![\"Stinson](\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/stinsonmamiya.jpg\")
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I was trying to make a picture the other day, but my camera and my computer wouldn\u2019t let me<\/strong>. Sound silly, but it\u2019s true. And it\u2019s making me think my photography has become more complicated than it needs to be.<\/p>\n I had the studio all set. The paper was out, the lights were up, I\u2019d metered front, back and sides. All good. Then I hooked my camera up to my laptop so the pictures would flow into the computer screen as I shot.<\/p>\n Nothing happened. No connection. Without one, no pictures.\u00a0 I was using a new camera, a Nikon D4, and the software \u2013 also made by Nikon \u2013 wasn\u2019t \u201crecognizing\u201d the camera. No problem, I thought, I\u2019ll download an update.<\/p>\n As I began to do that, the clients showed up, a mother and her daughter. The mom is a dancer, her daughter a middle-schooler. I was photographing them for the magazine, full-length on a white background, hopefully with some leaping and frolicking.<\/p>\n We chatted and I told them where to change. I returned to the computer, thinking I could install the software patch before they came back. No luck.<\/p>\n I opened another piece of software, Lightroom, and configured it to capture the pictures coming from the camera. This was an unreliable workaround because Lightroom sometimes\u00a0 quits in the middle of a shoot, causing me to lose pictures, but I had no choice.<\/p>\n OK, I said, to the mom and daughter, I\u2019m ready. But I wasn\u2019t. Even thought I\u2019d metered the lights,\u00a0 the first shots looked terrible \u2013 the light was muddy where it should have been sharp, overblown where it should have been no more than bright<\/strong>. I\u2019d used this set-up at least 100 times previously and had no idea why this was happening.<\/p>\n I fiddled, I fussed, I moved things around and I changed settings on the camera. Things improved. I\u2019d learned over the years that different lenses can produce different exposures under the same lighting conditions, but now I was learning that moving from one pricey Nikon model to another could do the same.<\/p>\n OK, I said, to the mom and daughter, I\u2019m ready. But they weren\u2019t. The 30 minutes I\u2019d spent hacking at the software and moving gear dampened\u00a0 the enthusiasm they\u2019d walked in the door with. But they were gamers, so they perked up, posed a half-dozen ways and I made some decent shots, enough, at least, to get the job done.<\/p>\n The weirdness with the computer and the lights ate up half the time they had. The shoot felt rushed \u2013 because it was. Their faces showed strain at times \u2013 because their patience was running out. The resulting images were good, but limited<\/strong> \u2013 because there was not time to try other things.<\/p>\n The shoot wasn\u2019t a failure, just less of a success than it could have been<\/strong>. My fault. I should have checked the software compatibility with the new camera. And I shouldn\u2019t have used a new (well, I\u2019ve had it six months, but haven\u2019t used it in the studio) camera on something that had to be done right the first time.<\/p>\n This is me falling on my sword. Ouch.<\/p>\n With the pain out of the way, I can say this: It shouldn\u2019t be this hard to make a picture<\/strong>. Oh, I know, I can hear Michael Corleone saying in The Godfather<\/em>, \u201cThat is the price you pay for the life you choose.\u201d I get it. I just don\u2019t have to like it.<\/p>\n Other than the lens-cap thing (Photography 101, folks), the Mamiya is simplicity embodied. I spent a few hours with it, walking around empty buildings near the ocean, framing windows and doorways and chairs. The roll of black-and-white film in the camera only held 10 exposures, so I devoted more time to looking than actually shooting, making the experience much more about seeing the world rather than capturing it<\/strong>. That patience, yogic-like mindfulness, was intensely relaxing.<\/p>\n Then there was the camera itself \u2013 no electronics other than the meter, a body made of smooth, heavy metal that always felt cool in my hand<\/strong>, a lens\u00a0 silent and smooth as my fingers adjusted its focus and a shutter that just whispers its acceptance of its role, no ka-chunk of a mirror, just an affirmative, soft click to acknowledge the making of the picture.<\/p>\n Simple.<\/p>\n The Mamiya does demand one more thing \u2013 faith.<\/strong> Since it isn\u2019t a digital photo factory, there is no immediate playback to look it, nothing to verify whether the picture is exposed correctly or framed adequately or has any other additional merits as a photograph. It is up to the photographer to have faith in the judgment he or she exercised with the press of the shutter, and then wait hours or days for the film to be developed to determine whether that faith has been rewarded.<\/p>\n Here we have a camera \u2013 and a way of making photographs \u2013 that is not only mechanically simple, but encourages patience, faith in your vision and technical knowledge<\/strong> (sorry, no histogram, you chimpers).<\/p>\n These are attractive qualities in a world like mine<\/strong>, which is dominated by technology, subject to the demands of deadlines, and often less focused on taking the picture than on remaking it later in the computer to satisfy the whims or needs of clients.<\/p>\n I\u2019m already trolling eBay with a boxy, black slab in mind.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was trying to make a picture the other day, but my camera and my computer wouldn\u2019t let me. Sound silly, but it\u2019s true. And it\u2019s making me think my photography has become more complicated than it needs to be. … Continue reading ![\"Annie](\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/images\/seconddraft\/annieparr.jpg\")
I found the patch, but it wouldn\u2019t install. Nikon wanted the original registration number, which was home on my other computer, plus it required me to install every version of the software between the current one on the laptop and the latest fix \u2013 and there were three of those. No time for that.<\/p>\n![\"photocrati](\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/wp-content\/themes\/photocrati-theme\/photocrati-gallery\/image\/gallery-placeholder-1.gif\")
Last weekend I tried a different type of photography, something not dependent a computer or software. Inspired by Mary Ellen Mark<\/strong> and her workshop <\/a>in Oaxaca (here\u2019s the story of my trip<\/a>), I rented a Mamiya 7<\/a>, a boxy slab of a camera that focuses manually, uses film and, because it is a rangefinder, requires whomever is using it to remove the lens cap in order to expose the film (something it took me several frames to remember).<\/p>\n