Funny how the simplest things can make a great difference and significantly contribute to improvements in our work! In a previous posting I discussed how a strip of wood might just be your most important piece of equipment.  I had read about it in what now seems like an ancient Fred Picker newsletter.  In short, mounting a strip of wood on the wall in a place where you can view your mounted prints, lit in a manner they might normally appear in, and at a height they would normally be viewed, enables you sit back over a period of time and really decide whether they are keepers or material for the circular file.

Recently I had to redo two prints after I had them mounted, matted and spotted. Why? I realized after studying them for several days under the right light that they were too dark. Ended up reprinting both and guess what … they looked better!

After what can often seem like hard fought victories in the darkroom, it can be painful to admit you could have done a better job at judging the final outcome. You have to check your ego outside the darkroom. Otherwise you are just wasting your time. And the final results will confirm that.

The worst thing I hear when discussing prints with others is “I think I could have made it better”. OK, so, why didn’t you? @#$%^&$%^&%!

Is it laziness or apathy?  In the final analysis it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you do the best job you can. And if that means throwing the fruits of hours of work into the trash, then that’s the way it goes.

Yes, that damn strip of molding doesn’t lie. But I’m glad it’s there to remind me that sometimes I can do better.

There seems to be a certain style of in your face street photography that is in vogue today. Goes along with the enormous exhibition size prints that are often made to hide mediocre subject matter. Then there is the view that you have to use a certain type of camera to make a certain type of picture, or for instance that medium format or larger must be used for urban landscape (someone in the photo-art establishment told me that). Or worse yet, that you need for example to be making street photographs in a certain way for them to be interesting. Read lenses shot wide open to produce “incredible” out of focus bokeh. Of course this is all rubbish!

If you are using film in today’s world you have already made a conscious decision to buck the digital wave, but that’s just the start. To make photographs that are truly meaningful they must be yours regardless of what others think.  It doesn’t matter what is in or what you use. What matters is that it be good! And what you produce is likely to be better if it is something you want to make, in a way you want to make it!

Think about it. What is more of a waste of time than a technically perfect rendering of a boring subject?  Well maybe a sloppy rendering of a boring subject.  I am reminded of the exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art I recently wrote about … Strand, Weston, Stieglitz, Man Ray, Berenice Abbott, and Arnold Newman.  They made what was meaningful to them, in their own way.  They were true photographers and artists.  Their work has stood the test of time and will continue to do so.  Yours can too.

Getting back to my recent outing on Flag Day, I was thinking about how I noticed that out of the many people out there photographing, I was the only one using a film camera (probably the only person making black and white pictures too).  Ok, not exactly a news flash, but it reminded me of a conversation I had with someone several weeks earlier at the annual Doylestown Memorial Day Parade.  I would say that the gentleman was in his late thirties and was fascinated by my “old school” camera.  Yes I suppose my silver Leica M3 and tiny 50mm lens does look a little strange to those accustomed to seeing or using digital black plastic-like cameras with built in motor drives, LCD viewing screens and large zoom lens appended to them.

He asked me … if it was … a film camera.  I told him it was and that it was built in the 1960s.  Holy cow, shock and amazement!  I also told him I didn’t use digital cameras and made only black and white photographs. I guess this caused a moment of deep reflection as he then proceeded to tell me that he used to own a film camera in the late 1990s but gave it up and had “shot” well over 60,000 or so pictures.  He missed his old camera and the prints he made, but digital was so much more convenient, especially the storing and viewing of pictures on his computer.   I said that I thought there was something about a black and white film based silver print that was unmatched or at least different in a special sort of way.  The other thing I told him was that I felt there was something about the whole film camera/darkroom creative process that is unlike the rapid fire making of hundreds if not more of pictures in a day and the digital “workflow”.  What is it? A certain amount of discipline perhaps, knowing you only have a finite amount of pictures that can be taken on a roll, that paper and chemicals cost a certain amount of money so it’s important to make everything count … the craft involved to do it right?

I knew deep down he agreed but understood he just couldn’t break from the ease of operation of his chosen method.  That’s all right. He fits in with the majority of those out there.  The problem is that easy isn’t really better.  And viewing the world in black and white forces us to step out of the snapshot world we live in, and perhaps our comfort zone … to think about things differently, even in the fraction of a second it takes to make the picture.  Definitely removed from the way we look at everything else during our daily lives.  Then of course you must take the time to develop the film and take the necessary steps over many hours to create something special that brings to life what your mind’s eye envisioned the moment the shutter was released. I know this can be scary for some, but I think of it as a wonderful experience I am lucky to have.

Another Flag Day was celebrated this past week. Every year in Bucks County there is an unusually moving event and wonderful photographic opportunity that takes place not far from where I live.  The Delaware Valley Vietnam Veterans organization holds its annual Flag Day Veteran’s remembrance event held at one of the many Bucks County community parks. What makes this annual event unique and amazing is that volunteers plant nearly 65,000 small American flags, as well as 5,000 small black flags in the park ground commemorating Americans that gave their lives during Vietnam or other conflicts, or are missing in action, yet to be recovered – all placed in the shape of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC.

Needless to say to see this is a moving experience, just like the annual Memorial Day remembrance ceremony held at the Doylestown Borough cemetery after the parade.  Not only is it a great opportunity for pictures, but chance to meet some wonderful people that just happen to be our national heroes.

The point of this is that there are many events, small things of beauty and other opportunities around us where we live. We just need to be attuned to them or be willing to discover them.  Getting over the “grass is greener on the other side” and the need to travel far and wide to make meaningful photographs will open a world of new and wonderful discoveries.