Archive for November, 2006
Stern Rebuttal
Some glimpse of hope in the Global Warming madness. The Stern report is now being comprehensively debunked in the British and US press. Carbon of Massive Disruption anyone?
Of course the Belgian and French press just repeat what they were told is in the report, no questions asked.
Global warming is exposed as a scam here, here and here.
Stephane :: Nov.06.2006 :: Random Thoughts :: No Comments »
What's In A name?
This is called Lumière d’Argent, which is French for Silver Light. Of course I got that domain name when I was using film and since I do only B&W, this was silver film. It is probably a little awkward to keep such a name for a blog that will cover mostly digital experiences. However, there will be galleries of my previous work, done with silver and we wouldn’t be where we are without silver. So, why keep that name if only in memory of a great medium that help photographers so much?
Stephane :: Nov.06.2006 :: Random Thoughts :: No Comments »
First Photo Blog Ever?
I am finishing to read the last edition of ‘Correspondance New-Yorkaise’ of Depardon. It is in a book called ‘New-York’ and takes the form of a longish but interesting interview of Depardon by Alain Bergala.
For those who never heard of this, in Summer 1981, the french paper Libération sent photographer Raymond Depardon to New-York for the month of July with the mission to send one photo per day, everyday, in print. Depardon did so and annotated each photo with some thoughts he had that day, related or not to the photo. Those annotations were faithfully printed in the paper with the picture. This has now become a classic work in photography and might very well be the first ever photo blog.
Stephane :: Nov.03.2006 :: Photography :: No Comments »
No Zooms!
Not wanting to get religious, here. During my first Canon phase, with the excellent EOS 650, 50 and 3, I used to use zooms. I even had the wonderful 28-70 f/2.8 L. This lens was excellent, I only have good memories of it, save the weight. The bulk attracted too much attention too, but I felt the compromise was good.
Since then, I have moved to a Leica M6, then to a Rollei SL66 and then to a view camera. Of course, none of these cameras take zooms. It did wonders.
I have learned to look, seek and see with defined angles of view. More importantly, I have separated the angle selection from the triggering moment. With the Canon, my shots had most often nothing in it because I consistently missed what was interesting, or relevant or whatever. I was zooming. It really distracted me too much and with the Leica I was concentrating on what was in front of me instead of fiddling with the camera and the zoom.
This has been reinforced by the medium format experience.
I am sure zooms are a great asset for many photographers. I understand they save time to people able to use them well. I was not one of them. I cant see what changed since. But I am not getting any zoom for my new Canon. It might be worth it to try again, but I just don’t want to hold such a heavy thing again. Getting back hand-hold-ability with my main camera, I prefer to keep concentrating on what is in front of me than getting distracted by the weight, the bulk and that extra control that I don’t really need.
Stephane :: Nov.02.2006 :: Gear :: No Comments »
