In North Beach.
Jasper Place, one of the many charming alleyways in North Beach, SF.
The high dynamic range is easily corrected using the superb Highlights and Shadows sliders in Lightroom 4. Abobe did a tremendous engineering job here.
Whenever I traipse along these alleyways Utrillo’s paintings dance in my head:
Panny GX7, 17mm Zuiko.
A master of style and class.
Seldom mentioned in a pantheon which includes such luminaries as Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, John Rawlings, Clifford Coffin, Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson, there’s a strong argument to be made that Henry Clarke was the master of them all when it came to sheer elegance in fashion photography around the middle of the last century.
The Daily Mail recently ran an article on the iconic Vogue photographers and had the great good sense to include several of Clarke’s images, which you can see by clicking the picture. Scroll down and compare Clarke’s refined approach with the crass vulgarity of David Bailey. Of course, the New Look Dior dresses of Clarke’s time remain unsurpassed.
All gone.
Robert Doisneau (1912-1994) (pronounced “Dwaano”) is the quintessential Parisian photographer. Where Cartier-Bresson emphasizes composition and the man in the landscape, Doisneau focuses almost exclusively on the people themselves. Doisneau’s intimacy is counterpoint to HC-B’s detachment. Both approaches work in the hands of these masters, but Doisneau’s is uniquely suited to the documentation of Les Halles, the produce market in central Paris which he photographed from 1933 through its demolition in 1971.
As Covent Garden in London and the Fulton Street Fish Market in New York were destroyed to make room for condos and stores that can be found in any other metropolis, so was Les Halles, with its exquisite cast iron frame designed by Baltard, consigned to the scrap heap. Doisneau’s record is priceless and irreplaceable.
The book contains over 120 images with an interesting prologue documenting the long history of Les Halles, and is highly recommended for all who love warm, involved candid photography. Very much a man of the people, Doisneau was clearly welcomed and loved by the people of Les Halles. There is nothing clandestine here as Doisneau was simply not that kind of phorographer.
Click the image to go to Amazon – I derive no benefit if you do that.
Magnum photographer.
Bruno Barbey’s book ‘The Italians’ is a warm 1960s memento made up of his street images taken in Rome, Naples, Milan and Genoa. Though printed a little too dark for my taste, the images are those of a photographer who believes in getting in close to his subjects, invariably depicted with warmth and dignity. Barbey is a Frenchhman born in Morocco in 1941.
From Desmond.
One of the things which irritated me about the otherwise excellent Surui K-40X ball head for my old Linhof tripod was that the Arca plates for additional cameras (it comes with one) were overpriced at over $40 each.
I needed additional plates for my 350mm and 500mm Nikkors, each with lens mounted tripod fixtures, a clamp for my Manfrotto monopod, and a small plate for the Pansonic GX7, and was not about to be hosed down for overpriced pieces of alloy with simple, machined v-notches.
Shopping Amazon I chanced on the Desmond brand of knock-offs (a knock-off of a knock-off) at Amazon and proceeded to order the following:
The first two are for the Nikon D2x and the 350mm Nikkor. Hullo! $6.50 each! (The 500mm Reflex Nikkor already has an original, overpriced, $40+ Surui). The second row is for an Arca-compatible clamp for my monopod which sports an old Leitz ball & socket head (superb!), replacing the previous Manfrotto QR plate. And the last is for the GX7, a very small plate for a very small body.
The full-sized plate for the Nikon D3x/D2x
The clamp for the Leitz B&S head. Comes with a 3/8″ to 1/4″ reducer.
The camera plate for the Panasonic GX7.
All the plates come with a D-ring for the retaining screw as well as a generously sized slot which will accept a variety of coins for torquing down.
Reactions? All fit fine. The safety locking slot/button on the stock Surui clamp works perfectly.
And the lot costs about as much as one Surui ‘original’ knock-off. In fact I like the big camera plate so much I have replaced the Surui on my D3x with the Desmond, relegating the Surui plate to the less used D2x. Life is too short for all that screwing ….
On the 300mm Nikkor.
On the Panny GX7 – small enough to be left in place.
The battery/SD card remain accessible, but
you can no longer flip up the LCD.
The Desmond plates have a 0.48″ wide dovetail at the broadest point, compared with 0.53″ for the Surui. This means that fewer turns are needed on the unlocking clamp on the ball head to release the camera – 0.75 turns of the locking knob for the Desmond compared with 2.75 turns for the Surui plate. Nice.
Nicely made and dirt cheap, what’s not to like?