6921-27 / travel • shallow DOF • common places-things • art reflects ~ every thing is just ducky

May 1, 2026

HAD TO DROP THE WIFE AT THE AIRPORT EARLY YESTERDAY morning. She was traveling to a location in the US of A and I thought I should travel too. So I went to a city in another country where everyone speaks French and spent the day making pictures.

I took only a single camera along with a moderate length tele prime lens. It was sort of a picture making practice event for my upcoming–in 3 weeks– trip to Ireland. Although, truth be told, the excursion was motivated by a desire to add a few more photos to my art reflects body of work.

That mission was accomplished but I was surprised by the fact that a number of art galleries on Rue Saint-Paul Ouest have been replaced by tacky touristy souvenir shops. One such shop was filled entirely with rubber duckies–must have been over 400+ different varieties of them. There is even a Photographer Rubber Duck which, unfortunately, was out of stock in the store but available in their online store.

FYI, weird coincidence; shooting for the first time in a long time with a “real” camera, I made exactly 36 exposures, essentially 1 roll of 35mm film. Another semi-weird occurrence–12 of those images contain evidence of a human presence; something not usually associated with my (so called) “fine art” picture making. I have also come to the conclusion that big city environs are target rich for the making of Saul Leiter-like photographs–quite possibly the only suitable environment.

#6909-15 / common places-things • kitchen sink • leiterscape ~ two of these things are just like the other things

April 25, 2026

OVER THE PAST WEEK A LEITER-ESQUE PICTURE MAKING M.O. has thoroughly permeated my picture making activity. So much so that I am carrying around and actually using a “real” camera to make some pictures – something I haven’t done for the better part of 2 years.

Seems kinda weird; ya know, actions like getting the proper exposure by manually adjusting f-stops and shutter speeds or pinpointing a precise plane of focus by rotating a focus ring instead of touching a screen. It sorta makes me wanna go out and buy a stick-shift (a 3 on the steering column) 1965 Ford Falcon with an AM radio with dials for volume and station selection and cranks for rolling down the windows. Ya know what I mean; reengage with a tactile life of actually touching tangible things. That written, I am also surprised at how easily I have adapted my seeing to different picture making paradigm.

Re: using a “real” camera – I have discovered that there are some, although quite rare, picture making situations where the PORTRAIT mode gets, aah …. let’s write, “confused”. The first time that happened I immediately fetched one of my “real” cameras and made the photo with it. Then, just for the hell of it, I pictured a subject I knew would work well with the PORTRAIT mode and then for comparison, made the same picture with my “real” camera. The result was that the two images were remarkably similar.

To wit; the proof is in the puddin’ – two of the Leiter-esque photos in this entry were made with a “real” camera. Wanna venture a guess?

FYI, I have not abandoned full-on DOF picture making ….

# 6551-54 / common places • common things • shallow DOF ~ it's all a blur

May 2, 2023

SINCE THE START OF MY DIGITAL CAMERA USE, I kinda missed the shallow DOF possible with most film-based cameras. That fact was exacerbated by my adoption of the micro 4/3 sensor - the smaller the sensor, the smaller the lens-projected image magnification factor = greater apparent DOF at any f-stop setting.

In order to mitagate this DOF situation, I acquired only fast, prime lenses that I used wide open to obtain some satisfactory measure of shallow DOF (when desired). Worked in some picture making situations, not so much in other situations. With the availability of full-frame digital sensors / cameras, I was sorry tempted to make the switch from µ4/3 to full-frame but, the cost / benefit ratio-duplicating my µ4/3 system-for the number of times I might want shallow DOF was most definitely out of whack. But wait….

…enter the PORTRAIT setting on the iPhone…

ASIDE this would be a good place to pause and take a deep breath if you are one of those “purists” who whine, moan, or outright scream that the iPhone PORTRAIT setting ain’t" “real” DOF. END ASIDE

…and as far as I am concerned, all is right with the world.

In any event, this entry was instigated by Mike Johnston’s request for submissions to another of his BAKER’s DOZEN call for work. The theme is pictures with “some king of blur” with the caveat that only pictures expressly made for this BD Blur event-created after 4/28/23-would be considered for prize awards. However, I believe that this caveat has since been rescinded.

Before that rescinding, I was rather annoyed cuz I have an ever expanding body of work in which blur-to one degree or another, one type or another-is the predominant visual component. That body of work is comprised of pictures made using the iPhone PORTRAIT setting. Nevertheless, within a few hours of seeing the BD Blur request for pictures, I made a few new pictures with the iPhone.

FYI, one thing I really like about the iPhone PORTRAIT setting is the fact that the apparent DOF can be adjusted / fine tuned, ad infinitum, to any desire result after the picture has been made. Try doing that with your shot-wide-open “real” digital camera.

I will be making more blur pictures before submitting one to the competition. FYI, I have only submitted to two BD competitions. Accepted to both-Cameras, and In the Museum. Be interested to know if any followers of this blog participate.