"Your life is described by that to which you consistently return."
For me, this turns out to be plants. It's not that I love working the soil or making cuttings....It's that I love their beautiful Latin names, the wealth of botanical information that describes each creature, the architecture of their wood, leaves, and blossoms. They are living art -- God in motion for me. They embody the many songs of the planet, as do sunsets and landscapes for other artists.
Before diving in to photography, I consumed their beauty in masses via the garden and landscape. With camera in hand, however, any garden or woodland becomes a party of many lovely friends, each worthy of an intimate conversation.
Prior to July 2012, my camera was a 5 mpx Nikon Coolpix 5700. Many of the photos that I post here in late 2012 and early 2013 were made with this camera.
In mid-2012 I was able to step up to 'enthusiast' grade equipment with the Canon Rebel 3Ti, a 100 MM f/2.8 Maco L-series lens with IS, and an 18-200 MM F/3.5-5.6 EFS series lens with IS.
The Macro is the one I will likely use most often, while the zoom is better for landscapes, or 'whole tree' type shots.
The Art Photo process now breaks down into several phases:
- Photo Shoot, in which I connect with my location and subject through wonder and curiosity.
- Post Processing, in which I sort out the keepers from the trash.
- Art Processing, in which I study each image for its artistic value.
- I adjust lighting, color, contrast.
- I search for what I love, the reason I took the shot.
- I crop to remove unnecessary areas of the image.
- When the composition and color is right, I decide if I like it as a photo.
- I'm funny this way...for the work I do, I almost never like the 'straight', 'journalistic' image. The edges are never defined enough for my taste. There is too little texture. The colors go subdued and blended. I use filters and other tools to address this until I find the result exciting. Vio-la! Such is Art.
