Photo Review is a new program offered by Ralph Nordstrom Photography.  It is a way by which photographers can get their photographs reviewed by their peers.  This is unlike most photography sites in that the reviews are anonymous and moderated.  This encourages more honest and constructive feedback.  The results are published on the web in a password protected page.

If you are curious about Photo Review you can get more information from these links:

Photo Review Goals

Photo Review Submission Guidelines

We just published the last review.  If you would like to check it out to see a good example of how it works, just sign up for my newsletters in the form to the right.  I’ll email you the link and password.

Latourell Falls is one of many falls along the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge.  It is particularly beautiful because it takes a long slender down a spectacular basalt cliff.  I was shooting up there over the Memorial Day weekend and have these three different views of the falls to share.  Each is distinct and carrys its own unique message.  Enjoy

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One thing I haven’t done at all really is play around with different ink jet papers.  My thinking is simple – there is so much to master in all the tools I use – Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. – and so many techniques to learn that adding one more variable is something I just wasn’t interested in doing.

I made the decision right at the start to go with matte papers.  The paper I chose was Epson Enhanced Matte, now renamed to Premium Presentation Paper – Matte.  The decision was based on my desire to produce photographs that look more like paintings.  A glossy or even luster surface shouts “photograph!”  But people don’t expect to see photographs on matte surfaces.  At shows, people frequently ask if my works are paintings.

So Epson Enhanced Matte paper has worked out very well for me and I still stand by my original decision.  It’s my paper of choice.  But I had no idea what I was getting into.

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We’ll be at the San Marcos Grand Summer Festival this Sunday, August 31, 2008.  Come on out and see us.  Here are a few of the photographs we’re working on:

Latourell Falls 1, 2 and 3

Tillamook Bay

We will also have some new images from Joshua Tree National Park.

So come on out and say Hi.  The show runs from 9:00 to 5:00.  See you there.

When it comes to evaluating our own photographs we’re probably the worst ones to do so.  That’s not surprising because we’re so emotionally tied up in every aspect – the subject, the feelings we had when we got the shot, the work we’ve done on it in the digital darkroom.

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…, it is our contention that the self is more emphatically emphasized by ignoring it and concentrating on the [subject] itself.  Personal knowledge is gained by objectification, looking outward not inward. Life itself is the mirror in which the personal image is reflected.

The Photographer as Artist – Creative Vocabulary

In this third article we continue our exploration of photography from the perspective of other artistic disciplines.  The first article was The Photographer as Artist – Introduction.  We introduced the idea that art stands on the Tripod of Artistry, three principles that are common to all arts.  The first leg of the tripod, the expressive capabilities of the medium, were explored in The Photographer as Artist – Expressive Spectrum.  In this article we will look at the second leg – the Creative Vocabulary.

Creative Vocabulary

We all know that to be an effective writer it helps to have a large vocabulary.  It just stands to reason that the larger the writer’s vocabulary, the more effectively he or she can communicate.  Poets probably have the greatest mastery of the language as that is the most condensed form of communication.  This reaches its absolute zenith in haiku, that wonderful form of Japanese poetry that paints the most beautiful images in three lines of 5-7-5 syllables.  Probably the most famous is this exquisite poem from the haiku master, Basho (1644 – 1694).

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No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.

Like Thoreau, who had gone to the woods because he “wished to live deliberately, to front only essential facts of life” and to “transact some private business with the fewest obstacles,” I embraced this endeavor, with some trepidation, to see if I could find what had drawn me so long ago to my art, and to see if I had become as perceptive of nature as I hoped.  “To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself,” wrote Thoreau.

Nature cannot be twisted to our whims, not even for the purpose of capturing her beauty on film.  She must be approached on a level at once aware of both her charms and her harshness.  Hers is not a world solely of “calendar” scenes,,, but one also of mystery and hardness, built of the timeless recycling of energy as creatures and plants die and are reborn.  Thoreau’s “sunrise” is the calendar photograph that comprises what for some is their sole understanding of nature.  My hope was that I would be able to cajole from her something deeper.

{Written as the introduction to Jim’s wonderful book “Chased by the Light” in which he undertakes to expose one frame of file a day for 90 consecutive days from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice in the north woods of Minnesota.  To see the photograph referenced by ‘Thoreau’s “Sunrise”‘ go to Day 10 – Boundary Waters Loons.}