Photograph by Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times

By Robert Lachman
My first thought tonight was to write a post about how using less high-tech gear and simple lighting makes the best photographs. This photo of Pat Marfisi in his Los Angeles hillside garden is a great example of the less-is-more theory. How simple.

Try using a $29 dollar Holga camera. OK that was my idea. That's 120 film meeting a plastic lens with great light. This is photography in the simplest form, no zoom lenses, no autofocus, no aperture priority mode, no custom functions, no white balance, no synching electronic strobe, no motor drive, no shutter speeds and no Adobe Lightroom. Actually the most important thing to remember is windingthe film. It doesn't advance by itself, so it's easy to make a double exposure.

Of course it was the perfect time of day, close to sunset seems to set off this dream-like scene. And, it's the beauty of film. You never know what you're going to get until you see the print. Though today, you don't know what you get until you see the digital pixel scan

I use my Canon Canoscan 8800F flatbed and negative scanner which does a great and fast job of turning the 2 1/4 color negative frame into pixels. The images scanned are perfect. No adjustments. The Holga with it's minor light leak, distortion and flare toward the outside of the image, and of course, the trademark vignetting around the edges for the cool black borders. All free of charge.

The biggest surprise to me, was the response to the photographs and story of the No-Dig Garden in the Los Angeles Times. Such a simple concept with such an amazing response.

Here are a few of the links around the world where it seemed to magically appear:

Apartmenttherapy.com
Rumormillnew.com
Fourwinds.com
Ramshacklesolid.com
Clipmark.com
USA Today.com

It is fun to see my photos whirling around the web. Does it get any bigger than Apartment Therapy and Ramshacklesold dot coms? It did make it in the Chicago Tribune, Orlando Sentinel, Hartford Courant and Newsday sites. Of course, it helps that these papers are all part of our newspaper chain.


______________________________________________________________________