by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
Think about images that stay with you.
Here’s one of mine. I remember a framed Cezanne print that hung in the dining room when I was growing up. It was a simple table setting called Apples and Oranges done in muted yet attractive colors. Under the table was a shadowy figure and I was always curious what that person was doing there. I found an air of mystery that tended to haunt me after playing back the image in my mind.
Apples and Oranges available as a print here.
Another was from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was an almost life size painting of a bedoin prince in white robes. He was adorned with jewels. The lighting? Exquisite! The rendering by the artist of the metal and details like the hair on his knuckles was stellar. I thought it was possible that I was just amazed by this art because of it’s size. Not true. Upon revisiting this art several times I am continually amazed by this piece.
Moorish Chief at the Philadelphia Museum of Art by Austrian Eduard Charlemont
Oil on panel 59 1/8 x 38 1/2 inches (150.2 x 97.8 cm)
Photographs that captured your attention and keep coming back to visit in your mind. They usually have touched a cord inside of you for one reason or another. I believe that Paul Cezanne has given us twelve words and a thought process that will help us to create better, more memorable images. Start with the emotion and find a way to tell the story more deeply and people will find your images more memorable.
How to get the emotion into your image? I suppose it depends on the emotion you are trying to elicit in the viewer. Happy, sad, love, jubilant, sad, placid, agitated, angry, frustrated (don’t ask flight attendants at the end of a four day run for emotional words)
A quick trip to Wikipedia say about emotion: …Emotion is a subjective, conscious experience characterized primarily by psychophysiological expressions, biological reactions, and mental states. Emotion is often the driving force behind motivation, positive or negative.An alternative definition of emotion is a “positive or negative experience that is associated with a particular pattern of physiological activity.”
I find that images that have shadows have more depth and tend to strike a cord more deeply than those that are brightly lit. Bright colors elicit energetic thoughts. Bright colors with wonderful shadows are even more powerful. Shadows with a soft edge transition tend to be more pleasing than high contrast shadows which tend to jar the viewer. Somber, muted, warm tone colors convey quiet.
The idea here is to begin to think of the emotion first then figure the best way to convey it. Now, how will I create a Tango image that shows all the power and grace of the movement??? Time to start thinking… thanks to Paul.
“A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” Paul Cezanne
by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography
I’m getting ready to do a couple classes a little later this AM (9/28) at Pictureline in Salt Lake City, Utah for Digitalfest.
Had the pleasure of getting out and photographing some areas off in the mountains. I gotta tell you this is one pretty place! I made a panorama photograph using the Panasonic Lumix GX7. The in-camera photo stitching continues to make me grin… The file is sweet straight out of camera. A tiny little tweak of the color using Adobe Camera RAW followed by adding a slight vingette was all that was done in post. This was photographed standing on the roo of the car in order to just get above the treeline to let the snow covered mountains in the middle-ground sneak up a bit in the frame. Let me know what you think.
Utah Panoramic phototography of mountains near Salt Lake City.
by successfulbob | architectural photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, panorama
On my way to the airport after speaking at the professional photographers of Michigan convention I was able to spend a few minutes with Jim downtown Grand Rapids along the river with all the art that’s installed right now. He gave me a great chance to play with the LumixGX7. I’m really enjoying the panoramic capabilities of the in camera stitching and the way the final output comes. Here are a couple images from the shoot.
Riverfront image along the Grand River in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Airport entrance in Grand Rapids, Michigan
by successfulbob | fine art photography, Lumix GH3, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education, photography seminar
What a great group in Michigan. Friendly, fun and really important – attentive when class was in session. Shared my ‘Photo-Synthesis’ Fine Art Photography program with PPM. Spoke about 4 1/2 hours. In addition to the Photoshop techniques I shared how much I like the small size and nice files to work with from my LumixGX7 and GH3.
Below are a few testimonials from the students about the program and presentation style. It was fulfilling on many levels from garnering new friendships, learning from the older members who shared their stories and adventures in photography, and being able to give back to the industry that has given me so much. Kudos to Panasonic for sponsoring my sharing to other photographers…
Photo courtesy of Carol Fabrizio, M.Photog. Fabrizio Fine Art Photography Flushing, MI cfabriziophoto.com
“I’m Darcy current president of the professional photographers of Michigan and Bob Coates was at our annual convention and Bob was awesome. Let me tell you we learned everything and my brain is just fried right now. We learn a ton from Bob. From beginners to experts, all took something home to help with their art. I recommend Bob highly to any organization that wants to hire him.” Darcy Olson, CPP – Darcy Olson Photography
“Hi Bob;
Your presentation at PPM Fall Focus Monday afternoon was awesome. It is probably the type of program that should be enjoyed first thing in the day and not after lunch as you present so much material, that I reached brain overload well before you stopped….. Your passion and high energy is definitely infused in your presentation.”
Steve
by successfulbob | Lumix GX7
I just came back from doing a program in Michigan for the Professional Photographers of Michigan. The program was on my ‘Photo – Synthesis’ system of creating art from photographic images. When I do these programs I always try to use images from the area that were captured within the 24 hour period before the program begins. This time I thought I’d give myself a really strong challenge. II wandered around the parking lot with my LumixGX7 and found a paper clip in the parking lot that had been weathered and run over by cars and was bent and just a (beautiful) mess. And I made the attempt to create art from said paperclip. There was also a stone fountain out front with a lot of different slate plates that I was able to photograph to gather textures. When I announced to the class what I was going to do I saw looks of horror, bewilderment and just plain disbelief.
I continued anyway.
About one third of the way through the program I started to feel that maybe I had made a mistake. I wasn’t sure this was going to be successful… I persevered. Everyone had an opportunity to see the thought process as I work toward creating artistic images from simple objects. I’ll let you decide – but here’s the before and after photographs from the great paperclip experiment along with some thoughts from the attendees…
“Bob, Your presentation for the Michigan photographers was excellent and refreshing. You gave so much and were clear and understandable, making learning comfortable as well as thorough. Great educational experience!”
Most sincerely,
Helen Yancy, M.Photog, M.Artist, MEI, Cr. Hon.M.Photog.
F–ASP, Hon.F-ASP, EA-ASP, Hon.EA-ASP, CPP, API
Past President, Professional photographers of America
facebook.com/helenyancy.fineart
facebook.com/helen.yancy
www.helenyancystudio.com
“Hi Bob;
Your presentation at PPM Fall Focus Monday afternoon was awesome. It is probably the type of program that should be enjoyed first thing in the day and not after lunch as you present so much material, that I reached brain overload well before you stopped. I thought I knew a little something about Photoshop and after experiencing your presentation I realized that I indeed knew A LITTLE SOMETHING, very little. You take layer masking to a new level. My mind is still trying to process everything you presented, and it feels like a plug-in device that cannot be unplugged because it is still active. I wouldn’t know where to begin to talk about what you presented, the paper clip, the “step and repeat”, the slide show, the video, your delivery, all of it was attention getting, even after I had reached a saturation point and my brain felt like “there was no more rooms left at the inn”.
Your passion and high energy is definitely infused in your presentation.”
Steve
