Blog | LomiMonk Photography

Aug

2010

Openness in Photography (and Creativity)

Over and over, as I read books and blogs by photographers, I come across the word “vision.” That’s not odd; photography is a visual medium. I equally often encounter the term “openness” and this gives me pause.

Photography is an interesting art form. Unlike painting, or drawing, or sculpting, or making music, there is a pervasive view among photographers that the art is “out there” and we must go “capture” it and we must be “open” to the external environment to do so. Is that true? Is our art really outside of us? Stop for a moment and think about your approach to photographing; is what you are trying to say with photography “out there?”

What if it isn’t true? What if photography were, like most creativity, actually and inward-looking pursuit?

It seems many of the successful photographers spend quite a bit of time discussing vision. One particular modern photographer (David duChemin) even released the third book in his Vision Trilogy this past July. He spends a lot of time writing, speaking, giving interviews, and teaching people to develop their vision in their photography. Another well known modern photographer (Trey Ratcliff, aka painting and drawing, often a decidedly inward looking pursuit, in order to advance his photography. Yet another encourages his readers to “look to the writers,” Do these professional and highly capable photographers know something, either consciously or not, that the rest of us do not? Is this perhaps what separates the professional photographer from the amateur; is this what separates the “professional” artist from the amateur? (And I am using the term “professional” in the way author Steven Pressfield does in his wonderful book “The War of Art” as a mindset, not in terms of vocation.)

Lately I have slowed down my photography. I have taken an artistic pause, as it were. I am no longer posting every image on Flickr or on this blog. I have become more intentional. I have begun to ask myself, “what am I trying to say with this image?” It is not that there need be a specific message in each image but rather I am asking myself what the theme of the image is. I am attempting to discover what moves me about the image. I am looking inward to see if the image is in line with who I am, what I hope to be, who I hope to be, and what my experience is. You see, I want to present images to the viewer with intentionality and I think that intentionality is born from something deep within me, beyond words, which might be pointed to by my image. I want to move something within the viewer that perhaps makes them think, “yes, yes, I know how that feels.” And so the process of inward-looking has to match up with outward-looking (or vision, in my mind) to create intentional art. I am not always successful, but when I am I think I produce better work, both for myself and for the viewer.

What do you do to become more open to the meeting of your internal experience and the outward, or external, representation of it? If you are having some difficulty with this photographically pick up a copy of David duChemin’s new book, “Vision and Voice” where he maps out a workflow in photographic post-production to help you tell your story and express your vision through photography.

Aug

2010

Inspiration Monday: Margarita Aragon-Lopez

This is my eighth in my series about people or works of art that inspire me to pursue my photographic and artistic passions and this time the person is a bit closer to home: my sister-in-law, Margarita Aragon-Lopez.

Margarita is one of those artists that work quietly outside of the spotlight. Sure her friends and family are aware of her oft present camera, but she seeks neither fame nor attention with her photography. Instead she makes her art for the sake of making it, when moved to do so, according to her desires, and resists any efforts by others (read, me!) to move it along at a rate uncomfortable for her. Her work has not appeared in magazines or been sold in galleries, but it moves me for its simplicity, its purity, and its directness. Repeatedly I am drawn to look at her images for reasons unknown to me. And for me that is the purpose of art: to move me on a level even I do not understand.

Recently she traveled throughout Europe and parts of Asia on a journey whose purpose is known only to her, accompanied simply by her Nikon D80 and her 28-55mm kit lens, and produced a body of work that bears viewing. Working mostly in black and white and cross-process, Margarita’s fine artist’s eye (she has training in drawing and painting) draws the viewer into the image through subtle and powerful attention to light and mood. Often she hints at the internal world of her subjects allowing, as well as requiring, the viewer’s subjective input into the experience of the image. This is not the kind of work to view and say, ” hey, that’s a pretty picture.” Instead this is the kind of work that makes the viewer pause at first to try to discover what she is saying with the image. And eventually the viewer needs to ask themselves what they make of the image.

