Paul Grecian - Photography

I’ll be setting up at my first show of the year next week, but I still have time to develop a few new images. The snow of last Friday was a rare opportunity for me to actually work with the flakes falling and nothing stands out better in falling snow than red Northern Cardinals. The thing that can really work against you though is that in order to make it clear that snow is falling, the shutter speed has to be fast enough to stop the falling snow. Otherwise, the snow looks like white streaks or even just a heavy fog.

But stopping the snow doesn’t end the challenge. Snow can be stopped in a position that you don’t want, like right in front of the bird’s face, obscuring an eye or even the whole head. So you have to time your image perfectly by anticipating just where the snow flakes will fall…………..no, not really, I’m kidding. What you need to do is make a lot of images and then edit when you get home. I concentrate on composition and exposure, and on the placement of the bird’s head and it’s movement. When dealing with multiple birds, the level of awareness of head placement is even more important.

So below is an image of two males and one female cardinal during a pretty heavy snow fall. I positioned myself to keep the distant tree off to the side. The other image here is the culprit that not once, but three times, scared off the subjects of my photography session. Damn you sharp-shinned hawk! Nah, it was cool to see too. It showed up twice while I was working in a blind, and once while working directly in the falling snow. A very pretty bird, it must have been as frustrated by it’s failures as I was by it scaring everything away.

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I’ve been moaning about our lack of snow here in Bucks County, PA for awhile. Little as it was, we got a few inches last Friday. It was enough to cancel school and keep my wife at home. That meant I could go out, and I did. My intent was to do landscape imagery, but I brought along my telephoto just in case the birding looked good. Well, the landscape lens never made it onto the camera. I spent about 3 hours working inside a blind and out in the snow composing environmental images of birds against various backdrops.

I’m a sucker for cardinals in snow images. And there were a lot of cardinals around. Males, females, some bright red, others more drab, but all looking good to me against a snow white background. The snow at times was quite heavy and it was encrusting my lens and camera. While the equipment I was using is sealed, there is a limit and I was getting a bit uneasy. It was also quite cold, making a battery replacement necessary just as I had composed an image.

Interesting too was the presence of a menacing sharp-shinned hawk (or was it a Cooper’s hawk?). Three times it disrupted my image making by scattering every bird in the area. After it’s third time causing chaos to my image making, I gave up on the birds. That and the snow changing over to ice and I had enough. Too bad, as I was really enjoying the conditions.

Focusing in the snow on fast moving little subjects like birds with long lenses, and eyes watering from the cold wind is a real challenge. I try to pre-compose potential images in my mind and keep an eye out for that configuration to occur. Otherwise, I work the situations that present themselves with an eye to maximizing the graphic nature of the scene. I use autofocus when I feel I have time to recompose or can trust that the sensor won’t be fooled by an obstruction. Often, manual focusing is the only way to go and if I have to work fast, I can get it wrong. A strong image without perfect focus can still be used for a small print though.

The image below is just such an image. I like the composition and color contrasts, but this image will be restricted to 5×7 prints or smaller (perfect for a holiday card though). Other images I made I believe will lend themselves to 11×14 or larger.

With shows starting in less than 2 weeks, I want the snow done. I’m thinking about spring already.

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I received an e-mail last week from Jen, a young woman who is getting married soon. She wanted to use a coffee-table book for guests to sign-in to at the wedding. She found a book that I contributed to, a photo rich book on Bucks County, Pennsylvania where she lives also. I thought this was a unique and neat idea. So after a bit of emailing back and forth, we agreed to meet at our local Starbucks (where else) so she could see the book and determine if it would work.

The book itself was published in 1994 and has been redone and published twice since, each time selling out. These are small production run books and very nicely printed. I have 24 images in this edition, including a double-page spread. What makes the book work for the guest sign-in usage is the generous white area around most of the pictures.

I met Jen this morning, we talked, looked through the pages, and she bought the book.

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I made it a goal this year to look at advertising as a way to get the word out about my work and where I’ll be. Typically, I’ve let the promoter do that work, but this year I’ve allocated some funds and time to enhance my customer list and create press-releases for local papers.

My first show this year is at the Garden State Exhibit Center in Somerset, NJ and the show catalogue has just arrived. In it I’ve placed a small ad mostly to let previous customers know I’ll be there. The Sugarloaf staff worked up the graphics and I provided the image and general content instructions.

Here is the mock-up and below it a scan of how it appears. I’ve blurred out the other elements of the page. My booth number in the actual ad shows that I’ll be set up in space 325. It’s not a big ad, but it stands out well enough. Sugarloaf sends quite a lot of these catalogues out and so my web site listing will be seen by many more people than will actually come to the show. Since the catalogue comes outs a couple weeks prior to the show, it gives people a chance to explore my web site to see if they are interested in other pieces of my work as well.

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When I was asked to speak to the Bucks County Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, I did not hesitate. I live in Bucks County, so the commute would not be difficult. My talk yesterday was only hampered by the inch of slush on the ground. Even though, the group that showed up was attentive and friendly.

I have gotten used to talking about myself and my work after 12+ years of doing so at shows and other speaking requests. I had a Starbucks brew on hand and so even after an hour of solid speaking, I felt that I could have gone another hour longer. There are shows where I’ll talk pretty continuously for 9 hours or more, so an hour isn’t asking much.

