Hot soft light » Cats

my Eleanor Callahan

Rob Hart — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:23:44 +0000

My photographic life really blossomed in Chicago. I moved here from Detroit in ’97. In the first few months I learned about Harry Callahan, who had left Chicago by then. He was from Detroit too!

A street photographer, an experimenter.

In the late 90′s I wanted to be Andres Serrano, or Jim Goldberg. But Callahan’s work was so personal and he spent much of his life making photos of his wife, Eleanor. In fact this photo could compete for my all-time fav. Along with a push from George Waldman, John H. White, and Bob Thall I decided to do document the lives of others.

With no disrespect to my wife, my cats have become my Eleanor. Working from home we spend lots of time together. It helps they tend to sleep in nice light. When I bought a new LED laser pointer they allowed me to try it out on them. You can lure them onto things with treats, too. Maybe cat photography is my schitck?

Money Light Part II

Rob Hart — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 03:24:40 +0000

don’t waste money light

Rob Hart — Thu, 06 May 2010 01:09:19 +0000

Melissa Lyttle just posted this on Facebook: “if there’s money light, but nothing happens in it did it really exist??”

Even when you’re racing to transmit on deadline you can’t waste money light. Stop for a 1/60th of a second. Snap, recompose, snap. Move closer, snap. Move back. Snap. I was supposed to be sending mediocre (at best) volleyball photos. How quickly those images will be forgotten by me.

I’ve been thinking all day about Rob Mattson’s blog. He’s always been one of my favorite shooters, and now that he’s telling his own stories it’s even more beautiful. A thousand people can make a nice photo of some guy catching a touchdown pass, but no one else can record your own history. If someone likes you enough to be waiting by the door make a photo.

In college we’re all taught to shoot what you love. Then you get a job, a mortgage, responsibilities, office politics, stress. Photos are a way to hold time. Someday it’s all that will be left. So leave something beautiful and important to those that you love.

Moe and Tom sit in the window of Rob Hart's house in Berwyn, IL

Year of the Cat

Rob Hart — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:05:17 +0000

As the year wraps up everyone makes lists. I’ve been digging Señor Strazzante’s 2009 photo roundup, the Big Picture Blog, the Denver Post has great stuff, and I’m sure there will be many, many more.

I have friends that always complain about people sending him photos of their children, so my wife decided to make him a calendar of our cats. She asked me to come up with my favorite 12 photos. So here’s my 2009 year in cats.

I love Brownies

Rob Hart — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:09:19 +0000

The other day I was editing my new wedding portfolio and that turned into me playing with some of my old camera’s. How do you force yourself to edit in nice light? I’ve got a few Kodak Brownies and decided to use it to make some photos of the cats. These were shot through a Brownie Hawkeye. After chasing the cats around some nice light I left my gear laying about and decided to find my Mamiya 645, because the Brownie viewfinder is way to small. Then I spent an hour in the basement finding my old film gear, rediscovering it, playing with it. Even going through a box of 8-tracks. When my wife came home and there were two cameras laying on the bed. In any other house this might be seen as creepy.

This “Through The Viewfinder,” or TTV technique, has been done many times by numerous photographers, there’s a flickr group, numerous,numerous blogs, but my most recent favorites were done by Chip Litherland. I planned on doing a series this summer like this, now I just need to spend some time in the basement to find the right gear.