Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2010/10/06

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: [Leica] Flash on Rangefinders (was Re: Another M9 question)
From: leicaslacker at gmail.com (kyle cassidy on the LUG)
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 11:15:11 -0400
References: <3B0F25B6-4DF7-486F-9DD9-830D2BE5C9C6@gmail.com> <C8D14E3D.48EE%mark@rabinergroup.com> <AANLkTimJs8Y24y8uPaPh8DbowtgT2qWqS2DA=gdVG=Vz@mail.gmail.com> <812CB3D8-DEFB-47C5-83E2-18D459E4D18F@gmail.com> <AANLkTi=FfYohjD1ZSmbX5TKuan3ybH0tJ=r3exj7vM14@mail.gmail.com>

I'm always astounded, when watching COPS, that when the police kick down the 
door and rush in, WITH A TV CREW with lights and sound and cameras, NOBODY 
says "hey, what's with the video camera?" No one even looks at it. Maybe 
people don't notice as much as we think -- but I think it's more likely that 
when someone like Joe McNally or Mary Ellen is doing documentary photography 
work they're there for weeks or months and people just get used to them 
being around -- you get to know all the people you photograph, and on top of 
that, I think a lot of times people have more important things they're 
worried about. Have you seen Donna Feratto's book "Living with the Enemy"? 
Where she would literally move in with a family with a violence/abuse 
problem and then just stay there until some flight flared up and photograph 
women getting beaten up by their husbands, who seem, in all these amazing 
photographs, completely oblivious. She shoots with a leica and a lot of them 
with a flash too -- it's an amazing body of work:

http://pdngallery.com/20years/photojournalism/images/06_donna_ferrato.jpg

It may be an attitude thing -- knowing that you belong and that you are 
supposed to be doing what you're doing. 

 
On Oct 6, 2010, at 11:02 AM, Tina Manley wrote:

> Available light is any damn light that is available! - W. Eugene
> Smith<http://www.photoquotes.com/showquotes.aspx?id=53&name=Smith,W.>
> 
> *I still don't know how you get around drawing attention to yourself every
> time a flash goes off.*
> *
> *
> *Tina*
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 10:24 AM, kyle cassidy on the LUG <
> leicaslacker at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>>> As for Nan Goldin:  "Goldin's work is most often presented in the form of
>> a
>>> slideshow <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slideshow>, and has been shown at
>>> film festivals; her most famous being a 45 minute show in which 800
>> pictures
>>> are displayed. The
>> 
>> if you look at that slide show though, which you can see here:
>> 
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-BqIx5DHgg
>> 
>> the first 40 images at least are all lit with a flash -- & this one of the
>> great documentary photography projects of the last 50 years.
>> Just because she sometimes takes fuzzy photos in available light doesn't
>> mean she won't use a flash when she thinks the situation calls for it.
>> 
>> Mary Ellen Mark is also not afraid to put a flash on her Leica -- many of
>> the photos in Falkland Road are lit with flash:
>> 
>> http://www.maryellenmark.com/frames/falkland.html
>> 
>> And a good many of her iconic images of Mother Theresa:
>> 
>> http://www.maryellenmark.com/frames/mteresa.html
>> 
>> It seems weird to say that rangefinders weren't meant for flash -- they
>> have a hot shoe, the new ones have TTL.
>> There are world famous Leica-using documentary photographers who have a
>> flash in their camera bag, and it has batteries in it.
>> It's just another skill set to learn and use when appropriate.
>> 
>> I forget who said (i'm paraphrasing) "if you have a flash available, then
>> that's part of your available light".
>> 
>> --
> Tina Manley, ASMP
> www.tinamanley.com
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information



In reply to: Message from leicaslacker at gmail.com (kyle cassidy on the lug) ([Leica] Another M9 question)
Message from mark at rabinergroup.com (Mark Rabiner) ([Leica] Another M9 question)
Message from images at comporium.net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] Another M9 question)
Message from leicaslacker at gmail.com (kyle cassidy on the LUG) ([Leica] Flash on Rangefinders (was Re: Another M9 question))
Message from images at comporium.net (Tina Manley) ([Leica] Flash on Rangefinders (was Re: Another M9 question))