Pucker up for Valentines day!

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daniel d. teoli jr, Hollywood, infrared flash, Pucker up!, selfie culture, selfie nation

Infrared flash photo – Hollywood street selfie. (Candid)

When it comes to color prints, you never, ever display your original irreplaceable color photos for long periods. They are just meant to be taken out and looked at once in a while. You display color copy facsimiles, not the originals.

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Article Dedication

In honor of

Condé Nast & Mathew Brady

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Over at the APUG forum a photog mentioned how he was working on a corporate photo collection and much of the color work had faded away over the decades. Well, the APUG bozos banned me, so I will have to answer it here.

When it comes to color prints, you never, ever display your original irreplaceable color photos for long periods. They are just meant to taken out and looked at once in a while. You display color copy facsimiles, not the originals. All these expensive color prints collectors buy will fade badly if they are kept on constant display. And as the expensive color collector photos fade badly they will become more worthless over time.

The finest pigment inkjet prints wont fade in direct sun exposure for a year or more. But, give them 1-1/2 or 2 years of sun and they will start to fade a little. Now, if they are kept in dark storage then the prints should last for centuries.

Eastman Kodak Dye Transfer prints will start to fade in a few months of direct sunlight. They are the worst color imaging media out there other than some Type C color paper Freestyle used to sell in the ’70s…it fades away in dark storage. The best Type C paper I’ve tested is Fuji Crystal Archive. It is almost on par with pigmented inkjet prints, but is not as good as the best inkjet prints for dye stability.

One camera fondler on the APUG forum claimed that dye transfer prints were the best for archival stability. Dye transfer prints are one of the worst color imaging media for archival dye stability. Yet, I’ve seen dye transfer prints going back to the 1950’s (and one much earlier vintage example online) that were still vibrant…but they were in dark storage for most of that time.

What follows is taken in-part from my  book: Dye Stability Testing of Color Imaging Media Edition II by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

Homage to Weegee – Cigarette Caught in Mid Flight ~ Hollywood, CA 1974

The image pictured above is from a scan of an 8 x 10 work print made in 1974 that was supposed to be trashed. The work print escaped the trash can by mistake and somehow survived 38 years hidden from sight as a bookmark.

The original negative to the image as well as any final silver gelatin prints I had made were all lost in a flood. So the work print was all I had to work with to recover the image.

When I found the work print I was able to get a usable digital image from scanning it and some Lightroom adjustments. But the original work print was of poor quality and had mottled shadows and blacks….that was why is was headed for the trash can.

Many digital photographers I talk with tell me they seldom make prints. They just view their work on the monitor or on digital photo frames. This ‘no prints required’ method is one of the benefits digital photography can provide us.

But, this benefit would also work against the digital photographer if they would ever lose their digital masters. The lack of a physical negative / chrome is one of the shortcomings of digital imaging when it comes to preservation. But, we can come close to the benefit of film with a 4 x 6 (or optimally a letter size) master print.

With a high grade scan of our master print we can always recover 90% of the original image if we would ever lose our digital or film master. The master print for the digital photographer is what the physical negative is for the film photographer.

Here are a few of my photos that were lost in a 2001 flood. The only reason I can show you these is that I had some small 2 x 4 to 3.5 x 5 inch snapshot prints of them stored at my mom’s house. I was able to recover something with a scan of the prints.

When scans are done correctly, they can yield excellent results.

The above photos show a scan of an original Eastman Kodak dye transfer print. I then made a second generation inkjet print from the scan of the dye transfer print.

I married the original dye transfer print and the second generation inkjet print and scanned them to show comparison results. I didn’t use a high priced scanner or printer to do the tests. I used a consumer model Canon printer from Wal-Mart costing about $80 and a $200 Epson scanner.

Now, no scan is as good as the original. But, you can see for yourself, it is hard to tell which is the original dye transfer scan and which is the scan of inkjet copy print made from the dye transfer print.

Top Photograph – Dye Transfer original is on the bottom half.

Bottom Photograph – Dye Transfer original print is on the right side.

This test tells us 2 things:

1) Scans can recover about 90% of the image quality from an original.

2) Inkjet printers can equal or surpass Eastman Kodak’s dye transfer process when it comes to image quality. (In addition, dye stability tests I’ve run show pigmented inkjet prints will outlast an Eastman Kodak dye transfer print when it comes to dye stability by leaps and bounds.)

For the dye stability tests photos in this post,  I cut or masked the media in half. One half of the media was put in sunlight for 6 months. The other half was stored in total darkness. After 6 months of sun, the 2 halves were married and scanned. The half exposed to the sun was marked with an ‘S’. The half stored in the dark was marked with a ‘D’.

Below: Eastman Kodak Dye Transfer Print fade test of vintage 1954 prints.

Test results show Eastman Kodak’s dye transfer prints to have very poor dye stability when exposed to light. Dye transfer prints will start to show notable fading in just 2 to 3 months of exposure to sunlight. But they do have very good good dark storage dye stability. As best as I could tell, the vintage dye transfer prints used in this test showed no noticeable fading in 65 years of dark storage.

I’ve fade tested vintage dye transfer prints from 1950’s to 1970’s and the test results are the same…very  poor dye stability to light.  I don’t do bullshit estimates either. I do actual fade tests as taught to me by the master dye transfer printer Bob Pace whom I worked with in Hollywood, CA in the 1970’s.

The oldest know dye transfer I’ve come across is a pre-commercial production piece about 80 years old and still looked good. But when it comes to dye stability, the king is the pigmented ink jet and laser print, possibly surpassed only by the old Cibachrome prints. Bob Pace had some old Cibachromes in his lab’s display window. The emulsion was all cracked up from the sun – but the colors were still vibrant.

Dye transfer prints shown are by: Dean Child, US Color Print Portland, OR

Below is a metal print on aluminum, something that is very popular nowadays.  The sky faded a good deal after 6 month of sun.

Below is an Epson inkjet print exposed to 1 year of sun with no noticeable fading. I use a lot of gloss optimizer in my printing and wondered about its archival characteristics. I decided on giving Epson’s gloss optimizer a 1 year sun stress test, not 6 months.

Here is a quick shot of the test results with my P&S Sony.

After the 1 year test period was over I married the 2 halves for comparison. The black lines show the edges where the gloss optimizer extends. One year of sun produced no change to the gloss optimizer that could be seen with the eye. The results area also a testimony to Epson’s Ultrachrome archival pigment based ink.

Here is the original digital file.

The point of fade testing is to show you that different media has different dye stability. So choose a media that is fade resistance for your master prints.

Additional color imaging media fade tests:

http://fadetesting.tumblr.com/

The Zone System is dead!

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daniel d. teoli jr, infrared flash, infrared photography, Johhny Patience, Piercing New York, street photography, The Sunlit Slipper, The Zone System is dead

The Zone System is dead.  Well, that was what one guy posted at his blog.

http://www.johnnypatience.com/the-zone-system-is-dead/

Zone system is not dead. At least not for the anal landscapers and still life shooters. I don’t think Ansel and Fred would have approved of all the darkroom masturbation Johnny Patience does with his film. But, Ansel was an anal tripod shooter for the most part, whereas Johnny is mainly a street shooter. So lets be clear…one tool does not always work for all jobs.

Now, with my street and doc work the zone system was seldom of much use to me. I didn’t have time to do much thinking as I was chasing this guy down a dark alley for a photo in 1971.

The anal photogs are used to working with pretty perfect files and trying their anal best to get it perfect in-cam. Whereas street / documentary photographers are used to working with imperfect files and making something great out of it.

Infrared flash photo – New York 2016 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/04/mike-busey-one-of-a-kind/

With fast shooting or even slow shooting, we are not always able to get the exposure or composition right in the camera. Cropping and post processing can make or break a photo. In my case, almost all my photos are cropped and the vast majority of them can be improved with post processing.

The Sunlit Slipper

This shows what 2.5 hours of Lightroom can do for a pix. I shot it in the early 1970’s when I was 19 in Hollywood, CA. The only light was the window. I had a tripod and beat up SWC and that was it. The Sunlit Slipper never amounted to much from my wet print days. Digital revealed what was hiding in the neg all those years.

