What to shoot

[Einst_Stein]

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I am 4 hours away from Yosemite, Tahoe; 2 hours away from Napa, Monterey, Carmel by the sea; 30minutes from Stanford University; 15 minutes away from Santana shopping Street; or 10 minutes away from Bonsai garden supply. But I am bored on these topics. I found I am repeating and repeating.

How would you get out of this problem? It’s easy to say the problem is in the mind, not the subject. You might have get over with this.

Share your experience please.

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[carl_valiquet]

Lucky person you are. You live close to wonderful places. Too close to the trees to see the forest maybe? How about you go to one or two of these places without bringing a camera. Just walk around, hands in your pockets and observe. Take a photo-vacation ( meaning a vacation from the camera). Look at this new world with new eyes. Listen to your feelings. Maybe you will regret not having brought a camera with you. Or maybe you will be inspired to start a project. I do think having a theme or deciding on a shooting technique ( flash, black and white, contrasty images, infrared, saturated colours, movement, etc.) can help stir up those creative juices. Have fun. Do it for yourself. Regards. Carl.

 

[Einst_Stein]

6 hours ago, carl_valiquet said:

Lucky person you are. You live close to wonderful places. Too close to the trees to see the forest maybe? How about you go to one or two of these places without bringing a camera. Just walk around, hands in your pockets and observe. Take a photo-vacation ( meaning a vacation from the camera). Look at this new world with new eyes. Listen to your feelings. Maybe you will regret not having brought a camera with you. Or maybe you will be inspired to start a project. I do think having a theme or deciding on a shooting technique ( flash, black and white, contrasty images, infrared, saturated colours, movement, etc.) can help stir up those creative juices. Have fun. Do it for yourself. Regards. Carl.

 

Good idea.

[Einst_Stein]

I wonder if it is digital camera. May be I should give my digital cameras a long vacation. Just take film camera with me, …with or without films.

[Viv]

Limit yourself to 5 photos per outing.

[johnwolf]

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On 7/17/2022 at 11:55 PM, Einst_Stein said:

I wonder if it is digital camera. May be I should give my digital cameras a long vacation. Just take film camera with me, …with or without films.

That's what I would suggest. Try BW film and process it yourself. It connects you more to the photographic process, and I think you'll see the familiar subjects differently. 

John

[Guest]

On 7/18/2022 at 5:55 AM, Einst_Stein said:

I wonder if it is digital camera. May be I should give my digital cameras a long vacation. Just take film camera with me, …with or without films.

That’s what I did, bought a M4-P and some black & white film, then went out and took some photographs like in the good old days.

My next step will be learning to process the film and either printing or scanning the images.

Edited July 30, 2022 by OThomas

[Einst_Stein]

2 hours ago, OThomas said:

That’s what I did, bought a M4-P and some black & white film, then went out and took some photographs like in the good old days.

My next step will be learning to process the film and either printing or scanning the images.

Personally I feel B&W films do not work well with scan. Wet print is simple and gets much better tonal appearance. and, do not wet print TMAX or Delta, use traditional film. I feel the beauty is in the rich dark, mid tone is hard to be impressive.

Color is different, digital scan is the only way. For one, color wet print needs precise control and once you do it right, it only has one appearance, unlike B&W.  However, make B&W out of color film is different. You get much more room of creativity.  

If you want to go color film, I suggest using bulk loaded Kodak Vision 3 50D movie films, process in ECN-2. I get short end 35mm 100ft from Mono No Aware for $78/100ft plus shipping, unfortunately the shipping is very expensive (may be more so to ship to Edingburg). Mono No Aware also have ECN-2 kit, but you ca n get much better price if you purchase the raw material from photo chemical suppliers.  Kodak Vision 3 has a special "Unrealistic Realistic Artistic' appearance. No, it's unlike movies you see in the theater because what you see in theater is after converted to Kodak 2383 print films, not what you will see by digital scanning the negatives. 

[Guest]

25 minutes ago, Einst_Stein said:

Personally I feel B&W films do not work well with scan. Wet print is simple and gets much better tonal appearance. and, do not wet print TMAX or Delta, use traditional film. I feel the beauty is in the rich dark, mid tone is hard to be impressive.

Color is different, digital scan is the only way. For one, color wet print needs precise control and once you do it right, it only has one appearance, unlike B&W.  However, make B&W out of color film is different. You get much more room of creativity.  

