Winter Flock

As soon as I saw the local forecast for Bucks County included snow, camera batteries went into their chargers. I have not acclimated well to cold this winter, the temperatures have been too inconsistent. Warm one day (or 3), cold for a day, then warm again.

I can dress for the cold though, for the most part. My biggest issue is cold toes and fingers. It hadn’t stopped snowing yet when I got out this morning. We only had a few inches, but it was enough to make it finally look like winter. I was thinking winter birds today, so I geared up with that in mind.

After a while outdoors, I was beginning to wish I had been more prepared for landscape imagery. Truth is though that I like to concentrate on one genre of work at a time during the winter, so today was birds. The snow fell heavily at times and began freezing to my camera and lens making it difficult to gain access to all of the controls. I had to scrape away ice from my camera to access the ISO button and even the front control dial.

The image below is of a flock of Cedar Waxwings. I like how I can expose to attain a clean white background by composing against the sky. The yellow tail tips of the waxwings add a bit of dramatic color to an otherwise fairly monochromatic piece. I was also pleased to be able to compose to limit overlap of the birds. For the most part, each bird remains a distinct shape.

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Lord of the Flies……

Yesterday I was at Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville, NJ greeting visitors as they came in out of the cold to see the latest work of the 18 member artists. I had a very nice talk with a woman who came in with her husband. It was their anniversary. One of my images reminded her of a passage from the book Lord of the Flies. She was drawn to the piece visually, but it was the connection she made with a particular book passage that solidified her choice to purchase my print entitled Nocturnal Shore.

Great writers can place powerful pictures into reader’s minds the same way visual artists working in 2-D or 3D put powerful pictures in front of viewer’s eyes. But equally true is that powerful pictures can cause one to recall great written passages. I find this relationship between the arts, a consilience of sorts, increasingly interesting.

Nocturnal Shore

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“Winter’s Whispers”

The joy of winter for me is mostly a visual thing. I don’t like the cold, at least not real cold. And ice and snow make driving a hazard I don’t need. But they also transform the landscape into something found during no other time of the year. There’s also something nostalgic about snow that brings one back to their childhood that I enjoy. In any case, I do find working in the snow and ice exciting for image making.

Since most of my winter imagery is based here in Bucks County, it was nice to be a part of the current Winter Issue of Bucks County Town and Country magazine. Bob Waite, the magazine’s editor, named the piece “Winter Whispers”, a title I truly like. The photo essay is an eight page spread and laid out nicely. I especially appreciated Mr Waite’s comment on his Signature page – “All I can say is that Paul’s ability to capture the beauty of Bucks County’s winter scenery and wildlife is almost remarkable.”

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been in this fine magazine, I’m pleased to be back.

First pages of winter photo essay

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Pennsylvania Sunrise

When I saw that the weather forecast called for a storm to be clearing around daybreak, I knew where I wanted to be – someplace elevated for sunrise. There is nothing more dramatic than the light from a storm-clearing as the sun comes up. I drove out to an overlook in Schuylkill County in the dark to be set-up and ready to greet the sun, and to be able to react to the morning light as it developed.

It rained on me as I waited there at dawn, the weather forecasters got the timing perfect. I on the other hand, deciding the rain had stopped, did not wear my Gortex jacket and so got quite wet. I threw a small towel over my camera and lens until the rain stopped. Then the light began to happen. I thought it was rather wonderful light and worked it, responding to sections of the valley that excited me most. I wanted contours in the image, back-lighting, color, drama. By isolating sections of the landscape and the light, I was able to emphasize those elements of the new day that excited me most.

My landscape camera of choice is a Canon 5D Mark II with a Really Right Stuff “L” bracket mounted onto a Canon EF 70-200mm F2.8 L IS II lens. I added a circular polarizing filter and hand-held a graduated neutral-density filter to hold back some of the light in the sky.

(c) 2011 Paul Grecian - www.paulgrecianphoto.com

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Some Good Press….