Margarita reminds me about the simple nature of art making. Sure, the technicality of it all can become all-encompassing, but the urge to create needs to be respected. And sometimes it is important to sweep the distractions that hinder the expression of that urge aside and connect with the deeper expression, beyond words, of our experience in this world, in this time. She reminds me that it is not simply what moves us externally that should entice us to make images; perhaps it should also equally be what moves us internally. And perhaps that can be reflected in a finished product that moves others to look inwards as well; but that only occurs when we make our images primarily for the sake of moving ourselves.

Luckily for us, while making images for herself, Margarita did post her Asia work on Picasa and some of her European images are in her galleries on Flickr.

Aug

2010

Inspiration Mondays: Art Wolfe

This is number seven in my (sort of) weekly series about people or works of art that inspire me to create my art. However, I would like to apologize for missing last week’s post. I do have a good excuse though: my wife gave birth to our second son and I had my hands, quite literally, full. So no post last week but hopefully one you will enjoy this week.

This week’s post is about travel photographer Art Wolfe. Although I have probably seen Art’s images for many years given how prolifically published he is, he really came to my awareness as a result of his foray into television: namely the “Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge ” series he produces for public television. I mentioned Wolfe’s series in my post last week and it is a show I look forward to each week. Each episode is dedicated to a different photography expedition where the viewer gets a behind the scenes look at what it takes to capture the images he does. Wolfe describes the environment and cultures he visits and explains what moves him about his experience all the while taking photographs along the way.

What strikes me the most about Wolfe is his friendly demeanor and willingness to connect personally with his subjects. Often I marvel at the film footage of him in the midst of a group of children, nearly being buried, while showing them images on the LCD on the back of his camera. He is not the kind of man to stand back, voyeuristically photographing; he is the kind of man that pops open his Dell laptop in a yurt in Mongolia to show an elderly grandmother an image he took of her. Wolfe appears to be able to balance a warm and affable nature with an impressive drive to capture captivating images. In fact, in a recent episode showing how the show is made, his production crew unanimously agreed that it is challenging and exciting to try to keep up with Wolfe when he is on the trail of a good photograph. Apparently his penchant for disappearing on his production crew is notorious such is his drive to capture the image.

Art Wolfe’s wonderful images can be found by clicking through to his blog site here. His video series, “Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge ” can be viewed on your local PBS/Create station or by visiting Create TV.

Jul

2010

Wanting What You’ve Got

I don’t think I’m all that different from others when it comes to photography, motivation, and inspiration. I like to look at photography books, browse the web, click through Flickr, flip through National Geographic Magazine; I get inspired and motivated by all the amazing images, especially those from distant and exotic locales. These images draw me to my camera wanting to make similarly themed images. That can be a problem.

You see, I realized something yesterday evening as I watched an episode of Art Wolfe’s “Travels to the Edge” series on PBS: he travels far (and I mean very far) and wide to capture those stunning images of Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet, Patagonia, India, etc. And I want to do the same, although without endless hours in an SUV over bad roads. But I am constrained in my travels and wanderings by having a young family, something I would never trade for Wolfe’s lifestyle. And that leaves me constrained photographically if I want to photograph exotic locales. So, what to do?

Well, there is an old adage that says “happiness doesn’t come from getting what you want; happiness comes from wanting what you’ve got.” Easier said than done, but that doesn’t diminish the truth in the statement. And I think this adage applies to photography as well. If you cannot go photograph what you want, go photograph what you have available. For me, this means my kids, my wife, my backyard, and whatever stuff I have hanging around the house.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love photographing my kids. But I have often considered those images snapshots and not really what I want to be communicating with my photography. However, I have learned a lot about photography by simply snapping images of my kids. I’m much faster at setting my camera settings (I shoot a Nikon D300 which means I can’t just pop it on full-auto and snap away; I have to manually set ISO, metering system, auto focus system, etc.) in order to keep up with a fast moving toddler, in changing light, in often messy environments. I am also learning to work under direction more as my wife often prompts me to take “this shot”, “that way”, in “this setting”. After watching an episode where Art Wolfe shows the production team at work behind the scenes I realize this ability might come in handy for me if I ever reach the same status.

