Impressionistic photography: My First Attempts
Aug 31st 2009StevenPhotography
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.
6 Comments »
I really like the last one of the reeds. I think it looks cool.
It’s OK Steve…….but I like the way you take other pictures much better. Seems really blurry to me…….who knows….maybe it’s my eyes. I like clear, sharp images like the one at the top of this page…….. Well, this is just my input to this for you.
It’s not your eyes Karen, they are blurry. That’s part of the effect. Thanks for your honesty, I want to know what everyone thinks, even if they don’t care for it. It’s something new I’m playing with and I’m curious what people think.
Like your straight photography much better!!!!!!!!!!Go back to it.
After I posted on Sierra Visions earlier, I decided I should take a look at Neill’s work to get a feel for the technique, and see if I could better grasp your interest in this kind of photography. Sorry to report, I still feel the same. I’m not at all impressed with this so-called impressionistic photography movement (emphasis on “movement”). To me, this isn’t “painterly,” it’s simply contrived blurriness, like one of those puzzles you stare at and it makes your head swim.
I really tried to be open to the possibilities here, but I’m with the others. I much prefer your stunningly beautiful “realism.” I also like the magical and dreamlike qualities in your CGI work, which, in a sense is another kind of realism albeit set within the realm of fantasy.
It’s not that you’re not totally capable of doing impressionistic work like Neill’s (frankly, I much prefer your last reeds image to what I saw of his work). It’s just that you’ve already found a wonderful niche for your talents and I do hope you’ll concentrate most of your creative energies along those lines.
BTW, if you ever want to see some fantastic photographic impressions of natural and architectural abstracts, check out the work of Sheenjek on Flickr. He’s incredible!
Kahlee
Steven – well, hate to say it, but i agree with the majority of the others. actually that’s both good and bad. not too crazy about the impressionistic experiment, but love your straight photography.