it." - Mae West, to Edith Head.
"Every guy has to have one weakness - and it might as well be a good one." - Shell Scott: Dance With the Dead by Richard S. Prather
Thanks, Steve -
Yes, I do have, uh, strong opinions, and I'm not shy about offering them. However, as you may have seen in the ongoing City Shots thread, I'll offer my opinions, respond to response, and then bow out. I want my contributions to be helpful, not disruptive, and I certainly realize there are a very wide range of styles, opinions, skill levels, and interests here. Frankly, if work is way outside my range of interest, I just won't comment.
Best,
B. D.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
Welcome to dgrin!
Moderator of the Technique Forum and Finishing School on Dgrin
Thanks! And thanks for the Finishing School - Now, if I can only control my ADD enough to really learn that technique Rutt posted it will already be worth it's weight in gold.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
I love shooting candid photos but there's obviously a big difference between snaps and going out there with an eye for street shots. This weekend is a huge event in San Fran and I want to get out and shoot the people, faces, lovers, haters, everything.
I usually use whatever gear I have on me, but since I have a few days to prepare I thought I'd ask: is there a particular arsenal of lenses/focal lengths that you find yourself grabbing more often than most?
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Sorry I didn't see this earlier...and respond.
In 'olden times' - read 'when using film'- I'd try to carry a Lecia M with a 28 or 35 mm lens. Now I find myself with either a DSLR with a 28-120 (35 equivalent) zoom, or lately I've been playing a lot with an Olympus E-330 with a 21mm viewfinder taped into the hotshoe and a 22-44 (35 equivalent) zoom which I keep at 22. With autofocus I'm able to use it like a film range finder, just using the big, bright viewfinder I've taped onto it. The E-330 has an excellent - virtually no shutter delay - articulated live view screen on the back, so you can use it like an old twin-lens reflex, shooting from all sorts of positions.
But again - equipment is nothing more than...equipment. A camera is to a photographer as a hammer is to a carpenter, a brush is to a painter, a knife is to a chef - it's a tool - and to each his his or her own.
"He not busy being born is busy dying." Bob Dylan
"The more ambiguous the photograph is, the better it is..." Leonard Freed
Mmmmm... ya know, B.D, we already had a little "adjustment" to that philosophy over a rainy wedding
I put it to you that it's somewhat ingenuous to talk about dslrs and hammers, paintbrushes, knives in the same breath. These latter are technology which is pretty much in stasis. Digital imaging on the other hand has just been born and has a whole lifetime of development in front of it.
Basic tools like those you mention quite likely are inextricable from our evolution as humans. I expect digital technology will also take us to new ways of being in far more emphatic ways.
My point is, that our tools create us, they are part of what make our future. I cannot be the same person with a Box Browny as I am with my 40D, state-of-the-art lenses, my computer and PS and the internet which includes this very discussion!
I think it doesn't help, in fact is counterproductive, to relegate photo technology to the inconsequential. It wasn't so in the "olden days" and it is more definitely not so today.
Most of us here have invested significant amounts in out gear - hardware and software - and that gear stretches us to rise to its potential at least as much as the "classical" photography challenges of capturing, composing and developing an image. The money that we have spent, the yield of experience grown in the field, feed back into R&D, into new technology and products, new steps forward in creativity, achievement and satisfaction. All of that is of the essence of what absorbs us in our hobby and profession of photography in 2009.
The "classic" view of photography which has everything beginning with the object out there in front of the camera, and it could be any kind of camera, is not the only valid one now. Personally, I think everything begins with the imagination, and with our sets of values and priorities. I think the new technology, and the new role of photography in the digital world, has brought imagination, values and priorities forward closer to their proper place in a new photography. There is a feedback mechanism between technology development, imagination, values and priorities. This makes us somewhat different to people long ago.
Sure, we must still learn and be aware of core basics, but I think it is wayward to make of them walls which keep everything outside them invisible, no matter how "enlightened" things are within those walls.
So, I beg to put forward an alternative to your theme that gear is irrelevant, and that is that the development of gear makes us as humans more relevant to photography. What I see from digital imaging now is a view of people and life which makes my childhood Box Brownie, and the snaps in the shoebox, valuable as they are (and there are some "good" images among them), seem so cripplingly limited.
And, yes, I too am happy you are here!
Best.
Neil
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
Schmoo is going to have a treasure trove of unique shots. Take a lot of cards.
the trick will be to get folks who are not posing....
Rags
A good photograph is still a good photograph regardless of how it was made. Right?
If you agree with that, then the gear becomes irrelevant. What is relevant is your working knowledge of the gear you are using and your ability to process the result.
Much appreciated, and I hope to be able to post some shots next week. Thank you!
Photos that don't suck / 365 / Film & Lomography
Let me answer by asking: Have we seen all the "good" photographs yet, and if we haven't, where are they going to come from?
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
What does that have to do with it? People will continue to make good photographs with the gear they have in hand. Whether it's the latest and greatest or not.
Is this a promise that you will never, ever, upgrade?
http://www.behance.net/brosepix
Upgrading has nothing to do with anything.
As I said that what is relevant is your working knowledge of your gear. Whether you are using a 1DsMkIII or a Kodak Brownie; go out and make some pictures--that matters more than measurebaiting over whether you have the latest and greatest.
In other words, a camera is just a tool. Learn how to use it.
He did get new models of the same basic Leica rangefinder with 50mm lens, but not often. I think more of a replacement than an upgrade.
He knew a thing or two.