the BONGOLIAN

N o MAS!

2008-07-20T20:03:00.000-07:00

I wanted to do some SP today, but before I could go, I had to get some paintings done. Before I could do the paintings, I had to make the panels. Before I could make the panels I had to pick up a table saw. Before I could use the table saw I had to put it together.. and there-in lays the rub.

The saw was made in China. Well,it wasn't extactly "made" there - 'cause like the United States the Chinese don't actually make things anymore. What they do is stuff a bunch of nuts, bolts, screws, washers, springs, into a box made of recycled Starbucks cups and ship it off for us to put together.

They always include a diagram - the same diagram no matter what the product. You can't figure it out anyway. Oh yeah, and how 'bout changing the ribbon on the old dot matrix printer next time. Another thing that Berlitz English course - get a refund. I should go to the Olympics, take a side trip and look these jokers up. "you think it's funny? Funny like a clown? We amuse you??"

We've been so busy putting all this lead-paint-bird-flu-
erector-set reject crap together we took our eye off the thieves at the gate. Chinese to the left of us, C.E.O.'s to the right, and here we are - stuck in the middle-class quick sand goo- and got that sinking feeling, that ache in the pit of the stomach that says this time it's for real, this time they screwed the pooch good and there won't be any goin back.

Where's bONGO??

2008-07-12T23:17:00.000-07:00

When I first started out in SP, I would sometimes make a shot that I was so sure at the time was "great" that I would get this massive adrenaline rush like the top of my head would explode. This shot did that. Not 'cause I thought it was that great, but 'cause a bus laid on the air horn as it whizzed a few millimeters around me.
If you haven't figured it out yet, I was a few feet off the curb aligned where the two mirrors intersect, and where my reflection would vanish along with half the bus.

ZIG Life

2008-07-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

I checked out the Sony A300 - what a sweet package. The live-view with articulated lcd is da bomb for the street. But not wanting to invest in yet another DSLR system, I picked up a used first generation Zigview to hang on the back of my K10D. Total cost including shipping and the Pentax adapter came to $85. It turns out this thing has some major limitations - but if you can get one for around $100 or less I think it's worth the money. The screen swivels 360 degrees but only usable in the up and down positions as you get a chopped view in the other angles.

Switching back and forth from Zig to viewfinder requires two hands and ten or fifteen seconds (an eternity in Sp time) but it can be done - hint: make sure you wear a shirt with a pocket. The second and third generation zigviews look like a better implementation but way pricey and from what I've gathered have the same 1.3 cmos sensor.

bONGO, zig - zaggin down the street...

Huh? WOW! WOW! Huh,?

2008-06-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

Ed Ruscha, the artist once said:
Good art is Huh Wow, while Bad art is Wow Huh.
Here we have Wow! - cool shot of a skateboarder!... but then ...yeah so, Huh?
.
Here we have a guy with a cup of coffee - Huh? Then we notice the hair -wirey - like the trolley wires! And doesn't caffine make you wired! - WOW!

Then again Peter Schjeldahl, the art critic, once said:
"Art isn't inherently anything.... The possibility that the whole thing is bullshit can't be excluded."

Undeletable

2008-06-13T19:20:00.001-07:00

Taken about two years ago, well after my "ban on bum shots" pledge. I've never printed or displayed this image but there is something about it - the shined shoe sticking out from the blanket I think - that keeps me from deleting it. I have a lot of "undeletables" enough to make an alternative collection.They have been dragged across several hard drives now, but I can't bring myself to use them or delete them. Some are borderline good others not so much but all impervious to "Del"...
ciao bongo

A Fake and A Fraud

2008-05-19T19:29:00.000-07:00

a fake and a fraud -that's what I feel like every time I sit down to update this blog 'cause the truth is I haven't been doing much if any street photography lately - I'm ashamed to admit. I'm a bit burned out and bummed out but not completely blacked out - yet. I've seen some pretty good SP lately and it's got my competitive juices going some. I want to hit the bricks with a new attitude and a new set of eyeballs - forget all the BS I've been sprouting here, and see if I can still take a decent snap... we shall see.

Why?

2008-04-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

x ("Riddle Road" acrylic on 15x30 canvas by bONGO)

As street photographers we rarely know the motive, the "why" of the actions we capture.

We have at least a physical description of the "who", and we know the "where", "when" and "how",... but the "why we can only surmise. Maybe that mystery is part of the charm, part of what makes street photography work...

Things Nobody Told You #4

2008-04-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

We didn't start the fire....

It was always burning since the world's been turning...

Things Nobody Told You #3

2008-04-11T21:35:00.001-07:00

"there are exceptions, but mostly sp seems to be a passing moment in most photogs' lives. The expenditure of energy and time, the daily grind, for the usual meager return (and diminishing returns), naturally wears you down, particularly if you're not a pro." Noll Lluma

I'm not there yet but I can see how you could get there from here. This will be my summer of sanguine solace. I will be the first one on the street and I will be the last one on the bus back home.

soldier on...

Workers

2008-04-09T17:47:00.000-07:00

One segment of society not to be overlooked by the street photographer is the city worker, the shop keeper, the maintenance men, the working people that make the city go.

Bums, kids, dogs and city workers...

about the only ones that still do something besides shopping, talking on cell phones or drinking lattes.

Back To The Future

2008-04-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Sigma's new DP1 - 28mm fixed lens APS foveon sensor pocket camera comes with an LCD screen, but the optical view finder is an extra $150. Even though I don't have the camera yet, I figured while I'm waiting I'd see if I could come up with a less expensive and perhaps better finder for it. I looked around for a cheap camera that I could hack the finder out of and found this little Point and Shoot 35mm film camera for $4.99.

It's not much but has a 27mm lens and finder to match. In fact the finder is about as big and clear as anything I've ever seen..

The back element measures a whopping one inch diagonally. That is huge. I was about to start ripping it out when it occured to me that since I don't have the DP1 yet it might be fun to see what this relic could do. I put in some batteries and it fired right up. It has focus lock and adjusts the flash compensation. The lens is an all glass 27mm f6.3. If I snap anything worthwhile with it, I'll post it here.

ciao bONGO

Things Nobody Told you # 2

2008-03-21T17:07:00.000-07:00

I have quite a few snaps where people appear to be making eye contact with me, but actually most if not all of those were taken with the half-mast bow grip, the 140L grip, or some other variation.

When you make eye contact with a stranger a tremendous amount of information is exchanged - too much information - more than your brain can process or act upon in the tenth of a second you have to press the shutter.

More often than not when you make eye contact you'll hesitate and that fraction of a second is all the time some Clown with an umbrella needs to step in and ruin the shot.

Another thing: Eye contact invites conversation - you're not there for a meet-n- greet nor do you want to have to explain yourself to every slob with a shopping bag or latte cup that happens to look in your direction.

So AVOID eye contact. Take that snap and move on.

Things Nobody Told You # 1

2008-03-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Okay - what's this... this could be good, this could be something..

Yeah - this is gonna be like something from the cover of Vogue... all I gots to do is wait till she gets alongside then pivot and ....

DOH! Watch your back, check the rearview - know what's creepin up behind you.

Sharper Image

2008-03-06T19:27:00.000-08:00

If you found out your girlfriend was a female impersonator would you still kiss and hold hands?

Probably not, because although "she" would still be the same your perception of "her" would be radically altered.

That, in my opinion is why Sharper Image is in chapter 11.

Fifty dollar stainless steel nose hair trimmers with LCD light no longer confer status when they can be bought for $7.95 at widgetsRus.com. When your neighbor has one in his medicine cabinet, when you find one at a garage sale for $2.00, your perception of what constitutes a high status personal hygiene appliance is radically altered.

The lesson is that mass produced products are generally speaking a poor place to seek status. That is what one of a kind artworks are for. And art need not be expensive. The Image of being "Sharper" is about (or should be)a refined sense of aesthetics, of connoisseurship and charity. And if the art is something you made, if you are the arteest - even better.

Street Addiction

2008-02-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

More often than not a good photo depends on factors beyond your control. If you have good skills, some talent and are diligent you can boost the odds a little, but the bottom line is Street photography is gambling.

When I first started out I struggled for a few months until I figured out the basics and then, although I didn't appreciate it at the time, I had an incredible run of luck. True, I wasn't as discerning as I am now, and I had yet to harvest all the low hanging SP fruit, but putting that aside, I had a remarkable string of luck.

I now consider myself a journeyman Street Photographer, and as such I've had to come to grips with the reality that getting one good shot in five hundred is for this game, not bad. It's like all this time I thought I was playing chess but was really playing Chinese Checkers. My initial beginner's luck skewed my judgement on how big a factor luck actually plays in SP. Yes skill matters, but you can't photograph what's not there. Are you willing to bet five hundred times, a thousand times, before you get a hit?

Are you feeling lucky? Come on, maybe around the next corner, or just down the street, just one more shot, just one, just one more shot and you'll be even for all the time and shoe leather. All you need is just a little luck.

Split Decision

2008-02-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

I had only a narrow angle to aim without shooting into harsh sunlight and waited to the last second to raise and thus reveal the camea. They first hesitated, bunching up, then one turned away while the other one tried to bolt.
Most people when confronted by a stranger pointing a camera at them will either try to:

HIDE by turning away from the camera or blocking their face.
or RUN by walking briskly through or around the spot where the camera is aimed.

In this case it was a split decision.
I took this snap several years ago, and while I like the play of horizontal and vertical lines on the shirts and how the "hider" appears to be contemplating the checkered wall, today I probably wouldn't bother taking the snap. But at the time it was something of a turning point for me. I had successfully predicted their range of behaviour and had used it to my advantage.

The Quiet Iconoclast

2008-02-10T15:19:00.000-08:00

The city is a grid where -like data points on a graph - people move about.Moving as directed, as planned, as predicted save for the Quiet Iconoclasts - those with their nascent nudges of non compliance.Like a jay walker caught in a swath of morning light.

the quiet iconoclasts, the data points that fall off the line.

Breaking News!

2008-02-01T18:33:00.000-08:00

A Decisive Moment was narrowly averted today when an alert Insecurity Guardian detained a would-be Imagist found with nearly two-and-a-half pounds of plastic Nikon strapped to his wrist. The suspect appeared to be a street photographer and had concealed on a memory card various jpegs of conscientious consumers carrying shopping bags, swaddled in cell phone cocoons or drip fed from latte cups.

This kind of jpeg, Investigators warned, can easily be uploaded and viewed electronically by foreign operatives. A spokesman for the HomeLand Profit Alliance stated that all persons not conspicously consuming will be prosecuted regardless of the law and those found carrying cameras could face water boarding.

