Learning to SEE as an ArTist and Image Maker

I teach my Photographic Portfolio class every summer and always find myself preaching to my students about developing a personal style in photography and giving them some strategies for developing and nurturing their creative “personal” vision. I also enjoy that I get to go out photographing with them on photographic field trips. One thing that I continue to realize as I make photographs and teach photography. You DON’T have to travel far to find and make dynamic, unique and creative images. They are to be found all around us - it’s just a matter of developing a heightened awareness - a sensitivity to the world around us and learn to look beyond the mundane external subjects  breaking them down into basic lines, forms, colors, values and textures. To abstract (frame) these commonplace external references into new and visually interesting compositions. Its all about learning to SEE. The great photographer (and mentor to Ansel Adams) Edward Weston said it best when he critiqued young and upcoming photographers work. He would say “GOOD SEEING” . Not everyone has this talent, however with practice it can be developed in anyone.

I’m talking about photography here, however these techniques can be applied to any art form. True artists see differently than most people. I’m not putting artists on a pedestal or anything - just making a personal observation based on my experience and research from 25 years of teaching art history and photography. I continue to be amazed how you can frame a subject and with the right LIGHT, ANGLE and VANTAGE POINT capture something very special that goes beyond what I call “snapshot mode”. Light activates subject matter and can take a relatively mundane “commonplace” subject and make it truly expressive and unique.

Flowers in my Front Yard Activated by Setting Sun 7/08

I believe creativity has many levels (layers) to it. The more one makes art (photographs) the artist/image maker learns to explore and break into deeper levels of the creative process. First its a matter of training yourself to become more visual aware (sensitive) to the world around you. Then once this sensitivity is developed you learn to EXTRACT the visual elements of design out of the subjects you are exploring in your art. Now the artist is starting to scratch into the surface of the creative process, BUT don’t stop there!

Old Fishing Net and Tire in the Weeds - MC Boatyard 7/08

The next challenge for the artist / image maker is to add (incorporate) his/her personal vision (artistic sensibility/style) into the image. This I believe is our true challenge as artists / photographers. Many people can take a pretty, nicely composed photograph. Not everyone can connect with the viewer on an emotional / intellectual level where that viewer can literally feel what that photographer was feeling / experiencing at the moment the image was framed and captured.

Boat Hull Abstraction 7/08

This is what I strive to accomplish in my photographs.  I’m well aware that I don’t always hit the mark. In fact, these magical moments are few and far between. I do believe it’s possible and that’s what separates the good photographers / artists from the great. I mean look at Van Gogh or Caravaggio. They certainly were able to tap into the human heart and address a wide range of emotions that communicated and laid bare the “human condition” in their highly expressive paintings. I want to do the same thing in my pictures and this is possible without having to travel to far away “exotic” locations. Some of the best images can be found in ones own yard. It’s just a matter of teaching your self to SEE!

Wheat field with Crows by Van Gogh

Lilly’s in Late Afternoon Light 7/08

Rusted Boat Supports MC Boat Yard 7/08

You can check out more of my latest photographic abstractions on the KeO Photo Gallery Link of this Blog - I just updated it with more images - scroll down for the latest Boat Yard Abstractions.

Down Time…

I had a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend with some friends who live outside of New Bern NC right on the Nuese River. I was ready for some down time after a busy week of working and teaching classes. I had an opportunity to actually drive a small motor boat - something that I must admit I have never done by myself before. We did some serious fishing for Puppy Drum Saturday afternoon (man it was hot!) and I actually caught a good sized fish - what a rush! Driving the boat down the river full throttle and then reeling in a relatively good sized fish was a serious adrenalin rush for this city boy. It was even more of a rush driving the boat back in the dark with nothing more than a flashlight to follow the boat ahead of me.

Even though I truly enjoyed the fishing, boating, swimming and YES…some very cold beers on Saturday, it was my lone sojourn the following morning in a Kayak that I savored even more. It was so quite and peaceful on Sunday morning as I meandered through the narrow channels of the Nuese river and then out into the sound. I had my camera with me and I just paddled lazily along the river stopping to compose potential subject matter for my photographs. I love photography and any opportunity to make some pictures rejuvenates my creative spirit. It’s good to rest our bodies and enjoy quality “fun” down time, however I get even more out of any opportunity to tap into that creative place inside and explore the artist within me - whether it be photographically or with my writing.

