We small town photographers (those not living in Cape Town or Johannesburg/Pretoria) have it harder than our counterparts in the big city and it has started to irritate me greatly!

My photographic year generally starts slowly and then creaks on painfully but I had a “new” series of shoots for a book that I was looking forward to. It is a nice arty book with a nice arty writer who lives in my nice arty small town and we had started photographing the nice small town art a few weeks ago.  Small town art is good enough to be published in big city books but are small town photographers good enough for big city books?

Sort of turns out no. I get to do the stuff that cannot wait until a certain date when the ‘BIG CITY PHOTOGRAPHER’ gets flown out to the small town to do the bulk of the work! No I do understand the big city photographers have working relations with big city publishers and there are those big city expense accounts that have to be flattened by the end of the financial year. I suppose the excuse is that the editor has a working relationship with the photographer and that they generally don’t want to kill each other after a shoot (which is generally how I feel after a shoot with an editor hovering over my shoulder).

Small towns also have heavy industries and factories that make big money from the inhabitants of all small dorps and big cities. All us South Africans (and others) eat, drink, wear, drive or use their many products every day. These heavy industries and factories organise sport events and functions that showcase their products and sometimes these events are in the small town where the things are made. Do you know how they get pictures of these events? You guessed it; they fly down ‘BIG CITY PHOTOGRAPHERS!’ Sometimes they even fly them down in pairs because the small town photographers cannot (or are to small town stupid?) to photograph what they manufacture.

It gets even worse! I heard of a luxury game lodge that needed pictures of the game on their lands.  They of course do not use small town photographers (maybe are not game enough?) but the real exciting news is that they do not use the ‘BIG CITY PHOTOGRAPHER!’  No, in this case they were not good enough and they flew in a ‘BIG CITY INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER!’ from a country which, as far as I know, has no game left. Anyway I hope this example will irritate the BIG CITY PHOTOGRAPHER too.

I have not forgotten about accommodation and food – these big town and international photographers have to eat and sleep and do so in small town luxury accommodation. I hope they don’t suffer too much when they have to come out to the platteland and that they do charge the full big city fees which we struggle to get in our small towns. Oh yes, don’t forget to add the costs of getting the big city photographer to the small town. Aeroplanes are the chosen form and transport and they probably justify this by getting free air miles (whatever they are).

So if you run a large firm or business or publish books or whatever and you sometimes need a photographer away from the big city perhaps you should try someone who works away from the big city. Our fees are competitive and you might get away by hiring us per hour or just for the morning.We have the ability and knowledge (including local knowledge which you cannot fly over) and you could save a fortune in fees, flights, accommodation and expenses.

created for Pix - you may share this but you ma

 

This is a work in progress started by a suggestion on the Pix facebook page(  ). Please feel free to make suggestions or whatever. Do remember that we cannot accept responsibility for any damage you may cause to your camera.

If you have charged your battery you can look for a suitable venue to do what some people perceive as open heart surgery on your camera.

I use my study because it is relatively dust free and has suitable lighting – an angle poise light that I can bend to shine into the camera. It is also where I have a computer with a large screen and I have it switched on with an image taken with the dust-bunny infested camera on the screen. How do you take a picture to show the dust-bunny infestation? Easy, point your camera towards the blue sky and take a picture on AV (aperture priority) at f22. Those black dots you see on your computer screen are dust bunnies.

So while your battery is charging you might as well clean the outside and inside of your camera. Be gentle on the inside, use blower brush to remove anything visible around the mirror and around the lens mount. On the outside I use a clean (important) tooth brush to get dust out of grooves and screws and wipe down with a cloth. While you are at it, clean the mounts of your lenses and blow out around the rear element; it is rather silly to carry around more dust to add to your sensor later on.

