Posts Tagged: Street Photography
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Ngaben Cremation Ceremony, Ubud: July 2014
In Bali, as with other communities that practice the Hindu religion, it is normal to cremate the dead. Ngaben, the name for the cremation ceremony in Balinese, is the funeral ritual that is performed by the people of Bali to send deceased relatives to the next life. The ceremony itself is often very expensive, and, whilst it is normal for members of the upper castes to perform the funeral ritual within three days of the passing of a relative, lower social classes will typically wait until the next mass cremation ceremony, opting to bury the bodies for a number of months until the next mass ceremony takes place.
In Ubud, mass ceremonies take place a couple of times per year, and we were fortunate to be invited to such a ceremony during our travels. The cremation ceremony is not considered a sad event, as the Balinese believe in reincarnation so the body will only be temporarily absent as it passes on to the next life. The ceremony we attended was for around 80 deceased from three villages who had passed on over the previous couple of months.
Cremation is considered a family event, and young to old all take part in the celebration of the deceased’s life.
The exact date of a cremation ceremony is decided upon after consultation with a specialist in Balinese holy days. The ceremony itself consists of a number of parts. First the body is exhumed (in the case of cremations that are taking place some time after the time of death), and placed inside a coffin. The coffin is then put inside a decorative paper mache sarcophagus, or inside a wooden temple structure.
After this, the coffin is transported by relatives from the house to the location of the cremation. This can often be a couple of kilometres of walking, and, on a hot Balinese summer day, is hard work.
Additionally the procession never travels in a straight line in an effort to confuse the evil spirits and make sure they don’t travel with the deceased on to the after life. Watching, the procession almost seems choreographed.
Once the coffin arrives at the cremation, it is placed in line with the other sarcophaguses, and the family sit down to wait until the cremation starts. Whilst they wait the families feast, and wander around the food stalls and market stalls that are assembled.
It seems that in Bali the chicken has a very big role, and again chickens were being used as part of Ngaben. Poultry was tied to the sarcophagus, and released once the coffin had arrived. I was told that it was good luck if you were able to catch one of the released birds.
As soon as all of the coffins have arrived, and with the fire service in attendance, it is time to start burning the bodies. The ‘honour’ of lighting the first coffin is down to the relative of the most recently deceased – at this event this was a lady whose husband had passed away just the day before. Rather than using matches, the fire is fuelled by a complicated, and not particularly safe looking, gas installation.
It was certainly a very interesting experience, and, since it is seen as a celebration, we were welcomed by the locals. People didn’t seem to have a problem with me taking photos, and many were happy to pose. Out of respect I wore a traditional sarong and Balinese head dress.
Photos in this post were taken using the Leica M-E (digital) and Leica M6 (film with Portra 160). Lenses used were Summicron 28mm, Summilux 50mm, and Elmarit 90mm.
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Chapter Twenty One: Soweto, Johannesburg, May 2014
Meet Amos. Amos is 51 years old and lives and works in the Soweto township in the South of Johannesburg. I met Amos when I visited The Shack, the shebeen where he is employed. Amos told me that he has got 8 children of his own, and moved to South Africa from Malawi after his brother passed away from the AIDS virus in order to look after his brother’s wife and 8 children as well as his own. Their house had only one bedroom, and when the children were growing up they would all sleep alongside one another like sardines – when he returned home from work in the evening he would turn the light off in order to get changed in the dark.
All of the children have left home now. The youngest daughter is an IT trainee, and hopes to be able to get a job of her own and be fully self supporting once she has finished her apprenticeship. He was saddened that all his children are only interested in themselves, and don’t assist him in anyway anymore.
Amos works at The Shack, a shebeen just off Vilakazi Street. Shebeen is an Irish word meaning ‘illegal drinking place’, From Wikipedia: Shebeens are most often located in townships as an alternative to pubs and bars, where under apartheid and the Rhodesian era, indigenous Africans were barred from entering pubs or bars reserved for those of European descent. Today, shebeens are operated legally, and serve as part of the African culture. In addition to serving South African and international beers, shebeens offer local beers. At The Shack, they offer Joburg beer – Amos told me that it’s what keeps his skin looking good, and since it only contains 1.5% alcohol, he drinks it daily for breakfast as it’s a meal in itself. The beer is sold in a carton similar to a milk carton, and has an entertaining slogan on the side:
Amos showed me round the shebeen, but he seemed to be most proud of the ladies toilet. “You know Johnny Walker? Well we made Winnie Walker!”
All the shots in this post were made with the Leica M-E and Summilux 50mm ASPH. The first four shots were shot as ISO 2000, which shows that as long as the shot is well exposed, high ISOs are perfectly useable with the M-E…..
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Chapter Seventeen: San Francisco, February 2014
In February I was able to travel to Palo Alto to attend a new hire training, and took the opportunity to burn a few hotel points and spend the weekend before wandering around San Francisco. I managed to reserve the Marriott Hotel just off Union Square, which made a change from the hotels I have stayed at in the past in the Financial District, and it was a good base location for all the things I wanted to see.
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Chapter Nine: Amsterdam Street Photography September 2013
It’s always nice to take a wander around the streets and canals in Amsterdam, and recently during a break from work I had a chance to do so on a couple of occasions during the week, when the city is a little less crowded. I moved to the Netherlands 16 or 17 years ago now, and although I no longer live in Amsterdam, having moved to Amstelveen a couple of years ago, I still consider Amsterdam my ‘home from home’ – it’s a great place to wander around and explore, and there is always something new to discover.
The images in this post were taken in Amsterdam in September 2013 using the Leica M-E together with the 28mm Summicron lens. There is a common belief in the rangefinder community that the perfect trio of lenses to use with a rangefinder is a combination of the 28, 50, and 90mm focal lengths. I started off with a 35mm lens, and found it a very good choice for a lot of street photography, but sometimes I found myself wanting something slightly wider – the 35mm was just a bit too similar to the 50mm, and especially in cities with narrow streets I found myself wanting to take an additional (impossible) step backwards in order to get what I wanted framed in the shot.
Building art, Jordaan, Amsterdam
For me, the 28mm is a very good compromise. It’s wide enough to put the viewer right into the image, but it’s not so wide as to cause any distortion. The Summicron in particular is an extremely sharp lens, even wide open, and due to the wide focal length gives adequate depth of field when used wide open – at a focus of around 4m at f/2 for example, the depth of field ranges from 3m to 6m.
I’ve found that the 28mm Summicron provides an ideal one lens solution, and works equally as well as part of the afore mentioned trio. Initially I was discouraged when reading reviews on the internet, as a lot of photographers are very negative about the size of the lens hood, claiming it blocks out too much of the rangefinder viewfinder to be useful, however having used it for a while I hardly notice the blockage – sure it is there, but not enough to be irritating.
When I return from a session shooting street, I tend to find that I prefer my images once converted to black and white. I shoot in DNG (RAW) format, so this is very easy to do, and I use the Silver Efex Pro plugin from Nik Software (now part of Google) to do my black and white conversions.
Hipster, Leidseplein, Amsterdam
There is a community chess board on the Max Euweplein in Amsterdam, just near to the Hard Rock Cafe. During good weather there is always someone playing there…..
Chess on the Max Euweplein, Amsterdam
Frens Haringhandel has been serving fresh herring to passers by for over 25 years. Tasty with chopped onions and gherkins!
Frens Haringhandel, Koningsplein, Amsterdam
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Chapter Eight: Leica User Forum Photo Walk in Antwerp, July 2013
The Leica community has a popular online forum which boasts 5600 active users and 133000 members in total. The forum contains a wealth of information around the Leica product family, and members also organise informal get-togethers, or photo walks, around the world. In July 2013 I joined a group of 10 photographers in Antwerp. We spent the day wandering the streets and chatting cameras, with inevitable breaks for (liquid) refreshments.
Central Station, Antwerp
Door at the Puppet Theatre
Antwerp is a friendly city, and on a summer Saturday is alive with a mixture of tourists discovering what the city has to offer, and locals going about their business. We started off at Central Station, and then meandered through the back streets, finally ending up in the dock area at the MAS, or Museum aan de Stroom.
Camera salesman, Grote markt, Antwerp
Looking at the city of Antwerp from the MAS, Museum aan de Stroom
I spent most of the walk around using the 35mm Summarit lens, but during a cafe stop I switched to the 50mm Summicron to focus on some candids of the rest of the group. I find the Leica very unobtrusive for taking candids, as people don’t seem to notice the camera in the same way as they would do with a larger SLR, and even when they do see the camera, they tend to react in a different way
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Chapter Six: Istanbul, April 2013
I had a busy couple of weeks travel in April, hitting Dubai, Istanbul, and Slovakia in a 10 day period. As with any business trip, photography has to take a back seat, but shooting with the rangefinder means it is a lot easy to carry my gear with me when I am traveling around. Of the few images I managed to take on this trip, I liked the juxtaposition of the shot of the lady next to the street vendor. I think it’s pretty clear whether it is the sports bag or the pretzels that she enjoys more 🙂
Sports Bag
Food is one of the aspects I enjoy with any Middle Eastern travel, and this shot shows a typical shop on the edge of the Grand Bazar – House of Spices, selling nuts, spices, and turkish delight…..
