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Lately I’ve started to think about my continuing body of photographic work in terms of ongoing, broadly defined projects. Each project, there are four, is distinctly different from the others. And each project represents a style or a subject matter that I love to photograph. Oh I still photograph other things that fall outside of my four projects but I feel that the four projects define who I am as a photographer as much as I define what the nature of the four projects are. I believe this so strongly that it is my intention, in the near future, to totally revamp my website around the four projects. I will eliminate the myriad galleries I have added and added to over the years and organize my new galleries around the four projects. Maybe just maybe, I will add a fifth gallery with select images that don’t neatly fit under the four projects (travel, for example) but we shall see. So what are the four projects on which I am so focused? “MORNING BECOMES ELECTRIC”The first project is entitled “Morning Becomes Electric”. Those of you who have followed my work for any period of time must know that I am a morning person. I love the early morning hours and have for as long as I can remember. As I write this, it is 5:00 am and I have already been up for an hour. Many write of the golden light that comes with sunrise. I, on the other hand, greatly prefer the vibrant colors lighting up the sky in the hour and minutes before the actual sunrise. Nothing beats watching as night becomes day and sky becomes electric. The period between civil twilight (dawn) and sunrise, that 30 minutes, is my most favorite time to shoot. Actually, I like to arrive at my destination earlier than that and take advantage of time between nautical and civil twilight (roughly 30-60 minutes before sunrise). The sky is continually changing as morning tries to lighten up the night and night tries to hang on for just a few minutes longer. “Morning Becomes Electric” is my attempt to capture what I see during that electrifying period. And what I see, what my eyes see, is color… bright, vivid, saturated, bold color. That is what I try to capture in camera and try to enhance to match my vision in processing. “Morning Becomes Electric” will continue to build on images like the following. Bar Harbor (ME) 091111
Belmar (NJ) 111311
“CONTRASTS”The second project that I continue to work on is simply called “Contrasts”. This project encompasses all my black & white work. I chose “Contrasts” for the title for obvious photographic reasons… contrast is such a critical element in black and white photography. It’s not that every black & white image “must” have bold blacks and bright whites and strongly contrasting elements in order to be successful. However, we must always consider contrast even if all we are dealing with in an image are myriad shades of gray. But the obvious is not the only reason for entitling this project “Contrasts”. I tend to also look for a play of contrasts in the subject matter I choose to photograph whether they be contrasting lifestyles, contrasting architecture, contrasting time periods, etc. Here are a few examples. Eastern State Penintentiary (PA) 022511
Berks County (PA) 112711
Eckley (PA) 121711
“SOFT PETALS”The third project that I continue to work on is entitled “Soft Petals”. I love flowers… all kinds of flowers from tiny wildflowers (that some call weeds when they infiltrate their lawns) to the many hybrids found in private and public gardens. For years I have photographed flowers trying to get every little bit of detail possible out of my images. Then an epiphany. While the detail was wonderful, it wasn’t the detail that I loved. It was color, broad swaths of color, soft sensuous colors. It seemed there were two directions I could go. One was to broaden my view from the macro to the wide angle and look to capture patterns of color across an entire flower bed or garden. The second direction, and the one I chose, was to stay macro… to stay up close and personal as it were but to soften the focus to the point where I could capture the soft sensuous colors while only maintaining the absolute bare minimum of detail. And thus was born “Soft Petals”. Hibiscus 112011
Amaryllis 121111
“SIMPLICITY”And last, and in this case least, is a project I simply call “Simplicity”. For the last year or two, I have been really enamored with my take on minimalist photography… minimizing the number and complexity of the compositional elements while continuing to have the composition tell a story. This project is my attempt at showing visually that less can be more. Snow 013011
Shell 052911
And there you have it. My four projects: “Morning Becomes Electric”, “Contrasts”, “Soft Petals” and “Simplicity”. Look for changes in my website that will expand upon these projects in the not too distant future. And… MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR
“2012 Creativity, Composition, the Camera & YOU!”Photography Workshopswith Ed Vatza(Additional Workshops may be added)********************************************************************
March 11 Orchid Extravaganza at Longwood Gardens (PA) $95, limit 10. Come celebrate Daylight Savings Times and the impending spring of 2012 among the orchids, lilies, hibiscus and other beautiful flowers of Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square. We will meet at the Longwood parking lot at 0830 so that we can get our tripod passes, if you need one, and be ready to enter at 0900 sharp. We will spend the morning indoors in the conservatory. Tripods are permitted until noon at which time we make our way across to the Terrace Restaurant for some lunch and friendly conversation about the morning’s activity. While this is the end of the formal workshop, participants are welcome to return to the conservatory sans tripod or wander the grounds for the afternoon. April 15 The Covered Bridges of the Lehigh Valley, $75, limit 12. Get your taxes done early and spend the dreaded April 15th Tax Day photographing the covered bridges of the Lehigh Valley. This is a half-day workshop. We will meet at 0700 at Bogert’s Bridge in the Lehigh Parkway (Allentown, PA). And we will finish somewhere between 1200 and 1400. In addition to Bogert’s Bridge, we will photograph Wehr’s Bridge, Guth’s Bridge, Geiger’s Bridge and Kreidersville Bridge. The emphasis will be on seeking new and unique ways to view and photograph the bridges, working the inside of the bridges as well as the outside, the use of HDR in covered bridge photography, and compositional variations such as fisheye images. April 29 A Day at the Beach, Ocean Grove, NJ, $125, limit 12. Be forewarned, we will be meeting at the Ocean Grove Fishing Pier at 0500 on Sunday morning so if you are traveling some distance, you may want to come on Saturday and stay over. The goal is to work the sunrise from civil twilight (0528) right through the actual sunrise at approximately 0600. Following sunrise, we will have the opportunity to photograph the shoreline and boardwalk/promenade areas before moving on to shoot the beautiful Victorian homes and hotels of Ocean Grove. Around mid-morning we will head to Spring Lake (aka the Irish Riviera) where we can check out the oceanfront mansions, grab a late breakfast at Who’s on Third (separate checks) and spend some time photographing around the actual lake in Spring Lake. We will end the day in Sea Girt where we will have the opportunity to photograph the quaint Sea Girt lighthouse. The North Shore (what this area is called) ponds may still hold some wintering ducks so bring your long lens if you have one. May 18-20 Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area (PA) $395, limit 10. The Delaware Water Gap NRA parallels both sides of the Delaware River in northeastern Pennsylvania and northwestern New Jersey. We will have the opportunity to photograph sunrises over lakes and the river and an abundance of wonderful waterfalls throughout the Water Gap area. We will have the opportunity to work on our HDR skills at the old Zimmerman and Slateford farms. As you would expect from workshops of this type, there will be field instruction and classroom time with daily critiques. Software will be discussed where appropriate. Activities and content can be modified to meet the needs of workshop participants. Workshop will begin at 6:30 PM on Friday May 18 and end at 4:30 PM on Sunday, May 20. Participants can expect to be in the field for sunrise (approx. 0545) on both Saturday and Sunday. We will break for lunch and an afternoon work session and critique before heading back into the field on Saturday. On Sunday, we will break for a late lunch and a final critique and wrap up. June 5-9 Lupines & Acadia National Park (ME) $595, limit 10. This is your opportunity to experience unique areas of Acadia National Park with a workshop/tour leader who know this area like it is his home. Ed has vacationed in the Bar Harbor/Acadia area since the 90s and is one of two destination experts for Acadia National Park on travel website – Trip Advisor. June is lupine time in Maine and we will have ample opportunity to photograph fields of purple, pink and white lupines. This will be a great time to break out those wide angle lenses as well well as the macros and we will spend some time working on wide-angle close ups of the fields of flowers. We will work the rocky shoreline and cliffs along the Ocean Drive in Acadia; explore Schooner Head; photograph sunrises and sunsets from various locations inside as well as out of the park; spend a beautiful morning exploring the first light on Eagle Lake and Jordan Pond; look for that special shot of Bass Harbor Lighthouse; and explore the ruins of Bar Island. Weather and tides permitting, there is the possibility walking across the bar connecting Bar Harbor to Bar Island (exposed for a 3-hour window surrounding low tide) and pulling a Gilligan and stranding ourselves on the island until the next low tide.. On the island, there would be opportunity to photograph the village of Bar Harbor, the