William Bragg

I sold a couple pieces of equipment, and parlayed that into a used Bronica SQ-A. I have to use a paperclip to trigger the release latch for the film back, but I’m very excited about this camera. I will still being shooting digital a majority of the time, but I have some very specific ideas for the use of this Bronica, too.

The Big Picture is highlighting photos from the Sichuan area that suffered those horrendous earthquakes 6 months ago.

It’s too easy to forget the tragedies once they are removed from the headlines. Photography goes a long way to document the current struggles and the efforts to regain one’s life after such a traumatic experience.

Photoshop disaster highlights the problem with reflections. In this case the photoshopping did not extend to the reflections of the high gloss table -revealing some pretty obvious truths.

Zoe Strauss’ experience of censorship by the printer, not the publisher. Given all the blatant phallic symbols around the world, it never ceases to amaze me how irrationally insecure and sensitive men are when presented with an image of another man’s penis.

These photos are part of a new personal project that I’m beginning. I referred to this project while ruminating about using medium format.

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I posted some of the photos from my Koni yesterday, and alluded to the fact that I’d write up something about the process. I’m still experimenting with the camera, and shot as opportunity dictated and to get the film developed fairly quickly, so I could mull over how it fits with my photography goals. The pics posted therefore were not connected in any coherent way outside of the fact that they are types of portraits - my main reason to photograph.

I thought about experimenting with medium format out of some real interest, an idea for a project, and, honestly, some ego and inferiority complex. As I’ve mentioned previously on this blog, there seems to be a real hierarchy applied to different aspects of photography as implied by many in the non-commercial or fine art field of photography. It got to me a bit. I shot film years ago now (35mm), and have moved to 90+% digital now. I’m truly happy with that move, but my ego still needed the caressing from proving my ability to use an ‘old’ medium format film camera.

Anyone who knows me in meatspace, recognizes me as a pretty visceral guy. Granted I’m quite likely to spout some blather from some french cultural theorist too often at times, I like being out and about meeting and interacting with people. I will talk to anyone. Ask anyone remotely near me in a cafe or bar. My photography is an extension of that. I’m not trying to necessarily capture a secret moment, but I do try to capture moments as they happen.

I pride myself on the fact that, although I can’t make the camera disappear, I create a feeling of comfort that allows others to at least ignore the camera for the most part. 35mm film in the past, and now Digital SlRs afford me that opportunity to work quickly and seamlessly, while I’m still just hanging out, meeting and interacting with others. The kids in my program and my friends will attest that there are very few circumstances when there is not a coffee or camera in my hands.

Back to the Koni-Omega. It has the quality to attract attention itself, and does provide opportunities to engage in dialogue with others in of itself, but as I mentioned above, I don’t need that. I do like the images it produces quite a bit. But right now I have the film developed locally, then scan in the negatives. Hard as I try, I can’t keep the dust particles out. Do I try to set up a small darkroom? I don’t really have the time.

But I do like it. I will continue to use it, and my project idea will still benefit from its use. But given what really excites me about photography, the nikons will be continue to be my main tools. And that’s really what the camera is - a tool, and the nikon is the best tool for me at the moment. (Though if anyone made a decent digital in a Nikon F3 form, I’d be all over it.)

… but, please(!), “Just say No!”

STEP 1 - HDR it.

One of my favorite photographers talking about his 1000 polaroids project while you watch some of the images.

There’s been a recent theme buzzing around many of the photographer’s blogs that I frequent, and it concerns the question of format - Large Format, medium format, film, digital, etc. (Great stuff by Liz Kuball, here, Ben Huff, and especially Zoe Strauss.) And no doubt there seems to be a hierachy implied with Large Format lording from above at the top, Second: Medium Format, Third: film, and a distant 4th: digital.

(Sidenote: This isn’t new, per se. This discussion pops every so often, it’s just occurred recently once again.)

I never understood it outside of using the tool that best fits your process. I used to use film long ago, and now I use digital. It allows me to interact with the people in my area, and the area itself in a way that allows me to realize my goals. Zoe’s post is great as she provides examples of photos taken with each of the cameras she’s used over the last few years. There’s no way that I could ever imagine thinking, “Wow, I wish she had used a ’so and so’ camera. That would have been so much better.”

I did just get my hands on an older used medium format camera for a particular project I have in mind. But the use of a medium format camera does not automatically give this project any special weight, but will prove to be a better fit for my goals. Of course if the project turns out to suck, it won’t be a result of the camera - just me. So while I’m excited, it’s not wholly due to the camera, but the fact that I now have the tool necessary to hopefully realize this particular project.

