Yesterday, I wrote about preparing for your photography session. I was able to find a model to portray my fairy, arranged for the costume, scouted the location, fine-tuned my vision, and brought nearly everything I could think I would need. I was also fortunate the model was a fan of this sort of genre although she hadn’t really done much of it in a photography way.
After everyone arrived we wandered off into the forest and set up. During the hour and a half session, we took 120 photographs. In going through images upon returning home I really like 73 of them. Getting prepared pays off.
Magical fairy
These are just a few I have developed to match my vision. I have many more to come. The fantastic thing, to me, about this session is that it is a fantasy world with a mythical being, so reality doesn’t exist and can be whatever I make it.
You should always, always prepare for a photography outing. Charge batteries and check your gear. If possible scout the area ahead of time.
Today, I have a photography session planned in just a couple of hours but I started earlier in the week by scouting the area. Yesterday, I check all my camera gear and charged the batteries. I gathered all the things I thought I could possibly need including safety pins, twine, a multi-tool, etc. Typically, I end up taking more than I need but I have found it to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Many of these small items I keep in a photography vest. Wearing the vest with lots of pockets keeps me from having to carry items in a bag and then searching for where I put them. The vest also serves as a place to put lens caps.
Plan your photography outing and I believe you have a greater chance of coming away with better photographs.
I have written about being true to yourself as an artist and not allowing others to change your course, style, vision, or adhere to their concepts. With that being said, there are times when others like work you have done that you may have thought to be mundane. There may also be times when someone will ask or suggest a subject or scene. The featured image was one of those times.
My wife made a request for a photograph of a tree line. I thought about it and, at first, thought eh. I tried a variety of tree lines. Nothing really grabbed me. I didn’t stop looking but I still wasn’t “sold” on the idea.
In the winter of 2013, we had a big snowstorm and, at the time, I drove a 4-wheel drive truck. Since I was retired at the time I decided I would venture out and take some photographs. One of the places I visited was a conservation area and as such, it had lots of trees. I shot a whole wide variety of trees and treelines.
Then I saw the treeline below. Normally, it was a mundane open grassy field in the foreground. Fortunately for me, there had been enough snow few others had ventured out. There were no footprints or other distractions in the snow.
The original version of “The treeline in the snow”
The photograph above was edited to convert to black and white as well as to remove some of the sticks and tall grass from the snow in the foreground. I would love to list exactly what I had done at the time, but I didn’t save the Photoshop working file and it has been long enough ago that I don’t recall my steps.
I showed the final photograph to my wife, who had requested the work. She immediately wanted a print made to hang. I ordered a 16×24 and got it professionally framed and matted. The photograph still hangs on the wall today.
This isn’t the only time I have had such a request. In 2011, I was contacted by a person who had seen a photograph of mine on my website. She wanted to buy a print to use as wall art. I was amazed that someone I didn’t know wanted to pay me for a photograph of mine.
A sculpture at the Nelson Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City MO
The image above is the one that was requested and as you can see it is a piece of artwork that was on the lawn of the Nelson Atkins Art Museum. Since this was the work of another artist, I contacted the art museum and asked if I could sell my photograph of the piece. I was given permission from the museum to sell my photograph.
The lesson I have learned and continually remind myself of is that you can remain true to your vision as an artist while listening to your audience or others who are potentially your audience. I have also learned that sometimes the photographs and artwork I like may not always be what others like.
Do quality work. Display your work and you may find an audience or buyers of your art that you didn’t know existed. Following this mindset, I have sold a few works and most were pieces I wasn’t personally wowed by.
This wasn’t the blog article I was going to write today. I was going to write about when clients, customers, or your audience likes a photograph you think is ho-hum or mundane. Like I said, I was going to write about that. I even had an example of the image I wanted to use as an example, except I can’t find it. I’ve gone through some external drives that I thought were backups. Some of the backups no longer existed so I must have purged them. GASP! I did find one of my drives that has 12,000+ images that were, at least, recognized as not existing in my current active catalog. Now the slow laborious import of those to the catalog in Lightroom. I say slowly because I have to use an older external hard drive which is slow. The other problem is apparently nothing was keyworded or put in any type of order. LOUDER GASP!