mountains of Acadia, lobster boats, the ruins of the single solitary house that was built on the island by Jack Perkins and a meadow full of lupines. But be forewarned, the island is uninhabited, has no facilities, and no food. We would have to rough it for the day bringing our own food and finding a spot in the woods (so to speak), if necessary. Finally we can spend some time visiting the harbors in the villages surrounding Acadia such as Southwest Harbor, Bass Harbor and Bernard. Once again, classroom sessions and exercises will focus on the creative process and refining our abilities to see compositions more creatively. We will also cover aspects of sunrise and sunset photography, HDR photography, macro photography and photo-impressionism. Software will be discussed where appropriate. Activities and content can be modified to meet the needs of workshop participants. Workshop will begin with a group dinner (everyone pays their own way) on Tuesday evening, June 5 followed by a classroom session and will end with a critique session on Saturday evening, June 9. On most days, we can expect to be on our way before sunrise (approx 0445 this time of year on the coast of Maine). We will break for lunch followed by an afternoon classroom/critique session and a rest period. We will regroup in late afternoon and be in the field through sunset (approximately 2015). July 28 Water Lilies at Longwood Gardens (PA) $95, limit 10. Some of the most beautiful water lilies I have ever seen call the outdoor ponds at Longwood Gardens home. Here’s you opportunity to meet them up close and personal. This is an opportunity to break out those macro lenses, teleconverters, and extension tubes if you have them. If not, don’t worry. I’ll show you some tricks to making great water lily images either way. We will meet at the Longwood parking lot at 0830 so that we can get our tripod passes, if you need one, and be ready to enter at 0900 sharp. We will spend much of the morning in and out of the conservatory. Tripods are permitted until noon at which time we make our way across to the Terrace Restaurant for some lunch and friendly conversation about the morning’s activity. While this is the end of the formal workshop, participants are welcome to return to the conservatory sans tripod or wander the grounds for the afternoon. September 28-30 – Sandy Hook & the North Shore (NJ) $395, limit 10. The photo opportunities along this stretch of New Jersey coast are boundless. Sunrises over the dunes and ocean. Sunsets over the bay. We’ll photograph three very different kinds of lighthouses (Sandy Hook, a tower; Navesink/Twin Lights, a fortress; and Sea Girt, basically a beach house with a lighthouse on top). And we will have the opportunity to hone our skills on the WW1 ruins of Fort Hancock with the Mortar Batteries and Battery Potter. Classroom sessions and exercises will focus on the creative process and refining our abilities to see compositions more creatively. We will also cover HDR photography and photo-impressionism. And while not the focal point of this workshop, Sandy Hook and the North Shore are excellent for bird photography. So if you have a long lens, feel free to bring it along. As you would expect from workshops of this type, there will be field instruction and time for daily critiques. Activities and content can be modified to meet the needs of workshop participants. Software will be discussed where appropriate. Workshop will begin at 6:30 PM on the 9/28 and end at 4:30 PM on 9/30. October 10-13 Autumn in Acadia (Acadia National Park, ME) $525, limit 10. We return to Acadia for the fall foliage. This is your opportunity to experience unique areas of Acadia National Park with a workshop/tour leader who know this area like it is his home. Ed has vacationed in the Bar Harbor/Acadia area since the 90s and is one of two destination experts for Acadia National Park on travel website – Trip Advisor. October is fall foliage time in Maine and we will have ample opportunity to photograph the colors of autumn. This will be a great time to break out those wide angle lenses as well well as the macros. In addition, there will be many long lens opportunities. We will work the rocky shoreline and cliffs along the Ocean Drive in Acadia; explore Schooner Head; photograph sunrises and sunsets from various locations inside as well as out of the park; spend a beautiful morning exploring the autumn colors at first light on Eagle Lake and Jordan Pond; and look for that special shot of Bass Harbor Lighthouse. Finally we can spend some time visiting the harbors in the villages surrounding Acadia such as Southwest Harbor, Bass Harbor and Bernard. Once again, classroom sessions and exercises will focus on the creative process and refining our abilities to see compositions more creatively. We will also cover aspects of sunrise and sunset photography, HDR photography, macro photography and photo-impressionism (perfect for capturing those autumnal colors. Software will be discussed where appropriate. Activities and