Rick’s Rants and Raves

Before today, I had never heard of Helen Levitt. She died yesterday, at 95, and NPR did a wonderful story on her.

The moment in the interview that really caught my attention was when she described how she could take wonderfully candid photographs:

“I had attached to my camera — I had a little device that fit on the Leica camera that they called a winkelsucher, which meant that you could look one way and take the picture the other,” she said. “You could turn your camera sideways.”

That’s what I love most about long zoom lenses–the ability to get a shot without someone knowing, reacting, posing (or smirking uncomfortably). I can’t find an equivalent winkelsucher kind of attachment today.

Another part of the interview that immediately caught my ear:

“It was a very good neighborhood for taking pictures in those days, because that was before television,” she said. “There was a lot happening. And then the older people would sometimes be sitting out on the stoops because of the heat. They didn’t have air conditioning in those days. It was, don’t forget, in the late ’30s. So those neighborhoods were very active.”

I enjoy walking around my neighborhood, but I don’t see many people out. I would argue that TV and garages have been the death of active neighborhoods. When I go to neighborhoods of friends where garages are less prevalent among the older houses, there are always more people ambling along the street than in my neighborhood. These are all middle to upper-middle income folks with multiple TVs (and cable or satellite).

So, although I didn’t have a driveway moment listening to the story (I got home after it was finished), the two memorable parts of the interview prompted me to reserve a couple of her books from the library. I’m looking forward to browsing the images of yesteryear, when kids played in the streets.

Helen Levitt Boys Playing over Doorway

My employer has a new building within walking distance of my current desk. The building opened today for employees to browse around. I went down to the new fitness facility (only $15/month!) to check it out. It has lots of nice stuff including a decent selection of free weights. After browsing around, one of the trainers asks if I have any questions. I wasn’t going to get snobby about it, but since he offered, I asked, “Yeah, do you have any way to do weighted dips?”

“Oh, weighted dips? Um, well we’ve got the dip assist machine over there.”
“No, I want to add weight, like with a dip belt.”
“Hrm, um not really. But if you want to be creative, you could put two benches together and put some plates on your legs.”
“Oh, I suppose. Aren’t those called ‘bench dips‘, or something like that?”
“No, that’s what I do. Those are dips.”
“Ok. Thanks.”

My current max workout weight on dips is body weight plus 75 pounds on a belt around my hips. After supporting my legs on one end, I’d have to put like 100 pounds of plates on my thighs to get that load on my shoulders.

I’ve turned into a gym rat–I walk into a brand new (very nice) facility, and the first thing I ask about is a piece of equipment they don’t have. If I get a membership (I think I’m moving to a not-so-close building soon, so I might not) I’ll have to buy my own dip belt.