Hey Steve, as I prepare for my next photography trip (Greece, Spain and Thailand) I’ve been thinking a lot about which cameras and lenses to bring and why. I like to travel light and originally planned on bringing just my M9 with one or two lenses. But as I look back at some of my older images shot with the Ricoh GRIII I’ve realized how capable that little camera is! I’ve included a few of my favorite shots with this camera to share with you and all the readers. What I love most about this camera is its ability to compose in square format as well as the very fast 28/f1.9 lens with almost zero distortion! It’s an amazing little pocketable camera and really compliments my style of shooting with the M9 as I tend to see and shoot very different images with both cameras. I’ve even done some large format prints with the GR and the results were surprisingly good!
The images were taken in Florence, Venice, Berlin and Prague. I like to think that although my photos lack obvious story elements they at least try to distill the essence and vibe of the places I visit through a very minimalist pov. What do you think?
ps: the frog image was shot in Venice at the Punta della Dogana where a sculpture of a naked boy holding a frog stands. I got in between the boy and the frog in order to get his pov of both the frog and the city. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/arts/design/05voge.html
Patrick
http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickconaty/sets/
–
–
–
[ad#Adsense Blog Sq Embed Image]
last picture is my choice, first one is last one.
The black and whites are GREAT……………………but the one with the woman in black has even more potential, your Ricoh has captured all details of the woman you just have to create selection (with a 50 pixel wide soft margin) using a lasso tool and re-adjust the histogram for that area alone. Then the woman comes out of the dark and her posture becomes just visible…..she wearing a black hood and is looking down which hides her face…..in the second shot I would stretch the foto down about 5% until the black band of the tarmac is as large as the white band on the wall…….in an excelent picture those small adjustments are extremely important to me. But remember that is awfully personal.
Great comments everyone and good crits Ed. I had already done exactly that but there was almost little to no detail to extract. It’s so noisy in the area that when brought up it became distracting. I might just have to paint in that small detail. I agree, a lot of people think she’s headless. 🙁
As it turns out, my M9 charger kicked the bucket early in my trip and since I’m never in the same place for very long it’s hard to order a new one. So I’ve been sticking with the phone and Ricoh as replacements for the rest of the trip. Not ideal but ya gota make due. I’m lucky I brought more than one camera!
Nice work. It gos to show that it doesn’t matter how expensive your camera gear is… It’s what you do with it that counts. Enjoy your travels which ever kit you decide to take along 🙂
+1 So many great photos out there if you know what to look for. To get a great photo you could use any camera really but the more people expect the camera to make magic the less time they are prepared to invest in actually using their eyes and their creativity. Such a good example this of using a perfectly adequate camera to get excellent photographs. The more one marvels at the fancy camera and its features, the more terrific scenes pass you by!
.
All great shots – especially the ingenious one of the frog! But I have to turn the brightness up so far on my screen to see the distinction between shades of grey, that the glare really hurts my eyes. That frog shot is so enjoyable and inventive!
my god, is that black placard in the last photo in the *gasp* center of the frame? where are the composition police when you need them?!!!
f’in love it! i like the first one quite a bit, too. great stuff on your website, as well. whichever camera you decide to take, enjoy your journey and hope to see a full report when you return.
blessings
I noticed that too. Very poor composition! Well spotted! 😉
Great photos! Thanks for sharing.
The subject in that photo is not about the composition or the content. I see in this photo a deeper sense, there is an esoteric meaning expressed in the symbolism that one can read in it. The wall is separated by the lower step’s wall, upper wall in Clear, lower in dark, in the clear wall is an evil black spot, and, there is a light.
The step shows 7 mosaics, similar to chess boards. Now, even if this picture might be or seem to be badly composed, the one who shot it had a different view of the world that the both of you and some other blind men. There is a profound spiritual meaning in this shot. I do not know if this is intentionally, I can not figure out it is coincidence, there is no such thing as coincidence. For sure, you need to be familiar with the secret doctrine, the mysticism of Kabbalah, to see those things.
A spot is the light, a light in the darkness, 7 chakras, a way paved of good and evil, like a chessboard, see what the shot tells you. This photo is not about something seen just like that, this photo is a picture of your inner self.
Last one! Wow!
Wow, awesome shots! I like the perspective of the last shot.
Those are pretty incredible. Have a safe trip!
beautiful, is that a guy without a head on third photo?
would think it’s a lady with her head face down towards her left..
it’s a very powerful shot IMO, great capture here.. wish you were able to help out with her situation..