The interesting thing is I’m seeing photographs that I had forgotten about and some that I have said, “Why do I have a photograph of THAT!” All the images were in folders but the folders were by date without any other information so that is much help since I don’t remember the date I took the photograph I wanted to use.
The photography lesson for all time? Organize your photographic assets! Yes, your photographs are assets. One day, when you have tens of thousands of photographs life will be easier. As a sub-lesson for all time. Backup, backup, backup.
There is truth, justice, and then the artist’s way. While they can all coexist but often they don’t. These things aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive but they oftentimes don’t play well together. Let’s take a look at the original version of the featured image.
The original version
The version above is the way the camera saw the scene. It’s not nearly as compelling. Ah, if we adjust the exposure it will all be better you say. Maybe. I’ll get a bit more technical for a moment.
Screenshot of the original’s histogram
For those who may be a bit unfamiliar, the image above is a screenshot of the original image’s histogram in Photoshop CC. My camera would show this as a good exposure, neither under or over exposed.
When I was at this location taking this photograph my eyes perceived it to be much more dramatic than what was captured by my camera. Due to recent rains the colors were much more saturated looking. The sky and clouds much more ominous looking.
This is often the conflict I have with the truth in photography. I view much of the world, especially when out taking photographs, with the eyes of an artist. In viewing the world like this, my final image fulfills the truth, justice, and the artist’s way. To me, this is the truth. To me, fulfilled giving the scene its justice. To others, I may have changed the truth and did an injustice to the reality by fulfilling the artist’s way.
I live by the code of what I believe is true to an artist. Have I achieved the level to call myself an artist? Maybe or maybe not, that I’ll leave for you to decide. To me, I believe I succeed sometimes and fail sometimes.
Establish your truth, justice, and artist’s way. Set yourself free from the expectations of others.
Many times I work to create a fantasy world. When I do this type of photography what does reality have to do with it? Nothing. Many photographers would call this digital art and not photography. So be it. I work to create art with my camera, sometimes things just don’t work out.
Pink fog original
When we were doing this session the pink smoke bomb didn’t give the results I was looking for in the image. So a little Photoshop magic and viola!
It wasn’t a matter of not attempting to, as the purists say, “get it right in the camera. It just didn’t work. so changing something in the final development of an image through software or darkroom techniques may be required.
We’ve all seen these photographs of women in long flowing dresses where they are “floating”. Many of these have Photoshop magic, but we rarely question them.
When creating fine art photographs does reality really matter or is it the results? Why is it that often photographers can’t accept a piece as art rather than work to discredit it because doesn’t fit their definition of a photograph?
If you are like me, fuhgeddaboudit. Do your thing.
A few years ago I would have unequivocally said cellphone is absolutely not real photography. Today, I would argue just the opposite and unequivocally say cellphone photography is real photography. Photography, as defined by Merriam-Webster is “the art or process of producing images by the action of radiant energy and especially light on a sensitive surface (such as film or an optical sensor)”.
We can all probably agree that using a cellphone camera is photography, but what about “real” photography. When I hear people use the term “real” photography, I have reached the opinion that they actually mean their photography. If you don’t take photographs like they do with the same equipment they use it isn’t “real” photography and to that, I say hogwash (well I actually use a more colorful term). Rarely am I without my cellphone. My cellphone serves many purposes outside of a mere communication device. My cellphone is my pocket-sized communication device, pocket-sized computer, pocket-sized camera, pocket-sized navigation device, and a few other options. I have my cellphone with me more often than I have a camera.
