North America | Fotoeins Fotografie

Posts from the ‘North America’ category

On the camera full-frame, another ten-thousand framed

24 October 2014.

With nine months (Jan-Oct 2014) under the belt, I’ve set a new mark with my tech-friend. I’ve made good progress to “flip” (or reset) the four-digit image-number counter for the first time: I’ve clicked away on the 10000th frame on the Canon 6D.

10-K on the 6-D

It’s a bright fall afternoon in the greater Vancouver area. Conditions are breezy and overcast; the cloud ceiling is high but not very thick. With excellent transparency in the air, the light is diffuse, providing softer contrasts between highlights and shadows.

I’m in New Westminster for the opening night of my neighbour’s art exhibition. Before the doors open to the exhibition, I have some time to hang out along the Fraser River at Westminster Pier Park.

Windsocks appear like fingers against the cable-stays of the Translink SkyBridge over the Fraser River, as a scheduled automated train crosses over from New Westminster (left) to Surrey (right). The train is at right angles with the tall north tower of the Skybridge, and the Skybridge deck is just tangent with the yellow curved arch of the Pattullo Bridge behind.

Looking through the camera viewfinder, I shuffle back and forth, getting ready for the shot I want. I wait for the right moment. When I see all of the details come together, I press the shutter button.

Over time, I’ve developed a sense for simply more than documenting the moment. I’m folding in a sense of place, a sense of the situation, that the stream of time can be held (frozen) for a tiny moment in a remarkable confluence of disparate elements.

Skybridge, Pattullo Bridge, Westminster Pier Park, New Westminster, BC, Canada, fotoeins.com

“Breezy autumn pluck at the right angle”

I made the photo above on 24 October 2014 with the Canon 6D camera and EF 24-105 L-lens with the following settings: 1/160s, f/10, ISO500, 105mm focal length. I clicked away over 75000 exposures with my previous Canon 450D camera over a period of five years. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotopress at fotoeins.com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-613.

Yaletown, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 26 Oct 2014, fotoeins.com

What about now? How about now?

I think I’ve struck a nugget of gold.

I also believe the chances of finding it again might well be slim to none …

Jean François Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz, wrote in the 17th-century:

Il n’y a rien dans ce monde qui n’ait un moment decisif. (There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.)

Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson used this quote for the preface of his 1952 book “Images à la sauvette” (The Decisive Moment). That phrase has been described in great detail and (mis)interpreted over the years, undoubtedly adding only to the legend and his place in the history of photography. With his landmark photograph “Derrière la gare Saint-Lazare” (Paris 1932), Cartier-Bresson described moments like these as:

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which give that event its proper expression. (Photographier: c’est dans un même instant et en une fraction de seconde reconnaître un fait et l’organisation rigoureuse de formes perçues visuellement qui expriment et signifient ce fait.)

What does any of this have to do with the photo above? Everything.

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"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope" : Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, National Mall, Washington, DC, USA, fotoeins.com

Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial: symbol of hope & inspiration

Martin Luther King Jr. is honoured in the United States annually on the third Monday in January. Since 2011, a memorial to the civil-rights leader resides as one of many parks and memorials in the US national capital (District of Columbia). A walk through the trees and lawns of the Mall slowly reveals a magnificent sight on approach, and leaves you breathless in front of the statue, standing tall in solid white granite.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

We must rapidly begin the shift from a `thing-oriented’ society to a `person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

Standing proudly and steadfast, the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial is seen above with the Washington Monument to the right in the background.

I made this photo on 19 April 2012 during my year-long RTW. This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-6qa.

Fotoeins’ Fotograms: 14 for 14, in 2014 (IG)

At the end of 2013, I listed my 13 instants for the year. I continue to be fascinated by how we look at the world in square format in contrast with 4-by-3 or 3-by-2 formats. It’s not exactly the throwback to a distant past with square photographic plates, but the same physical and photographic principles regarding central symmetry apply. Here are 14 ‘fotograms’ from 2014, including a new 6D, watching my father die, and a return ‘home’ to Deutschland.

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Seawall, Stanley Park, Burrard Inlet, Salish Sea, Vancouver, BC, Canada, fotoeins.com

My progress with Canon, from 450D to 6D

Above/featured: Along Vancouver’s Seawall to a partly obscured Lions Gate Bridge – 17 Jan 2014.

I skipped a step, as I’ve moved from a triple-digit camera model to a single-digit model.

For over five years, I owned an entry-level Canon DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera. Carrying the EOS 450D (XSi) along for the ride, I traveled over one million miles in the air and I made over 75000 exposures.

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