What Cameras are About

February 20, 2016 by arogecco

I have used several cameras in the past decades. My first one was a Pentax Spotmatic, which I got passed on from my father, followed by a Yashika. I then bought the EOS 100 as first camera by my own money, got into digital with the EOS 30D, followed by the 50D and then the 5DM2. All of those cameras convinced me in particular because of their ergonomic setup. They were tools that just could be used in a very intuitive way – at least for me. I never got used to the Nikon interface. There have been several compact cameras as well, but that’s another story.

Now, it seems I have come full circle, using the Fuji X-T1, which – though it is a completely different animal – reminds me a lot of my old Spotmatic. This camera made me get away from my full frame 5D Mark II – which is a good camera, no doubt about that – but the X-T1 just feels to be the better tool for me. The results are absolutely satisfying to me.

But what matters most is that the shooting experience is wonderful. It just feels right. And maybe that is what using cameras is about: not so much the specifications, but they way they feel. From that perspective, cameras are indeed to a certain extend custom made things. The whole discussion if Sony is better than Canon or some Nikon is obsolete.

You have to find your camera. Like Harry Potter had to find his wand.

It doesn’t matter that much what the specs are, but what the camera feels like for you. And maybe that is the reason why we should support local camera stores much more. How would you check the overall camera look and feel if you cannot take it into you hand and feel what it is doing?

You could also say that the online stores are stealing something from you, that the estimated saving of money never can compensate for: The chance to choose the right tool right away.

And this is what cameras are about: being the right tool for you. Being and extension of yourself and to some way also an expression of yourself. Like a craftsman or a painter chooses his hammer or his pencil, the photographer chooses his camera. Not for what the company promises, but for what it is to her or him.

Love Your Pictures

January 26, 2016October 2, 2016 by arogecco

Spend time with them, because they say a lot about who you are and why you made them in the first place.
Learn from them, because they not only show what you like, but also show to you what you would like to improve. They are pictures, but also like mirrors to guide you a little further.
Joy comes while making them and joy comes by looking at them and learn from them. While they grow, you grow.
It is all more about yourself and what you enjoy while making them
You develop with them, and their successors develop with you. Like in a story, things are not set but evolve. If you don’t let them evolve, you stagnate.
You do not develop pictures, but yourself. They come from you, not your camera and not the computer. They come from you. If you want to make other pictures, you have to become another you.
You have to let go as well. If you stick with the old stuff, you hinder yourself to try new things and develop yourself. Like all art, this is about yourself as much about what you create
If you become afraid, that’s a good sign. There is no development if there is nothing at stake.
Love your pictures. Spend time with them, because then you spend time with yourself.

Monochrome

December 6, 2015December 6, 2015 by arogecco

If there is one style or photographic direction that I have always been using, it is black and white photography.

I was hooked – like many others – when I got involved with the pictures of Ansel Adams. Even though his pictures are quite old today, they still resemble masterpieces of flawless quality. He did not have the tools at hand that we do today, but by knowing his craft he was able to produce work of exceptional technical quality and beauty. After knowing his work now for more than twenty years I am not getting tired looking at it. Still inspiring, still quality to strive for.

What inspires me is the tonality of these pictures, the reduction to structures due to the absence of color, the contrast of dark sky against white clouds, the sheer number of grey tones.

Monochrome, though it has less in it, reveals other aspects of the world, of the things and brings forward their structure. It simplifies everything and strengthens the message.

The Decisive Moment

September 3, 2015September 13, 2015 by arogecco

Photography is about moments, captured in a specific location, showing a specific scenery in a unique light. Bringing all of these things together – when we press the shutter – the camera captures a moment time.

Sometimes that one moment is referred to as the decisive moment.

And the interpretation is that the decisive moment is something happening in the world and we are the witnesses of that moment.