The Blistered Blink

2008-01-20T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here, now live in a blistered blink.
No dress rehearsals. No engraved invitations. BE Here NOW. BOOM. Take the snap or get off the street! BOOM. Do it. DO IT! Raise the friggin camera NOW use whatever settings you've got NOT the shoulda-woulda-coulda you wish you had - SNAP. Out- a focus - underexposed - it don't matter NOW or NEVER this way or no way.
Life is a blistered blink, baby... a blistered blink.

Dog Daze

2008-01-10T16:56:00.000-08:00

Bums, Kids, and dogs are often the only interesting thing happening on the street. Bums and kids come with certain ethical baggage that you have to learn to deal with, and dogs..... well dogs are just not as easy to get good street photographs of as you might think. First, they're low to the ground,

second, they move fast...

and third, they have their own agendas...

For awhile I thought a good technique was to pretend to tie your shoe - that gets the camera close to the ground for a dog eye view...

But it can also make you look like a pervert doing up-skirt photography, so be advised.

Good street photos with dogs are challenging but worth the effort.

Hapless New Year

2008-01-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

I started thebONGOLIAN a year ago with the goals of posting at least once a week ( I came close with 47 ) -- and to post only my own opinions and observations rather than rely on links to other people's stuff. A lot of blogs are comprised mostly of links - I know because I read and enjoy them, but I wanted to see what I could come up with "on my own" as it were.

That seemed to work for better or worse until about two months ago. I've had bouts with ennui before, but this is something more sinister, malignant.

In the past when my street photography wasn't working I would paint, or write, or binge on galleries to rekindle the fire.

That doesn't seem to be working this time but I'm not that concerned about it.

I only made one resolution for the new year. To be a better human being. Not a better photographer, or artist but a better person. What does that mean? How do you go about doing it? I'm not sure but I hope to find out.

War On Xmas

2007-12-22T18:22:00.000-08:00

For the last several years I've been a photo journalist on the War On Xmas. This year I've yet to find much new to report, although admittedly I've been mostly in the green zone out of harm's way. So CLICK HERE to see the War On Xmas's past - and I'll add to the set any yule fire fights I might engage before year's end.

Bat Street Photography

2007-12-11T15:36:00.000-08:00

Here's one fresh off the frontal lobes - Bat Street Photography (BSp)

Hit the street blind folded (or at least with your eyes closed) - use your sense of hearing, your sense of smell, your street acumen to capture what your eyes cannot... also try not to step out in front of a bus....

Bat Street Photo no. 1 by bONGO.

BSp is like a work-out in the dojo, only you do it in the street... with a camera ... and nobody gets wacked - hopefully.

Camera Color Coincidence

2007-12-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

Coincidence - when two unrelated events appear to be arranged or have some causal connection.

Color Coincidence - when it involves color.

Camera Color Coincidence - when there is a street shooter around to capture it.

Here two moving objects - man and bus would be gone seconds after the shutter snap. That transcient aspect is a plus but the photo could use more eye candy other than the left edge.

Here the color coincidence is between a stationary color reference and a (somewhat) transcient object. The man in black apparently discovering the coincidence is a plus but I can't help but wonder if the man in purple might have chose to wear a purple shirt knowing he was going to dine at Purples.Here the color coincidence is between two stationary objects - but is more interesting visually than the others - AND there is another reason why the third photograph will prevail, where the other two will eventually get the delete key - .

Yes, I enhanced the colors in all three photos - but the man in the first photo really was wearing red and yellow, and the man in the second really was wearing purple. But and this is a big BUT - if they were not I could have easily have changed them to achieve "color coincidence".

However in the third photo we know from life experience that those colors are true - that curbs by fire hydrants and driveways are painted yellow, that Yellow Tail wine uses a yellow tailed kangaroo in it's ads and this adds a certain cash value to the color coincidence that the others lack.

Street Pano Head # 3

2007-11-25T16:04:00.000-08:00

Okay.. I'm burned out on this project - but here goes: The latest NOT field tested prototype.

First the basic criteria for a Street Pano head as I see it:

1. Must not interfere with normal street shooting.

2. Be quick to set up and unobtrusive in use.

3 Provide for smooth stable pan around nodal point while handheld.

So I gathered this stuff:

And made this:

That fits on the camera like so:

and then you use it like this:The plastic bottle neck attaches at the nodal point using a cable tie and the rotates around the dowel. The concept I think is reasonable sound, the execution could use some refinements. That's it for now.

Street Pano Head

2007-11-15T19:10:00.000-08:00

CHAPTER ONE
I am not very patient but I am persistant, an odd combination that sometimes leads me down strange paths. This is one of them. I wanted to make a pano- head for the street snake. The basic criteria required something to hold the camera vertical and allow easy panning around the nodal point. I went to Lowes and bought this: And made this:The camera mounts vertically placing the handle right under the nodal point. The camera swivels on the bolt, and the street snake attaches to the eye bolt. I was testng it and seemed to work okay but then it broke - right where the two pieces of aluminum are epoxied. A nut and bolt would solve the problem...

CHAPTER TWO
But then I got a "better" idea, so (chapter TWO) I got this stuff-

And I made this:

Same idea, but the camera mount is different and the grip is made like this:

Two nuts are epoxied to strips of aluminum and the end of the bolt threads into the tilt head. When the camera pans the bolt spins on the nuts. That means for a 180 degree pano, the camera would move up (or down) 1/32 of an inch. Since it's hand held that a amount of movement is tolerable and it allows for a pretty cool design.. Heres the bottom view:Another view.