content can be modified to meet the needs of workshop participants. Workshop will begin with a group dinner (everyone pays their own way) on Wednesday evening, June 5 followed by a classroom session and will end with a critique session on Saturday evening, October 10. On most days, we can expect to be on our way before sunrise (approx 0615 this time of year on the coast of Maine). We will break for lunch followed by an afternoon classroom/critique session and a rest period. We will regroup for sunset (approximately 1730). October 19-21 Sleepy Hollow and the Hudson Valley for Halloween (NY) $395, limit 10. Maybe, just maybe, we will encounter the headless horseman of Legend of Sleepy Hollow fame. This is your opportunity to visit the historic Sleepy Hollow cemetery and the resting place of Washington Irving. Don’t be fooled. This is one huge cemetery and the names of those resting there reads like a who’s who. Monuments, statues and mausoleums are there to be photographed. But don’t think this is just some cemetery tour. There is much, much more to see, do and photograph including Sunnyside, the Washington Irving Estate; Kykuit, home to four generations of Rockefellers; the historic Philipsburg Estate and the 1883 Lighthouse on the Hudson River right in Sleepy Hollow. There may also be time for a foray into Rockefeller State Park for some nature photography as well. there is so much more than the grave site of Washington Irving as well as the mausoleums of some Classroom sessions and exercises will focus on the creative process and refining our abilities to see compositions more creatively. We will also cover HDR photography and photo-impressionism. As you would expect from workshops of this type, there will be field instruction and time for daily critiques. Activities and content can be modified to meet the needs of workshop participants. Software will be discussed where appropriate. Workshop will begin at 6:30 PM on the 10/19 and end at 4:30 PM on 10/21. Prerequisites: Participants are expected to have a working knowledge of exposure (f/stop and shutter speed) and should know how to operate their equipment. Please bring along the manual for your camera. For multi-day workshops, bring a laptop computer with RAW processing and image editing software in order to prepare images for critique. Any film shooters are encouraged to borrow a digital SLR to make images for critique sessions in order to maximize the workshop learning experience. The Program: Please note that the actual program could change based on weather and other conditions beyond the leader’s control. Flexibility is the key. Most full days will begin before sunrise and end well into the evening. Again weather permitting, we will be out in the field in time to shoot sunrise and take full advantage of the wonderful early morning light. We will take an extended break for lunch and personal time and resume in the afternoon possibly shooting through sunset. (getting earlier in the Fall). After dinner, we will gather for classroom time and critiquing. Payment/Refund Policies Payment Policy: The workshop fee is for instruction only. It includes admission fees where necessary. All other expenses including transportation, accommodations, and meals are the responsibility of the participant. A 50% deposit is required to confirm your registration after receiving your registration forms. The full balance is due 45 days prior to the start of the workshop. Cancellation Policy: Deposit and balance paid will be fully refunded if cancellation is made prior to 45 days before the workshop start date. No refunds will be given if cancellation is made less than 45 days before the workshop start date. The workshop leader reserves the right to cancel any workshop if there is insufficient registration. If so, any deposit paid will be immediately refunded. Rain refund policy: Presentations and critiques will continue as usual if it should rain. NO discount for one rain day. Two rain days = 10% discount on next workshop. Three rain days = 15% discount on next workshop. Only applies if rained in for the full workshop day, not including the opening night presentation or the final half day of the workshop. To register or if you would like more information about my workshops, drop me an e-mail at: ed@edvatza.com Before getting into the events mentioned in the title, I feel I should address the simple question of “where have I been the past couple of months?” I wish I could respond with a litany of exotic places that I visited in order to create epic photographs but, alas, that was not the case. But it was a strange albeit rewarding time nonetheless. I started to write an explanation but it got way too long way too fast. So here is the quasi-Twitter version… Hospital, doctors, tests, found nothing, I’m fine. ArtsQuest Member’s Art Show – juried, three prints accepted, sold one, success. Week in Acadia, always great, got some great images. Catch up at day job, never fun. Prepare for exhibit of work, 12 prints, 12×18, matted & framed. Hang