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A Growing loneliness (revisiting a lonely bench)


"A Growing loneliness"


Several months after my first attempt at capturing the lonely stature of this bench, which is apparently almost never used, I returned with a more thoughtful attempt at capturing it. I know a bench is an odd subject on its own, but as it is posed on this bridge, over which Johannesburg life passes it by, the irony struck me that the small plant growing underneath it has managed to penetrate it - undisturbed, unmaintained. Its only companion. Slightly, subtly, gently at first - and now, as the ever-feeling, ever-thickening tip moves along, it has entrenched itself. Now, the only way it could be removed would be by damaging either it or the bench.

As all of this happens in plain sight, life goes on.


Technical note: Though most of the picture is intentionally out of focus, the areas of the plant and chair that are in-focus are rendered with a sharpness and clarity that I have not experienced before using Canon's 50mm f/1.2L. Somehow, the results do not reflect Canon's MTF chart for this lens, on which it would appear to be only "quite good". I find this lens to be staggeringly good, and I have never experienced such capability and creative freedom before using it. My "benchmark" lens is the Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, but I do believe that the 50L surpasses it in some aspects. I find this image both technically and "artistically" superior (at f/1.8) than anything I could have produced at f/2.8 with the Macro. This lens is now "glued" to my camera, pried off only momentarily to fit the 16-35L! The appeal was not immediate, mind you - I found it took me about a month to get comfortable with the lens and its limitations.
 

Ray West

New member
Hi Dawid,

I think you are making a mistake. It is not a lens, in your hands it's a paintbrush. I think I'll give you a score, marks out of ten, - 18 OK?

Best wishes,

Ray
 
Ray, for a moment there I thought you were rating it -18 out of ten, but that would contradict your otherwise very generous compliment - thank you! With this shot especially, I have learnt that it pays to think about and revisit a scene.

As has been mentioned in other threads, one's end result never matches one's expectations or intent, but I am very happy with how this one turned out, not because of itself, but especially compared to my earlier attempts. I have so much to learn, so many things still to try, that it's encouraging to finally see progress in one's own work. Since I can shoot for pleasure only (it's not my day job) I can afford to exclusively use this lens for a few weeks, and really get to know it.

The road is still long, but I am thoroughly enjoying it! The old adage of a '50mm lens matching human vision' is utter rubbish, I don't think you can compare any rectilinear rendering with the dynamic and boundless nature of our vision (and even if you could, 50mm certainly ain't it, for a 'seamless' picture with one eye to the viewfinder and another open only forms on my camera at a longer focal length - 70mm+), but I really love the 50mm focal length. For the first time, I can truly see why one could be happy in days of yore when that was the only lens on your camera! (if you didn't have the funds or inclination to buy other lenses).
 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Dawid,

You know I'd like your picture even more this time! The ignored bench says much about the South African society. The softness to the vanishing distance is just wonderful.

It took me a while to realize how to use this lens. It now won't leave my camera. My 1DII gets used less and less as all my other lenses.

The camel's hair brush is a finer than a nylon substitute, but, as Ray implies, it requires to be held by the delicately skilled hand of an artist! :)

Asher
 
Modern fast lenses are often designed to be sharpest close to wide open, so it's good to discover this for oneself.

Another issue that isn't addressed by MTF charts is that when you use selective focus as in this shot, the out of focus area can make the sharp area seem sharper. In the world of real images (as opposed to resolution charts, brick walls, and MTF measurements), how it looks is what it's all about.
 
The ignored bench says much about the South African society.

Yes Asher, this is one of the main intents of this image - to illustrate out strange society. So very unique, though not always (what am I saying - rather, almost never) in good ways.

This might be a bit off-topic, but this morning on the radio, the full extent of violence in our schools was discussed. They are reaching the point where they are considering the banning of scissors on school grounds! And to augment the violence (and incompetence, illiteracy, inadequateness) from within, there are schools (especially in the Kwazulu-Natal region) that are stormed and robbed by gangs with AK-47 rifles more than once per month. How could anybody sit on a public bench in an environment like this?

If street photojournalism was an interest of mine, I am sure I would be presented by endless opportunities to try to show the rest of the world what the effects of our chaotic, materialist, racist (though now legally applied in the other direction compared to Apartheid!) society is, to the man on the street. However, having once before had loaded guns pressed to both my and my beloved's heads, I have long ago divorced myself from this society. I am merely a silent, disconnected observer, and I like to look at (and respect) the small, the inanimate, the calm things.

I do not wish to involve myself with the people of this society - that most famous fellowship of four photographers in the early 1990s, the Bang Bang Club, showed where that sort of thing leads you around here (if you don't know about them, two of the four were killed - one was shot, the other committed suicide. Upon close examination of our society, I would be as wary of the latter, as of the former.)

However, maybe by observing the society in the "safe" way I do now, I could learn to trust it again, and one day start to interact with the people within it (that is, of course, what a society consists of!). There is a group of three older ladies (the ones I captured from afar in an earlier photo "City Birds"). Maybe one day I will try to photograph them up close and personal. I have never photographically interacted with strangers before, but maybe, when the time is ready, this will be an important psychological step.

The camel's hair brush is a finer than a nylon substitute, but, as Ray implies, it requires to be held by the delicately skilled hand of an artist! :)

Thank you, Asher. A statement like that, which affirms that this lens was indeed worthwhile - not just for myself, but for what I could achieve with it - makes it all the more worthwhile!
 

Will_Perlis

New member
My benches have people on them, they're lonely anyway.


AllforYou.jpg



busbench2.jpg

I can fully understand the disengagement.
 
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Rachel Foster

New member
As has been mentioned in other threads, one's end result never matches one's expectations or intent, but I am very happy with how this one turned out, not because of itself, but especially compared to my earlier attempts. I have so much to learn, so many things still to try, that it's encouraging to finally see progress in one's own work. Since I can shoot for pleasure only (it's not my day job) I can afford to exclusively use this lens for a few weeks, and really get to know it.

The road is still long, but I am thoroughly enjoying it!

When I was a little girl there was a church in our neighborhood where the churchwomen used to say "Amen!" when they heard something they thought particularly true.


Dawid....Amen! Sing it, Brother!
 
My benches have people on them, they're lonely anyway.

Hi Will, I love the irony and conflict, especially in your first image. I am not particularly fond of the 'technical' execution of your shots, i.e. they composition, tonality etc don't exactly leap out at me - and it would have been great if you could isolate the subject from a background a bit more - but your shots, all such 'artistic' aspects aside, are profoundly thought-provoking, and so very interesting and important.

Maybe our different photographs show, on the one hand, how very different our societies and cities are - and we've both done so by looking at the humble benches. Thank you for the contribution!
 

Will_Perlis

New member
I returned with a more thoughtful attempt at capturing it.

I'm almost the exact opposite. The bench shots were taken on the fly on impulse (as are almost all my pictures). I can appreciate the care you took in your composition, metering, and processing but I don't have the patience to emulate it.
 
I'm usually the same Will, until recently I didn't even own a tripod, and even now, I never ever use it. I like to keep my camera with me all the time, and snap away spontaneously when an opportunity presents itself.

Tell me, what camera/lens did you use to capture your images? Looks like 200mm+ telephoto?
 

Will_Perlis

New member
The top one was a Canon D30 with the 28-135mm at 135mm from the car window. The second was a Leica M6 with the 90mm from across Hollywood Blvd.
 
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