Tag: fine art

“The Photographer as Artist” Presentation

This afternoon I was honored to present “The Photographer as Artist” to about 55 members of the Newport Beach arts community.  The talk was hosted by the Newport Beach Arts Foundation.  The presentation was very well received.  Afterwards people made comments like,

“I expected to see a slide show but was pleasantly surprised to hear your analysis of art and photography.”

“You didn’t give the presentation I expected.  Instead you showed insight into the nature of art and how photography relates to it.”

“I understand better now how photography is an art.”

“Your talk was inspirational.”

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I’m a Photographer, I Don’t Buy Photographs

If you sell fine art photography you hear this a lot, “I don’t need to buy your photographs.  I’ll go there myself and take my own pictures.”

Sure, why not?  We all have digital cameras these days that do a great job of producing really fine pictures – some of the time.  I would never argue with a person with this attitude but even if you’re a great photographer there are good reasons for purchasing other photographer’s works.

I don’t think anyone would argue that it would be a wonder to own an Edward Weston original platinum print.  But let’s look at some factors that are more down to earth.

Let’s start with capturing the best light.  A landscape photograph is nothing without great light.  Usually that’s early in the morning or late in the afternoon although good light can occur any time of day.  Is our intrepid photographer going to be on site a half hour or more before sunrise?  I know from lots of personal experience that you pretty much have a location to yourself before sunrise.  It’s funny to see people just starting to show up, cameras and tripods in hand, after we’ve shot through the best light and now that it’s gone we’re ready for breakfast.

How about subject selection and composition?  We all have our own personal ways of seeing and interacting with the world around us.  How we choose to select a subject, isolate it and place it along with other components into a composition is a very individual process.  The end result says as much about the photographer as it does about the subject, maybe more.  So each work is a unique expression of an individual with his or her own very personal viewpoint.  You see this very clearly at workshops when the participants gather around to share their work.  The diversity is enlightening.

Then we come to post processing.  This is where the photographer’s personality comes forth even more strongly and loudly.  There are many decisions that come between uploading the RAW file and producing the final print.  I’m plagued with false starts in which I have to go back to the RAW file and begin again from square one.  There is a large variation in the techniques different photographers will apply in post processing and hence a large variation in the results.

So, why would a photographer want to by other photographers’ works?  Because there is so much to learn from the photographers you admire and one good way to learn it is to have their works around you every day.

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The Photographer as Artist – Creative Vocabulary

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).

Continue reading “The Photographer as Artist – Creative Vocabulary”

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The Photographer as Artist – Expressive Spectrum

We’re exploring art from the perspective of other artistic disciplines to shed light on what it means to be a photographer and an artist.  (You can read The Photographer as Artist – Introduction.)  We’re doing this because photographers often seem to be expected to meet a “reality standard” that has not been imposed on other artists since the classic period of Greece two thousand years ago – “Did you use a filter?” “Are these colors real?” “Did you manipulate this photograph?”

There are three areas to explore – what I call the Tripod of Artistry – the three legs upon which all arts and artists stand.  This article looks at the first of the three – Expressive Spectrum.

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The Photographer as Artist – Introduction

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the role of the photographer as artist.  I don’t think there’s doubt in anyone’s mind that photography can be a sublime art form. 

But not all photography is art and not all photographers are artists.  Just about everyone has a camera these days.  In fact it seems you can’t buy a cell phone without one.  Virtually everyone is taking pictures but not very many photographers are trying to produce art.

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Wandering in the Fog

I worked on two photographs tonight that have been giving me trouble for the last week or so.  Both were shot in Zion NP.  The one I’ve been working the longest on was what I finished up on tonight.  Hopefully I have it.  We’ll know tomorrow morning.

My point in this post is I often get the feeling I’m wandering in the fog.  You can’t see where you’re going very well and you just stumble around.  You take a step, look around and decide where to go from there.  It’s a slow process.  I make a print.  It takes several minutes for it to come off the printer.  Then I look at it.  Often times it’s very disappointing, especially tonight.  Think about what’s wrong with it for a while, make the changes in PS and make another print.  It’s disappointing so think some more, fiddle in PS some more and make another print.  Hours go by.

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Photoshop Discoveries 2

Use of Spot Healing Brush

I have an image that is a shot of the Eastern Sierra at sunrise.  There are gorgeous clouds hanging over the peaks.  The early morning sun lit them on fire along with the mountains.  It was amazing!

My exposure was pretty close to being right on.  And yet, there was one part of the clouds that technically wasn’t clipped but was very close.  The RGB numbers were not 100% but were in the high 80% to low 90%.  The thing was there wasn’t much detail and it really stood out.

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Welcome Jack Graham

In photography one of the most powerful means of growing is through interactions with the other photographers we meet, be they in workshops or in the field.  Not only do you learn from artists who create amazing photographs but you also build friendships.

One such chance meeting of an outstanding photographer and friend is Jack Graham.  We met on the banks of Mono Lake in October of 2006.  I was there by myself; he was leading a workshop.  We were shooting the South Tufa at sunrise under the harvest moon setting in the west above the imposing Sierra Nevada range.

I added the address to Jack’s blog in the blogroll.  You can also click here.

You’ll also want to be sure to check out his work.  You can click here.

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DxO Impressions 1

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was using DxO now.  I was introduced to the product in November at the Digital Summit workshop in Zion National Park.  It looked pretty interesting and besides I got a deal I couldn’t refuse.  I waited for the release of DxO Optics Pro 5 before jumping in.  There were a lot of improvements made to version 5 that corrected some of the more serious shortcomings of version 4.

First of all, DxO works with RAW images.  And given the sorts of corrections it applies, it makes sense to use DxO before any other RAW converter like LR, ACR or Capture One.  So that’s where it comes in my workflow.  Actually, I generally import RAW images into LR first, review and rank them in LR.  When I determine the images I want to work on I then bring them into DxO and work on them there before returning to LR.

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More Surprises

The First Surprises 

The recovery after the burn holds one surprise after another.  The first surprise was how quickly the thistles started growing back.  They didn’t even wait for rain.  It only took a few weeks and they were sprouting.

 The second surprise was how quickly the grasses came up with just a couple of inches of rain.  And they’ve been nurtured with additional rain and are growing rapidly and spreading.

With the grasses growing the color combination of the hills was rapidly becoming green and black, not a combination of colors that I found particularly appealing.  The colors looked harsh.  I longed for the more familiar greens and browns typical of Southern California hillsides in spring (at least when we’re not in the midst of a drought year).

Well, as they say, be careful of what you wish (or long) for.  You just might get it.

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