Peter Oshkai photography

January 28, 2015January 28, 2015

Developing a unique style

Technical proficiency is a foundation of any activity, including all genres of photography, but it is deviations from the conventional standards that constitutes a unique, personal style. That is, until other people start to imitate them. Then, the style becomes popular and eventually turns into a new mainstream.

I came across a very insightful interview with Dan Carlin, who publishes a fascinating podcast called “Hardcore History.” I learned about Carlin by listening to “Wrath of the Khans” – a refreshing alternative to revisionist descriptions of the Mongol invasions (e.g. “Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World.”) In the interview, Carlin talkes about “copyrighting your shortcomings” (not an exact quote), making them part of the personal brand. In other words, our unique ways of doing things are the essence of our personal styles. In a similar spirit, tea bowls used in Japanese tea ceremony are sometimes deliberately cracked or chipped to give them unique appearance and character. Therefore, in the spirit of turning weaknesses into strengths, it is advisable to work on developing a personal style, rather that trying to imitate someone else.

This argument perfectly translates to photography. Often, deviation from conventional “rules” of composition, lighting, colour management and exposure results in interesting images. Initially, this habits by chance, but by critically analyzing why a particular image “works” (or not) and attempting to reproduce or enhance the same effect in later photographs, we can develop a unique, personal style.

I believe that the difference between the interesting photos that are results of blind luck (and often lack of the technical skill) and the ones that are an expression of a unique style of the artist is that the latter are created deliberately. This concept is similar to kendo, where a strike is considered “valid” (yuko datotsu) when it is executed with intention.

January 27, 2015January 27, 2015

Spring calligraphy

Semi-formal style of Japanese calligraphy, gyo-sho, is my favourite among the three scripts we practice. The other two styles are kai-sho (formal) and so-sho (informal). I tired to think why I prefer gyo-sho, and I think it is because of the balance between being constrained by the rules (the characters have to be readable) and the freedom to improvise the details. It conveys both proficiency and creative ability.

This week, I had another chance to compare my current writing (the image above) with that of three years ago. Writing gyo-sho definitely felt more comfortable than diving into the formal kai-sho style a week ago after a long break in practice. The feeling is very similar to kendo, where at the beginning of a practice session, muscles warm up, and the brain lets go a little bit of control, allowing the body to act spontaneously, at least sometimes, which manifests in small, spontaneous details of the techniques (waza). Of course, the parallels between painting, calligraphy and martial are well known and have been explored by many authors and artists, such as Dave Lowry in “Sword and Brush.”

Quite appropriately, the theme of this month’s calligraphy is welcoming of Spring. I think that striving for balance between structure and spontaneity, between following the rules and breaking them, is the positive change that is needed in all aspects of life, which is too often over-structured because of external demands and self-imposed expectations.

January 26, 2015January 26, 2015

Street photography in Paris

My first ever visit to Paris was a trip to a conference, followed by a vacation with family. The timing of the conference was perfect in that I had a chance to take photos of the Bastille Day’s fireworks. As I look back through my other photos from that trip, I noticed that I took many candid shots of tourists in the city. I took these photos as we were walking along the streets and parks with my family. Our daughter was not yet two years old, so she was often sleeping in her travel stroller, being pushed by her grandfather, who thoroughly enjoyed this duty.

Sometimes, I quickly walked ahead of my family and took photos of other people. I did not worry about lighting too much, focussing on the dynamics of the street scenes. In retrospect, the lighting was mostly quite good, since we often took our excursions in the late afternoon, to avoid the summer heat. Also, I find that many street photos look better when converted to black-and-white, since there was no opportunity to manage colours in the composition of the busy street scenes.

I mostly used a 35mm f/1.4L lens on my 5D Mark II, but I also carried a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens whenever possible. I really like this lens for its ability isolate architectural details or pick out elements of street scenes from relatively far away.

Our expectations of travelling to Paris with a small child were very guarded, having read many negative opinions online. In reality, however, it turned out to be one of the most pleasant experiences. Parisians were incredibly accommodating and nice to us wherever we went, and our little daughter was often the reason we were invited to skip the long lines at popular tourist attractions.

January 25, 2015January 25, 2015

Ignoring advice

“It is just this ability to stand alone, and not feel guilty or harassed about it, of which the average person is incapable.”

– Henry Miller, “Wisdom of the Heart“

In photography and knowledge work, such as academic research, as well as in martial arts, feedback from others (mentors and teachers, friends and family, peers, training partners, models, audience) can be tremendously useful and can save enormous amounts of trial and error, which ultimately translates to time. However, if the goal is excellence, the actions must, at some point diverge from the those of the majority of other people. This not being different for the sake of being different, although there is some value in that too, especially for artists. Instead, it is a function of confidence that is earned through humble practice.

