News

I think I just cured myself of “gear aquisistion syndrome” (GAS).

In daily grind,mental anguish by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Novembre 25, 2016 / 0 Comments

A strange thing happened to me today. Desire left my body.

A B&H catalogue duly/dutifully (pick whichever word you prefer) arrived in the mail. Even though I never ordered one. I thought I would open in anyway. If only to separate the polyethylene plastic covering from the paper so that I could recycle it properly.

Now I will admit that one of my past times is photography. And about the only money I spend these days is on food, clothes and work stuff…

Nevertheless, I am living in the first world. And first world people are told to buy. To consume. We’re hardwired for it from birth. From before birth even. We’re not even born yet and there are presents waiting for us. As we get older, they make “infant sized” shopping trolleys.That’s how bad it is.

So I obliged and flicked through the thing. All 340 pages.

My new slideshow!

In daily grind by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Ottobre 20, 2016 / 0 Comments

Just a quick update for today. I hope you like this short video presentation of street photographs that I put together. This is done with Adobe After Effects…

Why did I choose Nikon?

In Uncategorized by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Settembre 8, 2016 / 0 Comments

The reason I chose a Nikon system over Canon system, people, is that Nikon’s camera lenses are backwards compatible… even going all the way back to the 1970’s. Now, keep in mind that when I bought my first Nikon camera in 2014, I didn’t even own any Nikon or Canon lenses. I never had.

But after reading —no, make that scouring— Ken Rockwell’s website, specifically this new page of his, it made me realise that Nikon looked like one of the only manufacturers that truly seemed to care about not just backwards compatibility, but even forwards compatibility as well.

It just seemed to me that they were the most serious about not wanting things to go to waste. Not just money, but material resources.

And I like that. That for me is very, very important. So I guess what I am saying is that that was one of the main deciding factors, the reason, for me to have bought into Nikon’s entire F mount system.

Why is it so important to me? Well, because if there’s one thing in this world that I can’t stand, it’s companies that make things go obsolete well before their time.

The lucky country

In daily grind,pure seed,the lucky country by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Settembre 3, 2016 / 0 Comments

So I stopped in… Port Kembla of all places today.

And sorry to say this if you live there, but it was like visiting the land that time forgot. I felt compelled to get out of the car and take a look around.

I felt like a location scout for Grand Theft Auto. It is just that seedy. I think I am going to start a book with this picture, called “The Lucky Country”.

I was going to take a shot of this façade “as is” (without anyone). Because it is almost like a ghost town. Seriously, it is that devoid of people. Then I saw this interesting character approaching, the only one in town, looked him in the eye, said “G’Day”.

He walked straight past me into the scene and I took the shot anyway. I think he heard the shutter it go off, but maybe he thought it was a mistake with him being in it. So he didn’t even look back at me. On a Saturday mid-afternoon, most places are closed. I suppose the good thing about this town are that there are no queues!

Yes the subject is not perfectly in focus. It’s back-focused. But I had about one second to compose the shot. So it was either this or nothing.

ISO1600
1/250 sec
18mm equivalent focal length
f/5.6

More about the Bin Laden project…

In Uncategorized by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Agosto 26, 2016 / 0 Comments

I have had some very strange looks while photographing the Bin Laden project. If there’s one side of Sydney that I don’t like… it’s the refuse & rubbish that I see everywhere.

With this project, I am trying to make waste “look nice” with special editing techniques. Easier to become zero waste though I think.

I think it’s strange that all of this refuse (which is for the most part very ugly) is on display for everyone to see. Where is the waste in nature?

The fact is, nature knows no waste.

So the point of this project is to get people to think more about all of the waste that they generate on a daily basis. As a former materials scientist, I try to encourage everyone to buy less products and more services instead.

It has been shown that we humans tend to look back on experiences more favourably than previous physical purchases.

When we do buy products, they should be made from ecological, sustainable materials, with zero waste. I myself am trying very hard to operate a new “zero waste” business.

And that is the goal of the Bin Laden project.

Added some more rubbish photos!

In Uncategorized by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Agosto 25, 2016 / 0 Comments

I got a whole bunch of cool bin shots today! 🙂
I have taken some of the weaker images out of the Bin Laden Project set.

