savannah photographic workshop

I was leading a workshop in Mexico several years ago and started the program with some photographs I had made earlier, street scenes of local people framed against the colorful buildings. A day or so later I had a student disappointed because she was not fast enough to catch any street portraits like I had shown. Neither am I most of the time, as I explained to her. Set a trap.

In working on the street, I find a background I like, frame it carefully with lens choice and camera position, shoot a few tests shots to analyze exposure and composition, “pin” the corners of the desired framing for quick checks during shooting, and then wait for a subject to move through my frame, looking for the just right moment, gesture, shape/tone/color juxtaposition, placement against the ground.

Except, not this time. I saw the background and the guy in black moving across all at once. It was an autonomic response, raising the camera, framing, and shooting too fast for conscious thought. Catch your breath, click. I waited around for another 10 minutes or so trying different people walking by, but nothing ever looked as good as the guy in black. I’m pleased to say, also, that this is the exact framing of the quick shot, no cropping or straightening.

Vienna was the end point of our bicycle ride from Passau, and we spent a few days hanging out in the old part of town, inside the Ringstrasse. It is an interesting mix of classical and whimsical. Take a look at my new gallery, Vienna Snapshots, 2023, at https://www.billdurrence.com/index/G0000DNj64yyYoFg

We had an inauspicious beginning for our Passau to Vienna bike ride. When we picked up our e-bikes to start the trip, Barbara had a tumble right outside the bicycle shop. Bruised, and a little bloody, but OK, she went back inside and bought the only helmet they had, a used one.

The bicycle vendor emphasized how important it was to NOT lose the key. We rode the first leg of our trip, checked into our hotel and I discovered I lost my key somewhere along the way. No key, can’t take the battery off the e-bike and charge it. So I called the shop and they agreed to bring me another bike the next morning, and pick up the key-less one, for free.

As we checked in, the desk clerk mentioned a large wedding in the hotel that evening (Saturday). It started at 5 and was a huge group. The live band played pretty good covers of a lot of pop and rock and roll…..until 2AM…..right above our room.

The next morning we faced one of our longest rides with a late start, not getting the bike swap until noon. When we walked out to meet the truck, it started raining. With 62 kilometers to go, the first leg was blessedly downhill, about 8 kilometers distance, with a vertical drop of 300 meters. (Going down was a lot easier than going up the day before.)

The new bike only had about a half charge so my range was just barely enough to make the next location, and that by conserving power. (Read-unassisted pedaling.)

But the best part of travel is often the unplanned and unexpected. We had a beautiful ride along the Danube; rainy off and on, but cool, not hot. About halfway we stopped for some lunch, and there was a free e-bike charging station next to the restaurant, along the bike path seen here, letting me add some charge to my battery while consuming good Bavarian beer. We even discovered a trash can there that sings “Hallelujah” when you put trash in it.

For a sampling of the ride, see my new gallery, “The Bike Path”at https://www.billdurrence.com/index/G0000sHhi4SN4JMw

I start any new adventure with some excitement, some trepidation, some apprehension, but that’s what makes it an adventure–the unknown. What surprises, pleasant and otherwise, await? Am I up to this, whatever “this” is? I don’t mean to overstate; I avoid risky behavior (mostly). It’s more concern about how I manage the differences I encounter, and how long I can avoid being a jerk about something, something often ultimately unimportant.

Barbara and I wanted to do a trip with some physically active components, and signed up for a self-guided multi-day bicycle ride from Passau to Vienna. In the above photo we were just leaving Passau at the beginning of our trip, and my apprehension was about how little riding we do at home and could we handle this distance–a question about both endurance and our buns’ ability to sit on a bike seat all day for several days. It’s awkward, at a minimum, to get in the middle of something and have to bail. Turned out to be easy, especially with E-bikes, and a great navigation program, furnished by the travel company.

Another concern was that I had stopped almost immediately at the beginning to make photographs of something interesting. There was something interesting, of course, the whole way, cycling on great bike paths, well-marked, along the Danube, and through fields and farmland, and picturesque villages and towns. It was all so pretty; our daily distance was short enough to amble along and enjoy the ride, but it was necessary for me to exert much discipline in not stopping every five minutes to shoot. We would never have made it to the next hotel before dark.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index

Robert Capa supposedly said, “If your pictures aren’t strong enough, you’re not close enough.” While the phrase might have reached cliche status through repetition, it is still no less true. Most photographs suffer from too much information. (I know you were anxious to have my opinion on that.)

