When editing becomes the inspiration, and a song pops into your head.
Tag: abstract
Shreds of Thought
In an experiment to transfer a photo onto wood, I was left with the paper I had to rub off to expose the print. It was fairly successful, but not perfect. Of course, I then found the shreds more interesting.
Fisherman’s Terminal Abstracts and Shooting Mindfully
The other day, I took a trip to the local Fisherman’s Terminal to pick up some salmon for dinner, and thought it might be fun to do a short photowalk through the shipyard. September has been cool and sunny, and the light gentle, yet intense. It turned out to be a meditative escape in a playground of shapes, texture, color, and light.
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Sometimes I think I can take photographing for granted. With easy access to any kind of camera, we can capture what we want when we want. It’s easy. It’s fast. It can sometimes be more of a reactionary response, or a “this might look good” moment. I don’t discourage myself from just shooting because sometimes those moments turn out really well. Some of my favorite images are things I caught by luck or random happenstance. But the amount of snap-shot/just because photos I have can totally burn me out. I tend to get bored and frustrated. Where is the work I’m dying to make? The work that really stands out for me that isn’t just another random image? That’s when I realized: My mind is not always in it’s prime state when taking photos. Simply put, there are times I am present with my camera and the moment, and there are times when I am not. I want to strive to be more present. Not only is this healthier for my mind, it yields my more thoughtful and impactful images.
As I continued my walk through the shipyard, I felt every step on the wooden pier, took a breath and stabilized my feet before every shutter release, thought about how a subject might look at different angles, remembered to consciously practice things I learned in school like hyper-focal distance focusing, and visualized how I might want to process a moment differently than how I saw it at that moment. I was patient with myself. I let myself try. It was one of my more immersive photo walk experiences. I was eager to edit what I had shot, because I knew I had good things to share.
The Space Between
Exploring negative space.
Bedroom Desert
Black, White, and All The Shades In Between
In high school, before digital, we shot black-and-white film. It was a meditative practice. Five years ago I took some photography classes and one of my instructors was an incredibly passionate and experienced photographer. No-nonsense, hard-core, bad-to-the-bone master printer, Jhanavi Lisa Barnes taught us the zone system and helped us understand highlights and shadows. How to accomplish these things in-camera (film), and later on in the darkroom. There is nothing like a print that comes from film and developed on paper. I do miss the luxury of it, and have a total respect and appreciation for the process. (Alas, I’m an impatient type. Also, the cost of purchasing film, paper, facilities rental, gas, parking, etc. just isn’t economical or convenient).
So, how do you visualize, take, and process an image so that it looks like it imbues the tonality and contrast of black and white film? I continue to hone and refine my skills in digital photography, and feel I have a good grasp on how to adjust tone, saturation, and highlights through the various color channels and tone curves. I push myself through the grey of an image. With the Zone System in mind, I work to keep, but not blow out, my highlights. I nudge my shadows, blacks, and exposure sliders to keep the shadows from becoming too muddy. However, if I’m going for a specific style, I will push the highlights and/or muddy the contrast if it communicates the feeling I want for it to radiate. Finding balance in the light is something I love to work with.
Here’s a little slide show of people and places where I’ve worked the light to suit the image captured; keeping in mind the feelings I remember having when developing black and white prints.
Tangerine & Aqua
The Fremont Sunday Market in Seattle is a fun place to walk and peruse art, crafts, vintage goods, and wares. On a hot sunny day, sun blazing overhead, I was feeling experimental. Here, I had fun with exposure. I felt like shooting like how it felt – white hot. I think these would be fun as easy poster prints to hang in a bright kitchen.
Rouge
I continue to play with the tone of lights in curves and edges, get lost in shadows and elements that are out of focus, and lavish in the spectrum of shade and saturation in one color. Here is one quick study of a plant I saw in a store window.
2 More Weeks!
I’ve had a collection of work up at Fresh Flours Bakery on Phinney Ridge focusing on abstract and travel photography. They’re up through the end of this month, so if you haven’t already, grab a cuppa something and a tasty pastry (Trust me. They’re great pastries), and have a look. Contact me if you’re interested in any pieces or have any questions!
Recent abstracts up and hanging:
Souvenirs of Siqueiros
I just got back from a nine day trip to Mexico City. It was my first time there and I was excited to visit the museums, palaces, churches, and see art by notable Mexican Artists like Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. Below are tiny segments I’ve played with in terms of color and gradation from murals by David Siqueiros. They were painted at Chapultepec Castle. I was most captivated by his brush strokes and the loose gestural movement of the lines and shading. As I was editing them, I was thinking of the the story behind the country and the people’s fight for independence.
The entire Castle was amazing to walk through. The artifacts left behind illustrated a lifestyle from another time. Traveling to countries (especially ones that were founded and developed hundreds of years before the United States) is like time traveling. It’s fun and exciting to think of life hundreds of years before yours and what it must have been like. Where would you stand? What would you do? How would you express yourself? I look forward to going through the many frames I took and sharing more thoughts and perspectives from when I was there. It’s definitely a city I want to go back to and visit.
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