by successfulbob | fine art photography, photography, photography creativity, photography education, photography marketing
Lens Based Artist
It’s been a little tough to get blog posts up and out lately. Our Internet provider has been having some problems and being downstream of those problems has led to slow to non-existent connection to the world. For that, I apologize.
Sometimes you don’t realize how much time is spent connected to the Internet, and how dependent we are, until you don’t have access. This is probably a good reminder for me. In the meantime, it has affected my workflow a fair amount. (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!)
That said, I have some news to share and a new way to connect so you can hear it. (using the hotspot on my phone)
As you may know, I heave begun working toward moving my photography business to the conceptual art market. I’ve even started a new brand and will be slowly transferring my marketing to the art side. I heard Julianne Kost mention the term Lens Based Artist and it resonated with me. I’m still a photographer and probably always will be but the art I’m producing is far beyond capture and simple processing of a photographic image. It is only the beginning.
Here’s my new logo.
Here is an example of the type of imagery on which I am working. You may recognize some of the techniques from classes I have taught over the years, which I call PhotoSynthesis. It uses multiple images, Adobe Photoshop layers, masks, blend modes, brushes and more to create the final art piece.
“Horn in F” – PhotoSynthesis Lens Based Art
New shirts with embroidered logos. Made by Queensboro
Shirts are already embroidered. A wax seal has been created to help set my signature apart. Vehicle signage is being designed. And I have an opening at an art gallery as Artist of the Month which I’ll let you know about later.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – You get $20 off when you use this link to get your own embroidered shirts from Queensboro
by successfulbob | bird photography, fine art photography, flower photography, imaging competition, photography, photography competition, photography creativity
Professional Photographers of America
Southwest District – Artist Category
The other day I shared the Photographic Open results for the PPA Southwest District Photographic Competition. Today I share my results from the Artist Competition. All four images were judged to be of Merit category quality. They all scored in the low 80’s to earn a District Seal.. Because they did not score above an 85, they will not have a chance to be judged for the PPA Loan Collection. Very proud of these results. With all four being judged a Merit when they are entered into the International Photographic Competition (IPC) I will earn a Bronze medal in the August judging and receive it at the convention next year in Atlanta.
This image is titled Grand Opening. I’ve been experimenting with some new techniques with art brushes in some of my art.
The judging in the Artist Category is, of course, on the final image but also the transformation from the original to the final is examined for the amount of change and how well those changes to the image were accomplished. That is why there is a reference image. This allows the judges to see the starting point of the project.
Hummingbird Study is the transformation of a slightly underexposed image of the bird that was extracted from the scene and worked into an artistic background
A dragonfly pausing in the morning light becomes transformed with some Layers of texture and various color and lighting treatments.
This rose has moved from a photo to a classical feel of a painting. In all cases, there are many renditions of an image as it goes through the transformation process.
I participate to keep myself motivated to learn new techniques and ways of processing images so I can stretch my artistic goals. I am so very fortunate to be working in a medium that has the untold potential for transforming images. If I ever felt that I had mastered the medium entirely, it would be time to move on to the next adventure.
Still way too much to learn and share!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | fine art photography, graphic design, inspiration, Lumix G9, photography, photography creativity, photography gear
It’s Good To Have A Muse
Having a fellow artist who encourages you to explore new areas and ideas within your specialty is a fabulous tool to supplement your creativity.
Meet Pash.
She is my muse.
Pash Galbavy – Learn more check out her website
Pash is a life model, dancer, mask maker and performance artist. Her tagline is ‘Masks, Movement, Modeling and More.’ She often is performing new concepts and pushing boundaries that inspire and inform new work for me. Just yesterday Pash asked if I would cover a life posing event for her with her artist group. This day would find Pash and her group at the gallery of John and Ruth Waddell in Cornville, AZ. The Waddells have created a magical space with bronze sculptures dancing and cavorting around the property. A truly magical area that Pash enhanced with her interaction while the artists sketched and drew their interpretations of the scene.
Pash in a pose integrated with John Waddell’s bronze
Pash asking me to photograph and document her event had me make this image
Which led to me isolating some areas in moving toward a new piece of art
Working sketch experimenting with beginning textures
A picture I am currently calling ‘Merge’ (working title)
Images such as this are put together utilizing multiple photos of textures blended using Adobe Photoshop Layers, Color Modes, Blend Modes, and Masks. I sometimes will experiment with ten to twenty different versions before settling on a final image. This one is getting pretty close.
Images in this post were captured with the Lumix G9 and the Leica 12-60mm f2.8-4 lens.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | bird photography, fine art photography, Lumix G9, LumixGH5, photography, photography gear, wildlife photography
Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge – Part Three
If you have followed my work for any length of time, you know that I enjoy moving my work into a more painting-based look. I have taken a term I heard from Julianne Kost and adopted it for my new business. “Lens Based Artist.” I have decided to start promoting my more art based images and have begun gallery representation and selling my work as art.
More on that in future posts. (things are starting to take off. YAY!)
Back to Blackwater images and the post-processing. Here are a few photos of which I have played using the PhotoSynthesis process I have been working on over the years.
Geese in Flight. Love the wing positions and pattern of the birds in the sky.
