Skippack Days – October 4-5

This coming weekend I will be at Skippack Days in Skippack Village, Montgomery County, PA. This fun outdoor event offers a wide variety of craft, art, and merchandise. It’s in a quaint town and well attended. I will be set up on the grounds of Justin’s Carriage House.

I was pleased to meet some new patrons at the Sugarloaf show this past weekend at the Chase Center in Delaware. Such a nice venue for a show. I was able to follow the Phillies score on my phone every once in a while and hear the final plays on the way home in the car. Go Fighten’s! A couple of my neighbors at the show were Met’s fans. They didn’t like the news I gave them on Sunday during the show. One Met fan, Carlos, made reverse painted glass plates, trays, and bowls. Beautiful work. He took the news well. Good thing right? All that glass I mean.

I was able recently to spend a long morning at a favorite haunt here in Bucks County. There was a heavy fog over the waters of the lake where I stood on the shore. Out at some distance I noticed a couple deer entering the water, what looked like a doe and a yearling. Without hesitation they both swam to an island in the lake. A third deer came to the lake edge but was more hesitant. It went in, got some short distance and turned back. This occurred a few times before it just gave up. The image below shows this third deer testing the waters. I used a Canon EOS 1D Mark III with a Canon 500mm f4.0 L IS with Canon 1.4X Teleconverter.

Testing the Waters

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Sugarloaf at Chase Center – Delaware

Come this Thursday, I will be setting up again at the Chase Center on the River Front in Wilmington, DE. This time, I’ll be with the Sugarloaf Show. This is a three day show, Friday through Sunday and should be well attended. I was previously at the Chase Center in July with the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen.

This will be my first show this fall, part of a pretty busy schedule. We’re also pretty busy trying to get a new kitten adjusted to living with us and our adult cat – Dot. We recently had to put our 16 year old longhair to sleep, that was hard. My daughter has wanted to get a kitten ever since. I was opposed to a new kitten, I just thought it was unnecessary and that our other cat Dot would be fine having us all to herself. Well, my neighbor came over last Friday holding a kitten that had been at it’s back door. My daughter held it and I think any argument I had left floated away.

I insisted that we not take the kitten in for one more night in case it’s mother was still around. We have a stray cat problem where I live and we actually were visited ourselves by a very cute gray kitten just days before. Next morning the kitten was back at our neighbors back door and our phone rang to let us know. That was it, we took it to the vet to get checked out and he did fine. So here he is. Stupid little cat is so damn cute and very much a snuggler, just what my daughter wanted.

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Tracks and Shadows

Two themes that I am developing both relate to implied subjects, that is, shadows and tracks. Tracks speak to the presence in a previous time, of some subject. Be it footprints of some quadruped or tracks left by some slithering creature, animal tracks tell of behaviors not visible in the present. Other tracks could be those left by a leaf blown across snow, or a plant’s leaf blades switching across the sand.

Shadows also speak to the presence of a subject, but contemperaneous to the making of the image. In some images, I will make the shadow the entire representation. In others, the shadow and the subject making it will both be included. Ultimately, whether tracks or shadows, the image’s strength is often judged on the graphic representation I achieve.

In this first image of tracks in the sand, there are several creatures involved and a plant as well. There appears to be some four-legged animal, some slithering creature (a lizard perhaps?), some human footprints, and the streaking marks left by the leaf blades of the plants shown. It all tells quite an interesting story. How far apart temporally were these tracks made?

In this second image, I am concentrating on the form and shadow created by the blown sand and the plant leaves. The shadows are long and encompass much of the frame. I like the abstract nature of this image and the simplicity I’ve achieved. Both images were made during a recent trip to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

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The Best Camera Equipment Is …..

In recent years I have come to conclude that the best camera equipment is that which best fits my style. That is, the equipment that best allows me to fulfill my vision without getting in the way. How can equipment get in the way? Well, if the camera and lens are big and heavy, if I’m thinking too much about what they cost, if the controls aren’t in places that I’m comfortable with, if I have to constantly change lenses to match the composition I want, and so on.

What this means is that I don’t always use the camera that is considered most professional, or the lens that tests to be the sharpest, or in some cases, I’ll even work without a tripod! I’ll use big range zoom lenses, smaller megapixel cameras, and not always apply the best photographic practices to assure maximal sharpness. And the reason is simple, sometimes making the image is more important than making it as absolutely sharp or perfect as it can be. It is because I am working to express a feeling and not absolute perfection (at least from the point of view of other photographers).

