Texture

 Certainly snow adds an etherial feeling to an image, emotionally it may be the most important element in a winter scene. I also find however that snow adds a great sense of texture to an image. In fact, it may even emphasize the other textures in a scene by breaking the image up into an almost pointalistic painting.

The soft, even lighting of a snowfall is critical as well, preventing areas from becoming too light or too dark. In the image below, I composed in layers and included some winter red berries to add color punch to the image. For me though it is the texture that turns me on most, something that when working with a two-dimensional medium really gets exciting.

The image was made with a Canon 5D camera mounted to a Canon 28-300mm L IS lens on a Gitzo tripod. I selected a focal length of 150mm and worked almost wide open and at 400 ISO to attain a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. (fast enough to stop the snow falling from being a blur).

(c) Paul Grecian – http://www.paulgrecianphoto.com

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Breathing the Same Air

I am continuing to prepare for my two-person show at Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville, NJ. I have the honor of exhibiting with artist Norine Kevolic who works in both paint and wood. What is especially exciting to me is that for this show Norine will be hanging landscape paintings for the first time at Artists’ Gallery. I feel that our work speaks to and in informed by a shared response to nature. In fact our postcard for the show presents two rather different works but both made at the same local lake, Lake Galena.

Our show runs from March 8 thru March 31 with an artists’ reception on March 9 from 4-7 pm. The title of the show, Breathing the Same Air, was chosen after I read Norine’s quote for our press release. She stated “My aim is to create a sensuous work in which one feels they are breathing the same air as in the painting”. I knew immediately that Norine and I shared a similar motivation which needed to be reflected in the title of the show.

Breathing the Same Air

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The Maine Thing – Day 5

One of the attributes of Acadia National Park that I especially like is the ability to park in the right lane of “The Loop” just about whenever I wish. This gives me the freedom to explore and respond to the landscape freely. And since the park is never really closed, I can do this for sunrise, sunset, middle of the day, or middle of the night!

One location on the loop that I like is at Otter Cove. Here, the mountains reflect into still waters lined by forest. I see it as a serene view, without great drama. Therefore my image represents it using symmetry, subtle tonality, and lots of sky. The clouds both provide visual interest to the sky but also minimize the landscape further. There is both direct and indirect light hitting the land along with shadows of the clouds themselves. This image was made with a Micro-Four-thirds system camera (Panasonic GH2) and an Olympus 9-18mm m4/3 lens. This lightweight camera and lens combo is a great travel kit.

Otter Cove, Acadia (c) 2012 http://www.paulgrecianphoto.com

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