Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/03/21

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Subject: [Leica] WAS: enough with Olympus NOW HCB
From: bd_colen at Harvard.edu (B.D. Colen)
Date: Tue Mar 21 07:19:48 2006

I believe that what you're saying, Walt, is a description of how HCB saw and
worked; he was attracted by the possibilities in situations, and then worked
them until he achieved his vision.


On 3/21/06 10:04 AM, "Walt Johnson" <walt@waltjohnson.com> wrote:

> Don:
> 
> Didn't  mean to indicate the HCB puddle jumper had Henri yelling encore,
> encore...till he got it right. Only that it was a situation happening
> more than once. One  interview of HCB  made when he was in his eighties
> seemed to show a man much too hyper to stand still for long.
> 
> Walt
> 
> p.s. At that distance, with a 50mm, it's all hyper focal.     :-P
> 
> 
> 
> Don Dory wrote:
> 
>> Walt,
>> I don't believe it was a set up.  If you look at the proof sheet, it was
>> originally shot as a horizontal and the print is a heavily cropped 
>> version.
>> If HCB set it up then I believe there would not be so much post 
>> production.
>>> From the contact sheet, it apears the puddle was a obvious spot for foot
>> travel and the hyperfocal distance means that once you identified the 
>> spot,
>> you could hang around for something interesting to jump out at you.
>> 
>> Don
>> don.dory@gmail.com
>> 
>> 
>> On 3/20/06, Walt Johnson <walt@waltjohnson.com> wrote:
>>  
>> 
>>> B.D.,
>>> 
>>> Now that we are back on course and discussion  images I have a question.
>>> Do you think the Saint-Lazare puddle jumper was a set up? Know anyone
>>> quick enough to get a scene like that with an old 1930s Leica? If it
>>> were a situation expected to occur then maybe but slice of life???
>>> Another questionable image is Capa's /Loyalist Soldier /bitting the
>>> dust. Having seen a sequence of that take I'll never believe it is real.
>>> 
>>> Would be very interested in your opinion.... Really admire HCB and Capa
>>> and don't think these instances made them less than great. As you know,
>>> sometimes we get carried away with enthusiasm. Can you imagine Capa
>>> returning home from Spain  and finding fame waiting  there?  Sure, he is
>>> going to jump in with both feet and say "hey fellas, that guy didn't
>>> really get shot". Well, at least when we die and get to Photographer
>>> Hell we can ask them in person.
>>> 
>>> Walt
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> B. D. Colen wrote:
>>> 
>>>    
>>> 
>>>> As I always tell my students - the "decisive moment" isn't the moment 
>>>> you
>>>> release the shutter, it's the instant when you see the photographic
>>>> possibilities in a situation and start working it. Think of the HCB 
>>>> photo
>>>>      
>>>> 
>>> of
>>>    
>>> 
>>>> the guy jumping the puddle - the decisive moment was that instant when 
>>>> he
>>>> saw the puddle through the fence, and realized what he could make of it.
>>>>      
>>>> 
>>> The
>>>    
>>> 
>>>> photo of the bike going past the bottom of the staircase? That would be
>>>>      
>>>> 
>>> the
>>>    
>>> 
>>>> moment he realize that the stair case and the curved street could yield 
>>>> a
>>>> visually interesting image - because of course we know that HCB was far
>>>>      
>>>> 
>>> more
>>>    
>>> 
>>>> interested in form, light, shapes and shadow than he was in people and
>>>> events. ;-)
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On 3/20/06 7:42 PM, "Ted Grant" <tedgrant@shaw.ca> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>      
>>>> 
>>>>>> HCB contact sheets. He said he was amazed at what a prolific shooter
>>>>>>          
>>>>>> 
>>> HCB >
>>>    
>>> 
>>>>>> was- shot after shot after shot after shot of the same subject, worked
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>          
>>>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Leica Users Group.
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>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>      
>>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Leica Users Group.
>>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>>> 
>>>    
>>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
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>> 
>> 
>>  
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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In reply to: Message from walt at waltjohnson.com (Walt Johnson) ([Leica] WAS: enough with Olympus NOW HCB)