Missed photo shots!

Life is highly a dynamic thing full of photographic opportunities that will often be for most of it missed by those who are trying to register them. It is something that can be very frustrating to the photographers that spend his/her energy to get the best and most accurate picture following their own interpretation of this world.

Having a good sense of timing can be annoying for people who like to study first their subject before choosing the moment to immortalize it. The common key largely evoked in photo taking tutorials of any kind is "anticipation», the faculty to forecast and prevent the evolution of the event or the right expression-position-context of the main subject. Being prepare is not only a technical challenge but also an observing habit which basic curiosity play a big part.

A person mind is like a gigantic computer that register, select and classify discriminately the images and sounding (as for the others human senses) moments of our life at a fast pace. It can be done voluntarily or, for most of the time, unconsciously. That bank of picked images, empty at our birth, is constantly fulfilled during our entire life but may be subject to limitations especially with aging phenomena or by accident or sickness. With time passing by, we eventually all experimented these sorts of "broken hard disk" phenomena that are occulting specific moments previously memorized as our infancy and younger ages.

This is where photography is becoming a precious aid that make possible a greater, more accurate and longer life preservation of events and subjects, the famous "trace of light that survive a little further than the actual moment of flash". And all we want is to select our best moments to catch and reproduce on photographs. Translate our mind photographic selection into a "material" picture is not a natural task at first and it got its technical challenges. It has been already said that using a camera should an extension of our senses and abilities. So, holding and playing with your camera should a frequent habit if not constant!

Many of us are intimidated by holding a camera in many situations especially the social ones. And there are good reasons for that and one of those is the obvious fact that the person feels very insecure by the image registered in photo. And that insecurity is easily translated on these pictures. So, if you add insecurity on both sides of the camera, it results most of the time to a disappointing picture result. Confidence is a key factor to succeed in the iconographic quest. And confidence must be reciprocated and patiently experimented. Many professional models are in their private life very intimate people but in front of a camera, they literally transcend themself into an extrovert nature that fashion photographers succeed to translate onto their pictures.

There are many lessons to learn before taking a picture. It can be knowing your subject, creating a good and respectful contact, experiment different facets of it and extend the project to other photo opportunities. In my book the very technical photographic parameters cannot in any substitute the study of your subject. That is may be the paramount element that can prevent to miss a photo shot!

The vertical touch!

Foreword: It is true to say that I have a special commitment with "vertical" framing since my early 35mm analog photography times. I always found the "portrait" way of taking picture more dramatic, more incisive of the subject. Even with a traditional panoramic perspective in view, the question if the "vertical" should be a better picture rendering is always part in my mind.

It may be a cinematographic bias to have the habit to see our surrounding world into a panoramic view, i.e., horizontally framed. And we have a tendency to privilege "vertical" framing mainly for a portrait type composition. But selecting an "upper side" view as context photography is rarer to do and to share. Even doing systematically for a photo project with vertical frames can be difficult to present in terms of continuity or acceptability.

Explore the height is not a usual eye reflex except for some specific subjects like humans or urban buildings. But most of the time our view will be directed to a horizontal search or a panoramic scan. It can be a kind of ancestral behavior that has been implanted for survival purposes. Looking at the sky has been associated to the dreamers, the mystics or the oddly curious ones. Activities like writing for westerners is a highly horizontal exercise although some people are very good in diagonal paper reading!

What didn't really help those who are tempted to do vertical framing is the fact that many camera models are much more designed for a panoramic view. In the past we have seen specific cameras that privilege a vertical view but today those curiosities are sparse to find. So, doing vertical framing will ask you to perform some adaptations in the way you are taking pictures with your camera, especially holding it and interact with its interface. Some camera models will be more adaptable with the addition of an optional "vertical" grip although the combination camera/grip will be bulkier and heavier (and more noticeable from the subject!). In a common rule, we can observe that the compact cameras are easier for doing vertical framing (in flipping them on the spot) than the bigger cameras.

Subjects that can be vertical. I cannot no special limitation to select a vertical framing of a subject even-though that many teaching photographers would tell you the contrary especially for projects like landscapes and panoramic view attempts.

Subjects to explore vertically. All subjects can be vertically interpreted although some are more usually done like portrait, fashion, action close-up, etc. Some like urban architectures are now well represented and some others like landscapes have a less propension to be treated in the "upper" way. The question for the photographer is to ask herself/himself if it will be not interesting to try it.

Vertical contexts. Are there pictures taking situations more suited to a vertical view? Probably not because at the end it is only a photographer personal iconographic interpretation. It can be done in many ways during the photo taking session as for the post-treatment of the picture selected.

Vertical fragmentations. We already know and appreciate the work and the result of assembled pictures to get a panoramic view of the subject. The subject by itself may be decomposed in different part illustrated by a picture assembly. The same can be done vertically although it seems odd from the start, but the experimentation should conduct us to better understand the intrinsic nomenclature of a subject and its context and surrounding.

Reframing in post-edition. A vertical lecture of a horizontal picture is another option that a photographer may choose after a photo session. This was very popular during the analog photography era especially in using a square frame medium format camera. With a larger negative the drop-off image quality was staying on the minimal side. In fact, cropping a recorded image afterward will force you facing with some kind of picture resolution and definition lost that may result in a none-suitable final presentation for your taste. With high resolution digital sensors that phenomena will be less perceptible if not almost negligible.

