The Bean and the Sears 35rf

sears_rfScan-081102-0017, originally uploaded by escott sukotto shiinga.

I know it's probably pretty cliche anymore to take pictures of the Cloudgate "Bean", but I just don't care. I love taking pictures here whenever I visit Chicago. There's something about a highly reflective surface that attracts so many dazzled viewers that demands to be over photographed. It seems like people get lost as they get near and want to reach out and touch it. They tend to drop their pretenses and look on in wonder. This is a great time to take pictures. Someone recently viewed this on my Flickr stream, and it reminded me of how much I enjoy shooting with my little Sears 35rf rangefinder (a rebadged Ricoh 500g). It has a great lens and does some interesting things with color.

Pictures of Circles

rstk_0006-1_cln, originally uploaded by escott sukotto shiinga.

I suppose most people like pictures of things - people mostly, maybe flowers or dogs; something they can identify or identify with. People like bold images too; pictures that leap out at them and arrest their eyes. I guess there's a logocentrism in us that wants a clarity of idea and of purpose; facts that somehow maintain a neat lock-step with their representations. From "what a horrible war" and "look at the heights to which mankind can achieve" to "what a lovely flower" and "what a cute kitten", there is a narrative and the picture is firstly an illustration of that - or at least is expected to be. Expected to be an illustration in lock-step with its pictorial depiction, there isn't even an allowance for a paper thin gap between what's contained in the image and what the image contains.

I remember being in school and having a guest artist/lecturer who was doing a print series called "The container, contained, remains", and while I can't remember his name or if the print series was ultimately successful to him, the title has stuck with me.

I guess I like pictures of stillness and ambiguity sometimes - pictures of circles and pictures where the sense of wonder is conveyed on the face of the viewer rather than in a face depicted in the image.

Photos of photo ops

R0020329, originally uploaded by escott sukotto shiinga.

I think it's fascinating to take pictures of people getting their picture taken, and especially the environment around it. Often it's a festive occasion with people dressed up or trying to capture a big moment. Here I was taking some pictures on a cruise I went on for a family reunion. I especially liked all of the studio lighting that was set up to take the portraits for which people were posing.

A boy and his camera

Sometimes there just seems to be a connection between a photographer and a particular camera; I'm currently in a love affair with my old 1930's Rodenstock 6x4.5 folder. It sports a 75mm f2.9 triar lens, some weird focus distances and even weirder fstops and shutter speeds. Are any of them accurate? who knows? and really - who cares? It continues to give me pictures that I am fascinated by.

I'm not sure if it's the size of the negatives, the lens, the film, ... I do know that it has nothing to do with focusing, autoexposure or even accurate framing - It has none of that. I do a lot of guess work, and move the release lever with an awkward motion of my finger while trying not to get my hand in the way of the lens.

Like a lot of half-frame cameras, this one defaults to a portrait aspect ratio. I like that because it gets me out of the cinematic image space or the landscape default of most cameras. I wish digital cameras, like my Ricoh gx200, would offer a half-frame alternative in addition to square. I suppose it's just as easy to zoom in a bit and turn the camera sideways, but there's just something different about these.