An icon in photography, Ansel Adams wrote quite a bit about photography and created a wealth of quotes to share on the subject. This morning’s quote has to do with thinking about becoming a better photographer. I believe you can accelerate the process if you consciously work at it with thought and purpose.
Today’s quote begs the question. “With what do you fill your mind?”
“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” Ansel Adams
I find the basis of this quote to be true.
About five or six years ago I started spending more time in art museums and studying specific artists. I found myself drawn to the impressionists such as Renoir, Monet, Degas and Van Gogh among others. I picked up this advice from fantastic fellow photographer Thom Rouse and think I have become a better photographer for it. The study o
What kind of things did I learn? The study of how colors work when placed side by side gave me a new insight to look for those color patterns in nature. I found there were more compositional techniques available than the rule of thirds. Using some of these ideas I began to blend multiple images together to create more painterly images.
An artist I met at the Montmartre in Paris. Monsieur Gorghy was my first full ‘painting’ using a technique I’ve dubbed ‘PhotoSynthesis.’
As you can see from the image above it turns out the impressionists began to inhabit my work. It didn’t happen overnight. Some of it was intentional but I recognized that it worked it’s way into other areas of my work as well. I now try to view different genres of art on a regular basis through books, movies, online and, of course, in museums.
Ansel got it right. I ask again, With what are you filling your mind?
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Another wonderful photographer full of artistic ideas is Arthur Rainville You might want to check out some of his very emotive and emotional work.
I’ve always wanted to attempt water droplet photography.
And now I have!
It’s kinda like photographing fireworks in that you never are quite sure what you are going to capture when the shutter is fired, but you don’t have to wait for the Fourth of July either. This is something that could consume me as there are endless variables to throw into the mix. What can change the look of any image? Type of liquid, the color of the fluid, the temperature of the liquid, the size of the drop(s), flash duration, add another flash, and another, change the background color, add color gels on the flash…
Arrghh! It’s fun if a little frustrating at times when you think you have done everything exactly the same but get an entirely different result. I now understand where someone had said that making these images is part science, part art and lots of luck. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The harder I work the luckier I get.” That might not be an exact quote, but you get the idea.
Here’s are some examples from my first couple of days.
This is from day one of playing in the water with splash photography
This from day two shooting. Playing with lights and droplet timing.
Day Three
Day Four with thickened water and new timings for dropping the drops.
As I said, the photographing of the drops is part science and part luck. You can increase your luck by adding to the science in your arsenal. I purchased some help in the form of the Pluto Trigger and the Pluto Valve. The Pluto Trigger is a pretty amazing controller for your camera. In this case, the trigger releases the waterdrops and times the firing of the flash. Even with that control, there are still a lot of variables in play.
And I like it.
In the next couple of days, I’ll share my set-up and some things I learned as I have started this new photography genre.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – I’ve just bought the Pluto Trigger, and like it so much I’ve signed on as an affiliate
That’s an age-old question that has been debated for many years and will continue on into the future. I think it is and this is my blog so until I hear from you otherwise, we will proceed with the concept that photography is art, especially as we push the boundaries with composite work and adding paint strokes with programs like Adobe’s Photoshop and Corel’s Painter.
Which brings me to today’s quote from Alfred.
“I am not a painter, nor an artist. Therefore I can see straight, and that may be my undoing.” – Alfred Stieglitz
We all get to times when we doubt our skills and techniques in making our imagery. I feel like I am in good company, and you should too when I realize that even a talented and renown photographer such as Stieglitz showed that he felt not being loose enough in his thinking was a detriment to his work.
What can we do to make it easier for ourselves in creating our images?
I think number one on the list is to study in the other arts such as painting. You learn a lot about color, composition, and feel to add to your toolbox. More tools, More thought equals better imagery.
When you are searching for these extras for your knowledge base you can find them in books, from discussions with other artists, magazines, the Internet and strangely enough even cartoons. I found this wonderful cartoon from the 50’s from Disney with Donald Duck traveling through Mathmagic Land with great explanations of composition. You can see it below. It’s about 25 minutes long and fun to watch. If you don’t have that much time you can see segments of the video in bite-sized pieces by doing a search on YouTube.
Today is the start of a new feature here on the Successful-Photographer blog. Wandering will have images from a walk around a place with no other objective than to see what images might be gathered. Wandering is a way to keep your eye sharp and experiment with new ideas or test out new gear.
The first stop on the SP wandering tour is Downtown Scottsdale, Arizona. Scottsdale is a high-end community with lots of art galleries and interesting new architecture mixed with buildings built in the ’20’s. I was down in the Valley of the Sun for meetings that started in early morning and stretched into the night with some downtime in the middle of the day. With full sun basting the town I thought it would be fun to put the infrared camera through some paces. For convenience, I mounted the 14-140mm (28-280mm full frame equivalent) on the LifePixel converted IR and set off to see what I could capture.
Fountain on the central circle.
Working on the sign under the palms.
Glowing palms against the modern architecture.
‘Love is…’ bulletin-blackboard outside a restaurant. Even though there was no full sun the infrared capture renders this scene with lots of contrast.
Nordstroms tower architectural detail.
Always having a camera with you allows you to take downtime and turn it into a learning experience. With the light weight and quality of the micro four thirds cameras, it’s easier than ever to always have a reliable capture device with you.
Karen’s exquisite work speaks for itself. I’ll let her tell ‘the rest of the Story.’
“My mother was an artist and my father enjoyed photography, so I’ve been painting and taking photos for as long as I can remember. But I never actually finished anything because I was never encouraged to paint or take photos. So I majored in English in college and after graduating, I worked as a writer and an editor for newspapers, magazines and book publishers, including McGraw-Hill. But I never forgot about art and photography. I minored in art in college and continued to dabble in painting and photography through the years and spent a lot of time in museums and galleries.
“Little did I know that I was creating the perfect skill set for writing the first Painter manual, a gig I got through networking in the New York Mac Users Group in the late 1980s. And I’ve been writing about and teaching Painter ever since.
I never thought of myself as an artist and in the early days, I featured the work of other artists in my Painter tutorials, classes, and books. In 2001, after my talk at the national PPA convention, the editor of PEI, a magazine that was later folded into Professional Photographer Magazine, invited me to do an article about creating my art in Painter. When I said I didn’t paint, she said, “You could do it.” And I did! A little encouragement went a long way, and I use this experience daily teaching photographers to paint. I honestly believe if you think you can paint, you probably can, and I’m here to encourage you to try. It’s amazing how much you can do when someone whispers in your ear; you can do it.
“My involvement with Painter has opened doors that I would never have imagined. In 2003 I started to paint commissioned portraits directly for clients and photographers for their customers. And in 2007 I had my first gallery show in New York of my abstract art. More recently, I was named the exclusively commissioned painter for a TV cover manufacturer.
“So I went from not thinking of myself as an artist to being paid for paintings, which is why I truly believe if I can do it, you can, with study and practice, and I encourage you to try.
Because of my many years teaching Painter, I have many different painting styles because I’m always interested in showing something new. One of the things I like about Painter is experimenting and inventing new looks and styles. I know having a lot of different styles goes against the grain of most photography experts who say you should promote one style, but I look to Picasso, who had many styles during his career. So we’ll call my style eclectic so that I can keep painting in any way I like at the moment.
“I find offering different styles helps sell commissioned portraits to a broader base of clients and photographers. I also offer a variety of styles in my books, videos, and classes. I encourage students to try all the different styles I teach. In this way, they can pick and choose elements to include in their own paintings to create their individual style. Too many times, students paint exactly like someone they studied with instead of finding their own voice and vision.
“If you’ve been thinking about learning to paint, I encourage you to try, and if you’ve been thinking about offering paintings based on your photos to your clients, I urge you to try that, too. And I’m here to either paint for you or to show you how to do it yourself!”
Biography
Karen Sperling is an Elite Corel Painter Master and the original Painter expert—she wrote the first several Painter manuals when the software was first invented, and many published Painter books, including her newly published Painting for Photographers Volume 3, currently available at Amazon.
