No Pain…….No Gain

Yesterday morning I spent 5 hours working frozen ponds trying to create new images along the theme of ice patterns. It was cold, but very pleasant. My greatest challenge when photographing during winter is focusing as my eyes water easily in the cold. Physically, the kind of macro work I did yesterday is very straining and I am feeling the effects of long periods of squatting and bending over a tripod while standing on ice. I do regular weight training because show set-up and tear-down can be gruelling. However, I’m thinking I need a different routine for macro work, especially now that I’ve discovered this ice theme. Things will not get any better in the spring when flowers begin to bloom. Where is the book – A Photographer’s Guide to Physical Training?

At least I feel there was a gain. I really enjoyed myself working outdoors yesterday and I am happy with the quality and variety of images I made. The more I explore this ice theme, the more I like it. It seems that the fluctuating temperatures around these parts may actually make the ice patterns more interesting and varied. The cycle of thaw and freeze allows me to go back to the same locations and work new ideas and new images. This small group represents a series that has more complex lines than many of the others I made yesterday.

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This winter here is………………..just cold

We haven’t had any real snow fall yet this winter here in Bucks County, PA. Sure we’ve had some ice and some nice flurries, but no real snow. No landscape changing, winter wonderland like snowscapes that scream winter. I don’t like the cold enough to just be out in it, so visually I need some inspiration. It’s my problem I know and if I would get myself out more I would be able to enjoy the other visual aspects of winter.

I did get out last Saturday and I knew exactly what elements I wanted to work with – abstract ice patterns. These are harder to work with than you may expect if you’ve never done this type of image making. Being perfectly parallel to the subject is important to gain full frame focus. The other major hurdle is setting up a tripod so as not to actually break the ice or just not having the tripod legs slip out of position. Then of course you have to place your eye to the viewfinder without moving the precariously placed tripod or stepping on the subject you hope to photograph.

Field technique is an ever challenging and experience-based process. It is true that one becomes a better image maker the more time they spend making images (and analyzing the results I may add). Anyway, here’s a couple examples of images I made that I like. For these I selected to use a Canon 300mm f4.0 IS lens with a 12mm extension tube (to allow a closer focusing). This allowed me to work in a standing position and not have to be right on top of the ice.

 

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A Painter You Should See …….

I mentioned Bea in my last post and want to say a bit more about her. Beatrice Bork is an award winning watercolor artist who is a juried member of both the Society of Animal Artists and Artist’s for Conservation Foundation. My wife Donna and I were immediately drawn to her work when we first met Bea at a wildlife art show we were both doing. We looked forward to seeing her every year. As my show schedule expanded, Bea and I were doing 3 or more shows a year together. We have become both good friends and supporters of each others art.

Bea’s style is both realistic and somewhat abstract and she is really excellent at applying this style to her subject – wildlife, domestic animals, and especially birds. Her website offers a selection of her work and I encourage you to take a look – http://beatricebork.artspan.com/

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Multi Media

Multi-media is the art term for pieces made with more than one process. I don’t do multi-media pieces, but I did have a multi-media lunch today. Two friends of mine and I meet at the Spotted Hog (just The Hog to us) in Peddler’s Village, Lahaska, PA. We’ve been meeting this way for a couple years now and it’s been a great way to bounce ideas off each other and just to catch up. Between the three of us we represent photography, painting, and wood carving.

I met both Bea and Meg at the Bucks County Audubon Wildlife Art Show over ten years ago. Bea is an extremely talented painter and Meg does amazing intricate fish carvings (although she is currently working on a carousel horse). We talk about our families, current projects, exciting sales and what’s going on at Meg’s farm. We’re trying to figure out how to work a three person show into our schedules, not an easy task.

These lunches are a critical part of keeping the creative process going and thinking outside of our own mediums. It also really helps to have some out of studio time with other artists.

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Underway

Year 2008 is beginning to shape up. I now have a feel for my show schedule which will include a few changes from last year, and I am making progress on selecting and printing new work. I will be posting my intended show schedule on my primary web site www.paulgrecianphoto.com soon.

Last night was the first 2008 meeting of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. My role as Vice President of the LV Chapter is to  arrange and run programs. For our first meeting of the year I wanted to discuss where it is the members wanted to go with the chapter and their own craft endeavors. Even though we work in a variety of different mediums, we are all dealing with the same overarching issues about creating, displaying and selling our work.

I’ve been playing Simon Schama’s Power of Art DVDs while working in the studio and I have to admit it’s been a distraction. I’ve only gotten through Caravaggio, Bernini and Rembrandt but man this is good stuff. Riveting stories all. Schama’s narration is fantastic. These DVDs are not for young children though. I’ve seemingly developed quite a fascination with art history.

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Audio Visions

I often find myself wanting to listen to a more peaceful, soulful music when I’m matting or framing my prints. When such a mood strikes me, I head to station 77 on XM radio – Audio Visions. The name of the station strikes me as interesting because of the use of the word “Visions” in its title.

I often read that photographers try to create imagery that has a musical sense about it. To make an image with a visual experience as palpable as that elicited by music is a great challenge. Some great photographers studied music before picking up a camera. How much of Ansel Adams’ success as a photographer can be attributed to the fact that he was also a gifted pianist?