Refer to your manual on how to set the camera for manual sensor cleaning and practice it once just so that you don’t get a fright when you are doing it for real. Yes the camera will make a noise when it flips up the mirror and pulls back the shutter. Have a look at your sensor and get a visible feel for it. Maybe now is the time I should mention that a good anti-dandruff shampoo is recommended and that you should not be smoking or dripping sweat and that sneezing could be a disaster! Now do what your manual tells you what to do when you have finished cleaning. It will make a noise and everything will close again!

Now take a look at your computer screen and note where the dust is. This is where the laws of physics confuse things again. If you have a large-dust bunny on the top right-hand corner of your screen the bit of dust is actually on the bottom left-hand corner of your sensor. I cannot remember what this phenomenon is called but this is true! Google the optical laws if you don’t believe me (I will have to refresh my mind as well). If you cannot get your head around this just turn the camera upside down when you are doing the actual cleaning and ignore what I said about the laws of physics.

I don’t use any magnifiers or microscope (I am a cheapskate) to see the dust bunnies on the sensor when I try to remove them. The sensor is small enough for me to guess accurately enough where it is. I now do the procedure as in the previous paragraph and when the sensor is exposed I give the insides a blast of air just to dislodge anything that might be sitting around – also remember gravity, although the bunnies are light, the will tend to fall downwards. Using the exposed tip of the pen-like sensor cleaning device I gently move it over the area where the dust is. I do it gently and just over the area where the bunny is hiding – I don’t try to chase the bunny away, but rather just want to pick it up. Looking at the computer screen I will check where the other bunnies are and gently repeat the procedure on each one. Once I have picked up all the spots I take everything away from the camera and tell the camera I have finished cleaning. The camera will close up and cover its innards and you will then obviously follow up and put a body-cap or a lens on the camera.

The last paragraph is the roughest to do (and write) but gently did it! Unfortunately you haven’t finished yet. Go take another picture of a blue sky at f22 and see if you got all the bunnies. If you did not get them all repeat the whole procedure. I have had to do it three times but never four. If you have bits that do not come away after a few attempts I am afraid that you would have to have it cleaned by a professional. Bigger bits of dust tend to come away easily but the small ones can be stubborn.

That was not too bad, was it? Gently does it and hopefully your dust-bunnies are all gone!

 

A question on the Pix facebook site on whether you clean your own sensor got some interesting responses ranging from “I will never do it” to “I do it when required” together with many “I am very nervous of even trying.” I thought I would document the process and this is a work in progress. Please feel free to make suggestions or whatever. Do remember that we cannot accept responsibility for any damage you may cause to your camera.

Also nobody on facebook actually pointed out that you won’t be cleaning your sensor but rather the filter that lies above this.

In the first place prevention is better than cure so never leave your camera or lenses lying around without caps on. Change lenses in dust free environments and do it quickly. No I would never want to lose a picture through being scared to change lenses when necessary and I will carry on changing lenses on beaches and wherever so it is therefore inevitable that I get what are called dust bunnies on my sensor. Dust bunnies are the irritating little blobs that appear on your prints. They can easily be removed using photoshop or other programmes but this does become irritating after a while. Incidentally dust or blobs on your mirror, focussing screen or in your viewfinder can be irritating but will not appear on the pictures. I have learnt to ignore them.

If like me you live far from Midrand (where Nikon offers free cleaning!) you have fewer options. You can always courier your camera to the manufacturers’ service agents but this costs money. It is probably the safest option. In all big towns there are private camera repairmen and photographers who offer a sensor cleaning service and the prices range (in Port Elizabeth) from about R450 to R200 (the guy who used to do it for a bottle of wine has upped his price). I would trust a good camera repairman above a photographer.

The remaining option is to do it yourself. It is not rocket science but you have to be careful. The first step is to read the manual and if you don’t have one find one on the web or find a fellow photographer who has the same camera and has a manual. If the camera has a sensor cleaning mechanism read the manual carefully again, on re-reading I found that they recommend the camera lie on a perpendicular angle on a hard surface when you use the “clean now” option. Doing it this way has removed dust bunnies and I did not have to poke around in my camera’s innards. Each camera make has its own peculiarities (like their owners) and another make says you should have your sensor perpendicular to the ground when you do an auto-clean. Ok so rule one is read the manual. If you are lucky you might not have to perform what some see as the photographic equivalent of open heart surgery.

