Girls Rescued

A Real Photographer

My PR rep told me about the latest issue of Ventana Magazine which I hadn’t seen at that point. In it is an article about Luther Gerlach who is one of only a few photographers who still use the wet-plate colloidal process developed in the mid 1800’s. People are surprised when I say I still shoot with film. I really enjoy getting the same results using $20 cameras instead of $2000 cameras and doing my own thinking. From time to time I find myself explaining the basics of photography to people with fancy cameras that are out of my price range. I get a bit prideful at those times and think I’m a real photographer. Luther Gerlach, however, makes his own 85 lb very large format cameras and pours chemicals on glass to take the finest grain pictures in the world and then travels that world to lecture on this lost knowledge while the masses dream of the next point and shoot. Luther Gerlach is a real photographer.

Images from India

No need for caffeine just switch cameras

I recently returned from a photography assignment in India where I was trying to communicate the cultural extremes through images. Shooting non stop for weeks is difficult and at times it seemed my mind was over worked and I couldn’t take another picture. I chose to switch cameras and go without the bag of gear. Shooting with the Minolta rangefinder some how opened my eyes again and made everything seem alive. I guess I should mention that I did take only film cameras but there are so many types of digital cameras now the same idea applies. If you get in a rut shake yourself out of it. Find a way to wake up. You can relax when you’re back home with family.