The following are a few photographs from the weekend. Enjoy!

Sunset on the River with Fishing Net

Meandering Through the Tree Lined Channel

Lilly Pads and Moss Covered Tree

Old Weathered Cedar Tree

Dead Trees

Hanging Moss

Digital Photography Workshop - After Thoughts

I presented another Digital Photography Workshop in Jacksonville NC yesterday. This time I gave a more advanced presentation to a small group of local photographers. It was a nice surprise to see one of my former Photography graduates Dean Remington show up for my talk. He sure has come a long way with his photography. He now runs his own portrait studio in Jacksonville. I love the fact that we as teachers can make a “difference” in peoples lives and impact people in a positive way.

Putting together a presentation like this forces me to truly think about the medium of photography in new ways. Digital technology is changing (evolving) so rapidly it is very difficult for anyone in the field to keep abreast of the various aspects and dynamics of photography. It must be almost overwhelming for people just learning photography or any aspect of computer / imaging technology. The one thing that hit me as I wrote this presentation is that Photography in itself has not really changed. Taking a unique, interesting, dynamic, well composed photograph is pretty much the same whether you are still using a film camera or have moved to digital. It is the PHOTOGRAPHER who SEES the potential image NOT the camera. I must admit I am a little nostalgic for traditional film photography although I must admit to not having shot film in over 5 years. This decision was made for both health concerns and the time factor. As I mentioned to my students yesterday…there is something about the inherent quality of a black & white “silverprint” that cannot be replicated digitally. At least I’ve not seen a digital b&w photograph that reveals the subtle nuance, fine detail and tonal delineation that a traditionally printed b&w print has. With that said…it’s not the act of making the pictures that’s changed over the past 10 years. That for the most part is still relatively the same, although it seems that people tend to take more photographs when they know they can delete them from their flash cards or have a 2 gig card that holds hundreds of images. I think film photographers tend to be a little more selective in their choice of subject matter and how they may compose and expose it. This is just a personal opinion however, not based on any real research other than anecdotal.

The real changes have occurred in the processing of the image after the initial exposure is taken. The digital processing can be faster because you don’t have to process the film in chemistry and then print the images. You see the photograph immediately and can process it in image manipulation software like Photoshop, Aperature or Light Room in a matter of minutes although if the photographer has limited computer skills this can be a timely procedure as well.

Anyway…I am attaching my Powerpoint presentation at the bottom of this post for anyone who wants to view it. Photography is constantly evolving as technology advances. I think it is important NOT to loose sight of the fact that making GOOD photographs is still in the hands, mind and heart of the photographer. Computers, software and digital gadgets are just TOOLS to help us as image makers produce the very best and expressive photographs possible. The best photographs control the tools and don’t let the tool control them and how they make pictures. CLICK LINK BELOW FOR POWERPOINT

digitalphoto1

St. Patrick’s Day Photo Exhibit & Beer Tasting

Attention all Ye’ beer (and art/photo) lovers….I’m exhibiting a cross section of my Ireland Photographs @ 911 Restoration, 911 Cedar Point Blvd (Hwy 24)in Cedar Point from 5-7pm tonight. They are having a Beer tasting in honor of that great Irish saint. The work will be exhibited (and for sale) through St. Patrick’s day.

Accordian Man, Ring of Kerry, Ireland 2006

Roosters, Aran Island, Ireland 2006 

Click here for more Ireland Photographs

Questions??

Erika Worden
911 Restoration
“Seize the Teas…Peruse the Brews”
www.teaandbeer.com
911 Cedar Point Blvd.
Cedar Point, NC 28584
252-354-7911 Office
252-646-4401

On Seeing…

Photo by Murry

I took my students on a photo field trip last Wednesday to a local boat yard. I’ve been taking my portfolio students to this particular boat yard in Beaufort for probably 15 years and it amazes me how I can continue to find unique and interesting photographs in the midst of dry docked boats, strewn multi-colored nets, old rusted rigging and scattered paint cans.

Rust and Net

I try to teach my students about the Art of Seeing. Yes…it is an art to be able to frame and isolate interesting, unique, visually dynamic compositions in any environment and/or situation. It’s all about developing a heightened awareness of our surroundings and becoming more sensitive to the little details around us. So many people walk around and miss experiencing the nuances of the world around us and as photographers we must learn to develop an EYE for the subtleties…the magical little details that can be framed and made into wonderful abstract compositions. As I mentioned in my last Blog - its a matter of breaking external reality down into the interrelationship of lines, shapes, colors, textures and values and not be to caught up on the subject itself.

I can always go back to the boat year and extract and isolate unique compositions because there are literally thousands of them waiting to be framed and captured. Its just a matter of SEEING Photographically - SEEING the details and being more HYPER AWARE of the world around us.

Click here for Slide Show of Boat Yard Photographs

Check out this guy’s Blog from India. He has a great post about Photography and What Makes a Great Shot.

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Digital Photography
Photographic Composition

On Photography…..

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been seriously making photographs since 1973. I began my photographic journey in 1973 when I was a junior at New York Institute of Technology on Long Island, New York.  I was a Communication Arts major specializing in Television / Radio Broadcasting when I took a photography course my junior year.  The first time I shot a roll of Black and White film and developed it, I was hooked.  I knew, at that moment I would pursue some aspect of photography in my life. Once I got Dektol and D-76  in my blood, I began taking photographs and practicing my craft.

Here I am over thirty years after taking my first photographs for that college elective course and my passion and enthusiasm for photography has not waned and now I am the photography instructor and have been for almost 25 years since leaving the US Army as a photojournalist.

The medium of photography has undergone some incredible changes in my lifetime. It has only been a decade or so that digital technology has transformed the industry and the way we make and process our photographs.

The arts of painting, sculpture, drawing and ceramics have been with us for thousands of years. Photography on the other hand was invented approximately 175 years ago so it is still in its embryonic state compared to the other art mediums. I believe in its short span of existence as an art form it has constantly evolved and continues to reinvent itself. Even before the digital revolution in the mid-ninties photography went through a variety of technical and conceptual stages.

When you think about the History and Roots of Photography”> and its humble beginnings you just have to be amazed at how so many disparate events and people had to come together at a given point in time to take photography from a theoretical concept to a technical and practical reality.

Robert Leggat states on his History of Photography web site,

“There are two distinct scientific processes that combine to make photography possible. It is somewhat surprising that photography was not invented earlier than the 1830s, because these processes had been known for quite some time. It was not until the two distinct scientific processes had been put together that photography came into being.

The first of these processes was optical. The Camera Obscura (dark room) had been in existence for at least four hundred years. There is a drawing, dated 1519, of a Camera Obscura by Leonardo da Vinci; about this same period its use as an aid to drawing was being advocated.

The second process was chemical. For hundreds of years before photography was invented, people had been aware, for example, that some colours are bleached in the sun, but they had made little distinction between heat, air and light.”

From its initial conception in ancient time to present day photography has evolved, adapted, and reinvented itself in a variety of ways.
History of Photography Timeline

I think that is what I love about it. Even though the principles and compositional techniques of making creative, unique and dynamic photographs has not really changed over the years the technical process has continues to evolve as the technology becomes more technically sophisticated throughout the years. Its all about SEEING!.

Seeing, in the finest and broadest sense means using your senses, your intellect and your emotions.

The photographer best expresses a theme or idea by using good composition (visual design) to support the subject matter being photographed.

Good seeing begins with careful observation of what’s around you. Always strive to look at the world in a new way. As you photograph it’s important to continually change camera position, focus and depth of field.

This is when you will stop looking…and begin seeing…lines…shapes…textures…patterns…and colors you hadn’t thought possible.

By avoiding preconceived ideas about how to shoot specific subject matter you’ll truly begin to explore reality in ways that you have never experienced before. So go pick up a camera and start photographing!

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Digital Photography
Photographic Composition