16 thoughts on “Venice Beach night light”

  1. EVA

    so sorry you could not be here in Hollywood etc with us…i must say its been fun….but now for all of us our minds our quickly changing gears towards Family Drive…and this picture can be for this new work…yesterday pretty much marked the first day of our cross country journey…but the “trip” is not about driving or “getting somewhere”…we are in los angeles and it would be crazy to go somewhere else without doing some work here…and we have been too caught up with all things Lucie up until now…

    cheers, david

  2. “i shoot with the iphone perhaps more than anything….because it is just THERE….”

    The proliferation of phone cameras is such an interesting duality. Of course the negative is that everyone with a camera phone thinks they are a photographer (continuation of this is the comment, “I bet I could take great photos if I had a big camera like you”). Usually I just chuckle at that mindset.

    The flip side, like what you have here, a photograph is ALWAYS possible since the camera is ALWAYS there. Moreover, I find myself thinking about photography more often, even when I don’t have my “big” camera with me. Pictures like this become more possible.

  3. BRIAN

    i have loved the evolution of everyone having a camera and everyone being a photographer..why the hell not? we all speak a common language using the same 350 words, very egalitarian, and yet how many are poets? same with any medium….mean level is only mean level…a few will rise above no matter how high the mean level….all about finding your voice and then having the courage to speak…

    cheers, david

  4. GORDON

    i was only “pre meditated” in my pursuit of taking a picture of the woman on the right…the rest fell in naturally….this is a one handed iPhone shot….

    cheers, david

  5. “i have loved the evolution of everyone having a camera and everyone being a photographer..why the hell not? we all speak a common language using the same 350 words, very egalitarian, and yet how many are poets? same with any medium….mean level is only mean level…a few will rise above no matter how high the mean level….all about finding your voice and then having the courage to speak…”

    Yes!

  6. The funny evolution is that everybody with a pen and a paper can write, but knowing the ABC isn’t enough, at least some basics are needed to form a word, or a sentence (not speaking about poetry!).. and that is what happens with everybody having a camera nowadays, combined with photoshop, filters and the like.. the basics are oftentimes lost …

    Read the comments to the picture here:

    http://instagram.com/p/QnzR80IVfS/

    First thing people think is FAKE, PHOTOSHOP..

    Learn learn learn, make it yours so much that you can forget, and then play :)

    (David.. it’s better I wasn’t there at the Lucie’s.. we both know I’d have cried ;) )

  7. EVA,

    never mind – those who first think Photoshop, don’t know better. Such comments say more about the commenter than about the commented.
    I saw that picture, too and tried explaining – and have seen DAH replied, too.

    We know the truth, and that is important. – A picture I love, btw.

    Let them think the camera is important – that keeps the camera industry alive.
    I am happy to buy used stuff :)

  8. EVA/DAVID:!!! ;)))

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahah!!!!

    i read those comments at the NatGeo on David’s pic…damn, funny shit….i dont know whether or laugh or cry…but then again, i’m too old to cry over young folk and their 1) cynicism, 2) pre-occupation with ‘fakery’ (which speaks more to their modus operandi) and 3) desire to fuck over anything/anyone that they didnt think of….i still get that shit when i do artist talk and show my work (just happened in march when i did a projection and artist talk with Loomings, when someone asked me ‘what filters to you use in post-processing’, my response ‘what is a post-processing filter’ and then anothe r young woman ‘how did you do that in Photoshop’…shit, i can’t even photoshop my way out of a bag i said, and check with my ex if you dont believe me…

    the funny thing about digital and now with instagrams and filter (which i love, though i dont have a digital camera nor do, obviously, instagrams) is the democratization but, its also sad, not the ‘loss of the craft’ as many lament, but the loss of the genuine interest or rather the joy of serendipity…what happens in the camera when light meets life meets body meets photographer…and that’s the greatest ‘filter/app’ i know :))…

    but it was just hilarious to think that many see that Rio show and wonder ‘how he’d get that black shadow’…like, have these kids even tried to fuck around with color and strobe and flash and movement…do they know the basics of optics….

    oh well…but, i good laugh :))

  9. Wow, just saw that pic. That’s some really fantastic photoshop work! Not ordinary run-of-the-mill by a long shot. It’s the subtle details that make it so great. The pleasant sense of irony that created the “shadows” from three distinct light sources. The way David put the shadow behind the goal rather than between the arm and the goal where it would have appeared in “real life.” The selective use of motion blur where one would least expect it worked, too.

    Personally though, I don’t see why you would go to so much trouble to do all that in photoshop when you could achieve an identical effect with a strobe. But then I guess it would lose its “meta” appeal.

  10. Michael:

    Heehee!

    David is a master at Photoshop effects, isn’t he? Are you interested in any of his Photoshop workshops?

    Basic: Mimicking on-camera flash in Photoshop.

    Intermediate: Tethered flash techniques using Photoshop Elements

    Advanced: Kicking it with Dragging-the-flash and Rear Curtain Synchro layers in PS

    Masterclass: Beer bottle, and other sundry “Ugly” filter subs in PS4 or better.

  11. “the loss of the genuine interest or rather the joy of serendipity…what happens in the camera when light meets life meets body meets photographer.”

    Yes I totally agree. I was speaking this midday with photographer who’s taken up the wet collodion alternative process. He’s bored with the creative safety digital usually gives him, no unusual happy cock-ups…

Comments are closed.