I am also honing my post processing skills. All the tips suggested by professional photographers on how to enhance images in the wet or digital darkroom still apply, even if the image is of a 2 year old messily eating the season’s first tomato. I sit at my computer and ask myself, “what am I attempting to convey in this image?” “what is the theme here?” “how can I improve this image to draw the eye where I want it to go?” “what can I do to minimize the distractions in the frame, or eliminate them altogether?”

I may not be photographing Tibetan Buddhist monks performing prostrations in a monastery high in the Himalayas, the mountains of Torres del Paine in Patagonia, or classic American cars in Havana, but I am practicing my skills and my craft by shooting what I’ve got. And that will make all the difference when I unfold myself out of the back of an SUV after a long bumpy ride, on bad roads, to someplace distant, and exotic.

Jul

2010

On Being An Artistic Hack

Last week I posted a blog post where I introduced my first photographic gig and how I felt and what I learned about the process. In the post (which you can find here) I mentioned how nervous I was about the shoot and that my greatest fear was that my brother (who asked me to do the shoot) and others would now finally discover me for the hack that I am.

Coincidentally I had dinner that evening with my neighbor and told her about the post. My neighbor, a published and popular author, stared at me, a little shocked, and said, “that’s exactly what I feel every time I send a manuscript to my publisher!” We had a good laugh together, and we also commiserated. Such is the life of a creative.

Being our own worst critics we often live in fear. Fear that we aren’t good enough. Fear, because we aren’t good enough, that we’ll be found out, exposed, that (well, in her case) we’ll lose our livelihood. So each day, and especially when that project deadline looms, we must rise and face our fear. We must create in spite of it. That is incredibly difficult and is often the cause of many creative ventures coming to a grinding halt, or not ever being begun in the first place.

I wonder if there isn’t another way to look at this fear. Is it not possible that we feel this fear because we know we are not the ones that create? Is it possible we have indeed been imposters when passing off our creativity as strictly our own? And therefore, feeling like we’ve taken credit for something not fully of our own doing, we fear being discovered? An interesting psychological twist.

Author Elizabeth Gilbert has an interesting take on this phenomenon and finds relief and comfort in it. In Gilbert’s mind the inspiration for creativity comes from a spiritual place and while that can be the locus for the fear (after all, if creativity comes from the muse and I am just the vehicle, then perhaps I really am a hack!) it can also provide a sense of security. Sure, we go through the motions; we sit and write; we press the shutter release button, process, and print our images; we apply the paint to canvas in our own way; but the inspiration to create a work of art comes not from us but rather the muse, or what the ancient Greeks called the genius. The way she looks at it it doesn’t matter whether the art is successful or not because it that is not really our responsibility; that is the purview of the muse. We are simply responsible for showing up and going through the mechanics of mixing paint, putting black on white, and pressing the shutter release. We need to show up for the work and perhaps pray the muse shows up as well. And in being free of the responsibility to be “creative”, we are free to do the work without pretending, and without the fear of being discovered as an imposter.

Elizabeth Gilbert is a writer and author who had moderate success until she faced a life crisis, bore her soul on the page, and wrote a book (“Eat, Pray, Love”) that became wildly popular around the world. Her thoughts about nurturing creativity come out of the challenge she faced having to write a book that would follow such rampant success. Her thesis is available for viewing from the good folks at TED here.

Jul

2010

Inspiration Monday: Bruce Percy; a photographic passion for people and place

This is number six in my series of posts about people or works of art that inspire me to continue in my artistic endeavors. Last week’s post about Dewitt Jones was well received and I even had some excitement happen: Dewitt read the post and left me a short note! (What a thrill! Thanks Dewitt! It means a lot to me that you took the time to stop by and visit my little online world.) I don’t know Dewitt personally and to have such a well regarded and widely published photographer visit my blog and take the time to comment was particularly exciting for me.