Selection from De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Redlight District artist’s book

Here is an example of push processing an image. The gal was pushed 2 to 2.5 stops. The guys head was pushed 4 to 4.5 stops. Normally a photo pushed this much would be trash for me. But, shooting in Amsterdam’s Red Light District is forbidden, so I have to allow for a wider net of acceptable quality under the circumstances.

My landmark book De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Redlight District was shot in 5 days. That was all limited budget allowed for.

http://dewallenrld.tumblr.com/

Infrared flash photo series from Piercing Darkness artists’ book by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/piercing-darkness-update/

One of the problems with IR flash at night is most of the time you are dependent on flash for 100% of the light. The little ambient light that is available gets lost with IR. You can see the fall-off in the shot above; the foreground was pulled 1.5 stops the background was pushed 3 to 4 stops.

When I shot Captain of Wall Street 90014 all I had for light was the window and one bare bulb on the ceiling. While this photo did not need cropping, it did require lots of post processing to make it doable.

Shooting into the sun made it a hard one to develop – this is the 21st version.

That is how it usually goes for candid street work. You can’t pick and choose your lighting. (Unless your one of the modern day ‘street posers’ that try to pass off staged work as candid street photography.) With fast street shooting – you turn left it is one exposure, turn right it is another. We have to split the difference many times.

BTW…‘Order Women like Pizza’ is the world record for how close you can get shooting a candid with a digital rangefinder….less than a foot!. (I got candids going down to 2 or 3 inches from the subject, but, I liked this one best.)

Homage to Weegee 2012

Again, shooting into the sun has to be balanced the best you can do in post.

When you do street or doc work, if you come back with 70% to 80% of what you were after, you can still have a winner. We just try and do the best we can…in the blink of an eye it can be gone. No time to even say ‘zone system’ many a time.

Further Reading:

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/05/17/the-best-picture-rings-with-the-eye-as-the-right-chord-rings-with-the-ear/

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Would you ever pay a person to take their photo?

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10 Minutes Past Midnight, 180 the circular fisheye at large, 1970's los angeles, artists' book, available light photography, bikers mardi gras, Bottom line...a photo is either honest or it is a phony - paying money for access has nothing to do with it., chiaroscuro, children of weegee, circular fisheye, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, decisive moment, documentary photography, fisheye, getting access, I could have been an asshole - squatted down - shot him and walked off without a payment. But is it worth being an asshole for a lousy buck?, I find more and more people are requesting $ for photo access., I grabbed a quick candid shot while walking by., I'd pay if I want access to shoot a person if they wont give me photo access for free., I've had to pay a few people for access, In many cases good photojournalism comes down to who’s got the best fixer., infrared flash, Is the photo less honest over a lousy buck??, Many people are having a tough time getting by in today's high priced world and a little extra money helps buy some essentials., Many people are having a tough time getting by in today's high priced world., Minor White, night photography, social documentary photography, street photography, street portrait, Sure, Susan Meiselas, Teoli, This homeless guy was selling a candy car someone gave him., Underground Social Documentary Photography, weegee, When it come time for all the sunset and burning steel wool photogs to demand money for their generic crap they MUST be paid.

Article Dedication

In honor of

Minor White & Susan Meiselas

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Would you ever pay a person to take their photo?

That was a question posed on one of the online blogs. They were not talking about hiring models for commercial shoots, they were referring to documentary photography or street photos.

I find more and more people are requesting $ for photo access. Many people are having a tough time getting by in today’s high priced world and a little extra money helps buy some essentials.

In the Shadow of City Hall – Homeless tent encampment Los Angeles 2015

(…shot through my windshield, unfarmed, while driving to the airport.)

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/richard-gere-and-the-homeless-prank/

With my own work, the general rules I use are:

1. I try to shoot candid photos.
2. If I can’t shoot candid, then shoot posed.
3. If I shoot posed and they don’t ask for $, I don’t offer.
4. If they request money and I want to shoot them then pay them something or pass on the shot.

I gave this guy a buck cause I liked his sign. I could have got the photo candid while walking by, but it would not look the same, so I paid. If I wanted this style of shot, I could have been an asshole, squatted down, shot him and walked off without a payment. But is it worth being an asshole over a lousy buck? Is the photo less honest over a lousy buck??

(BTW, he had a set of different signs. If one sign was not producing he would pull out another sign.)

The homeless guy below was trying to sell a candy bar. I grabbed a quick candid shot while walking by. I didn’t buy the candy bar or give him any money.

Infrared flash photo

People know the photog ‘needs subjects’ so they can successfully press the button if they specialize in documenting the human condition. So, if the photog needs a subject, it is not out of the question that the person wants something in return for their time.

Back in the 70’s photography was esoteric…now a toddler can do it…even a monkey can do it! I still approach people to let me into their houses to document them, but I very, very seldom get any takers. Nowadays everyone has a cell phone cam and a inkjet printer from Wal-Mart. I’m effectively shut down. They are self-sufficient and don’t need me.

Sure, I’d pay if I want access to shoot a person if they wont give me photo access for free.  Seems to me if a subject requests money for access and the photog does not want to pay, the photog is trying to exploit the subject by getting around a honorarium request.

Eve Arnold paid $1000 in the late 1959 for access in shooting her black Muslim project. ($1000 in 1959 is = to about $8,000 nowadays.)

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970204257504577150641295316770

Bottom line…a photo is either honest or it is a phony – paying money for access has nothing to do with it. If you like the subject that much, pay them. If they are not that interesting to you, don’t pay them.

Thomas Dworzak sums things up…

“In many cases good photojournalism comes down to who’s got the best fixer.” 

And fixers don’t work for free. I’ve had to pay a few people for access. Other times even money wont gain access. When I first met Barbara LeMay in the 1973  I paid her $20 for photo access. She lived in Hollywood and worked at various business ventures from modeling to sewing for strippers to adult entertainment. Her body was part of her livelihood. Should I have been an anally principled photog and told her, “No Barbara it is against my principals to pay you for your time. You cannot eat off me or pay your rent.”

Yet, when it come time for all the sunset and burning steel wool photogs to demand money for their generic crap they MUST be paid.

 

This next shoot did not require any $…she was happy to get some free photos.

When I did this next project I had 5 days to make a book. No time to screw around.

http://dewallenrld.tumblr.com/

I would be fooling myself to think I can go to a strange city for 5 days and make friends with prostitutes to let me have photo access to shoot them for free. Just not going to happen…esp as a male. Maybe women can make friends over time with prostitutes – but males are always looked at as customers.

I tried paying 40 to 50 girls for 5 -10 minutes of time. The few that did accept a pay for access offer ended up cheating me. So I put my highly honed doc skills to work, left the money and aggravation out of the equation and just took candid pix. That suits me fine, I’m not really a people person when it comes to interactions anyway. I’m more like Cartier-Bresson…I just like to press the button and stick to candid street photography which I excel at.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/11/16/shooting-from-the-hip/

Same with this project…I only had a few hours to shoot the photos for an entire book project. Since I am a fast shooter and highly skilled at documentary photography, I was able to finish the principal photography for the book in 4-1/2 hours…but I had to pay for access.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/10/21/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-drag-queen/

If I did not offer an honorarium, I doubt whether I would have received any interest in the project. Over a 6 week period of advertising for a subject I received 21 applications for the project. As things progressed, 20 out of 21 eventually flaked out. That is pretty pitiful reliability odds for booking a $2500 dollar trip to L.A.

If my last person had flaked out I would have had nothing to show for that trip…if it was a single project trip. But having nearly 50 years shooting social doc work I know how people are. I had scheduled to shoot for 6 book projects during my L.A. trip. Even if one or two projects were a bust I would still have something to show for my investment.

Pay to play is nothing new for photogs. I read a bird photog had to pay thousands of $ for boat charters and chum bait over a couple week birding trip. While the birds didn’t require a direct payment of $, they still required food to cooperate.

I had to pay nearly $200 for access to get these shots. The people didn’t charge me any $…the $200 was for a  ticket to get in. (Plus I lost close to a thousand dollars from broken and damaged gear.)

These gals make a living out of tips. I gave them a ‘fiver’ to hold still for me for a few seconds. Should I have tried to beat them out of their livelihood?

Sure, I could have got something candid, but every shot cannot be perfected or even obtained as a candid. Now, I do more than my share of candid work sans payments. Shooting candid is not a problem for me. I hold the world record for how close a photog can get to a subject and still shoot a candid.

The candid shot below was less than a foot away…and I have them going down to 2 or 3 inches away from the subject…all candid.

Order Women Like Pizza – 2014

But candid photos cannot always perfect the situation. So sometimes cooperation is needed from the subject and a little money can many time buy cooperation.

These gals from Brussels were on a Hen Party in Amsterdam. They wanted 10 Euros for a pix. I told them I was not going to pay any $, but I did offer to put one of my stickers on the bride elect…Pole Dancer of Ross County. They wanted 5 Euros for the sticker placement. When I told them no, they accepted the sticker for free on the brides stomach.

Pole Dancer of Ross County

If you cameras fondlers are caught shooting a person and they come up to you and ask for a few bucks, just give them something. You took something from them…they helped you out being your model…now you help them out. If they ask for $, don’t offer to email them a pix of themselves. That is not what they want. If you don’t want to pay, apologize and offer to delete out of courtesy to them.

A gal in Hollywood died over this exact same scenario I am telling you here. She took a pix, refused to pay a $1 tip and got stabbed to death. (I read elsewhere she may have mouthed off and the argument escalated. Don’t add fuel to the fire, delete, apologize, be courteous and keep your mouth shut. Beside guns and knives, ‘mouths’ are another big killer of people.)

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/19/local/la-me-0620-hollywood-killing-20130620

Here is the Hierarchy of Documentary Photography, which I have developed.

1. Candid events unfolding as they happen.

This is the most desirable of the hierarchy. It takes special talent to take photos candid. Candid street photography is what separates the men from the boys.

2. If it cannot be perfected or obtained as a candid, then the photo must be posed.

If I did resort to asking a person for the shot, would it be any less real or honest? Well, maybe not as real as an ‘off the cuff, natural moment,’ but it would still be real and factual. What about if they asked me for a couple of bucks to let me shoot them? Any less honest? No…I just had to pay an access fee.

3. If it cannot be perfected or obtained as a posed photo, then it must be staged with the proviso it is a recreation of past events, preferably with the actual persons reenacting the events.

4. Figments of the imagination. Varies in documentary value.  Can be based on pure speculation or a recount of events.

Now, hierarchy or not, there are certain shots that I wont recreate as it misses the whole point of getting the shot.

For instance, one of my projects is shooting candid photos of people yawning.

10 Minutes Past Midnight – 2016 Infrared flash photo

The other day I saw a busker in diapers and a bib. He opened up with a nice big yawn. I would have loved to add that one to my collection, but just could not get close enough to get the shot in time.  I would never ask him to recreate the yawn for a staged pix with or without a payment. My yawn project is based on getting candid yawns and not in staging phony shots. I just had to suck it up and accept…I can’t get em all.

Further reading…

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/10/15/the-americans-60-years-after-frank-what-it-is-and-what-it-isn’t/

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/07/27/self-defense-for-the-street-photographer/

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Photos used for illustration in this post are from the following limited edition artist books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

The Americans…60 years after Frank

Peephole: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A.

Encyclopedia of Photographic & Fine Art Ink Jet- Printing Media -12 Volume Set

De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Red Light District

Whoop-Whoop

180: The circular fisheye at large!

Secrets of Candid Photography

Piercing Darkness

Gender Benders from the 1970’s

I’m bored with photography…

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'Hey...look at me, A good project gives a photog direction and purpose. Many great photogs are known for landmark projects they have done., A project gives a photog direction and purpose., All you need is love, artists' block, boredom, children of weegee, creativity, daniel d. teoli jr, documentary photography, Film is hard to compete with digital in our instant world., Frank Tartaro, Frank Tartaro & Bob Pace, Garden variety camera fondler photos, He doesn't have to necessarily produce anything worthwhile, he just has to find happiness in the process itself, he wasn't shooting much, Here is a listing of some of the projects I've done or am working on..., Hey...look at me I shoot manual, How is there any time to be bored?, I an not into the process, I can afford wasting time shooting stuff that will go nowhere-just no time to fool around., I have a number of projects that I shoot ‘off the cuff’ to keep me pressing the button through dry spells., I just want the iconic photo and will go to any means to get it., I shoot film, I'd advise any bored photog to find a project and devote themselves to it., I'm giving up photography., If I wanted to shoot the garden variety camera fondler photos on the photo forums I could shoot day and night 7 days a week., infrared flash, infrared flash photo, infrared flash photography, infrared weegee, ir flash photography, It is good practice for fast shooting., lost my mojo, Many great photogs are known for landmark projects they have done., maybe a roll of film every few months and was losing interest in photography., not the result., Off the cuff, oriental children, piercing darkness, piercing darkness artists' book, Seldom did I see AYTHING great come out of that forum., Seldom did I see AYTHING great ever come out of the APUG forum., Smokers and Sleepers, social documentary photography, Street photography is like fishing - you can put in the time and still not reel anything in., The film fondlers were in love with the process, They are something you would find on your average photo forum and nothing special., Two Greats from the Dye Transfer Printing Era., weegee, yoshiyuki

Article Dedication

in Honor of

Frank Tartaro & Bob Pace

Two Greats from the Dye Transfer Printing Era.

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I’m bored with photography…

That was what a film shooting, photo forum member posted a while back. He said he wasn’t shooting much, maybe a roll of film every few months and was losing interest in photography. It is hard for film to compete with digital in our instant world.  I’m an old film photog from the 1960’s and shot film for many, many decades. But I am not into ‘the process’ for jollies…I just want the iconic photo brought in by the best and easiest means possible.

I used to be on the APUG film forum until they threw me out. Seldom did I see AYTHING great ever come out of that forum. The film fondlers were in love with the process, not the result.  Since this bored photog does not produce anything worthwhile, he has to put his pride in saying ‘Hey…look at me, I shoot film.’ (The camera fondling digital photogs are not left out of the ego battle even if they don’t shoot film. Their chant…‘Hey…look at me, I shoot manual!)

The bored photogs problem is that he has no reason to shoot. You can only get so much satisfaction in saying ‘I shoot film.’ Especially if your reality is; you seldom do shoot film. It does not matter if you shoot film or digital,  having a great project is very important to the photog. A project gives a photog direction and purpose. A project can showcase the photogs talents. Many great photogs are known for landmark projects they have done. I’d advise any bored photogs to find a project and devote themselves to it.

In my own photo life I seldom shoot anymore unless it IS for a project or to put a shot into a institutional collection or my portfolio. I can’t afford wasting time shooting stuff that will go nowhere, just no time to fool around. Even if I stopped taking photos today I have 3+ years of photos I have not even looked through yet and tons of artist’s books to finish.

A complete list of artist’s books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr…

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/artists-books-by-daniel-d-teoli-jr-2/

My photo problem is not boredom, it is the opposite. Too many projects and a lack of time. If I wanted to shoot the garden variety, camera fondler photos, like they have on the photo forums, I could shoot day and night 7 days a week. So, how is there any time to be bored when it comes to photography?

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Street photography is like fishing – you can put in the time and still not reel anything in. So, I have a number of projects that I shoot ‘off the cuff’ to keep me pressing the button through dry spells.

A little known book, Smokers and Sleepers.was done something along these lines.

http://www.amazon.com/Smokers-Sleepers-Photographs-Mallmann-Catalogs/dp/093290002X

One of my boredom projects is shooting people while yawning…candid. It is good practice for fast shooting…a yawn does not last very long.

Shot with infrared flash.

Only problem is people yawning seem hard to come by. Kissing is another area that can produce some nice photo ops while on the street.

…I’m not that fussy about what they are kissing either…

People pointing is another good subject for fast shooting.

I have lots of pointing pix, but don’t want to put them in here.  I don’t want to sign my name to them online since they will dilute my portfolio of good work. They are something you would find on your average photo forum and nothing special. I shoot em for fast shooting practice and out of boredom.

Further reading:

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/if-your-serious-about-getting-ahead-only-have-your-best-work-connected-with-your-name/

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From Girls of the Beat Generation

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/girls-of-the-beat-generation-artists-book/

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The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!

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archival permanence, archival studies, artists' book, available light photography, chiaroscuro, children of weegee, curator, d.teoli, Dan Teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, decisive moment, documentary photography, dye stability, dye stabiltiy of color imaging media, Fuji Crystal Archive color print fade test., Hollywood, infrared flash, infrared flash street photography, los angeles, museum studies, night photography, presenting photography to curators and museums, preservtion, Pucker up!, social documentary photography, street photography, The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!

Article Dedication

In honor of

Robert Crumb & Justin ‘Binky Brown’ Green

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From the Large Format forum…

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 Bill1856 wrote:

The Most Photographed Generation Will Have No Pictures in 10 Years!

Cameras.

They’re everywhere. In your phone, on your tablet, you have your point-n-shoot, and maybe even a DSLR. A few might even own a film camera. You can’t escape the selfies, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. People are deluged with photographs. And today, people are taking more pictures than ever before. It’s been estimated that in the past 5 years, more photos have been taken than all the prior years combined.

The sad part is that few of these photographs will survive beyond a year. To many people, a “picture” is only good for the moment. Moms and Dads want to snap every little movement of that new baby. Grandma wants to see everyone one of those too. When you want to show off the new puppy, you pull out the phone. And in a week, none of them have any real meaning and might even get “deleted” just to make room for more pictures that have little meaning as well inside of a couple of weeks.

So what will become of all the pictures that are being taken today? Here is the reason that 99% of the photographs being taken today are soon going to be totally gone – digital images are no longer important enough to most people to actually keep them in printed form!

Yes, I started in a film only world. We bought a roll of film and took our vacation photographs. We had them developed and printed. They were put in photo albums or photo boxes. We looked at them and cherished those memories with great care. They were a slice of our life and for many, if disaster struck, those photographs were the one thing we would try to find first. Wedding albums and photographs represented our LIFE and we salvaged all we could.

It is estimated and less that 1 out of 100,000 photographs taken today actually ends up being a printed photograph. The digital world means you can look at those on some computer screen and without one, you have nothing. You probably have countless pictures that are just randomly stored and has no organization or way to locate them. Perhaps you have made some effort, but even that can seem overwhelming a task when you decide to tackle the task.

Add to this, over the years, the technology has changed so fast, that many photographs taken 6-7 years ago are stored on a type of media that is no longer supported. I have boxes of floppy discs and not even a computer that works to view them. In 5 years or less, your DVD is going to be obsolete as will your USB drives. File types are going to change as well. And the technology of tomorrow may not support these “older” file types.

Many today have older cell phones with countless pictures on them. Maybe you “shared” some on Facebook or Instagram or uploaded to your photo storage website. But none of these are “permanent” solutions to viewing your photos and sadly, many of your memories you captured today, aren’t going to be around tomorrow. So where is that old cellphone today? In a drawer someplace, your not sure where, but you know it’s around here somewhere!

There are also countless memory cards filled with photographs. Each of those represent a small slice of you or something that was a part of your life. Some are older and you have fewer options to view them as technology simply outpaces their usefulness. Does anyone remember the 256mb SD cards when today, a 4 gb is considered tiny?

Perhaps you go to a Professional Photographer and all you want is someone to “take some pictures and give us the disc”. After all, it IS a “digital world” and it shouldn’t cost you very much. You can “take them down to the 1 hr place” and get prints really cheap. No film. No prints from the lab needed to “see” them. So where are your discs today? Probably in that same drawer you haven’t found yet where that old cell phone is “lost” in. I doubt you have your DVD’s or old floppies on your wall! And when Mom asks if you have that adorable photo of your now 16 year old son or daughter- you know the one when they were 2- and you have to answer, I do, but I have to find it. “It’s on a diskŠsomeplaceŠI thinkŠ.maybe we still doŠhoney, where did we put that disk again?”.

In my home, you will find photographs. Real, honest to goodness prints. Nothing fancy in most cases and most are just plain snapshots of family at holidays, on vacation, or doing something silly or even important. These are the slices of our lives where we can open the old “self sticking” album and find out it no longer sticks. Where memories of our life unfolds before our eyes. We laugh. We cry. We tease each other. Our life is right there. It’s in that printed image that anyone can see. There is no wondering “if this file type is still supported” or does my “machine still have a DVD drive”. None of that is needed. Even the older, not quite as sharp as they used to be eyes can see them and feel the emotions of that instant in time as if it happened yesterday. These are the things we protect with everything we have should some disaster strike and the ones we start looking for first if it does. All of a sudden that $250 DeLonghi Coffee maker isn’t all that important. Nor is the fishing boat. Or the 72″ big screen TV with all the bells and whistles. It’s always the memories of our lives that become the thing we search for first.

So if you are part of this “digital revolution”, let me ask you- where are YOUR photographs? Stuck on some disc or stored out there is cyberspace someplace, hopefully, perhaps? Why didn’t you actually purchase that $500 canvas to display in your home that your Professional photographer worked so hard to produce for you? That was a “one of a kind” work of ART and an heirloom piece for your family to have and remember that little slice of their life. It is something that will be passed from generation to generation and the only visual way your heirs will see what you looked like and the love and emotions you expressed the instant that image was captured.

2025. You just found that DVD you had in that drawer you couldn’t remember which one it was. Along with 9 old cell phones that no longer will work with today’s new technology. Your 3 inch by 3 inch cube computer no longer has a DVD drive since in 2015 they were totally phased out. Your 3rd grandchild is sitting on your knee and asks to see pictures of their Mom- and all you have to show them is this piece of round plastic that is pretty much worthless. Not to mention dusty and scratched from all those old cellphones moving around every time you opened that drawer. And since Instagram had been merged with another company, and they started charging, you let that go 8 years ago.

I guess that makes you one of the “most photographed generation that doesn’t have a photograph in 10 years”. I guess it wasn’t that important then. Digital was cheap.
Cameras were everywhere. It just didn’t seem that important.

Lost memories are expensive.

Wilhelm (Sarasota)

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Infrared flash photo – Pucker up! (Candid) Hollywood Blvd street selfie 2015

from Piercing Darkness artists’ book.*

*Piercing Darkness (infrared flash photography) along with my project The Americans…60 years after Frank are under joint consideration for a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Well, Wilhelm makes a lot of valid points. Once a person loses their digital memories they may give their preservation more thought. I’ve lost over 2 decades of my photos and related artwork. But it was due to a flood and not digital impermanence.

What follows is taken in part from the chapter on Dye Stability Tests for Color Imaging Media from Volume 12 – Chapter 3 of the Encyclopedia of Photographic and Fine Art Ink Jet Printing Media by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

Homage to Weegee – Cigarette Caught in Mid Flight ~ Hollywood, CA 1974

The image pictured above is from a scan of an 8 x 10 work print made in 1974 that was supposed to be trashed. The work print escaped the trash can by mistake and somehow survived 38 years hidden from sight as a bookmark.

The original negative to the image as well as any final silver gelatin prints I had made were all lost in a flood. So the work print was all I had to work with to recover the image.

When I found the work print I was able to get a usable digital image from scanning it and some Lightroom adjustments. But the original work print was of poor quality and had mottled shadows and blacks….that was why is was headed for the trash can.

Many digital photographers I talk with tell me they seldom make prints. They just view their work on the monitor or on digital photo frames. This ‘no prints required’ method is one of the benefits digital photography can provide us.

But, this benefit would also work against the digital photographer if they would ever lose their digital masters. The lack of a physical negative / chrome is one of the shortcomings of digital imaging when it comes to preservation. But, we can come close to the benefit of film with a 4 x 6 (or optimally a letter size) master print.

With a high grade scan of our master print we can always recover 90% of the original image if we would ever lose our digital or film master. The master print for the digital photographer is what the physical negative is for the film photographer.

Here are a few of my photos that were lost in the flood. The only reason I can show you these is that I had some small 2 x 4 to 3.5 x 5 inch snapshot prints of them stored at my mom’s house. I was able to recover something with a scan of the prints.

When scans are done correctly, they can yield excellent results.

The above photos show a scan of an original Eastman Kodak dye transfer print. I then made a second generation inkjet print from the scan of the dye transfer print.

