Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Photo ukiyo-e nouveau: march 20, 2012

I first posted it at my Flickr 
I cannot quite place this pic within boundaries of my latest obsession - street photography as ukiyo-e; I do feel there is something worth keeping it but I cannot quite pin it. So I'm keeping it and let it grow on me.

Being plain street photography, it was not set up in any way - while taking Austin Powers the bulldog for a walk tonight I just ordered him to sit still and took some snaps of the scene. And not until I got home it crossed my mind the scene somehow echoes Andō Hiroshige's "FUKAGAWA KIBA" ukiyo-e - even down to a little animal in low left corner.

Mind you, in no way I impersonate myself as a next great artist :))) - it's just that parallels between street photography and ukiyo-e has striken me recently, and I've been looking into it.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Study in photo ukiyo-e: Adidas inspires!



If I was an Adidas, I'd buy this amazing snapshot from me for big bucks. Cause it's not just a snapshot, but a whole amazing concept - "Breaking free! With a little inspiration from Adidas"

Adidas, which modestly lurks in background, and its modern  "3 stripes" triangular logo  inspires people to break free of frames and routine; Despite direct order by the sign - "All pedestrians must be framed in triangle!", one of pedestrians at the zebra crossing is already totally free of the frame, another is almost free - he succeeded in  transforming a triangle frame into a rectangular one and is just about to break free from it!


My flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/reasonable-excuse/6841893008/in/photostream/


If one takes another look he could see that the triangular (sic!) crossing sign contains 3! black stripes...hmm, is it a coincidence having in mind Adidas in background?

And lower right corner shows us another three black stripes - what is it? Some three-wheel vehicle also broke free and escaped to better place?!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Fujifilm X-Pro1 - video review


Spotted this video today on my Street Photography FB group.

While this review has its merits - as Artur Gorniak put it, it's "one of the first reviews posted on the net" - and he exclaimed "Lovely High- ISO performance!"
Myself, I hardly could watch 4 (out of 11) minutes of this review - it just doesnt deliver, I just couldnt stand the presenter's behaviour (more suitable to presenting something el cheapo gadget than another "poor man's Leica"), couldnt stand that review with a distinctive touch of moronic Asian B-movies attitude, couldnt stand very loud goddamned heavy metal alike music background, couldnt stand that the presenter just couldnt sit a moment and keeps walking/moving etc.

Yup, I'm not that politically correct, am I?

Still, I'm striving to hear about real person's experience with Fujifilm X-Pro1, cause I was really excited with what I read at DPreview a while ago.
An interesting camera - sensor is a little larger than one of Oly Pens and Panasonic GF / GX. Comes with prime lenses. Quite loaded.

Quoting DPreview:
...the most interesting change is ... the image sensor. The X-Pro 1 uses a proprietary, Fujifilm-designed 16MP APS-C 'X-Trans CMOS' ...The result, claims Fujifilm, ... that in terms of detail resolution the X-Pro 1 should punch above its weight based on pixel count alone - indeed Fujifilm is claiming it will out-resolve the full frame 21MP Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

How's that?

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 DigitalRev TV reviews the new Fujifilm X-Pro1 mirrorless camera with its hybrid viewfinder and interchangeable X-mount lenses.
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March 8th, two shots

As it seldom happens, I cannot decide which take I like most, so I'll keep two pics. In particular, I like dymamics of first shot - rolls remind me of rolled out dices, and they angle in opposite with squares on my apron (yup, that's me).

On the other hand, in 2nd shot I do like resemblance of apron's pocket to slice of the roll - same meaty center, same white outline.