Coop Beachtour – Zurich

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Richard

I mentioned in the previous post that Zurich Hauptbahnhof was being prepared for a Beach Volleyball tournament. So I popped along to play at being a sports photographer.

It’s obviously not easy being a sports photographer, and I have a lot of respect for folk that do it for a living. Different sports must require different techniques and skills and I imagine you need a lot of experience with a particular sport.

I discovered with beach volleyball that the main problem is that ball is miles up in the air most of the time, and trying to get it in the frame is difficult, let alone finding a good action shot. Anyway, these are some of my least disastrous efforts

Zurich Hauptbahnhof – Photo Essay

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Richard

Essay is a bit grand for this collection of photos. They concentrate solely on the expanse of the concourse of Zurich’s main railway station.

Zurich Hauptbahnhof in preparation for a 3 day extravaganza of dance

It is an interesting place though. A large, cathedral-like space that is deliberately empty. This is because it is used regularly for all manner of events and extravaganzas, from weekly food markets to a performance of Verdi’s La Traviata, where performers mingled with startled commuters during the evening rush hour. As I write this it is being prepared for the annual beach volleyball tournament. (Yes, I said beach volleyball)

What always amazes me is how events come and go overnight, with huge accompanying apparatus and stage rigs disappearing by magic. Swiss efficiency. But of course it’s also economical sense.

When the concourse is empty it’s an excellent venue for photography, the light ever changing, and the ecclesiastical proportions allowing nice juxtapositions of space and humankind.

Morning stroll with 28mm Elmarit

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Richard

Ok, I think I might be starting to sound like a Leica fanboy here, but the dainty 28mm has become such a trusty companion, that I can’t help singing it’s virtues. It’s not that it has mystical optical qualities, but I just feel so comfortable with the lens that I’m using it more and more. I’ve been using the Leica M system for many years, but it’s only recently that I’ve ventured wider than 35mm. Also, combined with the M9 you have a really compact (if sturdy) bundle that doesn’t need a second thought when packing to leave the house.

Hardbrucke and the Zurich prime tower with a morning cyclist commuter. Leica M9 28mm elmarit

The area around Hardbrucke in Zurich is a good hunting ground for photos. This morning, en route to a breakfast meeting, the early morning light forced me to jump of the train and have a quick stroll around. The architecture and transport infrastructure has it’s qualities, and additionally you have people coming and going at all times of day. Little traffic, and no private security firms telling you not to take photos.

Zurich prime tower with a sole morning commuter. Leica M9 28mm Elmarit

Ok, so my notion of composition has its eccentricities, but never mind – here’s some more

Hardbrucke and the Zurich prime tower with a morning cyclist commuter. Leica M9 28mm elmarit

Zurich Rathaus, 1st May 2013

Posted on May 2, 2013 by Richard

Zurich girds up its loins on the 1st of May, enterprises put up the shutters, staff get the day off and go somewhere to enjoy the sunshine. There has been a history of violent protests, but this year was very quiet in comparison. The Rathaus received its customary pelting though, ending up looking like a a Mexican drive-by shooting.

The Rathaus (town hall) in Zurich after receiving a paint bomb attack during the 1st May celebrations 2013

I’ve always entertained a whimsical conspiracy theory that the vendors of graffiti materials secretly levy a tax that’s passed on to the firms that clean up the mess – there are many large enterprises of both sorts. I like the potential irony that the “anti-capitalist” agitators are supporting the very thing they purport to despise.

The Rathaus (town hall) in Zurich getting cleaned up after receiving a paint bomb attack during the 1st May celebrations 2013

Point of View

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Richard

This post is a gentle exhortation to people who are new to, or unfamiliar with photography. Explore the possibilities offered by literally changing your point of view. HCB said that you could change a photograph entirely just by moving your head a few inches.

Here are some photos I’ve taken of people taking photos.

Zurich, 2004. Rolleiflex 2.8C Tri-X

This charming lady has found an elegant pose as she makes small adjustments to frame her friends against the background of Zurich’s Grossmunster. While not a masterpiece, I like this photograph and part of it’s success I think comes from the viewpoint, down at waist level courtesy of a Rolleiflex TLR. The photo doesn’t shout this out, it’s subtle, but I think it’s important.

Olympus OM2n. Tri-x

I love this photo, despite the fact that it’s a technical disaster. It’s out of focus, the development of the negative is flawed, and it’s damaged into the bargain. Nonetheless, the motif of “firing squad at dawn” delights me.

Leica M8. 24 mm Elmarit

This gentleman and his entourage have taken posing and camera viewpoint to more flamboyant extremes. Ironically, I’ve ignored my own advice in this case, but in defence it was a “drive-by shooting”.

Changing the viewpoint is a matter of moving closer or farther away, holding the camera higher, or lower, moving to left or right. This seems so blindingly obvious as to be not worthwhile saying, but although most photographers know this instinctively I see people neglecting these simple options.

Many people stand rooted to the spot and compose their images by zooming. All this does is crop the image in-camera – zooming, or changing the focal length, does nothing to alter the viewpoint. This is one of the reasons I advise people to try using a prime lens if they want to improve their photography. This forces you to find different viewpoints and to compose to the focal length. In my opinion this heightens your ability to “see” photographs.

Digicams are often held in a particular position so that the screen can be viewed, and possibly the awkwardness of holding the camera like this and trying to compose using what is now a rather small rectangle some feet away makes people forget the other possibilities.

Changing the camera viewpoint alters the following.

1) What is included in photograph

2) Compositional motifs like the relationship between objects and the proportions of different areas of the photograph

I wondered about showing examples of what I mean, but the problem is that in my opinion there is no right or wrong way to frame a photo – the important thing is to realise the opportunities that exist. Additionally of course I do not have examples of my rejected compositions! Having said that, here’s a series of photos taken from a well-worn spot on the PIazzeta in Venice, all with similar focal length, but different

Leica M9 Review – 18 months on

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Richard

I’ve had a Leica M9 for 18 months, so it seemed a good time to sit down and take stock. Bear in mind this is a personal review – not an objective appraisal of features and performance. I’m also not comparing it with other options which I’m sure can produce equally good, if not better, image quality for a fraction of the price.

Management Overview (as they say…) If you are regularly using a modern digital camera after 18 months and aren’t worrying whether you need to upgrade, then it’s fair to say you’re having a positive experience. I wanted an M9 for the same reasons the film M suited my own brand of quiet, contemplative street photography. Good quality eye-level optical viewfinder, fast, simple operation, robust build quality, compactness and availability of lenses. It has certainly delivered on these for my purposes.

Caffe Florian Venice. Leica M9 28mm Elmarit

After a slow start, I have firmly bonded with the camera. A secondary, and maybe unexpected outcome is that the camera has taken on a second role - as a capable digital platform for stock travel and documentary photography. The quality of the available optics is certainly an added bonus here.

Why the slow start? This was a combination of two factors. I subconsciously wanted it to be a direct replacement for the film M’s, but there are various subtle, even trivial reasons why it isn’t. The form factor is different, the shutter has a different feel. More importantly it took me a little while to find the lens combination that worked for me. I like to use these cameras predominantly in a single configuration – it’s a personal thing I guess. The M3 for me doesn’t make sense without 50mm lens stuck on the front. Similarly the M4 with a 35mm.

St Mark’s Square Venice. Leica M9, 28mm Elmarit

The viewfinder on the M9 is the 0.68x which allows a maximum 28mm focal length. Some people won’t like this because it makes focusing longer lenses difficult, and the 28mm framelines are very close to the viewfinder edges. However I surprised myself and found I started to get the most out of the camera when I began using the 28mm Elmarit. This is much wider than I’d ever used before for street photography but what happened was that my shooting style just changed to accommodate the wider FOV when using the camera. I got closer. Additionally I found that the 28mm proved an excellent standard lens for travel and documentary work, not least because of it’s small size and optical characteristics.

You can see from the Lightroom stats in a previous post how I tended to favour the M9 / 28mm in a location such as Venice even when I had the arguably more versatile option of a full frame DSLR.

What is this bonding stuff anyway? You’ll hear many photographers talk about bonding with this or that camera. My own take is that it means the camera has become a natural dependable companion for your photography. You trust it’s capabilities, you know instinctively when and how to use it, it doesn’t get between you and the scene. With the M9 this is simply distilled down to it being a viewfinder and a shutter. As you walk around the sequence of spotting a shot and then bringing the viewfinder to your eye, framing and pressing the shutter in a single smooth action. All of this is helped by the total simplicity of the camera. There are no metering modes or autofocus types to worry about. It really is a point and shoot camera.

Campo San Polo Venice. Leica M9, 28mm Elmarit

As a travel / location / documentary camera?

For any particular shot, I would be hard pressed to argue that the M9 is a better option than a well equipped DSLR for this type of photography. In particular the viewfinder is not geared up to allow to precisely frame architectural subjects for example. However a lot of the travel photography I do is, if you like, a secondary activity to the traveling. The key then is having a camera system that you don’t have to think twice about packing. I usually take the M9 with 28mm, 50mm and 90mm. I can get that lot in coat pockets, let alone the sort of bag that airlines will let you take into the cabin. So it’s down to opportunity. You never know when a good photograph will present itself, and I like to know that if it does I can get a high quality image.

Palais de Luxembourg, Paris. Leica M9 28mm Elmarit

Now lots of people will say I could get the same image quality from a much cheaper package in APS-c or m4/3 and I wouldn’t argue with them. I’m not sure there are many competitors for the 28mm Elmarit when it comes to distortion free wide angle shots, but it’s a moot point if you need that quality and I won’t argue with that either. Although it certainly is a boon for architectural shots notwithstanding the capabilities of software correction.

Zurich 2013. Leica M9 28mm Elmarit

Is it too expensive? That depends – the price / value equation is complicated and no direct answer can be given to questions like that. I don’t run a car these days, and after 18 months of use I see no reason that I won’t be using the M9 in 5 or 10 years time. I’m still happy with my original Canon EOS 5D after 6 years…. Are there any alternatives? Maybe. Fuji are closet with things like the x100s and the X-Pro 1, but they still have problems matching all of my requirements in one package.

Creating a Photo Portfolio Brochure

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Richard

I recently created a printed brochure featuring some of my images from Venice.

Why got to the trouble and expense of producing and distributing a printed brochure when websites are so good looking, often cost next to nothing and are available to anyone with an internet enabled device?

Well, I think that very ubiquity is the reason why a printed product can differentiate your work. There are so many good looking professional photography websites around that many potential customers have become very blasé, and it’s maybe difficult to catch their attention in the crowd. “Oh, yeah, so you’ve got a stunning, professional and slick website – what’s new?”. I think this can even mask the quality of your images to some extent, although it shouldn’t, of course. A well produced physical product might just stand out.

Although your target audience will have to be carefully researched and necessarily limited in scope, at least you know there’s a good chance they will see your work. No more SEO angst and poring over Google analytics. Of course I’m not suggesting that your website is a waste of time. The internet is crucial once you have a customer base, and you still need to pursue your online promotion and search engine strategies.

This costs money, naturally, but I think it’s well worth it, and nowadays such a venture is much easier than it would have been in the past. I’d estimate the entire cost of producing and mailing 100 copies was around $500. This is Switzerland of course – so price comparisons are awkward.

Ok, here’s how I went about creating my first printed brochure.

Step 1

I found a print provider to satisfy my requirements. I think it’s important that you do this, rather than create the digital product and then hunt around for a printer. It’s possible that the most suitable printer might not support the format you’ve chosen. I suggest picking the printer, and then designing to the specifications of the products they support. Having said this, most good printers will be able to handle anything reasonable you throw at them. However, to take my own case, it’s fair to say that it was prompted by discovering the products of a local printer, and realising that, hey, I could do something with this.

The printer I’m using is printzessin.ch – they’re Swiss-based so won’t suit everyone, but I can heartily recommend them both for their product and their support. I like the fact that they concentrate on quite a limited set of options on the website making it really easy to zero in on a product that suits you. The website is only in German and French at the moment, but support comes in perfect English as well.

Step 2

I created the brochure with Adobe INDesign, and began with a brochure template that I purchased for a modest fee ($9). In the end I changed the template a lot, but it provided me with good ideas and a starting point. That totally white canvas is often a barrier to getting started. I matched the template dimensions to suit the size and format of one my printers brochure offerings.

Creating a photographic portfolio brochure with INDesign

How difficult is this? Well it depends on your skills with software products. INDesign is a high-end layout program and can perhaps be daunting if your are totally new to this sort of thing, but I’m not an expert by any means, and I found it relatively easy. I made a few mistakes, I learned a few important things for next time, but from start to finish I had produced the brochure in less than a day. There are many books and online resources of course, and as I’ve suggested ready-made templates can speed things up considerably. You could always employ a professional to do it for you, of course. I may do a follow-up post explaining how I produced the brochure in detail.

Step 3

I exported the INDesign file as a PDF according to my printer’s instructions. This was made easy as they provided a custom options file to apply during the export process.

Supplied PDF export options from printzessin.ch

Step 4

I uploaded the file to the printer via their website, picked media and quantity options, and paid my money. Four working days later I received a nice packet in the post with a couple of hundred brochures, which I have to say impressed even me. After this all that’s required is to distribute them. That’s probably another story.

Step 5

As a further step in preparing this post, I uploaded the finished PDF to issuu.com - a really neat way to showcase your output - where I was able to create the preview you can see at the top of the page.

Chagall at Kunsthaus Zurich

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Richard

At Kunsthaus Zurich there is a new exhibition of work by Marc Chagall – an artist who has close connections with the city. The exhibition runs until 12th May 2013, after which it moves to Tate Liverpool from 8th June until 6th October 2013

I enjoy art, but I have no serious academic background. I have quite a few friends who fall into this category and it’s interesting that Marc Chagall often elicits the same response – “Oh it’s very nice, but I’m not sure if it is any good or not”. This dismissive response to both the emotional and the intellectual is slightly puzzling. Is he just too popular and easy? Maybe people expect art to hit a bit harder. With someone like Francis Bacon for example, the emotional response is visceral and uncomfortable and the intellectual response is tough, difficult, tortured.

Marc Chagall
The Promenade, 1917/18
Oil on canvas, 175,2 x 168,4 cm
The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Chagall ®/© 2013, ProLitteris, Zurich

To get back to my initial point, the show at Zurich Kunsthaus – “Chagall: Modern Master” – is certainly enjoyable. The exhibition is not a retrospective but concentrates on two formative periods in his career where we can see and understand the genesis of the motifs that inform his art. It tries to make a point about his contribution to the development of the avant-garde, but I’ll leave that one to the experts. You can read more on the exhibition website.

This post is not really a critique of the exhibition as such, but on a quick first view, it showed me the development of style and content which have perhaps unfortunately led to this comfortable, safe and popular reputation.

First there is the colour. Along with sureness of design this is what makes a lot of his work successful poster material. For me it’s like the sound world a composer uses to establish his particular style, and like its musical counterpart the response it evokes is immediate, instinctive and recognisable. In this respect Chagall is not Mahler, but rather Mozart, and like Mozart the superficially urbane nature of the scheme hides lasting depths that repay familiarity.

Marc Chagall
I and the Village, 1911
Oil on canvas, 192,1 x 151,4 cm
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Mrs. Simon Guggenheim Fund, 1945
Chagall ®/© 2013, ProLitteris, Zurich

Secondly we have the familiar nostalgic imagery of a lost and magical past. The Jewish past of his home town of Vitebsk. These motifs are probably his most recognisable features – floating lovers in bubbles, farm animal heads, sleepy town roofs and gables. There is a suspicion that these are a facile device that just gets repeated over and over, but of course they represent the real sense of loss and isolation that Chagall felt on being separated from his Russia, his Vitebsk and his Jewish roots. Possibly we can get too much of this yearning after a while, but my own opinion is that this form is treated with enough subtlety and variety that it remains viable.

Marc Chagall Over Vitebsk, 1922 Chagall ®/© 2013, ProLitteris, Zurich

On my first visit, the gallery floor was littered with groups of primary school children, sprawled around with their crayons and pencils. They weren’t bothered about emotional and intellectual responses, but there was an obvious delight in the wealth of little discoveries to be found in the paintings that catch the imagination of a child, as they pointed out to each other upside-down people and flying goats, and hastily sketched out their own interpretations. Maybe it is easy to see Chagall just as the grown-up child but I think there is something enduring about the power of memory and longing and loss that comes to us in later years, and which has its own lasting power.

Kennedy’s Pub, Zurich

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Richard

I recently did a photo shoot for Kennedy’s in Zurich. Kennedy’s is a new Irish pub and despite this visit involving work, I have to say I rather liked it. Irish pubs may be everywhere, but the recipe of beer, good food and hospitality still works if they are done well.

Interior of Kennedy’s Pub Freischützgasse, Zurich

Disclaimer. The shoot involved this homemade pie, which I was then obliged to eat…….

Home made Chicken and Mushroom Pie at Kennedy’s Freischützgasse, Zurich

Zurich Marathon 2013 – Live!

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Richard

I’m out at the Zurich Marathon, playing at sports photography. A dull day, and slow shutter speeds, means high ISO

Edwin Kiprop at the 5km mark in the Zurich Marathon 2013

Edwin Kiprop, who finished second, is shown leading eventual winner Abraham Tadesse early in the race.

Abraham Tadesse wins the Zurich Marathon 2013

Tadesse was a popular local winner. Born in Eritrea he now lives in Switzerland. As a nice touch, after crossing the line he ran back a couple of hundred yards, saluting the spectators. He then found and embraced his wife and son.

Abraham Tadesse embracing his wife after winning Zurich Marathon

Abraham Tadesse with wife and son after winning the Zurich Marathon 2013

Winning time was 2:07.44,4 – which I think is pretty fast.

Richard Tugwell

A photographer's blog