Thursday, September 23, 2010

Cole Rise


Through StumbleUpon, I recently found a photographer named Cole Rise. His "about" page actually says almost nothing about him, other than that he has spent the better half of life behind the lens lying in the grass and stalking cows in order to capture landscapes. His work has also been featured in magazines, books, on billboards, websites, posters and CD covers. His work fascinated me. It is different than most landscape photography, and a lot of his landscapes include people, who's feet never seem to be touching the ground. All of the photos have an old look to them, and they all seem a little dirty, like there was something on the lens. He takes the pictures in a way that this adds to the effect and makes it better rather than bad.  I am sure that there is at least a little photoshop involved in all of these pictures, but somehow they still manage to look genuine.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

First Photos

This photo illustrates the rule that red is more attractive than yellow. The other petals are not exactly yellow, but nonetheless your eye is immediately drawn to the one solid red petal.


This photo illustrates that difference is more attractive than conformity. The eye focuses on the smaller clouds in the middle of the photo, first on the white one, also showing that light is more attractive than dark.


Both of these photos show that light is more attractive then dark, I just could not choose between the two. The top on shows it through a fairly monochromatic background with a dark cloud along the top and one small, white cloud that immediately draws the eye’s attention. The bottom one has many levels of light and dark, with the eye starting on the brightest cloud and then moving around the picture until it gets to the darkest spot. Both show the same rule, and both are interesting, but the top one is much simpler than the bottom one. I have a hard time deciding which I like better.



Seven Rules

Red is more attractive than yellow.

http://www.lophoto.com/abstract/vegetal/red_yellow_03.html


Large draws more attention than small.


Difference draws more attention than conformity.


Jagged lines are more striking than curved ones.



Diagonal lines are more attractive than vertical ones.



Sharpness is more attractive than blur.



Light is more attractive than dark.
I did not take this picture, but it has been saved on my computer for so long that I no longer remember where I found it.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Rob Gardiner

In surfing the internet this week, I found a photographer named Rob Gardiner. I was mostly inerested in his black and white photography, but when I clicked on the website, I found something even more interesting. He had a gallery that was all pinhole photography. The pictures in the gallery are amazing; there is not one I don't like. What I find fascinating about it, though, is how it was done. The page says it is a very basic camera with no lens at all. There is nothing but a tiny pin-prick size hole to allow light into a wooden box. Unfortunately, this was all I could find about pinhole photography and how his photos were taken. I really like them, and will be looking up pinhole photography to find out more very soon.

http://www.nyclondon.com/

Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Ghosts of Auschwitz and Birkenau


Through Stumbled  Upon, I found a photographer named Cole Thompson. His pictures are all in black and white, and I was immediately impressed and had to see more. As I clicked through his portfolios, I became more and more taken by his photos, thinking that he might be my new favorite photographer. As soon as I saw it I knew I would be blogging about Cole Thompson. Then I found something of his that mesmerized me even more than the rest of his pictures combined: his portfolio accurately titled "The Ghosts of Auschwitz and Birkenau".

On a purely technical level, I was curious about how he was able to get the photographs to look the way they did. The ghosts looked just llike that - ghosts. I would almost have been willing to believe that no photoshop was involved. I found a post he had but under his you tube video of the portfolio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPB9_jz9znQ) where he explains how the photographs were taken, "These are long exposures of the visitors at the camps, who stood in proxy for those who lived and died there." Photoshop was obviously involved as well, but the technique makes the photographs even more chilling.

And that is what I thought the photographs were, chilling, moving, and in the cases of some even a little nauseating. It is horrifying to think about what went on in that place, and the photos capture it perfectly.

The Ghosts of Auschwitz Portfolio:
http://www.colethompsonphotography.com/Ghosts.htm
Cole Thomoson Homepage:
http://www.colethompsonphotography.com/

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Gene Rhoden

Weatherpix images is based in Oklahoma, in the heart of Tornado Alley. All of the images are of storms across the Great Plains. The photographer and storm chaser who takes these photographs is Gene Rhoden. He started by chasing storms in his car in 1981, and eventually became a professional weather photographer in the early 1990's. He has contributed to several documentaries and a National Geographic Society expecition. He has also appeared on mulitple television and radio shows.

I found Gene Rhoden by linking through various weather photography sites while trying to find a photographer that I liked. I had decided to look up weather photogrpahy after a small storm here in Billings. Gene has some of the best photos that I had seen. The ones that fascinate me the most, though, are his photos of lighting. Having been out in many storms, sometimes with a camera, I can't help but wonder just what equipment he uses to consistently capture pictures of lighting. There has to be some sort of technology that can approximate where it will hit, because I would think the chances of getting even one picture of lighting with just a camera would be slim to none.

I can't help but think you would have to be at least a little stupid to go out and chase storms just to get a good picture. In the case of Gene, I am glad he does it because his pictures of nature at its most dangerous are spectacular. I love to look at nature's potential through his photographs, and am glad I can look from a safe distance.

Winter Photography

I just read the chapter in the book about winter photography. I was excited to read this chapter, thinking that it would actually be about taking pictures. Most of the chapter, however, was about clothing. While it was somewhat ineresting, I did not really enjoy reading five pages about what to wear. The part about using zippers instead of layers was something that I had not heard before but made sense, however, I will not be buying a new winter coat simply so I can unzip it. I was very dissapointed in the part about hands. Keeping your hands warm in the winter while taking ohotos has always been a problem for me, and I am sure most other people as well. I cannot take pictures with bulky gloves on, but my hands get very cold very fast if I don't have any. I was really hoping for a creative soultion, but got nothing I had not heard before.

I was also dissapointed in how short the sections on light quality and subject contrast were, and also that they did not explain how to overcome light problems faced when shooting in the snow. I thought the section on subject choices was unnecessary, since anything can be a subject, and I do not need a book to tell me that most birds are gone in the winter. All in all, this chapter had a few interesting points, but I found it useless for most of its intents and purposes.