It never hurts to get good press coverage. I was especially pleased with the coverage in the Entertainment section of the Lancaster Intelligencer this past weekend. In addition to a teaser spot on the front page, my image Three’s Company (three cardinals) was given full-page representation on the cover of the pull-out Entertainment section. Inside was the interview I gave last week and another image of mine – Beach Sitter (red fox).

The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen show was a fine success with record crowd. The Lancaster Convention Center also happens to be a very attractive venue. We’ll be back next year.

Here’s a link to the article – Newspaper 

Cover of Entertainment Section

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Back to Lancaster, PA

This weekend I will be a featured artist at the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen show   Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen show at the Lancaster Convention Center in Lancaster, PA. As a featured artist at this show, I was interviewed today by Lancaster Newspapers, Inc. The interview should appear in the Friday Entertainment section of the paper.

The Convention Center is a new venue for this fine Guild show and will allow a clean floor plan for patrons to enjoy all the great, original work to be purchased.

The image below is one I made in the White Mountains of New Hampshire during a fall trip. Somewhat ironically, I am shipping a framed print back to New Hampshire for a client who is making it a gift.

Kangamangus Palette

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Kutztown University – this weekend (Oct. 29-30)

According to the weather forecast it may be feeling much more like the Holidays this weekend than typical for October.  That sets the mood well for you to come out to Kutztown for some holiday shopping! I will be with the Reading-Berks Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen this weekend offering my work to patrons for their own collections and as holiday gifts.

A new print of mine that is now available is entitled Hidden. It is an image of a Red Fox hidden among the golden grasses in Bucks County, PA. Look carefully and you will find this fox licking its lips suggesting either the completion of a good meal or anticipation of a meal yet to come.

The image was composed to place the fox high in the frame and centered in order to add attention on to the face (especially the eye which picks up the sunlight). I wanted most of the image to be about color and texture with the fox alone breaking the pattern of the grasses. The fox’s right eye is hidden behind the tall grasses which further emphasizes viewer attention onto the visible eye. The fact that the tongue is also seen on the same side of the face as the visible eye of the fox further draws the viewer’s eye.

It is an image I made with a Canon EOS 1D Mark II and Canon EF 500mm f4.0 L IS lens on a Gitzo tripod with Foba Superball tripod head and Wimbley Sidekick.

 

(c) Paul Grecian - www.paulgrecianphoto.com

 

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Staked Down in Blue Bell, PA

This weekend you can find me staked down on the campus of the Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA. This lovely campus is a great setting for the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen show now in it’s 4th year at this location.

Among my new prints is this image of a red fox in tall golden grasses at sunset. Using a large aperture telephoto lens (Canon EF 500mm F4.0 L IS with a Canon TC1.4X), I was able to create an image that had painterly softness and the kind of visual isolation that I enjoy in wildlife imagery.

Red fox are such beautiful animals, and the tall grasses were a perfect setting with which to work visually.

Red Fox in Golden Grasses

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Yes I’m a sucker for a rainbow….

The rain was coming down so hard that I didn’t expect such a bright sunlit end to it all. So once I saw what was happening out my back door, I knew I’d only have minutes to work and it would need to be local. As it was still raining, I selected to work with my Olympus E5 and an Olympus 50-200mm lens. Both can handle the rain.

The color was magnificent and my first thought was to isolate a section of the rainbow against the sky.

(c) 2011 Paul Grecian - Photography

 

As I walked up the street I saw that if I positioned myself correctly, I could place the rainbow right into a chimney. The red star that hung on the side of the house adds additional visual interest and plays on the theme of astronomical phenomena. I can’t decide if the color is entering or leaving the chimney though.

 

 

 

 

A mockingbird made its presence known to me which became another subject to place within a frame strong with color!

 

(c) 2011 Paul Grecian - Photography

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Out of the Studio and into the “Studio”

Title page

Typically when I speak of being in the studio, I mean the space where I print, mat, and frame my work. But in some respects, the natural areas where I create new images is also a studio. In the October issue of Professional Artist magazine, I write about getting away from both kinds of studios and getting involved with other aspects of being an artist.

During the last several days, I’ve been able to get away from the printing/matting/framing studio and into the image-making studio. That’s pretty important also.

Professional Artist magazine, October 2011

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