Jackson and Jenna

I walked in to the house last night and this is the scene I saw.  Jackson and Jenna sitting on the couch.  Why did I see this?  Because I was reading  The Visual Science Lab by Kirk Tuck and I read this post about resetting your vision.
I love shooting b&w and I love using one camera and one lens.  The post about resetting your vision reminded me of a David Vestal article in Photo Techniques magazine where he talked about shooting b&w jpegs with an older model d-slr and how it gave him good results and he didn't see the need to upgrade to anything else because he was happy with his b&w jpeg files.  I guess this speaks to me so strongly because it takes me back to my b&w film days and I often carried around a small Olympus Stylus Epic camera loaded with b&w film and it was my grab camera when I ran across these types of images like the one above.  I still have that camera though I seldom use it because getting film developed in Searcy Arkansas is next to impossible.  No worries I absolutely can shoot b&w jpegs like Kirk Tuck and David Vestal and be absolutely happy with my photos and that is the bottom line anyway.  I long ago came to the realization that I shoot these things on my blog for me.  If others enjoy them and I hope they do that will be icing on the cake because I shot them for my enjoyment.

Kirk Tuck Photo Quote

"The only way to be stealthy with a camera this big is to be un-stealthy and emanate the idea that what you're doing is routine, non-exceptional and part of the scene. Within minutes everyone ignored me and went on with real life." ~Kirk Tuck

I often tell my students that a major key to being successful is acting like you are supposed to be there taking pictures. I like to think of the camera as my invisibility machine. People expect to see you working and they quit paying attention to you. I also like the romantic idea of using a small rangefinder camera that people don't even notice because you are using one body and one lens. Many famous photographers have espoused this idea, notably Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alfred Eisenstaedt, W. Eugene Smith, and Elliott Erwitt.

As for the Canon 1DMark2, I still much prefer my Nikon D3s. No mater the make of the camera, Kirk's advice is golden. Take a moment and read The Visual Science Lab. Be sure and read his spot on post entitled A Casual and Even Tempered Rant .