What is your philosophy?

What is your philosophical position? Take this test from the School of Life.

My recommended philosophy-guru is ARISTOTLE. Key fact: The star pupil of Plato. Must have: A desire to study the world and see what it reveals. Key promise: The good life, which comes from living a virtuous life. Key peril: The virtuous life can be tough. Most likely to say: "Everything has its proper place." Least likely to say: "Science is where humanity went wrong." Interesting a desire to study the world to see what it reveals is why I take photographs.... Aristotle is reputed to be the origin of "one swallow does not make a summer" He also said "all paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind" so true but then its work tomorrow.

Out and about along the Helensburgh sea front with the D700 and 35mm lens exploring what it can do for hand held night pictures. The photos were made just with the street lighting and moonlight using matrix metering.

Abandoned funfair 1/50 F2.8 4000 iso

John Logie Baird memorial 1/10 F2 4000 iso

Paris abstract

Paris: street pictures

A selection of street pictures with the LX3. Last time I was in Paris I used a Leica M6 with a 35mm Summicron and shooting on XP2. Despite the convenience of digital I was wishing I still had the Leica; its just more fun for this sort of thing.

I doubt that I would have taken any significantly different pictures though. All the talk of the rangefinder experience and so on does not really amount to that much in practice, other than in limitations; no autofocus, no zoom, no variable film speed without a lot of fiddling about. But when you are walking the streets none of this really matters. On the screen you can't tell the difference between the older Leica pics and the LX3 digital. In print you see it in 12 inch prints and above.

Following on the theme of consumption from the post below, I spent a lot of time thinking about ditching the LX3 for a GF1, or for no real reason other than the logo paying an excessive amount of money for the Leica X1. At an intellectual level the message from the sand mandala is right, but at an emotional level the hegemony of consumption has me in it sights. Although the best part of £5000 for an M9 is definitively a step too far.

Paris: sand mandala

LX3, F2.8 1/20 800iso

Sand mandala in the final stage of creation at the Musee Guimet. The mandala, as you may have guessed, is created with coloured sand - a slow, meditative and painstaking process. It's then destroyed as part of a ritual ceremony to symbolise the importance of non attachment to objects and the impermanence of all things.

Objects of Desire

Two photos of the Galeries Lafayette in Paris, the premier department store in the city. It is a beautiful building, almost a palace of consumption, with an abstract glass dome and several art nouveau floors created to look like an opera house. In contrast to the non attachment to objects as suggested above, we spend most of our time acquiring them. The function of such upmarket stores being to create and sustain our need for objects of desire: fashion, perfumes, Scarlett Johansson, and so on.

Montmartre

At the other end of the shopping spectrum is Montmartre. Once the haunt of artists including Dali, Monet, Picasso and van Gough. It's a pleasant urban village with great views over Paris. However, it also promotes the worst of tourist pap alluding to the Moulin Rouge, Toulouse-Lautrec and art nouveau, but not in a good way.

Breakfast

Breakfast photos; a quiet observed moment at the start of each day. Not something to be rushed through in front of the morning TV news on route to work. Check out the book and blog of Jennifer Causey. Simple, beautiful and something we could all do.

Jennifer's breakfast 14 October 2009

My breakfast Gare du Nord, Paris. 17 October 2009

Vivian Maier

A story for all of us who want to be discovered, or who value photography and want to discover others. Vivian Maier lived and photographed in Chicago between 1950 and 1970 producing an artistic and historical portrait of time and place. 40,000 of her negatives went to auction where their value was happily recognised.

More of Vivian's work is here

Hands

Street picture, Shanghai, D700 F4.5 1/15th 2500 iso

Carbisdale Castle, Scotland, LX3 F2.8 1/20th 200 iso