by successfulbob | black & white, photography, photography - art quote, photography education
A symphony of sound awakened me this morning as the birds around my home greeted the new day.
Bird song ebbed and swelled in concert as the different species shouted love songs to their mates – or ran off invaders. There was so much going on it was hard to tell exactly…
But I digress.
The avian songs were the inspiration for today’s Sunday Photo/Art Quote as I was reminded that music informs the art of photography. I have been trying to get more ‘notes’ AKA nuances into my images. We have the musicality of notes in the form of light and shadow. The staff that we write upon consists of shadows. The bones of an image so to speak. These bones are overlaid by color in different hues and saturation. Accents can be added by dodging, burning and selectively sharpening areas of an image. Some images have such good bones they can sing their song without the color added as shown by Ansel Adams who gives us today’s quote.
“The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance.” Ansel Adams
Ultimately as the birds inspired the subject and some of the words for today’s Photo Art Quote they also woke me up and I found myself moved to see what yonder light brings. I slipped on my boots and jeans, grabbed my camera and tripod along with a few accessories to see if there was music waiting to be shared.
And now it’s off to the digital darkroom to see if I can come up with a decent performance from the score I created this morning.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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Ansel Adams in 1930 had been training to become a concert pianist while considering a career as a photographer. He decided, after seeing the photographs by Paul Strand, that “the camera, not the piano, would shape [his] destiny.” His mother and aunt both pleaded, “Do not give up the piano! The camera cannot express the human soul!” To which Adams replied, “The camera cannot, but the photographer can.”
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by successfulbob | art books, fine art photography, photography, photography education
5 minutes
12 minutes
15 minutes
45 minutes
These are all times I have spent and will continue to spend studying individual works of art in museums.
OK, maybe the 45 minutes was a little extreme but it was a Monet at a museum in LaHauve, France and I did have a lunch break mixed in there.
Anyway I’ve also been studying art books on painting and color in order to enhance my visual knowledge and vocabulary. I think this is one you can jump into and enjoy if you would like to be a better photographer. It’s called the The Artist’s Eyes by Michael F. Marmor and James G. Raven.
The Artist’s Eyes – Vision and the History of Art book cover.
The Artist’s Eyes goes into detail of how the eye works in receiving and interpreting light, shadow and color in forming images which helps us to understand why art looks the way it does. A handy thought don’t you think?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | imaging competition, photography, photography education, podcast
2014 was a very fine year in my Imaging Competition history. A Silver Photographer of the Year Award in my Photographic Open case entries and a Diamond Photographer of the Year Award for my Master Artist imaging entries.
As I’m doing a podcast for the 12 Elements with Mark Oehler today talking about last years entries and competition in general I thought I’d post the images so anyone listening to the post could view what we are talking about.
Being a member of PPA and participating in Imaging Competition through PPA is one of the fastest ways to improve your photography. I firmly believe without the International Photographic competition I wouldn’t half the photographer I am today. You can check here for the entry information for the 2015 year.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS What’s holding you back? You don’t get into competition to win awards. You get in to learn the craft. Awards come after. If you are waiting until, “My images are good enough.” Then you’ll be waiting a long time…
PPS The awards will come…
by successfulbob | imaging competition, photography, photography competition
Wanna make better images?
I do.
Always.
Which is why I continue to participate in the Imaging Competition through Professional Photographers of America (PPA) after 16 years.
Probably the word Competition should be removed as it implies that you are competing against others as at a sporting event. Not so. You are competing against a standard and your personal past performance. This is an incredible learning opportunity
Entries are open for the International Photographic Competition (IPC).
You can get more details and see a slide show of the 2014 PPA Loan Collection here
If you are a PPA member and not participating in Photographic Competition I believe you are missing out on one of the best benefits of your membership. The feedback you get from putting your images in front of trained fellow photographers is very important. I would have to say that Imaging Competition has been one of the driving forces in making me a better photographer, growing my skills exponentially.
Take advantage of this opportunity. If you get the chance PPA members can view the judging live in Lawrenceville, just outside Atlanta, GA. Another option is to view the judging via the Live Streaming. If you have images in the competition don’t forget to order the critiques for your images. You get a video review with one juror giving you feedback on what was good about your image but even more important how it might be improved.
So get your images together and compete with yourself to be the best photographer and image maker you can be.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | Lumix GH4, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography education
There’s a new inductee into (onto??) the Sound Bites Grill Wall of Fame.
Renee Patrick has a marvelous voice. She was performing with the Steve Sandner Jazz Trio as a guest during Jazz and Juice that has been a Sound Bites Sunday evening staple for a while now.
Renee live on stage followed by an artistic treatment…
Original image captured with the Lumix GH4 1/25th sec f3.2 ISO 1600. The lens is one of my favorites for capturing individual artists on stage the Lumix Vario f2.8. A better camera setting would have been ISO 3200 at f2.8 to give me a bit more sharpness although I do like the movement captured here with her hand slightly blurry… With those settings I would also set the exposure compensation down about 2/3rds to a stop to make sure to not loose the highlights in the LED stage lighting.
Jazz and Juice is Live Jazz with 1/2 price bottles of wine with dinner. My wife Holly and I enjoy catching the Jazz music, good food and a great price on the wine!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
