Many photographers ask me, “Where do you get your ideas?”
And because I believe this artist says it ever so much better than I do I think I’ll turn most today’s Photo/Art Quote over to Chuck Close from a Facebook Post in Patron of the Arts.
“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.” Chuck Close
“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.” – Chuck Close
If you haven’t heard of Chuck before make sure you read up on his story and take a look at his work(remember these pieces can be HUGE) and his web site and you will be even more inspired to follow his advice and thoughts.
Here’s a different time lapse from the same location as a few days ago at Sound Bites Grill. Was able to set the tripod up on the deck that overlooks this wonderful scenery in Sedona.
This time I set the camera behind a red rock stone column in order to stay out of the gusts of wind that caused some extra work on my last time lapse at this location. I also unclasped the camera strap and tied down the camera for even more stability. I was able to do this quickly because I have the Peak Design Camera Strap. I really enjoy the ability to quickly be able to remove the camera strap when shooting video or time lapse images. This cuts down on the wind profile of the gear leading to to steadier capture. It also make it easy to change the type of strap if I’d rather use a wrist strap instead of over the shoulder. This is a pretty cool system with lots of options.
But I digress… How about the video Bob? Here you go…
Sunset time lapse in Sedona
I used similar settings as the last time lapse on the Lumix GX8 capturing a frame every three seconds processing out to a 4K video .MP4 in camera at 24 frames per second. Then taking that video into Adobe premiere Pro to add some Ken Burns movement through the scene.
I was hoping that the clouds your view scudding across the scene were going to be there as the sun snuck beneath the horizon and giving spectacular color, but alas, it did not. Such are the vagaries of predicting the weather.
Of note, as you study this time lapse be aware of the look of the red rocks after the sun has gone down and the sky begins to move toward cobalt blue and the density range begins to tighten up. This is an ideal time to capture the red rocks as the light is being reflected off of clouds and there’s lots of depth and dimension and beautiful color. I can’t tell you the number of times I will be at a scene with other photographers and they pack it up and leave moments after the sun sets. I wait that extra fifteen to twenty minutes AFTER the sun goes down to get much more intense images. Does it always work? Nope. but way more often than you might think and the rewards are worth it. I’ll address this in more detail in a future post.
Lately I’ve been capturing time lapse sequences of sunsets here in Sedona, Arizona. And by photographing them I seem to have reprogrammed my brain for the way it sees light change. Almost as if by capturing and working with images that compress time into a shorter period I am extending my vision of light and time.
Let me explain.
Because of this new awareness I am now seeing the shadows slowly crawl across a scene as if I am becoming hyper-aware of the changes. Capturing a time lapse makes you take time to slow down because it takes a fair number of images created over a relatively long time period to have enough material. In a sense it becomes a meditation.
Now in this particular case it was a bonus to set the camera up then retire to the bar to observe the changes taking place which was a fun way to work/play on a personal project. My wife and I got to enjoy a glass of happy hour wine and one of their stellar appetizers. (it was the calamari, cooked perfectly and served with a sweet/spicy sauce over a bed of carrots and light greens)
Images captured with the Lumix GX8 & 12-35mm f2.8 Vario lens. Time lapse was processed in camera then imported to Adobe Premeire CC 2015 for processing slight movement. I was hoping that the clouds you saw in the beginning of the video would have hung around and colored up to spectacular… and they did as they moved out of the frame. Color was bright salmon to the south… Oh well, still nice movement of light on the red rocks.
Last night I had the honor & pleasure of sharing some thoughts & ideas with the students of Gene Devine’s Business Operations and Management for Photographers class at the Art Institute of Phoenix. It was a great group who asked the right questions about being in business.
I’m very glad that this kind of a course is available for those working to become professional photographers. The business of running a photography business is often neglected in classroom environments. Sure we all want to create fabulous photographs & art! But if we don’t understand how to market, price our work, run the business and know if we are making a profit or not we won’t be around very long as professionals.
Instructor Gene Devine ‘awarding’ me the Art Institute Cup! (so proud!)
If you are newer to photography as a business make sure you learn as much as you can about marketing, pricing, negotiation skills, bookkeeping and staying profitable. If you’ve been around the block a few times & are making it as a pro get out and share your business acumen with high school, college and other groups learning how it should be done to stay successful.
Paraphrasing here but you’ll get the idea. The lyrics go something like this,
“I want it all, I want it all, AND I WANT IT NOW!!’
We live in a very now society. Information is almost instantaneous. Look at the web. I just typed the search term photography into my browser and had access to About 1,020,000,000 results (0.66 seconds) from Google. Holy Crap! The reason I bring this up is that technology has spoiled us in many ways. This quick access to information has spread to the ability of cameras to give us a quick result that’s good enough. AKA in focus and a decent exposure.
This leads to two things I’ve noticed. The lament that a photographer isn’t creating ‘enough’. Enough new or exciting or different images. Or worse. A photographer thinking that they are creating wonderful images and not receiving the just kudos.
Let us now move on to today’s quote.
“If I have any ‘message’ worth giving to a beginner it is that there are no short cuts in photography.” Edward Weston
Granted that when Weston shared this quote the processes for attaining images was more difficult than we have at our disposal today. But the abiltiy to see, and bring that vision, to our final images still takes knowledge and time.
Practice. Experimentation. Study. Making mistakes. Education. And, more practice. Push the limits of the new tech.
Rinse and repeat.
Don’t do the same thing over and over and expect different results. That’s someone’s definition of insanity often attributed to Einstein.
That is what ultimately leads to creating compelling imagery.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – What are you doing daily, or weekly, to take your image creation skills to the next level?
PPS – Esoterica – Weston was pushing the material he had at hand. For example, in his iconic studio photographs of the peppers and nautilus shells did you know that the low rated ISO of the sheet film used made it necessary for very long exposures? Some as long as 4½ hours!!
For infrared conversion of my cameras I use LifePixel. Infrared allows you to put an older camera to use and opens up a new time time of day for productive image creation.
Fotopro tripods are well worth checking out. You can learn about the ones I use and recommend by clicking on the Fotopro Tripods link at the top of this page. If you want to see what other tripods might fit your needs check out the Fotopro.com website. Check back with me before you buy as a Fotopro Ambassador I’m able to get you discounted pricing including complementary continental USA shipping for my followers that you won’t find through retail outlets.
Learn Photoshop in a fun environment. Aaron Nace applies the right amount of fun with easy to understand and follow tutorials. Actions and brushes are included with lessons!
Lightning, waterdroplets, sound, time-lapse, HDR sequences, smiles and much more control for your camera!
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Platypod has become a great resource for being creative in getting your camera gear easily into unusual places. As an Platypod Pro I get to work/play with the gear even before it comes out. Head over to Platypod, subscribe to the newsletter and you will get special discounts reserved only for subscribers.
“Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.” Chuck Close
