Hurry Up for Robert Frank

So I know this is late notice, but tomorrow is the last day to see Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. I stumbled upon it today while studying the architecture of the East Building by I.M. Pei. A very pleasant surprise indeed.

It's vastly easier to appreciate a photographer's work when properly presented; printed from the original negatives, matted, framed, and properly lit. Sure you can see it on the interweb or in a book, but it's surprisingly better when it's the real deal.

Go see it! Even if you're not all that into street photography, you'll enjoy it. The exhibition is on the west end of the West Building.

More info on Robert Frank

Also, I snagged this shot with my Xpan before going through the tunnel from the confusing East Building to the West Building.

Hold the laptop

Next time you take a photography trip, leave the laptop behind. You don't need it. Go get yourself a Think Tank Pixel Pocket Rocket, pop in ten compact flash cards, and go. Take tons of pictures, relax in the evening, and save the post-processing for when you get home.

Ten CF cards at 4 gigabytes each gives you 40 gigabytes. I shoot at about 10 gigabytes per week with a 5D in raw. Even if you're twice as trigger-happy as me, that still gives you two weeks of shooting, sans laptop.

Ken Rockwell pointed out that shooting film actually forces you to save the post-processing (or any kind of processing, for that matter) until you get home. There's no reason this can't be true for digital as well.

This is especially true on international trips. It's just another juicy target for thieves and customs. The price is not just in dollars either; imagine the amount of personal data that's on your laptop. If you really feel the need to stay connected and browse the web, go get yourself an iPod Touch.

There's also the weight savings. For the weight of a laptop, you could carry another lens or two. Better yet, you could just save those extra pounds and be more mobile.

"The things you own end up owning you." Choose wisely.

As as side note, there may be hope for the 1D Mark II after all...

5D's for Everyone!

And by 5D, I mean the original, Mark I. The release of the Canon 5D Mark II has put a ton of used 5D's out on the market, ready to be grabbed up by aspiring photographers. It is pretty incredible that a full-frame DSLR can be had for a little over $1100 (and dropping).

I bought my 5D new in the summer of 2006 just before my trip to Australia. It proved to be a truly excellent travel camera. There's just no way I could have covered so much ground in Sydney and the Blue Mountains lugging my huge 1D Mark II. It's just the right size for a small camera bag or backpack with a couple lenses (the 17-40/4 and 70-200/2.8 at the time). The charger and batteries weren't a burden either, which is a real consideration when traveling with a digital camera. Have you seen the charger for the 1D?

I was considering buying a 5D Mark II when it first came out, mainly for it's HD video feature and 14-bit color depth. Since then, I've started to lean more toward film as a real option for color depth and resolution, keeping the original 5D as my general camera. I'm also expecting the second generation of video-enabled DSLR's to bring some great improvements.

So before you blow your dough on a 5D Mark II, consider the original 5D as a real option; it still rocks. Instead, spend that money on some sweet glass that you can use for many (more) years to come.

Other 5D Mark I links:

• Panomoto (he also uses a G9 as a backup)
• Luminous Landscape Field Report
• Flying With Fish on the 5D
• Ken Rockwell on the 5D
• The Naked Run Travel Blog (he appears to use a 5D for all his amazing travel photography)

Positively Cinematic

So I got my Hasselblad Xpan film back from the lab today, much sooner than I had expected. The results? Positively cinematic!

Here are three pictures taken on or near Rockefeller Center. I popped over there on the Monday morning of Fashion Week when they first opened at 8am. Surprisingly, it seemed a little warmer at the top than on the ground (out of the wind, of course). My guess is that the tops of buildings in New York get dramatically more Sun than the streets and therefore warm up earlier in the day.





It does indeed force you to see the world in something resembling Panavision.

I'd say the main disappointment of this film experience was that the six-year-old Provia 400F I was using had developed a bit of a magenta cast. This was easy enough to remove by selecting the white point in Photoshop with a curves adjustment layer. I also need to practice with correct exposure; chimping since 2004 has really spoiled me in this regard.

Here's one final, less cinematic shot. It's actually Provia 400F that's been converted to B&W in Photoshop.

Meanwhile, in New York...

Last weekend I was in New York City for Fall Fashion Week. Surprisingly, it was even crazier than Spring Fashion Week last September. I didn't even get in to the Diane Von Furstenberg, Jill Stuart, or Tracy Reese shows. Eventually I realized that enough was enough (especially for fashion) and decided that I needed to take advantage of being in one of the greatest cities in the world.

After grabbing a slice at Pronto Pizza, I hoofed it over to Penn Station to drop off my backpack with my clothes in it. All I wanted was a locker for a few hours until my train left. The Amtrak baggage check agent informed me that all the lockers in New York had been removed after 9/11... Thanks terrorists. He did say that he could hold it until my train left though, but that it would cost $4.50. This seemed odd to me since I could check one bag for free. In any case, I certainly didn't want to lug my clothes around the city for the rest of the day, and I didn't want to check it since my train would be arriving in Baltimore late that night, so I coughed up the $4.50. All I had on me was a $20, but another Amtrak employee (who apparently dealt with a lot of small denominations) was kind enough to make change. Perhaps I should have pretended to check the bag, then picked it up before the train arrived.

Since Penn Station was so close to B&H Photo, I decided to drop in there for about an hour. They've got pretty much everything, and it's fascinating to watch their system of queues and baskets in action. The folks at IMG who handle Fashion Week may be able to take a few hints from these guys. Anyway, after a brief stop in the used department to check out a Fuji 690 III (surprisingly cheap feel) and Leica M7 (utterly solid), I picked up an orange Hoya multi-coated filter and two rolls of Ilford ISO 400 B&W film for my Hasselblad Xpan. The 45mm lens on my Xpan takes a 49mm filter, which is not as common as I'd like.

Xpan in hand, I hopped on the A train, and headed up to Columbus circle to explore Central Park a bit. I quickly polished off the roll of Fuji Provia 400F that I'd started at the top of Rockefeller Center, and switched to the Ilford XP2 400 (C-41) B&W film and my new filter.

And this is where the story ends somewhat abruptly. I'm still finishing off that roll of B&W film. I mailed my two spent rolls of Provia to the lab earlier this week for processing. I guess I won't really know how good the Xpan is until I get those back. Based on it's solid feel, and the praise it's gotten from other photographers, I'm optimistic.

Also worth mentioning is a very entertaining show called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, which my friends and I saw that Saturday night. Buy tickets in advance so you can get in early enough to pick a seat away from the isle (unless you enjoy getting plucked from the audience). Also try to forget what a fire-hazard the theater looks like on the inside, and enjoy the show.