Monthly Archives: March 2006

New EOS 5D firmware

It pays to stay current

Canon has released Firmware update 1.0.5 for the EOS 5D.

Here’s mine loading and the result:


This fixes a problem with color pictures taken with the Standard Picture Style with +4 Color Density setting (the pictures would lose saturation on the sRGB setting and appear monochrome) and with the 85mm f/1.2L lens when used with the Canon 580EX flash where the shutter button would not work.

It’s nice to stay current.

And now for some pictures

Which is what it’s all about.

All that cataloging in Aperture did have a bright side, specifically an opportunity to reacquaint myself with many pictures from days past. So after all this talk of cameras and printers and software in recent columns, I thought it might be nice to share some pictures with you.

As is the case, I suspect, with many photographers, I have perfect recall of the equipment and film used to take these, even though the stored files are silent, as it’s not something I routinely record. The digital age, of course, does this for you today.

So here goes – 15 snaps chosen at random and in no particular order.


South Uist, Outer Hebrides, 1977.
A rugged, lonely place.
Nikon F, 28mm Vivitar, TriX.


Tuileries Gardens, Paris, 1977.
A life begins, another draws to a close.
Leica M3, 35mm Summaron, TriX.


World Trade Centers, 1982.
Pentax ME Super, 40mm Pentax SMC, Kodachrome 64.


London, 2000.
Cabs old and new.
Leica M6, 35mm Asph Summicron, Kodachrome 64.


Tucson, Arizona.
A warm day!
Leica M6, 90mm Elmarit, Kodachrome 64.


Pebble Beach, California, 1987.
My wife calls this one ‘The Pirate’.
Leicaflex SL, 50mm Summicron-R. Kodachrome 64.


Tuileries Gardens, Paris, 1975.
What’s not to like about Paris?
Leica M3, 90mm Elmar, Kodachrome X.


Rodeo Drive, California, 1989.
Someone parked this huge ’60s wagon on this costliest of shopping destinations.
Leica M3, 50mm Summicron, Kodachrome 64.


Bermuda, 1999.
Land of sublime architecture.
Leica M6, 90mm Elmarit, Kodachrome 64.


Somewhere in Arizona, 1988.
Leicaflex SL, 50mm Summicron-R, Kodachrome 64.


Hong Kong, 1995.
Statues ready for illicit export.
Rollei 35, 40mm Tessar, Kodachrome 64.


Pismo Beach, California, 2004.
A lazy, sunny afternoon by the Pacific.
Leica M2, 35mm Asph Summicron, Kodak Gold 100.


Union Square, San Francisco, 1999.
A child’s wonder.
Leica M2, 35mm Asph Summicron, Kodak Gold 100.


Pasadena, California, 1988.
Gangster car.
Leica M3, 35mm Summicron, Kodachrome 64.


Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1995.
Rocking horses at an antique dealer’s.
Leica M2, 50mm Summicron, Kodachrome 64.

Global interest

Isn’t the Internet wonderful?

Recent data on the locations of some of the visitors to this site – a truly global selection! Don’t worry, I do not know your identity, only the location of the reader.

Let me see. The United Kindom where I grew up and learned that most civilized of games, cricket. When Hermann Hesse wrote of ‘The Glass Bead Game’ he must have been thinking about Lords.

Baden-Wurttemberg which my mother visited in 1938 and always spoke of fondly.

Poland of course – now how do I recover those 14,000 acres stolen from my family?

Holland and many pleasant memories of a wonderful country and its great people.

Russia, may she stay free and hew to true democracy.

Italy, the center of art, design, culture, fashion – always has been, always will be.

South Korea – may you become one again after the brutal regime up north collapses, as it must.

Lebanon – may you find peace and prosperity.

New Zealand – haven of beauty and fine people.

Mauritius – is there anywhere more beautiful?

Switzerland – thank you for my Patek Philippe, (yes, Patek, the salesman of the two, was a Pole) an analog dream in a digital world.

But above all, here is to all of you, for photography is tuly the universal language.

Harry Callahan

Book review

Harry Callahan (1912-1999) left a substantial body of work, yet I cannot help thinking he rues the fact that what he is remembered for most is the many pictures, frequently nudes, of his wife Eleanor.

And while he was an enthusiastic experimenter, be it with double exposures or light traces, these wonderful early pictures set a standard and style imitated, but seldom equaled, by many since.

It’s not that Eleanor is some sort of model ideal of a woman, whose modern image in men’s eyes dictates exaggerated breasts and miniscule hips. Quite the opposite. She is powerfully built, a woman of the mid-West, with solid bones and generous hips. A Real Woman. And does he do her justice. Whether it’s the powerful, face-on image showing a determined chin and direct gaze, or the many nude-in-landscape studies which define the genre, his photographs of his wife are never less than special and deservedly define his oeuvre.

The Chronology of his life in this book, published by Bulfinch, goes a long way to illustrating his restless mind and thirst for experiment. I quote:

1938 – Purchases first camera, a Rolleicord 120.

1941 – Begins to work with a 9 x 12 Linhof Technica (sic) camera.

1941 – Moved by the sharpness of Adams’ (sic) prints, trades enlarger for an 8 x 10 camera and begins to make contact prints.

1943 – Buys 35mm Contax single-lens reflex camera (sic – can’t they get anything right?) and begins two-year series of photographs of pedestrians.

The latter rival, by the way, anything done by Walker Evans in this genre, adopting a far grittier approach.

This is curiosity at its best and not mere fascination with equipment as Callahan takes lots and lots of pictures along the way.

He starts exhibiting in 1941 and thereafter it seems there is scarcely a month when a show or publication does not come to market.

Rightly so, for there is much to be learned from the mind of this true original, whether from the early monochrome or later color work.

Highly recommended.