time friggin' flies...

i mean ... i know my own perspective of time is rather skewed compared to other people.  i'm sure there's at least one who will attest to this.

it's not just time i think ... blogging on this platform is so much more of a pain in the ass than uber.com used to be. 

fucking uber.

i never really said much about what i thought about the demise of uber.  i didn't really want to until the street contest ended and the prize ended up in the correct hands.  honestly, i don't really get why people would bitch, moan and fucking complain about something that was free to the winner.  what made me laugh hardest, of course, was that the people who were identified to me as the biggest bitchers had ABSOLUTELY no chance of anything close to contention.  odd. 

and now ... a perfectly deserving photographer ... ironically living on one of my favourite streets in amsterdam ... has a new camera.  so stoked that i could use my contacts to make that happen for someone.

will i do it again?  dunno.

i'm a working photographer ... not some wannabe art school grad who couldn't make it as a "real photographer" nor am i someone who hates the fact he wasn't "good enough to go pro" and would rather be a househusband.

much much much different being a working photographer.

ya' know i found that my new 2tb drive and mac wouldn't format the win fat32 discs as mac discs until i first partitioned them as two 1tb drives.  very odd.

wish i didn't have to know that kind of bullshit.

i just want to make photos.

and now i have 7 tb of drives to worry about.  it's amazing to me.  7-fucking-tb.

worked out all of my aperture issues, too!  that took some time.  and now i get to re-think the way i index all of that stuff.

oh, yeah, uber.  seriously, when i saw some people i greatly care about lose their jobs ... yes ... i was fucking pissed.  not necesarily at the management of uber but the whole financial mess the us/world got itself into.  besides the idiots who got into mortgages they knew they couldn't afford and u.s. carmakers who are so clearly fucking out-of-touch with reality i guess i blame the international bankers.

ever since uber took a nose-fucking-dive ... dunno if i've really had blogging in me as of late.

i haven't stopped making photos.  i have lots.

in fact, going to the lab today to pick up more processed film and scans.

yes, i do plan on sharing some of the work ... but ... typepad's way of doing things is a bit clunky.

i know.  i could use a bunch of different free services.

honestly, fuck free services.  i'd rather pay.

i don't see how anything "free" unless it's owned by google will survive. 

i've also been on an archiving-fucking-mission of late.  crazy archiving. 

on the archving front ... j did an amazing job editing and laying out "the dog book."  i'm done with the e.u. book.  j's just got to put some finishing touches on it.  then on to usa 01, usa 02 and usa 03.

my eyes would go bleary from seeing so many goddamned photos.

and ... notice that i haven't called any of them street.  i'm tired of the term street photography because so many dumbasses and "others" think of street photography as literally photographs of streets.  i get it.  i get why someone may think that.  for sure.  not only ... but when you say "yeah, i shoot street" you get the craziest blank expression from "laypeople."  then again, street also includes material not made on a street per se.  then why call it street?

it's not that the onlinephotodudewhocan'tshoot came up with "street" ...

when i look at successful photos in this genre they all depict humans within their respective environments.  they depict "the human condition."

"the human condition" exists on the metro, on the bus, on the street, of course, inside restaurants, hospitals, bars ... everywhere.  that's why calling it street ... just don't feel it anymore.

fyi ... i like printing photos within aperture so much more than i do in ps.

just so you know.

what else? 

it's almost that silly-fucking-season again.  cannot believe how fast 2008 went.  jesus.

*watches the final bit of this latest terabyte copy from one drive to another*

yes, i'm a backup fanatic.

what else?

oh, yeah, the 5d mark 2.  yes, it's pretty damn amazing.  funny that my photographer-friends (the ones who do this for a living and don't just postulate on the fucking internet) ... are most intrigued with the video capabilities.

*waits for the returned phone call about the use of someone's gyro*

what sucks about the video capabilities is that you can't force the aperture.  you'll notice that reverie was shot at night.  also ... the af is not only noisy -- as you can hear every little movement of the lens -- but it's slow as shit.  you're way better off manually focusing.

i see it as very useful as a b-roll camera during interviews.

we're still trying to find out if it's 24 fps or 30.  there's some arguments about this.

handling in the still-photo-world ... um ... this is amazing.  it's so fast.  almost as fast as my venerable monster.  i like it because it's lighter, too.

and, no, i won't be buying the grip.  i wasted us$400 on the one for the last 5d.

bastards changed batteries again.

i don't really notice any autofocusing differences between the old 5d and the new one.  the 85/1.2L is still slow as shit.  so is the mark 2 version.  the 50's much quicker.

the general feel of it is way better than the last version.