Today I am posting about another photographer for whom my relationship is simply one of “fan.” I first came across Bruce Percy on the iTunes store where he posts video podcasts under the banner “The Art of Adventure Photography” recounting some of his journeys to destinations far and wide: Easter Island, Patagonia, Nepal, the Bolivian Altiplano, Cuba, Iceland, Cambodia, and Norway just to name a few. He is also well known for his work in northern Scotland; an area much closer to home for this Edinburgh resident.

What drew me to his photography was initially his podcasts; they are multisensory experiences. Not only does Percy make stunning landscape and cultural photographs, he also composes the music for the podcasts and narrates them as well. His lilting Scottish brogue, soft voice. and apparently gentle spirit lend themselves perfectly to the otherworldly images he makes of our world. If you like stunning images of wild places and the people who live on the edge of them then do yourself a favor and check out his portfolio.

Another aspect of Percy’s approach that I enjoy is his philosophy on gear. Influenced by Michael Kenna (whom I wrote about here), Ansel Adams (well, who isn’t?), and Steve McCurry (the photographer who made the famous image of the green-eyed Afghan girl that seemed to make National Geographic a household magazine), Percy believes gear should be in service of the work of art. He creates stunning, absolutely stunning, images with a Mamiya camera and three prime lenses shooting exclusively on film. In fact, on his website he makes the bold argumentative statement that “your camera does not matter.”

Alright then. I guess I won’t buy that new lens with my birthday money.

His images and podcasts move me to find something to photograph that moves my soul. It is clear he loves the wild places he visits and does his best to render his experience on film. He is also willing to experience these places and people on their own terms describing photography as a great way to get closer to the land and the people.

A consummate teacher, Percy leads workshops (often in the far north of Scotland), produces podcasts, publishes eBooks, and writes a blog all describing his process; the process of course being what he considers the most important aspect of photographing.

So grab a cup of tea and give yourself a break from the hubbub of daily living. Enter into Bruce Percy’s photographic world here. I’m certain you will enjoy it.

Jul

2010

My First Gig: or the perils and triumphs of photographing under contract for someone else

My brother emailed me today. It was an email I had been looking forward to, both with excitement and with some dread. Excitement because it meant that his company’s website was finally up and all the pictures on it are mine. That is exciting; it was my first photographic gig. Dread because I had, and have, this nagging sensation that the images are simply not good enough; that I had been found out; that he, and others, would now know I am a hack.

It was the best of first gigs: my brother would fly me and my family to his place for a long weekend. My wife and child would enjoy a weekend of really good food and the company of family whom we love dearly. I, in return, would spend 2 days photographing his production plant for his new website. He had a list of shots he wanted and he wanted something better than what he could do with his point and shoot but didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg for a professional photographer. Sounded great! Sounded win-win…

What I learned:

First, this was a way different level of photography than what I was used to. I couldn’t just go in an shoot, click-clacking away hoping that I got something usable to post of Flickr later and tell stories over. No, I had a shot list I was expected to fulfill and anything less was failure. Wait! Failure? There was the risk of failure?? I’d never had that in photography before, at least not that anyone else would know! Yikes. Dread.
Photographing people by request is not a forte of mine. Oh, I can get some good shots of folks but mostly candids. Now I needed head shots and I had to make everybody look good. Now, don’t get me wrong, they all look good. But that doesn’t mean they are all going to like the images I take of them. So what needed to happen was that I take images of people that they wanted, not what I wanted or I thought looked good. What they wanted. What they wanted. (Yes, I know I’m repeating myself, but I really do want to drive home that this job entailed getting what someone else wanted, not what I wanted. And that is hard. And that helped create the dread I felt.)
Although I ascribe to David duChemin’s motto of “gear is good, vision is better” I’m also going to begin ascribing to my own motto of “when you’re creating someone else’s vision bring way more gear than you think you’re going to possibly need.” I had been in my brother’s plant before and I thought I knew the light but when I showed up my heart sank. The light was horrible!!! I had to shoot either with a really low shutter speed or my ISO cranked way up to get some of the shots, which sent a post-processing panic through me. And I couldn’t get some of the shots that I thought would match the “set list” well and please my brother because of my limited gear.

