Refractive Reasoning: The Camera Club That Isn't, The Paris Photo Collec...

Refractive Reasoning: The Camera Club That Isn't, The Paris Photo Collec...:       About  five months ago I gave in. A number of  local shutter hounds and artistic types had been encouraging me to start a photography...

The Camera Club That Isn't, The Paris Photo Collective

     About  five months ago I gave in. A number of  local shutter hounds and artistic types had been encouraging me to start a photography club here in town. It was an idea that I both liked and resisted. For me, photography is a relatively solitary pastime. Basically, it's just me out with my camera making photos and later, me in front of a computer screen, editing them, either for printing or presentation on line. On the one hand, I liked the idea of sharing my love of the craft with other like minded people. On the other hand,  I wasn't really interested in organizing and maintaining a club.  Trying to organize any group of individuals can be a pain in the butt. One has to deal with personalities,  egos,  politics and power plays.  One has to come up with activities,  topics for discussion,  guest speakers,  events and funding arrangements. My solution to the dilemma was simple. I would start the group, but apart from the most basic  organizing tasks,  I wouldn't do any of it.

Group portrait from our first meeting. Some of these people have left the group since then. No worries. I realize this group may not be for everyone.

     First off,  it's not a camera club.  It's a photographers' collective.  Everything and anything photography related can be brought to the table.  Let's say you shoot Nikon and you're  having a problem with a specific piece of gear.  There's probably someone in the group who shoots Nikon and can help you out. Let's face it. There's not a photographer alive who hasn't had gear issues at one time or another. We have a range of photographers who shoot Canon, Nikon, Fuji, and Sony. Hell, we even have some folks with Leica experience! The same goes for different genres of photography. We have people who specialize in street photography,  landscape,  portraiture, wildlife, special event  and fine art photography. We have a range of  experience that goes anywhere from a rookie who just bought his first serious camera  to pros and semi-pros with more than fifty years of  experience. The variety of skills and experience in this group is a constant source of amazement  to me. What amazes me even more is the kindness and generosity of spirit that we show in helping each other.  There are no stupid questions.

     As far as activities and events go, I leave all of that up to the individual members. If you want to have an event or activity involving the group, YOU organize it. Want to bring in a guest speaker? YOU make the contact and organize the evening. Want to do a field trip to a great photography spot? YOU make the arrangements for it. So far, the membership seems quite happy with this arrangement.

      The meetings are generally pretty loose. People talk about whatever aspect of photography is on their minds. There's lots of friendly banter and joking  going around. Anyone with a problem or question is free to bring it up and usually it gets resolved one way or another.    Most of the members tell me they prefer it this way. A lot of our members have attended camera clubs where they just sat on chairs and got preached to in a seminar style. We're a little more wide open than that. We sit around tables in a coffee shop and discuss whatever subject comes up.  I remember one meeting where a little group business was discussed and then someone looked out the window and commented that we still had good light, let's go for a photo walk. We all hit the streets and started making photographs. Hey, sometimes that's just the way we roll! 

Grab shot of Joe, Randi and Brian hittin' the mean streets
 of Paris, Ont. for a photo walk.

     I also remember another interesting night. The coffee shop where we usually meet tends to close early at about 8:00 p.m. We all wound up on the street outside and no one really wanted to go home. It was a beautiful summer night. We ended up sitting outside in the parking lot of another coffee shop, the Tim Horton's at the edge of town. One person lowered the tailgate of his pickup to provide a place to sit and another pulled  some lawn chairs out from the back of his vehicle. There was a full moon that night and a couple of people who had long lenses for their cameras were doing their best to capture it with a lot of (helpful?) advice from the rest of us. I defy anyone to find a photography group that can have an after meeting meeting in the parking lot of a donut  shop!



    I wish that I could take credit for this group but I really can't. All I did was start with an idea and it kind of morphed from there. I have to credit my co-chair, Luvern, for doing a lot to get the word out and grow the group.

     The spirit in this group is awesome! From the very first meetings it felt like a group of old friends getting together to share a common interest.                                                                            

Adam in action with Ina and Luvern in the background. Sparklers and
moving light photography from our last get together

 

Moving light photography from our last get together.

     I don't really know where this group is going but I think that's part of the fun. I do know that I've started an awesome group of friends who, like me, are happiest with a camera in their hands, making the best images they can.

