Sea Grass

Statue #1

A new rage or maybe a reaction to digital cameras is the rise of lomography. I really like the idea. The notion is to create an image using low tech means. A lot of folks use the toy camera called the Holga but I have a Diana F+ that my wife got me for Christmas.

You load film into these toy cameras, tape them up to reduce light leaks and shoot away. Like anything in art, this is just a tool that is a means to an end. One of my favorite lomo cameras is the iPhone. With the addition of a few apps and the fact the camera itself is pretty week you have a ready to go lomo camera on you at all times. You can get into “the look” of a lomo photo but it has to be more than that. Like anything in art there must be purpose and intent. One of the best photos I’ve done is a shot of my daughter Elizabeth at about age 5 at the Cape Cod National Seashore. I created a large mural and it was all done by using a cheap throw away camera. It isn’t the tool it’s the artist.

Personally I tend to capture an image at the highest quality level possible. Then I spend a lot of time degrading the image until it becomes what I saw when I took the photograph. I like a lot of options and using toy cameras limit your options. One thing they do is hold a bit of seridipitus nature. You never really know what you will get with a lomo camera.

I also have a lovely pin hole camera that is a work of art in itself. This photo today is one of many I’m working on. I have created lots of versions of this photo and the fun is searching for that exact image that you saw when it was created.

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As I look at the tree I know I'm standing at the edge of night...

While I was at the Art Westport event many people asked me where the tree was that I used for this photograph. I explained that it was located at Shawnee Mission Park in Lenexa, Kansas. I could tell that they thought if they could go find the tree it would look just like this piece.

I explained that in reality the tree was really in my mind. I saw it before I went looking for it. I knew exactly what I wanted to create and all I needed was a tree that acted as the base subject of this piece of art. I went to this park because it seemed that I remembered a lot of trees that kind of stood away from other trees. Back in the day, I sailed a lot at this park. The lake isn’t too big but it was all I could get too rig and sail then get home in a reasonable amount of time.

Once I sailed on Pleasant Bay in Cape Cod I sold my boat. Shawnee Mission Lake would never do again. Pleasant Bay is a large bay. I can spend 30 to 40 minutes sailing across it. The wind is usually good and definitely a challenge at times.

So it had been a long time since I’ve been to this park but I did find exactly what I was looking for. A Halloween tree. A tree that stood on the edge of forever. That in my mind I could see the looming night ahead. What this photograph means to me isn’t as important than the fact it illicit an emotional response from those who look at it.

It seemed to do that. Other things that were important to the raw image was the fact it had to be cloudy, the tree needed to have lost all its leaves and stood well away from other trees. I put my Nikon D2xs on a tripod to produce the sharpest image I could and shot several exposures at different settings.

Once the image was captured I came back to my digital darkroom and proceeded to spend the next three to four hours fussing over the image until I produced what “I” had seen. I don’t talk much about detailed technique on how I work but I will say I used several filters and a few layers to finally get what I was after.

I told the folks at the Art Westport event that they’d be surprised to see the image I started with. There was so much interest I decided to stick it here (again) so those who were there can see what I started with. To me art is art. The medium you use is a matter of choice. I love to use photographs as the starting point. Those of you who have just bought a digital camera and are ready to conquer the world STOP. Before you do study art. All kinds of art. Read about how the human mind processes image information. Get the theory down. Shut off the automatic functions of your camera and use the manual controls so your eyes begin to see light in values. But most of all close your eyes and examine the world inside of you so you can find a point of departure. This is what makes it art not a photo.

Here is the original image. Enjoy…

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Grass is a detail shot taken from the house on the National Sea Shore.  We always go near dusk so getting photos is very hard. I used Photoshop to create the color effect so it looked more as it really is.

Sand and Grass was taken on Cape Cod but at a place called the Boardwalk in Sandwich.  The boardwalk was destroyed by a Nor’easter many years back so to rebuild it you can buy inscriptions to put on the planks.  You’ll find the Dickinson’s plank if you look for it.

All these places hold a special place in my heart and even though we return year after year I always find more to photograph.

Sand and grass

Last beach shot. Must be the cold outside.