Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/10/28

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Subject: [Leica] Week 43 - Gilbert
From: Gilbert Plantinga <gilplant@earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2001 22:00:23 -0500

Thanks for all the encouraging response to last week's shot. Praise from so
many photographers whose work I truly respect, even if it seems slightly
over the top (I'm no HCB!) is certainly inspiring. Chris Hayden's formal
critique, sent off-list, showed me things in my work that I hadn't seen - I
knew it was a good shot when I saw the negative on the light box, but I
hadn't thought much about why.

The hard part is of course following up with the next image. This is street
photography, I can't go asking people to pose for me. The week after the WTC
disaster I saw two girls arm and arm with a firefighter and ruined a
wonderful shot by asking their permission (firefighters get lots of respect
in NY nowadays). So, on Monday, I just went looking for the next image. I
didn't feel that anything I got came close. I went back for more on Tuesday
with the same result. In an ordinary week I'm on the street two or three
days (it's a 165-mile drive round-trip). This week I was out shooting every
day through Saturday and I put 1,000 miles on my car!

On Friday I ran into Bruce Gilden in Times Square and had a great
conversation with him. He remembered me, "You're the guy from New Paltz with
the shot of the guy jumping off the building!" [See Week 7:
http://homepage.mac.com/~gilplant/picaweek/wk7.html]

I shot lots of unflattering pictures of old ladies (though I do think there
is an underlying empathy for the subjects in Bruce's work). I photographed
the homeless and one midget.

Nada! Zilch! Nothing I'm really proud of. But the wonderful thing about
becoming a street photographer is that there is no real definition of street
photography. And therefore, there's always a picture to be taken, and if I
can't see what I'm looking for in the people on the street, there's always
the street itself. The weather was beautiful. I put on a yellow filter and a
"longer" lens (the 35) and took shots of the buildings, exposed for the sky.
The woman in the foreground "cooperated."

http://homepage.mac.com/~gilplant/picaweek/wk43.html

Again, thanks for all the inspiring feedback. Comments on or off-list
appreciated as always.

Gilbert

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