Around the Web this Morning

I really do like these guys, and here's another reason why. Jernej Burkeljca, who describes himself as "a sporadic member of the team (with long intervals of inactivity)," says "I especially love it when Zeljko Bozic decides to test stuff under extreme temperatures and radiation in nuclear powerplant labs," like this, with the followup here. Ya gotta like e-Photographia.

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This wonderful shot was taken just last night at a jazz club in ol' Saint Louie, of the 82-year-old (but undimmed and undiminished) Roy Haynes. I really do love photographs of jazz musicians: they're so expressive, and they come complete with a mental soundtrack. This shot was taken (with a Canon 5D and EF 135mm ƒ/2 lens, at 1/30th and  ƒ/2.8, ISO 1600) by my buddy Kent Phelan, a businessman who has a long history of involvement in photography as a committed amateur. In my not-so-humble opinion, it wouldn't be out of place in a monograph by any of the great jazz shooters. (Kent said Roy really cooked, and that the date was soul-cleansing. Who could doubt?)

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Eolake Stobblehouse casts an interesting perspective on the recent Anthony Lane Leica article in the "Style Issue" of The New Yorker in "Girl with a Leica."

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If you're one of those who still haven't gotten on board the RAW bullet train (along with me and pretty much everyone I know, that would be), then Michael Tapes' new video "RAW Without FUD"* "Should make the light bulb go off for JPEG shooters who are not currently interested in RAW," as Michael puts it. There's a Sample Chapter online. Check it out.

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Ansel Adams...car photographer? That's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's not too far from the novel perspective on the Master's work offered by Blake Gopnik in a recent article on washingtonpost.com. Adams's landscapes "may show nature," Blake writes, "but the first thing I see in them is the Great American Automobile. When I look at 'Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico,' I see the Pontiac station wagon Adams was driving along Highway 84, at 4:49 p.m. on Nov. 1, 1941, when he caught sight of an old-time Spanish settlement in his rear-view mirror, then screeched to a halt to capture it on film. In the pueblo pictures, I see the fancy Buick that Adams drove 2,400 miles in 1927, speeding him and its wealthy owner from their homes in San Francisco to the Southwest and back. Those magical pictures of Yosemite put before me all the vehicles it took to haul the 200 hikers of the Sierra Club—the young photographer was an assistant manager for its outings—to the trailhead."

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The Spanish Civil War is almost a forgotten war in much of the world, since it was so quickly overshadowed by the much bigger conflagration that followed it. But it was an important conflict for the left against fascism—George Orwell joined the fighting, was shot through the neck and nearly died, a close call that still gives me existential chills. Even more forgotten is Gerda Taro (right), because she had the bad luck to perish in the conflict at the very young age of 26. She was the first woman to photograph combat from the front lines and the first female photographer to die at war. The International Center for Photography is rectifying our neglect of forever-young Gerda with a major new retrospective. The Times article about the show, by Felicia R. Lee, is eloquent and informative.

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Finally, a big pat on the back and several attaboys to Gordon Buck, who took my post "Reify and Redact" back in July to heart. According to his most recent blog post, he's now completed—completely!—the portfolio he set out to make back in July. Stout.

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Mike  (with thanks to many friends)

*FUD = fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Comments

[RobinP]

Reading Eolake's comments about rangefinder versus SLR viewfinders brought two things to mind -

When I was using the Bessa R regularly I didn't really notice the space outside the framelines because looking through my spectacles caused the 35mm frame to be right at the edge of the finder, 35mm was what I used 90% of the time with that camera.

Imagine an SLR with that space around the subject frame (being an SLR it would be the same with different focal length lenses) - a nice idea yeah? Well surprise, surprise there was such a beast, the early Sigma DSLR's had what was called a "sports finder" but I believe the latest model has dropped the idea.

Cheers, Robin

[robert phillips]

Do you realise that Gerda Taro was Robert Capa's girlfriend ? According to the bio I read (Blood & Champagne) she is the explanation for everything he did afterwards.

[Mike]

Robert,
Yes...have a look at the NYT article that's linked....

I almost wrote something to the effect that she's forgotten except by anyone who's read a biogoraphy of Robert Capa, but then I considered that that would probably require too much explanation....

Mike

[Andy Smith]

Thanks for sharing the Roy Haynes photograph. An amazing musician, and I agree, a great shot. And you're right; photographs of musicians, painters, or any artists are generally interesting.

Encourage your friend to put that photograph to good use.

[Ken Tanaka]

Yes, that really is a terrific shot by Kent Phelan. It captures the instantaneous essence of immersion of musicianship, particularly in music as intense as jazz can be. It's one of those shots that would look great in a table book, on an 8 x 10 print, or covering the wall of a building. It would really look good as a 2-page spread in a glossy music mag, as it has plenty of good title/text space.

Regarding Kent's choice of a 5D versus, say, a Leica M: Well of course it would have been better with the Leica! (Yes, of course.)

[Joze Sveticic]

Hi Mike,
Just to let you know that Željko again went into his little workshop of DSLR torture and tested shutter speed accuracy on his Konica Minolta 5D.

http://www.e-fotografija.si/templates/?a=1140&z=93

[RobinP]

Željko's shutter testing games have made me nostalgic for the time when I used an oscilloscope every day, sigh.
It also reminded me of apprentice days when I was jealous of the lads working in the research lab who got to play with a Polaroid backed oscilloscope camera - I'll bet there aren't many of those around now......

A refreshing change to see the practicalities behind a test rather than just a set of results figures.

Cheers, Robin

[charlie d]

Thanks MIke,

I enjoyed most all of these tidbits you found. Like the idea of a littlecollection of finds.

And yes that image of Roy is a ripper for sure.