by Bruce | Apr 21, 2009 | BELphotos, Bruce Lukaszewicz, Photography
If you are serious about photography like I am, you will never leave your house without a camera.
For the past thirty-five years or so, I have never left home without a camera of some type. When I leave the house it is always the same routine; wallet, keys, money, handkerchief (yes.. I do carry one), and camera.
Your camera can be as complicated as one of my Nikon’s, my Canon advanced pocket camera, or as simple as my cell phone camera. No matter what the tool, it is always ready to fire and grab that once-in-a-lifetime photo. An old time photojournalist from the New York Journal-American, now defunct, both of them, once told me, “…. listen kid, if the camera’s in the bag, or the lens cap is on, you missed the shot. You will never make money if your equipment is not primed and ready to shoot.”
One of the prime examples of ‘getting the shot’ is the one I made of Charles Bronson while he was
Charles Bronson (skinny guy center) filming the Valachi Papers just off Hicks Street in Brooklyn, circa 1970.
filming the Valachi Papers about 1971 in downtown Brooklyn. My friend Kenny and I were out goofing off from our jobs at the phone company and came across the film company on Hicks Street. The photo you see here is one of many taken that day and resulted in a long friendship with Mr. Bronson.
You will notice that it was made in black and white (Kodak Tri-X Pan), color film was still too expensive. B&W was also easy to cook in the bathroom and then take it for printing, thus saving about forty cents. The theory behind this was, the more money you saved, the more film you could buy. Forty cents was still a lot money if you were making $125.00/week and had a camera/film habit.
Back to the photo; … The tall skinny guy in the middle is Charles Bronson. After shooting this scene he bought hot dogs and Yoo-Hoo’s for my friend Kenny, (long hair, end of the street) and I in exchange for a promise of copies of the prints. I sent them as promised. In a personal verbal agreement with Charles Bronson, this photo is not for sale or reprint. It remains in my personal collection.
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by Bruce | Nov 11, 2008 | BELphotos, Bruce Lukaszewicz, Uncategorized
This collage of photos was taken over several years at Arlington National Cemetery, The Wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. Making this collage was a special project for me. The center photo of the group of soldiers outside of the barracks is from WWII. Fourth man from the right, bottom row is my dad. These men were all specialists training at Ft. Belvoir, VA to become combat engineers. They deployed to the Philippines and then to Japan shortly after this photo was taken.
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by Bruce | Jun 14, 2008 | BELphotos, Bruce Lukaszewicz
I went out to Starbuck’s one morning and spent a few hours out of the house. When I came back, I found the cat stretched out on the couch watching the US Open with a Coors. I was PO’ed, he left the fridge open and took the last one. It was 110° in the shade that day.
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by Bruce | Feb 21, 2008 | BELphotos, Bruce Lukaszewicz, Digital Camera, Photography
I have been an avid photographer for over 50 years. Whenever I put that in to print, I always wonder if people have this vision of some old geezer sitting in the park with a Kodak Brownie and his nurse wiping the drool from his mouth. I’d like to say that is very far from the truth, but getting closer.
This is actually my Argus Seventy-Five circa 1949-1958
My very first camera was an Argus Seventy-Five (manufactured 1949-1958) shown here. Basically, it was a box camera with a twin lens reflex viewfinder that loaded the now extinct 620 type film. For you 620 fanatics, yes the spool is still in the camera. They know what I’m talking about. My paternal grandmother gave me this camera and I still have it today. Grandma really didn’t want to part with that camera, but how could she refuse her first-born six year old grandson.
So began my photographic journey. I still have some of the photos that I made when I was six years old. I used to spend a lot of time with my grandparents at their Miami home and fishing with my grandfather, father and cousin in the Florida Keys.
The next donated (commandeered) camera was my Uncle Angelo’s Contax or Pentax, I can never remember which one it was. I bought a few lenses for it and I do know that they were screw mounts. It was a good camera and I was able to learn a lot about 35mm photography through that camera, shooting in mostly B&W. I only had it a few years and when I upgraded to Nikon, my Uncle asked me to return it. This is probably the only camera I used that is not in my collection.
Armed with a 35mm camera, I purchased the Time-Life Library of Photography, and read each volume about a thousand times. When my thirst for knowledge increased I fed my habit by purchasing the Encyclopedia of Photography, all volumes, and anything else I could get my hands on to read. These were the days before personal computer, or the Internet. People actually had to read books to gain knowledge! Imagine that; how we suffered. (more…)
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