21 mp!

amazing.

and nikon comes out with an $8K d3x.  canon should further reduce the price of the 1dsm3. ;)

yeah, i know ... i got one and paid full pop ... but ... unlike most on the web ... mine's already paid for itself.

in multiples. ;)

i think i have to get in the shower and get the day going.

thank you all for being so patient in terms of waiting for some photographs.

there ARE photographs.

i just haven't had the time to do anything but work-related stuff and archiving.

seriously, i believe blurb.com is the way of the future.  i showed some of my friends blurb and they were amazed.  i was amazed they'd never heard about it.  then again, working photographers don't have as much time to see everything that's out there.

my working-photographer-friends usually wait for me to tell them about it.

so ... hope you're all very well ...

cheers from the now-feeling-like-late-fall l.a.!

-chris

Comments

[Dan]

I was looking through your website the other day and noticed the 'human condition' titling over street.
Just checked out the book, the back cover made me laugh.
There's a site called Photobox which I use to make books. They come out pretty nice, I made one from my trip to Japan. Only problem is they're expensive, and geared more towards P&S photographers, so the only 3:2 option is centred in the page, like most of yours. Oh well.
Look forward to the photos.
Also, if you were serious about using the film mode I guess you'd use an external mic, which would get rid of the noise.
Anyway, back to my essay.

[Tom (Achillies875)]

I know what you mean by street photography.

At least on dA, it's pathetic. I don't see how anyone can actually put a photo of not only a bare street, but some weird myspace photo of themselves or their friends in the gallery. Don't see how that fits in with the whole "Seeing and Reacting to candid moments of strangers in public" theme...but ok.

At least brian is doing well (the new GD)

I try not to call it street anymore either. I try to call it Social Documentary, but that's pretty much the same as the Human Condition.

You don't develop your own film?
One of the most fun things I can do.
But probably boring as shit now that you've done it for years.

[Thorsten Overgaard]

I remember when I was about 10, the chance of winning a Konica SLR in one of the weeklies got me going a lot. They had one every week the the photo of the week. Made me think a lot in pictures, shooting a lot and all.
So I can totally get the feeling of being in Amsterdam, walking the streets with a brand new camera as a price. Wow!
So it could be good to do more of it for the purpose of uniting talents, focusing on doing something that someone else will look at and judge, etc. Way better than nothing!

I know people who get upset when they don't win in the lottery. Because they set them self up to it, and now they realize they have to continue their working life. I guess it's that sort of mechanism. And I guess you shouldn't give a f...

Archiving and backup. I love it so much I sometimes buy a harddrive I haven't the slightest use for yet. You can't get enough of space. Don't know what is with those dual disk things, hard disks used to be pure plug and play.

As for Aperture, I'm getting into that. I read this very inspiring blog from John Thawley who introduced me to the idea of not working in batches of events, but finishing and distributing pictures as you go. Anyone who want a up-to-date workflow idea, read his blog post http://www.johnthawley.com/journal/2008/8/16/wrapping-your-head-around-workflow.html and perhaps read back and forth on his blog as there's more on this.

[Seamus Travers]

I never really understand, people who bitch about competion results, they need to take a page out of the closing song from the life of Brian "You start from nothing, you go back to nothing, so what have you lost, Nothing".
It reminds me of an actor friend of mine who always bitchs about Colin Farrell cause he made it.
Since the demise of Uber, I don't really have the motivation to blog, or submit images on the web anymore, I have a lot photos, but just not the inclination to post them publically.

[elinor]

You need a SAN at home. Pretty easy to have one these days.

I liked the uber blogging format, too, and haven't found too much fun in doing my wordpress blog.

[Espen]

Can't wait to see more pics! Just started shooting an M6 w/Tri-x and developing myself - all your fault!

[james jay]

good to hear from you bro...

i totally understand how your feeling about uber, as of late i don't feel like shooting as much..haven't been carrying my camera with me as much as i should.

i don't know what it is...

though i have been playing with my new yashica t4... im not to sure if i like it that much...
i haven't made any photos i like with it.

well happy holidays my friend, and dont work to hard...

-james

[Dzu Nguyen]

haha but we have the nikon d700 to compete with your 5dm2...yea its a rather weak 12.1 mp but its still quite the fighter.

And I was finally able to take a look at the winning piece and I have to say it was quite the winning contender. More power to amsterdam.

[jeremy]

Very cool to see you also have a book on blurb.com, Chris. I'll have to get a copy.
I never liked the term "street". Never really made sense to me. I like "the human condition", though. Maybe just everyone should just start calling it "human" photography.

[Robert Price]

Good to see you got some time to write some stuff on the ole blog. I to have been a little Blog deficiant as of late. You are right of course Uber was so easy to blog on. I have lost my nerve a little for blogging, nothing out in web land really can compare to the ease of ue that Uber had.

I had a drive fail on me two weeks ago 10,000 photos had to be recovered from it. Took me a week to get it repaired and working. I went right out and got 2 1tb drives to use as backups one is a net work drive I can access from anywhere in the worl that has a online connection thru my latop. What a great Idea, shoot in chicago back up to portable I have with me then back up over night to the drive at home. Yes I hate having to be a dork about this stuff to.

Oh looks like I will be getting a 17in Mac pro soon, I blame you directly for that with all you bragging about it, Fucker :)

Give my best to the family.