So when I see a music station seemingly suggest that their music selection should elicit a visual experience, it makes me wonder. Does every artist try to elicit a response from senses not immediately involved with their medium? Smells and taste can powerfully evoke memories (a visual experience?). Writing can be so descriptive as to allow the reader to perfectly visualize a scene or even elicit a Pavlovian response. Then again, photographers talk about imagery that is poetic.

Maybe there is a certain insecurity artists have about their chosen mediums that make them want to test the success of their endeavor against the responses people have to other mediums? I don’t know. But I do find it intriguing how often those working in a certain medium discuss their work with vocabulary of other mediums.

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New Hampshire

A lot of excitement in New Hampshire last night made me think of my one and only visit there in 2006. I really enjoyed the two days I had photographing in the White Mountains area during the fall of that year. Senator Clinton is the come back kid they say. Well I wouldn’t mind “coming back” to New Hampshire for some primary……….primary colors that is.

The image below was made after coming back out from a trail off of the Kangamangus Highway. The light was soft from heavy overcast and the colors were strong. I composed to strengthen the contrast between dark and light trees and the kind of symmetry that their positioning created. This is an isolation landscape. That is, I used a telephoto perspective to create the composition, isolating just those elements that I wanted to emphasize. The lens I used is my favorite landscape lens – a Canon 28-300mm L which is big and heavy, but gives me the freedom to compose as I please without having to constantly reposition myself.

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The Logo

Several years ago I decided I needed, well I guess I wanted, a logo. I wasn’t yet doing photography full time but thought it would help add a sense of professionalism and identity to me and my work. Mostly, I thought it would just be fun. Being a bit creative myself, I played around with some ideas mostly based on my name, the word “PHOTOGRAPHY” and some symbol of film and nature.

I noticed there was some similarly in my name “Paul Grecian” and the letters in “PhotoGraphy” so worked to intertwine the two words in some way. I also wanted to have some graphic representation of a piece of film and indicative wildlife subjects. I though it would be interesting to have the film also take on a feeling of landscape. I visualized a strip of film taking on the look of a rolling hill with some animal and/or bird silhouetted against it.

I’m no graphic designer, but luckily I know one. A dear friend of mine whom I met at one of my first shows is not only an extremely talented painter, but a full time graphic designer. I approached her about it and she agreed to take the job. We talked about what I was visualizing and the elements that I wanted to include. She found a way to get all the elements into the logo that I wanted and yet not make it look complicated. The deer and geese in flight represent the wildlife element of my work, and the film strip represents the environmental or habitat aspect of my work. I work with rather common subject matter so a lion or polar bear would not represent my work well.

I am very pleased with the finished result. I use the logo (along with my web address) on labels that go on the back of mats and frames and on business cards. Another use of the logo is on shirts that I wear to shows. Land’s End has a great corporate account option that even I can afford. I’ve thought about making changes to the logo, maybe making it round, but for now I’ll keep it as is.

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More on being Authentic

When I first learned the medium of photography, it was in a black and white darkroom in high-school. Then in college, I followed up with 4 semesters of more black and white image making. When I went to working with color, I chose transparency film (slides).

The reason I chose transparency instead of negative film was three fold. First, I wanted to have the option to have my worked published, and editors required slides instead of prints. Second, I wanted to really see the results of my field work unimpeded by the translation of a negative image. Lastly, but this was very important, I didn’t want any prints I had made by a professional lab to be interpretations of a negative. The prints I requested were reproductions of the positive image in the slide. In this way, I felt that the print was still authentic to my vision.

The digital format has allowed me to take total control of every aspect of the image making process so that I feel more than ever that the outcome is authentically mine. This is a different kind of authenticity than whether the image is authentic. Here I’m referring to an authenticity of ownership – ownership of the creative process.

I think that the digital process makes it obvious to any viewer that the final result is not just authentic to me, but is totally representative of what I wanted to present. In a kind of twist to my initial fear about working in the digital format, I now feel that viewers must conclude that any digital image they see is only the result of my creative choices.

If I choose to make images that have a traditional feeling to them, it is not because of the limitation of a film and darkroom process, but a decided desire to present the image a certain way. What could be more authentic?

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New Year Motivation

I’ve always found new years a refreshing time. For me the changing of calendars is a fresh start, a new beginning, a sort of blank slate. That can be a bit scary as well, but I like the beginnings of things. This year I want to spend more time thinking about my motivations. One motivation specifically that I need to contemplate is what drives me to make any particular image.

I have of course thought about motivations before, but have never reached a conclusion. I think I may be coming closer to realizing what excites me visually and how to describe it to others. But first I need to verbalize it internally. I have concluded at least that for me, originality is not my goal. I read and hear a lot about creative people wanting to be original. I’m not sure I quite know what that means, but I am much more concerned about being authentic.

Authentic means true. True to myself and true to my subject, but mostly true to my vision and what I want to present. I’m also inclined to believe that if I can be authentic, originally has a better chance of coming along for the ride. Can originality even be authentic if originality is the goal?

I also want to spend more time keeping a personal creative journal where I can capture concerns, ideas, and observations. Maybe in doing some regular writing about motivation, I’ll understand where I am and where I should go with image making.

The new year is also the time I consider work I’ve already done and select images to add to my show offerings. I’m actively printing several new pieces and I am pretty excited about the results so far. Check with my primary website for future show listings and additions to the galleries.

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