That the world moves towards this moment and it is our task to catch it like a butterfly in a net. And there is some truth to that. Some moments, some light, some cloud formation, some body language, that fleeing smile on our kid’s faces – they are there and gone. They exist in moments, just visible for a second, and then they change again into something different. If we fail to catch that moment you might say: „The decisive moment is gone.‟, like a loss, something we have not achieved, something we failed to do. But there are millions of other moments ahead of us, and there is always the chance that they are even more decisive than the moment we just missed.

I prefer another interpretation of that phrase: „the decisive moment‟, because it is us to decide on how to paint this moment. We decide what to photograph. We decide where to stand. We decide what to include and what to exclude. We judge the light. We set the depth of field. We set the shutter speed. These are the tools we have and to work with. And they are far more important than what the world around presents to us.

The decisive moment ist the moment when we decide to press the shutter. It tells more about what is happening inside us than about what is happening in the world.

Everything we do in photography – if we do it consciously – tells a lot about what is going on inside us, from the choice of the subject to technical settings, post production and presentation. Everything there is more about us than about the world outside.

The decisive moment indeed is when you press the shutter. But not because you catch the fleeing moment, but because the moment resonates within you. That is decisive.

Fujinon XF16 F1.4

July 9, 2015August 2, 2015 by arogecco

I have been using this lens now for approximately three weeks during our last holiday in Dorset. My primary use is landscape and seascape photography on a Fuji X-T1. It is mostly used with small apertures (f16) to achieve highest depth of field.

In a nutshell: This lens is amazing.

The lens was used in some difficult weather conditions (rain, spray from the sea) and did not suffer any damage so far. I am very confident this lens will last for a long time.

The picture quality in terms of corner to corner sharpness is very convincing. It is the best wide angle lens that I have ever used. Vignetting is not an issue, even with the Lee filter system holder attached to the lens. The minimal focal distance is very short, allowing for very creative shots and compositions. For my daily work here, this lens has become the major workhorse. And I would buy it again, definitely.

This post contains some sample pictures, see for yourself.

The Magic of the Print

May 31, 2015May 31, 2015 by arogecco

Theoretically, with today’s technology in screen based presentation of picturse, you could say that quality has evolved to the point that you may no longer need to print out anything anymore. Resolution, color reproduction and ease of use have come to a point that what you see on screen has a physical quality, that may outperform print work of the same size.

Years ago I asked this question a photography dealer when I was buying stuff for my analogue equipment and next vacation. I think it was ten roles of slide films. I asked:

With today’s digital resolution capability, why should I still go for slides if I could just beam the pictures to a wall?

His answer was immediate:

Today, you have no adequate means that could match the resolution and vibrancy of a slide. There is no adequate tool available to represent the resolution of slide film.

That was years ago. I was doing Kodak Ektachrome and AGFA black and whit slide films, cooling them in a fridge. I had my own darkroom and made prints, black and white.

Today, it seems like using a 4K and 5K monitor could put a nail in the coffin of the print or the slide. Retina display tablets have also reached a resolution that could absolutely keep up with a print of that size. The resolution has reached a point that we may ask

Why print at all?

Yesterday I got the answer – again. I was making some prints, testing different types of paper. Looking at those prints, seeing the structure of the paper, holding it in the hand is like nothing that my monitor could convey. Committing oneself to the print, and giving birth to it is a process that echoes in oneself. We are producing, physically, finally our baby that has gone through our creative process.

I observe myself, that I look longer at prints than I do at pictures on a screen. When the print is done well, there is so much more to explore, to feel and to reflect about.

The print talks to me in a language and with so much more intensity, that the presentation on screen can not do.

After all this technological development, it seems that we are still craftsmen – we need to produce something physical to finally reach our inner satisfaction.

The final print has some magic in it, it is the same picture you have seen on the screen, and yet it’s is so much more when you look at it.

It’s like the difference between watching a movie of you kids and actually seeing them alive.

First Experiences: Fuji X-E1 and the Fujinon 56 1.4 Lens

April 26, 2015May 1, 2015 by arogecco

This one is about gear. Some weeks ago I was looking for a shift in my “day to day” equipment section. I used a Canon G1X – which gave great raw files and was good for my landscape photography. However I was not that happy using it for family business – a little bit to slow, a little bit to bad AF functionality. So I looked – due to some online reviews and posts – into the Fuji X system.

