Hello, Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all.
I wanted to write a quick little note about how I blog, when I blog and why I blog; if you find this a bit repetitive please bare with me.
A few years back I was sitting in a hotel room at the Paris airport and I decided right then and there that I was going to be more open. But what did I mean by “more open”?
Well, I wanted to share. Share my experiences living in China. Share my experiences documenting China. Convey my experiences as a documentary photographer trying to eek out a living in this most competitive of environments. When I spoke with people I’d met during my travels everyone had always said that I should write a book, and while that my indeed happen one day, today I’d prefer to focus on the blog as less direction is needed and I have the chance to maintain an ongoing dialog about work and life in the Middle Kingdom.
So I had decided to be more open, but how. These are mighty questions. Obliviously I didn’t want to get too much in to my personal life, I’m happily married, and while my career causes certain stains in most of my close relationships there is no immanent threat of leading a long and lonely life.
What about my career, how open would I be about that? Well, this is a bit more hairy. No one likes someone who kisses and tells and no one likes to be singled out. So I decided that I would blog about jobs, after the fact, and never mention whom the client is. For those very curious blog readers it is easy enough to piece it all together if you really want to, but I am assuming that we all have better things to do. I also decided that while I may indeed write blogs while on assignments I wouldn’t publish them until at least a week or two later. My reasoning for this is because I don’t want my blog to be overly emotional or filled with too many minute details about working in China. I would like my blog to read like a smooth and somewhat sophisticated reflection on work and life in China. So even while I write sometimes on the road I often wait a few days and re-read and re-write some sections after some reflection. I don’t want to be in the business of writing news reports or reporting from the field. I would prefer something subtler and more well constructed, something that could perhaps be used for a book some day.
And, how would I blog? Well, I’ve chosen Blogspot as my blog host and this has both positives and negatives. Blogspot is owned by Google and seems to work seamlessly in to my workflow, being a Gmail junky, but the problem is that Blogspot is completely blocked in China. So in order to post I need to bypass the Great Firewall of China, and that means that I need to invest in a decent VPN that continually is improving their functions and features and allows me to post at will, for that I’ve turned to Witopia.
And when do I blog? Well, I’m married and I travel a ton. So my lovely wife and get a bit pissed if I come back from a 7 day trip and the first thing I want to do is avoid her and blog about my war stories. So I tend to blog most when on the road. I try to always write at least one blog each I am in an airport, I find it an incredibly good use of time given that most people think that time wasted in airport lounges kills efficiency. But it is amazing what I can get done with a pair of Noise Canceling headphone from Bose and my laptop. I also often write blogs that are not time sensitive, like this one, and pre-set the posting date for weeks in advance. I see this as a chance to continue to publish original material even though I may be incredibly busy or traveling in a remote place that week.
And lastly, how often to I blog? Well I’ve cut back to posting just one blog per week. But I often write several blogs a week add them to the cue to be published. Several months ago I was publishing 2-3 times a week but it wasn’t sustainable. I have a lot to say, but not that much. It’s important to note here that I try not to publish other people’s material on my blog, meaning that I rarely cut and paste or link to the work of others. I would like my blog to be as original as possible, my voice to the outside world only. But I often copy and link to work that I’m a co-collaborator in, such as my “New Work” notices, or articles and information that I find to be unbelievably interesting and important. Apart from that, I try to provide the narrative, and I think my life is interesting enough to generate content for that. I hope my readers approve. Upwards and onwards!
--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________
Friday, December 25, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Ryan Pyle Blog: The Unpredictable Xinjiang Winter
Hello.
A few weeks back I was heading to Kashgar for a very special event in the Muslim religious calendar. It was a moment that I felt would compliment my continued documentation of Chinese Turkistan, or the region of Xinjiang, China.
So I planned my trip and decided that even though the festival lasted only one day, I would arrive about 3 days early and shoot the build up and stay a day or two afterwards to continue documenting the rebuilding of Kashgar’s old town, a topic which I’ve blogged about several times.
Everything started off well enough. I packed my bags, organized all my black and white Kodak TriX film and arrived at the airport on time, so far so good. The flight from Shanghai to Urumqi left on time and the first five hours of the trip went swimmingly. At just around the time we were supposed to descend to the Urumqi airport a stewardess approached me and said that the Urumqi airport was covered in heavy fog and that our flight would landing in Korle, an oil town about 700 km to the south. An interesting detour, but safety first.
