Held in Captivity – 雨後的世界

It rained for a whole week. It was like held in captivity when there’s so little chance capturing things around me.

If it’s not the rain, I’d not ever bring out my GRD again (4 months already sitting at home). I made a couple shots the following day just to orient myself again, a couple of frames turned out great. That brought me back the idea of using a wider focal length 28mm in the narrow streets of Hong Kong. I did go back to some of the photographs I shot in 28mm. I could immediately tell the difference of how my recent 35mm photos compare to the 28mm ones – The amount of detail (environment) being captured on a frame. I’ve had mentioned my experience previously, by adjusting my footwork, distance, elevation would make everything work interchangeably despite of the focal length. Yes, but I never answered myself if I choose between them, would it be a 28mm or 35mm? Except the fact that, I’m just choosing between cameras in my case (GRD & X2).

I tried to look for answers and hopefully some masters can have an answer for me. I was glad I did. I came across with Garry Winogrand, a wonderful photographer which I look up to. In his career, he shot most of the time with the 28mm and did switch to a 35mm from time to time. No particular reasons, maybe bored. He did also say the difference is only distance.

The second after learning from a master, my immediate response is – it made so much sense. That is, if something interesting shows up in front of me; what would I do differently anyway? I’d still do the same action, frame & click. I maybe getting to choose between cameras for the weather reason. What I do is still the same, frame & click. That’s it, frame & click.

Next time ask yourself again when you choose between the focal lengths, with the same scene on a given moment, if you’ve got two of them side by side; what would you do it differently?

Screw the weather

It’s odd to have rain in winter here. Historically there wasn’t any, not for a whole week.

I was having this thought when I had a chance going from one camera to another during the week.

$600 camera, $600 photo. Then a $2000 camera, $2000 photo?

We all know the answer is ‘No!’. Deep inside me, it’s always echoing me to shoot photos that worth the price. It’s one of the reasons I liked the idea of using one camera. I just won’t compare.

This set contains photos from my GRD, shot from the end of September to this month. Here and there…especially when it feels like raining..

 

Clueless, out searching for the invisible me.

This set comes from the holiday during the Mid-Autumn Festival at the end of September. All taken with GRD.

Many of you have noticed. I had not done any ‘in your face’ type of close up street photography. I want to be invisible. I want to capture people and things without alarming  anyone. I could run up to just about anyone to get the street portrait. I found I’m not getting the interaction of the people and the environment, in other words i want to put it,  the harmony from them. This set is more about me searching and seeing things. Only a shot or two has to do with the subject interacting with their surroundings. It’s cool to have a few ‘in your face’ shots in my series once in a while. Just not unless it’s absolutely necessary all the time.

By all means, I may still be invisible at the time I’m standing right in front of my subject. With the right timing, direction, distraction, we could pull this off still.

To be invisible, it’s all about learning about your positioning (blend in the crowd, approach from the side, etc). Be calm at all time, very calm. Just as if you’re not shooting your subject (with a little acting). The more you try, the more sucesses you’d do. Everyone has their way of doing it.

My tip is to be clueless. Blank. By not thinking about anything, you’d just focus on what’s in the frame regarding the distance whether near or far from your subject. Anything happen after the shot is not relevant. It becomes history, either you get the shot or miss it. It doesn’t matter. Keep the cycle and rhythm going.

–

Headed out shooting on saturday. It was not a pleasant day i must say. I was very disappointed with the auto LCD off timer on my X2. Yes, it continued to bug me. With a little struggle and some slow down on my daily captures, plus this BS 1 min (or 30 sec) LCD off timer. I missed shots. (For those who do not know, the LCD off timer would put the X2 on standby mode which requires waking it up prior shooting). How am I going to get ready when something suddenly shows up in front of me?

I was frustrated enough, I stayed home the day after. Rather than sitting on my butt, I had sent an email to the Leica Customer Service. The odds of getting my message across to the right department is questionable. At least I’d done my best to hopefully get a firmware fix very soon.

I’m VERY surprised that none of the online camera reviewers have not pointed this out YET. It might be my self pity clumsiness as well as my poor english not catching that in their comprehensive reviews.

Am I missing my Fuji X100?
For the auto LCD off reason. Yes…I would have waited until the next firmware updates, so that I could still use the X100 in my business trip to Macao. I believe in fate. If I ended up with the X2, I must either overcome for now and meanwhile wait for the future firmware update.

Now I’m deciding between X2 and GRD. I’m sure the GRD would do just perfectly fine. But I want to take this chance (5 days, 4 evenings), to allow myself discover and pursuit the beauty of Macao with the best quality from Leica. It’d also be an excellent opportunity to put myself in the shoe as a photographer, sort of? I’m anxious to see if I could be able to pull this off with a little patience handling the camera. Am I willing to take risks of missing shots? While my subconscious mind is telling me to go with the camera I trust the most.

I got 3 more days to decide…