But, and it pains me to admit this.. it seems a little clumsy and ominous for street work... and... I have a much better idea. Cheap, easy, effective, transparent on the street... stay tuned for the THIRD (and final?) CHAPTER.

Down But Not Out

2007-11-13T19:39:00.000-08:00

I've been working on an exciting new piece of Street Photography gear that I was hoping to debut tonight. I'd made a working prototype and was taking pictures of it - when it broke. Fortunately there is a fix but it means a few days delay.

And as I'm writing this rather off-the-cuff fill-in post, I realized that I'm really into problem solving. Even my approach to Street Photography and Art in general is that it is a problem to be solved. But while there are technical and graphic code quandarys the Truth as it is revealed to me is that Art is NOT a crossword puzzle nor a quadratic equation.

Art is Fashion. And if you are a Street Photographer or an Artist of any stripe, then you are in the Fashion Industry.

Art is fashion. Art is a hemline.

SHOW TIME

2007-11-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

When it comes to displaying your photos...The Web is cool. Books are nice.

But the true test, the art-historical standard for the battle of hearts and minds, takes place on The Wall.

Works on paper - watercolors, charcoles, photographs, etc. - have traditionally been hung in glassed frames with mats. But mats are to photographs what button down collars are to shirts. Stuffy, stifling, out-dated and ultimately unnecessary.

But that was then and this is NOW - for works in sizes up to 18" x 24" - the bONGO BOX:

Not available in stores anywhere, but you can make it yourself. You'll need an acrylic box frame -( an 11x14 goes for around $6.US):Take out the cardboard insert and throw it away. Trace around the outside edges of the acrylic box onto a piece of MDF and then cut it out. Next make a cradle for the MDF out of 1x2's or something similar. Glue the MDF to the cradle. The sides of the MDF/cradle and the the sides of the acrylic box should all be flush..

If you don't have a miter saw nor clamps for gluing make the cradle using straight cuts, then use books or something heavy to weight down the pieces until the glue dries.
Then sand as needed and paint. Next apply double stick archival tape to the back of the photo and attach it to the MDF (for long term display first glue acid-free paper to the MDF).

Now the last step - fasten the acrylic box using clear silcone sealant around the outside seam where the box touches the MDF - and voila!

OWN THE WALL with the bONGO BOX - photo display for the 21st century.

Set Theory

2007-11-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

When I first put my street photos on bONGOLIA, I loosely organized what I had at the time into groups of about ten images that seemed more or less to go together and called that a SET. Since that time whenever I get a new batch of nine or ten keepers I upload them and also call that a SET. But I think the term SET in photography should mean something more than "the latest wad of snaps I took". A SET should be a carefully constructed group of images organized around an implicit or explicit principle or theme. And the order of display should be just as considered as the selection of images.

For the street photographer that shoots as I do, with no subject nor agenda and no plan other than to take what the street has to offer - for that type of street shooter, creating a SET (in the proper sense of the term) becomes something of a venture fraught with agonizing reappraisals but rewarded with an occasional flash of insight.

I will have more to say about that process but for now I want to present the LINK to:

READERS - a SET of twenty-one images culled from my wad of snaps.

Finding Voice

2007-10-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

The screenwriter had written something to the effect that "the Frat Boy's boombox pops on and a window shatters into a shower of glass."

Rob Reiner critiquing the script suggested that instead of the glass shattering that the glass just rattle in its frame.
A different way of saying the same thing - that the boombox was turned up WAY loud. These two images at a certain level are saying the SAME thing. One is shattering glass, the other rattling. Find your voice.

WallWalker

2007-10-18T09:23:00.000-07:00

The Wall Walker shot is to Street Photography... what Fruit Still Life is to painting.

"Pear and a half" by Conor O'Brien

Stripped to a few basics: backdrop, character, pose, lighting, the Wall Walker shot is among the standards of Street Photography. The challenge then for both the painter...

"Tilt Life" by bONGO

and the Street Photographer...is to change it, mix it up, if only in an incremental fashion...

Precepts of Perception

2007-10-07T21:51:00.001-07:00

Cross dominance, where your favored eye is opposite that of favored hand occurs in about three percent of the population. It's easy to test: with both eyes open, raise your hand and point to an object at least 20 feet away, then alternately close your left eye and then your right. The one that stays focused on the target is your dominant eye.
I have always been left eye dominant - until recently. Somehow my right eye has taken over. It's very disconcerting to me. I've thought, maybe I'm becoming more analytical in my approach to visual arts, more "left brained" in my thinking, and thus the shift in eye dominance. There is some evidence according to an article in the Oxford Journals that this might indeed be what has happened.

I also see stereograms "inside out" and have the dubious honor of being the only person in recorded history to have eye-zoomed.

My point in all of this is that HOW we see is at least as important as what camera gear we use - that there are individual, subtle differences in our perceptual "hardware" that effects how our brain views the world and consequently the photographs we take.

Street Snake

2007-10-04T20:41:00.000-07:00

How slow can you go?

Monopods are often impractical for street work. They take too long to set up and are too conspicuous.

Tripods are the same only times three.

Leaning against something works, but where you want to be and where there's something to lean on are often two different places...