Upon landing in Korle the flight attendants couldn’t really tell us if we were going to get off the plane or stay on the plane. The natives were getting restless. When we finally got off the plane we were ushered in to the main terminal building, which was a vast glass, and steel structure that personifies Chinese development in Xinjiang province. The terminal building was attractive, and seemingly well built; and it stood out like a sore thumb amongst the farming fields surrounding the air stripe. Much to my surprise the military was sharing the airport and continued with their regular flights even though their terminal building was filled with around 800 people, as other flights from various parts of China were now stranded in Korle as well. So as military jets screamed off in the background, angered Chinese and Uygurs peppered questions to ground staff about when we would be departing for Urumqi and what the weather condidtions were at the Urumqi airport. The ground staff had little information to convey but were quick to provide instant noodles and bottles of water as the dry winter air had us all feeling a bit parched.
As the hours wore on I had finished my book “Mr. China” by Tim Clissold and my Economist magazine. With all of Xinjiang still cut off from the outside world because of international phone call bans and no Internet access, my options for entertainment were getting bleaker by the moment. I had another book in my check-in luggage but it didn’t seem like I was going to get a hold of that anytime soon. And so I sat.
After sitting on the ground in an airport terminal on the edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert for about six hours the passengers were all told that our flight was officially cancelled. We would have to spend the night in Korle. My trip was becoming in jeopardy. I didn’t know what was going to happen. We were shipped out by bus to a local hotel in the city of Korle were we spent the night on the airlines dime. We were told to be ready to go back to the airport at 1130am the next morning. Why so late I asked one of the airport staff? If I could leave at 7am I would much prefer getting out earlier, as I could still make it to Kashgar and have an afternoon worth of work. But the reason was so that they could maintain their same landing slot from the previous day, fair enough. I asked the same woman again if this happened often. She replied in the winter it happens several times a month.
The essential problem is that Urumqi is basically a horrible place to have an airport. Mountains to the south and west cause a buildup of fog and cloud that surrounds the harsh provincial capital. The geographic conditions cause incredible wind speeds in the summer and often-intense fog and cloud in the dark and depressing winter. This wasn’t entirely a surprise to me. I’d been to Xinjiang in the winter before and noticed the fog and the harsh weather conditions, but it had never impeded travel before; I was less lucky this time. I was mid-way through a bit of a nightmare journey.
So after a night in Korle’s finest 1-star hotel we all loaded back up on the airport bus and headed back to the airport where we sat for another three hours. Then finally there was action and movement. We boarded our plane and headed for Urumqi. We were all saved. I’d make it Kashgar only one day late and still get a chance to shoot. But things got significantly stickier upon landing in Urumqi.
The flight from Korle to Urumqi is one of my all time favorite flights in China as the one-hour flight takes you straight over a fairly meaty section of the Tian Shan mountain range. Glued to the window for the entire flight I was memorized, as I often am, by the jagged peaks and harsh landscapes. In 2001 I had traveled by bus from Urumqi to Korle on the old mountain road that was cut straight through the Tian Shan range. As we winded our way to Korle on that fourteen-hour journey the stunning landscape and the un-believable amount of switchbacks along the route enchanted me; it was truly one of China’s great road journeys. I promised myself if I ever owned a motorcycle I would revisit that route. Nowadays the government has since built a suave new four-lane expressway that goes around the mountains and south to Korle cutting the travel time to about 7-8hrs. Sadly the mountain road is rarely used anymore.
After a dangerously bumpy landing in Urumqi, the fog was no joke; I collected my checked baggage and ran upstairs to check on my flight to Kashgar. The woman at the China Southern desk looked at my hopelessly. My flight was delayed but more importantly that there were about 8 planes worth of people that needed to get to Kashgar before me. So even if the weather were perfectly clear, I wouldn’t get a chance to fly until the following day. But the weather was horrible and after my flight landed from Korle they cancelled the rest of the flights for the day. Fuck!
The Urumqi airport was a complete mess. At the entrance to the airport and the surrounding check in areas there were people sitting, sleeping and camping out. Instant noodle containers were adrift everywhere. I was in the middle of what was a sea of stranded people. I couldn’t manage to stay there much longer and needed some space to think. I hailed a cab and headed in to town where I knew some people who might be able to help. Not knowing how long the fog would last I talked to a train ticket agent I knew from a previous trip. I asked if he had a and sleeper births available to Kashgar, he laughed so hard on his end of the phone I had to pull the phone away from my hear in much the same way you do when you accidentally dial someone’s fax number. Clearly the 24hr train journey from Urumqi to Kashgar wouldn’t be an option, tickets had disappeared. My next call was to a driver that I’d used a few times in the past, was he available and how long was the drive to Kashgar? He turned out to be in Korle, a few Chinese oil men had hired him to drive them from Urumqi to Korle the day before and he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, and he said the drive to Kashgar in this weather would take about 18-20 hours. Fuck! Fuck!
So I checked in to a hotel in Urumqi and found a bit to eat. By this time my nerves were shattered. I’d been traveling for two days straight. I hadn’t eaten well and it was looking more and more like I wasn’t going to make it to Kashgar. My mood was bitter. With no Internet in the region I was bored out of my skull. I tried to write but my mind was too frayed. I tried to read but I couldn’t focus. Instead I watched six straight hours of Entourage, the entire season 6, that I had on disk with me. A savior. It was exactly what I needed, a few cheap laughs and a good nights rest.
I was up at 630am the next morning. I had rebooked a flight that was supposed to be leaving at 9am and I called the airport and they told me that flights were leaving, but not on time. Okay, we had small progress. After a breakfast of Congee and fried bread sticks I was back at the airport. It was clear after passing through the airport doors at 730am that several hundred people had spent the night there on the floor. People were still passed out all over the cheap marble floor and the chaos from the previous day had seemed to intensify. Now there were flights leaving but who would be allowed to go first, the masses made their claims via several shooting matches. Made me thank god I wasn’t an airline staffer, I’d have lost my nerve and slapped someone.
Since I had canceled my flight from the previous day I was able to re-book and check in rather smoothly. My flight was delayed 4 hours but flights were leaving. It appeared that all I required was a bit of patience. And my patience paid off. Sure enough my flight left 4 hours late and I was in the air, bound for Kashgar. A small dose of victory in an ocean of chaos, but I had lost 48 hours of shooting time.
My fixer picked me up at the airport and got me over to my hotel. Within 10 minutes of checking in I was out in the town shooting. I needed to make up for lost time. It was the day before the big festival and everyone was selling sheep, which would be slaughtered the following day, in the streets. The scenes were fantastic. It was as though the famous Sunday animal market had moved right in to the city center. Tradesmen who bargain for a living pushed each other back and forth, shaking of the hands seals the deal. I managed to get close to several sheep sellers and watch them ply their trade; echoing mannerisms and skill of their forefathers, the generations of Silk Road traders and herdsmen who had come before. The atmosphere was electric.
My first half-day on the ground was positive. The TriX was moving fast and furious and that night I was giddy with anticipation of what might transpire the following day for the festival. My first good nights sleep in days yielded some quality rest. The next day would be long and intense.
Being up and out of the hotel before 930am, before the sun had risen, was not too big a problem, less the bitter cold. It was winter and while Kashgar is an oasis and at a lower altitude than Urumqi, it was still chilly; and the smell of burnt coal hung in the air from a night of staying warm in the mud brick homes of the old town and the surrounding farming communities. But fighting the bitter cold would be well worth it. For at 930am the action started has hundreds of people began filling in to the Id Kah Square, in front of the main mosque, for Morning Prayer. The scene was set alight by a rising sun from 10am to 1030am. Needless to say it was a Kodak moment.
Following Morning Prayer I headed in to the old town to watch the traditional process of slaughtering sheep in the small laneways of the old town, a majestic scene by any account. The rest of the day was followed by bouncing back and forth between the old town for the slaughtering of the sheep and the Id Kah Square for traditional music and singing and dancing. The morning cold had passed giving way to clear blue skies and a glaring sun that left this photographer fairy sunburned. Day two and day three were much the same as the festival tapered off and I focused back on speaking with old town residents and shooting portraits and architecture.
And in the blink of an eye I was back in Urumqi, fogged in waiting for my flight to Shanghai. I’d eaten something funky during the festival and was feeling most uncomfortable. My flight was delayed and I had come full circle. My six-day trip, only three days of shooing, and three days of being stranded and traveling, had taken their toll. I curled up on a few seats at the Urumqi Airport trying not to wretch.
Some trips take more out of you than others. After being stranded, delayed, knee deep in sheep blood and then delayed again I was a broken man. The food poisonings was a bonus. When I finally strolled in to my home in Shanghai at 2am my wife looked at me with the classic “WTF look”. Is it worth all this trouble she asks? Absolutely, I just prayed my pictures did the festival justice. But that wasn’t the right time for professional reflection; it was the moment for stomach medicine and a good 16 hours in bed. I would live to fight another day; hell, I was leaving for Lhasa in just five days. I needed to sort this out in a hurry. The journey continues.
--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________
A few weeks back I was heading to Kashgar for a very special event in the Muslim religious calendar. It was a moment that I felt would compliment my continued documentation of Chinese Turkistan, or the region of Xinjiang, China.
So I planned my trip and decided that even though the festival lasted only one day, I would arrive about 3 days early and shoot the build up and stay a day or two afterwards to continue documenting the rebuilding of Kashgar’s old town, a topic which I’ve blogged about several times.
Everything started off well enough. I packed my bags, organized all my black and white Kodak TriX film and arrived at the airport on time, so far so good. The flight from Shanghai to Urumqi left on time and the first five hours of the trip went swimmingly. At just around the time we were supposed to descend to the Urumqi airport a stewardess approached me and said that the Urumqi airport was covered in heavy fog and that our flight would landing in Korle, an oil town about 700 km to the south. An interesting detour, but safety first.
Upon landing in Korle the flight attendants couldn’t really tell us if we were going to get off the plane or stay on the plane. The natives were getting restless. When we finally got off the plane we were ushered in to the main terminal building, which was a vast glass, and steel structure that personifies Chinese development in Xinjiang province. The terminal building was attractive, and seemingly well built; and it stood out like a sore thumb amongst the farming fields surrounding the air stripe. Much to my surprise the military was sharing the airport and continued with their regular flights even though their terminal building was filled with around 800 people, as other flights from various parts of China were now stranded in Korle as well. So as military jets screamed off in the background, angered Chinese and Uygurs peppered questions to ground staff about when we would be departing for Urumqi and what the weather condidtions were at the Urumqi airport. The ground staff had little information to convey but were quick to provide instant noodles and bottles of water as the dry winter air had us all feeling a bit parched.
As the hours wore on I had finished my book “Mr. China” by Tim Clissold and my Economist magazine. With all of Xinjiang still cut off from the outside world because of international phone call bans and no Internet access, my options for entertainment were getting bleaker by the moment. I had another book in my check-in luggage but it didn’t seem like I was going to get a hold of that anytime soon. And so I sat.
After sitting on the ground in an airport terminal on the edge of the vast Taklamakan Desert for about six hours the passengers were all told that our flight was officially cancelled. We would have to spend the night in Korle. My trip was becoming in jeopardy. I didn’t know what was going to happen. We were shipped out by bus to a local hotel in the city of Korle were we spent the night on the airlines dime. We were told to be ready to go back to the airport at 1130am the next morning. Why so late I asked one of the airport staff? If I could leave at 7am I would much prefer getting out earlier, as I could still make it to Kashgar and have an afternoon worth of work. But the reason was so that they could maintain their same landing slot from the previous day, fair enough. I asked the same woman again if this happened often. She replied in the winter it happens several times a month.
The essential problem is that Urumqi is basically a horrible place to have an airport. Mountains to the south and west cause a buildup of fog and cloud that surrounds the harsh provincial capital. The geographic conditions cause incredible wind speeds in the summer and often-intense fog and cloud in the dark and depressing winter. This wasn’t entirely a surprise to me. I’d been to Xinjiang in the winter before and noticed the fog and the harsh weather conditions, but it had never impeded travel before; I was less lucky this time. I was mid-way through a bit of a nightmare journey.
So after a night in Korle’s finest 1-star hotel we all loaded back up on the airport bus and headed back to the airport where we sat for another three hours. Then finally there was action and movement. We boarded our plane and headed for Urumqi. We were all saved. I’d make it Kashgar only one day late and still get a chance to shoot. But things got significantly stickier upon landing in Urumqi.
The flight from Korle to Urumqi is one of my all time favorite flights in China as the one-hour flight takes you straight over a fairly meaty section of the Tian Shan mountain range. Glued to the window for the entire flight I was memorized, as I often am, by the jagged peaks and harsh landscapes. In 2001 I had traveled by bus from Urumqi to Korle on the old mountain road that was cut straight through the Tian Shan range. As we winded our way to Korle on that fourteen-hour journey the stunning landscape and the un-believable amount of switchbacks along the route enchanted me; it was truly one of China’s great road journeys. I promised myself if I ever owned a motorcycle I would revisit that route. Nowadays the government has since built a suave new four-lane expressway that goes around the mountains and south to Korle cutting the travel time to about 7-8hrs. Sadly the mountain road is rarely used anymore.
After a dangerously bumpy landing in Urumqi, the fog was no joke; I collected my checked baggage and ran upstairs to check on my flight to Kashgar. The woman at the China Southern desk looked at my hopelessly. My flight was delayed but more importantly that there were about 8 planes worth of people that needed to get to Kashgar before me. So even if the weather were perfectly clear, I wouldn’t get a chance to fly until the following day. But the weather was horrible and after my flight landed from Korle they cancelled the rest of the flights for the day. Fuck!
The Urumqi airport was a complete mess. At the entrance to the airport and the surrounding check in areas there were people sitting, sleeping and camping out. Instant noodle containers were adrift everywhere. I was in the middle of what was a sea of stranded people. I couldn’t manage to stay there much longer and needed some space to think. I hailed a cab and headed in to town where I knew some people who might be able to help. Not knowing how long the fog would last I talked to a train ticket agent I knew from a previous trip. I asked if he had a and sleeper births available to Kashgar, he laughed so hard on his end of the phone I had to pull the phone away from my hear in much the same way you do when you accidentally dial someone’s fax number. Clearly the 24hr train journey from Urumqi to Kashgar wouldn’t be an option, tickets had disappeared. My next call was to a driver that I’d used a few times in the past, was he available and how long was the drive to Kashgar? He turned out to be in Korle, a few Chinese oil men had hired him to drive them from Urumqi to Korle the day before and he wouldn’t be back until tomorrow, and he said the drive to Kashgar in this weather would take about 18-20 hours. Fuck! Fuck!
So I checked in to a hotel in Urumqi and found a bit to eat. By this time my nerves were shattered. I’d been traveling for two days straight. I hadn’t eaten well and it was looking more and more like I wasn’t going to make it to Kashgar. My mood was bitter. With no Internet in the region I was bored out of my skull. I tried to write but my mind was too frayed. I tried to read but I couldn’t focus. Instead I watched six straight hours of Entourage, the entire season 6, that I had on disk with me. A savior. It was exactly what I needed, a few cheap laughs and a good nights rest.
I was up at 630am the next morning. I had rebooked a flight that was supposed to be leaving at 9am and I called the airport and they told me that flights were leaving, but not on time. Okay, we had small progress. After a breakfast of Congee and fried bread sticks I was back at the airport. It was clear after passing through the airport doors at 730am that several hundred people had spent the night there on the floor. People were still passed out all over the cheap marble floor and the chaos from the previous day had seemed to intensify. Now there were flights leaving but who would be allowed to go first, the masses made their claims via several shooting matches. Made me thank god I wasn’t an airline staffer, I’d have lost my nerve and slapped someone.
Since I had canceled my flight from the previous day I was able to re-book and check in rather smoothly. My flight was delayed 4 hours but flights were leaving. It appeared that all I required was a bit of patience. And my patience paid off. Sure enough my flight left 4 hours late and I was in the air, bound for Kashgar. A small dose of victory in an ocean of chaos, but I had lost 48 hours of shooting time.
My fixer picked me up at the airport and got me over to my hotel. Within 10 minutes of checking in I was out in the town shooting. I needed to make up for lost time. It was the day before the big festival and everyone was selling sheep, which would be slaughtered the following day, in the streets. The scenes were fantastic. It was as though the famous Sunday animal market had moved right in to the city center. Tradesmen who bargain for a living pushed each other back and forth, shaking of the hands seals the deal. I managed to get close to several sheep sellers and watch them ply their trade; echoing mannerisms and skill of their forefathers, the generations of Silk Road traders and herdsmen who had come before. The atmosphere was electric.
My first half-day on the ground was positive. The TriX was moving fast and furious and that night I was giddy with anticipation of what might transpire the following day for the festival. My first good nights sleep in days yielded some quality rest. The next day would be long and intense.
Being up and out of the hotel before 930am, before the sun had risen, was not too big a problem, less the bitter cold. It was winter and while Kashgar is an oasis and at a lower altitude than Urumqi, it was still chilly; and the smell of burnt coal hung in the air from a night of staying warm in the mud brick homes of the old town and the surrounding farming communities. But fighting the bitter cold would be well worth it. For at 930am the action started has hundreds of people began filling in to the Id Kah Square, in front of the main mosque, for Morning Prayer. The scene was set alight by a rising sun from 10am to 1030am. Needless to say it was a Kodak moment.
Following Morning Prayer I headed in to the old town to watch the traditional process of slaughtering sheep in the small laneways of the old town, a majestic scene by any account. The rest of the day was followed by bouncing back and forth between the old town for the slaughtering of the sheep and the Id Kah Square for traditional music and singing and dancing. The morning cold had passed giving way to clear blue skies and a glaring sun that left this photographer fairy sunburned. Day two and day three were much the same as the festival tapered off and I focused back on speaking with old town residents and shooting portraits and architecture.
And in the blink of an eye I was back in Urumqi, fogged in waiting for my flight to Shanghai. I’d eaten something funky during the festival and was feeling most uncomfortable. My flight was delayed and I had come full circle. My six-day trip, only three days of shooing, and three days of being stranded and traveling, had taken their toll. I curled up on a few seats at the Urumqi Airport trying not to wretch.
Some trips take more out of you than others. After being stranded, delayed, knee deep in sheep blood and then delayed again I was a broken man. The food poisonings was a bonus. When I finally strolled in to my home in Shanghai at 2am my wife looked at me with the classic “WTF look”. Is it worth all this trouble she asks? Absolutely, I just prayed my pictures did the festival justice. But that wasn’t the right time for professional reflection; it was the moment for stomach medicine and a good 16 hours in bed. I would live to fight another day; hell, I was leaving for Lhasa in just five days. I needed to sort this out in a hurry. The journey continues.
--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________
Friday, December 11, 2009
Ryan Pyle Blog: Kodak Support
Hello.
I’ve been using Kodak black and white film for my entire career; meaning simply that I’ve been a TriX fan since day one, and I will die a TriX fan. But the film is expensive and it’s been incredibly difficult to find in China in 35mm format. So it was essentially a sign from the heavens above when Kodak contacted me earlier this year and offered me some free TriX; I was glowing for weeks.
My color film choices have been slightly more strained. I’ve been a Fuji man for most of my career, for no other reason that this kind of film is the most readily available in China. My choices of Provia 100 and 400 provided me with a quality film with a vast range; but I never gave it much of a thought really. I never dabbled with competitor films and I never questioned my film choices. I just went with the flow, concerned more about the story and the composition than the actual film being used.
Then earlier this year Kodak sent me that batch of TriX, that I mentioned above, and they included a few rolls of color film as well; a very savvy move on their part. I’ll admit the color stock sat on my desk for several weeks before I got off my butt and put them through a few test runs, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that I finally did. I was incredibly pleased with the results, so much so that I asked Kodak for a few more rolls. And to my surprise they said sure. I glowed further.
I’m mainly shooting color side film, or transparency film. I rarely dabble in negative film anymore these days. So I’ve been shooting the new E100VS and EV 200 Kodak color slide film, and I’ve been pleased with the results. The range and the richness of the colors are lovely. The super-fine grain is helpful as well, especially when the film is pushed, as I push the EV200 to ISO 800 for some of my shots where there is less available light.
So now, finally, I am a die-hard Kodak user. And much to my pleasure they have begun supplying me with all of my black and white and color film needs, and I couldn’t be thankful enough. It’s my first sponsorship of sorts, and it’s very humbling to have a company like Kodak supporting my image making.
How has this changed my life? Well, first off it has allowed me to have more control over my work. For example, often clients I work for ask me to now shoot longer projects, that don’t have fast turn around times, in digital. When I ask why they insist on digital they often site cost concerns. My reply now is, “don’t worry. I’ll be shooting film and it won’t cost you a thing”. Kodak have stepped in a filled a financing gap. Where I would have normally shot in digital to keep costs down follow the instructions of the magazine, I can now pursue my artistic belief that film still offers more range and higher quality, it still my preferred medium. And I now have the financial flexibility to continue using film when many clients have turned their backs on analog photography. And you know what the funny thing is? After I turn in the projects clients often write back saying thanks for making the effort to use film, the results are lovely. I love that.
Now, I’m not very good at comparing gear or writing blogs about how one camera, or film, is better than the other and why. I just know what I like and it now makes me very happy to have new opportunities to pursue more film photography. And in this day and age, given the harsh economic conditions, having a choice between film and digital, when it doesn’t cost you extra money, is a pretty special thing.
At this very moment I’ve taken a couple hundred rolls of Kodak color slide film and I’m currently working on a project that will hopefully get some decent responses from my clients. It’s my first, color, all-Kodak large film project and it’ll involve me hunkering down in a remote part of China for about 10-12 days and just shooting. And with the weather being horribly cold, film cameras – my Canon EOS 1V’s - and their fantastic durability are the only choice. And with that, of course, comes an entire bag of my Kodak E100VS and E200.
Lastly, I few months back I wrote a blog about how Kodak Kodachrome was retired and that Kodak and their color film business might be on it’s last legs. But clearly I was wrong. They’ve recently developed the new slide film that I am using today and they’ve introduced a new color negative film as well. So, yes, while Kodachrome was retired it appears that Kodak have improved on a previous model and retired an aging workhorse. Kodak are still in the film game, they are still heavily invested in producing color and black and white film; and they are also investing in people like me, a relative new comer to the game, but a photographer who puts a serious amount of film through his camera and isn’t afraid to talk about it. And I can’t thank Kodak enough for their support. Now if someone from Canon would just call, I’d be walking on air.
--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________
I’ve been using Kodak black and white film for my entire career; meaning simply that I’ve been a TriX fan since day one, and I will die a TriX fan. But the film is expensive and it’s been incredibly difficult to find in China in 35mm format. So it was essentially a sign from the heavens above when Kodak contacted me earlier this year and offered me some free TriX; I was glowing for weeks.
My color film choices have been slightly more strained. I’ve been a Fuji man for most of my career, for no other reason that this kind of film is the most readily available in China. My choices of Provia 100 and 400 provided me with a quality film with a vast range; but I never gave it much of a thought really. I never dabbled with competitor films and I never questioned my film choices. I just went with the flow, concerned more about the story and the composition than the actual film being used.