If that does not work you unfortunately have to spend some money. Sensor cleaning implements vary greatly in cost from about R200 up to the thousands of rands. I use a bottom of the range pen-like thing made specially for cleaning sensors. There are similar things for cleaning lenses so don’t use the wrong one. I also have a blower thingy, not the one you get in camera shops with little hairs on to sweep away stuff on a lens (never use this on a sensor!). Mine comes from a pharmacy (I don’t want to know what it is used for) and has a big rubber bulb to squeeze on and a fine nose that delivers a strong blast of air. The long nose is good as you can direct a strong blast of air with accuracy, but also a hazard because if the mirror suddenly flicks back or the shutter closes something will be broken (and it won’t be the blower). I would also steer clear of compressed air that is available in aerosol cans as they often use a chemical to propel the air and this chemical can end up on your sensor – again something which you don’t want.

By the way the process I am describing is called a dry cleaning method. Wet methods include the use of liquids and I am not brave enough to use them. If this dry method does not remove the dust bunnies I would send my camera to a qualified repair person.

Ok, back to the manual. The manual will say that your batteries must be fully charged when you are doing a sensor clean. What the camera basically does when you are doing a manual clean is behave like it is taking a picture. The mirror flicks up out of the way and the shutter opens and reveals the sensor. If the camera ran out of power the mirror would fall back and the shutter would close hitting whatever you are holding in the way. You would damage the mirror and probably the shutter. Not what you want. So go ahead and charge your batteries.

Did I point out that we cannot be held responsible for any damage you cause your camera?

End part 1 (part 2 tomorrow or maybe a day or two later)

 

I think I have just read my 456238973rd forum discussion on “why I use a Alpha, Pentax, Nikon, Canon, Hasselblad, Zeiss or Zorki etc camera” and I am so tired of the reasoned logical arguments that people use to justify their expensive toys that I have decided to publicly announce why I use the camera make I use! Their arguments are so bloody clinical.

During the 1980s after having been conscripted in the army I fled South Africa for political reasons and I spent several years doing street photography in the sun, rain and snow in the boulevards of Paris. They were wonderful years of dreams, cheap red wine and warm baguettes and a little room in a garret in the centre of what is the city of my dreams. During the course of this I met the celebrated minor actress Migi Bouffin (she had a cameo appearance in Diva). Our meeting was so typically Paris in winter; it was raining and she chose to shelter under the umbrella that I was using to protect my camera from the falling raindrops and flakes of snow! To cut steamy details and a long story short I eventually decided to return to South Africa and when I left she gave me her camera and a few lenses. I still have the original camera body and when I sniff in the area of the viewfinder I still smell her perfume and feel the warmth of her cheek on the back of the camera. She also gave me some lenses and one is about the same size and shape as her breasts!

Even though I am older now I occasionally return to the city of my dreams and late at night we still talk about those days. She still uses the same perfume as all those years ago and we still share all those images and memories.

I could never change camera make and I suppose my photography is still built on dreams, imagination and pure passion!

(Back-focus, mine is better than yours, service issues and the like are boring. Sort them out, make them interesting or see a psychologist and rather go create images and have a bit of a life away from the internet.)

 

Sometimes when I browse around the various forums in the world I come across a question which makes me feel sad. It normally reads “What tripod should I get.” Little does the person asking the question know that they might be about to ruin their lives forever.

It is strange how tripods have evolved; they appeared on the planet with 3 legs and just stayed the same except for their prices which rose. They are simple in construction and yet very expensive and are made from anything ranging from bendy plastic to stuff that was considered too expensive for a space shuttle.