Image Stabilization (IS) is a great, but up-down and in-out movements are NOT corrected. IS only works for rotational motion in one plane (or two planes if you have a Pentax K10D).

Fortunately there is the StreetSnake by bONGO.The StreetSnake comes complete with 1/4" 20 eyebolt and 10" bungee cord. Simply screw the eyebolt into the tripod socket of your camera then attach one end of the bungee to the eyebolt and the other end to your belt buckle. The downward force exerted by the bungee creates "dynamic tension" that acts to stabilize the camera.

The was shot - as pictured - with a 25mm (35mm equiv) lens and ONE SECOND exposure using the StreetSnake ONE SECOND exposure, 105mm(35mm equiv.) lens and StreetSnake...

StreetSnake - available at better hardware stores everywhere

- tell 'em bONGO sent you.

Title Tempest

2007-09-29T20:25:00.000-07:00

Are titles important? What would the impact have been on these famous works if they had used these alternate titles?

"The Bridge" by Edvard Munch

"Squiggles" by Vincent VanGogh

"The Soda Jerk" by Edward Hopper

"The Smirk" ...

and "Bad Breath" by Leonardo Da Vinci.But a photographer might snap as many pictures in an afternoon as an easel artist paints in a career. If he were to title each he might come to the agonizing realization that a lot of his pictures bear striking similarities, that he pretty much keeps taking the same half-dozen pictures over and over again.

But do we really want our works to be known as "dcr112378.jpg" or some such? What is the right approach? Hopefully you're not expecting an answer from me at this point, but I can proffer this -

Title only for good reason, and after careful consideration....

"Cosmonautics" by bONGO...

Second Sight

2007-09-25T18:40:00.001-07:00

So this blind guy comes out of a building and his cane is bouncin around like a metranome at a polka party - bam bam bam bam he's whacking the sidewalk with these high-stick arcs, people ducking for cover. Down the block I see this guy sitting on a ledge, back turned, totally absorbed with a book - and I know these two are on a collision coarse for a SP moment. Only I'm a couple yards behind the blind swordsman, way out of position, so I scramble bobbin, weavin around parked cars and just get to the sweet spot with about a half-second to spare. I gotta fire from the hip - no time to line up just snap and ... the scene goes down exactly as predicted... but

When I get back to the homestead I see that I've chopped off the blind guy's head and torso and there's this weird dutch angle goin on and I'm bummed. That's where things sat for a few days and then slowly the fog of preconceived notions began to burn off and where I had once seen a botched attempt to capture a pratfall I now saw a complex geometry and mystery unfold. Had second sight saved me from my blind ambition - or was it just more masturbation ? I'll stop when I need glasses.

Kids R Kool

2007-09-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Taking pictures of kids has become such a delicate issue in our culture I even hesitated making this blog entry about them. But, then I suppose that's even more reason to do it. I sheldom take pictures of kids anymore, just 'cause of the flak potential from parents.

Outside of being as discreet and respectful as possible I don't know what to say -but then shouldn't you always try pretty much to be that way with all peeps?

Guardian Angel

2007-09-16T20:58:00.000-07:00

He picked it up off the sidewalk and presented it to me. He didn't say a word but it was clear he wanted me to have it. A small shiney pin of a "guardian angel"...

...since that day it has served as a talisman protecting me from my tendency to see people as mere compositional elements... reminding me of the compassion inherent in the human condition... and its capacity for kindness to strangers.

The SP Guardian Angel - may it protect us from ourselves.

Know When to Fold...

2007-09-10T03:25:00.001-07:00

I'm not particularly patient, but I am persistent - but you have to know when to cut your losses, fold, give up on a bankrupt idea... such as the idea I had about snapping an articulated bus as it rounds a corner -front and rear tires at the frame lines - ensnarling a pedestrian waiting at the curb. Something I blogged about wanting to do way back in January. The problems are manifold.
First, you have to catch two moving objects -that you have no control over- at a precise time and place. Second, to make the pic I had in mind , the bus would have to practically jackknife in order to fit a 1:1.5 aspect ratio. And third, it wouldn't really be that interesting of a pic anyway.

Another jackass idea I had was a roll-your-own custom camera bag. Nothing quite like walking around town with a $7 beer bag slung over your shoulder to attract the ladies. I finally chumped off and bought a $32. Tamrac Explorer 1. Great little bag. Sometimes all it takes to do the right thing is to stop doing the wrong thing.

SP and Shades

2007-09-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

When you wear sunglasses people tend to look at you longer and more often. NOT because you look cool, as the advertisers would have you believe, but because your eyes are shielded so the "rules" of eye contact with strangers are circumvented somewhat. Use it to your advantage.

Rope-A-Dope

2007-08-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

Muhammad Ali was a master tactician and strategist and toward the end of his boxing career when he could no longer Float like a Butterfly -or Sting Like A Bee, - he used the now famous Rope-A-Dope ploy - resting on the ropes, protecting himself from blows, luring his opponent into a trap then pounding 'em with crushing body blows and uppercuts.

I use the SP(street photography) version of the Rope-A-Dope when I'm tired, frustrated, or just 'cause I feel like it.

Go to a place where SP action is likely to occur. This could be a corner, a stairwell, a bus stop - any configuration that naturally tends to funnel people together.

Find a comfortable spot "against the ropes" to survey the scene..

Protect yourself from "blows" of suspicion by using standard SP psych-ops such as pretending to smoke a cigarette or talk on a cell phone ... then when the time is right, "rope a dope"...

Shop Worn

2007-08-22T23:53:00.000-07:00

Will image manipulation technologies, i.e. Photoshop and the various new bend,fold and mutilate apps. spell the death knell for street photography? Or should I say ANOTHER death knell, as traditional street photography is routinely pronounced dead. Or is all of photography as we (thought we) knew it already long dead and buried?

DRESS FOR LESS stress

2007-08-15T13:22:00.000-07:00

First - the shoes. Doc Martens all the way, baby... easy on the feet and since I go for a "conventioneer" look just enough behind the style curve for a three-day-Marriott-staying- Avis- renting-Widget Supply Wholesaler, to be wearing.

The conventioneer can go places where the "working man" would look out of place...

The "tourist" too, has limits on where he can go without attracting attention.. But the "conventioneer" - can go anywhere, he has the keys to the city..

He's friggin INVISIBLE!!

Sequential Street Photography

2007-08-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

SSP something that I've been paying more attention to lately. The approach is a little different than regular SP, in that you generally have to calculate or predict the "decisive moment" in advance.

My aesthetic is to have three or more shots in close chronology each a creditable image in its own right, but with the effect of the sum greater than the parts.

Nothing extraordinary with this set, but some exciting stuff to follow soon.. (i hope!).

Gold Ratio

2007-07-29T20:57:00.000-07:00

I have not kept good records on the ratio of good to bad shots I take, but it's probably around a hundred to one. One hundred shots deemed not worth keeping, to one that is. The vast majority of the rejects are reasonably well exposed and focused, thanks in no small part to modern day electronics. Most of my rejects are shots that are too similar to stuff I've done in the past or shots that are just not that interesting.

If I'm to improve I need to stretch my shooting ratio to two hundred or three hundred to one.

I need to take more risks, experiment more, stop taking the "same" shots. And I need to be more vicious in my editing, not accept anything that isn't top notch.

That means oddly enough that I need to fail more in order to succeed. The goal being not to avoid making mistakes, but to avoid making the same mistakes. It's not how many times you get knocked down that count, but how many times you get back up.

Half- Mast Bow grip

2007-07-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

The mechanics of the "HMB" grip are straight forward:+Shoulders square to the target.

+Back of camera flat against chest

+Top of the camera level with the first shirt button.

+Camera held with a "handshake" grasp, thumb on the trigger.

Unlike a grab shot from chest height, the HMB grip provides a stable, repeatable, position to aim the camera. With a 24mm (35equiv) lens and subject eight feet or more away, the view from the camera will be very nearly the same as that from eye level.

Again, these "goofey grips" only work with proper psych-ops applied. For example.

Camera at your side and you pretend to be interested in something off axis to the target.

Raise the camera to the HMB position with your right hand while reaching with your left hand into your camera bag or left pocket and fish around as if searching for a filter, or whatever. This looks pretty natural to the subject and gives them time to see that the camera is NOT aimed at them, and that you are pre-occupied anyway.

Then at the proper moment square shoulders to the subject, (but to the subject it appears that you are just twisting a little to get a better look in your bag) then without looking up take the SNAP and then immediately lower the camera - as if having decided you didn't need that "filter" after all. Total time camera aimed at the subject: One Second.

Psych-ops can change with any given situation, but the mechanics of the Half-Mast bow grip should always be the same. That is the only way to learn to see what the camera sees when it's away from your eye.

Best Sell is a Cell

2007-07-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

The cell phone is a street shooter's best friend. "Talking" on the cell phone is the perfect way to blend, to appear to be doing something other than taking pictures.

Also, people tend to give you a little more "privacy" space and not look at you when your on the phone. The cell gives you an excuse to hang around, and your "conversation" can muffle shutter clank.

Cell phone is to street shooter what duck blind is to hunter.

GlowGlobe Warning

2007-07-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

This year I bought a fifty inch plasma television,
and a blue-ray DVD player,

and as I examined the various hairs, beads of sweat, pimples, melted make-up and other fauna on Tony Soprano's face, I realized that as television becomes high definition it is no longer COOL
but HOT. Hot in the sense of "cool and hot" that Marshall McLuhan spoke about.

This is the Globe Warming. A few degrees rise in the vast waste ocean of the great unwatched, eye caps melt, a change in "see" level, and the end of the ice-cool age. Existential extinction?

"For in operating on society with a new technology, it is not the incised area that is most affected. The area of impact and incision is numb. It is the entire system that is changed."
- from Understanding Media by Marshall McLuhan.

ch-ch-ch changes

2007-07-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

" Lamp Post" by bongo

A Photograph can change how we view the world, and the world can change how we view a photograph.

more PjSp

2007-07-12T18:41:00.001-07:00

Pajama Street Photography - Twice the frustration - half the satisfaction, but you don't have to leave the house or put on clothes.

Sting Like A Bee...

2007-06-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

In a previous post I talked about the importance for a hipshooter to master the art of judging distance - to float like a butterfly - which was famously one key to Muhammad Ali's greatness in the ring. The other was his ability to - Sting Like A Bee!

The ability to deliver maximum impact- to sting - requires lightening reflexes and perfect timing.
Stand on a corner and as cars whiz by raise camera and take a SNAP of a speeding car just as the front tire aligns with a white line of a cross walk. Start with the camera lowered, then raise, pan (if necessary) and SNAP! Try to get the tire dead centered on the line. Do it again, do it again, do it again. It's not easy. But you'll be amazed at how this simple exercise invigorates your senses, tunes your reflexes, your timing.
Yeah baby, float like a butter fly - STING like a bee...

