In Retrospect, Things Look Nicer Than They Once Did (Photos Are No Exception)

Looking through my photographs is like closing your eyes to remember. Sometimes you recall moments of which either you have no recollection, or you rediscover what you once had experienced.

Either way, and for the space of reliving that memory, you feel grateful.

... During my search, I found a photo that I did not recall taking. It was many years ago in Vienna, late in the day, when a Turkish dancer showed her skills (and a few other things) dancing in the street near Stephansdom. I recall taking other photos of her with my Nikon F2 but not this one. In retrospect, I perhaps like this one better than the one below that has been published a few years ago:

So, decided to look for other street dancers photos I had taken over the years and which were not used on my blogs or published in my books. Indeed, I was able to find one more, this time from Barcelonetta. 

Again taken with a Nikon F2, this photo of the dancers has been posted and published:

But there was another one that I did not use since the lighting was not optimal. Yet, I do like the warm presence of the crowd around the dancers.

Maybe with time and age one discovers more delightful aspects of photos that once did not look attractive.

Hmm, maybe the same attitude applies regarding people, places, ideas, tastes and smells....

Anyhow, I have a few other photos of street dancers previously posted here: https://liveingray.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-fluidity-of-frozen-movement.html

November 16, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019

Veterans' Day 2019, Prescott, Arizona

Veterans’ Day is celebrated in many cultures to remember those who defended the mother (or father) land.  In the UK and the Commonwealth they wear the poppy on this day; in France and Belgium they wear the Bleuet de France, a blue cornflower that is a national symbol representing solidarity with victims of war, orphans and widows of veterans of war. While Italy and Ireland do not have a national holiday to remember veterans (although there are various activities to salute those who served in their armed forces), Israel observes the Yom Hazikaron in a two-day memorial dedicated to her fallen soldiers and to victims of terrorism.

And there are many other countries where the fallen for the survival of the land and culture are officially remembered at least once a year.

Prescott, Arizona has a large population of war veterans going back to the Korean War. Every October 11 there is a parade and celebration on the city’s downtown square where thousands gather to honor their heroes. November 11 parade is also a street photographer’s favorite events, although when it comes to war heroes and their families much effort is made to not infringe on their privacy.

My goal is always to tell a story and not capture people off guard.

My other interest is to use tools (camera, film and lens) that are not common or not popular. I like to push the abilities of these tools (now at least 50 years old) and be surprised when they perform better than expected or in a way that I had not intended to capture the moment.

So, this time I took an Olympus OM-1 (not OM-1n which is newer) and a Vivitar 135mm Close Focusing telephoto. This lens belongs to B&W photography “cult members” who value this unusual lens for its uniqueness in focusing almost as a macro lens. I have used this lens for portraiture years ago when I used to run a mile of film per month through my cameras. It has been seating lonely on the shelf for a while so I decided to take it for an outing.

Here is the lens on the camera surrounded by some of the 8x10 prints I made:

And the details of the lens surrounded by my various “expression mode facilitators” in my studio…

… A Veteran, dressed as Batman, was walking around the city square providing an opportunity for eclectic photo framing. The photo at the outset of this entry is a typical street photography capture, as the Batman shook the hand of a policeman on his immaculately cleaned motorcycle. I took this shot from at least 50 meters away and did some cropping (or enlarging) of the policeman and Batman. 

Here is the cropped area and handshake:

Clearly the Vivitar lens is not very sharp for such usage even when set at f8 aperture and 1/250^th sec speed.

Still, it has that warmth and tonal range that only film can provide and why folks like me still get those looks in a crowd as people ask “is that really a film camera? I did not know they still made film.”

So, I wanted to see how the lens did in the tonal range transition. Here is a newspaper photographer with a fancy digital camera. She was kneed down in street as the parade passed by, and I captured part of her between two spectators. I wanted to see how the dark and unfocused human borders would transition.

Here is that shot:

Finally, I suppose one has to show some parade when covering a parade… Here is my take, with a long- haired Veteran (Vietnam perhaps?) and a fancy hat en lieu of a poppy!

October 12, 2019

© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2019