But most of the time, I will continue to use my Nikon dSLR. I enjoy the immediacy and the spontaneity the dSLR affords me. I’m a pretty visceral guy. I love meeting and interacting with people, and the camera allows me an extension of that experience and joy. That Koni-Omega isn’t going to be as effective in the low-light live music venues that I frequent. But for the project I have in mind, it’s going to be perfect.

Enough talking, I want to go out and test this sucka.

…about the extremes photogs go to capture an Olympic event like the 100m final - go here.

I’ve been making updates to the William Bragg Photography site, and would love some feedback. One issue I’ve noticed is that the site doesn’t seem to load all the photos in each portfolio unless I resize the browser window. There should be 12 images in each portfolio (People 1, People 2, Music). So feedback about the site operability as well as comments about the photos themselves are very welcome. Thanks so much!

The least decorative of all the arts . . .

A better salve for that anxiety might be to accept that photography isn’t really an art in the most traditional of senses. Photography certainly doesn’t take the level of technical skill that something like painting or sculpture takes; you can teach someone most of what they need to know about the technical aspects of photography in less than a day. Certain refinements of technical skill may take years to learn, but those pursuits are often coincidental to the act of seeing, which is really the central gift of photography. In this way, I think photography is more akin to writing than it its to other more traditional arts. The gift of a great writer is not in their ability to write a grammatically elegant sentence - although many are masters of this craft - but in their ability to see their subject more clearly and to communicate what is seen.

Of course, the part that can’t be taught in a day, and this is true of both photography and writing, is the seeing part, the act of selecting from the noise of the world a distillation that improves our understanding of the whole. This is the part of photography that sets it aside from the other arts.

and I’m not fully sure if I would want to honestly. I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet. This is Bruce Gilden, famous street photographer, doing what he does best. Probably helps that he’s not a small guy.

PDN’s list of 30 new and emerging photographers to watch - 2008

PDN’s list of 30 new and emerging photographers to watch - 2008

I should be surprised, pissed off, but…perhaps most indicative of the times we live in, I’m not. The surprise is gone.

Anti-terror police defend campaign targeting suspicious behaviour of people with cameras:

‘Terrorists use surveillance to help plan attacks, taking photos and making notes about security measures like the location of CCTV cameras. If you see someone doing that, we need to know. Let experienced officers decide what action to take.’

This video is incredible, “How to make your body look good.” Actually it should be titled, “How to photoshop the hell out of an image so even your mother won’t recognize you!”

Here are a couple of other posts dealing with the hardcore retouching (”photoshopping”) that’s done to both still and video images.

How could that be?

Check out the fourth image in particular. The before and after toggle switch is at the lower right of the image. (via Conscientious)

I’m a little hesitant to write this post. As many of you who know me, one of my pursuits (when I have time) is photography. And those who don’t know me only need to look at the navigation links above to be brought to my photoblog. Now with the photoblog I don’t adhere to any one theme, although I’m sure it becomes apparent after viewing the photos that I definitely have tendencies. What I’m doing here is a bit different. Though I haven’t had any real time these last few months, I’ve been over time examining the idea of landscape photography.

Landscape is commonly defined as a genre of art dealing with the depiction of natural scenery. Most often, landscape photography is thought of as:

A landscape is a section or portion of scenery as seen from a single viewpoint. Scenery is the subject of a landscape image. Typically, people and animals are not shown in a landscape, unless they are relatively small in the image and have been included in the composition to show scale. Some photographers argue that the sea coast, the city and man-made structures in general should not be included in a landscape… (here)

I’ve always had a problem with elevating humans above nature, or outside of nature, and also the separation of what constitutes ‘natural’. Well I don’t want to get into alot of word play about this issue, and that’s why I photograph stuff anyways. I know that many people would just qualify photographs of this nature as urban landscapes or some such categorization. But while these photographs do obviously have ‘urban’ elements, Salem is not the most ‘urban’ of locales. And just as much ‘natural’ landscape photography shares common elements, trees, water, mountains, etc. so does these photographs with other places; and while each photograph may not individually identify ‘Salem’, the aggregate gets closer.

So that’s what this is, Salem Landscapes. My approach is the same as if I were trying to capture a waterfall scene, but it’s of the place where I now live for better or worse.

And that gets to the final point in this post. These photographs have been captured explicitly with this project in mind.(Quick aside: I’m not conceited enough to think that I’m being original here. Many, many others do similar projects, and are much more talented.) I’ve got more photos than are included here (6), but these share something that I cannot fully articulate (again why I take photos). And this project continues. But I’m possibly going to be showing these publicly, and I guess I’m trying to garner some comments (i.e. They suck, I don’t get it, You suck, etc.)

So there you go, if you are so inclined you can leave a comment.

Click on the photo to be brought to the photo project page.