by successfulbob | photography, photography education, success education
Sometimes you need to step away from the photography and fine art community to look for inspiration.
I have met many photographers that are so intense (I must admit I have been one at times) that they forget to have fun. You’ll find that your best work comes forward when you study intensely then let go… Let the information you have gathered gel & process inside that wonderful electronic computer storage center we call a brain. Then have some seriously good times, get back to it and see how a relaxed attitude can allow creativity to reign.
This month’s quote comes from comedian Jerry Seinfeld.
“Life is truly a ride. We’re all strapped in & no one can stop it… I think the most you can hope for at the end is that your hair’s messed, you’re out of breath, and you don’t throw up.” – Jerry Seinfeld
I’ve been on holiday for a couple weeks and ideas are starting to come fast and furiously. Yahoooooo!!! When’s the last time you cut loose? Get out there. You’ll be glad you did.
by successfulbob | landscape photography, Lumix GH3, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education, photography gear
Maybe it was because I hadn’t had my morning shower yet…
The Sandhill Cranes came right up to check me out as I was photographing them…
Shows the importance of having multiple cameras with different lenses on hand even if you think you know what you will be photographing. I thought all my imaging would be of birds in the middle of the pond called Palmer Lake or flying away from said water. Had I not had the second body/lens combo I would have missed a cool opportunity.
Sandhill Crane in pond Sarasota, Florida.
Sandhill Cranes in flight and in silhouette.
Sandhill Cranes in the Morning mist.
On the Lumix GH3 I had the F3.5-5.6 100-300mm (200-600 35mm equiv) lens and on the Lumix GX7 had the f 2.8 35-100mm (70-200 35mm equiv).
by successfulbob | photography, photography - art quote, photography education, success education
Many photographers, especially those in the infancy of their careers, often wonder what they should photograph.
There are many, many, many ways to make money creating images with your camera. Before you make a decision to choose a specialty, or to change the type of photography you are already doing I invite you to consider the words of this wonderful photographer…
What makes you heart beat faster?? – Beverly Walden
If you can take these words and weave them in with your decision of how you make your living in photography you will be on your way to a successful career.
Spend some time poking around the Walden’s web-site where you can see the love, depth of lighting and product line available. You will see what makes Beverly and Tim’s heart race. Check Beverly’s Blog. Beverly & Tim also have a photographer education web-site.
So, where are you headed with your photography?
by successfulbob | black & white, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education
…Grits ain’t Groceries… Eggs ain’t Poultry… Mona Lisa was a Maid… Gotta’ love some of the blues lyrics!!
Couldn’t totally get away from the blues so I turned them black and white to ease my way into different colors for this post. Here’s Sidney Wingfield and RJ Howson from their night at the Blue Rooster in Sarasota…
RJ and Sidney live at the Blue Rooster in black and white. I like the gritty feel of this…
Found this splash of color through window shopping. A dress in a display on Main Street.
I like the contrast of colors and how the degradation of the palm frond
picks up the colors of the burnt orange wall in the background.
Yellow!
by successfulbob | Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education
Been chasing color and realized I meant bright, saturated color. All things have color. Some are just more subtle than others. Just as when you learn and use a language of light you begin to see things differently, changing the thought of the TYPE of color I am looking for is changing the type of images I am trying to capture during my self assigned photography project during my new busman’s holiday. (to see the description of busman’s holiday if you don’t already know)
As I poke through the images from today it looks like blue has started to creep into my images as a target, sometime subtle sometimes in your face…
This bit of blue worked its way into the background of this photo featuring red making the red stand out all the more.
Neon can be difficult to capture… Went into into post-production to bring back some of the image highlights. That’s one great reason to shoot RAW. There was detail there to bring back. The Lumix GX7 had lot’s of detail though the bright range of pixels I thought would be gone.
Will end up at the Blue Rooster listening to some of my favorite music… The Blues!
by successfulbob | black & white, Lumix GH3, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography - art quote, photography education, photography gear, success education
COLOR!! Seems to be the theme for me this week.
Just after I decided to make color the target for my shooting while traveling in Sarasota I came across the quote for today’s conversation by Pete Turner.
“I am steadily surprised that there are so many photographers that reject manipulating reality, as if that was wrong. Change reality! If you don’t find it, invent it!” – Pete Turner
From Pete’s web site – A pioneer of color photography, Pete Turner’s career began during the infancy of color photography, at a time when color was used almost exclusively for commercial purposes. Unlike many contemporaries, Turner embraced color, seizing opportunities that allowed him to master the process and to create the imagery he felt compelled to make. Unconcerned with the labels of “art” or “commercial,” I invite you to take a peek at Pete’s photos before reading more…
Many photographers upon first starting out say things like, “I would never put a filter in front of my lens, that would be cheating!” Or, “You use Photoshop that’s not really a photograph.” They then trot out the example of Ansel Adams as the master of reality and they are trying to emulate him. What these photographers don’t realize is that Ansel Adams was one of the original manipulators of all photographic materials to show the scene the way he wanted people to see it. Think about the Zone System and his altering of exposure and development to get different details into different areas of the negative, not mention dodging and burning in the darkroom that sometimes took days to pull one print he was happy with..
In Ansel Adams An autobiography from 1984 Adams said, “I will always embrace a credo of excellence in craft and vision; both are difficult to maintain. Photographers are composers in a sense, and the negatives are their scores. In the electronic age, I am sure that scanning techniques will be able to achieve prints of extraordinary subtlety from the original negative scores. If I could return in 20 years or so I would hope to see astounding interpretations of my most expressive images. It is true no one could print my negatives as I did, but they might well get more out of them by electronic means. Image quality is not the product of a machine, but of the person who directs the machine, and there are no limits to imagination and expression.” – Link to full article ‘Inspired by Ansel’ on black and white imaging.
Please remember that the camera does not see as the eye sees. Your pupil expands and contracts imperceptibly allowing you to see detail in the darkest shadows and brightest highlights in a wide dynamic scene
So I offer these thoughts to you. Learn as much as you can to understand what is possible in our medium. Practice what you learn so you have it available to use when you need it. Have a vision and work to achieve that vision no matter what tools it takes to create the final image.
We now have cameras that can help fine-tune our images straight out of the camera. I was never one for using camera pre-sets but the technology has come a long way baby! Now you can tweak the settings from many of the in camera art type settings and make them your own. The Lumix GH3 has some wonderful black and white settings. The Lumix GX7 can do all that plus you can now set curves in-camera. It’s a great time to be a creative pushing the envelope with all the new tools at our disposal!!
And, isn’t it interesting that an article that started out about intense color and vision in photography ends with black and white??
Turner uses ‘in your face’ color and Adams uses the complete tonal ranges in black and white to tell their stories. How will use your camera to tell your stories in your images??