Then earlier this year Kodak sent me that batch of TriX, that I mentioned above, and they included a few rolls of color film as well; a very savvy move on their part. I’ll admit the color stock sat on my desk for several weeks before I got off my butt and put them through a few test runs, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that I finally did. I was incredibly pleased with the results, so much so that I asked Kodak for a few more rolls. And to my surprise they said sure. I glowed further.
I’m mainly shooting color side film, or transparency film. I rarely dabble in negative film anymore these days. So I’ve been shooting the new E100VS and EV 200 Kodak color slide film, and I’ve been pleased with the results. The range and the richness of the colors are lovely. The super-fine grain is helpful as well, especially when the film is pushed, as I push the EV200 to ISO 800 for some of my shots where there is less available light.
So now, finally, I am a die-hard Kodak user. And much to my pleasure they have begun supplying me with all of my black and white and color film needs, and I couldn’t be thankful enough. It’s my first sponsorship of sorts, and it’s very humbling to have a company like Kodak supporting my image making.
How has this changed my life? Well, first off it has allowed me to have more control over my work. For example, often clients I work for ask me to now shoot longer projects, that don’t have fast turn around times, in digital. When I ask why they insist on digital they often site cost concerns. My reply now is, “don’t worry. I’ll be shooting film and it won’t cost you a thing”. Kodak have stepped in a filled a financing gap. Where I would have normally shot in digital to keep costs down follow the instructions of the magazine, I can now pursue my artistic belief that film still offers more range and higher quality, it still my preferred medium. And I now have the financial flexibility to continue using film when many clients have turned their backs on analog photography. And you know what the funny thing is? After I turn in the projects clients often write back saying thanks for making the effort to use film, the results are lovely. I love that.
Now, I’m not very good at comparing gear or writing blogs about how one camera, or film, is better than the other and why. I just know what I like and it now makes me very happy to have new opportunities to pursue more film photography. And in this day and age, given the harsh economic conditions, having a choice between film and digital, when it doesn’t cost you extra money, is a pretty special thing.
At this very moment I’ve taken a couple hundred rolls of Kodak color slide film and I’m currently working on a project that will hopefully get some decent responses from my clients. It’s my first, color, all-Kodak large film project and it’ll involve me hunkering down in a remote part of China for about 10-12 days and just shooting. And with the weather being horribly cold, film cameras – my Canon EOS 1V’s - and their fantastic durability are the only choice. And with that, of course, comes an entire bag of my Kodak E100VS and E200.
Lastly, I few months back I wrote a blog about how Kodak Kodachrome was retired and that Kodak and their color film business might be on it’s last legs. But clearly I was wrong. They’ve recently developed the new slide film that I am using today and they’ve introduced a new color negative film as well. So, yes, while Kodachrome was retired it appears that Kodak have improved on a previous model and retired an aging workhorse. Kodak are still in the film game, they are still heavily invested in producing color and black and white film; and they are also investing in people like me, a relative new comer to the game, but a photographer who puts a serious amount of film through his camera and isn’t afraid to talk about it. And I can’t thank Kodak enough for their support. Now if someone from Canon would just call, I’d be walking on air.
--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________
Friday, December 04, 2009
Ryan Pyle Blog: My New Canon EOS 1V's
Hello.
Yes. It appears I've done the impossible. The ridiculous. The un-imaginable. I've purchased two more film cameras. Insane? Perhaps, but much needed. Let me try to explain.
When I was a budding photographer I was a bit clueless and in serious need of guidance. That guidance was provided by TIME magazine regular, and Fifty Crows Award winner, Andrew Moore. To see some of Andrew's work visit the Fifty Crows and search under the winners for the year of 2000. You'll see his photographic coverage of Northern Ireland.
I met Andrew while I was learning how to be a photographer. Well, in fact I am still learning how to be a photographer but I met Andrew at an earlier stage. We were side by side shooting together during the massive protests in Hong Kong on July 1st 2003, they say about a million people took to the streets that day. Andrew's work was lovely.
Andrew had relocated from the UK to Hong Kong and had begun work in Asia. At that time I had only one camera and 1 lens, a Canon EOS 1 with a 50mm f/1.4 lense. Life was bliss. But as I continued working on personal projects and trying to put together a strong portfolio to show clients Andrew actually provided a lot of guidance and assistance. He showed me a lot of his personal work and offered me a lot of tips. It might not have taken too much of his time or effort, but our relationship was very influential and inspiring for me.
When I was about to leave Hong Kong Andrew mentioned that he was selling is Canon EOS 1n's, and asked me if I would like to purchase them. I said absolutely. They were the camera's that he used for much of his long and storied, and award winning, Northern Ireland work. I paid a well below market price and packed my bags and returned to Shanghai. Since that moment those Canon EOS 1n's have been the backbone of my career to date. I've used them thousands of times and put every kind of film imaginable through them. The whole time remembering the history of the cameras. It's been an emotional experience to say the least.
