Preston's Blog

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October 08

Irving Penn Dies at 92

- Irving Penn, Cigarette 17, 1972

The legendary photographer, Irving Penn, died yesterday, Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at the age of 92 at his home in Manhattan.

Irving Penn was one of the all time great masters of photography and he is the one I admire most. When I was 7 I saw an ad for Oreo cookies consisting of a still life set on a slightly dirty white background with an almost empty glass of milk next to a white plate dotted with a few unmistakable Oreo crumbs. The image stuck with me. Intuitively I knew it was art, a work of genius and a cut well above any other ad photo I'd ever seen.

The image stuck with me. I took up photography because I wanted to make pictures like that.

When I was 19, I came across the picture again, like an old friend, at the college library in a old photography annual - photo credit, Irving Penn, 1959. Now I had a name and a way to seek more. I was staggered to find that Penn not only a master of the still life, but also of fashion and portraiture.

In 1972, I proudly showed my grandfather, Max Wilson, some B&W prints I'd just made on Kodabrome. He just shook his head and told me that I needed to see some "real" prints, suggesting that I make a trip to New York to see some work by this guy who was making his own platinum prints. That guy was Irving Penn and I was off on my first pilgrimage. The first Penn print I saw in person was Cigarette 17, a pair of three foot high cigarette butts, executed as an exquisite platinum print. My grandfather was right. My photos were rubbish. I needed to see a photographic masterpiece in person to appreciate by how much my technique missed the mark. Penn sets the bar very high, indeed. I continue to be haunted by the encounter 37 years later, almost to the day.

It is fair to say that like countless others, I've been finding awe and inspiration in Penn's work for 50 years. He will be missed by everyone who who ever saw the photo credit - Penn.

6:54 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

September 27

Michelle, 1992

I had a client with five swimming suits and a budget for one model, but no post production. My solution was to shoot with a 4x5 view camera through a narrow slit cut in black cardboard in front of the lens, starting with the back shifted all the way to the right. I took 18 pictures of each swim suit, shifted the back to the left 20% and ran throught the same film again, building up multiple exposures. The client was so happy with the result that even after we had budght for more models, he wanted to keep with this look.

Technical: Sinar F 4x5 camera, Fujichrome 50, Broncolor head in a single bank, silver reflector to add shine to the skin.

9:23 AM GMT | Read comments(0)

August 04

Nikkor AF-S 50mm f1.4G

I ordered a new lens today. For a while now, I've noticed that my Nikon AF 50mm f1.8D lens does not seem to work as well on my D700 FX sensor as it did on my D100 DX sensor. I very much like the 50mm focal length and use it for about 40% of my general work. I had three choices for an upgrade:

Nikkor AF 50mm f1.4D ($330)
Zeiss 50mm f1.4 Planar T* ($580)
The new Nikkor AF-S 50mm f1.4G ($580)

It is a tough choice because each lens has a very good reputation. With some digging, I found these MTF Charts from Nikon:

Nikkor AF 50mm f/1.4D		Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4G

Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 T*

The AF 50mm f/1.4D on the left and the new AF-S 50mm f/1.4G in the middle and the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 is on the right, showing the performance of each lens wide open. The charts show the Nikon f/1.4G has quite a bit better center sharpness and contrast than the older 50mm f/1.4D and better edge sharpness than the Zeiss.

The charts also show the Nikon f/1.4G has the smoothest performance of the three. That cinched it. I bought the f/1.4G. I hope to be able to post some test pictures by the week end.

8:56 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

August 01

Tugboat Dock Detail #1

There is something special about the quality of sunlight on rust. For reasons I don't quite understand, the red shifts to a nice dark blue in at some angles in shadow.

Nikon D700, Nikon 180 f2.8, RAW file processed in Lightroom 2.4.

5:34 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

Tugboat Dock Detail #2

I'm having a lot of fun with textures and simple repeating patterns. This is from a tug dock on the Missouri river near St. Charles, Missouri.

Nikon D700, Nikon 180 f2.8, RAW file processed in Lightroom 2.4.

5:25 PM GMT | Read comments(0)

Preston Page Photography

Fashion - Still Life - Landscape - Portrait