This talk was both biographical and photography oriented. I try to give a feel for my background in the medium, my motivation, and approach to image making. I also try to relay a sense of what is involved in fine art photography and answer the most commonly asked questions I receive at shows. These questions usually relate to how often I make an image I like, how long it takes to make one, and how good my equipment must be. By framing my talk around these questions, I can dispel a lot of misunderstanding about the medium and the process.

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We are finally getting a bit of Snow here in southeastern, PA. I saw my daughter off to the school bus and was getting dressed for an outdoor excursion when the phone rang. “Mr. Grecian we’re calling to let you know there will be an early school dismissal at 12 noon”. What? I just got her on the bus! Well it’s a good thing they caught me when they did. Thing is, it wasn’t even snowing yet when they called. Oh well, they want to be safe, I’m cool with that.

I knew I had a couple hours to work though, and so combined an errand with a quick stop to my favorite local park to see what the ice was looking like. About 20 minutes into my drive I began to notice snow flakes falling on my windshield. They were sharply defined and not melting (it was only 18 F).

When I finally made it to the park I had about an hour to work with but was able to make some images that are interesting. I would have liked to be out there all day, but I am a dad first.

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It’s an intriguing title for a book and so I bought it. The full title is Pictures of Nothing - Abstract Art Since Pollock by Kirk Varnedow (see it here Amazon). The book deals heavily with minimalism, both two-dimensional and 3-dimensional. This is not any easy read for a newbee, but I’ve been pushing through it.

I have very mixed feelings about the work presented. I often think that the writing is better than the art. Some of the work just doesn’t stand up to any standard I have self  imposed. At the same time the book is making me stretch my internal definitions somewhat. I suspect that I will continue to have a real problem looking at what is basically piled trash as art.

However, I do like simplicity in my work, minimalism if you will, and felt that the book would help me look at that element in a new way. And so it has. My reading experience so far leaves me looking at the figures in the book a new way. I get the sense that if what is presented is art, then anything can be art, and if anything can be art, then maybe everything is art. That can be a bit overwhelming. I look at the pen on my desk and see it as a conical form instead of a writing instrument. Heck, my daughter’s rather messy room (clearly not minimalism) may be seen as an installation maybe.

I don’t know where this book will leave me, but it is giving me ideas, and that is alright.

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Photographers have had controls for rendering color for some time, but no where near as much as today. When I first started using color slide film, the selection was relatively small. I used Kodak film, mostly Kodachrome. When Fujichromes hit the market with there vibrant renditions, I switched to it for most of my work. Other than film though, color is determined by the actual subject, the kind of light (temperature, or Kelvin) falling on the subject (and the surrounding colors in relation to the subject), the exposure decisions I make, filtration, and printing. I never liked enhancing or color filters, but do use a polarizer often.

Then of course there were color controls involved in the printing. From slide film, an internegative had to be made from which a traditional C-print was created. The original slide being a positive image allowed for close matching of colors, or at least a reference point for making color decisions.

Now with digital image controls, color is more of a creative decision than ever before and I think that is the way it should be. No other medium is constrained by color choice as photography seems to be. I came across this line on Luminous Landscape (Reading Tea Leaves) and believe it to be a truism. Michael writes “Colour exists in our heads, it is not an absolute, and it therefore demands interpretation by our minds and hearts.” While I am personally interested in rendering colors that represent my subject closely, it is my creative decision to do so, not a rule I follow. Color is such a powerful conveyor of feeling that to take the control of it away from the photographer is to limit the emotional range they can express. That being said, I’ve been enjoying doing some black and white renderings lately as well. Oh yea, with some sepia toning

Buy this 11×14 print double-matted to 16×20 for $79.00 plus shipping

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Maybe this current ice theme I’m working on is my subconscious telling me to chill. This is a transition month and a busy one at that. I’m finishing show applications, I have an exhibit application on my desk, I need to work on my tax returns, and I’m in heavy production mode to print, mat, mount and frame work for next month. Not to mention all of the creative ……….well, I said I wouldn’t mention them.

In any case, I did still get out again this past weekend to make some more ice images. There was a heavy rain the nigh before and a lot of melting. I was out for a few hours and worked pretty hard to create but found less to work with because of the general lack of ice.  

It’s interesting that this image below almost has a marble texture and color. I like it.

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It’s been two months already since my last show. Next month marks the beginning of a new show year. Check my web site www.paulgrecianphoto.com for my anticipated schedule so far. I am expecting to be at shows during some 40 plus days again this year. I know the schedule will be a bit different from last year, but overall it will look very similar.

I do try to make some change every year so that I force myself to try new venues. As the year progresses, I may still add a show or two, especially if the anticipated shows do not all pan out. My first show of the year will be in New Jersey with the Sugarloaf people. This is a large show with quite a few other photographers. It may also represent my only Jersey show this year. Take a look at the link below for all the details.

Sugarloaf in NJ

I’ve attained my Delaware sales licence for 2008 and expect to do at least one show in that state. All the rest then are in Pennsylvania, and only two (in Lancaster and Hawley) will require that I stay over.

I am also going to look at alternate venues such as exhibitions and galleries again this year to see if they may be appropriate avenues for my work. It’s a never ending process to place one’s work in front of as many eyes as possible while being cognizant of which audience may be most receptive to it.

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