Yothu Yindi

[Tao jones]

One of the dancers from Yothu Yindi. Taken with a canon 5d with a 70-200 f2.8, ISO 1600, f2.8, shot in raw and flipped to BW....regards tao


http://www.yothuyindi.com/

[raynerj1]

Very Nice Roger!

Was the shot done in a studio or during a performance?

[Tao jones]

thanks john..this was a performance so he was jumping about. (Brother of Colin), If you are ever interested in how I do by performance shots I can put the info up here.
I try to take less shots each time I do it. Many of the guys in the pit just rely on taking 1000's of shots hoping they are going toget a good one. But it doesn't work that way you lose the spirit.
I don't know if you have ever read Minor White here are some of his quotes. I found them very helpful....regards roger
PS I think I should but these quotes up as a separate post, for me they are the best info one could have for photography.

MINOR WHITE
[1908 – 1976] American artist photographer


...a very receptive state of mind...not unlike a sheet of film itself - seemingly inert, yet so sensitive that a fraction of a second's exposure conceives a life in it. - Minor White , More Joy of Photography by Eastman Kodak (Editor)

No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen. - Minor White

Let the subject generate its own photographs. Become a camera. - Minor White

I am always mentally photographing everything as practice. - Minor White

...innocence of eye has a quality of its own. It means to see as a child sees, with freshness and acknowledgment of the wonder; it also means to see as an adult sees who has gone full circle and once again sees as a child - with freshness and an even deeper sense of wonder. - Minor White

The state of mind of a photographer while creating is a blank...For those who would equate "blank" with a kind of static emptiness, I must explain that this is a special kind of blank. It is a very active state of mind really, a very receptive state of mind, ready at an instant to grasp an image, yet with no image pre-formed in it at any time. We should note that the lack of a pre-formed pattern or preconceived idea of how anything ought to look is essential to this blank condition. Such a state of mind is not unlike a sheet of film itself - seemingly inert, yet so sensitive that a fraction of a second's exposure conceives a life in it. (Not just life, but "a" life). - Minor White , The Camera Mind and Eye

Vision without association - pristine vision. - Minor White

As I become more in harmony with the world around, through, and in me, the varieties of time weave together. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

So help me find opportunities which offer friends unclosed photographs which will present them a chance to close circles out of their roundness. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

When I looked at things for what they are I was fool enough to persist in my folly and found that each photograph was a mirror of my Self. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

...all photographs are selfportraits. - Minor White , Documentary Photography - LIFE Library of Photography , Page: 231

Be still with yourself until the object of your attention affirms your presence. - Minor White
from William Neill in the Outdoor Photographer Magazine, article entitled "Landscapes for my Spirit" 1997

While we cannot describe its appearance (the equivalent), we can define its function. When a photograph functions as an Equivalent we can say that at that moment, and for that person the photograph acts as a symbol or plays the role of a metaphor for something that is beyond the subject photographed. - Minor White
From "Equivalence: The Perennial Trend" PSA Journal Spring 1963

There's no particular class of photograph that I think is any better than any other class. I'm always and forever looking for the image that has spirit! I don't give a damn how it got made. - Minor White , Interviews With Master Photographers : Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Cornell Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Lord Snowdon, Brett Weston by James Danziger

I have often photographed when I am not in tune with nature but the photographs look as if I had been. So I conclude that something in nature says, 'Come and take my photograph.' So I do, regardless of how I feel. - Minor White , Interviews With Master Photographers : Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Cornell Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Lord Snowdon, Brett Weston by James Danziger

Sometimes we work so fast that we don't really understand what's going on in front of the camera. We just kind of sense that, 'Oh my God, it's significant!' and photograph impulsively while trying to get the exposure right. Exposure occupies my mind while intuition frames the images. - Minor White , Interviews With Master Photographers : Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Cornell Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Lord Snowdon, Brett Weston by James Danziger

When gifts are given to me through my camera, I accept them graciously. - Minor White , Interviews With Master Photographers : Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Cornell Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Lord Snowdon, Brett Weston by James Danziger

In putting images together I become active, and excitement is of another order – synthesis overshadows analysis. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