I married the original dye transfer print and the second generation inkjet print and scanned them to show comparison results. I didn’t use a high priced scanner or printer to do the tests. I used a consumer model Canon printer from Wal-Mart costing about $80 and a $200 Epson scanner.

Now, no scan is as good as the original. But, you can see for yourself, it is hard to tell which is the original dye transfer scan and which is the scan of inkjet copy print made from the dye transfer print.

Top Photograph – Dye Transfer original is on the bottom half.

Bottom Photograph – Dye Transfer original print is on the right side.

This test tells us 2 things:

1) Scans can recover about 90% of the image quality from an original.

2) Inkjet printers can equal or surpass Eastman Kodak’s dye transfer process when it comes to image quality. (In addition, dye stability tests I’ve run show pigmented inkjet prints will outlast an Eastman Kodak dye transfer print when it comes to dye stability by leaps and bounds.)

For the dye stability tests photos in this post,  I cut or masked the media in half. One half of the media was put in sunlight for 6 months. The other half was stored in total darkness. After 6 months of sun, the 2 halves were married and scanned. The half exposed to the sun was marked with an ‘S’. The half stored in the dark was marked with a ‘D’.

Test results show Eastman Kodak’s dye transfer prints to have very poor dye stability when exposed to light. But they do have good dark storage dye stability. The oldest know dye transfer I’ve come across is about 80 years old and still looked good. But when it comes to dye stability, the king is the pigmented ink jet and laser print, possibly surpassed only by the old Cibachrome prints.

Dye transfer prints shown are by: Dean Child, US Color Print Portland, OR

Below is a metal print on aluminum, something that is very popular nowadays.  The sky faded a good deal after 6 month of sun.

Below is an Epson inkjet print exposed to 1 year of sun with no noticeable fading. I use a lot of gloss optimizer in my printing and wondered about its archival characteristics. I decided on giving Epson’s gloss optimizer a 1 year stress test.

Here is a quick shot of the test results with my P&S Sony.

After the 1 year test period was over I married the 2 halves for comparison. The black lines show the edges where the gloss optimizer extends. One year of sun produced no change to the gloss optimizer that could be seen with the eye. The results area also a testimony to Epson’s pigment based ink.

Here is the original digital file.

The point of fade testing is to show you that different media has different dye stability. So choose a media that is fade resistance for your master prints.

Additional testing:

http://fadetesting.tumblr.com/

Why are photos so extreme nowadays?

Tags

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Article Dedication 

In honor of

Edward Weston & Jerry N. Uelsmann

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On APUG an old time film guy asked why the new digital photogs use so much extreme effects on their pix. I hear the same thing about my work. Either it is extreme content or extreme processing.

Infrared flash photo

As a social doc photog I generally don’t set out to stage extreme photos…I just document what I find naturally occurring in our world. There is a big difference between staging bullshit, extreme photos just to get attention versus documentation of life as it unfolds.

Sure, sometimes I freak things out with cartoonish HDR, but it is based on natural, but intensified color, so it is still real – just supercharged. No one pays me to do social doc photos. I am completely self-funded with my photography, therefore I shoot and process the photos exactly as I like. The critics seem to be a little confused. They must be thinking they hired me to shoot for them.

Just shooting extreme photos does not make it a great pix. Look at this example…Piss Christ.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ

When I look at Piss Christ, I am looking through a street / doc photogs eyes, not as an artist. To me this is bullshit…but to the artist and its admirers, it is gold. So, to each their own. There are certain rules that help a photo have a flow and poetic symmetry. Although, rules are made to be broken…shoot your pix from the heart and not from some rule book.

” A society without jaywalkers might indicate a society without artists.”

Paul Theroux

In any case, artists are on a different wavelength than the rest…they have to be allowed ‘some’ leeway for creativity to flourish…that is the bottom line.  Never let anyone brow beat you about your art. When it comes to art, there are no boundaries…if it is legal, the artist can do as they please.

Multitasking ~ Infrared flash photograph from Piecing Darkness artists’ book.

I’m not a big fan of Winogrand and his crooked, jumbled up, confused style. (Look at the bulk of his estimated 1.5 million photos, not the handful they trot out when his name is mentioned.) But, I do like a number of his sayings. One gem is…

Great photography is always on the edge of failure. 

In any case, I take the critics ‘extreme’ comments as a compliment. If you not doing extreme work – you’re not doing much nowadays.

The German ‘bridge artists’ learned long ago that distorted reality was an important tool to use for emotional effect. This is something you may profit from with your art.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Die_Br%C3%BCcke

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/piercing-darkness-update/

Don McCullin talked about the problem of competition in the 1960’s.

This is what McCullin’s competition looked like in 1952.

McCullin said he tried to produce strong photos to set his work apart from the crowd.

A still photo is not like a movie. The still photo must capture the attention of the viewer as well as say something that is remarkable and worthy of study in one frame. Why would any photog not want to create strong work?

People are just more extreme nowadays….

It used to be ‘extreme’ to show a photo of a homosexual, smoking weed with a tattoo and green hair. Nowadays that is all mainstream stuff. Someday it may be extreme to show a person with no tattoos! This just underscores what is extreme to one person may not be extreme to another person.

Every day millions and millions of pix  get uploaded on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Tumblr, just to name a few. If you want to get ahead in a world of 2 billion cell phone cams at large you had better be doing, strong, extreme as well as outstanding work nowadays.

Every genre of photography seeks to produce extreme work. The landscapers look for extremes with their constant chase for the blue and golden hour.  What else is popular with the camera fondlers on the photo forums?  They slap on sunglass filters to make extreme blurs of the water and clouds.

The portraitists are either looking for extreme ‘no expression’ or ‘extreme expression.’  The average smiley face is not what they are after. Some portraitists like shadowy chiaroscuro or high key, all white scenes…again extremes.

The high contrast devotees and shadow experts working on the street are looking for extreme lighting as they wait 20 to 30 minutes for the right person to walk into planned scene. The street photogs shooting juxtaposition of people with signage are looking for extreme comparisons. Sure, we all do em. But try it in the dark, with the signs moving and no viewfinder…extremes can set you apart from the crowd.

Infrared flash photograph from Piercing Darkness artists’ book.

Even the banal experts look for extreme boring with their shots. The tilt-shifters and diffusion devotees are looking for extremes in view and softness. Finally the large format, Edward Weston, f/64 group guys look for extreme sharpness with their work.

We have tools as photographers that we can use to call attention to our image.  We all use some of these tools to one degree or another….high or low contrast, HDR, grain, color whether muted, bold or selective, BW, sharpness, diffusion, composition, bokeh, lighting, subject matter, etc. Without extremes, a photos is nothing. Although if you age a snapshot long enough, nostalgia value may give it a rise…a la’ Vivian Maier

What would this photo be without extremes?

http://photohostsnapshots.tumblr.com/image/123719464653

It would be a snapshot, nothing of interest to anyone other than the family and relatives.

Same with the next photo. If the guy was sitting on the bed or standing in the room with his clothes on you would not know much about him. You may make assumptions, but you’re still only guessing. My photo is pretty straightforward with the message.

BTW, it wasn’t staged, everything is exactly as shown. I just asked him why he liked Burt Reynolds so much….he showed me…I shot it.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/meet-on-the-street-shoot-at-the-home/

In the other arts it is the same thing.

 Guitarists use fuzz, reverb, tremolo and  wha-wha for effect and attention. Trumpets…maybe they invented wah-wah before guitar?

http://media.cleveland.com/musicdance_impact/photo/trumpetsjpg-b10f3615a096a41f.jpg

Dizzy liked a one of a kind horn.

http://d3hkwlmamh2crp.cloudfront.net/files/imagecache/lead-th/all/images/wwoz-blogs/lead/dizzy-540-2.jpg

An artist  got a little extreme to make a statue of Dizzy…

http://www.marks-music-circus.co.uk/1975-1999=Contemporary/1993/Deaths/1993-01-06=Dizzy_Gillespie_statue.jpg

Here are some of my ‘extreme photos’ and some of the composition rules I used or rules I broke, in making them.

A textbook example of diagonal leading line composition.

A textbook example of triangular composition.

A textbook example of motion blur in relation to camera distance.

An example of circular composition.

An example of centered composition.

An example of mountain peak composition.

An example of broken pattern composition.

An example of juxtaposed composition.

An example of balanced composition.

An example of framed composition.

An example of a whimsical composition.

An example of selective color composition.

An example of a self-portrait shadow composition.

An example of full frame composition.

An example of tilt-shift composition.

An example of simplified composition.

An example of leaving space composition.

An example of center weighted rule of thirds composition.

An example of panoramic composition.

An example of curved converging lines composition.

An example of suppressed background composition.

An example of layered composition.

An example of symmetrical composition.

An example of off symmetry composition.

An example of composition incorporating signage.

An example of circular fisheye composition.

An example of shallow depth of field.

An example of a mystery composition.

An example of chiaroscuro.

An example of motion blur.

An example of telephoto compression.

An example of silhouette composition.

Breaking the rules – Wide angle distortion.

Breaking the rules – Crooked composition.

Breaking the rules – Grab hip shot.

Breaking the rules – Exaggerated vignette.

Breaking the rules – Low angle shot.

Breaking the rules – Upside down composition.

Breaking the rules – Cutting the feet off.

Breaking the rules – Infrared

Breaking the rules – Toned and grain.

Breaking the rules – Negative reversal toned.

Breaking the rules – Incorporating empty center space.

Breaking the rules – Extreme processing.

Breaking the rules – Fast, overhead, unframed grab shot.

Breaking the rules – Grainy…blurry.

Breaking the rules – Shooting into the sun.

Breaking the rules – Collage storytelling.

Breaking the rules – Grunge HDR

Breaking the rules – Shot from behind

Breaking the rules – Single image HDR.

Breaking the rules – Hyper-real HDR

Breaking the rules – Infrared Flash

Breaking the rules – Using LED flashlight for illumination.

Breaking the rules – Shot through the car windshield while driving.

Breaking the rules – There are no GD rules…there are only great photographs!

Now, extreme work does not always work in a good way for the artist. Extreme work can also get you labeled ‘not fit for exhibition.’ In my case I’m censored and snubbed left and right. While I wish more of my work was exhibited, I’d rather be true to my work and produce authentic photography rather than fudging it up trying to fit commercial and censorships demands.

Let me give you an example of how putting money over art can hurt the project. When Scorsese did the movie Taxi Driver he was told the bright red blood was too gory by the censors. I don’t know whether he was shooting for a NC-17 the way the movie was shot. But to get the ‘R’ rating he had to de-saturate the blood into  a brownish, watery pitiful excuse for blood. Over time the original master seems to be lost, as even the Blu-ray DVD has never fixed the problem with the blood.

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Photographs used herewith are from the following limited edition artists’ books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

Peephole: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A. – 2013

Portfolio: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A. – 2013
Twenty-six Roadkills – 2013

Encyclopedia of Photographic & Fine Art Ink Jet-
Printing Media – 12 Volume Set – 2014

Bikers’ Mardi Gras – 2015

Gender Benders from the 1970’s – 2015

De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Red Light District – 2015

180 – The Circular Fisheye at Large – 2016

Piercing Darkness – 2016 *

The Americans…60 years after Frank – 2016 *

Whoop-Whoop – Forthcoming

Secrets of Candid Photography  – Forthcoming

*Projects under consideration for a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship

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“Yes…Yes…Yes…photography is like that and there’s no maybes. All the maybes go to the trash. There is a tremendous enjoyment in saying yes, even if it is for something you hate. It is an affirmation…Yes!” ~ Cartier-Bresson

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Lost my mojo…

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Always be ready...time waits for no one., artists' block, children of weegee, creativity, creativity block, daniel d. teoli jr, I find my self picking up my camera less and less as time goes on., infrared flash, infrared flash photography, infrared flash street photography, infrared street photography, inspiration, jay maisel, lost my mojo, mojo, Once you are at one with your cam...the world is your oyster!, social documentary photography, street photography, The key is to be able to shoot without having to think...it must be second nature., There comes a time when we all have to put priciples into practice., You must always be ready...time waits for no one.

A post from The Photo Forum…

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nerwin

I’m sure it has a lot to do with the cold winter season and being stuck indoors. I really hate the cold and I was born and raised in Vermont, go figure right?Well lately I feel like I have been losing my mojo. I find my self picking up my camera less and less as time goes on. This is evident when I was going through my Lightroom library and reorganizing my photos, I noticed each year was less and less photos.

Photography has been my only hobby that has stuck with me through the years and I certainly don’t want to give it up. I’m hoping someday it could turn into a career.A lot of people say I should go travel, sure I’d love to if they are willing to pay for it. Besides I’m not even allowed on a plane currently. (Stupid legal issues, working on it).Anyways, I’m not looking to travel right now. I want to know what you guys do when feel like I do, I’m sure every photographer has experienced this before, perhaps more than once.What are some things I can do indoors where its warm during the winter season that could help to get my mojo back?

 

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Well, sitting around wasting time wont help. Put on some warm clothes or head where the action is indoors and start shooting. Jay Maisel sums up the solution…

“If you’re out there shooting, things will happen for you. If your not out there, you’ll only hear about it.”

Time and time again Jay’s wisdom holds true. Many of my best photos are based in this credo.

I was in my 60’s when I shot most of these pix. As I age it sometimes is hard to keep up the pace of my younger days. My feet, ankles and knees start giving out. But, I still do the best I can to witness…and document life.

This was a one shot wonder on a street. In the few blinks of an eye it was gone. You must always be ready…time waits for no one.

The key is to be able to shoot without having to think…it must be second nature.

If you don’t have the basics down…shoot your TV screen. Although there comes a time when we all have to put priciples into practice.

Once you have the basics down and you get out there… things will happen for you!

Once you are at one with your cam…the world is your oyster!

 I went out for 10 minutes to test a used camera at lunchtime…now this is in a few museums’ collections.

Same with these…I was just out and about taking a walk with my infrared flash and they were just sitting ducks for my trigger finger.

If you need to develop better camera skills, learn to be one with your cam. Being one with your camera may sound kinda corny, but that is the best way to put it. When you shoot, you don’t want to have to think HOW, you just want to DO!

In the old days it was much easier to be one with your cam. We only had a few controls on the cam…shutter speed, aperture and focus. Some of the later cams had a built in exposure meter. If not, we used the rule of 16.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_16_rule

Or we would take a handheld light reading periodically. Don McCullin was known for constantly taking light readings.

Nowadays, with the modern cams, being one with your cam is not so easy. The cams are designed by camera fondling engineers. As such, nothing is easy to manually adjust.  It is especially tough if you own a few different brands of little cams. The controls are all different on them.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/07/the-camera-fondlers-delight-pimping-their-cam/

When cams were basic, it was no big deal going from a Pentax to Nikon to Canon to Minolta to Praktia to Leica. The Leica had a rangefinder, but other than that the basic controls were the same between all the cams… shutter speed, aperture and focus.

Personally I don’t bother trying to be one with my Sony P&S pocket cam or my M43 gear. I know enough to shoot them on the dummy setting but that is about it. I don’t understand how to adjust menu after menu, fast on the fly. Even if I did, I’d miss the shots by the time I reset everything. Still I produce some nice work with them on the dummy setting. What I do work on is being at one with my DSLR and Rangefinder gear.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/the-mighty-m43/

Jimi Hendrix used to carry his guitar around the house all day long picking and playing it. What’s the old saying….practice makes perfect.

http://www.factfiend.com/jimi-hendrix-always-carried-around-guitar-always/

While you don’t have to do the same as Jimi with your cams, you can do an exercise that will help you improve a great deal. When you watch TV practice shooting the screen. It is a great exercise for timing, composition, fast shooting and learning the controls.

A shot from my home TV

A shot from an air flight…no excuse to not practice wherever there is a TV.

Even if you find yourself in a peep show booth, while making a book about Amsterdam…shoot it!

Some photogs produce museum pieces from their TV…

http://www.mocp.org/info.php?t=objects&type=tag&s=&f=2218&tag=looking%20away

http://www.photography-now.com/images/Bilder/gross/B010130.jpg

When I shot this project I had to do it 4 times.