                      ...more later 

    P.S. If you like what see here, don't be afraid to like and share to the media platform of your choice. The deal is if you keep likin' it, I'll keep crankin' it out.

     

       

Canada Day On The Rails

     One of the joys of photography is how seamlessly it fits in with other interests. Anyone who knows me or is a follower of my blogs, knows that I have an ongoing fascination with trains. (or practically anything that runs on rails) I come by it honestly. My Father was a brakeman/conductor on the Ontario Northland Railway.  I was practically raised on trains. Or, if not on the trains themselves,  the lore and stories of adventure that went along with them. As  child and youth growing up in small town Northern Ontario,  the railway was, quite literally, my ticket to the outside world. To this day, l can't board a train without a happy feeling of anticipation of the adventure that awaits. Sometimes, the adventure was simply the trip itself, travelling through scenery that was a little less familiar.  For me, a window seat on any form of transportation is still a prized possession.

     This fascination with all things railroady extended to streetcars and subways during  the  brief period of my life spent in Toronto. (my first home away from home)  Saturday afternoons would often find me on Queen or Dundas St., my trusty Yashica FX-3 camera slung around my neck, taking pictures and checking out the junk shops

to see what treasures could be acquired on a  budget of ten dollars. A few photos made, a bite to eat downtown,  and then a ride home on the streetcar.  Often It was one of the venerable PCC cars still operating in those days. 

     So, with a car rented for the long weekend,  my son and I headed out to the Halton County Radial Railway. It is home to  vintage streetcars, railway stuff,  and a beautifully restored radial railway car. I had visited this place before, (Did I mention that I'm a bonafide 
railway nut?) but that was some time ago. I thought that it would be a nice way to spend the afternoon. We stopped in at the gift shop to buy our tickets. The rides are quite short, about twenty minutes round trip. But with your admission ticket you get to ride as often as you like on whatever cars they have operating that day.

     Our first ride was aboard #8, the beautifully restored radial car from the London & Port Stanley Railway. This car is awesome. From the craftsmanship in the interior woodwork and brass detail to the beautiful panes of stained glass in the windows. This car was definitely built in the heyday of railways!  It's almost like rolling along in a beautiful Victorian living room.

The interior of Car #8 The scruffy lookin' kid in the right hand corner is my son, Greg.

     As their name implies, radial railways were relatively short passenger (and sometimes freight) lines that radiated out from larger centres. Unlike their streetcar cousins, radial cars were usually built a little bigger and heavier to handle longer distances away from city streets. They often had amenities such as washrooms and a baggage section for express packages.
    
 Naturally, I gravitated toward the head end of the car and struck up a conversation with the operator (motorman) who allowed me to ride there for pretty much the whole trip. I found all of the volunteers who keep this operation running to be very friendly and knowledgeable. On returning from our ride, I asked if I could take pictures from the opposite (non boarding) side of the track. They were quite kind and helpful in accommodating my request. 

      On our return to Rockwood Station, the operator, noting my interest in the equipment, introduced us to one of the shop guys who carefully restore and maintain these cars. In short order, we got a tour of the shops where several cars were in the process of being restored. We were treated to a behind the scenes look at what goes into this operation. At one point we were looking at a copy of a  blueprint of the truck assembly of a Peter Witt streetcar. It was from about 1915 and had been pulled from the archives of the Toronto Transit Commission. A lot of the parts needed for the restoration of these cars are no longer available. Replacement parts are often machined or crafted right in the shop. As a guy who does mechanical work for a living, their craftsmanship and attention to detail was not lost on me. These guys do amazing work!  

  

       Our last trip of the day was aboard a 1915 Peter Witt streetcar formerly operated by the TTC. Although not as ornate as #8, It too, has been carefully restored with attention to detail right down to the vintage advertising in the overhead card slots.

This time we got off at Meadowvale Station. One of the old streetcars there has been turned into a small cafe/snack bar where you can get ice cream.  As the lady behind the snack bar  scooped ice cream for us, I mentioned that I used to ride these streetcars  back in the day. I remarked that an ice cream shop/snack bar at the back of the car would have been a nice touch when these cars were in operation on the TTC!

The snack bar at the end of the line.

