Its been great to get back into the digital darkroom. I knocked around inside my photo archive and picked out 8 landscapes that inspired me. The above is a virtual rendition of my studio office with these eight new images on display.
In photography (light drawing) the click of the shutter is but a piece of a creative process. Ansel Adams said the camera and film capture the score for the music of our experience. The score is a synopsis of the melody, dynamics, and harmonies that inspired us to compose and click the image. The film or focal plane provides a list of the notes to be played – a simplified summary of the complexity of the scene. But, he went on, it is in the darkroom that the score is turned into performance, with all the notes properly arranged, interpreted, and collaborating within the print. Ansel would work for days in a dance of darkroom technique to get the performance he desired to extract and render from the score of the film.
Accordingly, photography occurs in five stages of location, vision and inspiration, perspective and capture, reflection, and creation.
Step 1 – Show up. Be somewhere with open eyes (willing to observe carefully) and heart (ready to find inspiration).
Step 2 – Be captured by an image. Feel the pull of the visual experience – on our eyes and our imagination and emotions.
Step 3 – Compose a perspective. Using the camera select the angle, field of view, focus, and light range. Pause. Reflect. Trip the shutter.
Step 4 – View the captured image – examine the score. Compare the image (score) to the music (the experience and the emotions from step two). What music is missing? What music is newly noticed? Where does the score fail and where does it succeed? Perhaps, return to capture a new score from a new perspective.
Step 5 – After a passage of time and the separation of space revisit the score again. Think about a performance that can recreate the essence (the pull) of the experienced scene. Use the recored image (the score) along with the tools of the darkroom (the musicians) to create an image (performance) that once again creates pull (engaged gaze) in you and for others.
Night Tree
This photo was taken in Zion National Park in November 2016. The original photo was taken in daylight. My vision for the piece was for it to be a night shot so that the majesty of the tree would be accentuated against a star filled night sky.
Bryce Sunset
This photo was taken in Bryce Canyon in November 2016. The red tones of the Hoodoos along with the afternoon sun was inspiring. I worked to restore the lighting, textures, tonality, and sky to what was presented that day to my mind and emotions.
Emerald Bay – Lake Tahoe
We are fortunate to live one hour from Lake Tahoe and there are few places more magnificent to visit on a clear and sunny summer day. In particular the view of Emerald Bay from the south side is fantastic.
Jasper River
On one of my many trips with my brother Eric we took a train from Vancouver to Jasper. The dramatic beauty of that area was a photographer’s dream. The water was the color of milk and the sky and mountains were the ultimate backdrop. Just wow! I added in clouds in the sky along with numerous adjustments during post production to bring the shot fully to the impact of my experience.
Mt. Bachelor – Oregon
What a day it was in July 2014. Dar and I were in Bend Oregon on the first stop of my post-retirement trip into the Northwest. Bend is surrounded within and without by natures glory and this shot was taken near the foot of Mt. Bachelor. Other than the mosquitos the day was perfect! Travelling around and on Mt Bachelor we experienced one stunning view after another. This setting was a favorite.
Highway 41 Spring Vista
Normally in summer the mountains become quite dry and brown along Highway 41 between Paso Robles and Highway 5. But on this spring day the flowers were bountiful and stunning.
Zion
There is just something so special about Zion. The palette of sky, stone, water, and vegetation is a delight to all the senses, but especially the eye. Great time to draw with light.
Fall Day Near Sierra City, CA
A 45 minutes journey up highway 49 from our home takes you through the small gold rush towns of Downieville and then Sierra City. The river rushes and the Sierra Buttes tower above. There was only one place open to take nourishment and then the drive continued. About 30 minutes above Sierra City I saw this scene poking out between an opening in the trees. Fall in the Sierra – a sight to behold!