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/gone-up-in-smoke-barbara-lemay-doing-a-reprise-of-the-hoochie-show-she-use-to-perform/

I used the Sony pocket cam first. The pix looked good in-cam, but on the computer they were poor. I reshot it with my DSLR. Things went better, but there was a reflection on the TV screen due to a room light. Reshoot #3 and things improved without the light, but still not perfect. A 4th shoot got it done.

All during the 4 shoots I noticed how I would shoot at the exact or almost exact timing when going from one shoot to another. This strip will illustrate what I mean. I got basically the same facial expressions in all four reshoots. I wasn’t trying to do it this way. I just naturally focused on the peak expressions, best comps or an interesting scene..

If you not one with your cam…give this exercise a try. If you like to shoot street style, shoot TV shows where you don’t know what is happening next. If you want an exercise like I did with Gone…Up in Smoke, shoot DVD’s where you can repeatedly shoot the same scenes and compare the results.

This is also a good exercise for those bedridden and in recovery. If you can open your eyes, raise your cam and push a button…no excuse not to shoot and stay in practice!

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Photos used in this post are from the following limited edition artists’ books by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

Peephole: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A.
Portfolio: Peering Into the World of 1970’s Hollywood and L.A.
Twenty-six Roadkills
Encyclopedia of Photographic & Fine Art Ink Jet- Printing Media -12 Volume Set
Bikers’ Mardi Gras
Gender Benders from the 1970’s
De Wallen: Amsterdam’s Red Light District
180 – The Circular Fisheye at Large
Piercing Darkness
The Americans…60 years after Frank
Whoop-Whoop
Secrets of Candid Photography

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A little history on infrared flash photography…

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An early blackout infrared flash photo from 1945 of Kodak's Aero Pan film spooling operation., An interesting aspect of infrared flash photography, Art Students’ League, Bill 'Zippy' Griffith, blackout, blackout flashbulb, blackout infrared flash photography, Can there possibly be ANY more pleasurable work in this world than making women's toes curl and crack!, Coating kit for turning white light flashbulbs into infrared flashbulbs., daniel d. teoli jr, documentary photography, Don't look at the camera and don't laugh. Just make love., film spooling, GE 5R Flashbulb, history of infrared flash photography, infra red, infrared, infrared flash, infrared flash photo, infrared flash photography, infrared photography black and white, invisible radiation photography, ir flash, ir flash photography, ir street photography, is how it highlights the veins of the body. Dr. Lou Gibson did a number of experiments in this area., kodak aero pan, Lovers at the Palace Theatre - Weegee, piercing darkness, social documentary photography, Sometimes the voyeurs would see how far they could push things and try to sneak into the action!, Sterling Howard Corp, street photography, sunpak, sunpak 622, sunpak nocto 400, Teoli, There is no telling which infrared shots are candid and which are staged when it comes to Weegee., Two of the founding fathers of IR flash photography were Weegee and Kohei Yoshiyuki., Two versions of Weeggee reenacting how he did his infrared flash photos, weegee, weegee infrared, Weegee staged some of the infrared movie theatre shots...."helping realism along" as he wrote in his autobiography., yoshiyuki, You got to love those moments that pleasure the gals so much it makes their toes curl.

 

Article Dedication

in honor of

Araki & Bill ‘Zippy’ Griffith

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Graflex 4×5 Speed Graphic press camera with GE 5R Infrared Flashbulb.

The Speed Graphic was a mainstay of Weegee. Loaded with 3 zinc ‘D’ batteries and a film holder, it weighs nearly 9 pounds!

The camera fondlers are spoiled nowadays. They complain their cameras that weigh a pound are too heavy. The old press photogs were real he-men lugging this thing around all day.

Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection

Two of the founding fathers of IR flash photography were Weegee and Kohei Yoshiyuki. From my limited research, they were the only two photogs in history that have done any meaningful projects with IR flash photography.

Here is some of their work with IR flash…

Weegee

(You got to love those moments that pleasure the gals so much it makes their toes curl! GD…can there possibly be ANY more pleasurable work in this world than making women’s toes curl and crack!)

Lovers at the Palace Theatre – Weegee

There are many variations of this photo showing Weegee took various poses of the couple. The dates for this shot vary all over the place…1940, 1943 and 1945. Weegee said he prided himself in reality based photography, but he was not getting what his client wanted for movie theatre shots. So Weegee staged some of the infrared movie theatre shots….”helping realism along” as he wrote in his autobiography.

Weegee talks about his infrared flash photography on pages 117-118 of his book  Weegee by Weegee. He said he picked up a female model with a “peek-a-boo dress” and a male model from the Art Students’ League. He brought them to a theatre and told them “Don’t look at the camera and don’t laugh. Just make love.” .

Weegee reenacting how he did his infrared flash theatre photography. He disguised himself as an ice cream vendor.

Here is another version…

Weegee’s account of his infrared work is confusing. Many of Weegee’s early infrared photos date from the early 1940’s. He would have used a Speed Graphic 4 x 5 press camera in that era. In his autobiography he said he hid his camera in the ice cream tray, which sounds more like the 1950’s when he used small format cameras. It is pretty hard to hide a press camera.

While the photo of Lovers at the Palace Theatre fits the bill for his staged infrared theatre photos, it was dated in the 1940’s. From his books timeline description his staged infrared theatre photos were done in the early 1950s. So, there is no telling which infrared shots are candid and which are staged when it comes to Weegee.

Well, I can’t hold Weegee’s staged lovers against him. I’ve been in a number of theatres and have not seen any love scenes as yet. I keep looking. Until then let me offer Weegee this IR theatre homage…

The next photo is by Yoshiyuki…from his project ‘The Park’

Yoshiyuki’s project centered around taking IR flash photos at 3 parks in Japan (Chuo, Yoyogi, and Aoyama parks) where people would go to have sex (both hetero and homo) and voyeurs would stay in the shadows to watch them. (Sometimes the voyeurs would see how far they could push things and try to sneak into the action!)

In a 1979 interview Yoshiyuki said that just as he started to test Toshiba infrared flashbulbs, they were discontinued. Yoshiyuki replaced the discontinued bulbs with Kodak (infrared) flashbulbs.

A quote from the 1979 interview done by Nobuyoshi Araki and Kohei Yoshiyuki:

Kohei Yoshiyuki

“I found out that Toshiba made flashbulbs- infrared flashbulbs. Before I had a chance to use  more than a few of them, they were discontinued. Then I looked around for filters, and ended up using two tricolor separation filters.  After a while I heard that Kodak had some flashbulbs, so I used them. At that time infrared flash units didn’t exist. Sunpak came out with them after I took these pictures.”

I have done extensive research on infrared flashbulb history and have never been able to find any information on Kodak making infrared flashbulbs or any flashbulbs for that matter.

I contacted flashbulb historian, dealer and expert Bill Cress about Kodak infrared flashbulbs.

Bill’s reply:  “Kodak did not make bulbs, if anything they may have had some private labeled by others but not made by them.”

Chuck Baker, another historian and collector concurred stating;  “As far as I know Kodak did not make their own flashbulbs.”

I polled the Flashbulb Collectors Page, a Yahoo Group, on this subject. Unanimous consensus was Kodak never made any flashbulbs whether they be infrared or visible light.

Private label or not, nothing ever shows up in the historical record or on the second-hand market for Kodak flashbulbs either in the visible light spectrum or infrared. While it is possible that the Japanese had access to products not available in the USA, it is only conjecture.

Yoshiyuki started his Park project before IR strobes were on the market. But as he approached the mid-point and end of his project, IR strobes were readily available from Sunpak. The bottom line is; it is a mystery as to what infrared flashbulb or strobe Yoshiyuki was actually using for his Park project.

I like Yoshiyuki, so let me just borrow a quote from his interview to finish things up and say…”I better not say any more.” You can draw your own conclusions

The General Electric #5R, #22R and Sylvania Blackout 2 and Blackout 25 were the most common infrared flashbulbs of that era. The most popular infrared flashbulb of these four was the GE 5R.

In the December 1947 issue of Popular Photography, Weegee said he used “midget infrared flashbulbs.”  He goes on to say in the April 1956 issue of Popular Mechanics that he used 5R infrared flashbulbs.

Infrared flash photography was developed during WWII as a means of taking photos in complete darkness also known as ‘blackout.’ I don’t know how much the 5R’s cost in the early 1940’s when they were first commercially marketed, but a package from the 1960’s was priced at $3 a dozen.

