The Sounds of Commerce

A slum behind the pasar (market) in Sentani, Papua, Indonesia. DiMAGE Z10 6mm at f/3.2 1/100 ISO 64The smell hits you first. You are wandering undering the unrelenting sun and as you approach the pasar, market, it is redolent with the odors of decaying meat, rotting garbage, and unwashed bodies. There is a strength to it that pushes back and leaves the uninitiated wondering if they can continue. The crush of bodies, the sounds of commerce, street style pushes in around you and you begin to wish you didn't need to shop here. Then you see a nod, and you stumble through a greeting in your halting Indonesian. They smile warmly help you correct your words and shake your hand. You wonder if there are any tomatoes this week and soon they are they pulling you through sprawling market to the one corner where they sit, decent sized tomatoes.

The market where we shopped for vegetables in Indonesia was a large collection of tin huts, lean-to rooves and tarp covered stalls. It was always full of life and sound and action. One day I wandered out the back and through the little alleys and homes that bordered it. I walked around a corner and glanced through the laundry hanging in front of me seeing a man in a motorcycle helmet coming home. I. Whipped up my camera and snapped just as he disappeared in a home.

-Russell Berg

The World Is Different Now

Artists are everywhere.  They are in the symphonies, and the dirty downtown back alleys, they are in the small town theatre company and the million dollar art galleries.  The creative urge rises in us and we feel this powerful instinct to make something new, interesting, thoughtful.  Something that arises out of who we are and what are place in the world is.  It gives us a sense of fulfillment and belonging, as if to say this world is different now because I was here.  There is more here here.  We have, out of whole cloth, made something new and the divine creative spark has ignited something wonderful in the world around us.

My wife and I were wandering around downtown Portland on a lazy Sunday afternoon and we walked past a parking garage that was covered in graffiti.  Much of it was absolutely remarkable and I love to photograph it so I went in and asked the artist if I could photograph him while he worked.  We talked for a little while and he was fine with this so I started.  I got some standard images but was looking for a photo that told more of his story so I laid down on the floor and put the paint cans in the foreground.  I had to arrange them a little to get the image I wanted but once I had it I was very happy.  I had the aperture dialed all the way open to f/4 to get him into a bit of background blur.  I really wanted the spray cans to dominate the image and I was happy with the way it turned out. I just wish I hadn't gotten the bit of lens flare from the window.

-Russell Berg

A Hole In The Sky

A hole in the glass provides the perfect frame for a building that is being destroyed. Canon 7D, EFS 50mm 1.4 at f18 1/80, ISO 3200A Perfect Photographic Morning Part 2

As I left the parking lot with the view of the blue window I walked around the block and came to the other side of the building that was being destroyed  I really wanted to see what was inside but the bottom floor was all boarded up and I couldn’t see anything.  There was, however, scaffolding over the sidewalk to protect the people who were walking by.  This was a Sunday morning so there wasn’t any work going on but I still hesitated, a little unsure of myself, as I swung my camera over my neck and scrambled up the scaffolding.  I thought to myself “no one is going to look up.”  I was initially really disappointed as the second floor was all windows but they had been painted from the inside, really strange.  But then I notice the hole, it wasn’t large, smaller than my fist but I could see inside and it looked like there was some real possibilities here.  I loved the fact that hole in the window provided a frame for the image, I loved the fact that I could just barely see the window frame in the top left corner from my previous image, and I loved the way the planks on the floor lead your to that mysterious darkened doorway.  I had to stop the exposure way down to f18 or the glass just became a blurry amorphous mass this pushed my ISO up to 3200 but luckily the 7D handles that pretty well.  As I brought the doorway into focus something really interesting happened, I could see writing on the glass in the top right corner. At first I thought it was a sticker on the glass but I pulled my eye off the camera to look and I realized that I was looking at a reflection from a store on the other side of the street and even though the glass itself is out of focus the reflection is the same apparent distance from the glass as the doorway is, (remember your high school physics?), so it was in focus as well.  I really liked how many layers I was playing with here and was really happy with the image.  Afterwards I pulled it into Aperture and did the black and white conversion with Nik Silver EFex Pro and I darkened the image, and increased the grain to add some drama and mystery.

-Russell Berg

As I looked to the left, in the middle of the all the destruction was a circular life preserver. Irony, anyone? Canon 7D, EFS 50mm 1.4 at f8 1/60, ISO 1250

Beauty In The Decay

Beauty in the decay of a city. Canon 7D, EFS 50mm 1.4 at f9 1/60, ISO 400A Perfect Photographic Morning Part 1

I went out walking around Victoria one December morning as my wife slept in and I had a wonderful photographic adventure.  It started as I walked past a parking lot that had, at one end, an old building that was in the the process of being demolished.  This idea of finding beauty and art in the midst of decay and destruction was one that has always appealed to me and it became sort of a theme for the morning.  I took a few photos and then turned to my left and saw the blue grating and window frame over the tumbled red bricks and I knew I had a pretty good image.  I really liked the contrast of colours and textures.  After I had imported into Aperture I did increase the saturation of the blue around the window and red in the bricks a little until I had the image that I was looking for.  I will tell/show you more about my morning in future posts.

-Russell Berg

Almost Home

A mother and daughter in the walkway to the ferry at Horseshoe Bay, BC EOS Rebel XSi, EFS 50mm 1.4 at f/1.4, 1/60, ISO 320

My wife and I were travelling back to the island on the ferry and as we were heading to the boat we came upon a mother and daughter as they approached the boat too.  I saw them heading down the long walkway and I love the way that the lights and the hallway curled away.  I was reaching for my camera as the little girl started to run, I quickly pulled it up pushed the lens wide open and got off one quick shot.  The sense of isolation is quite strong and I feel that the photo captures the loneliness of those late night ferry rides when you want to get back to those you love but have to wait 2 more hours.

-Russell Berg