I come across this concept of balance between receiving advice and ignoring it all the time, often through my work on the editorial board of a scientific journal. Recently, the same idea came up in an interview that I listened to during random fragments of time last week. Dr. Peter Diamandis, who has been named one of “the world’s 50 greatest leaders” by Fortune Magazine and who wrote several influential books, including “Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World,” commented on the common traits of the illustrious modern entrepreneurs that he had an opportunity to work with, such as Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Larry Page. He pointed out, that despite their very different backgrounds and personalities, these people have a common tendency to “think on their own.” They built their successes by being themselves rather than emulating someone else.

I am wondering if this self-confidence is a inherent trait or a product of environment and practice. In other words, can nurture help nature in developing this ability to think and act truly independently of the opinion of the majority? If the answer is positive, as I suspect it is, an even more interesting question would be whether the majority (or indeed, everyone) has the ability or should practice this skill. Wouldn’t it re-define what “majority” is, if everyone becomes an exception?

January 24, 2015January 24, 2015

Morning routine

There is a ton of literature and online resources that teach about effectiveness of consistent morning routines. Many authors, including Tim Ferriss, who wrote “The 4-Hour Body“, point out that it is just as important to break the routines up from time to time to avoid burnout. For example, Tim said that the exercise done for results (strength, endurance, flexibility) is most effective when done consistently, i.e. without much change day-to-day, but recreational activities a best (read: more fun) when they are varied.

I have been incorporating walking into my morning exercise. A couple of weeks ago, I took a decidedly un-urban route to the top of the Mt. Doug. Today, in the spirit of changing things up, I took a short walk through our neighborhood and am typing these words on my phone in a local Starbucks. (No, it is not in Paris, despite the photo above…)

I think that mixing things up every now and then is ultimately good for any activity (I am thinking research and photography in particular). It is allowing myself to do it without potentially sacrificing efficiency in the short term that is challenging.

January 23, 2015January 23, 2015

Quality control for stock photos

As I look through my old travel photos, I post-process some of them to prepare for use as stock photos. When I first started shooting stock photos, my approach was to prepare large batches of images and send them to an agency (I used Alamy). I quickly found that I would often become overwhelmed by the amount of cleaning the photos required in order to pass the agency’s quality control.

In the case of Alamy, this was usually related to digitally removing traces of dust particles, which are always present on the lens and the sensor of the camera. Modern cameras have improved dust control technologies, but some amount of particles is always present. These blemishes usually show up in uniformly lit and coloured areas of the photo, e.g. the sky. Higher f-numbers (smaller apertures) make the dust particles more pronounced.

Removing the dust in post processing is not difficult per se. I usually use a variation of the clone stamp tool in Lightroom or Photoshop. However, cleaning up many images at once is a sure way to kill all fun aspects of photography, and least for me personally.

Many professional photographers recommend outsourcing tasks like digital dust removing. I am sure that this is a solution that Tim Ferriss, the author of “The 4-hour Workweek” would recommend. In my case, the solution has been to drastically reduce the volume of the photos that I submit to the stock agencies. Doing so not only saves time overall, but encourages a more critical evaluation of the photos, as I select the ones that would be processed and submitted. The obvious drawback of this strategy from the purely business perspective is that some of the potential sales would not happen, because of the reduced volume of photos offered to potential customers. However, for someone like me, who does photography part-time and has already established a stock portfolio of reasonable size (few thousand images on sale), focussing on quality over quantity pays off in time savings alone.

January 22, 2015January 22, 2015

First-order access

There are many online and printed resources for organizing tools for any project and decluttering your home, but I find one concept, used by the host of the “MythBusters” show Adam Savage, very important. It is referred to as first-order access and basically means not storing anything behind anything else. In other words, anything in a workshop, a kitchen, an office, a library or a photo studio should be within direct reach and not hidden or obstructed by other stuff.

I find this principle particularly important during a photo shoot. Often, situations arise that force me to deviate from the original plan for the shoot. Having all my gear neatly organized, so that any lens, flash or cable can be accessed directly, without having to unload other items from the camera bag is very important. It allows me to use unforeseen challenges as opportunities to try new creative techniques, instead of spending valuable time on searching for gear.

I should mention that it is equally (and perhaps more) important not to have too much stuff in the first place, which, of course, is the basic principle of decluttering. Having too many choices of photo gear that can potentially be used to take a given shot robs you creative energy that is best applied to making decisions regarding lighting, composition, posing and other creative elements of the photo. Not specifically related to photography, “It’s All Too Much” by Peter Walsh is a highly-regarded reference on organization.

