Dark and Light

I saw jazz saxophonist Will Donato a few years ago at a local festival. It was a single night event set up next to a roundabout in Old Town Helotes, Texas. The equipment was fairly rudimentary with a portable stage, some rather harsh LED lighting and a wireless sound system. Certainly these were not great conditions for available light photography.

There was one thing working in my favor; I could get close to the stage without guards or roadies in the way. As the night progressed I got closer and closer until my camera was on the front edge of the stage. The musicians tolerated my presence and even commented that they hoped I was getting good pictures. Which I’m sure actually meant something like ‘please go away and take that camera with you’. I persevered.

Lights were hung above the stage in the front and back. At first it looked like I could take advantage of the stage lighting if the musicians were individually lit. That was not to be. Once night fell they cranked all the lights across the stage. Worst of all it was difficult to find shooting angles without lights intruding in the frame. The hot bright circles overwhelmed everything else in the frame. I told myself the music was the thing, even if I didn’t shoot anything.

Getting in close to the stage was a big advantage in avoiding lights in the frame. Some of the time I was able to use equipment and musicians to mask the direct lights. With careful framing it was possible eliminate lights or push them to the edges. This left me with high contrast directional light on the performers and very dark backgrounds. It reminded me of jazz photos from the 50s where photographers popped flash bulbs close to the musicians. Only the performers were lit, everything outside of flash range being completely black. Excellent, I was channeling early William Claxton, at least in my mind.

Most of the RAW files shot that night have remained unprocessed until recently. My post processing skills were not up to the task of working with the extreme lighting conditions. Now I am able to produce decent finished images from some of the frames. Over time I’ve learned a great deal from the images shot that night. They have helped me understand the dynamics of working in an uncontrolled performance environment. In the end that is the real value of my night’s work.

Downtown – Tower of the Americas

Tower of the Americas
Tower of the Americas

The tower is the signature structure of the 1968 World’s Fair, international exposition. The HemisFair exposition was a celebration of civilizations in the Americas. San Antonio takes great pride in being a crossroads of cultures and business for the Americas, North and South. Today HemisFair Park continues to host important cultural facilities such as the Instituto Cultural de Mexico and Institute of Texan Cultures. Construction of HemisFair Park displaced neighborhoods dating back to the eighteenth century. Today the park is being redeveloped to recover some of the heritage lost by the destruction of those neighborhoods. The Tower of the Americas looks down on a vibrant downtown area that is visited by millions of tourists and locals every year.

Fujifilm GFX 50S

I admit to being a fan of the FujiFilm X series cameras. The X-E1 and X-T1 were my go to gear for more than two years. During that time both worked flawlessly capturing everything from stage performance to desert landscapes. With that in mind I expect the new GFX series to be top-of-the-line in every respect.

Size Matters

Looking at pictures of the Fujifilm GFX 50S gives me the sense of a purposeful tool. A piece of gear designed for day to day use without fuss. It is made from modern industrial materials not carved from a solid block metal using exotic manufacturing techniques. That says something about how the maker expects the tool to be used.

The overall design of the camera represents a fundamental change in attitude about what is required to support professionals in the field. It is not a reflex camera. It is significant in the professional market for that reason alone. With the body being roughly the size of a Nikon D810, probably about the same weight and far less complex internally. It is easy to argue that it will be more reliable in the field and easier to maintain than an equivalent DSLR. The GFX series represents an important new direction.

Impact on the Pro Market

The big Fuji calls into question the strategy of major camera makers who have chosen not to produce truly capable mirrorless cameras. So far the most important camera manufacturers in the world, Canon and Nikon, have decided not to participate or maybe not to innovate. These two brands control the professional DSLR market. It is possible they have large R&D efforts working behind the scenes. I hope they do.

As a Non-Professional

Medium format digital cameras have interested me since the semi-affordable Pentax 645D became available. As a non-professional photographer buying and supporting a medium format system is an extravagance. I don’t have a daily need for such a camera. That makes owning one more about ego than capability. Still I could make good use of a large sensor camera on my adventures in Big Bend National Park. I can never capture enough detail in images of the place.

It is possible to appreciate a camera as an object that combines form and function. Many people become obsessed with cameras rather than photography because they are beautiful things. That is a common pastime for non-professional photographers everywhere. I imagine most professional photographers are most concerned with how the camera handles and captures images but no doubt aesthetics play a role even for them.