While we were in Hawai'i we came across a disused windmill farm. 30 or so windmills, all over 30 years. The farm had been shut down a few years ago, too expensive to maintain. A newer farm of windmills a little further down the road produces 4 times as much power with half the windmills now.
6 more shots here.
shadow play on the screen on our window early one morning
Dead tree in a lava field in hawai'i. Part of a set taken in various lava fields Sticks and Stones.
Over the past three or four years of shooting, I'd like to think that I've come to understand the effect that things like lens length (perspective angle), aperture selection (depth of field), exposure time (freezing the state of motion), film selection, etc... all have on the images I shoot and create. In fact, I'd like to think that I can take an image that I want to make and selectively choose and alter the various variables involved to ensure the outcome I desire.
What if i were to shake up the variables a bit. Say I added a completely new environmental element - sound. Would that affect what I see and how I see and shoot it? What if i removed a different variable. Say I constrained myself to a single angle of view. How would that change the images I see in an environment?
This is mostly an exercise in curiosity. I want to see how the choices I have available to me when walking around with a camera affect what images I see around me and what I take away. Frequently I have enough camera gear on me that with a quick change up of lenses, films and tossing in a tripod (or not!) I can get the images I see in front of me. I wonder, though, if there aren't other images that I could be seeing - that I'm not seeing simply because other options are coming to my awareness first. Options that, if I were to lock myself down, would quickly come into focus.
Sound on film:
I want to go to the same location, at roughly the same times of day on four different days. On the first day, I want to wander around and shoot that area as I might do anyway. On the remaining days, I want to be shooting while listening to various soundtracks - a different one for each day - and see how what I shoot is affected by what i'm listening to while shooting.
Perspectives on film:
Like the above, but this time focusing on perspective. Four shoots at the same general area/location with 4 different lenses. If i'm going to use the hasselblad, it'd be the 40mm, the 80mm, the 150mm, and 300mm (150mm on a 2x extender). I won't cheat and add macro in to the mix. Though, looking at the world through a macro lens can be a very different/engaging experience.
Time on film:
Again - four rounds of shooting, but this time focusing on exposure times. One set of shots taken at 1/1000s for maximum freezing (or possibly 1/500th of a second - I can get 1/1000s with the mamiya, but the hasselblad caps me at 1/500th). One set taken at ~1/50s, pushing the limits of handholdability. Another set at 1/2s to 2s to play with motion blur. Finally, a last set of long exposures at 20s+ (which will necessarily be much longer courtesy of Reciprocity failure).
Depth on film:
Yup, you guessed it. Four more rounds of shooting, this time playing with depth of field - from the razor thin (at least on MF) f/2.8 out to the insanely deep f/32 (alas, nothing that I have would, at the moment, allow me to approach f/64 :).
For more extreme variations I could constrain myself even more. Tell myself that I have an 80mm lens, shooting at 1/100s, at f/8 on 320 film. Worried about over exposure? Focus on something that is in more shade, or wait for the clouds. Worried about under exposure? Tough - find better light - or maybe use that frame to play with multiple exposures, all shot at 1/100s at f/8. If I really wanted to be a rat fuck bastard to myself in that situation I could even limit my focus distance to, say, 8 feet. Don't worry, though, I don't think i'm in danger of coming anywhere near to the restraints provided in something like the Drawing Restraint series.
Anyway, it's a thought and visualization exercise. One that I think will exist outside of the photo-a-day thing I'm running through (and need to catch up on from vacation! Working on that one, though).
Cable car operator turning the car around at the powell street turnabout
While wandering around san francisco I stumbled on a code pink rally. Found this arrangement of paraphernalia nearby.
More photos from the event are here.
2 minute exposure on the hasselblad using the 40mm lens. To say i'm ridiculously happy with this shot would be a strong understatement.
2 minute exposure w/a Zeiss Ikon Nettar folding camera.
Another bessa66 shot - this one was a 2 second exposure at lunch.
on blue bubbles