Old Photographs - new media

Last night I scanned some 20-year old 35 mm slides for a friend. The scans were straightforward so at the end I included this slide. The photograph is about 45 years old, the colors are fading and the surface needs to be cleaned. But, with a few computer adjustments the scene can be quickly restored to a presentable image. Here is the Singapore River in 1964. I took the photograph when I was a teenager. I was returning home after a morning shopping in the city. In those days the river was a busy gateway for Singapore’s imports and exports. If you visit this spot today you will find that those buildings in the background have been renovated. They are now restaurants and bars. A few boats also remain but their only cargoes are sight-seeing tourists. That empty skyline is now filled with giant office buildings.

Moving this image from film to my computer and the Internet was easy. In 45 years, will it will be as easy to move my digital photographs? I store my digital photographs on a computer hard drive. I also make back-ups on CDs. I read that CDs last a long time – perhaps more than 45 years. But will the equipment to read those CDs still be available when it is needed?

The first computer in our home had two floppy disk drives. During the past 20 years floppy disks improved, they changed format several times and they have disappeared from most computers. Any personal information stored on floppy disks is effectively lost. The same applies to business information. All those old files, reports and spreadsheets so carefully preserved on floppy disks might as well be forgotten. In most offices the only way to recover anything older than 10 years is to hope that it was printed and filed. Like my old slides, those printed copies can be scanned and resurrected to a new electronic life. In 2008 we can process a paper copy of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine published in 1587 but not an electronic copy stored on a floppy disk in 1987.

Cities are not the only things that change with time. People and lifestyles also change as we enjoy the “benefits” of progress. I photographed these Qashqai ladies one spring day as they moved with their family and flocks from the area around Shiraz in southern Iran. I wonder if the scene still exists today.

This slide is only 30 years old so the colors are still bright. The image is more than a travel record to me. It still conjures the emotions I felt then; a thrilling journey in an exotic landscape, my excited children (before they became “cool” teens and adults), the companionship of my wife and her parents, my worries about the reliability of the car on remote roads, all mixed with the fun of a family outing amid beautiful scenery. Photographs capture memories and emotions. I wonder if the moments captured by my digital camera last week will still be readable when technology had advanced another few years.

Yokohama

My first assignment to Japan began twenty years ago this week. In the intervening years I have returned many times. A lot has changed since I first arrived in 1988. Surprisingly, much also remains the same. My latest visit was last October when I spent almost three weeks in Yokohama. Twenty years ago the trains ran like clockwork but there were few signs in English to guide novice travelers. I became adept at reading the map outside station and counting stops to make sure I got off at the correct destination. Today, electronics make everything much easier. Most train compartments include digital signs that display the approaching station name in Kanji, Hiragana and English. This makes rail travel much more relaxing.

The area around Yokohama has changed dramatically. The new development of Minato Mairi that began in the late 90’s is nearing completion. The docks of the old shipyard are now a tourist attraction surrounded by a splendid shopping mall, tall office buildings and international hotels. A focal attraction is the Nippon Maru. This is a former sail training ship and is now transformed into a maritime museum.

But the traditional Japanese character still remains in Yokohama. Twenty years ago I was introduced to the simple pleasures of okonomiyaki. This is a batter cake that can contain vegetables, shrimp, squid, . . .just about anything the diner requests. Most okonomiyaki restaurants are set up as grill-it-yourself and the result looks like a well filled omelet. Twenty years ago I first visited this small restaurant located off Honmoku-dori. Last October I wandered along memory lane with my Pentax and was pleasantly surprised to see it is still in business. Cooking okonomiyaki is best enjoyed with friends – a bit like a fondue evening. I was alone so I didn’t look in to see if the owners have changed. Maybe next time.

