Once in a Blue Moon

Today is a Blue Moon day in places west of Greenwich, like here in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Blue Moons (the second full moon in the same month) happen approximately every two and a half years. It is a great opportunity to do something unusual just to be able to say “its something I do once in a Blue Moon”. My wife suggested that buying her flowers would be appropriate. Unfortunately, the cloud cover here won’t allow me to photograph the “Blue Moon”. I do however offer this image for your consideration. And while it is not a full moon and therefore not, strictly speaking, a Blue Moon, it is a moon that is blue.

The image was made early morning with a blue sky and has totally taken on that color. I used a Canon EF 500mm f4.0 L IS lens with a Canon 1.4X teleconverter on a tripod. The image is cropped from full frame, but you can clearly see the craters on the moon surface.

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Not Easy Being Green

More like not easy making a picture of this green …………frog. I think frogs have great character and so for some time I had been wanting to make an image of one that reflected that character. This little guy was in a small pond in one of my favorite spots in Bucks County, PA. Frogs tend to be rather wary critters and so I wanted to stay below its radar. I approached it on my belly with a 300mm f4.0 Nikkor lens and an Nikon N90S film camera (loaded with slide film). As I made my way to the water’s edge, I composed the image I wanted and then needed to stabilize the rig. I reached around for a rock to put under the front of the lens that allowed enough stability to then make several frames of sharp images. The duckweed is great in that it is both a repetitive form in the water and serves to tie the frog to its environment. This is one of my most popular images, and a personal favorite. I currently offer it as a 5×7 print but have had a couple requests for larger versions (which I have not yet done). How would you feel about a print made 20″x30″?

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Peddler’s Village Fine Arts and Contemporary Crafts Show – June 2-3

This show at Peddler’s Village in Lahaska, PA (not far from New Hope) is one of my favorite shows to do. The location is great and there’s plenty of room around each artist/crafter. Rain or shine, it’s worth coming out and finding a new piece for your walls or shelf. Nice places to eat in the village and parking is convenient. I will have several new pieces for you to consider that I did not have at last year’s show. With Father’s Day approaching, art is a great gift option. One of the new prints is of the image below. It is a road leading to a well known farm in Vermont and is part of a series of roadways, pathways, and walkways that I am developing.

Here is an image made of me while working at this location. It was made earlier in the day before the fog began to lift and the sky brightened allowing for more vibrant colors.

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And now for something completely different ….

Or is it? I photographed a Bar mitzvah today. It’s was an opportunity for me to work outside my typical genre of nature imagery. However, my approach to event photography is not all that dissimilar to my work with nature subjects. In both cases I try to create images with strong color, geometry, simplicity, and emotion.

In fact, working primarily with nature subjects probably gives my event work a different feeling from other photographers who just do events. In my bird imagery, backgrounds are very important to me. The backgrounds of my bird images have sometimes colorful and usually soft, implied elements (form maybe, but no texture). My macro imagery is done in a similar way and today I looked for details that told part of the story. For wildlife images, I try to achieve expressions that imply some emotion and often want the animal not to look directly at the camera.

Today I used all of these techniques, and others (e.g., fill flash, foreground interest, directional lighting) in photographing one of the most important events in the life of a religious family. I really approached it as I would many of the subjects I typically deal with and I’m pretty pleased with the results.

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Move It

One of the joys for me in working in a two-dimensional, static medium, is trying to convey movement and depth. I think of my image Flight Unfurled as a successful example. But the first time that I really felt successful at making an image about movement was Dash and Splash. This is an image of a budding, young buck that suddenly bolted, spooked by something near it in the water. I was already preparing to photograph him as a stationary subject, so when he started to take flight, I was ready. I had seen and thought about this kind of imagery before, so my reaction to the situation was immediate and deliberate. I made three frames on Fujichrome 100 ISO slide film. This is the middle frame and I think the most successful.

The image here shows the buck at peak height and just as it pushed off with its hind legs. Water is spraying off of the front feet in all directions. Light is reflecting off of its fur so that when I panned my camera with the deer, the light moved across the frame. All of this adds to the feeling of motion. The image also shows tense and powerful muscles in the legs and neck. The background and foreground water are in mottled light, which takes on an almost cubist feeling as a result of me moving the camera in the direction of the deer’s movement.

If you think about the image as one that is less about the deer and more about the dynamics of movement, I think it takes on a rather dramatic feeling. It is an example of pushing the medium in another dimension and is very much part of the art that I hope to achieve.

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Sometimes it’s just about the people you meet

I met a great couple at the Bethlehem Fine Arts and Crafts show earlier this month. They purchased a matted print and were interested in me printing an additional title in a larger size. I agreed to do a test print and see if it held up to my liking. When I called to tell them that I was pleased with the print, I was invited to bring it and visit their home here in Bucks Co., PA.

They have a magnificent house and the husband’s workshop is just amazing. This gentlemen is a impressive man. Furniture maker/designer, photographer, and generally multi-talented craftsman. The lady of the house is no less impressive. In addition to growing and designing impressive gardens, she too is a fine photographer. I spent about an hour and a half on their tour being fascinated and impressed. Their home was featured in Bucks County Town and Country Living magazine, a fine publication that I have had several photo essays in myself. It’s a real pleasure to think of my work hanging anywhere with the rest of their art collection.

Meeting and speaking with the people who purchase my work is one of the benefits that one can not put a dollar value on. As an artist, there is no bigger pleasure than to really get to see how your work is placed into the lives of others. I’ve been invited back with my wife and daughter, I’ll be looking forward to it.

