I leave my apartment and find myself reaching for a small black plastic film camera, the Black Slim Devil.  The Nikon D3 I reach past probably has more processing power than the original Apollo missions to the moon.  My Casio point and shoot is a technical marvel with its 240 frames per second video shooting.  And yet its the one button (the shutter) and one dial (wind on the film) simplicity that draws me to the Devil.

As a technophile, proud to own the latest electronic gadgets, I find this situation puzzling.  Could less really be more after all? The simplicity puts you in a different mindset.  All the variables of taking a photo are reduced down to: what are you looking at and how is it lit, arguably the most important elements of any picture.  Freed of some of the more left brain concepts like balancing aperture and shutter speed, selecting the right focal distance etc, good old creative right brain gets to run the show.

The Black Slim Devil, a gift from a friend, is a remake of the Vivitar Ultra Wide and slim camera that reached cult status for its wide angle lens and saturated, contrasty images.  After winding and clicking through 36 exposures without being able to see a single digital preview, I find myself genuinely excited to go after work and pick up the prints from the Lomography store on 8th St.

So will I be selling all my digital marvels and join the film re-revolution?

My experience with this simple film camera has helped me to really ‘look’ at a scene before taking a picture and will make me take better photos in the future. The  appeal of photography for me has always been blending of artistic concepts with a technical discipline and all the infinite possibilities this brings.  I recommend trying the freedom of a basic camera but for me I ultimately crave all the control my DSLR gives me.  If I’m wed to digital then film will always be a great mistress.

Rocinha is one of the oldest favelas (slums) in Rio de Janeiro and the largest in Brazil, perched on a steep hillside overlooking the city. I am lucky enough to be taken round by Alberto, a resident come tour guide for a close look at the streets, back alleys and to my surprise his own home in the favela.

Kids playing on a home made table tennis table with make shift bats in Rocinha

Two weeks prior to my visit, the Rio police occupied Rocinha in force in an attempt to drive out drug dealers and return order. Hundreds of special forces police and navy commandos backed by armoured military vehicles and helicopters moved into the slum before dawn.

Rocina Favela with a heavy police presence

From what I can tell, this was a move generally welcomed by the majority of residents who are hoping for a reduction in crime and better prospects for the future.  My guide, Alberto, has lived in Rocinha for over 30 years and took a ‘for now its good but we’ll wait and see’ attitude.  As a photographer, the good news is I am able to openly take photos which would have been impossible before the police action.

One of the many back alleys in Rocinha

Transport in is by local 15 seat mini bus.  These privately run, unregulated buses, leave when they are full and will stop anywhere along the route to drop off and pick up passengers.  As the bus climbs up the main street into Rocinha, the sheer scale of the place hits me.  Everywhere there are concrete houses jammed together stretching up as far as the eye can see into the hills.

View from the Top with Ipanema brach and the rest of Rio below

The higher we go, the more dilapidated the houses seem.  Despite the better views from higher up, living closer to the base of the favela is desirable where crime is generally lower and getting out to the rest of the city is easier.  For the tour, or ‘cultural experience’ as Alberto calls it, we start walking down from the top on a wide street.  As one of the older Favelas Rocinha has a reasonable amount of infrastructure.  Crazy webs of wires run across poles and into buildings and for the most part people have access to running water.  On the street, there are a number of surprisingly well maintained shops and even a bank.

Shops and traffic on the main street

Alberto asks, would you like to ‘take a short cut?’  We turn down one of the many narrow alleyways between higglety pigglety buildings and I just can’t believe I’m walking the back streets of a favela and feel very privileged to be able to see, experience and most importantly take photos here.

Man sitting on a chair

As a final treat, Alberto takes me into his house.  He’s very well spoken and well read, often quoting interesting idioms and sayings that would be impressive even for a native English speaker.  As he says, ‘nobody believes I really live here’.  His sister seemed a little startled to have a stranger in the house.

Alberto's Kitchen

Rio is a great city to visit and for me, visiting and exploring Rocinha is a highlight and an experience I will remember for a long time.  See the rest of my Rocinha photos on flickr

http://www.nickbrandt.com/portfolio.cfm?nK=7617&nS=0&nL=1

I particularly like the Woman dining with a Cheetah http://villainouslyvintage.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/1960s-leombruno-bodi-woman-dining-with-cheetah/

Creating a miniature effect, where a normal scene is transformed to look like a photo of a toy model, is surprisingly quick and easy and can add a new playful dimension to some of your photos. What better subject to turn into model than the striking, imaginative, almost dreamlike buildings of Antoni Gaudi.

