[Leica] Turnley Workshop

[topoxforddoc at btinternet.com (Charlie Chan)]

Leo,

It looks as if you all had a great time. How much did it change your 
shooting? What were the key differences before and after?

Best wishes,

Charlie

Charlie Chan
www.charlie-chan.co.uk




On 13 Jan 2013, at 19:43, leo wesson wrote:

> Hi All,
> 
> Several folks have asked me to say a bit about the workshop that I took in
> September with Peter Turnley.
> 
> 
> Why a workshop?  I?m a strong believer that you should always be learning
> and pushing your boundaries.  It can be really hard to do that within the
> confines of your everyday life.  I shoot a lot, but most of it is for
> clients and not what I would be shooting if left to my own direction.  I
> have found that it helps to go meet photographers who you admire and spend
> time learning from their experience and their knowledge.
> 
> 
> Why Peter?s?  Peter is an excellent photographer.  Since I learned of his
> work a few years ago I have kept up with his website and his Facebook
> posts.  If you don?t have a  background on Peter look here:  <
> http://www.peterturnley.com/bio.shtml>
> 
> I thought I would benefit greatly from a workshop with him, 1) because of
> his skill and experience and, 2) because of Paris.  I hadn?t been to Paris
> in awhile and wanted to go there and I gathered from his work that Peter
> had a special relationship with Paris:  I thought that would be a perfect
> place to attend the workshop.  Initially, I was unable to sign up as the
> class was full, but due to a last minute cancellation I was able to get
> in.  I had also considered a Cuba workshop.
> 
> 
> First day.
> 
> 
> The 12 students all met at Peter?s apartment in the Marais...a centuries
> old building in the process of being remodeled. His flat was on the top
> (6th) floor. .  A great view from a small balcony.  We met  on Sunday
> afternoon, introduced ourselves and listened to Peter speak.  He talked and
> showed photos and discussed technique.  After that we went out to
> photograph a dance festival on the Seine.
> 
> 
> Technique.
> 
> 
> Peter is not a technical photographer.  He knows technique inside and out
> and thinks that you should learn technique and then shoot so much that you
> don?t need to think about it, a lot like learning to perform music. He
> currently shoots with an M9 and a 35 1.4.  He recently starting using a
> Monochrome M. For his journalism work he also uses Nikon equipment.  He
> always carried a camera and was always looking intently for images to
> make.  He is a very prolific photographer.
> 
> 
> The basic premise of the workshop was ?learn to tell a story with street
> photography?.
> 
> 
> For the workshop he wanted us to:
> 
> 
> Use one lens, a wide angle in the 21 to 35mm range.  If you only had zoom
> lenses, he had tape for you to tape it into one focal length. This would
> teach you what your lens was going to take in to help you learn to
> anticipate what was going to happen...if you saw it happen before you took
> the photo, you missed the photo.
> 
> 
> Take you camera off autoexposure; set your camera for where your are.
> 
> 
> Leave your lens hood and lens cap at your hotel...don?t waste time taking a
> lens cap off.  I disagreed somewhat on the lens hood rule.  His thinking is
> that a lens with a lens hood draws attention to the camera and makes it
> more intimidating.  He feels that most lenses are of sufficient quality
> that they don?t really need lens hoods for street work.
> 
> 
> Try to shoot at 1/125 or faster.  There is a big difference between 1/60
> and 1/25.  Hadn?t realized how much.
> 
> 
> Choose between color and black and white and shoot that all week...the
> workshop was on street photography, not on post production of street
> photography.
> 
> 
> Don?t crop...2 reasons, if you frame your shot better you won?t need to
> crop and 2) he wanted to see loosely edited un-cropped images to help him
> help you be a better editor of your own work.
> 
> 
> Always have your camera ready to shoot.
> 
> 
> Anticipate what will happen.
> 
> 
> If you see something happening, stay with it.  Don?t shoot a few frames and
> leave.  Stay with it and see what happens and keep shooting.
> 
> 
> Don?t be afraid to shoot photos.  Don?t try to be sneaky, be open and
> friendly.
> 
> 
> He encouraged us to shoot horizontal, the thinking being that you can tell
> more of a story in a horizontal space.  Vertical photos tend to focus on
> one thing, with a horizontal you have more space to tell a story, more
> context, things going into and out of the frame.
> 
> 
> Software:  Peter edits in Photo Mechanic and converts to BW in photoshop
> and re-edits in Photo Mechanic.  Very simple.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Schedule:
> 
> 
> We would meet each day at Peter?s flat and hand in a flash drive with 50
> images from the previous day?s shooting.  That?s a lot of images to shoot.
> Some folks struggled with it at first but eventually everyone became more
> prolific.  Peter would do a rough edit of your images and then a second
> passthrough of your images.  There was casual discussion of the
> photography...There wasn?t a lot of micro-discussion of the images, as the
> week passed we all became better at quickly determining what images really
> worked, what images didn?t work at all and what images needed to be looked
> at a second time.  When you don?t shoot much you become attached to your
> ?didn?t really work? images, shooting  more gets you past that block.
> 
> 
> After the editing session, there would be something else; one day we
> reviewed prints of his retrospective that was being hung 2 days after the
> workshop was over.  On another day, the French photographer Gerard Uferas
> came to show his work.
> 
> <http://www.gerarduferas.com/gerard_uferas.php?lang=en>
> 
> 
> On another day we were treated to an visit by the black and white printer
> Voja Mitrovic
> 
> <
> http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/08/voya-mitrovic-part-i.html
>> 
> 
> Voja brought with him a stack of before and after prints of work by Peter,
> Salgado and many other photographers who he has printed for; this was one
> of those afternoons I will never forget.  Voja has printed the
> Cartier-Bresson Puddle Jumper image for years, and yes, it is cropped.  For
> the past 30 years he has been printing it from a 4x5 copy negative.  There
> was also discussion of what the next stage of silver printing would be and
> how to incorporate digital images into that workflow.  Duggal in NYC has
> been having some success on printing onto sliver paper from digital files.
> 
> 
> We had a couple of group dinners w/Peter at the Brasserie de l'Isle
> Saint-Louis, which I immediately recognized as the location of some well
> known photos.
> 
> <http://www.peterturnley.com/images/prints/02.jpg>
> 
> 
> On Friday the group edit session was focused at editing 15 images from each
> person?s work for the week and sequencing them into an online show.
> 
> 
> On Saturday morning, we viewed the final ?show? , looked at some more
> photos and talked about photography.  It was a nice end to a really
> exhausting week.
> 
> 
> Here's some photos:
> 
> 
> http://leowesson.com/workshop/index.html
> 
> Leo Wesson
> Photographer/Videographer
> 817.733.9157
> www.leowesson.com
> 
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