They are also one of the few accessories that will improve your photography. They are also one of the few accessories that will destroy your love of photography and will, every now and then, try to stop your heart from beating. I have seen it happen a few times while watching a camera on a tripod. The tripod will suddenly play the childhood game that ends with the rhyme “all fall down.” Even stranger is that the falling down is deliberately done in slow motion that give you a chance to catch the contraption falling and save the camera or you will stay rooted to the ground and see your camera bounce. The damage caused is always to the camera or lens as the tripod wants to continue its mission in life and ruin photographer’s equipment and nerves. I would be curious to know if anyone has seen a tripod damage itself – they are expensive enough to make it worthwhile.

Interestingly the damage to the camera and lens on the tripod is quite random. I have seen destroyed camera bodies and destroyed lenses and sometimes, if the tripod gets it right, both the lens and camera are ruined. Even stranger is that sometimes there is no damage, despite the fall being on hard ground. Sometimes the tripod will leap, with camera and all; into the sea - most surf photographers have seen this can corroborate this.

Not surprisingly, like with all camera stuff, the tripod on its own is useless and you have to spend even more money on a decent head which range in strange names like wimberly head, ball head to pistol grip and all cost a small fortune. The spending does not stop there as there is probably a quick release plate and you will have to invest in a few of these too.

Tripods are cunningly designed so as to be very difficult to carry. Sure if you work from a studio it can just crash your camera on the floor but most of us need to take the thing to where we take pictures. Some landscape photographers have one arm longer than the other just from carrying a tripod. Interestingly nature photographers tend to look like gorillas from carrying the tripod in one hand and the heavy lens and combination in the other – yes both their arms are stretched and their hands get scarily close to the ground!

Camera bags often have straps to hold a tripod but tripods are just simply too cunning to stay attached. This might also be a good time to mention that storing tripods in a house is also a dangerous business. They need a secure dedicated cupboard or wall rack or otherwise they will jump onto the ground at 2am and scare everyone into thinking there is a burglar in the house. You will probably trip over the fallen tripod and break your nose.

Some people try to avoid the three-legged monsters by investing in a one-legged monster called a monopod. The number of people who can tame these beasts is limited and mainly restricted to people who photograph sport. In theory they stop up and down motion but the sway gets me every time and they work in cahoots with the horizon so that it is never straight in your pics. I knew a famous female photographer who used a monopod to knock over men. She was a lovely lady and had no evil ideas but every now and then a man would fall to the ground clutching his family jewels, having had them battered by the monopod. It was scary.

There is no real way of preventing your tripod from trying to kill your camera. Just ensure that all the legs are securely locked and the head is securely tight. Be sure that the quick release is snug and locked in. Beware of the wind (insurance is extra in PE) and don’t temp the tripod by putting it anywhere near a drop like a harbour wall or cliff. You can always spot an experienced tripod user as they never go further than a few feet from a tripod and camera combination so as to be able to catch the super slow-mo fall.

But, I have to say it, if your tripod is in a good mood, it can hold you camera and lens still and it will improve your photography. Good luck with your tripod.

Luc Hosten

Surely if the Government sees it fit to put health warnings on alcohol and cigarettes they should do the same for photo equipment and surfboards? I don’t like the cancer warnings on cigarettes but enjoy the alcohol one that implies that if I drink this I should not ride my bicycle. This timely warning has surely saved from me much pain and suffering and I have managed to avoid riding my bicycle while drinking for most of my adult life.

Yesterday was another day when a warning could have helped me. A nice storm had hit our part of the coast and before I knew it I was trying to walk along the beachfront in a dignified way while carrying a rucksack full of photo equipment, heavy tripod and my long lens. For once there were many surfers bobbing in the sea – I sometimes wonder how much petrol is wasted by surfers looking for waves and photographers looking for something to photograph. The waves were good and I spent some 3 hours photographing the surfing and trying to catch a wave called Baked Beans properly. This of course meant that I did not concentrate on one thing only, but it worked out ok in the end.

When I got home I ignored the dogs, family, partner, domestic duties and bicycle and loaded up the pictures. It was good!

Then of course reality set in. Years ago I fell off a bicycle (without the help of alcohol) and broke a bone in my shoulder and that together with 3 hours of holding a long lens still in a howling gale (and carrying all the stuff) means that my shoulder won’t move this morning. Everyone knows that surfers don’t buy pictures and that I have re-supplied all their Facebook pages with profile pictures free of charge. As someone who lives off the proceeds of photography and writing this is not good. Looking at the pictures I realise that the surfers have problems too. Most of them sat bobbing on the water with a toxic board between their legs (surfboards must have toxic chemical hazard stickers) for some 3 hours without catching a wave (I wont mention the names of those who had more than their fair share of the waves). They also have no idea what those fishing boats are dumping in the sea or what dread sea creatures they are attracting.

So photography and surfing is lose/lose all the way and I don’t know who lost the most. Sitting on something toxic in the sea for any length of time in a strong wind is bad. Standing in a howling gale for any length of time is equally bad, especially if you bring the wear and tear on your equipment and body into account.

But then life is tough in Africa. If I market the pictures correctly and use the pictures of the wave called Baked Beans correctly I might just earn something. If I write about the experience and bring in the techniques used to capture the images I might have another article ready for publication. The surfers, despite their suffering, enjoyed the waves they caught and fresh air and salt water never did anybody any harm.

Perhaps there should be a sticker attached to all cameras and surfboards indicating that the products may enhance your lifestyle and creativity and get you into the great outdoors? Don’t know; I will have to think about this. Maybe freelance photography and writing is not that bad after all!

* This is a very versatile blog and you can attach the health warnings to anything that is affecting your life – if you are a pet photographer, you can stick the warning sticker on your dog, if you are a glamour/nude photographer you can personally stick the warning stickers to…………

Photography is sometimes strange and in looking for that perfect image we overcomplicate things and get loose baggy pointless images. 

 One sort of goes into an artistic coma and when you look into the little screen at the back of the camera to look at the masterpiece you have created you get all excited. Incidentally this action of looking at the images on the camera screen is called chimping as the photographer resembles a chimpanzee looking for fleas in a companion.

Yesterday I was doing some complicated wave photography, sticking my lens very close to the water and getting some exciting images. At times like this you can see the image on the little screen blown up to a simply enormous size on canvas and already hanging in an art gallery with a fantastic price tag on it. The picture looked really great until I realised that it was a nose print in the barrel of the wave that caused the image to seem so exciting. Yes, when you take pics looking through the viewfinder your nose rests on the screen and leaves a nose print on the screen. I wonder if the police have ever used nose prints to determine who last used a camera at a murder scene – anyway back to the point I was trying to make.

The point is that keeping things simple often works the best. I saw the wet surfer walking and saw his wet foot prints and thought of the movie Dead Man Walking and took the picture and called it Wet Surfer Walking.

The great irony is that I am not practicing what I am trying to preach. Yes simple images work well but are sometimes a bit boring. The other pictures I was trying to create worked even better. Sticking a lens into a wave is exciting for many reasons ranging from insurance claims, personal safety to unexpected creativity. Exploring a subject repeatedly creates different images of the same thing and allows subtle differences to come through in your pictures. As you explore something exciting and interesting to yourself, hopefully the viewers of your images will see something of the personal excitement you captured and appreciate the beauty of your creativity. And I am really dreaming now – that appreciation that the viewer develops will grow into a greater appreciation of the environment and people that live in it!

Keep it simple but don’t be afraid to include the kitchen sink and everything else. There are no rules, just guidelines and everything can be good!

 

I have had two nice little rush jobs lately – both to photograph a painting yesterday already and email the image the day before in a hurry. Printing deadlines are beyond comprehension; one day (when I am big) I will get a few days’ notice for one of these jobs.


You probably know that the best rugby players originate in the Eastern Cape and then get stolen or exported and end up in other provinces. So it goes with artists – the best ones originate in the Eastern Cape and luckily they stay. The two whose paintings I had to photograph were Walter Battis and George Pemba. Both were true sons of the area and both incredibly talented – mindblowingly talented in their genres. The use of colour and simple lines (and shading) as well as the use of no colour and complex (and no shading) lines and variations thereof* make me feel small as a photographer. Wonder if the Eastern Cape ever had a photographer who could match their stature and vision. Doubt it.