Angry clouds
There are many times when I see something and don’t have a camera with me at the moment. The cellphone is a way to quickly document a storm or fleeting moment. There are times when it isn’t really practical to use a digital SLR camera (or similar camera) to capture a photograph. In fact, I have a complete blog post written using my cellphone. The featured photograph was taken with a cellphone, edited in Lightroom mobile, and the blog was written in a WordPress app.
Don’t let others convince you that a cellphone photograph isn’t a real photograph. The cellphone camera may, at times, be the best tool available. There are times when the cellphone may be the best tool for artistic vision. There are times when your cellphone camera is the only tool you have to use.
Yesterday, I was on the road back home from a short overnight trip to southwestern Missouri. I decided to take a different route back home since I wasn’t in a hurry to get back. I discovered almost instantly on the way back, that the GPS navigation apps on my phone were somewhat lacking in helping me find a “scenic” route. Even after I changed some settings, the routes chosen were not the country backroads I was hoping to drive. After some choice words to the navigations system. The route adjusted somewhat.
The U.S. Post office Avilla MO
We ended up taking the old U.S. Highway 66. The road still exists but it is no longer considered U.S. Highway 66. While driving along, we happened upon a small town, Avilla Missouri. The first thing that caught my attention was the small red brick post office. Apparently, at one time it had been a bank. Across the street was another gem.
Villiage Park murals
I didn’t wander around much more but there were a couple of things that may have played out. This town was very small, with a population of 103. One of the reasons I didn’t wander around more was I had my little dog with me and he was a bit stressed out that I was out of the car even though my wife was with him. Yeah, he is spoiled. Maybe that is lesson two, go without my dog but he is my buddy.
Wheatfield
Not long after we left the small town the navigation app had me turn onto a county highway. County Highway 80. County Highway 80, was a two-lane paved road with no shoulder to give you a mental visual. As I was driving along, I saw a wheatfield at an intersection. I stopped quickly and since it was fairly early on Sunday morning there was no other traffic. I was able to park on the side road and took the photo of the field you see above. What caught my attention was the golden color of the wheat, lined by the green trees and the cloud formation just above the triangle created by the trees lining the wheatfield.
I’m not in search of a better way to navigate using the back roads to arrive at a predesignated location.
This week I’m on vacation from my daily non-photography job. I haven’t taken more than a day or two off in over 3 years. My wife and I have a few short trips we are planning to take and some of them involve looking for photography opportunities. My wife is amazing to want to do this, especially since she is not a photographer.
My challenge is to stop the car, get out and take photographs of anything along our path that catches our attention. I’ve only done this a few times over the years I have been a photographer and sometimes it has led to some interesting subjects.
An example is today’s featured photo. A friend and I were traveling to a specific location when we happened upon this one-room school house. It was on the side of the highway.
Old bicycle
While I only got a couple of photographs I thought were interesting it was a worthwhile stop. Stay posted I’ll let you all know how this works out and maybe get some interesting photographs to share with you.
I’ve seen people ask the question, “did you Photoshop that?”, not only of some of my work but also the work of others. In the past, I have answered that question with the statement, “I use a variety of techniques both when taking a photograph and in its development to achieve the look I envision”. As time goes on, I am beginning to think the question is an attempt to discredit the work. I am rarely a documentary-style photographer. My goal is to create works that I like and hopefully, others may find interesting or compelling. So does it really matter if I “Photoshopped” an image?
If the photograph was taken using film we don’t often see the question asked about the process used to develop the film or the final print.
Digital processing techniques often had beginnings in the chemical darkroom. Dodging, burning, retouching, Few questioned those techniques but somehow many feel compelled to question current digital processes.
Just like I’ve said about photography gear. The results matter, not the tools used to get there. There are a select few photography genres that require a documentary style with little to no development beyond the initial exposure but the rest, it is open to the vision of the artist. I’m not sure how I will answer the question, “did you use Photoshop” or “did you Photoshop that” in the future except that it depends on the context in which the question is asked.
Photographer Clay 