RE: [Leica] Not having contributed in a while

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Thanks for the good questions, Jeff - First, the bad news....the portrait of
Chloe was shot with either - I honestly can't remember - the Nikon 60 2.8 AF
D macro, or the Nikon 85 1.4 AF D - my guess is the 85.

As to the question about how I work....other than a couple of occasions when
I have asked two subjects to push their heads together, I don't ever give
instructions to subjects when doing this kind of shooting. In fact, when
some starts to step in front of me, realizes I'm shooting, and hesitates and
apologizes, I ask them to ignore me and just do what they were doing. I do
find that I - or at least my cameras - become transparent. When I spent the
day with Chloe and her parents I certainly chatted with her parents, but
that chatting helps make me part of the background. I find I can then chat,
with the camera to my eye, and shoot, without having the subject react to
the camera.

As to the stuff of Gary Hall, because there were some specific kinds of
shots the client wanted, I had to ask him to go swimming - pretty ironic
;-) - and I also had to ask him to do some butterfly laps, as he normally
doesn't swim the butterfly - ever. In fact, he joked about the fact that
with all the zillions of times he's been photographed, I'm "the only
photographer in the world" to have shots of him swimming the butterfly. (NO,
I don't think that's a claim to fame - I just think it's funny.)

Like you, I've had people tell me to get lost, so I get lost - very briefly.
Weddings are a different kind of animal from what I usually do. While they
are certainly family events, they are MUCH higher in tension, and much more
alcohol fueled, than most family gatherings I'd be photographing.;-)

B. D.

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Jeffery
Smith
Sent: Saturday, June 01, 2002 5:28 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] Not having contributed in a while


B.D.,

Nice "day in the life" series. How difficult is it to make yourself
transparent in these assignments? Do you slip around without talking much,
or is there interaction with the subjects (as in "hold it! keep doing what
you're doing" etc.)? When I was doing some candid stuff of grooms and their
ushers, etc. getting ready for a wedding, I kept my mouth shut and just
sort of puttered around with a 105/2.5 Nikkor. Even this, some of the guys
would tell me to get lost (a tad hung over from the night before).

You seem to be using several different lenses. What did you use for the
first portrait of the child whose eye is in razor sharp focus?

Jeffery Smith


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