The Documentary Photographer

Back home from a short trip to the motherland, I’m reflecting on the photographs I took while I was away. Mostly, they were for fun. On two occasions I got serious: the photographs of my brother at work, and a series of photographs that I’m keeping up my sleeve as a surprise.

In all cases, they were taken with a 50mm lens.

Regular readers will know that I generally favour a wider field of view. However, the 24mm lens I own is fairly big and heavy. I didn’t feel like bringing it along to the Netherlands. Besides, this year I’ve been shooting more with the 50mm anyway.

Eight days with just the 50mm has made me realize just how versatile a lens it is. Just take a peek at the pictures I posted over the last week. In some instances it feels like a telephoto lens; in others like a wide angle. Quite remarkable.

I’m not going to say that only having a single focal length takes a bunch of decision making out of the equation, allowing you to concentrate on the photograph… Ah… I just did. Sorry. It is true though.

The main point I want to make in this short post is this: spending time with only a single focal length is a great training exercise. Thoroughly liberating, it also forces you to get to know the focal length intimately – its strengths, its weaknesses and, most importantly, its possibilities.

My only complaint? That I have to gaffer tape on the lens hood to stop if from dropping off. How is it that lens manufacturers can design and produce such wonderfully advanced optics, but not a lens hood that will stay put?

What would your ideal camera be? Imagine if you could spec a camera to be built just for you and your shooting style.

For me, the first requirement would be a great viewfinder. I once looked through the viewfinder of a friend’s Olympus OM-10. I think it was an OM-10. Anyway, it was like stepping into the world beyond. I wear glasses, and on my current camera I can’t see the whole frame. I just can’t get my eye close enough. It’s like looking at a distant window. So, item number 1: big and bright. And optical, not electronic.

Secondly, I’d like the camera to be small and light. Not miniature small, but small enough small. The size of an OM-10.

Thirdly, it would be built to withstand professional grade abuse. Most professionals – at least the ones I know, but maybe I move in the wrong circles – don’t treat their gear very well. I certainly don’t. So it must be tough. Are OM-10s tough?

Four, it would be a digital camera and have a nice big sensor. I’d opt for bigger pixels over volume of photosites. 10-15MP would suit me fine for documentary work. The OM-10 is 0MP, so it’s out.

Five, it would have dual card slots to allow instantaneous in-camera back-up. I have no preference between CF or SD cards, though CF cards give me more confidence by virtue of their bulk, but I can’t say either is more or less reliable based on my own experience of using both.

Six, the shutter would be whisper quiet and respond instantly. I press, it takes the picture, no messing. (D’ya hear that Canon? Hm?)

Seven, its lenses would be interchangeable and auto-focus – and it would be able to focus accurately in low-light conditions. I wouldn’t need a zillion focus points as I tend to only use the centre one anyway.

Eight, it would deliver pretty good results at 6,400 ISO.

Nine, its dynamic range would be such that it would hold detail properly in the shadows and the highlights, without blocking up the former and blowing out the latter. 16 bit as well.

Ten, it would have HD video. Actually, that one isn’t strictly speaking necessary. It just helps make up the ten.

Reading that back, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for and well within the capabilities of current manufacturers.

What would your requirements be?

Is "Project Leica" over before it started? Does anyone care?

I’ve been walking the dog a lot lately. Apart from helping me lose the soft ring around my middle, it is also great thinking time. Too great in fact. As my brain is fed more oxygen, particularly on uphill stretches, I keep having ideas. This is inconvenient. I already have too many ideas.

For instance there is my not-so-very-secret new bridal product. “Project Legacy”.

Then there’s the utterly unsecret desire to switch to Leica. Let’s call that, I dunno… “Project Leica”. Though for the ridiculous cost involved, it may as well be called “Project I’m an Idiot”.

This evening, I had a notion of what should come after “Project Legacy”. An idea so exciting I actually started grinning when it occurred to me.

There is a catch; one that jeopardizes “Project Leica”.

You see, reaching beyond “Project Legacy” simultaneously requires me to arrive at a stage past “Project Leica” before I’ve even embarked on “Project Leica”. I’m quite fond of “Project Leica”. I don’t want to miss out on “Project Leica”, but it currently stands between me and what I have now termed “Project T”. I choose the letter T because it practically never gets used in the Project sense, being so close to the much more high-profile letter X in the alphabet. Nor is it a vitamin, so it loses out doubly. (Incidentally, can you believe there is such a thing as vitamin U, my original choice of project name?).

So what to do?

My choices are:

A – Get a move on with “Project Leica” so that I can get past it quickly.

B – Skip “Project Leica” altogether and go straight to “Project T”.

C – Shut up you big girl’s blouse; nobody cares.

It occurs to me that Leica gear holds its value quite well. Conceivably, I could buy an outfit, use it until the time is ripe, and then sell it for pretty much the same as I bought it for, allowing me to reinvest the money in “Project T”.

Better start saving up then.

I was in the Cubs when I was a little boy. Not for long, and not very successfully. I think I got a merit badge for tying knots, or being clean – one of the two. Anyway, I seem to remember the motto was “Be Prepared”.

Those words have been in my head for the past couple of days as I’ve tried to marshal my thoughts and resources for the week ahead. It’s going to be some week.

If all goes well – fingers crossed – it will go like this:

Planning for four clients, five cities, six days. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Monday

Fire-walking seminar shoot for EMC here in Cork from about 5pm to 9pm, followed by post-production back at base for a couple of hours. Send print files to the lab, ready for collection/delivery on Wednesday evening.