[C Weeks]

@dan: pretty observant of you. :) photobox, eh? i've seen some blurb examples and was pretty happy with them. not only but the premium paper sounds promising as well.

a friend is coming over with boom mikes, independent external recording things, remotes ... we're gonna figure out what works.

hope the essay treated you well, mate.

[C Weeks]

@tom: um ... you didn't go through the contest entries. seriously. you wouldn't believe what the fuck people though was street. wanna know when a model on a thai beach is street. like 8 times. dunno.

honestly, i haven't looked at the street galleries at dA. i look at friend's blogs. glad to hear brian's doing well.

developing film myself would cost me three times what the lab charges in terms of time. that said ... printing will be my "new golf game" in the near future.

it's all my fault! :) glad to hear it, mate.

[Ds Kagle]

get back on da fuck em sont post pics just blogs and fucknig advertise in your journals lol !!! I miss uber

Daniel Kagle

[Justine Trickett]

The "Puppy Parlour" photo in the dogs book made me laugh.. along with the brilliant back cover!

I saw the photo which won the "Street Photography" contest and thought it was amazing. It looks like a still life painting and like it's been choreographed! Just fantastic. Anyone who's bitching about it obviously isn't a fan of photography, just their own egos.

I'm tempted to make a book or two on Blurb, one of my coursemates at uni made a very impressive portfolio book using that site. Apparently it takes a couple of goes to get the levels right though? Anyway, it's great that people can now self-publish their work at a professional standard without having to bulk-order and pay thousands of pounds at a time :)

Post some photos!

[Noons]

Mate, I'd love to know where friggin November went...

[Christian Rollinson]

good to see you back mate, and as for 'the human condition', i like that description ;)

[Todd Davis]

The Dog Book is great... I checked it out on Blurb. It reminds me of Winograde's Animals... Its also about the human condition... many of your "dog" photographs really have a human context.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Michael]

"the human condition" instead of street. yes. that makes sense. much broader. THC - that was the name of my gallery on uber as well.

[Koga]

Good to see an update here, as I've been checking the site practically everyday waiting for another photo-filled blog post. Personally, been shooting tons as well as working on a much belated Best of 2008 Flickr update. Hope your Thanksgiving was good!

[Rastislav]

Happy to see you’re still posting entries here! :)

Yeah about the 5d, honestly I’m thinking of getting one...with the 24-70/2.8L to start with. I got a opportunity to shoot some weddings and there’s no way I would go there with anything else... except for my Contax 645 :) as a backup. I just gotta dive into it and not think about the $$ so much. It’ll be paid for after the weddings. I mean honestly If I’m to go digital, is this a good start? I don’t want to buy anything for a while after this.

Your book on dogs is awesome Chris! Its one thing to see them separately but when you put them together in this manner it just goes to another level. Great stuff!

Hope you’re doing great!
Take care!

[Dan Powell]

I might see if the parents want to buy me a Chris Weeks book for Christmas.. I haven't been around here much lately; life is ridiculous and stressful, and I'm applying to colleges and have newspaper assignments and an independent film project on top of that. But I have been doing a bit of photography.. and the MacBook Pro came, and it's freaking beyond, as you put it. I have every option maxed out I'm pretty sure, and I have great confidence that it will last me through college, or most of it at least. Only problem is that stupid converter cord that I ordered with it so that I can work on the 30" Cinema Display has yet to show up, and I ordered it with the laptop probably more than a month and a half ago. Aperture is still pretty sick even on a 15" screen though.

I'm having issues with desaturation too.. I uploaded some photos to Facebook and they were noticeably desaturated. Apparently the Flickr community has discovered this to be a problem, but the issue was supposed to be when viewing images in Firefox, and I use Safari. My colorspace through camera, post work and conversion is all sRGB and even if I play around and change stuff to Adobe RGB 1998 or something, it still desats when I put them online. Real confusing. But I had some photos for a newspaper assignment that looked fine when I transferred them onto one of their computers (iMac). So maybe it's just an internet issue. Dunno.

Say if I wanted to get myself a decent medium format camera, would you have any recommendations? I have really fallen in love with that wide-view-with-really-shallow-dof look. Kinda like shooting with a 35/2 or 50/1.4 on a 5D, but those are kinda pricey, especially considering my recent computer purchase. I was looking at a Kiev 60, and kind of want one of those Hasselblad 500s but I just don't know. Maybe you're not a fan of medium format.. certainly ranks lower than rangefinder. ;)

This has turned into a very long comment, and what I really wanted to share with you was this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnwf2RShNV0 I've seen it used for some other dialogue but I thought this one was funny too. Wait for the comment at 3:43!

I hope to see some photos soon. Sheesh look who's talking. Maybe I'll update the twenty-seven blog.. it's been a while. ;)

Glad you are still doing well!

[Sam Oksner]

Chris, have you see any of the weird atrifacts that some people are reporting with the 5dm2? http://photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00RewZ Although I'm not gona buy one of these (i'd love too) I'm quite curious about it.