If you want to go color film, I suggest using bulk loaded Kodak Vision 3 50D movie films, process in ECN-2. I get short end 35mm 100ft from Mono No Aware for $78/100ft plus shipping, unfortunately the shipping is very expensive (may be more so to ship to Edingburg). Mono No Aware also have ECN-2 kit, but you ca n get much better price if you purchase the raw material from photo chemical suppliers.  Kodak Vision 3 has a special "Unrealistic Realistic Artistic' appearance. No, it's unlike movies you see in the theater because what you see in theater is after converted to Kodak 2383 print films, not what you will see by digital scanning the negatives. 

@Einst_Stein thanks for the info.

I’m only just getting back into film photography, so actually printing in the darkroom myself will be a long way off yet, but scanning is an easier endeavour for now and produces acceptable results. If I do print it would be via a lab. 

Edited July 30, 2022 by OThomas

[Einst_Stein]

7 hours ago, OThomas said:

@Einst_Stein thanks for the info.

I’m only just getting back into film photography, so actually printing in the darkroom myself will be a long way off yet, but scanning is an easier endeavour for now and produces acceptable results. If I do print it would be via a lab. 

That is why I prefer color film with scan. For me, developing film, color or B&W, takes far less space and troubles than wet print. I scan films with X Vario (with close up filter), the whole set-up is like a little microscope. The enlarger for wet print is much larger and needs a good dark room. I have a slot processor for paper, which is already small. Were it 12x16 or 16x20 tray, it would be a full bathroom. 

[Herr Barnack]

On 7/17/2022 at 4:59 PM, Einst_Stein said:

I am 4 hours away from Yosemite, Tahoe; 2 hours away from Napa, Monterey, Carmel by the sea; 30minutes from Stanford University; 15 minutes away from Santana shopping Street; or 10 minutes away from Bonsai garden supply. But I am bored on these topics. I found I am repeating and repeating.

How would you get out of this problem? It’s easy to say the problem is in the mind, not the subject. You might have get over with this.

Share your experience please.

@Einst_Stein  You have a ton of photographic subject matter within your reach.  It seems that sooner or later, we all get a case of "There's nothing to photograph around here" syndrome, though.  Nothing new.  It happens to most everyone at some point.

Here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head -

Bonsai garden supply:  Try doing some macro or close focus shots of the Bonsai trees.

Stanford:  Detail shots of architecture.

Napa:  Wide angle landscapes, macro shots of the wineries (wine bottle labels & wine making equipment).

Monterey:  Coastal landscapes, seascapes, long exposures of waves on a tripod at dusk.

Carmel-by-the-Sea:  Same as Monterey, Carmel Mission (architecture, macro).

Yosemite & Tahoe:  Landscapes, sunsets, sunrises, winter landscapes.

Getting out of a visual/photographic rut requires some thinking and a conscious change of perspective.  Keep in mind the sage advice given us by Ernst Haas:  "There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are." 

In other words, the issue is not the subject matter before us; the issue is our own lack of imagination. 

It's all on us - not on the camera, the lens or the subject.  It's all on us, which means we are in control of the situation and we can climb of the rut of our own making when we decide to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2022 by Herr Barnack

[Einst_Stein]

3 hours ago, Herr Barnack said:

@Einst_Stein  You have a ton of photographic subject matter within your reach.  It seems that sooner or later, we all get a case of "There's nothing to photograph around here" syndrome, though.  Nothing new.  It happens to most everyone at some point.

Here are a couple of ideas off the top of my head -

Bonsai garden supply:  Try doing some macro or close focus shots of the Bonsai trees.

Stanford:  Detail shots of architecture.

Napa:  Wide angle landscapes, macro shots of the wineries (wine bottle labels & wine making equipment).

Monterey:  Coastal landscapes, seascapes, long exposures of waves on a tripod at dusk.

Carmel-by-the-Sea:  Same as Monterey, Carmel Mission (architecture, macro).

Yosemite & Tahoe:  Landscapes, sunsets, sunrises, winter landscapes.

Getting out of a visual/photographic rut requires some thinking and a conscious change of perspective.  Keep in mind the sage advice given us by Ernst Haas:  "There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are." 

In other words, the issue is not the subject matter before us; the issue is our own lack of imagination. 

It's all on us - not on the camera, the lens or the subject.  It's all on us, which means we are in control of the situation and we can climb of the rut of our own making when we decide to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great wisdom! 
I suspect when we run out of external attractions and turn into internal visions, that is what the next level photography begins.

[Herr Barnack]

6 hours ago, Einst_Stein said:

Great wisdom! 
I suspect when we run out of external attractions and turn into internal visions, that is what the next level photography begins.

@Einst_Stein  Thank you for your kind words.

Over the course of my life, I have been accused of being full of many things - wisdom has never before been one of them.