Birds On A Wire

Hello, Everyone!

I haven't posted anything for quite awhile.  I am busy learning my now camera (Sony Alpha a55) and Photoshop and Lightroom.  This is a lot on my plate, especially since I am not that great at studying things!  But I want to improve my photography because (drum roll) I have been signed by a gallery in Vancouver BC!  Yes, it is true!  My very good friend Rodney Cirrol Clark took my photos to the gallery owner and convinced them to represent me.  He is a marvelous person and a very discerning artist and art consultant.  I am simply over the moon!  And this was all based on the photos I took with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3 point-and-shoot.  let us see what I can do with a 'grown up' camera :~)  i will be posting them soon.


Thanks!

Andreas Feininger - dedicated to Rodney Cirrol Clark

Andreas Feininger is one of the photographers that I really admire and try to learn from.  He shot many cityscapes and bridges, the usual New York things.  But he explored the abstracts visible in daily life and from there moved on to photographing the absolutes of intrinsic shapes.  This is the path I feel myself to be on and he is a source of great inspiration and comfort, because this is not an aesthetic in photography that is currently very popular!  Here are some of his photos and here is a bit more information about him

Feininger was born in Paris, France, to an American family of German origin. His father, painter Lyonel Feininger, was born in New York City, in 1871.^[1] His great-grandfather emigrated from Durlach, Baden, in Germany, to the United States in 1848.

Feininger grew up and was educated as an architect in Germany, where his father painted and taught atStaatliches Bauhaus. In 1936, he gave up architecture itself, moved to Sweden, and focused on photography. In advance of World War II, in 1939, Feininger immigrated to the U.S. where he established himself as a freelance photographer and in 1943 joined the staff of Life magazine, an association that lasted until 1962.

Feininger became famous for his photographs of New York. Science and nature, as seen in bones, shells, plants and minerals, were other frequent subjects, but rarely did he photograph people or make portraits. Feininger wrote comprehensive manuals about photography, of which the best known is The Complete Photographer. In the introduction to one of Feininger's books of photographs, Ralph Hattersley described him as "one of the great architects who helped create photography as we know it today." In 1966, theAmerican Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) awarded Feininger its highest distinction, the Robert Leavitt Award. In 1991, the International Center of Photography awarded Feininger the Infinity Lifetime Achievement Award.

Today, Feininger's photographs are in the permanent collections of the Center for Creative Photography,Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, London's Victoria and Albert Museum, and the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.

I have been absent for some time.  This is partly due to work, but partly due to a new camera!  haha!  I bought a Sony Alpha a55 with a 3.5-5.6/18-55 lens.  This baby has a lot of controls and the chance to do a lot manually.  All of the photos I posted before were taken with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3, which is a great camera but still a point-and-shoot.  Now I have some learning to do and I need to get over my 'fraidy-ness of the new toy.  Quite soon you shall see the results from the Sony

:~∆

Walking by a building site I noticed these pieces of stained board that were erected as a retaining wall to keep back the earth they had plowed up.  They make really nice early 50s abstract paintings, I think.  I had to take these by poking my lens through the chain link fence.

Josef Sudek

A Czech photographer who lived through both world wars, Sudek lost his arm in the first of them and, receiving a disability pension was able to pursue photography.  His work is so involved with light and with simple forms and subjects.  Many of these are eggs, jugs, glasses, bread, leaves, etc.  he invested them with an amazing elegance with his use and understanding of lambent light

view from a creative prison

I am very happy with these.  The anchor of the wooden pole.  The way the wires seem like a ball of string tossed up into the sky and momentarily fixed.  There is a lot of movement here, for things so linear and fixed.

Down by the river again.  In tireless search of abstract images to contemplate and capture.  I am like Maldoror, but happy and slightly goofy.

Brandon

I took these photos of my friend Brandon today while we were talking by Skype.  The screen started melting.  The pixels were separating so the colors and shapes started transforming.  I grabbed the camera and took many shots.  This album is made of my edit of the images I got.  I did not manipulate a single photo, beyond some slight cropping.