 

     After enjoying our ice cream we caught #8 again for our return trip to Rockwood Station. I made a few more photographs and chatted with some of the volunteers.  It was a great way to spend Canada Day. I liked the place so much I bought one of their baseball hats. You see, in addition to trains, rail travel, streetcars, cameras and photography, I'm kinda partial to  baseball hats too.

                      

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              ...more later

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Shooting with Intent

     One of my favourite quotes in the realm of photography is attributed to the incomparable Ansel Adams. "There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept"

     With the rise of digital photography, it has been estimated that there are now more photos taken in a single year than in the entire history of analog (film) photography. What this means to serious practitioners of the photographic arts is that,if we want our craft to be taken seriously,  we have to up our game. We have to learn the craft of photography in such a way that the  images we create are powerful. It's no longer enough to take a "good picture". Any of the millions of people with a cell phone in their pocket can do that. Photography has become so simplified, that almost anyone can take a decently exposed, relatively sharp picture of whatever happens to be in front of their camera/cell phone. If we are just "taking pictures" without any thought to composition, style , the visual elements or the final presentation of our work. we are really doing nothing more than contributing to the mass mediocrity of the millions of images posted to the web on a daily basis. 

     The term "editing", in modern parlance has come to be synonymous with "post processing". If an image is solidly good but could be made even better with some post processing enhancement, by all means do it. But do not rely on post processing to save a mediocre image. The result will simply be a boring photo with some pretty enhancement. I'm old school. I started my photographic journey in the days of film. To me, "editing", in the truest sense of the word means choosing the best image before even reaching the stage of possible processing and presentation.  

     But for a photograph to really work. the image should  be made with intent   

     Here is an anecdote from my days shooting film. A long time ago, a photographer friend of mine invited me and my wife (at the time) to his place for dinner.  After our meal, he asked if we would like to see some of his photos. In those days we were both shooting a lot of slide film and he dutifully set up his projector and showed us a couple of trays of his images. (Kodak slide trays held 140 slides each.) After his slide show he asked what I thought. I was diplomatic. I said that I liked it and that he had some very good stuff, which was true. However what I didn't say was that the vast majority of the images were, in my opinion,  pretty mediocre. 

     A few weeks later, my wife (at the time) and I returned the hospitality and had them over for dinner.  After the meal, my friend asked to see some of my photos. I set up my projector, a Rollei, which used European slide trays of only 50 slides each and proceeded to show them 40 or so carefully selected images of my stuff. My friend's wife was positively effusive (almost embarrassingly so) in her praise of my pictures. My friend, in what he saw as an effort to defend his own work, said something to the effect of "My slide show would look good too if I only showed my best shots!"  My response was something to the effect of "Well why would you show people your shit?"  I was pretty outspoken in those days.  I'd like to think that I've somewhat  mellowed with age. Needless to say, the evening did not end particularly well! 

     In all honesty, I cannot claim to be a much better photographer than my friend was at the time. But I was definitely a more critical and ruthless editor! 

     Bear in mind that, in those days,  I was shooting lovely Kodachrome slide film. A roll of 36 exposures, with processing, cost about twenty dollars. Yup, 20 bucks for 36 shots! For about the same money today, we can pop an SD card into our favourite electronic whiz-banger and get upwards of a thousand images. It's small wonder that our creative selectivity in what we shoot and what we present has taken a massive tumble!

     Okay, I realize that this has become something of a long winded rant from an old school photographer to simply say "Quality not Quantity!" But, there is more to it than that. In my opinion, If you have more than a few hundred pictures posted to any photo sharing website or social media page, you're not a photographer. You're just someone who likes to take pictures. I know, that sounds like an incredibly arrogant thing to say and perhaps it is. But let me turn that arrogance around with a simple question. Are you really arrogant enough to believe that anyone wants to wade through a thousand or more of your questionable images to find a handful of really good ones? Or worse. Are you really arrogant enough to believe that more than a thousand of the pictures you have taken are really great and deserve to be shared with the world? Editing pictures to be presented  is part of the craft of photography. It is either done by the photographer or perhaps by a highly skilled photo editor. It should not be left to the viewer. No one in this day and age has the time to look critically at that many images. If you want some respect as a photographer, show a little respect for your viewers. Their time is valuable.

     There are trillions of images on the net. As a photographer, if you're not editing and presenting your best work, you're just adding to the clutter.