In general, when problems arise, it is important to come up with a constructive solution on the spot. It may not be the optimal solution, but the immediate timing of offering a solution cultivates the mindset of treating setbacks into learning experiences, instead of reasons for complaining.

January 21, 2015January 22, 2015

Rashomon effect

Travel photography is a tremendously popular niche. In fact, taking stock photos while travelling initially attracted me to professional photography. As my focus shifted from “places” to “people” over the past ten years, I find it increasingly interesting to review my own and other photographers’ photos of various destinations.

I believe that a good photograph contains a story with some emotional content. It conveys the personal view of the photographer to the viewer. Nowadays, with so many images of various destinations and events around the world available online, I often have an experience similar to what Akira Kurosawa brilliantly shown in “Rashomon,” where the same event is shown from the perspective of different people, each telling a personal story.

Interestingly, this effect is present even if I am reviewing only my own photos. As Daniel Gilbert, the author of “Stumbling on Happiness,” notes, people often under-estimate how much their personalities change, particularly, how much they will change in the next few years. I often view my photographs with the eyes of a different person from the one one who took them. Indeed, it is not possible to enter the same river twice. It turns out that we have multiple chances to experience the same place or event thanks to photography. As a bonus, each time, the story is told by a different person.

January 20, 2015January 20, 2015

Shodo

After a nearly nine-month break, my wife and I are back to practicing shodo (Japanese calligraphy). I wanted to post my writing attempts on Flickr, and found, to my surprise, that when I started doing the same thing three year ago, my first post was of exactly the same writing (the image below is from three years ago.) It reads “しゅんらいききむかう.” As with many of the sayings typically used in calligraphy, the exact translation is a bit elusive (and somewhat missing the point), but “Welcome spring” is close enough. This is kaisho – formal script.

When I wrote this three years ago, it was also a re-start of our photo practice. Our daughter was just a newborn, and we would bring her to our teacher’s house. She would sleep peacefully (at least, this is how I remember it now) in her car seat, while my wife and I would write and then eat incredibly delicious dinners cooked by our sensei’s wife. Having a child with us was a major change in dynamics of our practice from the time when there were just two of us. I guess, this is just another illustration that shodo, like kendo, is a mirror of of the entire life.

Our daughter is not a little bundle laying in a car seat beside the chair anymore. She is a person, who wants to draw, and write, and play, and watch TV, and read, and eat, and drink, and talk. The change of dynamics and pace seems to be continuous. Perhaps, embracing it is the point of practice.

These days, our daughter likes to do everything together with us. I know that this will pass, as the need to assert her independence will take over, but I wonder if one day we would have a chance to write calligraphy side-by-side.

January 19, 2015January 19, 2015

Shutter priority

When I photograph people without flash or studio lights, which I do most often, I operate in a shutter priority mode. Even though I set my 1D X to manual mode with auto ISO, I typically fix the aperture to the widest setting that my lens allows (the lowest f-number), and adjust the shutter speed to freeze action. For sports, I usually start with a shutter speed of 1/1000 sec, and sometimes lower it to 1/800 or even 1/650, if the lighting is too dim.

Actually, depending on the lens (wider lenses can tolerate slower shutter speeds for the same subject), I sometimes obtain reasonable results while shooting sports with really slow shutter speeds, e.g. 1/125 sec. I should mention that I usually do not do this on purpose. Sometimes, I just forget to change the setting after shooting a relatively stationary subject and continue to shoot action, only to find out that among mostly blurry images, there a couple of nice ones. The benefit of the slower shutter speed is, of course, lower ISO and, therefore, less noise.

Of course, I am talking about freezing the motion, which is just one way to photograph action. There amy other way to convey speed, such as blurring or panning. “Understanding Shutter Speed” is a good overview book on this subject.

I was also happy to discover a shutter priority mode in the Camera+ app on my iPhone. Now I can can set the ISO to “Auto” and set the shutter speed to a reasonable value (around 1/60 sec) when photographing my daughter. The default setting of 1/30 sec is way to slow to capture a 3-year-old in her continuous motion. Incidentally, because kids are constantly moving, I find the fully manual mode of the iPhone Camera+ app (where shutter speed, aperture and ISO are all controlled separately) too cumbersome to use for spontaneous children’s portraits. While some control of the exposure mode and focus are nice to have, the point-and-shoot aspect is what makes the iPhone useful to me as a pocket camera.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: