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I was fortunate enough to have all three photographs accepted for the Orange County Fair this year. And I was very surprised to learn that all three had won awards. To today I finally made it out to the fair and sure enough they all had ribbons.
Death Valley Reflections had an Honorable Mention ribbon.
Bristlecone Moon also had an Honorable Mention ribbon.
And Virgin River and the Watchman had a 2nd Place ribbon.
You can see more of my work at http://RalphNordstromPhotography.com
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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
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.
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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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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As I read more and more about photography in particular and art in general, I come across quotations that resonate. This series of posts will be used to pass these along.
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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.
Continue reading “The Photographer as Artist – Introduction”
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I finally had a chance to perform a test with Genuine Fractals that’s been on my mind for some time. This test was performed on an image from a Canon 10D with a 6 M pixel sensor. The image was blown up to 24″ long at 180 ppi.
Now, there’s no way you can get a super sharp image of that size with a 6 M pixel sensor. So that wasn’t the point of the test. When I previously blew this image up there were a lot of artifacts that were enhanced, especially when I performed the output sharpening. I spent about an hour with clone stamp and healing brush removing these artifacts one by one.
So the point of the test was to see how well the smooth areas were enlarged; that is, if GF could enlarge them without creating these artifacts.
Continue reading “Genuine Fractals Impressions #3”
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