Before I go on, let me look at two of the most common ways people become 'professional' photographers. There are those who were looking for a business to get into, and for whatever reason, they choose photography. Next are those who have developed a passion for photography, and decide to see if they could make a living with their camera. I certainly fall into the second group. I carried a camera everyplace, for years. By the time I decided to 'turn pro', I had photographed 100s of weddings, family portraits, and events, as a weekend warrior. I read everything I could. In the 1970s - 1990s, there were very few workshops, and the only classes were part of formal programs that let to certificates and degrees -- but were, mostly, full-time endeavors, and not suited for people with jobs -- especially if those jobs had you living on four continents. Consequently, since I couldn't take classes, I began giving them. In the process of teaching film development, print making, and basic SLR photography, I learned much more than I ever taught.

If you went into photography as a business, I don't know what you do when you retire. If you took your passion and made it into a business, you probably are still a photographer when you retire. Well, I don't really know about everyone else, and that is for each to decide, and not really more than an introduction to this post.

This week, I am beginning two projects that are dear to my heart, but may, or may not interest anyone else on the planet. One project, I'll call the iPhone project. In January (2012), I traded my Blackberry for an iPhone 4s. I carry that thing everywhere, and subject my Facebook followers to a couple of images, nearly everyday. You may see what I see on a walk to the beach -- a neighbor's doorway, a plant on my patio, fishermen, surfers, girls in bikinis -- what ever catches my eye. So, project iPhone will gather the past three months of iPhone images and put them in one place -- here on the blog. I'll write a separate post, to provide a place for those photos.

The second project is a bit more daunting. My first wife, Marsha, after 30+ years of divorce, is still looking for ways to 'punish' me. Seriously, this week she gathered up a few hundred black & white negatives and color slides, and sent them to me. My job is to scan them so that we have digital copies. A quick look through what she sent shows slides from my high school proms (1962 & 1963), family photos from the later 60s and early 70s, landscape and people photos from the 70s.

Here is the challenge: Cleaning all these images to make acceptable digital versions. Oh, another challenge -- I don't have a scanner:-) The later was solved when a dear friend and photographer, Lorrie Prothero, offered to lend me her Epson 3200 flatbed scanner. Even though the negatives were in sleeves and in a binder, and the slides are all in boxes, I had no idea how much dust and grime could build up on pieces of film, over the decades.

My method is to take very clean pieces of lens cleaning cloth, and an Artic Butterfly to each frame. It is a tedious process, and not always completely successful. If anyone has a better process -- that you have used and know to work -- (not looking for theory or 3rd-hand info -- I'd love to hear it.

Well, here is the first result. This is a candid shot of Turkish women, shopping in a bazaar. Often, in Turkey, when I would raise my camera, men would strike a very formal pose, and women would simply turn away. As a male, attempting to take a photo of young women, on the street, an even different reaction could be provoked. Consequently, my modus operandi would be to hang the camera from my neck and release the shutter without paying any particular attention to the camera. At first, I tried this with a TLR (twin lens reflex). I loved the larger 2 1/4 x 2/ 1/4 negative, but the camera just seemed too bulky, and I had to changed film too often. Finally, I settled on a Pentax Spotmatic 35mm. Using a 35mm lens, set to about f8 - f16, I could set the exposure anytime I changed direction or otherwise found myself in a new lighting situation. By keeping the aperture small, and using a slightly wide-angle lens, I could keep my depth of field from about the tip of my nose to infinity. I hung the camera around my neck, keeping it straight and against my sternum. Running a cable release into my pocket, I was able to shoot, at will, and draw no attention to myself or my camera. The B&W film gave some latitude on exposure, and since I did my own developing and printing, I could easily correct the crop, when required. Slides, of course, required a bit more precision.

Bellow is my first attempt to resurrect these old negatives. It was shoot in the early 1970s, in a Turkish bazaar. The film was Tri-X (ASA 400), in a Pentax Spotmatic, with a 35mm lens, hand developed, by me. I scanned the negative on Lorries' Epson 3200. The image was a little warm -- leaning toward sepia (slightly). Even though I had cleaned the negative, I still had some dust to remove, and I took it into Photoshop and used levels and curves to take the tone just bit cooler. There is a scratch that I decided to leave -- giving the photo a bit of character, as befits its 40-year-old age. As I set up my 'production' line, I expect that I will use LightRoom, rather that opening Photoshop. I may even leave the slightly warmer tone, as I like it, even if it isn't a true reflection on the bare negative.

For anyone who has worked with old negatives, I'd be interested in your process.

Turkish women in bazaar - 1970s

Turkish shoemaker in the street

Street Corner Fish Market

Turkish Street Scene on Market Day

Turkish Man Buying Potatoes

Turkish Man in Street

Old Man at Market-

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Easter Bunny?

This morning, I walked out in the front yard, and this is what I found.

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There were no authorities in sight.

