Tag: Stieglitz

Influences…

When it comes to art, nothing is new. Consciously or subconsciously we are influenced by what we see and hear, but what we do with that information is what counts.

I recently watched a post unfold where a painter sourced a photographic group for photos, replicated some of them, and passed them off as his own work. When called out, he claimed not to know better, yet had a well established website from which to monetize his paintings—which were identical in content to some of the photographs. He hadn’t asked permission to use them, and he certainly hadn’t made any of them his own. He’d simply painted the photograph with no credit to the photographer. One was a carefully crafted landscape image that this particular photographer had planned out. The resulting photo wasn’t a case of being in the right place at the right time. He, like many photographers do, had researched the site, the event that he wanted to photograph there, and when the two came together, he went out and got the shot—his vision, his composition, his expression.

Inspiration is a good thing. It stretches our creative boundaries and takes us in directions we might not have gone had we not been moved in some way.

From episode one of the series Yellowstone, I was mesmerized by the opening title sequences so brilliantly put together by creative director Lisa Bolan, Elastic, and crew. (If I’ve missed other attributions, I apologize.) Black and white photography has always inspired me and I’ve written before about people whose work I’ve particularly enjoyed, Stieglitz, for one. The images that drew me in from the title sequences had a gorgeous, yet gritty, yellowish toning applied to them.

By the next day, I’d developed a black and white toning pre-set for my monochrome imagery that for me, had the feel of those opening sequences. It doesn’t work for everything, it’s a starting point, but I’ve had a lot of fun playing with it.

The image above is a farrier hot-shoeing a horse.

Explore other mediums. Be inspired. Be true to your own vision.

Defining moments…

in a photographic journey.

on frozen ground
on frozen ground

A shutter working at a speed of one-fourth to one-twenty-fifth of a second will answer all purposes. A little blur in a moving subject will often aid to giving the impression of action and motion.

Alfred Stieglitz

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a challenge of posting three images a day for five days which made me look at my body of work a little differently. I was searching for groups of images that worked well together and in the process was able to give myself a little more direction.

While choosing my first grouping of three I could clearly see influences flow through my work. Those influences were more related to various techniques and use of lenses and not necessarily subject matter. What I found were images that energetically and visually worked more naturally together.

I can distinctly remember how on frozen ground came about. I was photographing an exciting event called skijoring where skiers and snowboarders are pulled around a track and over jumps at high rates of speed by a horse and rider team. There was no shortage of people photographing this event and after choosing a location that would eliminate more of the background clutter, I began shooting.

During a break in the action I was scrolling through my images and remember being so decidedly underwhelmed by my shots that I thought would look pretty much like everybody else’s. I will admit to being more than a little envious of the fellow who had the prime position of being right in the center of the ring and thought, okay, how can I make mine different? What do I want to capture in my shot? There were several things that impressed me; speed, danger, teamwork, and the sheer beauty of a horse galloping across the snow. I love abstract, don’t want to be visually told everything, but would rather have something left to discover. That however was not coming through in my static, high shutter speed shots that froze the action so I dialed it down and began panning with my camera as each team flew by. I got the shot that I wanted and it has become a favorite of mine.

Looking back, I realized that I had become comfortable enough with my camera to start playing with it more; where the risk of walking away without the shot was a far better choice for me than settling for a shot that I didn’t love. I think up until that point my images consisted more of static moments frozen in time even though it had always been my desire to be able to instill more emotion into my imagery.

On that cold January day I didn’t freeze and was able to work through a moment and capture what I had mentally visualized.

Participating in the art challenge allowed me to group together images and make sense of what and how I like to shoot and in the process that has refocused me. Shooting from the heart adds a certain authenticity that is hard to fake. If you’re not moved by your own images how can you expect others to be?

 

For more about Alfred Stieglitz check out my post from February 8th  “If you could tag along with an iconic photographer…”