In the library. Cleveland, Tennessee.
One of the things I especially enjoyed during my years as a working photographer was photographing education. It was my privilege to have had many such assignments.
Most
photographers who worked in classrooms used only available light. They
could get away with that when shooting with black and white film because
the speed of black and white makes it possible to shoot when the light
level are quite low. Some beautiful photographs have been created in that way. In fact, some photographers almost made a religion of available light.
Elementary students learning computers at a private school in Huntsville, AL.
The McCallie School, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
I worked with color transparency (slide) film with an exposure index of only 64 or 100, as compared to speeds of 400 to 1200 possible for B&W photographers. So I had to bring my own light. In other words, I used flash.
No, not a flash on the camera. That gives the worst kind of light (IMO). I used one or two small studio-type flash units on light stands, usually placed at a 45-degree angle to the subject. Study these pictures and you'll see what I mean.
"But," you ask, "wasn't that disrupting?"
Actually, no. I photographed frequently in classroom and worship situations where the people were fully aware of my presence. What's more, against all the advice I've heard or read, I often did it with multiple flash. Whenever possible, I had the person in charge introduce me and explain why I was there. Then I asked the people to continue with whatever they were doing as if I were not there. I worked slowly at first, while they checked me out with sidelong glances; but they become used to my presence much more quickly than you would imagine and were once again fully involved in their activities, yet with an awareness which produced a kind of hyper-intensity and concentration. I almost always got pictures with heightened emotional and dramatic impact in such situations.
Tennessee Temple University professor, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Tennessee Temple University student, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
All the above photos were made with Olympus OM series film cameras and various lenses. Films used were Fujichrome 100 and Kodachrome 64, but I couldn't tell you at this point which was which. I did cheat a bit though. The photo at the top is available-light color; probably Ektachrome 200.
Films were scanned with a Konica-Minolta DiMage 5400 scanner.
Visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/
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Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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