exhibit; most difficult conditions; looks great. Go to NYC for PDN/Photo Plus. Which brings us to the present and the events in the title of this post. The Lehigh Valley is really blessed to have an organization like ArtsQuest. They run the Banana Factory in Bethlehem, PA with it’s galleries, artists-in residence and superb art education programs for children and adults. They recently opened Steel Stacks on the site of the now closed Bethlehem Steel plant which features multiple venues for music and visual arts. And they run events like the 10-day Musikfest festival that has been going for more than 25 years now. InVision is the brain child of Janice Lipzin of ArtsQuest. It began somewhat modestly last year with a three day event with guest speakers and artists. I attended and found it very enjoyable. But Janice had bigger plans… much bigger plans. And this year’s event is the next step in that plan. The event begins this evening (Thursday, November 3) with a “Slideluck” Party at Steel Stacks. There will be a continuously running video slide show of photography by national, regional and local artists as well as ample opportunity to mingle, network, socialize…whatever you want to call it. Then events continue on through Sunday with presentations, book signings, workshops, portfolio reviews and a venue where photographers can bring work, share it with others and talk about it. In conjunction with InVision, November has been designated Lehigh Valley Photography Month and there are more than 40 venues (ranging from galleries to restaurants to bars to B&Bs and beyond) exhibiting photographic works from national, regional and local photographers. I am one of the artists featured. My exhibit entitled “Current Images of the Past” is hanging in the Asa Packer Room (wall of rock and mortar) in the Sayre Mansion Inn in Bethlehem, just up the hill from the Banana Factory. The Sayre Mansion Inn (beautiful; historic; large B&B with 22 rooms) is located at 431 West Third Street (corner of Third and Wyandotte Streets) in Bethlehem, PA. Please stop by, if you are in the area, and view my work. They are for sale, by the way! And while there, pick up an InVision brochure and visit the other exhibits running through the month of November. This is a sample of the work on exhibit. “The Doors”
This is the third in an irregular series of random musings by this ol’ photographer/artist. “REALITY. What a concept!” I remember George Carlin using that line in his stand up routines must have been back in the 60s. And yes, what a concept reality is. I have alluded to some of my conversations regarding reality in my earlier musings. I have commented as to how my images represent reality as I see it. To which a very dear friend responded “I have no real objection to your enhanced photography… But I do object to you saying those photographs are your “view of reality.” If they are, you’re in real trouble.” Now let me hasten to say that, as an artist who expresses his creative vision through the photographic image, I don’t always seek to portray a literal reality, whatever that is, in my work. But my subjects are real. The visual elements that I do capture on film, er… make that in pixels, are real. My vision is real. My images are real. My finished, processed product is real. The only thing not real is reality itself. Ah, what a concept! We all have slightly differing, I think, conceptions (there’s that word “concept” again) of what constitutes reality for us. And obviously we use that concept to interpret what is before us. And we believe that others should share the same conception of reality. And that is where things begin to fall apart. I have experienced the virtual door of reality swinging both ways in recent days in regards to images I have presented on Facebook, photo sharing websites, and at photography club activities. As one example, I have offered up faux color IR (infrared) images like those below. IR #1
IR #2
Clearly those images are not literal interpretations of reality. But the subject is real. The visual elements I have captured are real – the lines, the shapes, the textures and so on. And the vision, images and finished product are equally real. But from the moment I picked up the IR-converted camera, I knew I was going to be capturing a somewhat different vision of reality. Some say there is a fine line between creativity and insanity. I am trying my best to stay on the creative side of that line. What I find interesting is that discussion of images like these still are couched in terms of some sort of reality scale. The first image above is more “surreal” than the second… suggesting the second is somehow more “real”. The second is described as more “believable” than the first… suggesting a better fit with the viewer’s concept of reality. And so it goes. But as I said, I have experienced the door swinging both ways recently. What happens when an image captures a squeaky clean, photojournalistic type of reality but does not fit with the viewer’s concept of reality? Here is a case in point.
