Images from a Donald Trump rally and corresponding protest

[Corran]

Presented here are a variety of images I shot Monday at the local university, which rented out a space for Donald Trump to hold a rally. A student-led protest was allowed space a couple of blocks down the road.

I shot all of these images with my Linhof Master Technika and 150mm f/2.8 Xenotar, on either HP5+ developed in Acufine or Portra 400. More non-LF images can be found on my blog.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kcJ0hIpOtTg/VtX_h6D27QI/AAAAAAAAJ0s/-PiF_5bdW-E/s1200/trump-2993s.jpg

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_gmStambkr4/VtX_eNNBoiI/AAAAAAAAJ0k/CT3W0U2S70U/s1000/trump-2990s.jpg

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fCI9ktNlemI/VtX_kYnzLkI/AAAAAAAAJ0w/jM-ekOK6X8o/s1000/trump-2988s.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MNJJRJCiX9g/VtX_kxeAkJI/AAAAAAAAJ00/tGj1G76H-sg/s1000/trump-2994s.jpg

[Corran]

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FghPWHsAros/VtX_rVDN_EI/AAAAAAAAJ1E/h3rmHnN80zk/s1200/trump-2997s.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NZeUL_8iU9Y/VtX_o-AKu9I/AAAAAAAAJ08/nDMpDHJi7GQ/s1000/trump-2996s.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MASApM2upm4/VtYRNksu51I/AAAAAAAAJ10/k5pCkQoP5fo/s1000/trump-2999s.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_29Ve2RKLAw/VtX_ePWvUqI/AAAAAAAAJ0g/BowIr6vj76o/s1000/trump-2989s.jpg

Maybe more later, when scanned.

[BrianShaw]

Handheld??? And who was on the "wrong side" of the police tape????

[Corran]

Yes, and my wrist is still sore :).

[BrianShaw]

Very nice images and a great example of modern day usage of large format photography in the spirit of the press photographers from the days of yore! I heartily commend you on this project!

[Corran]

Oh, regarding the police tape (and this is purely informational) - the protesters could not stand on the sidewalk (impeding traffic walking to the rally) and so the area inside the police tape was the "protest area."

Thank you Brian.

[MDR]

I think it's interesting how B/W gives the portrayed a certain dignity while Color enhances the caricaturistic effect. Both look good.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Very nice images and a great example of modern day usage of large format photography in the spirit of the press photographers from the days of yore! I heartily commend you on this project!

Nah. I don't see any daylight flash.

[pierre506]

Nice~

[Mark MacKenzie]

Really well done!

[jbenedict]

These came out really nice. Do you remember what f-stop you used? I'm guessing about f/8? Throwing out the background works really well here.

[Corran]

Thanks pierre, Mark, and jbenedict.

Most of the outdoor shoots on the HP5+ was with an R25 filter at between f/4 and f/5.6. Portra 400 didn't have the filter so I was stopped down a bit more.

[Drew Wiley]

The rendering of that Xenotar is really nice (particularly in b&w). I haven't paid much attention to these lenses before.

[john borrelli]

I am very impressed with this work.

My first thought was "you can't do this on large format," and then of course I remembered that you could. Reportage with bokeh, this is the kind of work that keeps me coming back to this forum. Congratulations.

[Bill_1856]

Bryon, I've been looking for a new combination of film/developer to replace my Tri-X/Pyro. Your HP5/Acufine looks pretty good, but do you think that your examples might be a little underexposed? Did you shoot it at 400?

[LabRat]

Nice shots!!!! Great that you brought the Linhof, but for this subject, you also could have used a TLR with a sportsfinder/EL finder) + big flash with the B/W, for an Arbus-like effect, to save the sore wrist effect...

Interesting page in history… :-)

Steve K

[Corran]

Thanks folks.

Bill, my meter was indeed set to 400, but my metering is pretty off-the-cuff for this kind of thing. I did a quick spot meter of the back of my hand and used that as a grey card for a couple of shots...oh wait here's a bit of shadow, open up a stop...that sorta thing. The shadows are very open and if anything the development was too short, pushing down highlights. I pulled down the shadows a bit in post. Anyway, I think Acufine is the greatest, most versatile developer out there. It gives full speed, sometimes a bit more depending on the film. Highly recommended. But don't take these as gospel examples :).