Sounds like a nightmare, right? Well, in a way it was. I got so stressed I hardly enjoyed my visit with my brother’s family and I got really sick while there. I found photographing someone else’s vision very stressful. But you know what, it also pushed me incredibly. I had to move wayyyyy out of my comfort zone and try things I’d never tried before. I also came home thinking about my limitations and ways to overcome them. I’ve spent more time re-thinking that shoot and different ways to accomplish the set list with my limited gear. I’ve learned more from having done that shoot than from the previous few years of photographing my usual subjects. And that has been worth it! Perhaps I am still a hack, or maybe I was then, but at this point I am a more improved hack.

And you know what, it’s my first gig; I got it under my belt; and it is now published for all to see, right here. (This is a slimmed down, initial, version of the website that they wanted to get online due to some impending press releases. I’m told the full site will be up later with more pictures.)

Have you had a first photographic or creative gig? What was your experience like?

Jul

2010

The "Aha!" Moment: Learning Photography

I’m a passionately motivated person. When I find something I am interested in I throw myself into learning as much about the subject as possible. I know this to be true because it’s what my father has remarked about me, so it must be true.

At the same time I am often attempting to discover the root of what makes something good. In this case, what makes a good photograph? Given some parity regarding photographic equipment, what makes one professional photographer better than another? If it is not the quality of the equipment (given relative parity) what are the distinguishing aspects or characteristics that go into making a good photograph? Perhaps it is vision, and perhaps it is also the photographer’s skill at using the camera to depict something interesting.

This inquiry has led me to learn as much as I can about how the camera affects the image we are attempting to capture, and I’ve been learning, although slowly for my taste. Some of what I have learned is pretty basic and some is more complicated, but each thing I have learned has led to an “aha!” moment. I thought I might share some of them in posts on this blog, perhaps to create an “aha!” moment in you but more likely to make sure the lesson has really stuck in me (I’m following the old adage that if you really want to understand something, teach it.)

So today’s “aha!” moment relates to how short focal length lenses (ie: wide angle lenses) spread elements apart in the frame, and long focal length (ie: zoom) lenses compress elements. I’ve read about this often and while the examples given in books and on websites were clear enough, when in the field I could not remember which did which and just ended up confused. Then one day I decided to try an experiment and attempt to recreate one shot using both a short and long focal length lenses. This is what I found:

I took the top image with my lens set at 18mm, the widest it will go, and the image below at 135mm, the longest the same lens will go. And wow!! I now know how much zoom will affect the elements. In the second image the background hill and the clouds appear much closer and imposing, and much more important elements in the frame, creating a more dynamic image. And in the interests of transparency, the two images were taken less than a minute apart, so the clouds were in the same location. The second shot was taken from a slightly higher vantage point due to me having to back up a slight hill in order to keep the composition the same in both images.

So my “aha!” moment? Well, I learned that I can radically alter the compositional nature of the elements in the frame by choosing to shoot wide or telephoto. Now telephoto is no longer just used to “get in close” but instead I can use it more mindfully to create the kind of image I want to create. In this case it is a blending of my father-in-law’s ranch equipment against the stunning skies of southern New Mexico.

Thanks for reading. I hope to make this “Aha!” moment a regular feature on this blog. I would welcome any comments and would love to hear about your “Aha!” moments with photography or other creative endeavors.

Jul

2010

Inspiration Monday: Dewitt Jones; celebrate what is right with the world

This is my fifth in a series of blog posts about creative people or creative works that inspire me to follow my passion in photography and living a creative life. As I find myself more committed to writing, photographing, and living a creative existence I thought I might introduce a photographer who inspired me before I even began photographing in earnest: Dewitt Jones.

Dewitt Jones is a photographer who has made a living making pictures and has spent a lot of time on assignment for National Geographic Magazine. Because National Geographic does not seem to hire hack photographers I imagine Dewitt is quite accomplished photographically. But, oddly enough, it is not his images that have inspired me: It’s his approach.

You see, I was first made aware of Dewitt during a graduate course in counseling psychology when we watched a DVD video of Dewitt doing his “other” job: motivational speaking. He has taken what he’s learned from photography, what it takes to make good images, and has distilled it to several key points in an effort to help people maintain the motivation to carry out their goals. I liked it so much I took good notes, begged my wife to buy the video for me for my birthday, and have written the steps into the notebook I carry in my camera bag.

