After a long, looong wait, finally my images have come back and I get the chance to take a look at some pictures I’ve taken in Fes and London some two moths ago. They were shot on an Nikon FE2 using locally purchased film which I believe it was as old as the camera was
That film and I had such a laugh. It was brilliant, I did not think I’d get so much entertainment from it. I got all sort of surprises: such as film advances only to the position 16, then stops, the box says Fuji and the film says Kodak, anyways, loads of fun and a big chance to practice my yoga breathing. So with great relief I got the images from the lab bag and I am grateful that they did not tell me that my exotic film has ruined their equipment. Furthermore, given that this was one of my first attempts on using only film, I am fairly happy with the result and I wish I’ll do it again, soon.

Steve McCurry’s “Afghan Girl,” photographed in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1984 on Kodachrome film.

So Kodak decided to stop producing the Kodachrome, the landmark film that pretty much turned photography around.
In a last marketing move, they gave the last roll of film to Steve McCurry. Fair enough.
Is Fuji Velvia the next film to go?
I can’t stop wondering how come almost all major film makers are reducing their production lines, pro-labs are extinct, but film cameras are still priced very high on the market. Isn’t a contradiction somewhere?
Oh, well, we’ll live and see…
Until then, I’m looking forward to see Steve McCurry’s images on the last roll of Kodachrome.
Read more of the story here.

I truly enjoyed this film, I think it’s wonderful for anyone with an interest in visual arts, and the inter-relations of the various mediums – painting, photography, movies, etc
It was most interesting for me to realize the “circles” art goes through and its constant re-invention. Some of the earliest films presented are truly amazing.
Go see it if you have the chance.

When I was a kid, I studied piano. Later on, I went to the Conservatory, and had five years of studying various aspects of music. Although I never get to actually practice my profession , I still have a very strong sense of what that was all about – basically skills that you cultivate, develop over the years, and then put to use.
So, in the end, it’s about you.Not about the brand of the piano, the colour of the piano, the type of chair you sit on in order to play the piano. If you know how to play it, just use your skills and play the piano. If you’re not happy with the results, chances are that you have to work harder, not change the piano.

However, all that started to fade away a bit, when I could finally afford buying all sort of (amazing by the way) music toys – synths, workstations, etc. Beautiful. Sounded absolutely brilliant, only a tiny problem with them, I did not have the skills, nor the need for them. At the end, I was just a pianist. My strength was in playing, improvising, actually feeling and using an instrument, not tuning and programming. Different skills.
So every time I wanted to use one of the new shiny toys I ended up re installing Windows or hunting for drivers on the Internet. Not good.
Still today, the greatest joy I get from playing an all simple 76 keys electric Yamaha upright piano. My exquisite Roland V synth GT is still in a case, hasn’t seen any use for almost a year now.

Photography is a new area for me, but the symptoms are still the same.
So what a joy it was in Morocco that, due to force majeure (a 50mm Canon smashed and salt water in my Mamiya system), I ended up photographing with an old venerable Nikon FE2 with a 35 mm. Just that. A 30 years old camera, one lens, and imagination. Use what you have, instead of changing lenses, zoom in, zoom out etc… I don’t even care about the results, the feeling was beautiful. It reminded me of the joy of just playing the piano – not tweaking effects, setting up routes, all that teckie stuff I was never too fond off anyway, but doing what I love – playing.

Many photographers say that one great way of improving your photography is to limit your options, force yourself to be creative with what you’ve got, instead of jumping back and forth between different options.
I’ve tried it, it works.

I’ve had two extremely good readings these past days, thought I’d share them with you.
One is a beautiful album issued by Reporters Sans Frontieres. Called 101 Photos Pour La Liberte de la Presse. Beautiful album, take a look at it if you have the chance.

The other nice surprise is a Canadian art magazine, called Prefix Photo – website here
It was a very good reading, although a bit more towards philosophy rather than pure photography, but was well worth it.

I was browsing the net and ended up on the Leica website, more specifically the M9 page – here
Weird location for the photos – the same boxing arena I’ve photographed in Havana, in a run down neighborhood…

Just in case anyone is wondering, sometimes I write the name of the city Havana, some other times Habana. I don’t mean anything by it, the “official” name is Habana but both are in circulation so sometimes I use one, some other time another, that’s all.
Hope you enjoy the photos.

Have managed to recover the settings…

I’ve come back from Habana with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
Walking the streets in the various districts, sometimes I felt too embarrassed to even take the camera out.
Dozens of photographers looking like a hunting party were inspecting every corner of the streets, every face, every shadow, no stone left unturned.
In some culture, people don’t mind this. They welcome you with open arms and you can have a field day walking around with your big and obtrusive SLR with a huge zoom on top of it, making a Kalashnikov noise every time the shutter closes, nobody would mind.
But in some other cultures, people are more sensitive. Especially in those places where privacy is on of the few things left and where taking an unwanted photo can be seen as not respecting someone’s dignity.
A kid on a street was paying baseball with his friends. When a group of foreigners approached, he started screaming “no quiero foto” and covered his face with the baseball glove.
My camera was in the bag at that time but I felt his screamed acusation directed at me and at what photography has started to represent in some areas: intrusion, lack of respect, agression.
I like candid photography and I realize that it requires observing and photographing an unaware subject. But I feel is a big difference between being invisible to an environment, getting people used to you as being there, be part of the scenery so they don’t realize/care you’re taking a photo, and just showing up and start marching in uninvited in their lives, metaphorically speaking.
I’m not saying we should aim for getting Releas Forms from all the people we photograph, but sometimes just a look, a question, a gesture is enough to create a relation, get accepted, and gain trust.
Keep your camera out. Aproach first, ask, show understanding and respect. If they want to be photographed, they’ll wait for you, you’ll be able to put them in the right light, select your composition, do your work. At least show them the picture you’ve taken of them, before showing it to th world on www. IN the end, you may even part as friends.