At Prayer, Vientiane, Laos, 2005
Surrounded by offerings that she and others have carried to this temple, a woman bows again and again at the conclusion of her prayers. The room was dark, which mean using a very slow shutter speed, in this case 1/6th of a second. A tripod is out of the question – as part of a tour group, I am moving and shooting at a pace that simply will not allow such time-consuming tools. I never use a flash either. I find it intrusive, harsh, and unnatural looking. I did not increase the ISO because I did not feel it was necessary. Given the self-imposed limitations of my decisions, I still must try to make the most stable images I can with hand held exposures. My Panasonic FZ-20 has image stabilization, which gives me the same kind of stabilization here that I could expect if I was shooting at 1/25th of a second. My goal is to keep the surroundings sharp, yet also express the devotion of this woman by blurring her as she bows deeply, again and again. I achieved this goal in this image – the woman seems to flow through space as she moves her body back and forth, yet the flowers, candles, tiles, and even her purse on the floor next to her remain sharp. To do this, I cradled the camera in my palm and gently applied pressure to the shutter button. I never pushed it, simply squeezed it.
26-NOV-2004
Violent Ice, Denver, Colorado, 2004
While visiting Denver, I spent an entertaining evening as a spectator at a college ice hockey game between two of the best teams in the US – Denver University and Boston University. I was seated high in the stands, a long distance from the playing surface. I had a small Canon G6 digicam with me – hardly the kind of camera able to stop fast action in full stride. But by using time itself as a medium of expression, I could use my small digital camera to blur action, expressing two essential aspects of ice hockey as a sport – its speed and physical violence.
The level of existing light in the ice arena required me to use a slow shutter speed of 1/8th of a second in “program” mode – perfect for what I had in mind. This slow shutter speed causes the bodies of the players to become flowing blurs of color – some more, some less, depending upon skating speed. Hockey is a very fast and violent game, as players battle each other for possession of a small disc of rubber and try to blast it into the opponents goal. The Denver team, defending US national collegiate champions, displayed a swift and crushing defensive style, stopping the Boston attackers time and time again. Knowing this, I focused on an area where the Denver defensemen made their stand, and in this shot I capture three of them (wearing white) stopping the Boston offensive players (wearing red).
It is impossible to carefully compose this picture because of the continual action. However, since I am using a seven-megapixel camera, I could later crop it dramatically, creating a composition that defined the nature of this game for me. I placed a blurred Denver defender in the upper left hand corner, diagonally opposed to a blurred Boston attacker in the lower right corner. They are symbolic “action anchors.” The point of the picture is expressed across the center band of this image. At left center, a red Boston attacker, legs pumping wildly, tries frantically to get around a defender in order to receive a pass from a teammate at the right edge. The Boston effort fails because Denver’s defense was too strong, and too fast. The player in red at right edge will never make his pass because he is about to be slammed by that blurred Denver defender just to the right of center. This moment in time encapsulates the fast flow of not only this particular game, but the essence of the violent sport of ice hockey as well.
19-OCT-2004
Guardian of the Flock, near Bishop, California, 2004
While driving through the Sierras in a pouring rain we saw this soaked Great Pyrenees protecting his flock of sheep. Using a 432mm telephoto lens from the open window of our parked car, I photographed this sheep dog as it stared back at me through the sagebrush. None of the sheep even knew I was there. But this dog did. The key to the shot is the dog’s expression and the fact that none of the sheep are looking my way. Only the dog sees me, and it never let me out of its sight. It was doing its job, and using my camera to capture this particular moment in time, I was able to do mine.
30-AUG-2004
Tidal Chase, St. Malo, France, 2004
As I watched the tide run out from high on the ramparts of the walled city of St. Malo, I noticed three beachcombers bearing buckets heading out to reap the bounty of the sea. I was focusing on them when two children came dashing into the bottom of my frame, chasing each other in another direction. I pressed the shutter release and 1/1000th of a second later I had snatched this moment out of time and space and preserved it for you. This image is rich in juxtapositions – the beachcombers stride away from us with stately precision, while the kids sprint across the frame in frantic haste. Yet both groups are connected by the rippling layer of shallow sea water that still coats the sand. Although neither group seems conscious of the other, they will be forever linked in this eye-blink in time
12-JUN-2004
Bus stop, Nanjing Road, Shanghai, China, 2004
I used a slow exposure, less than 1/15th of a second, to shoot these people waiting for a bus in front of an elegant illuminated advertisement. Since these people were travelers, I wanted to use an extended moment in time to express a feeling of transition and movement. The incongruity of the large scale woman in the ad contrasted against the smaller commuters was also fascinating. I had no idea that I would also pick up the red reflection in the glass over the ad – it provides a curtain lifting on a drama. The two men in this picture are faceless because they moved while the shutter was open – another bonus for me. The blurred faces of those men only add to this mysterious flow of travelers crossing paths on a Shanghai evening.
26-JUN-2004
Spinning prayer wheels, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet, 2004
The streets adjacent to the Jokhang Temple are lined with prayer wheels -- these still spin from the touch of Buddhist pilgrims. I used a shutter speed of about 1/60th of a second – fast enough to hand hold the camera with ease, yet slow enough to get a touch of movement in the wheels. These wheels are meant to spin. A shot of them in a static state would be virtually meaningless.
26-JUN-2004
Watching the wheels, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet, 2004
Only a few minutes before I made the preceding photograph, I photographed a pair of women watching the never-ending march of the prayer-wheel spinners through the Jokhang Temple. I used a slower shutter speed for this shot, about 1/15th of a second, to blur the wheels, a pilgrim passing through the frame, and the hand of one of the watching women. The purpose of this blur is to increase the tempo of the picture, making things feel as if they are spinning, moving, and even watching ever more quickly.
26-JUN-2004
Cigarette seller, Lhasa, Tibet, 2004
This rack of cigarettes, mounted just outside of the door of a Lhasa shop, is useful for smokers who are in a hurry. Passing customers just have to point to a pack, and the clerk quickly grabs it for them. I used a fast shutter speed, almost 1/400th of a second, to freeze both her expression and gesture.
27-JUN-2004
Role Model, Lhasa, Tibet, 2004
Watching his mother quickly pack up a bag of Yak meat, this butcher's son is already learning his future trade. I used 1/40th of second to blur the hand and meat, and bring this image to life.
12-JAN-2004
Artwalk, La Boca, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2004
While walking the art-lined streets of this Buenos Aires neighborhood, I came upon a sculpture painted in subtle, earthy colors, beautifully displayed against a background of yellow, blue, and two red tones -- all the primary colors at once. A promising subject, indeed, but it needed more than just attractive art and color to make the scene function as an expressive photograph. Eventually, a group of three people approached. They were as tightly grouped as the people portrayed in the sculpture, I made this picture the instant they entered my frame. A touch of shutter lag resulted in bringing them well into the midst of the frame by the time the picture was actually recorded. The key to this shot is the arm of the woman leading the group into the picture. It is at an angle, as are the arms of the two women who dominate the sculpted group. The men who make up the rest of the art-goers carry their heads in a perfect spatial relationship to hers. There is a just enough space between each of them to avoid mergers yet still create a tight grouping, just as the heads appear in the sculpture. The result is an instant in time and space that creates a bond between art and life, making this image successful at all levels.
14-DEC-2003
In the Wake of the Marco Polo, Caribbean Sea, 2003
Days at sea on a cruise ship may be heaven for some, but frustrating for a photographer with nothing to shoot. Yet I quickly realized that expressive images could be found anywhere, even in the middle of an ocean. Gazing out to sea from the stern of the Marco Polo, I noticed that the waves made by ship’s own engines created rhythms and patterns of extraordinary beauty and turmoil. I spent over an hour shooting hundreds of digital images of those waves, trying to find the one instant in time when everything in the picture would coalesce into a marine tapestry of cohesive fury and exquisite beauty. And finally I did. After spending a half hour shooting with the camera held at horizon level, on impulse I tilted the frame, using the wake of the ship as a diagonal organizing force. Fascinated by the moving water cascading both above and below this line, I tried to time my shots to capture the most expressive water patterns both above and below this line. This is the instant in time that worked the best. At the top, streams of white water crackle in the green sea like static energy. At the lower part of the image, multiple mini-wakes rush below a series of feathery trails. A dark blue sea recedes in the distance, still white with froth, but no longer as agitated as the wake itself. This is one of those pictures where the photographer does not control much of what is captured. The movement of the sea, changing instant by instant, will determine the outcome. All I needed to do was to organize the overall structure of the image, and then just keep shooting the moving water until I found, completely by chance, the moment when everything came together.
30-APR-2003
Queens Day, Amsterdam, Holland, 2003
Queens Day -- a celebration of Queen Beatrix's official birthday -- features what may be the world's largest flea market/street party/carnival. Dam Square, at the heart of the city, is turned into an amusement park featuring a giant Ferris Wheel and a terrifying experience called "The Booster". I use a frozen moment in time to link these two rides as they move through space together. At 1/640th of a second, I able to stop both in their tracks. Yet I wanted more than that -- I wanted the masochists flying through the air on the "Booster" to seem as if they were suspended in air only inches from the Ferris Wheel. The tiny space between them would create a spot of tension as the focal point of my picture. Easier said than done. Compact digital cameras -- even the best of them -- suffer from a malady known as "shutter lag". You must first focus and expose by pressing the shutter button halfway down, and then squeeze it the rest of the way the instant before the instant you want to capture. I must have shot this picture at least ten times before I was able to get my timing right. Fortunately, digital "film" is free forever.