Glass Blowing —

I have two pairs of eyes – one to paint and one to take photographs… — Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Dialogue With Photography by Paul Hill , ISBN: 0948797665

Friday July 31, 2020

What Do You “See”?

Cartier-Bresson’s decisive moment comes when ‘the picture in one glance says everything and says it in terms of design, rhythm, pattern – every element in strong relationship with all the others… Photography is a matter of visual geometry’. I recall him telling me ‘Order and organization are the educated heart of a picture. —Margaret R. Weiss – Saturday Review – World, January 1974. [cited in: “Creative Camera” May 1974, p. 148]

Being able to “See” is the real point. Most people barely look. Look at what’s around you, the shapes, the light. Do the shadows inspire you?

When we first get passed a certain level of curiosity and try to create anything. That first attempt should inspire one to develop the inner vision. Yeah it’s a frustrating road and we might look at our earliest work and all we see are the flaws! But we learn. We cross paths with people who feel it’s all nonsense and say just create! Sure you can do that! Never stop Creating and that’s the point! Never Stop where it gets in your normal habit to lift up your camera to your face. Make it your Normal. But those people are also missing a very important concept. As Artists we learn habits that become repetitive. How do we create better images if we do things the exact same way?

Learning New Concepts and ideas. Anyone can make a picture using the tools available. Take a picture of a rock or several rocks for instance. How many pictures or paintings of rocks are out there in the world? We all do it right? There are those out there that can make Rocks look like a beautiful work of art. There are those out there when you look at the piece of work and you say “OK it’s a Rock” what’s the big deal. Others make you say what am I looking at? Get the point? Hmm what did that person do to make that image of a Rock stand out so people will look at it and say “Now that’s Beautiful! That’s Art!”?

Some people have a Natural ability where others just simply don’t! Every once in a while I’ll take a Photography Class. Depending on my mood or sometimes what’s available I might even take a Beginner Class. Why? Sometimes we loose site of what’s important. The desire to learn, the desire to create. Picking up a tool and creating without learning how to use that tool or set of tools is self defeating at best. A beginner has an amount of Hunger that is beyond comprehension! It’s frustrating in the eyes of a beginner who wants to create but doesn’t understand the concepts of Camera usage. By camera, I’m talking about all the settings including the various other options that affect the image.

It’s been a long while and I remember the last beginner class I had taken. There were two people, students in the class who stood out from everyone else who were using P&S cameras. I can’t remember if they knew each other but I don’t think so, they never sat together. One older gentleman showed images more like beautiful works of Architecture from inside a Mall. He was able to capture interesting angles and shadows that were simply breathtaking. The woman also had outstanding images and both of them I can see being represented by Art Galleries. That’s how much both artists impressed me.

What did they do differently?

Knowledge! But knowledge of what? That’s the trick isn’t it. Those images from both of those students made the rest of the class go: W T F I can’t stress this enough: What did they do differently that made there images Magnificent?

No! It wasn’t the Brand Camera or the Lens that made or created the pictures! It was them! It was those people!

Can you do what your currently doing to create these kinds of high level Art? Do you want to improve your level of skill to accomplish this? It’s Not Going to happen overnight! What do you need to learn to do this?

Have a Great Weekend everyone!

Tribute to a Friend

Friends!

What makes a friend special? Friends can sometimes fit into a place that just completes your World. The laughter and the silliness! Even arguing but disagreements are also natural. But it’s the emptiness, the dark void of silence. The commonality that brings you together also makes you miss those who are no longer in this world!

Today, you left us 4 years ago and how things have changed? We thought when we retired we could do stupid stuff during the days and just chill back when the people that we worked with would still be carrying on.

Well I’m retired 2 years now. The World has gone absolutely Insane and into a Rabbit Hole that has no bottom. Football has been completely absent from the Sports Networks. So I guess it makes it a drop easier not reaching for my cell to call you and tell you to catch the latest Soccer Match or that Your Team is Loosing to mine!

Ya know they’re full of $hit…….. it’s been 4 years since you’ve lost the Great Battle with Cancer. it still feels like yesterday since we last spoke..

RIP Carlos

Flashback Visions!!

Photography is a medium of formidable contradictions. It is both ridiculously easy and almost impossibly difficult. It is easy because its technical rudiments can readily be mastered by anyone with a few simple instructions. It is difficult because, while the artist working in any other medium begins with a blank surface and gradually brings his conception into being, the photographer is the only imagemaker who begins with the picture completed. His emotions, his knowledge, and his native talent are brought into focus and fixed beyond recall the moment the shutter of his camera has closed. — —— Edward Steichen

Friday July 10, 2020

117th Day of Captivity

Because of the Virus most if not all museums are closed to the personal experience. I’ve been noticing more and more postings about virtual Museum Tours and one name jumped out at me, to such a point I had several flashbacks of the old days in Art Class. As photographers it is our responsibility to learn where we came from and how we got to where we are now. If we wish to take this farther and imagine ourselves being original in our creations then we must study what was accomplished beforehand lest we just create something that someone else has before us. A Prime example of this are the Lawsuits where one musician takes another musician to court because a song obviously sounds similar to the one that was created previously.

Now on the other hand as Photographers we learn from previous works. One Photography Group on Facebook I’m a member of, someone had shared an image of a beautiful model he had shot. She immediately reminded me of the famous painting “Girl with Pearl Earing”. Her features were very similar and I had made a comment that he should see about trying to recreate that using her as the model. If your not familiar with it just do a search for “Girl with Pearl Earing” and it will show up.

