Karaoke

A photo that I only began to be really interested in and work on more than a year after I took it - although I had it at least earmarked back then. This seems to contradict what I once said about digital photography, but of course it doesn't. With enough discipline, digital photography can certainly "feel" like film photography.

Planes

Shot in close proximity to one I've shown more than a year ago. And it's again a color photograph of a look into a shop window.

Except for adding a bit of saturation, this photo wasn't modified in any way.

Mailbox

Long time, no color... Well, here's one again, taken in Genoa in 2009. This is a picture that I sometimes like while at other times I think it is boring. Today, I obviously like it.

Display dummies

Life can certainly be easier if you're famous. If you are for example Miles Davis (without question one of the greatest Jazz musicians of all times), people will be interested in your ball pen scribblings and they'll end up in galleries. And if you are Heinz Schubert (a pretty good German actor), people will be interested in your photographs of display dummies and they'll end up in a book and even at the documenta.

I personally don't think that Schubert's photos are very good, but I like the idea of photographing display dummies and I do it myself a lot. (And I already did it before I knew he did.) I'll explain why I like it on another day.

Taken with the M8.2 (at ISO 160) in Genoa on July 5, 2009. The photo was slightly cropped.

On the run

It's the third time already that I'm mentioning Garry Winogrand in this blog. The funny thing is that I don't even like his photos that much. I do think, though, that some of his one-liners about photography are very deep. "I photograph because I want to see what the world looks like photographed," is one of my favorites. It sounds banal first, but in my opinion it isn't, and for me it also explains a lot about why I take photos.

I was reminded of the quote when I looked at this photo again more than half a year after I took it.  It's one of those shots where at least consciously I wasn't aware of what exactly I was photographing when I pressed the shutter.

Taken with the M8.2 and the 50mm Summicron at ISO 160 in Genoa on July 5, 2009.

Street jumble #2

A crossing of several elevated roads near Genoa's harbor on July 5, 2009. I had a "color day" and was thus looking for different motifs, but this one works much better in black and white. And it's of course both a strength as well as a weakness of digital that you can decide after you took the photo whether your picture should be black and white or not.

Taken with the M8.2 and the 50mm Summicron at ISO 160. I forgot how I converted the image to black and white.

Simplicity

Like many Italian cities, Genoa has plenty of buildings that decay with a lot of style - something I've rarely seen in other countries. Add the beautiful colors on a sunny day, and there are lots of places you want to turn into photos.

This here is a wall next to a restaurant and I like the "classic" simplicity combined with how the living plant contrasts with the "dead" walls.

M8.2 with the old 50mm Summicron at ISO 160.

Window shopping in color

And now, as they say, for something completely different. Here's a photo which is a) in color and b) a digital one. I only started shooting digital in the second half of 2008 after buying a Leica M8.2 and only after working digitally for a while did it ever occur to me to try my luck at color.

Although the most important factor for me probably was my "discovery" of Saul Leiter.  His photos, and subsequently those of others like for example William Eggleston or Helen Levitt, taught me how beautiful color photos can be - something I had ignored for almost twenty years...

This particular shot was taken in Genoa on July 5 this year.  I had a spare Sunday before I had to give a talk at a conference the next day and strolled through the sunny city enjoying its beautiful buildings and colors.  This is a view into a shop window and I like how the reflections render the picture kind of mysterious. The photo itself is uncropped and hasn't been modified except for slight adjustments to the tone curve and the saturation.  I have to admit I forgot which lens I used - might have been my old 50mm Summicron.  ISO is 160.

One other thing that might be worth mentioning is that on this day I really adhered to the discipline of taking only one shot per motif and of not chimping.  It's my way of trying to work like in the olden (analog) days and I don't always succeed.  But if I do I always realize afterwards that it's the right way of shooting for me.