Much
of my photography has been on a tripod. That's partially because
I primarily shoot medium format and, in the past, large format.
I have a thing for big negatives. Big negatives mean big cameras
and that makes for a more studied kind of photography. But there
are pictures that I have been wanting to take which call for a hand
held quicker shooting camera — a street shooter. A street
shooter for street photography.
This
is all my grandfather's fault. He gave me his 1949 Leica IIIc 30
years ago.
I
used it for a bit and then it sat on a shelf for 27 years. I
took it down off the shelf a year and a half ago. Unfortunately
it needs repairs that I can't afford yet. But running some test
rolls through it was an eye opening experience. I wanted more. Handling
that old Leica, one of the original street cameras, got me thinking
about street photography.
Street
photography has a long tradition and little commercial value although
it is related to photojounalism. I've been finding some interesting
sites on the web about street photography. Some time ago I discovered
iN-PUBLiC. The
site has a collection of portfolios of street photographers. Check
them out. iN-PUBLiC has a definition of street photography:
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Over
the last few decades the phrase 'Street Photography' has come
to mean a great deal more than simply making exposures in a
public place. Photographers like Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand,
Lee Friedlander and Joel Meyerowitz have forced a redefinition
of the phrase that has many new implications. Primarily Street Photography is not reportage,
it is not a series of images displaying, together, the different
facets of a subject or issue. For the Street Photographer
there is no specific subject matter and only the issue of
'life' in general, he does not leave the house in the morning
with an agenda and he doesn't visualise his photographs in
advance of taking them. Street Photography is about seeing
and reacting, almost by-passing thought altogether.
For many Street Photographers the process
does not need 'unpacking', It is, for them, a simple 'Zen'
like experience, they know what it feels like to take a great
shot in the same way that the archer knows he has hit the
bullseye before the arrow has fully left the bow. As an archer
and Street Photographer myself, I can testify that, in either
discipline, if I think about the shot too hard, it is gone.
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There's
more. It doesn't sound like something done from a tripod.
I
wandered around the web discovering and rediscovering street photographers:
Eugene
Atget, Andre
Kertesz, Weegee, Henri
Cartier-Bresson, Robert
Frank, Gary
Winogrand (and his
last camera), Lee
Friedlander, and Joel
Meyerowitz.
i
found a couple of photographers of the street photography persuasion,
with blogs, that have been of interest and inspiration: Kevin Bjorke
at A Botzilla Journal
and John Brownlow at pinkheadedbug.
John
Brownlow's blog has much goodness (even medium format street photography!)
even though it has not been updated recently. John, and Kevin, and
a bunch of SPs can be found at the Street
Photography mailing list, which is moderated by John Brownlow.
One
of the recent threads at the Street Photography mailing list was
starting an entry for Street
Photography in the Wikipedia free encylcopedia. It still has
a long way to go but it's been interesting see it grow from an outline
that John Brownlow put up.
But
what camera to try street photography with? If I had unlimited funds
I would rush out and buy a new Leica
MP with three or four lenses. I don't know anybody that could
afford that. If I had a modest budget I would get a Voigtlander
Bessa R3A.
Great camera, particularly for the price. But my budget isn't even
up to the modest level.
Before
my trip to DC
and New York, I bought an Olympus
XA2 on eBay. I would rather have had an XA,
but the $50 to $60 they were going for was to rich for me. The XA2
was had for $18. It did pretty well but the lack of control with
exposure and focusing (it has 3 zone focusing) was just too limiting.
I would really like interchangeable lenses, too.
Mike
Johnston, of The 37th Frame
fame (you really should subscribe), had some comments, in his September,
2004 column The
Sunday Morning Photographer, about the eternal struggle of photographers
affording the equipment they need.
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And,
actually, this has always been an issue with photographers.
Many art photographers over many decades have been constrained
in terms of the equipment they have to work with and the time
they have to devote to working; there's a reason why not a
lot of pure artists have worked in studios with Sinars on
camera stands and $80,000 worth of Broncolor strobes. George
Tice used to say that one of his great accomplishments as
a photographer was amassing all the darkroom equipment he
owned. Harry Callahan didn't even have his own darkroom until
he was in his '50s. And many fine-art pj-type artists in the
1960s used Leicas not because they had to have the very best,
but because everybody with money wanted SLRs at the time and
the used market was awash with decade-old M3's. Ambitious
photo students used secondhand Leicas for the same reason
they all wore Army surplus fatigue jackets: not just because
they were cool, but because they were cool and affordable.
I'm sure more than a few promising photographic careers have
been cut short by the combination of high expenses with uncertain
revenues. In the era of digitalia, that can't be improving. |
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So,
again, what to use for my street camera? Actually, any camera can
be used. Atget
used view cameras on top of tripods, with slow shutter speeds. Weegee
used a 4x5 Speed Graphic. It comes down to what you have and what
you are comfortable with. What I have is a medium format Mamiya
Universal/Super 23 and what I'm comfortable with is a hyperfocal
camera.
Although
the Mamiya Universal is a press camera, it is big and I've just
not been excited about using it handheld, even though that is what
it was designed for. I also have a Super
23 body that had a bad
rangefinder, which I
removed making it a flat top. I've used it primarily as a mini
view camera but part of my master plan was to put a wide angle on
it and use it as a street camera.
