Thread: Updated *** Street with GRD's ***

Originally Posted by Ray

I'm with you Nic, except I don't even use it to focus except in low light. In good light, I'm set to manual focus and then the WHOLE touch screen is just a shutter button and you can touch it pretty much anywhere (except the extreme edges) and it will fire the shot.

Ah, interesting strategy. I haven't yet used the touchscreen without autofocus, although I've being using the 25mm almost exclusively which has less DOF to play with and usually needs to be focused right. I imagine it would work well with the 9-18mm, as well as the 12 and 14.

Don, I wished someone would film you as you do street shooting. This would be of great educational value to see how it's done by a master of the art.

Great images Don, your street photography is brilliant and with everyone else's work keeps me constantly trying and learning to be as technically proficient as I am happy to being out with my camera :)

Don, at which distance you shoot?

Originally Posted by Herman

Don, at which distance you shoot?

Herman, that is a very important question. It seems today that the trend is to get close, close, close. Well, sometimes I do get close but it's not a part of my images DNA. Foor me, intent and content rule supreme. So I may be 18" on this image and maybe 6' on the next. I don't use distance as a device and I allow the entire experience of the image to set things up. I am a part of that experience the same as everything in the frame. We are doing this image in synergism.

This is a part of a philosophy I live and teach but never force to others.

"Stop taking things from the world and start making things out of it." This is the basic premise of personal photography. To make images from the fragments of the world in front of you and to share that experience with others.

Is that close enough?

Hi Don,

Can you explain the significance to you of having "grit" in your images? Do you ever prefer the cleaner look from the GXR or GX1?

Originally Posted by Luckypenguin

Hi Don,

Can you explain the significance to you of having "grit" in your images? Do you ever prefer the cleaner look from the GXR or GX1?

Nic, Well in my Flickr account you can see the answer to this question visually. The great thing about the GXR and GRD is that they both have the same UI, well almost. The menues are similar and the FOV, both being 28mm are the same but....The GRIT produced is entirely different.

I thought I could get away with the S10 unit as that also is 10MP. Well, zoomies have no place on my cameras. So I use the GRD to give me the FREEDOM the GXR trys to make. The GXR is larger but not too large just to big to fit in my pocket. It's an amazing camera and I am completely at one with it.
Both cameras make remarkable image quality. Clean as the day is long.
When I use the GRD, I am thinking in a different way. I am thinking about making images that break the preconceptions I have set for myself. This camera challenges me and makes me rethink my work. Of course the work is all the same as I am the maker but there is a difference in approach.

I usually pre-visualize my images, not to say that I am not open for discovery but I have a general idea of what I am making for the final print. The GRD has a sense of humor and shows me maybe a different way to think.
I don't know why that happens but I like it and damn sure ain't trying to fix it either.

Originally Posted by Streetshooter

Herman, that is a very important question. It seems today that the trend is to get close, close, close. Well, sometimes I do get close but it's not a part of my images DNA. Foor me, intent and content rule supreme. So I may be 18" on this image and maybe 6' on the next. I don't use distance as a device and I allow the entire experience of the image to set things up. I am a part of that experience the same as everything in the frame. We are doing this image in synergism.

Six feet is still pretty close and about as close as you'd ever want to be if you've got more than one head and shoulder in your shot. I think when we were discussing getting close in a previous thread, it was in reaction to some shots that were clearly taken from across the street or some greater distance. Which can also work but not if you're trying for any sort of intimacy with your subject. There's close and then there's close, but your longest shots are pretty close, except for those where its more of an area shot than a person shot. And for sure there are no rules, except that the most common beginner mistake is to not even be CLOSE to close enough and so it comes up in discussion...

-Ray

Originally Posted by Luckypenguin

Ah, interesting strategy. I haven't yet used the touchscreen without autofocus, although I've being using the 25mm almost exclusively which has less DOF to play with and usually needs to be focused right. I imagine it would work well with the 9-18mm, as well as the 12 and 14.

I only do it with the 12 because that's the only lens I find it really easy to do zone focus with - its possible with the others but its a real PIA to know your focus distance since there's no sort of scale either on the lens or in the camera. The Fujis are easy to do this with, the Ricoh's are INSANELY easy to do this with, the LX5 is pretty easy to do this with, and I'm sure there are other modern cameras with by-wire lenses that make it work, but m43 is terrible except for the 12mm lens. If they'd make a 14mm with the same manual focus ring that snaps into place and has a distance scale, I'd pawn the stereo and the rolex and the grandchildren for it. Not that I have a stereo worth pawning or a rolex or grandchildren at all, but you get the idea...

-Ray

Ray is pawning grandchildren he doesn't even have for a 2mm difference.

I love you guys.

Don, keep those amazing images coming.