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Super hot Nikon lens cap trick..

David White, photographer — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:06:34 +0000

Ooooh…how exciting. Hold on to your pants.
I just remembered something I’d forgotten, and thought it would be useful to a fair few of you…

I was just trying to put back on an old rear lens cap on one of my nikkors. The poor little cap is knackered, and won’t stay on.
Then I remembered…..I went and got a lighter, and CAREFULLY used it at it’s lowest setting to heat up and expand the male lugs inside
the rear cap. Ten seconds cooling, and the cap is as tight as new. This trick lasts for a few years per cap.

That was your duckrabbit freebie for the month of March. And don’t ask me if it will work with sony/canon/pentax/moulinex caps, cos I don’t blinkin’ know.

And don’t hold me responsible when you cock it up and burn yourself, get melted plastic on your 14-24 or set your dog on fire. Or all three.

Next month…how to rebuild your shutter with some knicker elastic and a small spoon.

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Einstein’s brain….

David White, photographer — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:42:11 +0000

In four days time it will be the anniversary of old Albert’s birth. This fact reminded me of a pic I shot a little while ago…a stonemason here in Bristol – Mike Blow- phoned me up and told me that he’d made an exact replica of Einstein’s brain out of marble. And not just any marble..marble from the same quarry used to sculpt Michelangelo’s David. The replica is accurate due to Mike working from original photographs of the brain, and from resin models. It really is something to behold. By the way, if you ever need a stonemason, Mike is THE man….

Einstein's brain made from marble

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War photographer: a dangerous idolatry

duckrabbit — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:39:20 +0000

“In times when (some) photographers hold celebrity status, it is useful to be reminded that a good photograph does not solely depend on the photographer’s ability to choose the right subject, location and light, but also on the chemistry and the collaboration, between photographer and subject…Despite my deep sympathy for socially inclined photographers, when the people portrayed feel ashamed of their portraits, there clearly is something wrong with this kind of photography.”

Hans Durrer quote taken from the always thought provoking Photophilanthropy blog.

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duckrabbit — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:54:06 +0000

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Manchester Photography on Don McCullin’s show @ The Imperial War Museum

duckrabbit — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:37:13 +0000

If you are a young photojournalist with aspirations of photographing war & destruction, famine and suffering and think that your pictures are ever going to change the world well this show should show you that you are on a hiding to nothing. If the pictures made by Don MCullin can’t change the world, well no ones can.

Mark Page

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BEYOND BORDERS EXHIBITION

duckrabbit — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:20:42 +0000

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I saw the Obama People Exhibition in Birmingham

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duckrabbit — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:22:15 +0000

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Where it’s at – Gregory Halpern

duckrabbit — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:01:22 +0000

“Between 1994 and 2001, the endowment of Harvard University tripled, making the school the wealthiest non-profit in the world, second only to the Vatican. In the same years, Harvard heavily outsourced many service jobs to lower-paying companies, thus resulting in average wage cuts of 30% for the schools’ custodians, food-workers and security guards.

In response, I got involved with a student group called the Harvard Living Wage Campaign and I began this project. My goal was to publicize the situation, to share the stories of a number of service-workers I had come to know, and to raise questions about the prevailing class-structure at Harvard and on college campuses in general.” Gregory Halpern

If you’re not aware of the work of Gregory Halpern (which I wasn’t until a week ago), then please, please, please spend some time reading Asim Rafiqui’s account of his work here, and then spend some time with the photographs here.

I do want to add one thing.

Too often we celebrate the photographer and not the cause. It’s a kind of disease in an industry where very few people are prepared to challenge unless the gods be shaken and they feel their wrath. That’s stone age thinking, because there are no gods, only emperors who have clambered up the pack of cards (often through great work) and whom our adulation clothes.

It says nothing about photography and everything about us that we are only interested in a ’cause’ when a ‘name’ photographer is attached.

Halpern, like Rodriguez, like Crow, like White, like Chiba, like Rafiqui (see our Where It’s At Links) are only interested in one voice being heard, and that voice is never their own. That’s why we celebrate their work.

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Tonight I’m absolutely floored

duckrabbit — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:17:39 +0000

by a series of posts I’ve just read on Prison Photography about the death of the young woman Fabienne Cherisma in Haiti and the photographers who witnessed this event. The pictures are too graphic for my stomach, but the questions are important.

‘Photographers don’t work in a vacuum and we must demand to turn their images inside out to understand the context in which the images were created.’ Pete Brook

UPDATE From Pete:

Thanks Ben. The article you link to was the first of four. Here are the next three updates. http://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2010/02/05/more-on-fabienne-cherisma/ http://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2010/02/08/furthermore-on-fabienne-cherisma/ http://prisonphotography.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/yet-more-on-fabienne-cherisma/

I have been in contact with the photographers involved and I have a lot more information, testimony and images to continue this story. One photographer even believes he has footage of the police officer who shot Fabienne. I hope you and your readers can keep interest in this analysis and story as it unfolds. Pete

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Are you taking the VII?

duckrabbit — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:34:15 +0000

VII MASTERCLASS WORKSHOP WITH ANTONIN KRATOCHVIL
ORTHODOX EASTER IN THE CHERNOBYL FORBIDDEN ZONE

‘Chernobyl and its Forbidden Zone are magical places, which attract the attention of both adventurers and the media. After more than 20 years, echoes of the worst nuclear disaster in the history of man still resonate. Antonin Kratochvil, from the VII agency, has repeatedly photographed in Chernobyl and knows how to move around in the area.’

Not sure how ‘magic’ the people featured in the following report by Greenpeace find the place:

‘Chernobyl, Ukraine — A new Greenpeace report has revealed that the full consequences of the Chernobyl disaster could top a quarter of a million cancer cases and nearly 100,000 fatal cancers.‘

Here’s a related pic of a really magical place…Tarara in Cuba, where child victims of Chernobyl are treated, for free, by the Cuban government. Every child at Tarara is seriously sick as a result of the Chernobyl disaster. Cuba offers them rehabilitation, pioneering treatment, warmth, love and sunshine.

Child victims of Chernobyl recuperating at Tarara, Cuba. (C) David White

Please note if you want to take a masterclass with VII they have some excellent alternatives. Ron Haviv seems like a top bloke and he has a workshop running in Maine.

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