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15th Annual Phillips’ Mill Photographic Exhibition

I attended the Opening Reception/Award Ceremony last night (Sat., May19) and had a chance to look at the exhibit and talk with some friends there. It was a well done event with a good turnout, a nice spread of finger foods and beverages. I had a couple glasses of wine but don’t think my judgement was clouded in any way. It was a fun evening and my wife Donna and I stayed longer than we expected.

I would like to go back and spend more time with each piece when it is less crowded. Of the approx. 1000 images submitted, only about 10% are selected for inclusion. I was pleased to be part of the exhibition. My framed print of “Fisherman’s Stance” (titled Downward Facing Dog on subsequent printings) is the first one you see as you come in the main entrance.

I have some impressions of the exhibit overall and of the images that were given awards. I thought the exhibit was hung well. I like the layout of the display areas and think it gives the work enough space to be individually enjoyed. The lighting was good and bright without being overpowering. There is ample parking around the building so that you don’t have to walk far. It is really worth the trip to see the work.

The selection overall favored black and white images. I saw very little color work and even my print which is a color photograph, is monochromatic. I thought much of the imagery was interesting and well crafted. Many of the pieces I liked very much and thought were a great buy. There were a variety of processes from Polaroid to infra-red, pin-hole, and different black & white methodologies. Digital processes were also highly evident. Traditional forms of manipulation that gave images a 19th century feeling seemed to do well in the awards. I thought all the winning images were finely done and creative. That said, I think I would have selected some winners differently than the panel of judges, but my sensibilities and tastes are probably also different. I would have been shocked if I agreed with all the winning selections and maybe a bit disturbed.

There were pieces in the exhibition as well that I just didn’t like and others that I thought were just not good. I was dismayed also by some of the matting and framing quality. I don’t understand how someone can offer work for sale that is well, much less than perfectly presented. My comments do not relate to the high school entries which are also on display.

All-in-all, I do highly recommend the exhibit, especially if you are already in the New Hope area. It presents the medium of photography in a variety of form and method that one doesn’t often get a chance to see. It is also a great opportunity to buy a photographic print that touches you and at a very reasonable price. In addition, you’ll have a piece of art that appeared in an important exhibition.  I will likely go back to look more thoroughly at all the work. I give the folks at Phillips’ Mill a lot of credit for pulling this exhibition off and the effort involved.

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Mowing the Lawn

There are times when it is very hard for me to create a new image. Often this happens in the winter when nature is mostly monochrome and I have trouble getting motivated. Spring and Fall are my favorite times to photograph and the times that I tend to be most engaged. Sometimes however, even in spring I fall into a “writer’s block” and struggle to break free.

There are some strategies I use to get going creatively that often work. I will read a lot, force myself to look at any subject as a potential image, or engage in some meditative process that frees my mind. For me meditation can take the form of many things. A good workout or run, straightening up the house (a great way for me to feel I’m controlling and organizing something), or some mundane act like mowing the lawn.

There’s something about the white-noise producing sound of a mower and the repetitive back-and-forth walking across that lawn that is mind-freeing. It takes me about an hour to finish our lawn and gives me time to consider both business and creative aspects of photography. On one occasion it even got me looking at the blades of grass as subject matter. In fact after getting down low to grass level and studying the blades up close, I found myself envisioning rather oriental-style, simple line representations of the grass I was actively cutting down. Here’s a sample:

Maybe some time later, I’ll show you what I envisioned while cleaning some kitchen dishes.

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Nature’s Best Competition

I received my delivery confirmation today for my submission to the 2007 Nature’s Best Awards. This international competition has been for some  time the most prestigious nature photography event in the country and arguably only second to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition in the UK. One never expects to receive any recognition from either of these very competitive events. I have however twice received Highly Honored Awards in the Nature’s Best competition which included a cash prize and inclusion in their extraordinary publication, Nature’s Best magazine.

My first award came in 1997 and the second in 2003. The really exciting thing about the 2003 award was that my image was also included in a special Smithsonian Institute exhibit of a subset of winning photographs. I convinced my wife to drive down to the Award Ceremony and exhibit opening and back the same night (about 7 hours driving total). The award presentation was followed by a presentation by Art Wolf and then the reception for the exhibit opening. My image, which is now offered in print form as “Rising Through the Mist” (middle bottom image in photo below), was printed for the exhibit quite large. I am very happy with the somewhat smaller size printing of the image I do which is remarkably similar in color to the printing done for the Smithsonian exhibit.

 

It was a great exhibit and exciting reception as winning photographers and reception guests enjoyed the prints and sipped wine. I had the opportunity to see the other award winning images and speak to some of the guests about my image as well.

It’s always impossible to know how judges will respond to any particular image, but until the final selections are announced, I’ll hold out hope for 2007.

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Phillips’ Mill Photography Exhibition

This weekend starts the beginning of the 15th Annual Phillip’s Mill Photography Exhibition in Bucks Co., PA. This exhibition has a great reputation and is often referred to as the best show on the East Coast (according to their website).

This is a competitive juried exhibition starting May 20 and running through to June 10. I had my image “Downward Facing Dog” (titled “Fisherman’s Stance” initially) accepted for this exhibition.  I’ll be attending the exhibition opening Saturday night and will certainly have some feedback then. I’m very pleased to be included in this prestigious show after several unsuccessful attempts in years past.

Here’s a link to the exhibition: http://www.phillipsmill.org/2007photo.html

If you are in the area of New Hope, PA take a short detour up River Road and have a look.

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