West Side Highway Trestles: HP5, 35mm One question that has been asked a lot is whether you can use HDR techniques with film. Yes. I use it all the time to punch up negatives from various formats including 35mm, medium format and even 4×5 inch negatives. HDR didn’t exactly exist in 1992 when I was I was shot this 35mm b&w negative (HP5). I could never make a satisfactory print from it because of the [more]
The author of Sherlock Holmes was also a believer in what was called Spiritualism in his day. It had a vogue similar to what today you would call New Age religion. There were many ideas floating (no pun intended) around in the movement, but one of the more important ones was that people did not die. They went somewhere else, that had nothing to do with any specific religion. In other words, Spiritualism was really [more]
11-14-00 I continue to get emails from students who want to or have written about me. In the beginning it was flattering, but its starting to get annoying. Especially since I think that the study of photography is mostly a waste of time. Sort of like studying how to drive. It’s good to know the basics, but you can learn most of what you need by hit and miss. Maybe that’s my anti-school bias speaking. [more]
As he nears 90 years old, my father, Aaron, continues to write poetry. This is about an experience he had during WWII. THE PAST IS ALWAYS PRESENT The French Hedges, Normandy Over six feet tall Cast moving shadows In the night time A month ago, January 4, 1944 An American soldier on patrol Shot and killed We suspect German saboteurs On evening patrol The regulation Two soldiers patrol together On this dark night I patrol [more]
That’s me photographing the Merced in Yosemite at least ten years ago. I went there for a week with a friend (Hugo). Camera was the Mamiya 6. I was shooting Tri-x. It had rained a lot that year, and a good deal of Yosemite was flooded. Even the main tourist spots, where there were wooden planks for walkways, were covered with about a 1/2 foot of water. And it rained almost every day we were [more]
I began to wonder whether the living room print, the living room photos, the paintings in the hallway, would be replaced by digital frames in the same way that books are being replaced by eBooks.
FROM 4-7-02 Conversations with Lester. Dave, Have you ever read the Jungian psychologist/philosopher James Hillman? (The Soul’s Code, Blue Fire) He is a lunatic like Henry Miller. I ran across this passage in which he describes how imagination must be rooted deeply in sensual imagery, using whiteness as an example. Though it is not about photography, but rather silver and alchemy, I think he comes close to expressing why good black and white photography (like [more]
[First published in March, 2002] I think that if you look back over the things that have concerned me in these journals since leaving the job, money will pop up more often than any creative endeavor. There was a tremendous rush of freedom that I felt when I left the corporate world, but also a new kind of respect for what money meant to me. It’s almost akin to moving from adolescence into adulthood. The [more]
I had, from an early age, a feeling that everything, and everyone would disappear someday. My uncle who was sitting across from me would be gone. The view from my bedroom window would disappear. The apartment would dissolve. And everyone and everything that I knew would someday be gone. And if not gone, changed. I don’t think that at the age of 14 or 15 I could put this feeling into words, as I can [more]
Dave, You have several images as good as all but the most famous of HCB (Cartier-Bresson). Your composition is excellent, doesn’t require improving, but you need to edit much more vigorously. Most of your pictures are basically a lot of “Indecisive moments.” Sorry, I’m not interested in buying any, but youre awesome! Do you sell many of these? Mr. Beckermen: I don’t recall any photo-site, either from a well known, or little known photographer, that [more]
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