 |
| K - 25 February 2024 |
Einstein's First Postulate
For example, a car's motion is measured relative to its starting point or the road it is moving over, a projectile's motion is measured relative to the surface it was launched from, and a planet's orbit is measured relative to the star it is orbiting around.
I remember as a young boy in Buenos Aires being in a train while another train, on the other track, was going in the same direction. If it had not been for the vibration I would have affirmed that both trains were stationary.
It was Einstein who said that reference points were important in order to determine motion.
As a budding magazine photographer in Vancouver around 1977, I had little idea of what a good photograph was. The first art director I worked with at Vancouver Magazine, Rick Staehling, bought many American magazines like Esquire & Sports Illustrated. He would show me photographs in them and would then assign me to take pictures inspired from what I had seen. His inspiration and his treatment of my photograph can be seen in this blog.
I believe that in this century and it today’s date of February 25, 2024, that I know a good photograph when I see one. In Vancouver,now, that is almost an impossible as I have lost my reference points. Journalism with magazines and newspapers is just about dead.
One of my steady references is the NYTimes. I have had a daily delivered paper subscription now for 25 years. That helps. But few of my peers are “still” (I hate that word) taking pictures. The days of looking at a Saturday Night Magazine (I worked for 3 of its incarnations) and being wowed by a photograph are gone.
Saturday Night & Gillian Guess
And so I must trust my own knowledge of what makes a good photograph a good one.
Today I photographed a former student from 16 years ago called K. She contacted me through Messenger (I had not seen or heard from her since I taught her portrait photography) and said she wanted to meet and perhaps take some pictures. This I did today.
One of the techniques I used, besides taking 120 Rollei Infrared film with my Mamiya (Will take the one roll to the Lab tomorrow), is the ½ second slow shutter, at 800 ISO, with modeling light but no flash from a small softbox. I further make the shot more complicated by focusing that Fuji X-E3 on a large mirror at the end of my small Kits studio.
This is the second time I have used this method and it almost seems too easy. Important to this process is the work I do in levels on LAB with my 19 year-old Photoshop 8.
I particularly like using the mirror as it includes me. I
thank K and hope that she will be persuaded to pose again. I find her most
interesting as she is 56 years old. As the old man that I am, I can no longer tolerate
the perfection of youth.