Quiet subjects

I was taking photographs at a church event last Sunday morning when the need to plough through the instruction manuals that came with my digital camera was driven home. The event was held in a well-lit “fellowship” room. Even so, I used flash to ensure that shutter speeds were fast enough to freeze movement. I also used a 31mm f/1.7 prime lens. On the K10D that lens provides coverage very close a standard 50mm lens in a 35mm film camera. It is wide enough to capture good groups and long enough so that the camera is not stuck under the subject’s nose. J gave me this lens as a Christmas present and it is wonderful. It is legendary within the Pentax fold for sharpness at wide apertures. Even so, I decided to “stop-down” to make sure I had sufficient depth of field to keep everyone in a group in focus. With flash working I started to the first batch of photographs. Horrors – when I checked the results some time later they were all taken at f/1.7. The point of focus was sharp as expected from this lens but people standing near by were blurry. It was then that I noticed the camera was set to “Program” mode. Instead of following my careful settings it was following another set of instructions buried deep in the set-up menus. A turn of the dial imposed human control and I took the final images the way I planned.

I appreciate the assistance that modern cameras provide. I don’t want to give up my integrated light meter or auto focus. But as Sunday proves, these aids can be subversive especially with subjects that only offer one chance to take the shot. For me, those are usually people. Maybe that is why I love photographing flowers. They don’t move. They don’t get bored waiting while I compose the shot and they patiently continue to look beautiful if I want to repeat the shots from a slightly different viewpoint. Most of my human subjects loudly complain if the picture is not taken when they say “cheese”. The dragonfly above was in my back yard. The orchid below is growing in my son’s new greenhouse in North Carolina. Both were very, very patient.

From "have not" to "have"

My last job with “Big Oil” was an assignment to a country not a million miles from here. For part of the time I was assigned to a site building an oil production facility. It was located about two hours drive from the nearest “large” town. For twelve months I travelled each Monday morning to the site and returned on Friday to my wife who remained in the capital. During that week I lived in a “single-wide” mobile home. This was located on a camp that dated back to days when the Seven Sisters controlled the country’s oil wealth. A high security fence enclosed a self-contained community. Within the wire were a well financed school, medical center, social club and swimming pool, supermarket, barbershop and beauty salon and even a 9-hole golf course with lighting so that oil company employees could complete their golf round without concern for the early tropical dusk. The camp had secure electric supply, treated water and mains sewage. We even had satellite TV and mobile phone service. It was remote, but not a hardship assignment.

On my drive to the construction site each morning I passed another community. This had no security fence, no supermarket, no swimming club, and no golf club. There was a few-room school but it had fewer teachers, no finance and no facilities. There was electricity and water. I never asked what happened to the sewage but in that community a well-developed sense of smell was not an asset.

There are a couple of verses in Matthew that always jar when I hear them. They are the ones that go, “whoever has will be given more . . . . whoever does not have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.” Jesus was not talking about worldly possessions but those verses came to mind each morning when I left my trailer and travelled to work. The gulf between those who had and those who had not was so embarrassingly evident.

The people of that country elected a new government almost ten years ago. So far, the gulf between rich and poor has not been removed. Still, I remain hopeful. During my adult life I have watched as an island country in Asia with no natural resources but a hard working and educated people became a commercial powerhouse. There is no reason why oil wealth should not be used to help nations closer to home follow that path.

I took the photograph above one afternoon when college students were on their way home. These are the future of that country. I am always nervous when taking street photographs. There are photographers who seem to merge with the crowd. I always feel that everyone is looking at me. I am tensed for that angry shout. That shout has not come yet and when I look at the images nobody is looking at the camera. Maybe I am invisible after all.

Serendipity not Perspicacity

It is easy to get lost in politics. It is even easier to imagine that you have the answers to the nation’s problems. Maybe that is why multi-millionaires are happy to spend their money seeking a job that pays $400,000 and why others vie to be Vice President and earn $186,000 per year. So for this epistle I intend to return to photography.

There are several web sites that keep track of the vast number of digital cameras in the shops. One I regularly watch is Digital Photography Review. Just about every camera on the market today is capable of taking perfect photographs. My Pentax K10D is “Highly Recommended”. With interchangeable lenses, this camera is probably better than the equipment used most past photographers who have had their work printed. So why don’t my photographs show that quality?

