Thursday, April 15, 2010

How art touches us

This post in it's original form, appeared originally in my journal on devaintART located here I have modified it some the re-write here.

Today, while checking my comments on my work on deviantART, I was stopped cold in my tracks by a comment that left on one of my photographs. I came upon a comment left by =Wrath-n-Ruin that really just stopped me cold in my tracks.
It was left on my photograph "The End Of The Day" which is below here.



=Wrath-n-Ruin "I just wanted you to know that I bought this print for my mother a few days after my father died to remind her of him (sunflowers were his favorite)...she never got the chance to frame it because she died a mere 7 weeks later, but she loved it dearly. She loves it so much, in fact, that the flowers we used for their funerals were inspired by this piece.

This picture now hangs above their photos in my bedroom.

I can't even express to you how much I love this photo and the meaning it now holds for me and my family, which makes it all the more special. When I presented the print to my mother, she said that it reminded her of hope, that there is still beauty even in the darkest of places. Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful piece."


Never in my life....would I have ever thought that one of MY photographs would have that kind of power, and I don't even know what to say, I am beyond floored. Literally speechless, completely.

Art touches us in so many ways, like few things in life ever can. It touches our soul, it touches our hearts, it has the ability to take us somewhere else, if even for just a little while, to let us get away...and it leaves us with a forever lasting impression. Few things in life can do this on such a regular basis. Few.

When I read that comment, I was left feeling completely smacked upside my head. Not knowing how I should respond to her, in fact, I haven't yet. Maybe I will just link her to this journal, I don't know....I mean how to your respond to something like that? That isn't a comment, that is a reality check full of power.

Comments like that, make being an artist worth it all. To know, that one of my own photographs touched people like that, is just a serious "wow" moment that leaves me laying on the floor.

I just wanted to share this all with you. Amazing, what one single piece of art can do isn't it? Art=life, as I have always said.
---John








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Friday, April 9, 2010

The Long Landscape

  A couple days ago I had the chance to once again shoot up in Rocky Mountain National Park. Naturally I jumped at the chance at being able to visit one of my favorite photo destinations. What awaited was a display of Winter battling Spring in full force, with snow showers, full on snow storms, combined with sunlight at times, making for just very dramatic atmosphere. I really love the time of the year in the Rockies of Colorado.

  It got me thinking though as I was shooting around Hallet Peak, as I shot with my 400mm surveying things, panning for interesting detail and composition. Today I thought that i would take a few minutes and write my thoughts down and share some examples of this photo shoot with you all....so about the title of this blog post "The Long Landscape"....

  How many of you own a lens that is 300mm or greater? Usually we think of such lenses for shooting things like Birds, Wildlife, etc...but how many of you have actually tried shooting a landscape with it? Zoomed all the way in at max focal length? In a sense it is kind of like macro photography, how the goal is to capture things which the human eye often can't see, only this time we can sometimes see it but we don't have the ability to really notice the fine details and intimacy with the human eye. It is literally like shooting a whole other world, noticing things we would have missed otherwise.

  When I was looking through the viewfinder while shooting, I kept saying out loud "wow...just wow!" because of the things I was seeing that I couldn't see without a long lens. The trails from the snow tumbling down the mountainside, the Pine trees completely untouched by man, sitting at 12,000 feet high, and how thyey are battling the early Spring snowstorm. The light as it reflected against the falling snow....the finer details.

  Often times shots like this can give an excellent sense of emotion, atmosphere, and as I said, intimacy. I often find that compositions in shots that are done in this style can be stronger and also more powerful. The ability to get in close and really work the scene with a ling lens, studying it, taking your time, and really examining it, can be incredibly rewarding.

  So next time you are out shooting a scene, try it and see what you get! You may very well be shocked at what you find when looking through a long lens! Here are a few examples that I recently took using this technique. Focal length was between 300 & 400mm using a Tamron 200-400mm on my Sony a550.
John


















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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Photography Community websites & Limits

I was recently saddened to see that one website I love, Naturephotographers.net started going to a more private community, allowing those who are not paying members to only post a message once in 48s hrs. A couple of weeks ago I tried to post a reply to someone in a thread which they had started to share information with them, but was unable to do so.

I understand that every website requires money to run, but I wonder why a photography community, where the sharing of information is essential, with things like locations, equipment, processing, would do something like this? Wouldn't it kind of actually hurt the community as a whole? I would imagine it would. After all I was unable to share information with one photographer who was looking for info on how to get to a specific place. It seems rather counter-productive.

Though I am sure that many of the paying members are unaware of this, I wonder what their thoughts would be about it? I have always loved that site, and it is one of the "Go to sites" on the internet as far as nature photography. There are others, like Fred Miranda Photo Migrations Bird Photographers and Nature Scapes All of which are very high end professional nature photography forums.

I guess I will have to start hanging on a more regular basis at those sites above I also mentioned. Photography is learning experience, one that never ends, it is also about sharing information, and when you are unable to do that, you lose a lot. Not only within the community you are a member of, but also your own personal knowledge as well.


Shot in rural Castle Rock, Colorado, this Horse just seemed to echo what rural Colorado life is like. Captured on my Sony a550 using a Tamron 200-400mm lens



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