Karen wrote one of the Forewords and was a featured artist in Cecil Wiliams’ book, Painter Showcase.
Karen has been interviewed on radio and in many podcasts, including Michael Coy’s Cashtography.
Sperling has taught photographers to use Corel Painter at just about every venue there is, including the national Professional Photographers of America (PPA) and WPPI conventions, local PPA affiliates and PPA schools. Photographers travel to study with Karen in Los Angeles from as far away as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and South Africa, and from all around the United States, both in classes and individually.
Karen is known for taking complex art and software concepts and boiling them down into easy-to-follow, thorough steps. Her concise, complete books, tutorials, and classes have made painting accessible to photographers who never thought they could paint, but always wanted to try. Karen demystifies Painter’s mysteries and photographers who study with her report being able to sell their works of art to commissioned portrait clients and in galleries for tens of thousands of dollars.
Clients and photographers alike commission painted portraits by Karen Sperling, an artist in her own right who minored in art in college and who has exhibited her paintings in New York and Los Angeles and during Art Basel Miami Beach.
Tuesday Painterly Photo Art
Nylora-Joy Bruleigh M.Photog., M. Artist, Cr., CPP
I met Nylora when I was speaking and judging at a convention. I was impressed with the animal/people composite work she was creating. After Nylora earned both her Master of Photography and Craftsman Degrees in 2012, she decided it was time to step up her game and take the plunge into entering the Master Artist Category through Professional Photographers of America International Photographic Competition. She shares, “I had no idea these would become my favorite type of images to create! I quickly determined after creating my first image that I had to make a series. By doing this, not only did it give me a place to start but it helped me move from one image to another. The series I began with is titled Once Upon a Time and is all inspired from fairytales.”
“I am lucky to have young women that are willing to model for me whenever I need them too. I connected with a local modeling agency early on in this adventure. I can contact them with the look I need, and they send me options, and we go from there! When I decide on a new image, I pull all my ideas together and start piecing the parts together. For this picture, I found this mirror at a yard sale for a couple of dollars, had the costume from an after Halloween sale and had the table in my stash. The model was someone I had photographed before, and the man in the mirror is my husband taken with a flashlight in the bathroom! I also work with a local makeup artist.
“Most of the time, I have a good idea of what the finished image will look like before I even start, sometimes that is how the final image looks, and sometimes I make some changes along the way. The trick is to keep an open mind and be willing to go with the flow of what the process tells you to do.”
Here are a couple of others from her fairy tales series.
“Another series that I have been working on is my Animal Series. This was inspired by my daughter who loves animals. I found a young lady that was happy to do it. I have spent some time at the zoo photographing all the animals knowing that I would be using them for this next series posed with young ladies to tell a story. All of the animals are shot first in their environment, and then I look through and decide what look I want and what the story will be. Then I photograph the women in the studio to fit with the animal so that I can get the pose and light for the subjects to match and then add the background.”
“I would encourage you to push yourself and try something new with your photography every chance you get! Not only will it keep you from getting in a rut with your work and keep things fresh but it will continue to inspire you and create new idea! It may just change the course you are on!”
Nylora-Joy Bruleigh’s Biography
Nylora Bruleigh has been specializing in women’s portraiture. In 2009 Bruleigh decided she needed a more creative outlet and started focusing on a more fine art feel to her portraits.
Bruleigh travels New England teaching seminars about creating fine art portraiture and training others to look inside themselves to set up their thought provoking pieces. In 2012 she received both her Master Photographer and Photographic Craftsman Degrees. In 2015 Bruleigh received her Master Artist Degree through PPA and is proudly the only one in her state of NH to hold that degree. She has many international awards for her fine art and portrait work most including 2 top 10 awards for the GIA, the Kodak Gallery Elite and most recently received the Canon Par Excellence Award in the Master Artist Category Northeast Districts.
You can see more of Bruleigh’s work in her book titled “Fine Art Portrait Photography” published by Amherst Media.
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!
Cameras Get Smarter -
A High Speed Smart Camera Remote
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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.
“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” Ansel Adams
