Snails Pace

Week 21

Snail's Pace
May 25, 2010

I know it wasn't looking at me, but I couldn't help but feel like I was interrupting this guy's day. Those little antennae-eyes pointed right at me.... Maybe it was looking at me, saying "can't a snail hang out with some snail-bros without some papparazzo gettin' all up in my face?" Ok, snails have brains akin to houseplants, but that's what I was thinking as I discovered these guys just off the back porch, a bunch of them just hanging out, eating I assume and having a little snail-party.

The first photos I took straight down on top of the snails, but started to shoot at ground level and got the best shots (including the image above). Amazing what you can capture just by changing your point of view. Things look different when you take a different angle, a different approach. Sometimes you even find that you were looking at your subject wrong all along, and you wouldn't have known it without taking the opportunity to shift perspectives. A lot of similarities between life and photography, I suppose.

image taken with Canon 5D, 24-105 f4L IS lens, at 1/200 f/4.0, ISO 800

Studio Work

Week 20

Studio
May 19, 2010

The last couple of weeks I've delved a little more into the studio. To now, I've not done a tremendous amount of studio work, preferring instead to shoot outside, or otherwise with natural lighting. This is partly because I have been shooting a fair amount of family portraits and weddings. Brides are pretty resistant to having their weddings held in a photo-studio, and while you can do family portraits with studio lighting, I MUCH prefer to keep it outside, where it seems personalities come out, and real "life" is captured.

The other reason I haven't done a lot of studio work is that I don't have a studio :). Not a regular one, at least. My good friend and very talented artist has been kind enough to share her studio when I've had the need, for which I am very grateful.

Now, having said all I just did, I don't want you to have the impression that I don't enjoy studio work. I actually do. There are some very, very cool things you can do with studio lighting and a controlled environment that just aren't possible (or are extremely difficult) anywhere else. The image above is not one of those difficult shots, but I like it all the same. Steven - fellow photographer and model for the shot above and I spent some time in the studio, shooting with some fairly basic lighting and got some great shots. I like the above shot for its lines, light & simplicity. We pulled my two low-wattage (750W) soft boxes around to camera right and played up the sunrise-oncoming train-"oh-no, a nuclear blast" thing a bit, an what you see above is one of the many results.

Hope you enjoy.

image taken by a Canon XSi, 24-70 2.8L lens, at 1/125 sec at f/5.6. ISO 400

Walden

Week 19

Walden

May 16, 2010

There is an astonishing amount of talent, creativity and innovation in the world bubbling to the surface in the children of our culture. I was reminded of this at a Composers' Forum hosted by The Walden School. As described on the organization's website, Walden " is a summer music school and festival [held in Dublin, New Hampshire] offering programs that emphasize creative application, specifically through music improvisation and composition." This particular event featured alumni, current students and faculty at the school, with 5 composers' work being performed, and then discussed between the audience and composer with the help of moderators.

I believe we often make the mistake of thinking that truly brilliant, complex and creative work is the realm of adults. Children can be clever and smart, but ultimately are relegated to the kids table of the creative arts. At this performance and forum, I witnessed the performances of music by a 17 year old and an 11 year old with profound, thoughtful lyrics and complex, intuitively elegant composition.

Ancient wisdom of living for the now, and not worrying about a future that hasn't happened was represented in the lyrics of the 11 year old. Even if she has heard the idea, to be able to internalize, comprehend and express the idea in a new way signifies an intellectual maturity beyond many adults I know. She's pictured above giving direction to the pianist about to play her piece, (himself a Walden alumnus).

Children aren't bound by what "can't be done" because they don't know it can't be done. Imagination is commonplace among our children because being silly is ok. Creativity is nourished because they are praised for it and told how iventive they are. I wonder what would happen if that never stopped. Not just in pockets of industry where it's encouraged because it's a "creative job", not just in entertainment or marketing or the arts, but in engineering. In retail. In professional work and trades.... even *gasp*... government.

I suppose if nothing else, this is a nod of appreciation to organizations like Walden that foster creativity and take kids seriously...because they have seriously creative minds. It's also an encouragement to all of you out there... find a way to be creative. Be a kid again. Pick up that paint brush, that guitar, that invention you've got drawings stashed away for and never took the time to do anything about. Creative isn't limited to the arts. You can be a creative toll booth worker, or a creative receptionist, or mechanic or custodian... or doctor or lawyer. I firmly believe we were all created to be creative :).

Until next week....


image taken with a Canon, 24-70 2.8L @ 1/50sec, f/4.0, ISO 800

Union

Week 18

Union
May 2, 2010

I captured this image while waiting to shoot a wedding in a small, quiet and unassuming little Russian Orthodox Church in Menlo Park. With only a handful of people to witness the union, myself included, this was the doorway into a new life for these two people. As I've heard said before, no longer are these two lives choosing to be part of one another's journey, but rather they are two people sharing one life and one journey from here on out.

It's a privilege to be a photographer at someone's wedding. Not only do I get up close and exclusive access to the day, all it involves and the ceremony itself, but in a way, I feel part of it. The images I am capturing will forever be the thing that can be viewed to remember the day, and share with others the joy that came from the decision to become one life together. One life. It's not all warm fuzzies and giggles, it's often not easy, I understand. But it is one life. A union, meant to be forever that binds the couple physically, mentally, and spiritually. No matter what your beliefs, it is hard to argue the bond, the union that occurs with a marriage.

The image above spoke to me of the sacred nature of this union. A quiet reminder that when all the guests have gone, the fanfare is over, and the tornado of activity settles, there is a light shining on the union that just occurred, a witness to the bond that will forever support it and be a source of strength to hold it together, if both choose to look to it.


Image taken at 1/160, f4.0 20mm, ISO 400, Canon EF17-40mmf/4L USM lens.

Full Night Sky

Week 17

Full
April 28, 2010

The universe we live in is pretty amazing. OK, so that's an understatement for you. Or maybe you never really think about it. I mean, it's easy to go about your day, with all its tasks and distractions and things to capture your attention that you never really get a chance to ponder the wonders of the world around you. Or maybe you just don't care.

I find myself regularly astounded at the complexity and beauty of it all. I spoke to it a bit in last week's post, and felt myself drawn to it again this week, in a grander sense this time. Looking up at the full moon this week, and seeing how much detail and intricacy visible even with the naked eye, it led me to think about just how far away it is, the gravity that keeps it in its orbit, and the fact that it is only a speck in our massive galaxy. That led me to the fact that our galaxy is one of only billions in the known universe. Billions.... really, BILLIONS. In the known universe. KNOWN universe. Before long, my head starts spinning, and I have to revert back to appreciating the moon in the sky and the beauty it affords.

This photo was made with my Canon, using a 70-200mm 2.8L IS lens, on a tripod at 1/50sec, and aperture set at 5.6, ISO of 100. Processed in Lightroom using a contrast filter and some slight dodge & burning, you get the image above.

I hope you give yourself the pleasure of taking some time out this week to go for a hike, lay out in your yard late at night and look up, or go and sit on the beach early one morning. It is so worth it. Be warned, however... you might become addicted and find yourself wanting it more and more until before you know it, you and your loved ones are spending all your free time in the mountains, on the beach or generally outside enjoying the gift that is our planet.

I hope so, anyway :).

A Rose

Week 16!

Rose

April 25th, 2010

I got to thinking that it would be nice to have some macro images in along with the others of 52Photos, and thought I'd start out with what has to be the most common macro image... the flower. As I started taking shots, I began to think about how interesting a rose is... beautiful parts, complex and intricate parts, painful and defensive parts, then how it has hidden parts you don't see unless you look closely. It then occurred to me how not unlike a person a rose is.

Now don't get me wrong, clearly I'm not the first person to draw comparisons between a flower, a rose in particular, and a person. It did occur to me now why it's not such an original train of thought. Like flowers, we people are capable of bringing joy and inspiring an appreciation of beauty. We have defenses, that without caution can injure a person, even if they are trying just to get close to us. And like the rose, there are interesting, unique, and complex parts of us that you can only see if you look carefully, spending some time to appreciate them.

I won't take the time to draw more of a comparison, I think a sketch will do... but I do think I'll be spending a little more time with the macro-lens. What an amazing world out there; gigantic and grandeur, yes. But also tiny and complex, and so incredibly, inexorably, intricately tied together.

Spring is here, go out and enjoy it!

Appalachian Spa

Week 15

Appalachian Spa
April 15, 2010

I can see the advertising copy now..."Vintage outdoor spa-bath among the green foliage and quaint 19th-century architecture....".

Ok, ok...so it's not supposed to be a spa:). This image was actually taken on my overnight trip last week to the Blue Ridge Mountains. My family has a cabin in Amherst County situated in the Appalachians less than an hour's drive from Lynchburg, VA. This picture was taken on the property of our neighbor up there who was kind enough to let me prowl around his family farm in search of interesting things to photograph. Well, I wasn't disappointed. The property is on a beautiful piece of land with rolling hills, forest-land and pasture, as well as an old farmhouse and outbuildings for what was at one-time a fully operational and working farm.

Not in use aside from some grazing rights for cattle-farmers nearby, the property is populated with over-grown buildings, old and new farm equipment, and parked trucks and cars that our neighbor uses for parts and scrap, occasionally resurrecting one for use on the road. After scouting it out the day before, my father and I rose early in the morning to get to the farm and witness the morning fog and amazing light that awaited us when we arrived. I was able to capture a number of great images that morning, any one of them would have been a worthy installment to 52Photos, but I liked the disposition of the old tub in the overgrown grass and weeds, and overall uniqueness of the image. It seems to tell a story and begs you to guess at what that story is.

Taken with a wide-open aperture (2.8), and a fast shutter (1/500), some other things I like about the piece are the shallow depth of field on the front side of the tub, the fog-masked farm-building it the background, and the foliage we are peeking through in the foreground.

Enjoy the image, and until next week....