And reorganised the menu structure of the website.
I think it is much easier to navigate now.

Bin Laden project updated!

In Uncategorized by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Agosto 22, 2016 / 0 Comments

It’s been a while, so I have just uploaded some new photos to my ongoing Bin Laden project.

I have also been busy on several new projects:

“advertising space” — there are now five photos in that set.
“behind closed doors” — there are now four photos in that set.
“signs of the time” — there are now five photos in that set.
“windows to the soul” — just one photo so far (I found the light and colour emanating from this particular window to be very interesting).

My scholarship application for Eric Kim street photography workshop

In mental anguish by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Agosto 16, 2016 / 0 Comments

Email address *

info@lesliedeanbrown.com

Phone number *

+612 8502-3048

Which workshop are you interested in attending? *

Sydney, Australia – October 8-9th, 2016 – Conquer Your Fears of Shooting the Streets

Please tell us a little bit about what you expect to get out of the workshop *

I have learned not to expect anything, that way I am never disappointed. However, I would like to be more motivated to go out and shoot street photography more frequently than I do now. I have been chronically depressed now for 2 straight years and would also like to gain more optimism about life in general. I would also like to meet new photographers and interact with them. I would also like to have fun, that is the main thing.

How would you take the knowledge you’ve learned from the workshop to better serve your community? *

I have two main long-term goals with my photography. As I get older, I would like use street photography to shine a spotlight on two massive problems that are prevalent in many societies today:

1) MATERIAL WASTE: I previously studied materials science and I believe that there is way too much consumerism in the Western world. Way too much. Mining leads to environmental tradgedies, yet we need the environment in order to survive. So we are eventually going to have to overcome this addiction we have of unsustainable synthetic materials and manufacturing processes, literally for our own survival. Recycling in its current form is still not enough, we need to be able to recycle all the elements on the periodic table, not just a handful of them.

In nature, there is simply no such thing as ‘rubbish’. One organism’s waste is another’s food. There is a girl out there somewhere who only had only accumulated one jar of waste after a whole year. I believe that should be our collective future; our aim should be to create zero waste. I believe that one day in the future, the large rubbish bins we see now today will become obsolete. Perhaps it will take centuries, but that is the way it has to be.

Photography links

In Uncategorized by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Agosto 14, 2016 / 0 Comments

LENS REVIEWS

I have spent the last 2 or 3 years learning about lenses. For me, some of the best advice has come from none other than Ken Rockwell. His advice is usually to invest in small, compact prime lenses rather than digital bodies. The whole idea is to get better quality equipment for less price. That is what I have essentially done and I am happy with pretty much everything that I have bought so far. He is generally quite right about equipment, and his advice can save you a lot of money in the world of cameras.

Another great resource for lens reviews is Photozone. I have bought more than a few lenses on their reccommendations because I find their reviews to be thorough and very objective. A similar site is DXO mark. And there are no shortage of reviews on the Imaging Resource. Another good one is LensTip. If you prefer the funny/creative/vulgar, then look no further than Kai Man Wong’s entertaining video lens reviews on Digital Rev TV.

If you’re like me, you get a bit overwhelmed with all the choices of lenses. Lenshero.com is one link that makes your life a bit easier to compare all of the lenses available for a certain type of camera body mount. It’s especially useful if you’d like to compare the size, weight of basic specifications of the lenses. The one down side is that Voigtlander lenses are not featured, which is a shame.

BLOGS:

The only photography blog that I really follow is Eric Kims street photography blog. That’s it.

Other than that, Ming Thein has also written a lot about photography and takes lots of great photos. Be warned though that Ming’s writings are more like treatises or photography essays than actual blog articles (he’s also a Hasselblad / Zeiss nut). Many times I end up falling on one of Steve Huff‘s blog articles too (he’s a Leica nut though).

FORUMS:

A popular forum that you might have already come across is dpreview.com. Loads of professional and very knowledgeable amateurs on there…

SHOPS:

FOR SALE: Voigtlander Cosina 52mm lens cap.

In for sale by Dr. Leslie Dean Brown / Agosto 6, 2016 / 0 Comments

Yes another, (but his is my last one!).

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/131890201877