I have entitled this photograph “Cultures Meet on a Country Road”. It doesn’t get any more “real” than this. And yet, I have had this image described as somehow “not real” because the modern day cyclist does not belong there. It has been suggested that I should have shot the image without that cyclist. (I have a hundred such images from that day.) What can I say? Our views of reality do not coincide. And let me hasten to add, that is perfectly okay! What do I conclude? There is no universal reality. Reality is not real. Reality is a concept. And as such your (concept of) reality and my (concept of) reality may not agree. They don’t really have to. But at the same time, I do hasten to add that there should be some underlying common ground lest we end up like Congress. So to borrow a line from the Dave Mason song… “There’s only you and me and we just disagree.” Or returning to George Carlin… “REALITY. What a concept!” Would you like the opportunity to further develop your reality and ways to better express it in you photography? Of course you would. So why not drop me a note at ed@edvatza.com and I’ll put you on my mailing list for information on upcoming 2012 Ed Vatza “Creativity, Composition and the Camera” Workshops. This is the second in what will be an irregular series of random musings by this ol’ photographer/artist. Sometimes I find myself just sitting back and wondering… wondering how many of you have a bag of tricks like I have a bag of tricks? My bag of tricks is an old Domke bag that I have loaded up with things like two infrared (IR)-converted cameras; Lensbaby Composer and Scout lenses with a variety of optics and various accoutrement for my trusty iPhone. Yes, my bag of tricks is rather full. But I don’t see myself as an iPhoneographer like TeriLou or an IR photographer like Mark or a Lensbaby photographer like Kathleen – all of whom, I must admit, are absolutely brilliant at what they do. I will admit though that I sometimes wonder how you can put all (or most) of your eggs into a single creative basket, so to speak. But I am also open-minded enough to allow everyone to follow their own creative path. In fact, I openly encourage it. But me? Well I am just a plain ol’ photographer with a couple of cameras and a couple of lens and my bag of tricks – a bag full of my toys, my specialty tools that I may not use as often as some but I will happily use when the situation calls or the mood just strikes me. Don’t get me wrong. I love being able to express my creative vision with a wide variety of tools – traditional and non-traditional. My job as just a plain ol’ photographer is to capture what I see in a way that fulfills my creative vision. I don’t know if you see what I see or that we share the same creative vision. In some respects, that’s not even important. I do my thing and you do yours. That’s what is so great about the creative process. So yes, I love making IR images like this.
And I also thoroughly enjoy working with my Lensbaby when the situation seems right to create images like this.
And it is always fun to play with iPhone images like this.
But at the end of the day, the IR cameras, the Lensbaby lenses, the iPhone are all just just tools (just like my Canon 5D Mark II, 50D and assortment of Canon and Sigma lens are just tools). They are toys in my personal bag of tricks. They are not the end. They are means to an end. My creative goal is not to create an IR or a Lensbaby or an iPhone image. My creative goal is to capture what I see before me using any and all of the tools I have at my disposal. And so I wonder… (If you think you would like to work on your personal bag of tricks, keep in mind that I will be devoting a half-day in all my 2012 multi-day workshops to developing your skills with the tools in YOUR bag of tricks.)
“A Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man” – Self-portrait in InfraredIt has been quite a while since I wrote in this blog. Life and the things we have to do often gets in the way of things we would like to do. So please, consider this the first of an irregular series of musings of an artist. There is an old Pennsylvania Dutch saying that goes “Sometimes I just sits and thinks and sometimes I just sits.” I know I do both but when I do the first, when I “thinks”, I often find myself wondering why it took so long for me to allow my creative side to come through. It’s not that I haven’t been surrounded by creative people. My daughter is an artist. I spent more than 20 years working in ad agencies surrounded by creative visual artists and writers. But I was (and still am in my professional life) the straight-laced marketing strategist/researcher.
But all that time, I had a yearning… a yearning to express in pictures and in words the vision I had within me. But alas, I never felt I had the creative talent. I had agency colleagues tell me to leave the creative end to the creatives. And I wasn’t one of them.
Then I discovered photography and it quickly became the channel for expressing my creative vision – the way I see the world. And it is MY vision! Some may look at my images and question how closely they represent reality. Purists may suggest that I use processing tools to alter reality to which I say YES! YES, I alter reality, whatever that is, to suit my vision of it. For example, when I look at colors I see strongly saturated, vivid hues be they in a sunrise or in the color of an old barn. And I represent that in my images. It’s what I see in my mind’s eye. So when someone asks “Was the sunrise really that red?”, I have to answer “Yes, for me it was really that red!”