I
used this little Rollei 35 for years until the light meter ceased
to function and the rear element of the lens fell out when I dropped
the camera. It's a hyperfocal camera.
You
set the distance by estimation. It has a 40mm lens, with good depth
of field, and I never had an out of focus image. The aperture, using
a built in uncoupled meter, shutter, and distance were all set from
above, without ever putting the camera to your face. You preset
everything and then put the camera to your face to take the picture.
A joy to use.
Most
photographers I know don't know about the hyperfocal scales on their
lenses. Unfortunately, too many cameras of the digital variety have
eliminated them altogether.
The
hyperfocal scale lets you estimate the distance and set the lens
knowing what the depth of field will be. The picture above is from
a page that explains
all of this. It's a useful thing to know. You could also use
it in conjuction with the rangefider to control the depth of field.
I used this all the time with the little Rollei and it works very
well. With all the camera controls preset there is no fiddling around
with the camera when a picture presents itself. You just put the
camera to your face (or not, with a wide angle lens) and shoot.
And when you press the shutter the image is exposed. I know that
SLRs, digital, and auto everything are all the rage but I like to
press the shutter and have the camera take the picture right then.
Just a personal quirk. I've used the others and they drive me crazy.
Your mileage may vary.
What
I wanted is to be able to use my flat top Super 23 like my Rollei.
The normal lens for the Super 23 is 100mm which has a narrow depth
of field. Wide angle lens have a much wider depth of field and they
are better for street photography anyway. There are three wide angles
available for the Mamiya Universal/Super 23. The 50mm (equiv. to
a 21mm in 35mm cameras) and the 75mm (equiv. to 35mm) are excellent
but run 400 to 500 dollars on eBay. The third lens is an older design
— a 65mm lens (equiv. to 28mm.) The go for $200 to $250 with
finder on eBay. I was able to get a late model for only $78, without
finder. A steal. It's like new.
The
Mamiya has no light meter. I use a hand held Luna Pro but a light
meter on the camera would be easier. I searched the web for a small
meter I could mount to the top of the flat top Mamiya. The Gossen
Pilot fit the bill. The later Pilot 2s go for more and I settled
on an older Pilot for $28 on eBay. It's a selenium cell meter which
means no batteries. A good thing. The down side of selenium cell
meters is that they are not so good in low light. I have the Luna
Pro for those occasions.
Since
the rangefinder is gone there is no way to tell what the lens is
looking at. Not that that is a big problem with an equivalent 28mm
lens. The Mamiya rangefinder only covers normal and telephoto lens
anyway and auxilary viewfinders are needed for wide angle lens.
Cameraquest has some beautiful Voigtlander finders but they were
more than I wanted to spend. In my travels I ran across this jewel
— a KMZ
Universal Viewfinder.
It
has bright finders for 28mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm, and 135mm. With cross
hairs. They go up to $100 but are mostly between $40 to $70. I found
one for $48. Now I was set up to put it all together and create
my Frankencamera.
I
thought that a street camera should have some street
art with a little attitude.
I
shot three rolls through of 120 though it. (Those are 8 exposure
rolls with the 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 format.) The Frankencamera works pretty
well. It's not a camera that you can get off sequential shots very
fast. It's release the shutter and then wind, wind, wind, wind,
and then cock the shutter. I had no focus problems using the hyperfocal
scales and estimating the distance. I was shooting around f/16.
This is not a camera for available light since it's an f/6.3 lens.
But it is a great camera for flash — the leaf shutter is synched
at all speeds. I took most of the pictures with my Vivitar 283 mounted
on the hand grip. I used bounce flash indoors and direct flash outdoors.
I exposed for the ambient light indoors, around 1/2 second, and
let the flash freeze the subject. I then took a couple of exposures
on a street.
Here
is a page with more pictures
from my first rolls and links to larger versions. I love how
this lens sees. It's way too much fun.
I
think the Frankencamera is going to work out fine. It does need
a nameplate and some new leatherette. In time, in time. I still
need a camera that will be smaller, quicker, and work in available
light when the light available isn't very available. And doesn't
cost much.
The
KMZ viewfinder opened another world for me — commie cameras.
The KMZ was built in the USSR. While looking for information about
the finder, I found much more. Some time ago Blaine had sent me
some pictures of his Leica
copies. One of them was a commie camera. I didn't think too
much about them. Getting the KMZ whetted my curiousity and I found
some cool stuff. The Soviets didn't stop at copying the Leica II.
They modified the Leica II design over the years and ended up with
some interesting cameras. Jim Blazik's Rangefinder
Cameras of the Soviet Era has some great articles and pictures
of some interesting very 35mm rangefinders. These cameras aren't
Leica quality, nor are they Leica priced. You can get them for around
$25 on eBay. I've decided on a Zorki 6.
I
will be able to use the lens from my old Leica, a Sumitar f2 50mm,
with this camera since it uses the old Leica screw mount. There
are a couple of commie lenses that are nice, too. Later. I need
to sort out the Frankencamera first.
With
all this old camera equipment I will need to learn some camera
repair. That's another story.
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