I approached the group, and was immediately met by two handshakes -- on from a young man, who was proud to show of his Occupy HB t-shirt and the Star Wars themed sign he was making.

Occupy HB t-shirt and Star Wars influenced sign

The next greeter was Jesse James -- a dog who seemed happy to shake with a stranger, get his chin scratched, and serve as part of the frame for his owner's photo.

Jesse James Welcomes Visitors to Occupy HB

In the few minutes that I was sitting there, talking with the protestors, I saw two people, who were walking by, stop to chat for a minutes, and I also noticed a car drive by and someone hollered, "Get a job.". Viviana, told me that they had been there for six days, but where talking with the city about moving to a location near Main Street and PCH, because some parents had complained that they were too close to the high school (the group is currently located on the edge of the civic center parking lot, across the street from Huntington Beach HS). While Viviana had a ready smile, and a very friendly personality, her 'focus' seemed to be one of correcting civil inequalities. Not much to argue with in the ideal! However, it seems to me that the whole Occupy Movement lacks direction, in that members either have very broad, and difficult to define objectives, or they have their own very specific goals, that are not necessarily in sync with the movement as a whole.

Vivian Using Her Smile to Correct Civil Inequalities

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OK, so about a month ago, I bought the 'most popular camera in the world' -- the iPhone. The iPhone4s, to be specific. ... and I'm addicted to it. For one thing, it is always there, ready to capture anything that catches my eye.

Having reached a stage, in my life, where I am a bit more sedentary that I should be, I have taken to walking a few miles, as many days, each week, as I can. Those walks have become mini photo safaris -- with iPhone always available.

As many of you know, I am actively involved in the [b] School -- a social and mentoring network for professional and aspiring pro photographers. Yesterday, I had to opportunity to meet with Donal Doherty, a young and successful photographer from Derry, Northern Ireland. I met Donal at his hotel, in Newport Beach, and took him on a walking tour of the Balboa Peninsula. From there, we took the ferry across to Balboa Island, then drove south to Laguna Beach and Dana Point.

While I'm sure Donal will have some wonder photos, captured with his Canon dSLR, below are a few examples of what I saw through my iPhone.

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Most where shot in the downtown area of Huntington Beach, CA, using an iPhone4s and an app called Camera+

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We rented a Ford and headed off toward I-40, crossing through northern Arizona. The first night, we stopped at Ash Fork, AZ. From what I could see, there were as many boarded up buildings, in downtown Ask Fork, as there were active businesses. Oh, well, at $29 for the night, it was warm, it not luxurious. Of course, we did have to make dinner out of what we could find in the snack bar of the local gas station.

The sky, in each of these photos gives you some idea of the impending weather. More about that in the next post.

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There are different groups of people that you can include in your travel photos to make them more attractive. The first are your friends and family that you are traveling with. The second are other travelers and crowds of tourists going to the same places as you. Lastly you have local people going about the daily business.

The easiest people to include in your photos are your friends and family. They are often willing models and want to have great photos of their trip to keep as reminders. Friends and family are also willing to spend time helping to get the perfect shot. Treat each excursion like a documentary and try to photograph every stage of the trip from hailing a taxi to having a drink afterwards. Many people focus only on the famous landmarks and miss out the small details of traveling that often make the best photographs.

Don’t forget do take silly travel photographs as these can be the most memorable reminders of a trip. Use perspective distortion to show your kids leaning on a monument or photograph them refusing to eat strange local food.

Travel photos of friends and family are not only useful as souvenirs. Magazines and travel websites are crying out for images that show people enjoying themselves in famous places. They want images that their clients can imagine taking themselves. Photos of your family and friends enjoying themselves at a destination make it easier for others to imagine going there.

If you are traveling alone or have a shy family then you can always photograph other travelers. Never worry if you arrive at an attraction and it is full of tourists. Treat the bustle as an opportunity to document the crowds. Try and photograph the contrasts between modern tourists and ancient ruins or works of art. Get above the crowds and photograph the patterns that they form as they walk around. Try shooting for low down to show points of interest through a mass of legs. If everybody is photographing something don’t just copy them and take an identical photo. Instead get a far more interesting shot of the crowd all pointing their cameras at the same thing.

Including local people in your travel photos makes your shots feel authentic especially if you can capture moments of everyday life. You should always ask for permission before photographing locals as many people don’t like having their photo taken. Busy public markets and festivals are excellent places to photograph locals. Everyone feel less shy and more willing to smile in a busy public place.

Including people in your photographs of landmarks and monuments gives them a sense of scale. You only truly appreciate the size of the Eiffel Tower in a photo when you see the tiny people queuing at the bottom. The eye is instinctively drawn to figures in a photograph even if they are very small. A landscape including faraway farms and villages is far more interesting if there are people working in the fields.

Including people in your travel photographs is a simple way of making them memorable and original. Use your family and friends as models and document your travels as if you were a reporter. Your travel snaps will be all the better for it.

Joshua Tree

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