The Snapper

2007-06-21T20:44:00.001-07:00

The SNAPPER squats on one foot, squints into the noon day sun then raises a $14.95 disposable and takes the snap. The snap will show Junior and Grandma as two blurry silhouettes one with a fence post sprouting from head.

The Street Photographer does much the opposite. His camera not disposable but indispensable and probably worth thousands. His subjects not posed family members, but strangers going about their business. The SNAPPER will take twelve pictures that day - the Street Photographer one hundred twenty.

The SNAPPER will make twelve 4x6 prints from that day and they will become part of the SNAPPER family legacy, cherished and passed down to Junior then Junior-Junior then Junior-Junior-Junior and so on for generations to come.

The Street Photographer will delete one hundred eighteen pictures from that day and make one 16x20 print. The print will hang on his wall for a month then go in a stack somewhere then in a few years be shipped to China to be recycled into cat food labels.

Bag Mod

2007-06-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted a compact quick-draw bag for my street rig and found this snazzy insulated six-pack carrier for $7.00. It turns out that what works to keep beer cold, can also protect your camera. Most of these beer bags are cheapily made plastic jobs, but this one by "FreezeOut" has a nice quality canvas cover with contrasting stitching, double pull zippers, a little bungi cord (for what I don't know), an auxillary pouch, and the coolest feature - a trap door - for the quickest draw of any bag you'll find at any price.

The modifications:

Cardboard stiffeners attached with double stick tape to the bottom and two of the sides.

Rubber stick-on feet to protect the bottom.

"D" rings and a wide detachable swivel strap to replace the sewn on one.

Replace the "FreezeOut" logo with my own and I'm good to go.

Push Positive

2007-06-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

The shutter button on my camera is flush with the body. Too many times in the rush to get the shot I've had my finger slightly off center and not able to fully press down and trip the shutter. A self stick rubber pad solved the problem.

The shutter button on the grip required a different treatment, since a hard raised button there could easily be tripped by accident. I used the bristly side of a piece of self stick velcor to give a tactile clue to my finger.

Didn't I warn you that this blog was going to be "mostly minutia about street photography"!

Lost Mojo

2007-06-09T11:51:00.000-07:00

In a slump. Can't seem to shake it. Feels like anxious ennui if that makes any sense. Debilitating. Painful.

But "slumps are for chumps" so think I'll have a beer and a grilled cheese sandwich while I watch a re-run of Monk... and then hit the streets.

SAFTEY FIRST

2007-06-06T02:29:00.000-07:00

ZIP IT UP. I know of a cameraman that absent mindedly slung an unzipped bag over his shoulder and dumped a grand worth of glass on the sidewalk. NEVER leave a camera in an unzipped bag. LEASH LAW. Use a leash, and if you use a longish one like I do, then it's a good idea to run it between thumb and forefinger. This shortens the drop if it should slip out of your hand and lessens the odds it could bang into something like a door.
DOORS are DANGEROUS. Always stop and take a second to protect your camera when going through a doorway. Establish good habits.

bOngo sez: "Leash ON Zip UP Watch OUT".

The Lazy Man's SP

2007-05-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

Introducing Pajama Street Photography (special thanks to John Brownlow who turned me on to GOOGLE-MAPS Steroid Edition and Larry Gustafson a fellow founding father of PSP). Troll the streets with keyboard arrow keys until you find the "decisive moment" or more accurately the "pre-decided" moment, then jockey for the best angle and squeezed off a screen capture - sweeten with Photoshop and..
It's a Street Photography simulator - Methadone for street shooters.
"Building the Wall" a PajamaStreet Capture by bONGO.

OY VEY

2007-05-25T03:14:00.000-07:00

Hoya buys Pentax

Re-Branding

2007-05-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

That inch and a half space on the front of your camera is valuable real estate. You paid for it. Use it to your advantage.

..float like a butterfly

2007-05-01T19:51:00.000-07:00

After a few rounds, Muhammad Ali would drop his gloves, offer his chin as target and never get hit. Having spent countless hours in the ring sparring, Ali had become an expert at one thing that would seperate him from all boxers that had come before or were to come after. He had become an expert at estimating distances.

If you are to float down the street and shoot from the hip, then you too must become an expert at estimating distances. And to do that you must hit the bricks and train, burn frames until you know exactly what distance to be and what camera angle to maintain to get a full body shot of a passerby.

No decapitations. No toe chops. Head and toes baby... float like a butterfly.

Bum Shot

2007-04-14T01:55:00.000-07:00

It seems that just about every street photographer goes through a bum phase. After you've photographed a hundred shoppers zipping around with white plastic bags and smokers lined up against walls the bums start to look pretty interesting.
But is it right, is it conscionable? These people are down on their luck. But should you only photograph lucky people? Beautiful happy successful people? What about old people? Old people are easy to snap. They don't move fast. They can't chase you. They have "interesting" faces, and like bums they tend to be helpless and vunarable.

My point is that rather than ban an entire class of people, consider the individual and the particular given situation. And if it feels like exploitation then it is. It's a gut check, a "snap" decision -you may not always get it right - but then when do we?