Preferring a vertical (rectangular) framing for your image is, at the end, a personal creative choice. It can be more likely a photo taking bias insuring that way a stronger vertical interpretation of your subject on the spot and it assure you an optimum quality image recording. By pivoting our natural way of eye scanning the context and the detail of a subject, it destabilizes the looker and force him/her to pay a different attention to the picture with less filtering bias. It may be the reason that we are now seeing more and more vertical photos alongside with the smartphone popularity. It may the future standard, who knows?

Full psycho of the syndrome of the mania for the newest photo gear available!

What about 1973 or 1987 or 2004 or 2021? Are they special years in my entire life of spending (a lot of) money on photographic gear from the cheapest to the expensive ones? And when that race of flavors will be ended by my own incapacity to take pictures?

What has been a story of ambiguity and unbalanced passion in getting and trying something else to do photography? Because did I really know or not what I was doing with all these iconographic devices named under fantastic names from every foreign language even from some nonexistent ones! Should I really try to enumerate them or should better be to forget all these material ephemera pieces of past uncommon human genius.

The big question is for what higher purpose do we need to substitute our successful equipment for the newest one. Surely the taste of the day may play an important role. Curiosity is another factor and our love to look over the fence and see a brighter landscape. The there is also all these influential people that promote all these novelties with the implicit complicity of the manufacturers or simply because they want to be ahead of everyone.

Lately I was struck by the futility of always changing for something, let say honestly, that will allow us the same level of artistic or documentary satisfaction or may be worse ask us to do again an apprentice for devices not really more technically appealing. At the end we are facing very consuming habit just for the desire to own something that will be replace in a short future by another one. What is the use to do so again and again? Do we have learned something regarding this futile material behavior.

Hopefully, may be because of the pandemic, although it has started a bit before, there a recent trend to go back to basic photographic good, reliable and still performing photographic gear that are fulfilling nicely our photographic task with a much lesser price in term of money and in term of spending time for their learning curve of use. You can consult over the Web some interesting articles or posts about less recent camera models or lenses that their respectable authors are sharing and are still proving their pertinence.

What lessons we can retain from the race for the photographic latest gear acquisition mania. May be that, for some, they cannot prevent the appeal to switch for the newest of the newest. For many others, that material rush doesn't seem to be a logical way of doing photography because of the more importance to master the medium by themself and doing their own technical artistic choice over the inside camera computer internal algorithmic.

At the end it is a matter of needs, tastes and ... money!

Light poles (... in Canadian winter!)

Going outside during the winter season is not popular among every people that don't really appreciate the cold and frosty feeling on their face. If you are living in a more urban area, it seems that the cold level perception is much higher may be because you are a little bit more habit to a warm inside way of life.

So, going outside will require you to be better accordingly clothed for preventing the obvious discomfort and the frost bite dangers. But winter is also a wonderful season of light mainly because of the lower angle of the sun during the shorter day period of time. Just be beware about your in-camera battery shorter life and bring with you some extras.

This series has been taken in Montreal near the Rockland Road overpass

A race that never stop!

On the contrary of we may have thought last year (2020), the manufacturers of photo equipment have been very active not only to consolidate their infrastructures and operations but also by offering a surprising high level of new products. The fact that the traditional photo market has been more limited and definite than the passing years before can have helped a lot.

Photography have generated a nice niche consumer market during the past decades (and centuries!). Oppose to the habitual mass market concept, a narrowed specialized consumer base deeply simplifies the technical and marketing challenges with specific needs and constraints and the traditional photo equipment market have learned its lessons about the numerous attempts (and failures) to overpass this simple fact.

The rich, the poor and the maniac are may be the real segmentations that characterize the photo gear market base. The rich composed from professional and wealthy people, the poor that are ranging from the newcomers and the modest wallet persons, and the maniacs made of enthusiasms and aficionados of the domain. The task for the manufacturers is to fulfill a part or the complete spectrum of this market which represent millions of potential sales because it is a "large" niche market after all!

There is no certitude for anybody, big or small, into any consumer market. Photo equipment market cannot escape that constatation. From a very strong position, you as a manufacturer may move to a much more fragile state in a short period of time and past examples are numerous and dolorous. The best ideas, the better concepts, the finest products are not a full guaranty to success or longevity. Even a trademark name may not be sufficient to survive.

Reviews from last year (2020) activities about photo gear announcements and product introductions have presented you their own choices of the more significant novelties. These preferential listing are often incomplete and a personal interpretation of a real overview of the photo gear market in term of importance in view of a more global analysis. What we have seen during these twelve past months is a surprising resilience from manufacturers to survive, regroup and progress in spite of a very disturbing media climate. Already forecasted programs have been rearranged to face the new challenge of the pandemic input shortages difficulties. Moreover, manufacturers have accelerated the rationalization of their production plants. And some players finally decided to exit may be faster the market.

In the whole, Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm, Panasonic, Leica and the non-mentioned others, are still in activity and are not certainly going to throw the towel in a short term. Although they will play their cards differently, their maintaining market presence is the best reassurance that the consumers can ask for the moment. For a specific product or line of products from each of them, we cannot predict a specific continuity, but for the trend, we can be reassured of an active future. Yes, that race is still on the go and promising!

All pictures from CIPA - Camera & Imaging Products Association.