Dewitt expounds on these points and uses them and his photographic imagery to encourage his viewers in their lives and business, but I particularly like how these points apply to the pursuit of photography.

The points are following, but I will not do them justice here in written form. I suggest you visit Dewitt’s web page and view clips from two of his popular motivational DVD’s “Extraordinary Visions” and “Clear Visions.”

Focus Your Vision: celebrate what is right with the world.
Train Your Technique.
Put Yourself In The Place Of Most Potential.
Truly Be Open To The Possibilities: What will I be given today and will I be open to receive it?
Continuously Find The Next Right Answer.

As a person in continuous search for images, photographs, stories, emotions, memories, and keepsakes, I am also in continuous search of better abilities with which to communicate. Dewitt Jones does not provide me with the technical “how” of photography, but instead provides a road-map that will help guide my quest. Dewitt has walked and experienced this process many more numerous times than I, and I can learn and be inspired by his suggestions. And while we can, and often do, focus on perfecting our technique, it might perhaps be more advantageous to focus instead, as Dewitt suggests, on our frame of mind in the creation of our art.

Note: The image above is the old adobe church in Golden, New Mexico, on the Turquoise Trail. I took it in the wee hours of the morning a couple of months ago. I just love going out to shoot in the dark and waiting for the beginnings of light. It feels a little scary to me at times to be out in the dark but it is also exhilarating to feel like I am one of the few awake at 4 in the morning. I also find it quite exiting to wonder about the images I will return home with as the sun climbs higher in the sky and becomes less conducive to photography, particularly here in the desert. I have more ideas for this church so stay tuned as I search for the next right answer and celebrate what is right with the world.

Jul

2010

Craft and Vision eBook Review: Safari: Print and Process

David duChemin has release yet another ebook through his online store, Craft and Vision, dedicated to improving the craft and vision of photographers. This ebook, the second in the Print & Process series, stems from his Safari trip in Kenya last year and is aptly named “Safari: A Monograph.”

While I have loved everything I have read of David’s in the past year, I have been skeptical of this series. I was not certain it would impart anything more in my quest to learn photography. In fact, I did not read the first in the series “Venice: A Monograph” released about a month ago. So it was with hesitation that I sat down to read Safari. Boy, I am glad I did.

True to form, David stays close to his mission and spends the time to reveal his thought processes and the reasons behind the premise of the Print and Process series. He begins the book by explaining the premise and how he came to be traveling in Kenya and very quickly moves into presenting the final images from the journey. The images are each presented alone, without commentary. The idea here is to let the images tell their own story; to allow the viewer to create a relationship with each image unaffected by the input of the photographer.

Then David writes some thoughts about what it is like, and what it takes, to photograph a country, a people, an experience so far removed from his own experience living in Vancouver, Canada. He also walks the reader through an approach to overcoming preconceptions about a setting such as Kenya; the Serengeti; Africa, and to draw out, or allow to bubble forth, the images that want to be made. He’s a spiritual guy, David is. And I just love it! This is art-making! At least to me it is.

Following is a short description of what it took to make each shot; from technical details such as ISO settings and shutter speeds, to the admittance of just being lucky at times, David walks the reader through what it was like and what it took to make these images.

And what images!! The images alone are worth the price of admission in my eyes. The writing and thoughts can be pure bonus.

So I highly recommend this ebook as well as the others David has written and makes available on his Craft and Vision website. They are a great way to improve your photography without spending huge sums of money on more gear.

Note: I very much relate to what David is saying in the ebook and am tempted to share that here. However, I would like to preserve David’s efforts and not dilute your experience of his images as they attempt to tell their stories. So check back here to this blog for a follow-up post about what I learned from David through this project.

BONUS: For the first four days only, if you use the promotional code SAFARI4 when you checkout, you can have SAFARI, A Monograph for only $4 OR use the code SAFARI20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more books from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST JULY 11, 2010.