A trade announcement in the May 1949 edition of Popular Photography said Sterling Howard Corp of N.Y.C. was selling infrared flashbulb coating kits to turn white light flashbulbs into infrared flashbulbs. The list price for the gelatin &  dye kit was $4.75.

 https://people.rit.edu/andpph/text-infrared-basics.html

 BLACKOUT PHOTOGRAPHY

This document was taken from Photography: Naval Training Course, Vol. 1, NAVPERS 10371-A, prepared by Bureau of Navy Personnel, 1951.

A flash lamp pierces darkness about the way a 16- inch gun salvo rends silence. The ordinary flash lamp, that is. There’s one which is decidedly “un ordinary.” A photographer takes a flash picture in pitch darkness. Only a few feet away there is not the slightest hint of it. But what about the flash? There wasn’t any. A flash picture with no flash? Well, for all practical purposes-yes.

Actually there was a flash. But it was made up almost entirely of infrared light, which is invisible. Yet the lamp illuminated the subject quite enough for a clear picture. This is infrared flash photography or “blackout” photography. The special flash bulb is coated with a Lacquer which transmits a maximum of infrared rays while holding back nearly all the visible rays.

It must be used only with infrared film and in total or nearly total darkness. Slow shutter speed (1/25 to 1/50) and wide lens opening (f/4 to f/8) are required. The phenomenon of blackout photography will work only at very short distances-usually 10 to 15 feet. But at close quarters it will produce a surprisingly satisfactory photographic record.

This procedure might have numerous military uses. An example would be in taking a vital picture when a brilliant glare of white light would tip off your presence to the enemy. There are also less ominous circumstances which would make the use of the conventional flash impractical or impossible.

http://www.graflex.org/flash/navy/

An early blackout infrared flash photo from 1945 of Kodak’s Aero Pan film spooling operation. A single GE 22R infrared flashbulb was suspended above each operator for illumination. Photographed with a 4 x 5 camera with infrared film.

In 1974 Sunpak introduced the first commercial infrared strobe. The Nocto 400.

The Nocto 400 was a revolutionary strobe as it was the first and only commercially produced dedicated infrared flash ever made. It weighed about 886 grams without batteries.

It’s downfall was it produced a visible bright reddish / orange glow when it fired. It had a high and low setting and ran off of A.C. or  4 ‘C’ batteries. The low setting produced a slightly lower glow that was only visible if you looked directly at the head. The high setting produced a visible orange glow that would reflect off the object if it was within a few feet and had a reflective nature. The recycle time was 7 seconds on high and 1.5 seconds on low powered by the AC cord.  The guide number calculator had a range of 57 feet for the high setting.

A few years later Sunpak introduced the model 622 which incorporated interchangeable heads – one head being a dedicated infrared flash head.

A technical tidbit…

On Flickr, member ‘t6b9p’ wrote :

 “…the Sunpak 622 IR head is actually fitted with two IR filters. An inner 0.2mm flexible IR filter with 50% transmission at 730nm and a hard outer filter that has 50% transmission at 850nm.”

I took apart a Sunpak 622 IR head and sure enough there are two filters as ‘t6b9p’ reported.

The spec sheet lists the following information for the 622 Pro IR head:

Peak Spectrum: 840 NM

Guide Number: 30/100

Angle of illumination: 65 degree horizontal by 45 degree vertical.

Coverage: 35mm lens on 35mm camera

Weight 3.8 oz / 100 g

The beauty of the Sunpak was its systemized design that allowed rapid change of 7 dedicated strobe heads:

Standard Head

Zoom Head

Wide Head

Ring Head

Infra-Red Head

Diffusion Head

Bare bulb Head

A vintage 622 with IR head installed and the zoom head.

The Sunpak 622 was a monster to lug around. While the head is light, the weight of the entire flash unit is very heavy at 1109 grams without batteries. Recycle time with 4 alkaline batteries was 12 seconds on full power and almost instantaneous at low power.

This is a very powerful strobe that is said to be roughly 250 watt seconds. Although the flash head still emits a reddish glow it seems a little less than the Nocto 400 emitted. The dual filter array does a good job in keeping this strobe stealthy.

http://www.cameramanuals.org/flashes_meters/sunpak_auto622_pro.pdf

Sunpak Nocto 400 compared to Sunpack Auto 622 with IR head.

If you would like to use one of these vintage film era IR strobes on your digital cam you will need Safe-Sync adapter.

 

In the 2000’s third party cottage industries came out with IR flash adapters that slid over small, modern strobes and commercial strobes modified for dedicated IR use.

An interesting aspect of infrared flash photography, is how it highlights the veins of the body. Dr. Lou Gibson did a number of experiments in this area.

http://medicalphotography.com.au/Article_04/09.html

A little history on infrared flash photography was taken in part from my forthcoming artist’s books:

Piercing Darkness

&

Practice & Techniques of Infrared Flash Photography

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2015/08/17/piercing-darkness-update/

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Artists’ are on a different wavelength than the rest.

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17 minutes to sophie, artists' are on a different wavelength, artists' book, Artists’ are on a different wavelength than the rest., chiaroscuro, children of weegee, d.teoli, daniel d. teoli jr, daniel teoli jr, decisive moment, documentary photography, infrared flash, infrared flash photo, ir flash, larry rivers, night photography, piercing darkness, reportage, social documentary photography, street photography

Article Dedication 

In honor of

Otto Steinert & Ray Metzger

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Photo of Larry Rivers by John Whitman – Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Archival Collection

Larry Rivers made a little video of his daughter developing breasts. It produced a lot of controversy.

Back up link:

https://web.archive.org/web/20111231201906/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/08/arts/design/08rivers.html

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/12/larry-rivers-201012

I guess it was something along the lines of this gem…

17 minutes to Sophie

http://www.bcvideo.com/shortfilms17.html

If you are a reader of my blog you know my policy…I hold back nothing from you. My policy is – if it is legal, I broadcast it.

When I discussed Rivers’s Growing video with a young gal in her 20’s, she asked me how I would like it if a video was made of me like that? Well, as someone in their 60’s I can’t wrap my head around a realistic answer as a 12 year old girl. I can say men are on a different wavelength than most women. Men will happily get their dick out for a gal at a drop of a pin.

 This infrared flash photo from my artists’ book Piercing Darkness illustrates this diversity in thought between men and women.

This guy would ask girls if they wanted to touch it…none accepted. This girl recoiled and held her hand as tight as she could to her body. This underscores the difference between the sexes. If a girl was offering free touches of her delectable’s…she would not have to ask a (hetero) guy twice.

Sometimes the artists’ talent may be based in mental illness more so than talent. The deranged artist produces art from their tortured their mind and the more normal people say …Genius! The normal people don’t see things as the tortured mind does. This was the foundation of all the LSD art of the 60’s….the ability to expand our mind and put us on a different wavelength.

This video kinda illustrates this concept.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Woodmans-Francesca-Woodman/dp/B007IHH4H0

In the film, the dad was frustrated his photos were not as highly prized as his deceased daughter. Well, he didn’t have the same brand of mental illness to produce what she did. It also helped her notoriety that she was a teen girl shooting nudes selfies of herself and committed suicide.

You could see the dad’s train of thought in the studio shooting of a topless girl holding up a calendar.( I can’t really remember what she was holding up, I saw the film years ago.)  The dad was trying to make something different, he was trying to be extreme, but he was just a poser and was just not freaked out enuf to match his daughters work.

Lets look at this next example…Piss Christ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ

When I look at Piss Christ I am looking through a street / doc photogs eyes, not as an artist. To me this is bullshit…but to the artist and its admirers, it is gold. So, to each their own.

Artists are on a different wavelength than the rest…they have to be allowed some leeway for creativity to flourish…that is the bottom line.

” A society without jaywalkers might indicate a society without artists.”

Paul Theroux

The Birth of Araki

Concept and post processing of found photographs by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

Further reading:

https://danielteolijr.wordpress.com/2016/01/30/why-are-photos-so-extrme-nowadays/

http://www.amazon.com/Lives-Artists-Masterpieces-Neighbors-Thought/dp/0544252233/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456524061&sr=8-1&keywords=artists+lives+messes