Most of the time I do set out with my sharpest lenses, cameras that will offer me best reproduction capabilities, and a big, sturdy tripod. But if it seems that the cost of using that “best” equipment means possibly not making the images that move me most, then small, light and sharp-enough will do. Tools serve my needs, not the other way around.

The image below was made at Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks of North Carolina this past August. There was a family of four just walking among the otherwise empty dunes and I used the wide end of a super zoom lens (Canon 28-300mm L) to emphasize the scale of the location.

Jockey's Ridge (c) Paul Grecian 2008

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Bags for Every Occasion

I have been accused of having as many different camera bags as some women have handbags. It is true that I like camera bags. No one bag really fits every bill for me, so I do have quite a few. Small bags, big bags, green bags, black bags, tall bags, short bags, bags for your hip, bags for your back, bags, bags, bags. It’s almost like a Dr. Seuss rhyme. But I think they are important. I don’t want to carry a big, heavy bag when a small one will do. Some lenses are so big they need their own bag. A backpack bag is almost always better in the field, but I prefer a shoulder bag for event work. I have a bag for when on vacation (small and convenient), a bag for local trips (medium sized and simple), a bag for extended trips (larger to carry all I’ll need), and a bag that also carries a laptop for trips where review of work is necessary. It is a bit crazy really, but harmless I guess. At least I don’t have seperate bags for beach or woods………….oops, I forgot that – the all weather bag for the beach.

Ghost Crab - (c) Paul Grecian - http://www.paulgrecianphoto.com

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Falling Forward

In a couple weeks I will be full swing into my fall schedule. Shows, holidays, field trips, so much happens this time of year. It is busy. Working as a visual artist is complex, it’s more than a job, it’s the definition of who I am. After my roles as husband and dad, being an artist is what I work at hardest. Exhibiting and selling my work at fine craft and art shows is how I primarily associate with people who connect with my imagery. But being an artist in a broader sense also means connecting with other artists and participating in the organizations that promote the arts.

I enjoy my role as Vice President of the Lehigh Valley Chapter of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, my membership with the Reading-Berks chapter, and participation in shows both at the chapter level and state level of the guild. I enjoy the occasional calls to assist with contest judging, craft jurying, and when organizations have selected my work for their special projects. It’s all part of the bigger picture of what I do. The deeper I get and the broader I expand, the more I like it.

Having just come off of a challenging show in Chadds Ford, PA, I’m now preparing for the fall line-up. Chadds Ford was hard because of the time compression caused by Tropical Storm Hanna, but it was also a fun event. Most of the patrons I meet were new to me, which is nice. One gentlemen came into my canopy and was drawn to an image titled Blue Bird. He was considering it as a Christmas gift for his wife, but he wasn’t totally sure. Ultimately he left, came back, and purchased the matted print. A little while later I was in the process of selling another matted print to a woman when the first gentlemen came back. He asked the woman what she was buying.  The woman turned out to be his wife and she was also buying the Blue Bird  image! So I guess this man’s choice for his wife was safe. The couple decided to return the print the husband bought and buy the framed piece. I wish I knew so well what to buy my wife!

Blue Bird - (c) Paul Grecian

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Chadds Ford Days – No Saturday

With a prediction for heavy rain and winds tomorrow, the Chadds Ford Days was cancelled for Saturday. It was a good decision but leaves me somewhat stuck. I’m here in the Brandywine Valley in a Best Western room and I will be here till Sunday morning. A decision about whether we will set up on Sunday will be made at 6:00am that morning. So I’ve got tonight and all day tomorrow with not a whole lot to do.

I did suspect this would be the situation, so I have reading and this laptop of course, and a television. There’s also a Border’s down the road, so if the weather allows driving, I may find my way over there as well tomorrow.

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Hannah and Hanna – determining my schedule

My daughter Hannah started school this week. Her schedule determines my schedule. She’s up an hour earlier this year having just started middle school, so I’m up an hour earlier as well. At 5:00am I make coffee and read for a bit, get Hannah up at 6:00, make her breakfast and see her off. An early start means I get more done my noon than I used to and that’s fine with me.

This weekend (Sept. 6-7) is the Chadds Ford Days event in Chadds Ford, PA. Hurricane Hanna may determine my schedule this time. We’re watching it carefully and frankly won’t know for sure what’s going to happen with the show until late tomorrow (Friday).

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