Remembering Gabe...

This morning at about 8:30am Eastern time my grandfather took a trip from this world to the great fishing cabin in the sky.  I got the news while in the car on the way to see him, and my sister for her birthday of all things.  It’s a terrible family tragedy, but at the same time he is now no longer in extreme pain from a very aggressive/severe abdominal cancer (his 3rd or 4th run-in with the illness, we kinda lost count).

My Uncle and Grandmother were with him when he passed, and that’s all I really know right now.  Other than of course it’s the little things that’ll be missed.  Examples being his methods of teaching my sister and I to share growing up by tearing some denomination of currency in half ($20 or $50 depending on what kind of mood he was in to watch us), and saying figure this out.  More often than not I just gave my half of the bill to my sister because if she was willing to deal with the bank on the ripped up bill, she deserved my half.  Never really knew what he thought of that solution, but it meant I didn't actually have to go to a bank which I was ok with.  (I hope my accountant doesn't read this as he'll probably mention that turning down money is yet another reason for him to call my profession a Hobby.)  Another classic moment of his were his one liner jokes which included things like, “A  bear shits in the woods...” Followed only by laughter.

I’d like to say he was a master of technology as I not only have received emails from him, but while I was in college he was on the AOL Instant messenger train and would talk via the computer regularly.  He was a firm believer that time wasn't to waste though and if he messaged me and I didn't respond within approximately 15 seconds he would assume I wasn't there and sign off.  If there was one thing I could say about his computer usage though, it's that he was always Virus free by the method of installing every anti virus software he could find to the point that it took approximately 45 minutes for his Vista Laptop to boot.  Despite that fact, he made sure that it was always off when he was done so that no viruses could get on there while he wasn’t closely watching it’s every move.

Another thing is that he was a big fan of his Minolta Film SLR that he used to this day.  He however was not my inspiration into photography, my grandpa Ted was.  Gabe however did enjoy the craft, and owned several cameras along the way including dozens $20 OpTikatechpixelmegafawangerawesome brand digital cameras and used them constantly to document life around him.  Above all though he wanted a cat, but my grandmother wouldn’t have it.  Every time he saw me he told me he was jealous that I had one, and it pains me that I was never able to introduce him to Cheeto in any form but via email.

Despite the things that I’ve said here seeming somewhat tongue in cheek, he was smarter than all of us.  His Vista PC cost him $200 and if they had more than one on sale that day he’d have bought two; just in case.  Sure beats the hell out of the Kidney Buttload of cash I paid for my Mac Pro, or Macbook Pro for that matter.  It was all he needed to email and pay his bills.  His $20 cameras couldn’t print anything poster sized, but they could print pictures of his grandkids for the refrigerator just fine.  Unlike 90% of the consumer market he knew what he needed, and wasn’t going to get something he didn’t.  Just like the bear in the woods, he knew that sometimes the little things in life were meant to be laughed at.  Despite how random, or how asinine things may appear it’s funny how it’s all a matter of perspective.  Last weekend I saw him in the hospital and when we walked in my grandmother asked him if he knew who I was to which is response was simply; “What are you, Stupid?  Marc, sit down…”  Feisty until the end.  He will be missed.  More Soon.

Ghosts of Cameras past...

Constantly I am out shooting, putting actuation's on the camera that is in hand, setting lights, moving models, taping something to another. All of this without even thinking in most cases, and yet more often than not about how I could do it, should do it, or how I even used to do it. The little things in photography that every single modern day photographer takes for granted, such as 1600ISO, iTTL, Rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries, lastolite trip grip diffusers, FotoRosa shoe flash softboxes, or even Duct tape. From time to time, (time to time being very rarely) I find myself wondering how I used to do things before my D3 and SB-900's. Before the SU-800 allowed me to control my lights outputs from where I was shooting, instead of having to move to each light to change the output in increments larger than I wanted to. Or in even some cases, doing what I know a lot of photographers now do; and that's use High ISO instead of using lights at all.

(Ricoh KSX Super, Fuji 200 Slide Film. 50mm F1.8 Screw mount lens. Tripod of some sort.)

I shot that photo while doing a series of photos regarding Dorm life. Remember taking the shot in a bracket of 5, of which that was the one I liked. Today, this should would have been made differently. I'd have taken 20 or 30 shots, wouldn't have bracketed but just checked the histogram on the back of the camera. Back then that 20 or 30 shots would have been a whole roll of film, or at least most of one and I'd have had no idea if I got the shot until the next day when the slide film processing came back. I was a lot more deliberate back then and cautious of my shots as I was shooting on my dime in this case. Looking at the full size scan of this image off of the 35mm slide, it wouldn't even have been sharp enough for me to keep it today.

(Ricoh KSX Super, Fuji 200 Slide Film, 50mm F1.8 Screw Mount Lens.)

The shot above ranks itself by today's standards as an 18 megapixel slide. It's dark, , slightly out of focus, and anybody that looks at this would never know that the guy on the right is playing a video game of sorts. My journlaistic abilities at the time, however lacking, aren't the point of the photos though. When I think about how far technology has come since things like this were taken, I am amazed not only at the technology but how much I learned while shooting film. To this day I maintain that you'll learn more ruining a roll of film than shooting a thousand digital images. Just think back to the cameras that you've sold, broken, or just put into a box and under your bed because the trade in value was equivalent to a White Castle Crave Case. Just think about what they taught you, and how great you thought those images were back then.

I've bought and sold more equipment than I thought I would have ever thought would be the case by this point in my young career, but I can definitely tell you that I recognize the influence that every awesome then, crappy now photo has had on my shooting. All things are priceless bits of information as learned by mistakes made with old technology, or just lack of knowledge in general. That's what I love about my profession that to this day my accountant still refers to as a hobby. Every day, it's something new. Another mistake made, another lesson learned, another moment captured inching me closer to the best shot I've ever taken; and then the one better than that. More Soon.