House of Spices
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Chapter Three: San Francisco, February 2013, and the Leica M-E
If you read my post from earlier in the year, you’ll see I made the decision to try out a Leica M6 in an effort to find a system camera that was more suitable for taking along with me when I travelled. After putting a bunch of films through the camera, I was quickly convinced that the Leica rangefinder was an ideal travel companion – legendary lenses, and a no nonsense camera body, which, whilst fully manual, offered enough flexibility to be able to shoot quickly and reliably. The size of the kit meant that I could slip the body and a couple of lenses into a bag, along with my laptop, in a fraction of the space that I would have required should I have chosen to travel with my Nikon gear. There was only one problem with the M6 – despite the fun of waiting for the films to be returned from the processor, and scanning the images in – it wasn’t satisfying the immediate need to see my images that I have become accustomed to whilst shooting digitally over the past 15 or so years.
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Restaurant in Chinatown, San Francisco
So, as my interest in the Leica camera system ‘developed’, I heard that a local Leica dealer, Henny Hoogeveen in Lisse, had a Leica M-E ex-demo body in stock at a very attractive price. To cut a long story short, I was able to purchase the body in time to take with me on a trip to San Francisco for the RSA conference.
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With a huge marketing budget, you would have thought RSA would have employed a proof reader. Or at least someone who knows how to spell February……
I had timed my travel so that I would have the weekend before the conference to recover from any jet lag, and spend a bit of time walking around the city. An ideal opportunity to see what the digital rangefinder would be able to do for me. The learning curve from the M6 was very slight – although the M-E is a digital body, feature wise it is very similar to the M6 in that it is very feature light – the only addition in terms of taking photos is the addition of aperture priority on the M-E in addition to the fully manual exposure mode that the M6 offers. Needless to say, both cameras are manual focus, which is quick and easy with the rangefinder.
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Sleeping Rough – if you look closely (click for a larger image) you’ll see a guy climbing out of the car’s trunk. He appeared to have spent the night inside….
Many street photographers choose to shoot with Leica, or other similar rangefinder cameras, as they are able to approach and photograph their subjects without getting in the way, and even if they are noticed the subject’s attention is hardly captured as the camera is very unobtrusive. Shooting with the M-E gives me a confidence that I never have with the Nikon in terms of the opportunities on the street where I will press the shutter release, rather than walking away when with a Nikon to avoid any unpleasant confrontations. With a bit of practice it’s possible to visualise what you will be seeing through the rangefinder, and prefocus and shoot from the hip if necessary. In the situations where you are noticed, a smile and a whispered thank you is normally enough to appease most people.
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Taking a break
I took my 35mm Summarit and a 50mm Summicron with me, and wandered through the streets of San Francisco looking for opportunities. In Chinatown the local community was celebrating the start of the Chinese New Year, providing a very photo rich environment, and as always a walk along Market Street offered a number of opportunities.
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Making a phone call
San Francisco is a beautiful city, and the mixture of cultures means there is something new to discover around every corner. I walked a fair distance during my days there, and carrying the Leica over my shoulder was no strain at all due to the lightweight construction. Since acquiring the M-E I have started to take my camera with me a lot more frequently, and ultimately taken many more photographs compared to previous years.
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Take my picture
Of course, the Leica comes at a price, and there is a lot of discussion in online forums as to whether or not the Leica is worth the money. After all, technology wise the camera is miles behind competition from the dSLR vendors such as Canon or Nikon. My Nikon D800 for example has excellent AF, and great low light capabilities – the Leica is manual focus, and starts to lose definition above around 1000 ISO. So ultimately, no, the Leica isn’t worth the price you pay if you are simply adding up features, but the Leica provides a different sort of emotion to the photographer, and a different way of shooting – after all Leica is celebrating 100 years of rangefinder cameras this year, and wouldn’t have been around for so long if they weren’t doing something right……
Stars and Stripes
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