The Way We See It: Impressionism

Showing posts with label Impressionism. Show all posts

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Impressionism V (End of Series)

The Lake's Edge
Canon 5D mark I + Canon 20mm f2.8 @ f16

It's April 11 and we are in the middle of a "Winter Storm Warning." I awoke to sleet, snow and reckless drivers. Stories of spinouts, flipped trucks and gridlock greeted me during the morning commute. We are hardy folk in MN, but we're ready for the respite the accompanies spring. This has absolutely nothing to do with impressionism, it's simple a brief vent in the midst of another endless winter.

Bokeh
Canon 40D + Sigma 120mm-300 f2.8 HSM @ f2.8

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Impressionism IV

Reflections of the St. Croix - St. Croix River, MN

See the leading post about Impressionism HERE

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Impressionism II

Wildebeest B&W (Connochaetes gnou)
Canon 1D mark ii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

This wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou) is a tight portrait I made while on safari in Tanzania. We were immersed in a sea of ungulates when I realized that I was too close to make the images I wanted. With dust everywhere and the feeling that the moment was I about to end, I chose to continue working with my 300mm lens rather than waste time switching out cameras. Below is the original pic that has sat in the reject bin until now. I decided to rework the photograph for this post by applying a "creative" black and white digital filter. Here the emphasis has been placed on the tonality in the fur rather than the actual animal. All processing began with Aperture 3.4.3 and was finished in Photoshop CS5. The lead image was further manipulated with Topaz B&W Effects II to produce the painterly-lik output that is pictured above.

Wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou)
Canon 1D mark ii + Canon 300mm f2.8L IS

Friday, April 5, 2013

Impressionism

Lake Kabetogama - Voyageurs NP
Canon 1Ds II + Canon 70-200 f4.0L

During my Project 101 series I suggested 101 tips for making nature photographs. While none of my ideas were revolutionary, I tried to challenge set paradigms for image making and offer suggestions that might spark the inner creative. The articulation of my process was a great reflective exercise that continues to influence my own photography.

Sol Duc River - Olympic NP
Nikon D100 + Nikkor 50mm f1.4

I find picture making to be an intensely personal experience, as it often exposes a sensitivity to the world that I tend to suppress in my public life. With this in mind, I will use the next five posts to share some work that I rarely show. These pictures exhibit purposeful imperfections of technique in order to suggest something a bit more. The “it” in each image is less significant that the whole that is displayed. More than anything, these pictures are more about light, shadow and pattern than anything else.