NIGHT PHOTOS SANS BRASSAI'S CIGARETTE

Last night at my Chiang Mai photo exhibit reception, I was conversing with an old friend who happened to have been an acquaintance of the renowned Parisian photographer Brassai. Brassai, known as the EYE OF PARIS, was a master photographer based in Paris during the first half of the Twentieth Century. In 1933, Brassai published a book of photographs titled "Paris de Nuit". The photographs in the book comprised an essay of Paris after dark. With his camera mounted on a tripod, Brassai would photograph with his shutter open, timing his exposures by how long it would take him to smoke a cigarette. Barry was complimenting me on two of my photos, "Chiang Mai After Dark" and "Chiang Mai Night Bazaar". It was apparent from his comments however, that Barry was assuming that my camera, like Brassai's, had been mounted on a tripod to allow for lengthy exposures. I explained that the method I had used to obtain the night images was almost the opposite of Brassai's. The photographs had been made with the camera hand held. The technique I used was dependent upon my ability to shoot at a high ISO while making the most of the camera's built in image stabilizer, an option Brassai did not have. As I explained to Barry, this technique, even with today's high tech equipment, is high risk. At least two thirds of the shots I took exhibited unacceptable motion blur. But the successful photographs, few though they were, were worth the hassle. And my method, unlike Brassai's, didn't require that I take up the smoking habit. LARRY ELKINS ELKINSPHOTOS FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY