Moment critique!

I am always amused when new digital photographers and photojournalists talk about the newest, latest, all-singing, all-dancing digital camera able to churn out six to 10 frames per second.
I find it even funnier when they tell me how it's impossible to shoot sport -- or much anything else -- without a camera that can fire off photographs faster than a machine gun.
They seem to forget many of the world's greatest news photographs were shot using thumb-wound cameras with just a standard, manually-focussed, lens. At the same time, many of the great sports photographs were taken with similarly wound-on cameras fitted with a single-focal-length telephoto lens that also had to be focussed by hand.

How did we do it back then?

So how did we do it in the old days before feaures like autofocus, matrix metering and wizz-bang motordrives were even thought of? And how did we do it when we couldn't check the rear LCD screen to be sure we'd got the picture?
It was, and still is really quite simple. We worked like snipers rather than machine gunners. We anticipated the action, prefocussed or zone focussed, understood exposure and only needed to take a single shot at the critical moment.
To illustrate the point, last Saturday, I took a trip to Mandela Square at Sandton City, armed with a simple Minolta X300s and a 50mm and 28mm lens. There is a large statre of Madiba there that naturally attracts the attention of locals and tourists alike.
I took up a position near by, took a meter-reading off the palm of my hand, gave one more stop of exposure, pre-focussed and waited for magical photographic moments to happen.
Over the course of three hours I got a number of really good shots that captured wonderful vignettes of life in the Square and though I was only about 10 feet away from the action, not one of my subjects even realised the were being photographed. At the moment critique I simply brought the camera to my eye, pressed the shutter and lowered it. No shutter-lag, no whirring autofocus, no grinding motordrive to attract attention -- just a single, clean shot and kill.

Look closely at this image!

Some more cyanotypes

Some more cyanotypes I recently completed in preparation for an upcoming exhibition.
All cyanotypes are available for sale as signed, limited-edition prints and can be shipped anywhere in the world. Each is printed on fine, archival-grade watercolour paper. For prices and details please visit my website www.bighilt.com

My cyanotype exhibition.

On Thursday 18 November I held an exhibition of 45 cyanotypes in the ballrooom at the Randfontein Country Club. It turned out to be an amazing success with a turnout of around 125 people including members of the media.
Five large, limited-edition, hand-made, cyanotypes were bought by collectors and a couple of black and white prints were also sold. Prices for the cyanotypes ranges from R1500 (approx $220) for matted but unframed examples to R4000 (approximately $650) for framed, tea-toned prints.
And, as a result, I am in currently having discussions with some art dealers and galleries.
Unfortunately I did not scan the cyanotypes before I had them framed -- I do not have a flatbed scanner -- but, at the last moment, I took a few shots of the images. The pictures will give you an idea of the print but do not do it justice and in some instances, my reflection can be seen in the glass. That's just the way it is.
I plan on getting a scanner and rectifying the situation next time.
Visit my website - www.bighilt.com