So going back to the Virtual Tours Georgia O’Keefe’s name had popped up. She is known for her Oil Paintings more than her photography but because she was sponsored by a major photography name. She is directly related to the Photographic Arts as well. For some reason I’ve always had a problem with understanding or feelings for anything to do with “Abstract Art”. Maybe a mental block and my mind just doesn’t go that way! So in my head when I saw O’Keefe’s name pop up I had a scene inside my head of an animals skull with horns. Probably a cow but is typically known for The Southern Midwestern Art. Light, Shadows, Color and Textures are what she’s famous for.

That is exactly where we learn from. Take a flower or a piece of fruit and lay it on a piece of a slightly crumpled napkin or paper towel by a window and start shooting. Play with it under different lighting conditions at different times of day. Play with the background in any fashion you desire. Keep doing it until you work it under any and all conditions you can come up with. Write them down if you have to so you don’t repeat yourself. Exhaust it till you can’t come up with anything else that’s different. Now that you have the easy one’s out of the way, you must Force Yourself to go farther. Push yourself to do something Out of the Box! Be creative!

This has always been a major teaching lesson in any advanced Art Class I’ve ever taken. It forces you to not only see! It forces you to challenge your ability to Understand and Feel your subject! We are stuck in stay in place so might as well try something New!

Here’s one I did a long time ago. It was a neighbor’s flower in a flower pot sitting on the stoop. It was calling me and no matter what I did I was just not happy with it so I had shot the flower in all different kinds of light. This image is the Only one from that series that I liked. The second image below is the only other one from that series I had pushed up to WordPress. I still haven’t purchased a New Laptop to access my External Drives to show more. I think you get the idea of what I’m trying to say? If I can influence you in anyway to be more creative then my job is done.

Be well! Be Safe!

Retrospective

Friday July 3rd, 2020

My early childhood equipped me really well for my portrait work: The quick encounter, where you are not going to know the subject for very long. These days I am much more comfortable with the fifteen minute relationship, than I am with a life long relationship. — Annie Leibovitz

I am involved in several Photography Groups on Facebook. One Group is specifically for beginners in photography and with those more experienced and more knowledgeable giving a helping hand where needed.

A friend of mine who actually is a member of two other Photography Groups had posted two very lovely images of flowers on her own timeline. Upon request she had given me permission to share these on the beginner group. I automatically gave her photo credit and with the added benefit of my Administrative Powers I was able to turn Comments Off for those particular images. Just in case they would link back to her page I thought it very inappropriate for questions or ideas to be shared. I created two threads to discuss said images.

One person who happens to be very new to the group made some very interesting observations of one particular image. Mentioning about where the image was leading the viewers eye as well as to question a part of the composition where a brighter color was peaking its way into the background.

Keeping in mind that the basic skill set and knowledge starts at proper exposure and knowing what and how all the buttons, knobs and menu choices effect the image. An add on to these basic set of skills is understanding and putting into practice the concepts of Composition.

Beginning photographers have a tendency to get caught up into a particular lesson where they find comfort and settle in so as to Not accept further information or ideas. It then becomes difficult to get them to open their minds for further understanding. As funny as this sounds this Is the one actual situation that will give the instructor or mentor the understanding as to whether this person will succeed to higher levels of artistic abilities. Blah Blah Blah this is probably the reality of a student thinking they have enough knowledge to succeed on they’re own!

I’ve been doing this teaching photography thing soo very long that I can see this situation ahead of time and trying to avoid it becomes problematic to opening up the mind so as to not get caught up in a learning loop. Each student is obviously different and certain situations has a cause and effect. When you listen to an open mind pointing to things and questioning the reason of what the artist decided to do on things on a much higher level than the students comprehension. Is soo humbling as to make one be a witness to a possible one of a kind that one special person. I can’t explain it any better.

What’s the next lesson after all this? Lighting! Using reflectors to bounce natural or added lights to a particular area to help balance the overall subject. Adding Lights to give the darker areas some help in balancing and bringing that dark zone into a more acceptable tier.

Natural Light is the best light. Sometimes this light needs a drop of help when it comes to an artistic photography situation. The artificial methods used in capturing a scene with today’s technology is still way behind the capabilities of the human eye. A Photographer still needs to understand that using extra tools will help make an image better than the current limitations.

The one difficult problem is when is enough enough? During shooting we can be creative in bring all parts of the image within proper levels to fulfill the Exposure Triangle. It’s the Editing part that can either make or break the final results. If a part of the image is overworked the editing becomes obvious. It is way too easy to develop an obsession and become fixated on a certain part of an image if it becomes troublesome. This is when experience kicks in to say enough!

We’ve all heard the stories from a magazine article when a model has been retouched in some way and readers get offended because it’s misrepresenting the product or model in some way? I’ve actually heard people say they are against editing of any kind! Look to each their own but it’s comparable to a baker putting all the ingredients into a pan then Not placing that pan into the Oven! If the average person is soo offended by a slight error in editing wouldn’t it be fun to show them how much a finished image in a magazine is actually changed from the original? Ha

Let’s see which image should I use?

This image was taken during a photo workshop I was part of. This particular image was from when we moved to the buildings roof and I had grabbed this because it just looked good, at the time. There were problems though. An electric cable laying on the floor. Distracting other objects also in the frame. This one image was a good lesson for me to help my editing skill set in image repair.

Have a Great Weekend everyone! Stay Safe! Wear Protective Face Coverings when needed. For those in the States with us Have a Happy 4th of July Celebrations!