The Speed of Light

2007-03-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Whenever I'm out shooting, and you can bet money on this, I end up in a wild dash across town to beat the parking meter.

It is at that moment I become oddly enough, like a lot of the poor slobs I photograph - under pressure to get some place with barely enough time to do it.

And equally oddly enough it is just at that moment I see people assuming strange wonderful postures, massing in complex geometric designs blowing interlocking back-lit smoke rings that waft ironically across erudite store displays.

Like runway lights whipping by an airplane window, somehow it is my motion, my mania, that generates these images. They exist in a parallel world where light rays shine on retinas but balk at glass - seen but seldom photographed.

140L Grip

2007-03-11T22:41:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the best shot is not in front of you but to your left or right or behind you or some point in between. And sometimes, a lot of times, you can't turn and face the subject 'cause if you do the shot won't be there anymore. So you need to develop goofy grips - weird ways of holding the camera that allow aiming in different directions while maintaining a secure platform to trip the shutter.

One that I use often is the 140L - camera braced securely against arm and chest with the lens pointing one hundred forty degrees to the left of center. This grip is amazingly stable and remarkably accurate to "sight". If shoulders are kept square when you turn your head you will be looking in the same 140 degree direction as the lens. What you see will be what you get. As always misdirection need be applied as well to make it work.

"Noticed" - (c)bongo 2005 - was made possible with the help of the 140L goofy grip.

The Fifth Law

2007-03-06T21:52:00.001-08:00

I had nothing that day when I saw two girls, a bleached blonde and a green-dye job - kissing. I ducked in a doorway, the only decent angle I could find. I had just a second to guess an exposure, set the aperture and when I looked up there seemingly out of thin air was a Midget holding a can of Pepsi about two feet from my lens. On instinct I mashed the shutter, turned and with adrenalin pouring out my ears walked away and never looked back.

Crayola haired kissing girls. Pepsi touting Midget. Long strange shadows. I had one good shot that day I thought. I was the new Fellini, no doubt.

But the picture did not live up to expectations. I had caught the two kissing, but the blonde was obscured so you couldn't tell she was a girl. And the midget didn't really look like a midget - the sloping background and the effects of the wide angle lens had added two feet to his height.

In my mind I had seen a circus act but had taken a picture of three lovily people on a sunny afternoon. The only freak there that day I realized, was me. Somewhere in my quest to get "a shot" I had lost my humanity and had broken the fifth law of Street Photography: "Don't be a jerk". I would do my best not to let it happen again.

2007-02-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

I was struck by how the girl's hair resembles a fish and how unlikely you'd be to notice that if not juxtaposed with the store display.

It's interesting how analogous fishing and street photography are.

Streets are like rivers. Favorite spots. The art of "being quiet" and elusive. Specialized gear. The thrill of the snap. The catch. The stories about the ones that got away. A certain braggadocio and sense of camaraderie that both fisherman and street shooters share.

Down by Law

2007-02-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

I turned and in a heart beat found myself at the exact right spot at the exact right time.

I had a camera with me; in fact I had two cameras with me. But I had violated the Second Law of Street Photography - "Always Be Composing - always." Keep the camera strapped to the hand, the aperture set, the focus locked, the shutter cocked, finger on the release.

I had two cameras with me that day - in a bag dangling from my shoulder. I might as well not brought them. The Japanese might as well not made them. Niepce might as well not invented them. Muse Street had made an offer but I had violated the Second Law.

Fortunately if you violate the Second Law, you can often take solace in the Third Law. The bittersweet saving grace Third Law of Street Photography: "if you see it once, you'll see it again." No doubt.

The Cure

2007-01-29T22:08:00.000-08:00

I felt miserable. Stomach flu. Rolled out of bed and reached for shoes, keeping the head up to reduce the flow of blood to the temples.

I had no plans, no ideas, just a vague regret that I did not stay in bed as I stepped off the bus and into the heart of bONGOLIA. Some clown was whacking out a beat on a bunch of bottles while his buddy blew bagpipes. I did not photograph them. I would never photograph them. The sun was out, not an f8 but a good 5.6 at 1/200th. I felt better.

The Choice

2007-01-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

A snap I have in mind that I'd particularly like to bag : An articulated bus as it rounds a corner -front and rear tires at the frame lines - ensnarling a pedestrian waiting at the curb.

To that end my strategy so far has been to just FREAK OUT whenever a bus rounds a corner within camera reach. Most often I'm too close, or the path of the bus is not right, and there never seems to be any pedestrians about to get ensnarled.

I could do the research - find out when an articulated runs, find the spot to get the angle, the time the light would be right... or I might just keep wandering around and take my chance in the wild - like a wild thing.

CAMERA MOD: $3 Low View Point LCD Screen

2007-01-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

The idea is to attach a woman's compac mirror to reflect the LCD of a DSLR for waist level viewing.

I chose the SCUNCI compac - made in the People's Republic Of China and available in North America from the Kmart Corporation for about $3US (tell them bONGO sent you). The SCUNCI compac mirror stays put at any angle is small enough not to interfere with the viewfinder yet big enough to reflect the full LCD of a Pentax K10D.

Drill a hole through the magnified mirror side and attach to the tripod socket - or a strip of gaffer's tape can be used to hold the SCUNCI to the base. The image will be upsidedown and since DSLRs do not have live pre-view, you'll have to first make a "framing" exposure.

SCUNCI- when you need to check more than your lipstick.