Pete Geniella San Francisco Photographer

Some more about “Capturing the moment.”

David Allen Harvey is a Magnum photographer; you may have seen his “Hip Hop Planet” photos in a recent National Geographic. He has a really interesting blog where he discusses his assingments and travels…not so much from a technical standpoint but more of a philosophical or emotional description of his work. Recently he offered up an contest on his blog. He listed 7 well known photographers and asked his readers to guess which always carry a camera and which don’t.

While it was interesting to see who does and who doesn’t, I really enjoyed Harvey’s take on camera/no-camera, because, well, he said exactly how I feel about it:

“i always have my camera with me…but, i do not always photograph everything around me all the time…like you, there are no pictures for me unless i am ready to make them…i need to be in the mood….or moved…and no matter what i do or how hard i try, i cannot “capture life”…i wish i could…but it slips by anyway…frustrating….the camera does not help…but sometimes i like to think that it will..that “recording” will somehow preserve the moment…stop this “freight train” or slow it down…a futile attempt …what it does do however, is allow me to savor a situation just a bit more than i would have otherwise…because when i am shooting, no matter how casually, i do “enter” the scene on a deeper level than if i am just standing there with my hands in my pockets….i notice more, feel more, become more….

the resulting picture may only be a reference… but as i sometimes go through the countless cardboard boxes i have stacked around of un-catalogued pictures, what a joy it is to discover some random snapshots of some “unimportant” event that just brings a smile to my face and simply brings back a memory that i might otherwise have forgotten…and if an old song from “yesterday” happens to play at the same moment as i am doing my archival rummaging, then i feel “the power” of remembering and living as in no other way…”

I always carry a camera with me. And a photo like this is why.

Every single moment in time is unique. That’s the real power of photography, capturing a moment that has never existed before nor will ever exist again. The shadow of the power line tower, at this very moment, is perfectly centered on the face of the office builing. Twenty-four hours later, the shadow shifted a few feet to the left. Heck ten minutes later, the light was gone.

If you see an interesting visual moment, capture it. Don’t think it will be there tommorrow. The light *will* change. The weather *will* be different. There *will* be a white service van parked right in the middle of your shot. There’s no stopping the ebb and flow of life, you can only hope to capture fleeting moments of beauty or emotion.

When I was a photojournalism student, I carried a full kit of gear around in case World War III broke out in front of me. Since then, I learned there’s something to whole “simplicity” thing. Carrying the full rig meant, along with shoulder pain, when it was time to make an image, I’d have to unpack my bag, swap a lens,etc.

After a while, my bag moved from the passenger’s seat to the trunk, and the moments slipped away. After years of body aches and missed oppurtunities, I generally leave the PJ rig at home but I always carry a point & shoot. When I was shooting film, my P&S was an Olympus Stylus Epic. Today, I carry a Panasonic LX2.

My LX2 resides in my jacket pocket or in my man-purse Chrome messenger bag. When I come across a moment like above, it’s easy as pulling the camera out, snapping a couple of frames and moving on with my day.

A note about the colours and tones of this image, or any of my images–This is pretty close to reality. Certainly, the optical characteristics of my camera sprinkle some faerie dust into an image, and my mild post processing “special sauce” helps with the contrast, etc, and I gently inject my sense of style and vision into an image…But I always strive to be truthful with my images and have them represent the moment as my mind’s eye remembers it. Anything I do can be done in a darkroom.

Click on the image to view larger.

Yestderday, I talked about how I enjoy working with digital black & white. While I don’t miss heavy metals saturating my liver and my fingers smelling like fixer, I have always favored the way film grain looks, especially in Black and White photos. Now there are approximately 101 ways to achieve a film-grain look in photoshop, and the technique I am about to outline is but one. I can’t say it’s the best, but it’s been working for me so far.

As you read this, you’ll note I am coy about the particulars. A good chef never gives away his entire recipe. Part of the fun of photography is figuring out what works for you and your vision. I suggest using this guide as a starting point for experimentation until you find something you like. Here’s how it works:

Here’s a close up, for reference, of the image before grain is added:

Set the layer mode to overlay, the layer opacity to 50%. You can adjust opacity to taste.

And here’s the same area after the “grain” is added:

You can click on the images below to java-magically see a larger image. It’s a subtle effect, but the idea is to enhance your photography, not show off an effect.

Here’s the before:

And the after: