Heros
would have to say that the one of the biggest thing that inspires me to be a better photographer is a scene from the movie "Walk the Line." It is the scene when Johnny Cash and his band are attempting to get Sam Phillips to give them a record deal. Sam was not at all impress with what they where playing and said this,
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Every time his show is on PBS, I have to watch Joel. He is a fantastic photographer. I am in such amazement of his work. If you ever want to learn about light, see the light, or understand the light, watch his show. Joel shows you fantastic examples of that in his work using light effectively. On the show, he went to Mt Vernon. The orange glow of the sunrise highlighted the house in ways that few people understand. (let alone appreciate) Check out this image from a rodeo that Joel did.
I came back last night full of energy! The wedding was so much fun. I wish Matt and Lisa all the luck in the world!
The primary shooter was Melissa St. Laurent and we learned so much from each other. I taught her about her camera and she taught me about wedding photography. (She just made the switch to digital) She wants to work with me the future!
During the reception I tried something totally different, using my wide angle and the pictures came out fantastic! I got the idea from one of the TA's at school, Chris Shelley. He is the one that suduced me to the dark side of photography. I was taking portrait class and he came in and started playing with the wide angle lens and got me hooked. Here is an image from that day.
This is Howard and he in one of the film instructors at school. Everyone who has seen this shoot loves it. (Well, except my wife) His friend's and family all think it looks just like him.
I have been checking my blog stats and I cannot believe the number of hits that I have been getting b/c of my Gregory Crewdson’s post. (Sometimes over 100 hits per day) That is just amazing. That magic of the web. I found another blog on wordpress referring to Crewdson's work.
http://shapeandcolour.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/gregory-crewdson-beneath-the-roses/
He is much more articluate then I am.
Last night I wend to a Pictage User Group Meeting at CDIA. They featured speaker was wedding photographer Daniel Doke. This guy was fantastic. I learned so much from him and got great inspiration. I was worried that my self diagnosed ADHD would interfer with my photography but it turns out Dan has the same issues. (he is also a little shy like my self.)
One thing he talked about, which is a new term, is depth of light. It is kind of like depth of field but instead of focus it is all about light. He also talked about playing with the white balance to give his images his own look. I am going to take to heart some of the things that he talked about and try it with my own take on it.
Watching CBS this morning, they featured a photographer named Gregory Crewdson. He creates dream like states in his photos that are unbelievable. He spends hours creating his dream photos and they sell for big money. His prints are limited to 10 images and they start at $80,000. So he does million dollar photo-shots. He does a lot of "staging" in his images, a little photo shop work but they are really great at getting a story across. He still using film, large format. (8x10) Check out this image that i found on another person's wordpress blog
http://lartenvalise.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/04beneaththeroses300dpi.jpg
That image says so much. It makes you wonder the man's story. My first impression is a sales person who's car has broken down in a small mid-west town. My old boss use to have a car like that one. (I am in sales) Look at all the lines in the image. The telephone lines, faded crosswalk. I know that I am rambling here but everytime you look around, there is something to see.
His work kind of reminds me of Walker Evans urban landscapes where lines always meet. I hope to be on the same level as Greg one day.
One last image to look at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/photography/genius/gallery/images/crewdson.jpg
Just stare at this iamge for a while. Notice how all the traffic lights are yellow. The traffic light poles line up with each other. The tax man sign on the left. (We always have to pay taxes.) Just keep looking and you will see something new.