[rich815]

Really great images, thanks for sharing!

[Kirk Gittings]

Thanks folks.

Bill, my meter was indeed set to 400, but my metering is pretty off-the-cuff for this kind of thing. I did a quick spot meter of the back of my hand and used that as a grey card for a couple of shots...oh wait here's a bit of shadow, open up a stop...that sorta thing. The shadows are very open and if anything the development was too short, pushing down highlights. I pulled down the shadows a bit in post. Anyway, I think Acufine is the greatest, most versatile developer out there. It gives full speed, sometimes a bit more depending on the film. Highly recommended. But don't take these as gospel examples :).

Nice work-especially the b&w. If you are an average white guy, the back of the hand is more like Zone VI-not the equivalent of a grey card and would lead to underexposure by about a stop.

[Corran]

Thanks Rich, and Kirk.

Yeah, I used to abide by the "Zone VI" thing but my negatives came out dense, so I pulled that down to V and it seems to work well, for me. It could be I'm a shade darker or just a quirk of my uncalibrated meter.

[onnect17]

Thanks Rich, and Kirk.

Yeah, I used to abide by the "Zone VI" thing but my negatives came out dense, so I pulled that down to V and it seems to work well, for me. It could be I'm a shade darker or just a quirk of my uncalibrated meter.

The images look good in my screen but I never use a red filter on people, a warming or yellow perhaps. I guess you compensated for the 3 stops loss with the R25 but that also have to be adjusted to the light temperature at the moment and the emulsion response.

In the case of HP5+, it is red biased type, so the compensation probably should be in the order of 4 or 5 stops.
Please check --> http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/20106281054152313.pdf

Not a fan of the Zone system so I can't make any comment about it.

In any case, the images are very telling. Thanks for sharing.

[Jody_S]

Nice. LF photography is a powerful documentary tool, I do wish more people would document the political landscape over the rocks and trees we mostly go for. It takes us out of our comfort zone.

[Corran]

Thanks Jody. I love documentary work. I'm still trying to find the best usage for LF in this type of work, because I think it is rather unique.

Regarding the red filter again, it serves 2 purposes for me - first it knocks the light down, helpful for a shutter that only goes to 1/125 (marked 1/200, tested lower), and secondly it helps tame the sky here at roughly sea level. As an example, here's a shot I didn't show as it's not great but illustrative to this:

http://www.oceanstarproductions.com/photosharing/trump-3038s.jpg

I think the look of an R25 filter here in the south is much different than what it looks like up in the mountains, which is why many are surprised I use it. It's my defacto standard filter for landscapes.

[Mark MacKenzie]

Just my two cents which could be wrong -- Doesn't the red filter make blue skies go dark? Which amps up the contrast making white clouds stand out. There are indeed days in the south, I'm in Nashville, where the blue sky in between the clouds is a washed out haze. I can't even tell the above photo has a red filter.

But, up north, after a cold front and the blue skies go deep blue, a red filter almost takes the sky to black. Those days are rare down here. And my experience is that the bluest part of the sky is due North.

Hard to believe you have leaves out. Redbuds haven't even started here.
Best,
Mark

[Corran]

You've got it all right, it's just that in this altitude and in mid-day, this is all you get (as opposed to a whited-out sky).

[scheinfluger_77]

Thank you Oren, and bravo to the group at large. And Corran your photos are great, I particularly prefer the b&w's.

[Andrew Plume]

great work Brian, really appreciated

andrew

[appletree]

Very neat. Wonderful work.

[Corran]

Thanks a lot to you all!

[Drew Wiley]

Just one question. Given the alleged lack of a deeper blue in the sky, do you really need a deep red? (Versus a basic orange filter that would be two whole stops
faster). You seem to have a very good sense for atmosphere, and I don't think that would be compromised by using a weaker filter, unless of course you're deliberately trying to darken greens per se.

[Corran]

Green foliage is often too bright here, yes, so that's a plus, but also the decrease in light to allow wider f/stops is often what I am going for first. I have also used the orange filter instead on milder days.

