Steven August 31st, 2009
One of my favorite photographers is William Neill, his images have inspired me from the beginning of my photographic studies. For years now Bill has been creating “Impressionistic Photography”, where the images are created while moving the camera with slow shutter speeds. This gives the photo a painterly look and feel. Just recently he wrote an article in Outdoor Photographer Magazine about impressionistic photography and gave some tips on how he “paints with light”. This article inspired me to give it a try. So, without further adieu, here are my first attempts a impressionistic photography. Please comment below to let me know what you think.
Steven August 29th, 2009
Visualization is one of the key elements in creating beautiful photographic images. Whenever I’m outside, I keep my eyes open for interesting things that I can possibly use in a photo. Often times when I see something, I won’t shoot it at that time. Instead, I’ll visualize in my mind what that scene will look like at a later time. Maybe I’ll visualize how it will look after a fresh snowfall when the branches are covered in snow, or maybe how it will look in fall when the leaves have changed colors. Then I’ll try to remember the scene and go back to it when the conditions are right.
The image above is a perfect example of visualizing an image months ahead of time. This scene is about a mile away from where I live in Kenosha, WI. I noticed it my first summer living there. The tree in the middle caught my eye, and though all the leaves were green at the time, my first thought was, “Won’t that be awesome in the fall.”. In my mind I saw the scene in fall colors. When October rolled around and the trees began to change, I went back to the spot and created this image.
The next time you’re out shooting and you see an interesting scene, try to visualize what that scene may look like when conditions are different. When those conditions happen, go back to that spot and create the beautiful image that you visualized months ahead of time.
Technical Details:
Canon Digital Rebel XTI
EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
ISO 100
f/5.6 @ 1/125 sec.
Tripod Mounted
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Steven August 28th, 2009
“Sunset Dreams”
This picture has a special significance to me, it was my very first computer art image. I created it in 2001 using a demo of Bryce 4 and Photoshop 5. My computer at that time was a very old and slow Mac, so working on this image was a little difficult. In 2004 I went back to this picture and improved it. I had a faster computer by then and my knowledge of Bryce and Photoshop had greatly improved.
I really can’t say what inspired this image. It just kind of evolved as I was playing around with this wonderful new software. Compared to later images, this one is very simple. I think it’s that simplicity that makes this image so appealing though. It’s a nice picture to look at on a snowy, winter day.
Steven August 27th, 2009
My interest in black and white photography began when I saw Ansel Adams famous “Moon and Half Dome” image for the first time. I was amazed by the dynamic contrast of Half Dome, the shadows and the sky. I always dreamed of creating images like that, but setting up a darkroom and learning the art of black and white photography wasn’t possible for me.
Then along came the digital darkroom and my dreams began to come true. Though I’ve been working with Photoshop for almost 10 years now, it wasn’t until this last winter that I began playing around with black and white. What I’ve discovered is a whole new world for my artistic expressions to bloom in. I’ve also found that many of my images that didn’t quite make it in color, can be turned into very dynamic black and white images. This Mt Whitney image is a perfect example.
This image was shot from the Whitney Portal Road. The camera I was using at the time was a Minolta DiMAGE A2. The lens on the A2 is a fixed 28-210mm zoom lens. I have an additional lens that screws on to the main lens and takes it up to 400mm. To get the composition that I wanted I ended up shooting this at 300mm.
For the conversion to black and white I used Photoshop. Within Photoshop I used a combination of adjustment layers, layers mask and the burn tool to get the final image.
Photo Details:
Minolta DiMAGE A2
Fixed zoom lens 28-210mm with telephoto lens extension.
Shot at 300mm
ISO 64
f/11 at 1/200 sec
Tripod mounted
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