Well I'm sad to say, sorry Andrew, that I've just upgraded to the Canon EOS 1v. It is perhaps the last Canon film camera ever to be developed; and while the design and functions haven't changed since it was introduced almost a decade ago; it was a welcome upgrade for me. As I've mentioned several times on this blog I push through a lot of film and the EOS system has been my workhorse. Andrew's 1n's operated flawlessly for over five years and only just a few weeks ago did I order up the new 1v's from B&H. Why did I order them from B&H in the US? Simple really. When I went to the camera market in Shanghai people laughed at me when I told them I was looking for the EOS 1v. And when I called my favorite photography supplier in Hong Kong he told me it would take three weeks to order. B&H had it at my doorstep within five working days. Awesome!
I've put the camera through its paces over the last few weeks and it has performed wonderfully. Once again Canon comes through in the clutch. A few people have written in and asked what kind of gear I shoot with, so here is a brief run down of the gear I've got at home:
2x Leica M6
2x Canon EOS 1n (Andrew, I couldn't bring myself to sell them)
2x Canon EOS 1v
2x Canon EOS 5D MII (digital)
1x Fuji 6x9 (which you'll see in a new project coming soon)
So yes, I've had to re-mortgage my house to buy photography equipment over the last few years; but I feel I've invested well. My equipment is durable, takes a beating and holds up well in the re-sale market. We'll get in to lenses another day; I'm a bit busy with a project right now using my Canon EOS 1v's; I still love film.
--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________
Yes. It appears I've done the impossible. The ridiculous. The un-imaginable. I've purchased two more film cameras. Insane? Perhaps, but much needed. Let me try to explain.
When I was a budding photographer I was a bit clueless and in serious need of guidance. That guidance was provided by TIME magazine regular, and Fifty Crows Award winner, Andrew Moore. To see some of Andrew's work visit the Fifty Crows and search under the winners for the year of 2000. You'll see his photographic coverage of Northern Ireland.
I met Andrew while I was learning how to be a photographer. Well, in fact I am still learning how to be a photographer but I met Andrew at an earlier stage. We were side by side shooting together during the massive protests in Hong Kong on July 1st 2003, they say about a million people took to the streets that day. Andrew's work was lovely.
Andrew had relocated from the UK to Hong Kong and had begun work in Asia. At that time I had only one camera and 1 lens, a Canon EOS 1 with a 50mm f/1.4 lense. Life was bliss. But as I continued working on personal projects and trying to put together a strong portfolio to show clients Andrew actually provided a lot of guidance and assistance. He showed me a lot of his personal work and offered me a lot of tips. It might not have taken too much of his time or effort, but our relationship was very influential and inspiring for me.
When I was about to leave Hong Kong Andrew mentioned that he was selling is Canon EOS 1n's, and asked me if I would like to purchase them. I said absolutely. They were the camera's that he used for much of his long and storied, and award winning, Northern Ireland work. I paid a well below market price and packed my bags and returned to Shanghai. Since that moment those Canon EOS 1n's have been the backbone of my career to date. I've used them thousands of times and put every kind of film imaginable through them. The whole time remembering the history of the cameras. It's been an emotional experience to say the least.
Well I'm sad to say, sorry Andrew, that I've just upgraded to the Canon EOS 1v. It is perhaps the last Canon film camera ever to be developed; and while the design and functions haven't changed since it was introduced almost a decade ago; it was a welcome upgrade for me. As I've mentioned several times on this blog I push through a lot of film and the EOS system has been my workhorse. Andrew's 1n's operated flawlessly for over five years and only just a few weeks ago did I order up the new 1v's from B&H. Why did I order them from B&H in the US? Simple really. When I went to the camera market in Shanghai people laughed at me when I told them I was looking for the EOS 1v. And when I called my favorite photography supplier in Hong Kong he told me it would take three weeks to order. B&H had it at my doorstep within five working days. Awesome!
I've put the camera through its paces over the last few weeks and it has performed wonderfully. Once again Canon comes through in the clutch. A few people have written in and asked what kind of gear I shoot with, so here is a brief run down of the gear I've got at home:
2x Leica M6
2x Canon EOS 1n (Andrew, I couldn't bring myself to sell them)
2x Canon EOS 1v
2x Canon EOS 5D MII (digital)
1x Fuji 6x9 (which you'll see in a new project coming soon)
So yes, I've had to re-mortgage my house to buy photography equipment over the last few years; but I feel I've invested well. My equipment is durable, takes a beating and holds up well in the re-sale market. We'll get in to lenses another day; I'm a bit busy with a project right now using my Canon EOS 1v's; I still love film.
--
Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
_______________________________________
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