The artist in me keeps whispering in my ear… “Please yourself first then worry about others.” (Yes, I know there is a business side to this as well.) But after all those years, I have this well of creative juice pent up in me and who knows how many years left to expend that creative energy. So I hope all my friends, known and unknown, who follow my website, my blog and my postings on Facebook will hang on tight and continue to accompany me on the ride here here on my blog and website; on Facebook; with presentations I do (I am available to do presentations for your local club) and in one-day and multiple-day workshops that I offer (2012 schedule will be coming soon).
I thank you, my friends. Yes I look to please myself first with my work. But you all are close behind and I am always grateful for your continued support. And if you would like to be on my e-mailing list for information on upcoming workshops and such, please drop me a line at ed@evatza.com.
I sense a bit of a resurgence in interest in black and white photography. This is probably at least in part due to the introduction of Nik Silver Efex 2 software, a package that makes black & white conversion so very easy. My rather unscientific observations of black and white images presented in competitions, on Facebook and posted to various photo sharing and photo contest websites have led me to the conclusion that many photographers are opting for a much more standard, traditional, fine art look and not really exploring some of the non-traditional, maybe more artsy, definitely more “out there” looks that are available through the use of Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 presets. And that’s fine. There’s nothing at all wrong with the classic black and white photograph. I strive for that look often myself. But I am here to suggest that there is also a lot to be gained from stretching the envelope, working with some of the more “artsy”, more “out there” presets as a way to expand your photographic horizons and create images with a more unique look. Now I know I have said this before and it does bear repeating. I could probably count on one hand and have fingers left over the number of times I have clicked a preset then clicked save and been done. Almost every time I start with a preset, I make adjustments… a little more brightness, a little less contrast, maybe boost the blacks a bit, back off on the whites, a little more sharpening and so one. Those sliders are there to be used. Use them. Make adjustments. Come up with a look you like. Create your own preset. You can do that with Silver Efex Pro 2. The following three images were all converted to black and white using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 using what I consider several of the “more creative”, definitely more non-traditional presets available in Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. The first image is entitled “Prison Reflections: Looking Down and Seeing Up”. I converted this image to black and white using a “Film Noir” preset in SIlver Efex Pro 2 then made some adjustments. The dark, almost somber, very moody look just felt right for an image capturing the refection of the upper level cell blocks in a puddle left by the rain pouring through the leaky roof.
The second image is one I simply call “Marina” and I converted it to black and white using a Silver Efex Pro preset called “Triste”. Now triste is an archaic word for sad and I have looked as some work described as triste and it definitely conveys a certain sadness in the subject and composition. I don’t necessarily view a marina full of saiboats as sad but I do feel that this look does convey the mood of marina at dawn before the sailors arrive and the sails are unfurled.
And this third image, which I have entitled “Black White Yellow Violet” was converted to black and white using a Silver Efex Pro 2 “Low Key” preset after which I made some fine tuning adjustment. I am not big on black and white flowers since I almost always feel that color is such a critical component of my experience of the flowers. But in this case, I wanted to focus on and express the shape and texture of this flower bud.