A good deal with my local preferred supplier and the X-E1 with the zoom kit made the change possible, selling my ol G1X saved my budget. Now I have the 56 f 1.4 as additional prime portrait lens – and overall I am pretty amazed how well this camera and lens work.

The AF is not stellar, but much better than my G1X. The low light performance at high ISO is incredible (!) for such a small sensor. It outperforms my 5D Mark II. The overall picture quality in JPEG is very satisfying. The shooting experience is great, the camera is engaging, with lots of manual control options. What I really come to love is the possibility to influence the JPEG rendering options in camera. I set up some presets for b&w pictures, and the results are absolutely satisfying, straight out of camera.

The optical quality of the 56mm lens is exceptional, it is a joy to use and sharp, even at 1.4 – with 5.6 also excellent up to the corners.

All in all – this system gives more than I expected. My 5D MII equipment is in danger, depending on how the Fuji system evolves in the next few month.

Expectations

April 11, 2015June 29, 2015 by arogecco

Life is full of expectations. From the very beginning of our childhood, we are surrounded by experiences of expectation. From the excitement the night before Christmas over the first anxiety of exams in school to the first kiss – imagination, hope and expectations are driving us and determine our way to feel.

We can feel disappointed when the expectations were to high and reality did I not deliver what we expected. We can feel excited before we enter the experience and that excitement can be very fulfilling and bring our pulse up. In photography, we can have the biggest expectations with regard to our pictures and compare these with others. We can be surprised how well some pictures come out and we can be very disappointed by pictures that suck.

Expectations are the drivers to take the camera in the first place. Last week I watched a documentary about Vivian Meier, a nanny that made pictures during here spare time – a lot of them, very good ones. But she never got published during her lifetime. She ended up with about 100000 negatives, most of them never made it as a print during her lifetime.

What were her expectations when she took the camera? She barely did see the final results. She did not drive towards publishing, at least not with the same drive to make pictures. What made her tick? What did she expect?

We may need learn to manage our expectations, because expectation is something good when it makes us move and is motivating. However, it may also get in our way when we are overburdened by it and it gets in the way to allow creativity flow. The right level of expectation is good, but we should not be driven by its energy alone. We should learn what it does with us and how we can use it in the best way rather than allow it to determine our feelings and burden us too much with the feeling of pressure. Pressure starts in the head – and it’s often the result of too high expectations.

Our photos should please us in the first place, and they should be good for our development. All we should expect from us and the pictures we make is, that they allow us to grow.

We can expect to grow. But not too fast. We need to grow in a pace that lets us control the way. And enjoy the journey. That is all that is expected from us.

Universe of Things

March 8, 2015June 29, 2015 by arogecco

Canon recently announced that two new cameras with impressive resolution will arrive soon. The technical specifications sound very promising – more than 50MP, interesting new features, especially for the landscape photographer. This new gear is tempting – indeed.

But, the more I think about it, the less I need these cameras. They do not improve my photography significantly. They are incredible tools – true! But the tool is just a tool. The best carpenter can produce beautiful craft with mediocre tools, but the worst carpenter can get the best tools – they will not make him master of the craft.

We life in a universe of things, and things are dominating our day to day life.

It is very difficult to not be entangled by this culture. Things are shiny, nice, and somehow we think that we are connected to them, that we become somehow different if we own these things. It is what we learn from the very beginning. Even in school it starts. But when you think intently about this and ask the right questions:

What would significantly improve my art? –

You will come up with answers that are quite simple. And cheaper than the latest gear. Of course – if you are the master carpenter, you will try to get the best tools, because then they do make a difference. But if you are not there yet, some other things will suite you better.

I just printed an old picture that I shot with my Power Shot G11. You now what: The picture is amazing, even without 50MP.

Marjoram Photography

visual stories

Category: Technical