My point is at a tangent to this. If you aspire to be a good photographer you have to know what a good picture is and this should go across the art genres. If you want to be a good surf photographer you have to know what a good surf picture is. You need to look at the local magazine and the international ones and you will discover that they have one thing in common – excellent images. If you don’t know what makes a good image how can you create great images? You also need to look outside your area of specialisation – a bird photographer can benefit from looking at what a sport photographer captures (and vice-versa). It is not a giant leap to realise that all artists benefit from this and that it might be an idea to immerse yourself in all art across all the genres and learn from it.

So where do you find art? You find it in galleries, on walls and on most printed materials. Keep your eyes open and learn from the images you see. You find art (in its photographic form) on walls, galleries, websites etc and especially specialised libraries that support educational institutions that offer photography (and other art) as study fields. I don’t know all the names of great photographers but they range from Ansel Adams to Zybeigo Zorbas (not sure who is last or first actually) and you would benefit from seeing their work. In fact I have no hesitation in saying that by seeing other art your art would improve! Actually we all benefit from seeing creativity – go to Nieu Bethesda and see outsider art, go to any new or old building and see whether it is art. Go look at children’s drawings and graffiti – just go look at anything and learn with your eyes!

Incidentally what I am preaching about is called visual literacy. I really enjoyed the two paintings I photographed and the cropped image above is from a larger work by Walter Battis. I love its simple lines, shapes and colours. I am sure I will benefit from it in future.

* disclaimer – I don’t really know much about art, its techniques and whatever in a formal way nor do I know the language in which art is communicated but I know what I like (and do not like – which is also important).

 

One of the mysteries if life is when people and myself get confused about the obvious. I was taking pictures at a glorious sunrise (a special event, I am more suited to sunsets) with a group of facebook friends. Facebook friends are special by the way, there are many and I just make a note on my site saying “sunrise at 06h30 at the Pier – be there!” and hey presto I am not alone. It is nice not being alone, there is someone to talk to apart from myself and, like a surfer welcoming another surfer in the water using the theory that he has improved his odds by 50% of not being eaten by a shark, I have diminished my odds of being mugged by at least 80%.

Being with a group also means self confidence; you see others taking pictures and you join in the creative moment. If the place chosen where you meet with was chosen well it also means that you are looking at something visually special to capture with your camera. It means sharing thoughts and information, if you are unsure of camera settings you can just ask and if you are unsure of what to photograph you can just stand back and look to see what the others are doing. Perhaps they are photographing the right thing or you can see the obvious that they have missed.

I am secure in the knowledge that all the pictures will always be different and unless you look for someone else’s tripod marks and happen to share the same equipment set on the same settings with the same filter and the front of your lens sharing the same amount of dirt at the same time as the other person, the pictures will be different! A lot of people worry about this copying aspect but really it does not happen. If you should see a magic image that will create income and fame for you by all means go back on your own later, I am sure I would do the same if it was really good.

The chat afterwards, just before we disperse, is important too. This is when you pick up what people think and what went wrong. Last time it became a debate in my head between tripods and the horizon. Someone mentioned that their tripod is clunky and cumbersome and that their horizons are mostly skew. Mine were too. I think I have owned about 14 tripods in my photographic career. They all gave skew horizons. Given these odds I am pretty sure that the fault does not lie with us or our tripods and the chances are excellent that the horizon is actually skew.

ps: I wonder what has happened to all my tripods over the years. I can hardly move in my study because of all the camera bags but the two working and one broken tripod are waiting to fall on me and try to break my legs. Where are the other 11? Is there a heaven they go to when they have injured or destroyed a certain quota of photographers lives or spirits?

pps: Anyone want to go take pictures over the weekend? Think the rain is over!