I worked on this image on the plane while en route back to Arizona from my speaking engagement in Maryland where the images were captured. My seatmate was fascinated by the process, and I talked him through my thinking as I worked on the photo. There are several layers of multiple images blended using Adobe Photoshop’s blend Modes and masks. The geese in flight created their art with all the different wing positions. I was able to capture their flight using the **Lumix GH5 and the Leica 100-400mm lens. The reach of this lens with the stabilization in the camera are making captures such as this easier than ever.
Great Blue Heron on the shoreline.
After working on the piece and adding layers of textures, I pulled the image into Skylum’s Focus CK (part of the Creative Kit or available as a stand-alone) to add a bit of selective sharpness to the subject and vignette and slight blurring to the rest of the image. I use this tool in the Macro setting quite often. I could do the same thing directly in Photoshop, but it would take much more time and many more steps to accomplish the same thing. Plugins are very handy. I decide whether to purchase plugins based on how often I perform specific techniques. When I find the plugin saves me the time or makes it possible for me to do something I would not be able to accomplish otherwise, I buy.
Heron in Flight – All images are © Bob Coates Photography – All Rights Reserved
I don’t think any of these images are ‘ready for prime time’ as yet. I think of them as sketches testing ideas and pointing to the direction I wish to go.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
** I’ll be using the Lumix G9 in the future for most of my wildlife shooting. Designed with the stills photographer in mind, it adds 6 1/2 stops of handholdabilty (GH5 has 5) along with a better grip and button design for still photographers.
by successfulbob | fine art photography, fine art portrait, people photography, photography creativity, tuesday painterly photo art
Tuesday Painterly Art – Kristi Elias
I have watched Kristi grow and set her work apart from others on so many levels. It has been an amazing journey to watch. Here is some of Kristi’s work and words to inspire you in your artistic quest in photography. While Kristi’s images do not involve painting per se they have a distinctive art feel to them. I turn this post over to Kristi.
Look carefully at this image and check out the background build.
(not to mention the build and definition on the fighter) – image © Kristi Sutton Elias
Original capture. Note the kicker lights that help with background separation and extraction.
image © Kristi Sutton Elias
“I am a fine art portrait photographer, a good portion of my work is conceptual composites. I create between 40-over 60 composites a week for client orders, some are more involved than others. The amount of time to create the composite varies depending on if I am reinventing the wheel and creating a new concept and artwork from scratch or re-creating a piece that I have created for another client before.
After processing. image © Kristi Sutton Elias
Original capture. image © Kristi Sutton Elias
“Most of my backgrounds were taken during our vacations, I pick vacation spots based on images I would like to create. Medieval and abandoned castles are my favorite, this year we are going back to Europe and I already have a shot list of where I want to go.
Original captures. See the final below. (I merged the three images original for this illustration: ED.)
image © Kristi Sutton Elias
Final image © Kristi Sutton Elias
“After I shoot a session, I upload my images into lightroom and cull through them rating my favorites. After that, I will open my selected image into photoshop and create the composite. Sometimes my composites could be 5 images put together to create the final image and sometimes just 2 images. After I have created my final composite, I use NIK Software Color EFX Pro 4 to create my final vision. I have a few go-to tools that I like to use, but overall each image is treated differently as its own piece of art. Some of my go-to’s are dark contrast and bleach bypass and darken lighten center. The best thing to do is go through all the filters and see what each one does and play with all the levels. Before I start an edit I look at the image and decide what color pallets, hues, and mood I want the final image to portray. I have created hand-painted backgrounds that I photographed and use for textures in my work.
image © Kristi Sutton Elias
Starting with a well-lit capture that has depth and dimension makes selling the final image that much easier image © Kristi Sutton Elias
“Another important part involved in my editing, I listen to Love songs or country love songs on pandora while I edit. Mood music :).”
www.KristiElias.com (Masterpiece Portraits)
www.KristiSuttonElias.com (Editorial and Advertising)
Kristi will be teaching a week long class on “The Fine Art of Portraiture” at Texas school this year. Click on the link to learn more about the class. It will be a very creative and fun class!
https://www.texasschool.org/speaker-lineup/kristie-elias/
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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by successfulbob | bird photography, fine art photography, Lumix GX85, Lumix Lounge, wildlife photography
Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge – Part Four
Getting Artsy
When photographing a specific subject or area I always shoot for good solid captures at the beginning. After I know I’ve got some good work ‘in the can’, I see what I can do to push the creative ‘Artsy’ side. Here are some of those images.
Let’s look at some tracking flight images with the shutter speed set to a slow speed in this case most were at 1/250th sec. Images were captured handheld with the Lumix GX85 and the Lumix 100-400mm lens (200-800 35mm equivalent) Most were with the lens fully extended.
Sandhill cranes photographed at takeoff panning with slow shutter speed.
This technique adds lots of movement and an abstract feel to the images.
Further into the art arena using additional post-processing techniques. MacPhun software Focus CK was used to bring more attention to the flight of the cranes.
Cropped SOOC (straight out of camera) 1/40th SEC shutter speed.
Image from above worked with additional post processing.
Canada Geese on a flyby 1/1600th SEC shutter speed.
Experiment. Push. Play. Don’t be afraid to get an imperfect result in camera. Playing can lead to more interesting and personal image creations.
Let me know what you like, or don’t care for, in these images. I have an inquiring mind!
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
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