Another option is a Speed Graphic for shorter exposures but I only have a 127mm f/4.7 Ektar properly calibrated to it and I don't want to change that, or carry multiple cameras for multiple lenses, if I am able to bring extras. My 250mm Sonnar is my 2nd favorite lens on my Technika. The only reason I decided to splurge on the Tecknikas was for the multi-lens RF capability, something almost nothing else can do, certainly not as easily at least.

[Drew Wiley]

Makes sense. I'm sure your judicious use of wider apertures would be more apparent in an actual print than over the web.

[johnmsanderson]

Yeah really good stuff, Corran. The LF is so noticeably different visually than typical reportage images.

[LabRat]

O/T question???

Were they handing out swag bags at the rally!?!!! :-)

Steve K

[AtlantaTerry]

Brian,

Earlier you mentioned the police tape and where folks had to stand, etc. So may I ask something? I saw a piece of video from a Donald Trump speech in a different city where Chris Morris, a Life Magazine photographer got choked and thrown to the ground by one of the Secret Service agents evidently because Mr. Morris wanted to leave the designated press area to go photograph a protest. :(

http://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2016/02/29/trump-rally-time-photographer-secret-service-incident-acosta-bts-wrn.cnn

When you were at the rally in your city, did you happen to see how tightly controlled the media was? Or did you not have press credentials?

Thanks,
Terry

[Corran]

Terry, to make a long story short, I was not allowed in to the actual rally because one of the campaign staffers decided my camera was "too big" and "looked like media equipment" and therefore I could not go in. I argued with her about my decades-old film cameras but she had already made her mind up (and I heard later she caused a lot of grief for other media folks inside). Of course hundreds of people with typical DSLRs were allowed in. I did not have press credentials. I applied for them but was denied (so much for citizen journalism). What happened with Morris was inside the rally, and the "press pen" situation is a different issue.

Steve K, they handed out campaign signs when you came in (see any video from these rallies, many folks have those signs). Outside, several dozen vendors were selling various merchandise. Interestingly, some traveled with the campaign all over the country. I overheard one saying they were from Pennsylvania or something like that, following him and selling merchandise. You can see some of this merchandise in my photos here and on my blog. Commenting on that stuff caused quite a ruckus last time so apparently I can show the image but not mention what's in it.

[onnect17]

I remember seeing a photographer using a Graflex with a grafmatic in one of the rallies in NH. Most likely he's a member of this forum.

148076

[baachitraka]

I may be interested to know what flash setup the photographer is using there?

[jnantz]

nice work bryan, i hope you continue doing this sort of work!

===



I may be interested to know what flash setup the photographer is using there?

looks kind of like a lumedyne head on a bracket, he's got the "tupperware lid diffuser and the chrome reflector", and the plug off the back...
but i am probablly wrong, probably every-flash looks like that.

when i did this sort of thing i had a bachrach / wedding bracket screwed into the side tripod socket hole
and i could have it off the camera and to the left side ( and the battery pack on my shoulder )
there are a lot of 244 set ups out there ( probably one in the classifieds right now )
the batteries are pro rated for 10 years ( i got mine in 88' and i am on my 3rd re-build ),
some flashes, allow for choke down to 2ws to 200, they all take all sorts of diffusers/scrims &c
really worth the 2-300$ some people ask for them, like larsen enterprises, these guys invented some of this stuff
we take for granted, and are still kicking.

ymmv

[John Layton]

I see your images and am reminded how strange it is that my own LF default is to seek as much DOF as possible - where sometimes just a small slice can be so powerful and moving. (hmmm...guess I gotta open up a bit sometime!) At any rate...nice work!

[Corran]

onnect17, I would love to see his results, too bad we don't know who he is!

jnanian, John, thanks.

[Ramiro Elena]

Cool that you made the effort to do this kind of work. I would have been lazy and taken the Rolleiflex or the F4. The result is very pleasing both color and black and white.

[Corran]

Thanks Ramiro. The more I shoot with my old Rolleiflex and Tessar, the more I like it as a MF companion camera rather than the big bulky Pentax 67. Wish it had a meter though.