“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera, you bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, and the people you have loved.” Ansel Adams
This quote has long been a favorite of mine. As we look at the world around us, each of us is seeing the same things with a unique, personal viewpoint - the filters of our lives, our experiences. It’s no wonder then that 10 people can stand at the classic Valley View in Yosemite and come up with entirely different pictures! What we find interesting may be overlooked by someone else. And that’s the beauty of it. We all get to make great images, if we stand confidently in our unique vision. Too many times, I see photographs that are imitations of a famous view, and while those pictures are fun to have for the collection, the best pictures are the ones that are personal - personally discovered, personally composed and recorded.
Autumn Grasses, Merced River, Yosemite, CA.
This image was made at Valley View, before my group arrived in Yosemite. It’s a pullout for a classic view of the valley with the famous rock formations. But that day, I was seeing the wonderful reflections of colored foliage on the opposite shore of the river, and was drawn to those more than the big scene, even with the great clouds we had!
When I made this pumpkin image in color, I chose to do it on high-grain film, to give it more texture and a softer color palette. It was a personal vision and I was enjoying using very grainy films. Many years later, I had fun learning how to selectively colorize an object in a scene, and decided to try that with this image. First I created a copy layer of the background image. Then, using that layer, I de-saturated the image,and added some contrast. I created a layer mask on that layer next. Then, using the paintbrush, I painted back in one pumpkin in color. My goal was to make a stock photograph that expressed the concept of “standing out in the crowd”, “daring to be different”, and similar phrases. It worked!
Coming across these pictures the other day, I thought it would be a fun Halloween set to post, and a great example of that idea of celebrating your own vision - no matter how you get there, the final result of any photograph, real or manipulated, should be an expression of your personal view of the scene, your interpretation of the moment.
Have a great week, everyone!
Congratulations for the blog. Wonderful photographies.
Posted by: jgarcía | December 29, 2005 at 02:25 AM