Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Bazookas (and Other Fun Stuff)

My son and his friends, all in the 12 to 13 year range, are big fans of bazookas. Yeah. That's right. Bazookas. Those shoulder-mounted, mini-canons that fire explosive projectiles at tanks, armored vehicles, and other things. Their fascination and preoccupation with bazookas is closely followed by an intense admiration for medieval weaponry imbued with magical powers. I'm referring, of course, to the cyber-weapons they use while fighting the good fights on platforms like XBox and PlayStation.

I'm not sure why bazookas are their fave. It might be the word itself. Buh-zoo-kuh! It does have a cool sound to it and its kinda fun to say: "Buh-zoo-kuh!" There's even a bubble gum named after them! And there's a song named for the gum named for the gun: The Bazooka Bubble Gum Song!

I don't think bazookas are used much in modern warfare, leastwise by contemporary, technologically-sophisticated, fighting forces. Wasn't the bazooka a WW2 weapon? Hasn't it been replaced with things like shoulder-mounted Stinger missile launchers or some such things? I don't know. I'm not much of a student of the things men use to kill and maim his fellow man. At one time I sort of was, but that was years ago, when I worked for an aerospace defense contractor making marketing films and hanging out of chase-planes with cameras in my hands. (The aircrafts my ass was tethered to were chasing airborne weapons and surveillance systems: Mostly, RPVs and drones and those sorts of things.)

Some of the games my son and his friends play have their characters warring with quite an eclectic mix of weapons, from old-school to new. In one hand, their characters might be blasting away with laser-guided, semi-automatic, bazookas while, in the other, they're wielding magic daggers. Is there such a thing as a laser-guided, semi-automatic, bazooka? Or, in real life, are weapons like that as elusive and fantasy-driven as magic daggers?

Who cares? They're just games.

This old-school/new-school weaponry thing reminds me of the title character in the sci-fi movie, "Predator." In the movie, the alien hunter uses weapons that are both old-school and new: He fires beam-guided, explosive bolts of something from his shoulder, can detonate mini-nukes from a device worn on his wrist, and yet he also hand-hurls metallic blades, spears, and other old-school weapons at his prey.

These days, photographers are much like the predator and the characters in the video games my son and his friends play. We use tools, simultaneously, that are both old-school and new.

Our cameras, assuming you're shooting digital, certainly are part of a new-school arsenal of photographic weapons of mass capture. But then, many of us also (routinely) use stuff that is decidedly old-school in our efforts to make good pictures. The trick, of course, is to imbue those old-school tools with (seemingly) magical qualities in ways that compliment the new-school gear.

Take the simple, low-tech, reflector: Reflectors are about as old-school as lighting gear gets. Ancient warriors used their shields to reflect sunlight back at their enemies, effectively and momentarily blinding them. We, as photographers, do the same. Of course, our models aren't our enemies, except the ones who flake, and we're not trying to blind them. We only want to illuminate them in aesthetically-pleasing ways so that our new-school/high-tech cameras can artfully and beautifully capture them.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this post. It might be that "I'm just saying." I'm definitely the sort of person who notices (and thinks about) parallels and relationships in things, new and old. You might say I'm fairly fascinated by parallel tools and technologies, i.e., the relationships between the new and the old and how those new/old things can be bridged and utilized together.

Its occasionally been my observation that some new-ish, younger, shooters seem to shun the old. It's like they don't value what came before them. (Assuming they have much knowledge of what came before them.) Instead of using time-honored and oft-proven techniques and tools, they poo-pah them as "old school" and put them in a category of little relevance in terms of their use and effectiveness.

Dudes! If that's you, you are seriously screwing yourselves and your efforts to become stand-out shooters! It is so freakin' important to understand the basics, both in techniques and tools. I ain't saying it's mandatory you use those old-school tools and techniques all the time. Yeah, break the rules! Think outside the box! Push the envelope! But you barely know what the box looks like or where the envelope is without knowing the rules or about the stuff I'm talking about. Without that understanding, you're a photographic cripple! A snapshooter relying on post-processing tools and other trickery to add some wow-value to your snaps. You're shooting half-blind, ill-equipped, or with one hand tied behind your backs. (Metaphorically, that is.)

Here's the deal... and remember you heard it right here, from the horse's ass mouth: You might have a new-school eye and a new school style but its knowing that old-school shit which, often, will really help make your work sing!

The pretty girl at the top, the one with a butt suitable for resting a beer mug on, is Naomi. I'm shooting for some English blokes at the end of the month and, last time they were here and I shot for them, this pic of Naomi was one of the results of my endeavors.

11 comments:

MarcWPhoto said...

I just bought a lens that was, IIUC, one of the first three Canon EF lenses - first year of manufacture, 1987. :) It's pretty cool.

WRT to your question, no, bazookas are not used in modern warfare very much, having been replaced by the lighter RPG (rocket propelled grenade) for antipersonnel and anti-light vehicle use, and special-purpose anti-tank shoulder-fired missiles. Bazookas are too heavy compared to RPG's, and too light to threaten modern armor.

Man-portable anti-armor missiles which are laser-guided do exist and they're really pretty scary. Most recent ones are "fire-and-forget," which guide themselves to target once locked on. There are semi-automatic shoulder-fired rocket weapons, but they don't hold many rounds for obvious reasons.

Unknown said...

Spot on, again, Jimmy.

Do I get bonus points for seeing how this is directly related to your last post? That it's the newer shooters who tend to ignore the envelope and work for cheap that are driving the hard-working folks out of business?

On the other hand - by embracing their model and the new way can we learn...nevermind, no one can sustain working for free.

jimmyd said...

@MarcWPhoto, Heheh... everything I ever wanted to know about shoulder-mounted explosive weapons systems but were afraid to ask.

@MDKaufman, You definitely get the bonus points... but no idea where to redeem them. :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi Jimmy. I'm a big fan and have been reading blog for some time now. Totally unrelated to photography. But here is something you and your son can appreciate.

www.backyardartillery.com

Rubber bands, air guns and all round fun stuff!

Kirk

jimmyd said...

Thanks Kirk! Fun stuff. I'm thinking the Airzooka or the Mighty Blast... maybe both!

Anonymous said...

I guess it depends on how old the school is. When I was a young film shooter, older guys would tell me how they mixed their own chemicals and made plates, etc. They didn't just buy premixed developer out of a bag or bottle like I did.

I never learned to do that stuff (although I'm fascinated by it). I just used the contemporary cameras and darkroom chems, paper and technique of the day.

These young whippersnappers of today probably don't need to learn to use anything but what's contemporary, either. At least, not to make a buck, or a decent picture.

There are plenty of twenty-somethings (and older) who've never touched film, making good money selling wedding and portraiture images without ever knowing how to use the "M" setting on their camera, or that you can use Photoshop without a "Totally Rad Action."

But, you're totally right. Knowing the background draws on the experience of past generations. That gives a photographer some leveraged depth and knowledge and insight to work with.

There's a whole back story to photography. Those who don't know it, haven't gained from it. They really are that much "less" than those who have.

A good arsenal is fine. A good understanding is better.

jimmyd said...

@ED,

I wasn't thinking about darkrooms and chemicals and all that when writing the post. My brain was focused on production. But you're right, the old school/new school differences come along with each new generation of shooters, albeit the things the older guys notice the younger guys aren't learning or doing changes as technology changes. BTW, i always bought pre-mixed chemicals as well.

Anonymous said...

"Yeah, break the rules! Think outside the box! Push the envelope! But you barely know what the box looks like or where the envelope is without knowing the rules or about the stuff I'm talking about. Without that understanding, you're a photographic cripple!"

---

Most of what I deliver to private customers is prints--usually in book form. Prospective customers tell me that one of the things that sets my work apart from the rest is the character of those prints... that there is a reality about them they don't see elsewhere. What's interesting about this is that I never make a print that looks like a digital image, which we've been brainwashed into believing is the "new" reality. I make my prints to look as though they originated with film and were printed the old fashioned way, you know, with an enlarger. I'm able to do that because I actually made prints that way--lots of them--so I know what they're supposed to look like.

In large measure, what we see today are prints that have a decidely medicinal quality: too smooth, too exact, too perfect, too clean. These are qualities that work for, say, product shots of watches or machine parts, but do not work for a woman's face or body. Nevertheless, given today's technology, it's far easier to do, and the "photographic cripple" crowd you wrote about doesn't seem willing to do more, preferring to snap and send.

The problem, as you and I have written about before, is--more than anything else--about our customers' perceptions. If they forget what am image can look like--much like now having an entire generation who has never heard the richness of a real land-line analog phone--then the snap and send crowd will win.

Will
PS: Do you mind if I use your quote in my class?

jimmyd said...

@WillT,

Go4it! I love being quoted. Makes me feel like I'm smart... or funny, or something other than inconsequential.

Anonymous said...

It all comes down to how we define a tool and how some let the tool define them, people tend to think in absolutes and think "only film is good" or "only digital is good" however I see tools for different needs and uses.

Recently I watched Life through a lens: Annie Leibovitz and I had a grin in my face when she was doing the Marie Antoniette photo shoot and said "wait a moment I'm gonna shoot in another format" he laid down the 1Ds MKII and picked a MF camera, and down the road you see how many different camera she uses in different photoshoots, she doesn't thinks in absolutes, she has available tools to shoot, no more no less, she shots with a Leica rangefinder, with a full frame EOS, with film and digital medium format. She is aware of which are the strengths of each tools and uses them accordingly, and many photographers too.

In the other hand you see in lots of forums that photographers let their gear define them rather than the photos they take, they limit their scope to try to impress with brands or how much -or how little- they paid for their gear and how it is superior in some way, however you get to see the piss poor results -be it lighting gear, camera gear, etc-

And I agree with you with the part that people are missing a whole lot when not knowing about the past, they don't only know about film, but they also don't have the slightest clue about photography history and evolution, they focus on how many megapickles their cameras have, the don't care about the masters of the past, they care to mimic the latest fad on "forum threads that claims they found how to photoshop photos like x photographers", yet things like rapport, subject and photographer interaction, pose, etc is relegated to a 2nd position and in first position is their gear and how cool they are because of it, i prefer one photo with a subject well directed and looking great rather than technical perfection and the subject looking bad because of a poor rapport, direction, etc....

Wankerism is what is in vogue today sadly and factions that defend brands, media, etc, rather than people exploring different medias -digital, film, polaroid, etc-.

I used film and switched to digital because the workflow was faster and the clients demands, I have no love for digital or film, I love photos :) -although I have to confess that I hated the darkroom :P and I was a very good (in a humble way of saying it) in the darkroom, maybe it has to do that I didn't wanted to repeat the process :P hahaha-

I mean look at the photo you have posted, you have a beautiful model that looks awesomely beautiful and sexy, with a great pose, great facial expression great make up, great location, great lighting, great photo! regardless of the media used the model looks -a word I don't like to use often for this kind of comments- Hot! that's no product of the tool, that's a product of a photographer who knows about his craft and a talented model in front of the camera :).

My best wishes

Eduar

Anonymous said...

Eduar makes some good points, including why I don't bother with stupid forum discussions about whose lens is "bigger" or whatever.

And Jimmy, you'll never be inconsequential. You rock.