Re: AW: [Leica] Harrison's pictures

["Harrison McClary" <hmcclary@earthlink.net>]

Dr. Jens-Peter Horst wrote:

> if you consider that garbage, then I must say you really have a nice collection of trash in your
> garbage can. Really, great photos. I especially like your sense of color composition. Some of my
> favorite pictures were: Reba & Linda Davis Darius Walker (gorgeous light effect) The tunnel picture
> (travel section) and the girl in the wheelchair (very moody)

Thanks for the comments Dr. Horst.  The reason I use the term 
"garbage" goes back to my days in college.  I was at the Atlanta 
Seminar on Photojournalism and was out partying with about 10 
different photographers from papers all across the southeastern USA 
and one of the photographers was referring to one of the others work 
as garbage.This fellow was a staffer at the Louisville Courier and 
was part of the staff who had just won the Pulitzer so I was amazed 
to hear someone refer to his work as garbage.  It was explained to me 
that we all shoot garbage, just some peoples garbage isn't as bad as 
other's. I kinda like the description as it keeps me from getting to 
serious about things.

The Reba and Linda and Darius Walker shots are all available light 
concert type stuff.  Reba and Linda at the CMA's, which used to be 
lit VERY well.  That was 100 fujichrome at 100 shot at probably 
125@2.8. The Darius Walker was Farm Aid and was 400 provia @ 1600and 
1/60 @2.8 or so.
 
> I did not understand why you chose the picture with the deck and the pony in front of it. For me the
> atmosphere of a relaxing evening was not transmitted very strongly, probably because of the unusual
> point of view and the framing you chose. Maybe you could have emphasized that atmosphere more by
> cropping not so close to the pony's shadow and not putting you copyright logo over the shadow of the
> person in the rocking chair.

Ah hah, exactly the kind of comments I was looking for, and 
interesting to me that you chose this image to comment on.  It is one 
of my favorite because of the shadows and composition, but obviously 
it speaks to me more than to you.  I have always used strong light in 
my photos to create mood and atmosphere. Once (again while in 
college) I had been printing and a friend had also been printing at 
the same time and my roommate stopped by and he picked out all of my 
photos even though he had never seen any of them before.  I asked him 
how he knew they were mine and he said he just picked the depressing 
shots! I guess I still like things with a little tension and is 
probably why I chose this angle to emphasize the shadows.

The travel photo is on the Blue Ridge Parkway just outside of 
Asheville, NC and if you ever make it to this side of the pond it is a 
must esp if you come in the fall, but the rest of the year ain't bad. 
 The other photo was the cover of a magazine for a story on dealing 
with college as a handicapped student for the Shepherd Spinal Clinic 
in Atlanta.

> Concerning the picture with the women in the pool, I was wondering how you got the backlighting in
> their hair. Is it only a window (it looks much lighter than one would expect) or did you make your
> assistant jump into the pool to point a flash at them :-)? 

No, I did not get my assistant in the water, I did not have the 
luxury of an assistant on that shoot.  What you are seeing is a 
strobe I had on the far side of the pool on an 8 foot light stand.  I 
lit the pool area with 2 strobes 1 on opposite corners.  I got low 
for this shot using a 24mm lens.  I was so low I was kneeling on the 
inside rim of the pool and was soaking wet.  the lady looked up at me 
and saw how contorted I was and started to laugh, making the nice 
expression.  (I had one knee on the inside rim of the pool, my face 
with camera inches above the water and my big old but stuck up in 
the air -- definitely a funny site!) I had to get low to hide the 
strobe behind her head.  It made a nice effect, I think.

When the photo editor saw that I had put strobes up around a pool he 
had a fit.  Didn't matter the strobes were 10 feet from the sides of 
the pool, that there was no one else there but those in the water and 
me, and that I had the areas around the stands barricaded with 
chairs, he still about went postal on me!


Thanks again for your comments.  You are quite an eloquent writer and 
it is a pleasure to share views with you.


Harrison McClary
http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto