Tag: photography

An Afternoon in Thought

With sensing a bit of accomplishment in the field of photography, it is beginning to take a place for me in the world of creativity.  I am beginning to see what I could not see before.  This ability to relate to photography pools it into other arts, specifically, painting.  Consequently, I am re-reading about and re-evaluating the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, and as an extrapolation, the life and works of Ansel Adams, both whom I admire as artists.

Georgia O’Keeffe – Blue & Green Music – 1921

Their creative viewpoints resonate with my own.  While I doubt I shall ever meet their productivity, or creativity, I can appreciate their work as individuals.  What interests them interests me – looking at landscapes, parts of things, plants.  The natural world in color and in black and white, both lush and sensuous, and stark and contrasting.

Ansel Adams – Church, Taos Pueblo – 1942

In particular, I like the fact they do not put people in their works.  I cannot think of a single painting by O’Keeffe in which there is a person; few photographs by Adams include individuals.  And that is not to say I do not enjoy images of people, but it is more likely I am not going to go out of my way to pursue then.  People like Kirk Tuck and Vivian Maier are wonderful photographers, both of whom photograph people.  Kirk works often in his studio, but also does street portraiture; Maier, on the other hand, was a street photographer at its finest.

I may at some point venture out to take pictures of the random person, but for now, the textures and colors of the world around me intrigue me enough to focus on them.  And perhaps I shall begin painting again – my period of apprenticeship in photography may be ending.

Redemption in Black and White

There is the joke that every photograph becomes “art” if it is in black and white.  The joke exists for a reason – a lot of pictures that are boring in color become much more interesting in black and white, taking on a new life.

Even though I am a magpie, and am continually drawn to bright colors, the fact is, in art, colors can often confuse me and distract me when I try to work with them.  Paintings end in disaster because of a lack of self-control, and nowadays, a lack of experience and skill.

Maybe that is why I keep coming back to sumi-e – there are not the decisions to make about color, but only gradation and loading the brush.

When I think about what I like in black and white photography, it varies.  One thing which I love in B&W is its graphic nature.  In contrasty pictures, lines can make the eye wander in and out in ways color does not.

Color is subtle, and more luxurious.  Soft B&W, with long scale and low contrast, is akin to color because it is more dreamy, and requires more emotional investment.

I like the drama of contrasts which, for me, is the same as a loud noise – startling, awakening, even traumatic.

Discernment

Well . . . I think I am past the point where every picture I take has to be trotted out and uploaded.  Yesterday the Photo Troupe went out to the beach behind the Ventura Marina, late in the afternoon (3:30 pm to be specific), parked itself at a jetty, and got to work.  I took gobs of photos, but only a few were any good, or worth editing.  Some pictures I edited in different ways, from subtle color movement, to dramatic HDR, and finally black and white.  My main focus was composition of ocean and rocks; for the birds, I just ran around chasing them with a long lens.

My first attempts at really long exposures on water, using an ND10 filter, ended with my camera toppling into the sand – luckily not the ocean! – and getting a lot of sand on the filter.  The filter was saved, set aside, gently brushed off, and cleaned with lens cleaner.  However, the one picture I did get, while not particularly dramatic in contrast with the roughness of the rocks and the smoothness of the sea, was worth saving.  The lens I used was the Tokina 11-16mm, which is wonderful for taking dramatic shots – but hard to use with refinement, simply because it is so wide.

One thing I totally forgot was I can change my iso settings on the Nikon!  It does a really good jobs at high iso, so as the sun went down, I pushed the iso from the 100 I used earlier in the day, to 1600 toward sunset, and using a Tamron 70-300mm lens at that – but it was a grrr moment that made me remember that, when all my pictures were horribly dark.

Although I live in Southern California, the coast is damp and chilly, oftentimes very windy.  The salt air clings to everything, and I end up feeling sticky and damp, even if I am not.  All of us were shivery, with fingers capable of doing very little.  Luckily, there is a rather nice cafe that serves excellent hot chocolate, so we ended up there before returning to our lives elsewhere.

Emergence from Winter

There is a beautiful botanical garden nearby.  Originally slated for a development, it was found to be unusable for housing.  The owner donated it to the city – so I am told.  What has happened since is just wonderful, and continues becoming more wonderful!  Not only does it continue to expand, adding different sections, but is always a work-in-progress, from volunteers, and from the changing of the seasons.

Yesterday, after reading and knitting for a few hours in the afternoon, I realized it was Saturday.  (I’ve been in a fog with a melt-down, jury duty, and catching up with things at work that didn’t get done during the two days I was gone.)  Suddenly, I just wanted to get out of the house, and go see some plants and take some pictures.  Of course, my favorite place to go is the gardens!

Spring cleaning has been done in the gardens – undergrowth pulled out and removed so new plants can grow.  I was not disappointed.  The matilija poppies are just beginning to emerge their new growth for spring.  Hummingbird sage is in full bloom.  Other salvia plants are sending out buds.  The redbud is in flower, with brilliant red and pink blossoms amongst heart-shaped leaves.  Bulbs, such as narcissus, are making themselves visible and easily found with their sweet fragrances.  Amaryllis, too, are emerging.  Bees are busy in the lavendar; fruit trees are beginning to renew their cycles.

The evenings, though lengthening, are still early.  Sunset is about 6:30 p.m.  The sun was lower in the sky, and tilting through the leaves and branches, backlighting everything from the west.  People like me were wandering around, just enjoying a stroll, taking pictures, enjoying an outing with family and friends.

This is the time of year when last year lingers in old leaves on trees, and fallen leaves providing nutrition for future growth.

Never ending . . .

Oh, Nick, You’re Such a Tool . . .

We all talk about “equipment” at sometime or another.  Evaluation of the tools we use is important simply because some tools are better than others.  Hammers are pretty simple items – you can use a shoe or a rock if necessary – but a well-balanced hammer in hand is quite nice to use.  Paint brushes, too, are tools.  Every artist has favorites, and ones which are okay, and others which you cannot wait to send to paint brush heaven.  There are surgical tools, gardening tools, big tools (cars and tanks), little tools (nail clippers), software.  A tool helps one accomplish a task more easily.

Without a doubt, lenses and a camera are tools.  For me, they have been tools for a while; I am still struggling with photography, deciding if it is a “yes” or “no” in my vision of creativity.  The fact is, it is a bunch of expensive tools, but not necessarily break-the-bank kind of tools.  Cameras and lenses are all individual in quality.  I’m just beginning to appreciate some of the more sophisticated elements of the Nikon camera.  I’m also enjoying the manual art of some of the lenses, and the mechanical and electronic and computer sophistication others display.  Software is another area for enjoyment because it can be the vehicle for the final creative effort, but I wonder if it will ever become something I really enjoy because I really don’t like sitting indoors at a computer for hours on end.  I probably will enjoy it as I master it.

I’ve acquired a few older lenses in the past year, ones which require manual focus, but which will interface with the aperture priority chip of the Nikon.  This means the camera can set the time for my exposure, based on whatever else I’ve dialed into the camera.  The other day, I picked up a lens which doesn’t do any of this.  It is big and heavy and produces lovely images.  It is a Vivitar Series 1 135mm f2.3 lens, and weighs at least a pound.

Last night, we went to dinner at Josh’s parents’ house, so while the light lasted, I played with the lens in the kitchen, garden, wandering around.  At times I pushed the ISO, other times I dropped it.  I had to think about a lot of things, and totally enjoyed it, looking at the LCD on the back of the camera to “chimp” over the picture.  Time, distance, focus, aperture – the old fashioned dance of the photographer with his equipment.

I’m not sure if it is me, but what I see in the older lenses is a very different quality of contrast and color than I see in my newer lenses.  I usually use my newer lenses on some variant of the automatic mode, so I wonder if that impacts things.  Maybe, maybe not.  I suspect some of the differences is in the glass and coatings used.  Older lenses seem to have a more mellow quality, as well as brighter, but not as harsh as newer lenses.  One day I wlll take the time to find out.

Today’s pictures on this post are taken with that new-to-me old lens.  You can see more of them if you want on my flickr page.  I didn’t post-process any of them, except to resize them and add my name.