Camera and eye are together a time machine with which the mind and human being can do the same kind of violence to time and space as dreams. - Minor White

Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

To engage a sequence we keep in mind the photographs on either side of the one in our eye. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

I seek out places where it can happen more readily, such as deserts or mountains or solitary areas, or by myself with a seashell, and while I'm there get into states of mind where I'm more open than usual. I'm waiting, I'm listening. I go to those places and get myself ready through meditation. Through being quiet and willing to wait, I can begin to see the inner man and the essence of the subject in front of me... Watching the way the current moves a blade of grass - sometimes I've seen that happen and it has just turned me inside out. - Minor White , Interviews With Master Photographers : Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Cornell Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Lord Snowdon, Brett Weston by James Danziger

Very often I try to find something that matches a feeling I have. On the other hand, a lot of times I photograph with nothing specific in mind. I just play it as it comes. If it's good, fine. I find 'letting it happen' relaxing, a playful vacation. Stimulating pictures almost always result. - Minor White , Interviews With Master Photographers : Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Cornell Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Lord Snowdon, Brett Weston by James Danziger

Photographers who come up with power never get accused of imitating anyone else even though they photograph the same broom, same street, same portraits. - Minor White , Interviews With Master Photographers : Minor White, Imogen Cunningham, Cornell Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Yousuf Karsh, Arnold Newman, Lord Snowdon, Brett Weston by James Danziger

This unexpected image was the record of an inner state that I did not remember seeing and he did not remember experiencing at the moment of exposure. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

Creativity with portraits involves the invocation of a state of rapport when only a camera stands between two people...mutual vulnerability and mutual trust. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

A sequence of photographs is like a cinema of stills. The time and space between photographs is filled by the beholder, first of all from himself, then from what he can read in the implications of design, the suggestions springing from treatment, and any symbolism that might grow from within the subject itself. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

Before he has seen the whole, how unusually perceptive and imaginative the person must be to evolve the entire sequence by meditating on its single, pair, or triplet of essential images. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

Sequences originate for me from some hidden place. Though I habitually play photographs against each other, or words against images in pairs, triplets, or rows of four with expectations of magic, sequences originate from within. And I prefer to let them. In fact I cannot seriously do otherwise than photograph on impulse and let whatever words will, flow spontaneously. - Minor White

It is curious that I always want to group things, a series of sonnets, a series of photographs; whatever rationalizations appear, they orginate in urges that are rarely satisfied with single images. - Minor White , Mirrors, messages, manifestations by Minor White

[raynerj1]

Excellent quotes! Thank you for taking the time to post them.

The best pictures are the ones that are revealed to you. No staged shot ever equals the beauty of the one you just get to capture. The trick is being ready to capture whatever image is revealed to you. I guess that is why I take so many shots. Most are just practice, or experiments. Learning how to get that perfect shot.

How does your camera perform when taking a shot of a dark red rose in full sun? I have found that is one of the hardest things to capture properly. Maxed out reds drive me crazy. The light meters built into the digital cameras I have used never accurately read reds properly.

I would love to learn how to take some excellent performance shots. I will gladly share whatever facet of photography I have mastered, that you have not yet attempted.

[RTK]

Fantastic photograph! I hope to one day take one of these.

Even more impressive - knowing it was taken during a live performance.

Looking at his right hand - is that natural light behind it, or did you help things along? It works really well, you can't but help looking a second time.

Love it.

Risto

[iamtheblues]

Fantastic action shot, Roger. I'd like to know how the colour version turned out, too.
Saludos,
Bob.

[Tao jones]

thanks risto and bob. I just looked for the color version and I can't find it but here is another one from the same session so it would be like this.
The light was behind his hand risto. It can be difficult shooting performers when the lights are changing rapidly. I am putting together some notes on my approach to shooting in these conditions. I will post them up here...thanks again tao

[Mike Bailey]

Very cool pictures Tao.

[Tao jones]

thanks mike

[raynerj1]

Roger,

I have to agree with you. The B&W version is much more powerful. Portrays much more emotion. But that is just my lowly opinion.