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
1/250th 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
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