I hope that you have enjoyed this brief trip through my use of a just a few of the Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 presets – a few of the more creative, artsy presets available as starting points for you photo processing. Please let me know what you think. This blog post is based on a series of images that I posted on Facebook earlier this week. I entitled that series “Creativity Run Amok” and I am sure you will soon understand why. Over the course of my development as a photographer (a process that will continue for the rest of my life), I have grappled with many of the same questions we all do. What is a photograph or digital image? At what point is a photograph no longer a photograph but rather some other type of art form? What is creativity and how does it apply to photography? Is photography an art form at all? And on and on, ad infinitum. After a while, you come to realize that many of these questions have no definitive answers and we have to be comfortable with where we are as photographers, as artists. Over time, I have become very liberal in my personal definitions of what is a photograph and whether what we do is art. I am very comfortable with where I am even if others may not be. To this end, I find myself very willing to use every tool available to me. Certainly, I find myself most often lovingly attaching a piece of L glass to my Canon 5D Mark II and shooting very traditional landscape images, flowers, buildings and so on. But I don’t turn up my nose at HDR photography either and use it extensively where and when I deem appropriate. And at times, when the mood strikes me, I pull the L glass and put on a Lensbaby with a fisheye, soft focus or a plastic optic just because it feels right and my creative tendencies demand it at that point in time. I will say that, over time, I have learned that other folks either love the Lensbaby images or they hate them. You know what? I don’t really care. It is an outward manifestation of the creativity inside me and that’s what counts. The same holds for infrared photography. I had my trusty old Canon Rebel XT converted to an IR camera and love it. I don’t use it often but again when the creative juices boil over in that direction, I am very comfortable pulling out the IR camera and making IR images all day. Interestingly, I find IR images get the fewest comments when I post them but again that’s fine by me. I like them. And then there is the iPhone. I happen to know a group of photographers who feel the iPhone is the next big thing and make some truly remarkable images with their iPhones. I don’t feel as “smitten” as they are but I do have an iPhone and I do have about 10 different camera apps and I do have maybe 40 different photo processing apps and at times when I am feeling the need to express myself and it is the only camera at hand, I am very comfortable just letting it rip. At this point, I’d like to share a couple of quotes I made in reference to the “Creativity Run Amok” series on Facebook because I think they are appropriate here as well. “Sometimes you turn where the GPS tells you… and sometimes you just follow the road wherever it takes you.” “Remember, most everybody can see what is. But to see what could be, that takes imagination… that takes creativity… even if sometimes it runs amok.” … which brings us to the case at hand. Earlier this week I ventured to Steel Stacks, a brand new arts center built on the brownfields that were the Bethlehem Steel Company plant in Bethlehem, PA. As you stand outside the arts center and look in any direction, you will see what is left of that once proud company – rusted blast furnaces, crumbling walls, broken windows. To their credit, several groups including ArtQuest are working at saving and “restoring” as much as possible, what is left – a piece of history and the place most of my family (father, grandfathers, uncles, and cousins) worked. I went there not to photograph but actually just to buy the tee shirt that I didn’t not buy on a prior visit. But when I came out of the Steel Stacks building and looked around again, the juices started to flow. I took out the iPhone and started to make some images knowing they would later turn into something very different but not really knowing what. Here are the images pretty much straight out of the iPhone camera. The processed versions follow below. I was drawn in by the brick sidewalk surrounding the arts center and decided to photograph my foot stepping onto the bricks.
And then there are the fences. Everything is fenced off to protect us from wandering into the crumbling buildings. But how I wish I could penetrate those fences and get up close and personal with the places so many of my family toiled.
And so many of the windows are broken or missing.
And finally, I stopped to photograph the rusty old fire escape.
As I said, I knew from the moment my creative urges told me to take out my iPhone camera, that the images were going to be very different from what came straight out of the camera. My creativity was yearning to run amok. Rather than turning where the GPS told me, I just followed the road. And here are the results, processed entirely in the iPhone. “Sidewalk Under Foot”
“Penetrating the Fences”
“Broken Windows”
“Fire Escapes”
Effective today, April 7, 2011, I have made some changes to the Ed Vatza Photography Print Store. While there have been several important changes made, let me get right to what is probably the most important – pricing. In order to get my work out into more hands and recognizing that many buyers might be more interested in starting with smaller prints, I have reduced my prices particularly on those smaller sized prints. My print sizes start at 6″x9″ printed on 8.5″x11″ paper and matted to a very nice 9″x12″ size and I have adjusted the pricing on these images significantly. I have also added 8″x12″ prints to the mix and adjusted pricing on my 10″x15″; 12″x18″ and 16″x24″ print sizes. As I just mentioned above, and I don’t want it to get lost, I have decided to also offer my prints in 8″x12″ filling the important gap between 6″x9″ and 10″x15″. And finally, I have added some new, very high quality, fine arts papers to the mix. Depending on the print, my prints are available on Moab Entrada Natural 300 gsm (matte stock), Canson Baryta Photographique 310 gsm (semi-gloss to glossy stock and my choice particularly for black and white images); Canson Arches Aquarelle 310 gsm (a textured watercolor paper stock) and Red River Arctic Polar Satin (an excellent all-purpose luster stock). Please stop by the PRINT STORE at Ed Vatza Photography and check out the changes. Then peruse the images in the galleries and I am sure you will want to buy one… or two… or three! |
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