Tuesday

Fly to London in the morning. Possible shoot for a catering company run by friends in the afternoon in Twickenham. Yet to be confirmed.

Wednesday

Annual report shoot for the London P&I Club from 8am to 5pm.

Then it gets interesting. I’m booked on a 9pm flight from Heathrow to Dublin and on a 10pm flight home to Cork.

If I’m on the Dublin flight, then on…

Thursday

…I’ll be shooting in Dublin for a client I can’t yet name from about 10am until the afternoon. Then I’ll be traveling to Galway for a second-day of shooting with this client on…

Friday

The shoot in Galway will have to be done by 5pm, as I’ll need to travel back to Cork by train for a wedding shoot in Bantry on…

Saturday

On Saturday evening, I’ve been invited to celebrate the birthday of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. I shall need a drink after that week.

As I write this on Sunday evening, it is still unclear what is going to happen on Thursday and Friday. That makes planning the week erm… interesting. There are a number of issues to resolve. Not least balancing the range of equipment I take to London with airline baggage restrictions and the requirements of possible shoots in Dublin and Galway. I won’t be able to pop home to Cork if I find I’ve forgotten something.

I also need to manage the EMC post-production and delivery of prints in my absence if I do end up in Dublin.

And don’t get me started on the management of the image files. I have – touch wood – never lost a file from a commercial shoot. But if it is ever going to happen, it’s going to be during a week like this.

***UPDATE*** The Dublin and Galway assignments were confirmed this morning. Additional flights and rail travel booked. Catch me if you can: Cork – London (air), London – Dublin (air), Dublin – Galway (air), Galway – Cork (rail), Cork – Bantry (car). That’s the full set: Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

Lately, I’ve been shooting some work on a Voigtlander Bessa-R rangefinder I bought years ago for an assignment on board an oil tanker. I won’t bore you with the technical stuff. Let’s just say that due to their design, rangefinder cameras and their lenses are much, much smaller and lighter than SLR equivalents. Just look at the difference:

David and Goliath - Voigtlander Bessa-R beside a Canon 1DS Mark II. Which would you rather carry around all day? (c) Roger Overall 2010

I’ve really enjoyed taking pictures with the Voigtlander – in fact, I’ve loved it. So much so, that I’m considering rangefinders for more serious commercial work.

Small and light – what more could a documentary photographer want?

Well, there’s a catch. My Voigtlander a isn’t a great camera. If truth be told it’s a piece of plastic tat. I’d need to invest in new gear: two bodies and three lenses. That’s where it could get silly expensive.

There are only two rangefinders still being produced that are worth considering: the Zeiss Ikon or the Leica M.

The Zeiss Ikon is made by the same people who make the Voigtlander, but to a much higher standard, and takes exquisite Zeiss lenses.

Thing is, it’s a film camera. Digital gives me so much more in terms of post-production control that I’m not sure I’d want to switch back to film for commercial shoots. Sure, I could scan the film, but that’s a whole extra step in post.

The Leica M does come in a digital version, the M9. It has a sterling reputation. Its optics are sublime and they come with exotic names like Super Summiluxicronbonbon.

Thing is, Leica gear costs more than a Renoir.

So, that’s not going to happen.

Yet.

In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the Voigtlander for some personal projects. Even if it doesn’t wind on film properly anymore and double exposes half the frames.

Leaving Cork. Voigtlander Bessa-R, 50mm Colour Skopar. (c) Roger Overall 2010

I use prime lenses only

USP 3 is a little ambiguous, unless you’re a photographer.

For many, the words “prime lens” might mean a lens of the finest quality. While I do use the best lenses available at the time of purchase, that’s not what I mean here.

Among photographers, “prime lenses” means fixed-focal lenses. Which still doesn’t help normal folk.

Maybe its easier to explain what a prime lens is by telling you what it isn’t. It isn’t a zoom lens. Prime lenses don’t zoom in and out.  If you want to get closer, you have to step closer yourself. If you want to zoom out, you have to move backwards.

Prime lenses have a number of advantages over zoom lenses.

Firstly, high-quality primes are smaller than high-quality zooms.

Because they are smaller, they are lighter.

Thirdly, they are faster. That’s photography speak for a lens that can be used at higher shutter speeds because it is able to let in more light due to a bigger maximum aperture. The bigger a lens’ maximum aperture (the hole the light travels through into the camera), the more light it can let in, the less time the shutter needs to be open. That helps prevent camera shake. This is especially useful when there is little light to begin with. Admittedly, with the astonishing light-sensitivity of modern cameras, this advantage is diminishing.

Faster lenses also mean a much brighter viewfinder experience.

Advantage number 5 is the ability of fast primes to render irrelevant bits of the photograph out of focus. Also referred to as shallow depth of field, this is a characteristic of many of my photographs. I won’t dwell on this. We’re now perilously close to the realms of bokeh from which few people make it back intact.

Lastly, because prime lenses don’t offer a zoom range, it’s easier to get to know them thoroughly. Without the distraction of a variable field of view, I can work faster. I know before I even raise the camera to my eye what I’m going to see.

Most photographers I know use zooms – in fact, nearly all of them. The fact that I don’t helps my photography stand out.

Just to complete the picture for the photographers reading this, here are the three lenses I use most: 24mm, 50mm and a 135mm.