I am sure that good photographs are a combination of three things: technique, hard work and creativity. Technique is the easy part because it can be learnt. Hard work is more difficult. All photographers know about the special qualities of light around dawn and dusk. Photographing at dusk is easy but many amateurs rarely get up before dawn to be in the right place when the sun breaks through. In his book Galen Rowell tells of how he jogged in the thin Tibetan air to get to a location where the perspective placed the Potala at the base of a rainbow. That photograph is a masterpiece. Galen Rowell was a master photographer. His photographs confirm a motto in one of my old college organic chemistry books, “Perspicacity not Serendipity”.

One of my favorite Sci-Fi novels is “Glory Road”. This is a standard knight errant tale that happens to be set on distant planets. The hero fights dragons, recovers the lost treasure and wins the girl – who just happens to be Empress of multiple universes. What makes this novel so interesting is that it does not end with the hero living happily ever after. He becomes bored with nothing to do. Even with all that wealth his life has no purpose. In one telling episode the hero describes his attempt to create jewelry. He has gemstones without limit but his creations lack sparkle. He lacks that gift of creativity.

There are times when I feel that way about my photographs. I have the tools and I work on the technique. Sometimes, I even put in the hard work necessary to be in the right space at the right time. Even so, like the creations of that hero in Glory Road, most of my results lack sparkle. But all is not yet lost. The great advantage of the digital camera is the “delete button”. There is always another day, another subject and another sunrise.


This sunset was taken from a hotel room in Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela. All the rooms in this hotel look out onto the bay and I have stayed there several times during business visits to Venezuela. On most trips the sun had set by the time I got back to the room but this time the meetings finished early. With camera at the ready I watched the sun disappear behind a bank of low cloud. I was convinced that there would be no color that night. I was about to change lens and focus on that boat in the foreground when the clouds flared into color. This photograph is the result – the only requirement, some technique.

People - here today; here tomorrow

I am an immigrant to the USA so it is probably natural I am interested in what the presidential candidates say about immigration. I have not heard a sensible position lately. They are all searching for a catchy news bite. That is sad, because immigration won’t be solved in 30-second news-bites. In a May 2006 article the Christian Science Monitor asked the question, “How many illegal immigrants?” The article included the diagram copied below (thanks, Christian Science Monitor!).

The article also said that about 4.7 million homes have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant. If these homes have the “standard” 2.2 children then about 27 million people living in USA are directly affected by an immigration policy.

Several candidates claim that they will send illegal immigrants home. (Will they keep families together?) The candidates have not said how they will move 27 million people. The dark history of the 20^th century shows how that number of people might be moved. My parents and the rest of the “Greatest Generation” proudly showed us how democratic people dealt with those governments. Today, any candidate claiming that a democratic freedom-loving USA can send all illegal immigrants home is not truthful. If they did, the USA would not be the country we know and love.

I suspect that deep down, we want to remove 27 million people, build a wall along the border and give up the freedoms that define our country because we are afraid. Today, I see a USA that has lost its confidence. 9/11 did not only shatter two buildings. It shattered our psyche. Osama bin Laden must be laughing all the way to his cave.

People will continue to come to USA for the same reason I did: for the chance of a better future for our children and ourselves. Those who are really desperate will continue to come illegally: especially if employers will hire them and ask no questions. If government wants to stop further illegal immigrants then it must focus on employers. That only leaves the 12-20 million illegal immigrants currently living with us. I back the suggestion that gives them an opportunity to become legal citizens. People who are born here love this country. Those of us who are granted the privilege of citizenship love it just as much.

Over Christmas we saw several cartoons of the baby Jesus, his mother and father fleeing to Egypt. The point was not very subtle. It suggested that Joseph and his family were likely undocumented immigrants. I took the photograph above in Venezuela last year. It is a collection of posters on a wall near a subway station in Caracas. It suggests that Jesus was a revolutionary. Is there a grain of truth in these two very different images - the poster and the cartoon? I don’t know, but I recall that one central message in the Bible is that we should care for the poor, the oppressed and the stranger at our gate. Are those illegal immigrants today's "strangers?"