Plein air painting and street photography have some things in common–leaving the comfort and control of a studio, and focusing on ordinary, pedestrian subjects, but there is one fundamental, foundational difference, and I’m making no argument for either being superior, just different. Painting is additive. One starts with blank paper or canvas or …, and adds elements to build the composition.

Photography is subtractive. One starts with a given scene or situation and has to find ways to eliminate everything non-essential in that scene. A big first step (pardon the pun) is to get closer.

For more of Bill”s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index/all

We left our bush camp pre-dawn for an early morning game drive. As the black sky became orange, we could see where the sun would break the horizon. There was this Acacia tree just standing there doing nothing. Sometimes a photograph is a gift from the universe.

Of course, you have to be there when it happens, and you have to see it in time to catch it, but other than that, nothing to it.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index

Borneo is the third largest island in the world. Politically it consists of portions of Malaysia and Indonesia, and all of Brunei. It is also one of the only two places in the world to find orangutans in the wild.

Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice.” I’m more inclined to think it is “detrimental” rather than such an absolutist position as “fatal,” but I do think it offers perspective, if you seek it.

There are many and varied reasons for traveling. An important one for me is the expectation that I will see something that I am unlikely to see at home.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index

This is a view from my front porch. It doesn’t always look like this, of course. You would need rain, and oak re-leafing season when the leaves on the ground are so thick you could ski if they were snow flakes. And it’s been a while since the City planted this luscious tulip array. I’m sure that is at least partly a budget issue. Having gone through four City budget workshops, I’m well aware of the difficulty trying to fund everything, and that priorities must be set.

This also is my favorite time of day in downtown Savannah. In the mid 60’s, as a staff photographer for the Savannah Morning News/Evening Press, I noticed that starting around 5 PM and lasting until about 7 PM, downtown acquired a quiet stillness, as if the City had collectively taken a breath, and then held it. Back then that was largely due to the end of the work day and everyone emptying out of downtown, and then, exhaling, the City began evening social and civic activities after supper.

It’s been a while since we were that small town, and downtown doesn’t empty out anymore; quite the opposite. But I still feel that pause in the late afternoon, sitting in the square with the dog, and maybe a neighbor or two. And more times than not there is pretty or interesting light filtering through the trees and defining the old homes, and it feels like I have fallen into a fairy tale.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index

In an A.I. world, the pleasure of a simple irony, found and photographed, will be diminished. Oh well.

Why did several generations who grew up on the Magic of Hollywood, from early Disney to CGI, ever presume any image was documentary to begin with? And all efforts to control A.I. will be modest, and ultimately fail, because technology always outruns regulation and, sometimes, evolution.

This photograph, however, is a real scene. I was driving through the Blue Ridge and Smokies, playing with one of the early (new then) point and shoot digital cameras (a little over a whopping 1 megapixel) as I made my way home from a company meeting in Virginia, and saw this along the road. The only changes I’ve made to the image are to trim some blank sky and parking lot off the top and bottom, add a little contrast and sharpening, and a black border. Trust me.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index

The Marquis de Sade as a theme for a cafe seems odd to me. Maybe they have a wonderful menu, you order something that sounds really good, and then they show it to you from a distance but refuse to serve you?

Some years ago I use to drive I-95 down the Georgia coast into Florida regularly, for work, and there were billboards along the highway advertising a topless breakfast cafe, apparently a strip club’s efforts to expand their business. I was a little curious, and considered stopping a couple of times, but could never contort the mix of eggs, bacon, toast, and titillation into something that wasn’t off-putting, or just sad, and it seemed unlikely they would let me photograph there. On a recent drive to Jacksonville, I noticed the billboards are gone.

In Prague, the de Sade cafe around the corner was pretty bland looking. Maybe it was a disguise for a backroom with alternate menus, but I thought their ad here was a nice cross-marketing effort, placed between a head shop and a lingerie store.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index

We were in the Lake District for part of the photography trip/workshop, and our busload of students, staff, and instructors had all piled into the lobby of our “home” for the next few days, along with all photo gear and personal luggage. While waiting for everyone to get their room assignment and key, I decided to take care of business in the lobby Men’s Room.

As soon as I stepped in, I saw this and immediately stepped back into the lobby, grabbed my camera, and hustled back into the Men’s Room. I suspect a couple of eyebrows may have been raised, but sometimes you just know a picture is a photograph, even if you can’t explain it.

For more of Bill’s photographs, go to https://www.billdurrence.com/index