Some street portraits

When I was a student in London it was unheard of for any but the wealthiest to have their newspaper delivered. Rather, you simply bought it from the corner vendor on the way to work and the evening paper on the way home. Delivery actually cost more!

You could have your choice of any number of dailies across the political spectrum, from the stodgy and boring voice of the establishment, The Times, the typo-prone Guardian (its left leanings meant most of the journalists there could not spell, hence the paper’s moniker ‘The Grauniad’), the solidly socialist Daily Mirror (where the masses forever read that they had been robbed of something or another by the government of the day) and the paper beloved of the horse and hound set, The Daily Telegraph, though they bought it more for appearance, given their dedication to killing God’s innocent animals. The loony left got the Daily Worker, and the thinking man could be seen with The Economist, a weekly paper with a perfect grasp of history but zero ability to see tomorrow. That’s economics for you. City snobs read The Financial Times, ever so self aware that it was printed on pink paper – a color unconnected to its political leanings. Amazingly, all of these, and more, survive to this day.

One day it struck me that the street vendors from whom I bought the daily paper were far more interesting than the contents of anything they sold, so I took the tube to Charing Cross Road and proceeded to walk west across London to my home in Kensington, with the simple goal of snapping a few of these characters for fun …. and posterity.

It’s not like equipment choice was difficult, as I had nothing to choose from, so Leica M3, 35mm Summaron and one roll of TriX it was.

Now these street-aware characters are very sharp people, always ready with a joke or some political or sports snippet of news. Can you imagine a more people-intensive job than selling papers on the street? So capturing them unposed was a challenge, and it was a setting in which the ultimate street camera of the time, the rangefinder Leica, was just the right tool. And forget rangefinding. Set the lens at f/5.6 and 7 feet or so and bang away. No time for that fancy focusing stuff.

All of these were taken on one day – something you can see in the originals. September 24, 1974. And, yes, everytime I pop these onto the screen, I still find myself retouching dust. There is something to be said for digital imaging ….

The headline to this entry refers to the two evening papers of the day – The Evening News and The Evening Standard. The vendors’ cries – “News and Standard” – still ring in my ears.

Charing Cross Road

Oxford Street

Regent Street

Knightsbridge

South Kensington

Walking across London was about as much fun as you could have for no cost in those days. I suspect it’s no longer quite the same in a western Europe each of whose wonderful capital cities is now a target for some nutcase with twisted values. As for the headlines, as the French would say “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”.

A dash of beauty during the most miserable time of the year

There is very little good that can be said about the winter, even in lovely California. The days are short, the lighting drab, the vines lonely, denuded and miserable.

So at this time of the year that house guardian and all around good egg, Bertram the Border Terrier, adopts a winter routine. After hopping off the bed he makes a quick trip to the outdoor toilet, then spreads himself out on the big sofa in the living room. How a small terrier manages to claim all of a three seat sofa beats me, but I know my place.

Anyway, aforesaid Border was seen to raise a questioning eyebrow this morning as his guide and master, doing his best Rambo imitation, crawled along the carpet with camera and honker lens attached. I had replaced the obligatory head strap with a pair of woolen pajamas, you know, the ones with the classy paisley design, but the whole ensemble attracted little more than a sigh of disgust from the four legged one who wrote the whole episode off as just so much more eccentricity on the part of his guide and master.

The family manse is some 22 miles east of the Pacific and is guest to many fine animals. A couple of rabbit families have burrows in the vineyard, much to Bertram’s dismay, and the bird boxes see swallows, finches, bluebirds and other relatives at various times of the year. Hummingbirds do a number on the star jasmine on the north patio, with their high pitched chirps and wonderful flying. Red tail hawks provide an unceasing vigil, with ground squirrels being a particular delicacy while the turkey vultures, with faces only a mother could love, teach one and all what effortless flying is about. Once the grapes ripen, the flocks of starling feast on our crop with no intent of payment (just like Bubba on my taxes), accounting for no less than a ton of grapes last year. Greedy buggers!

But back to the Rambo bit. The object of my attention was a rare visitor indeed. A magnificent egret was perched on the little bridge over the pond. He had been dropping in for a couple of days now and any sign of movement in the home would immediately spook him. Hence the all fours bit. The moment I spotted him early this morning I did my best commando imitation and high tailed it (OK, grovelled on the carpet), to the office to slap the 400mm honker on the camera.

Gradually sliding open the sliding glass wall on the south side of Chez Pindelski, I had time for just two snaps before the Great White Egret made off. I was all of seventy feet away. What brings him so far inland I have no idea, as you usually see him and his kin hanging out along the coast in marshland. The little pond used to contain magnificent carp which I had raised over a couple of years, but the sushi-loving racoons put paid to that. Maybe he just liked the clear well water that feeds the pond?

Anyway, here he is in all his splendor. I had to really crank up the contrast when processing the picture, owing to the horribly flat light. No matter. A visitor of this distinction is always welcome at the estate. Check out those legs!

Great White Egret. 5D, 400mm Canon EF ‘L’, 1/500, f/5.6, ISO 500. Processed in Aperture.

Ordinarily these fellows are to be found at the coast in reedy surroundings, like here:

Great White Egret. 5D, 400mm Leitz Telyt, 1/500, f/6.8, ISO 800. Processed in Aperture.

This was snapped just off Highway One a couple of years back.

A trip down memory lane

This is hardly the first time I have expressed enthusiasm for Ansco’s old 500 ASA grain monster, a slide film sold as GAF 500. This piece neatly summarizes what I’m going on about.

And, strangely, the effect is very easily simulated with the (admittedly crappy) camera in the iPhone, something I discovered quite by accident.

My boy, in-laws and I were enjoying a fine birthday dinner (mine!) in late December last year and the lad, not too keen on messing with an Italian menu when all he wanted was Chicken Stars, needed some distraction. He hates to waste time. Like his dad he will doubtless read while shaving. So I gave him the iPhone, with all its colors and icons and effects, and he noodled away on it happily, doubtless placing a couple of costly calls to the Southern Hemisphere. Kids learn fast today, and at age 6 I expect no less of Winston. And as for boredom, he models that on his namesake who once submitted three blank sheets of paper as his entry in the ‘Write an Essay about Boredom’ class.

Well, Winnie’s fried chicken special arrived soon enough and he dutifully returned the toy to his dad. As it transpired, cocktails had just arrived and the little lady was proposing a toast to Yours Truly so …. snap! …. and the iPhone was back in my vest pocket.

I thought nothing of it until this evening when I downloaded the picture to iPhoto. Downloads are higher quality than their emailed cousins – for the gory details read my pieces on the iPhone’s camera.

And this is what I saw:

Cheers!

Lovely, soft definition, tons of grain, massive flare from the lighting. It was just like using GAF 500 again.

OK, the hell with the grain. Is that a gorgeous woman or what?