Ansel Adams is (rightly) regarded as one the of the pillars of “realistic” American landscape photography. And though Adams is almost too popular to be hip, I will confess that I stand in awe of his work. There is one point about Adams that many don’t realize, however. He is great, in a large measure, because he was a darkroom expert: he was great at manipulating photos to express his artistic vision.
This point came to mind when I came across these four videos on Jim Goldstein’s blog. These are four-part series of videos from the 1983 BBC Program “Master Photographers.” I recommend watching all four, though to my mind the second video is the most interesting.
Ponder these quotes the next time you think that digital manipulation is killing photography:
“None of my images are realistic in terms of values… it’s intentional manipulation” (at :50).
“The negative is the composer’s score, all the information is there. The print is the performance, so you interpret the score at various aesthetic emotional levels, but never far enough away dividing the original concept.” (at 4:00)
Notably, Adams was excited about the potential for the potential to reinterpret images using the computer:
“The thing that excites me is that in not too many years we’re going to have a entirely new medium of expression with the electronic image. I’ve seen what can happen to a print reproduced by the laser scanner and how that is enhanced and that is just the beginning. … and I know the potential is there and I know its going to be wonderful. Well in that sense the negatives for these photographs as an example will take the place of a fresh kabal they are….personal or some early composer will then be reinterpreted through a fresh medium and I think that is marvelous.” (at 7:00).
Thanks to Jim Goldstein for point out these great videos and transcribing the quotes reproduced above.
South African Photographer Greg du Toit illustrates the fine line between devotion to photography and madness. From an article in The Sun:
SUPERHUMAN snapper Greg du Toit was so determined to photograph wild lions drinking he sat SUBMERGED in their watering hole — for THREE months.
These incredible pictures show that Greg’s blood, sweat and tears approach to his work — three hours per day for seven days a week in the water — was worth the wait.
But it came at a huge price for the photographer who was diagnosed with horrific tropical diseases Bilharzia, Malaria and several parasites, which he soaked up through the dirty water in the drinking hole.
To top things off, du Toit was at serious risk of being eaten by the lions he was photographing. On the other hand, his images are fantastic. Check out the slideshow in the linked article. Even better are the photos on du Toit’s website. The African Anomaly gallery is particularly good. Worth a look
I confess to have a soft spot for blurred images. Here’s a great set of Scottish blurs by Ted Leeming and Morag Paterson, courtesy of the Luminous Landscape. The first image in particular is stunning.
I promise to get back to posting my own work soon.
Photographer Adrian Groves captured some amazing images of a kingfisher diving underwater to catch a minnow. Wow. Amazing work of one of my favorite (but least photographed) species.
(Note: I have chosen to respect Groves’ copyright by refraining from posting his images here.)
I am a great fan of Andy Rouse’s photography, and graphically this is a wonderful departure from the typical, boring wildlife slideshow. (I understand that Rouse uses this as an intro for his live wildlife photography presentations). Not sure about that background music though! Certainly the first time I’ve head a techno/dance track in this context. Andy has a short writeup of the software he used to create the slideshow on his blog. Unfortunately I don’t see a permalink to the post in question.
This is a remarkable video of National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen’s encounter with a leopard seal in Antarctica. Needless to say, Nicklen was a tad more bold with the seal than I would have been! Nickeln’s photography isn’t bad either. I think I’m going to purchase a copy of his book, Polar Obsession.
I spend last weekend in San Francisco with my wife. During my trip, I was fortunate to run across Dennis Dooley’s booth at an outdoor arts fair. Dooley has made a living for the past twenty years by selling prints at fairs and as a licensed San Francisco street artist, and claims to have the oldest active street artist license in the city. Dooley has a wonderful eye for composition, and his street photography fantastic. Check out his galleries and pay particular attention to his Urban B&W and Urban Color portfolios.
I purchased a print of the image above as a sort of fine art photography souvenir, and used all my willpower to not to purchase a half-dozen other images. Dooley has some other striking images (images, frankly, that are stronger than the one I purchased) but don’t fit with the aesthetic of my house. Here’s one of my favorites
A few months ago I was killing some time between the sweet morning and evening light browsing the Monte Vista Crane Festival. (The festival is really a big fair/craft show/small town event — both charming and odd at the same time). I stumbled across “Between Light and Shadow” by John Weller as I was leafing through books at the Great Sand Dunes National Park table. It stopped me in my tracks.
I can sum up this book by saying that it is easily the best book of outdoor photography that I’ve seen in the last five years. (And I’ve read, and purchased, many such photography in that time). Weller’s book has three virtues that set it apart from most of the outdoor photography books in my collection. First, he has a unique style. Rather than employing the contrasty and highly saturated only-in-sweet-light style that dominates landscape and wildlife photography, his photos are under-saturated, low contrast, even a little dark. He doesn’t rely on the “sweet light” but uses all sorts of different lighting — including, in particular, storm lighting — to great effect. Second, he lived in the dunes for several months over the space of a year. This manifests itself both in the quality of the images (you don’t get very many images this good on a week-long trip) and more importantly on Waller’s eye for the place. Finally unlike the prose in many photography books, Weller’s prose is engaging and well written.
If you like landscape photography even a little, and you don’t have this book in your library, you’re missing out.
Intentionally blurred images certain are in vogue this year. Master landscape photographer Alain Briot has posted a lovely portfolio of intentionally blurred images on his website. Though the technique is largely the same, it is interesting to note just how different Alain’s images are from William Neil’s images that I blogged about previously.
While I am on the subject of Alain Briot, I must say just how depressing (and motivating) it is to view his work (and to read his essays). Every time I think I’m getting better at photography, I view his portfolios or read his essays on the Luminious Landscape and realize just how much further I can progress as a photographer. Not to copy Briot’s images or his style, but rather to have the technical control and aesthetic sense to make images that reflect my style and vison as effectively as he does.
I am simply stunned by William Neil’s “Impressions of Light” portfolio, a series of beautifully impressionistic images that Neil creates by moving the camera during a long exposure. (Outdoor Photographer article here.) You owe it to yourself to take a look. (If you don’t have time to browse the whole collection, here’s a favorite example from Neil’s Photo Blog.) The textures, colors, and sense of space in these images are fantastic.
I am sufficiently impressed by the Impressions of Light to try my own hand at images in that style, though hopefully different enough from Neil’s to move beyond mere imitation. Here are a couple of my initial efforts, all shot from my office window. (Here we come to an important difference between Neil and me. He spends his days photographing in Yosemite. I spend mine in a skyscraper looking out the window. Go figure.)
This is a motion blur of an interesting banded cloud formation. The light turquoise color of the sky was striking, and I tried to make it the focal point of the image:
Here is a blur of lower downtown Denver. I tried to leave just enough detail for the viewer to understand that this is an image of an urban landscape, though the image is primarily about texture and color.
You can see more of my initial attempts at “urban blur” images here.
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