EQUIPMENT CHOICES

Some folks have been wondering about switching from film to digital. Virginia, Arnold and Darius have already purchased their new Nikon D70 cameras since the workshop. Fresh from a shoot in Kenya, David Alan Harvey inspired us to try digital with his gorgeous pictures from Kenya shot with a Nikon D70. Plus, Ben had really good results throughout the week with his digital Canon.

At the start of our week in San Miguel de Allende I was not sure whether I should use my 35mm film camera or my digital SLR. Our instructors gave me some good advice: shoot with the camera you’re going to use most often. So, I shot the week with my Nikon D70. I was glad that I did.

At photo l.a. I saw several lectures from fine art photographers: Alec Soth, John Humble, Robert Flick, Mona Kuhn. A theme I picked up from them is that you need to choose equipment that best expresses your work and fits best with your working style.

For his Mississippi project, Alec Soth used an 8x10 view camera on a tripod. His process of fiddling with the camera allows his subjects to relax into the picture. Before he photographs, he has people sign a release. So, the subjects know that they will be hanging out with Alex while he sets up the shot. One effect is that he misses spontaneous moments. He said that he has a hard time capturing a natural smile and other emtions using this method.

John Humble records the LA landscape. He uses a 4x5 view camera with film on a tripod. He is interested in switching to digital, but is not yet satisfied with the quality of large prints (20” x 24”) from a digital capture. When he photographs, he goes out with a van and places his view camera and tripod on top of his van. He sets up his shot, then waits to capture a spontaneous moment. He prefers to have some people in his landscapes, so he waits for a person to enter his shot. The people provide spontaneity.

Robert Flick’s work is a visual mapping of LA neighborhoods. He uses collage to show how a neighborhood changes as you move through it. He has photographed neighborhoods – sometimes the same ones - in LA for decades using many types of equipment: black and white film, color film and now digitally. Due to the nature of his work, he has started to use a digital video camera to make still images. The video camera allows him to record the streets while driving in a continuous line. Then, on the computer, he chooses his prints from the video stream. His final images are collages of still images that map his journeys through LA neighborhoods.

Mona Kuhn prefers to use a Hasselblad film camera. She prefers not to use a tripod as she photographs using daylight and gets very close to her subjects – figurative nudes. She prefers the freedom to move around while photographing to collaborate with her subjects. She takes advantage of spontaneous elements. She enjoys exploiting the square frame of the Hasselblad. Mona spends time making photos for two months of the year in a seaside location in France. Where she makes photos, there is no electricity. So, she does not see her work until she returns home to San Francisco. Working with digital would be difficult as she cannot plug in a computer or recharge camera batteries.