"After all, I don't see why I am always asking for private, individual, selfish miracles when every year
There are miracles like white dogwood."
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Last weeks blog dealt with my beliefs of how important I thought continuing education was for "practicing" artists with an emphasis on blowing out some of the cobwebs and bad habits that might build up over the course of a years worth of photographic activity. However, one other thing that I enjoy about workshops is the opportunity to not only meet other photographers, but to get the chance to see their creative take on the same locations and subjects that the class was confronted with. In some cases it really gives your creative focus a spin, whether it's a different point of view, capture choices or editing selections. It never ceases to amaze me that 10 people can be faced with the same subject and can usually find 10 different ways to capture their vision.
in the process of determining my route to the Smoky's I chose to drive through Kentucky with the hopes of spending a full day or so shooting in some of the parks in the region. As it turned out it rained profusely which put a damper on my explorations, but I did manage to drive to some remote areas just to see if I could get a capture of some flowering Dogwoods while taking advantage of the fog-like conditions that existed. As a child I had grown up in Illinois and Dogwoods were one of the visual staples of Spring along with the bright red-bud trees that could be found in most local forest areas. Since moving away I have missed those bright reminders of the new year and while traveling south I was excited to see my old friends in bloom.
The blog image is one of the results of my detours in Kentucky and is a pretty straight forward capture. I did some minimal work with color and contrast adjustments in Photoshop CS5 and then applied a soft effect with "Glamour Glow" in Nik Color Efex Complete, as well as a mild vignette. The major challenge for me with this subject was where to "hack" off the trees, which is something that confronts me on many occasions. It is a mental battle to adjust my "vision" to the fact that "all inclusive" is not necessarily the right approach or the most creative. In this case the simple question about "what's important" gave me the answer(s) as I felt that the background haze, the fence line and the Dogwoods were the main actors. To include all it was necessary for me to move to a location for the right presentation and then decide where the visual "surgery" was going to occur. Leaving just enough of the foreground grass to indicate a base and zooming in just enough to allow the Dogwood to present their side of the story worked out just fine.
Workshops add another critical element to my creative process by helping me to develop the skills of having a mental dialog with myself about the approach to a subject. It's all to easy to get caught in the trap of "grab shots" while not allowing the subject to help determine the final production. It's really all about slowing the process down, developing a visual relationship with the elements of the scene and then telling the story.
My new book "Places I've Been, Things I've Seen" can be purchased online at-
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1868649
For more views of my work visit;
"A Piece Of Work", Spirit Lake, Iowa http://www.apieceofworkinc.com
Lanesboro Art Center, Lanesboro, Minnesota www.lanesboroarts.org
BetterPhoto.com http://www.betterphoto.com/Premium/Default.aspx?id=251674&mp=V1