Gaudi was a Spanish architect who did most of his work in Barcelona at the start of the the 20th Century.  His Modern Catalan creations were not always well received at the time but there is no doubt he left his mark on the architecture world and on the city of Barcelona.  I was in Parc Guell in Barcelona last week and found myself looking down on a crowd of people at the foot of two fairy tale Gaudi buildings and immediately though this would be the perfect image to try a miniature model effect.

How to Create the Miniature Model effect?

This is most easily done using Photoshop although can be done in free alternatives such as GIMP with a little bit more effort. The basic idea is to mimic a very shallow depth of field using a lens blur effect to make things appear small then saturate the colours to give the toy look.

In Photoshop CS 2 or newer:

1) load your image and enter quick mast mode by pressing Q or selecting the quick mask icon

2) select the gradient tool and select the ‘reflected gradient’ mode

3) draw a gradient from the point you want in focus to a point above or below the focal point (approximately vertical ).  The end point will determine where the transition to the blurred area will complete

4) Turn of the quick mask (press Q), and select Filter -> Blur -> Lens Blur

5) Here you can adjust the blur settings before applying.  You may need to invert the effect (select the invert checkbox) so that the outer part of the mask is blurred not the middle.

6) I strengthened the amount of blur slightly by increasing the radius in the Iris section but the default settings are generally quite good.  Apply the filter

7) Increase the saturation (Image -> Adjustments -> Hue/Saturation) for a more toy like appearance

Thats it!  You can play around with placing the focal point in a different place and adjusting how quickly to fade into the blurry regions until you get the image how you want it.  This effect works better with some images than others.  Images taken from a birds eye view tend to work best (not directly overhead but looking down at an angle).

Other posts in the Fun Techniques series (click the image to view):

Fun Technique: Silky Waters

Fun Techniques: Time to Get Flashy

Fun Technique: Panning

I came across Mete Ozbek from an article in Life Force Magazine.  His photo-essay ‘About Life‘ is simply spellbinding.  Each photo is both compelling visually and also speaks to a whole untold story.  I find myself looking at each picture and imaging a back story for each character.

Check out his Flikr page also.

City Island is a small outcrop on the East side of the Bronx.  It gained some fame recently as the scene of the 2010 movie by the same name.  You can get there by a combination of subway and bus in a little over an hour from Manhattan.  Why would you make such a journey?  Going to City Island from Manhattan is like being transported through both space and time.  The whole point of traveling is to go somewhere different from where you started (and if you’re me to eat in different restaurants), and this 1.5 mile long island certainly delivers on both counts.

City Island feels like its 1970-something, somewhere far far away from the city streets of the Big Apple.  Its very much the US equivalent of a British seaside town. Like so many of those seaside towns, you get the sense that City Island’s hay-day has long since past but you still see its charms, all be it faded, showing through.  British fish and chips are transposed to fried shrimp and beer.  Check out Reef at the south tip of the island and wash your shrimp down with some bargain Pina Colada’s!

Getting to City Island is not especially difficult but if you’re a typical Manhattan-ite for whom traveling to Brooklyn takes a special occasion and the 15 minute journey to Hoboken is only to be considered under serious duress then you might have a problem.  Ride the 6 train as far North as you can to Pelham Bay Park then find the Bx29 bus to City Island. Alternatively rent a car and drive there in less than an hour.  You can wonder the length of the main road in a few hours.  If you’re feeling homesick, check out some of the side streets to the west for a view of the Manhattan skyline.

As often seems to be the case when I travel, most of my memories seem to be centered around food and drink.  The place to have dinner is Sammy’s Fish Box.  It seems to be the special occasion place on City Island and was full of couples celebrating anniversaries and birthday parties.  The menu consists of giant portions (and I mean truly giant, even by American standards) of butter covered seafood with every side and trimming.  Healthy its not but it sure tasted good!

If you’re looking for something a little different to do on a summer weekend, and need to get out of the city check out City Island.

Especially like some of the little touches: look out for Mario becoming animated when he passes behind an iMac and the use of the spring loaded door cover of a Nikon D3. Enjoy!

Its only a matter of time before you see a story about someone attaching the thermos to their camera by mistake and pouring coffee into its innards.  You heard it her first!

Photojojo also sell canon lens mugs.

http://blog.flickr.net/en/2011/07/08/phoenix-haboob/