Continuing from the previous post, here are more of my pictures that made the final edit of ‘Stop The War: A Graphic History‘ and some of which are in the book (I think 4, though not always too easy to spot.)
October 2002, Parliament Square
September 2003, Trafalgar Square
May 2004, Embankment
May 2004, Bridge St/ Parliament Square
March 2005, Park Lane
March 2005, Hyde Park
I’m not sure whether the fewer pictures selected after 2002 represents a greater number of photographers taking (and submitting) images or just that most of us do find work we shot on film rather harder to fined than digital images. I took rather less in the first few months for health reasons, missing the major event in February completely. The black and white Halloween image was taken using flash and I suspect I probably used an Olympus OM4 which had better metering than any of the rangefinder cameras. At the time I was also probably using a flash meter, though there just isn’t time to do this when things begin to happen.
All of the colour here is digital, and I started working with a Nikon D100 in December 2002. At first my choice of Nikon lenses was very limited – just a Nikon 24-85mm zoom. Back then too, sensors seemed to pick up dust with ridiculous ease, and we didn’t like to change lenses. By 2004 I also had a Sigma 12-24, for the D100 which I was used for the two pictures above from that year, both at 12mm. The 2005 images were both taken with a Nikon D70 and the 18-210 Nikon, with the ‘coffin’ picture using its 18mm (27mm equiv.)
I think that the rangefinder cameras were better for my coverage of events such as this, and it took me a while to get used to the difference. But being able to see clearly the area surrounding the frame in the optical viewfinder is really a great advantage. It also took me quite a while to build up the set of equipment that let me really bring out the potential of the Nikons.
I still have the D100, though in recent years I’ve only ever used it as a pinhole camera. The viewfinder was really small, dim and poky compared to film cameras. The D200 was a great deal better but still poor. Although I don’t think you need ‘full-frame’ to actually take decent pictures, the larger sensor also results in a much better viewfinder in the D700.
Although the D100 was only a 6Mp camera, the files it gave with a good lens at low or moderate ISO were good, and with good software to increase the file size can give some pretty impressive big prints. One of mine has gone to 2.3 metres wide, and doesn’t look bad, though probably the D700 would have done a better job with its 12Mp. Above that size I have a feeling that unless you can get better glass there probably isn’t much to be gained.