Light and Shadow

Niagara Skyline © Robert Sommers

I am pleased to announce that plans are moving forward for the second annual Fallbrook Photography Show that I am privileged to curate at the Pinnell Gallery. The show will take place the month of November. Last year's show was a stunning success by any measure, including good sales. I want to make it even better this year.

This year the photography submissions will be limited to black and white. While I have invited back the fourteen photographers that exhibited last year, I would encourage entries from the public at large, no matter where you hail from. Please send a jpeg to azurebirds at gmail dot com so that I may judge and evaluate them. Finished works must be framed in a simple black frame with a suitable light mat. Wire hangers only, please. There is a limited amount of wall space so please don't be mad if you can't get in to this one. No more than three submissions per entrant. Maximum size for the finished image is 16" x 20".  

***

We have been having an impromptu meeting of photographers practically every saturday at Cafe Primo.

Some very accomplished shutterbugs show up and share their work and expertise. I have learned a lot from these people, whose technical expertise dwarfs my own. Please drop by around 8:00 a.m..

***

I had my photo of the marine juried into the last Fallbrook Art Association Show. While it didn't finish in the money, many artists commended the work, which utilized a very new filter process. The image itself was so severe that a woman walking by confided that it was hard for her to even look at it. The marine in question wasn't real happy that day and it came off pretty well in two dimensions.

***

Having worked with painters for years and having much more experience with them than photographers I can tell you of one major difference between the two disciplines; photographers are lousy at matting and framing. They use cheap frames and crappy mats. It really isn't hard. You make the mat equidistant or weighted on the bottom. The sides can't be thinner than the top. Many photographers tell me that they don't consider themselves as artists but a little basic sense of composition wouldn't hurt regarding proper matting.

***

There is of course an onus on photographers that they only shoot on full manual, automatic modes being the province of the newbies, unwashed and intellectually weak. Let me spill and confess, the majority of my shooting these days is performed on full automatic. For one, much of my technical work is now performed post production, two, I get tired of blowing shots by not dialing in the perfectly appropriate marriage of aperture and shutter speed.

I think it is more important to actually know how to frame a picture or composition and to shoot something that has meaning to me on some level than to spend so much time dealing with the clinical vagaries of  photography. We all have different ways of shooting and if it works for you fine. I have a friend that will spend all day setting up a single shot. He averages about ten a month. I get about 500 shots a day when I am really shooting. My rule this year is to always have the camera at my side and so far I have been pretty good at keeping it. Kerry giving me the extra rig really helped. Best way to become a photographer is to take pictures.

Jim and Janice drove to Tahoe last week and there was a large bear standing in their driveway when they got there but guess what, no camera. Better to have a technically deficient shot than no shot at all. Photographers need to shoot pictures. Lots of them.

I got a lot of compliments for the picture of Leslie shielding her face that was on the blog the last several weeks. It looked like a circa 1965 shot from Life magazine. Desaturated, with full light coming in through the window and landing on the table, it broke several cardinal rules of photography but it worked somehow. It still managed to work. Retha, bless her, said it was the best thing I had ever done. Made me happy too.

***

The best two pieces of advice I have ever received on the subject were from Stan Schnier and Tom Pappas. Stan's was a single word - edit. Tom's was slightly longer but equally succinct. Don't get lost in numbers and histograms, trust your eyes. Very simple. Dial it in so that you like it. Art is like sausage making. You don't need to know what's behind the curtain, or the cellular makeup, or have the newest, most expensive gear, you just have to create something that you enjoy.

***

Shoot something that is meaningful to you and let me have a look.