by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography education
Do photographers and artists tend to be a bit picky?
You betcha!!
Some, not picky enough.
Most of us are both!
“I guess I’ve shot about 40,000 negatives and of these I have about 800 pictures that I like.” Harry Callahan
Harry Callahan was a self taught photographer who felt he made few solid images. This from Wikipedia, “His technical photographic method was to go out almost every morning, walk through the city he lived in and take numerous pictures. He then spent almost every afternoon making proof prints of that day’s best negatives. Yet, for all his photographic activity, Callahan, at his own estimation, produced no more than half a dozen final images a year.”
We take an awful lot of images every year but do we craft any? We also tend to want to have most of our images be considered very good images but we don’t necessarily take the time to work on creating a really strong piece? I just ask these questions to give you (and I) food for thought.
On the other hand I posit we do create some strong images but don’t think we do because we compare our complete body of work, including our tossers to another photographer’s fully finished work where we only see the finals not the work that went into them.
It is a two edged sword. We need to be confident and not overly critical in the work we produce, but we also need to edit ruthlessly. A conundrum and a fine line to walk if you want to be known as a great photographer.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
PS – Hoping this photo/art quote makes sense because it is being written at 2 AM…. (had coffee too late and can’t sleep)
by successfulbob | black & white, infrared photography, landscape photography, Lumix G6, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography creativity, photography education
It’s a bit of a different world when you move into infrared imaging.
This is photography with a totally different look.
It used to be very difficult to capture infrared as the filters used to allow the non-visible light spectrum through were extremely dark making it difficult to see and frame your subject. The film was extremely sensitive and was quite susceptible to fogging ruining exposures before you even got them into the developer. In addition there was the need for focus adjustment as visible light focused on a different plane than the invisible spectrum which would often lead to out of focus images. And finally there was lots of grain in many of the captures.
Fast forward to today… I just received my Lumix G6 back from LifePixel after a conversion to allow the camera to capture infrared. It’s still not quite a piece of cake to create an infrared image but the capture sure got easy!
First infrared image from newly converted Lumix G6.
In this image the foreground area was in shadow so it wasn’t receiving the full infrared effect but the clouds, sky and rocks in the distance showed well. To combat this the image was triple processed. Once for the top half, and twice for the bottom to carry the infrared look through the image. Black and White conversion was made with NIK Silver FX Pro 2. Masks were applied to make the changes
With the filter switched to a straight infrared filter you end up with a reddish sepia-tone image straight out of camera.
In order to have a better idea of what I was capturing as far as a final image of Black & White infrared I shot with a camera setting for Black & White. I then set the camera to capture RAW + Jpeg so I would have all the information presented to the camera but also have a quick BW in the jpeg.
There is another way to process the images (well probably as many ways as there are photographers) which I’ll share in another post using Photoshop Channels.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
Here are some links to my follow-up IR posts
infrared imaging part 2
infrared photography part three
gila wilderness infrared photos
by successfulbob | photography - art quote, photography creativity, photography education, success education
In seeking inspiration I will often head out of the photography realm and today is no different. Marcel Proust was a French writer of novels and essays. His quote that I share today has a lot to do with observation. And if we are to become excellent photographers we have to do more than just see what is around us. We need to be aware of possibilities that live around us all the time.
Many times when we travel we will get more creative because we are being exposed to new stimuli. What will help us be more effective image makers is being able to see the new among the apparent mundane around us all the time…
“The journey of self discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust
Proust’s quote obviously doesn’t deal with image making but I feel the sentiment that he expresses for self discovery can be applied to our vision.
Remember, there is looking.
There is seeing.
And, then there is vision.
Go deeper.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | cloud photography, Lumix Lounge, Lumix LX100, photography, photography education, photography gear
Yesterday I shared a few images from the window seat and today here are a few more. As a Panasonic Lumix Luminary (check out the Lumix Lounge) I get to work with a lot of different pro and advanced amateur camera gear. On this trip it was going to be very quick run to Atlanta, and back to Sedona, through Phoenix within 72 hours so I wanted to travel light. Camera-wise I couldn’t get much more compact than the camera I’ve dubbed the ‘Pro’s Point & Shoot’ the Lumix LX100. Lot’s of powerful features in a solid, easy to use piece of machinery. All images were captured with the LX100.
You need to change the exposure compensation quite a bit to make this sunset image work. Easy to do as the Exposure compensation is on a metal knurled dial right by your thumb. Up to three stops under or over.
I like this view of clouds from above. The layers feel like it might be some kind of lunar landscape. And who knows? It just might turn into one in an art piece…
Working the wing to silhouette over a cloud back with flare from the sun.
Sometimes you just need to push yourself by limiting yourself to find the capabilities of a camera. I hadn’t spent any quality time with this camera before this trip cause I had some other favorites always at hand. Because of this if you have any questions about which Lumix camera might be the best for your needs get in touch and I can share some ideas. [email protected]
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob
by successfulbob | commercial photography, fine art musician portrait, Lumix GX8, Lumix Lounge, musician photography, people photography, photography, photography creativity, photography education, photography gear
I always enjoy the challenge of photographing musicians live on stage and the additional challenge of turning the images into art for the ‘Wall of Fame’ at Sound Bites Grill. Last Saturday night it was Jeordie and the Mixology Project. Mix together a sweet voice with some fun, and moving, original music, fine musicians and you end up with a great evening’s entertainment.
Heeere’s Jeordie and the band.
Jeordie right there front and center. Doktor Mo on drums. Chad on lead guitar. Philip on flute. Tony on bass.
Each musician was selected from their photo and placed in the frame. Adobe Photoshop was used for the extractions. Drop Shadows, Inner Glow, Textures and Layer Bend Modes were incorporated in creating the art look for the WOF image. Autographs and the message were signed the night of the performance with black marker on white paper. These were scanned then imported and sized. The signature layers were inverted then the Blend Mode of those Layers was changes to Screen to allow the black to disappear and allow just the ‘white ink’ be left for the viewer.
All images were captured with the Lumix GX8 and the 35-100mm f2.8 Lumix Vario lens. (That’s the 70-200 35mm Full Frame equivalent)
A similar treatment in Photoshop of Jeordie by herself.
I also produce ‘straight’ images of the artists for marketing to the press in color with no artwork. I make the conversions to Black and White so there will be good solid contrast and definition. I’ll show you a couple of those tomorrow.
Yours in Creative Photography, Bob