Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Boy, that sounds like an odd title for a blog entry, especially after discovering my personal photographic style a few days ago. It would seem that I had figured out an important part of my role as a photographer, so why would I be asking what kind of photographer I am? Well, to make a long story short, over the last two months or so, I have been rather quiet here in the blogs with only a handful of treks to speak of. Most of those have been getting ready for my Spring Landscape Workshop at Stone Mountain which took place a couple of weeks ago now. There have been a couple others scattered in there from when I met Charles out in the area of Ronda and ended up going out there three different times. The tempo has been nothing at all like what I would typically be doing where I would try to get out a couple of times a week to get new photos.
The lack of treks is not indicative of the amount of effort that I have been putting into photography over the previous month. I’ve actually been busier than I have ever been with it, and I have to say, I’ve been having a great time with it. So, what exactly have I been doing since I’m obviously not going on treks and sharing new images here? Well, most of my time has been spent learning new skills and getting used to working with my studio gear. As you know, last year I started doing portraiture and I’ve been learning a lot of different aspects of that type of photography which keeps turning into new routes that I can take. The rabbit hole is no joke when it comes to photography and the more you learn, the more you realize how much you still have left to learn. That is where I’m at with portraiture at this point. I’ve gotten the basics down and I’m starting to get creative with it and push myself to learn more. I’ll be the first to say that things have taken some unexpected turns for me here recently.
The biggest news is that I have been contracted to shoot a book cover for a biography that is currently in production and scheduled to be released in August. I am not at liberty to say much about this project, but I do have a blog started on it for when the book gets released. I’ll go into detail about how I ended up getting selected for the assignment and how the planning phase went leading up to the day of the shoot. As of right now, I have four of the images that were shot showcased in the blog. All I can say is look forward to seeing more on that in the near future. I’ve also picked up a large multi-family portrait shoot which is coming up this weekend in Banner Elk. With all of this going on, it would seem that I might be a portrait photographer at this point.
But wait….there’s more!
As I mentioned, I’m starting to go down rabbit holes with portrait photography and finding different areas that really excite me. I’ve said it before, I am really loving working with studio lighting which give me the opportunity to create my own light when the light isn’t doing what I want it to do. There is a very steep learning curve for creating light, but I’m enjoying the chance to learn. The fixation on lighting has opened the door for bodyscapes which is something that I’ve always had a passing interest in but never really knew how to do it. I’m learning and practicing more with that type of photography these days. It is really teaching me about how to utilize light and how to control it which is so much different from how I usually just have to wait and see what the sun and clouds are going to do for me. As if that isn’t something already a polar opposite from a “landscape and decay” photographer, I’m looking at an opportunity to do a boudoir shoot here in the near future. I honestly don’t know where any of this will lead to, if anywhere, but I’ve decided to go along for the ride and see where things go. Obviously, I won’t be blogging about those photo sessions, but you might see another website pop up if I get to the point where I want to market myself as a Boudoir/Figure Study photographer.
Well, apparently Greg is no longer a landscape photographer.
Not so fast!
While all of this other stuff has been going on, I haven’t forgotten about or abandoned my regular photography. Quite the contrary as a matter of fact. I teased about a different book project that I was interested in being a part of during my year-end wrap-up. That was a book being written about photographers in the Ashe County area and they were taking photographic submissions from different photographers in the area. Well, I sent in five of my photos from the county and they were all rural scenes that I felt worked well for the goal of the book. After a delay in the selection process, I finally heard towards the end of April that all five of my photos had been selected for inclusion in the book. I don’t have a lot of details on the project as of now, but I am going in for an interview with the publishers on Friday. What I do know is that this will be a coffee table book with information about each photographer that is featured. That should be coming out later this year if I understood correctly and I should have much more information on it when I do my year end Behind the Camera.
As you see, I’m still very much a landscape photographer, and have even had more good news on that front from Hampton House Art and Framing. A few weeks ago, I was contacted about doing 29 prints for a medical center in Wilmington, NC. This was from a proposal that I did for them back in November that included 49 potential coastal scenes that they might want. I am pretty sure that this is now my largest print order to date for a single client. I do really enjoy the opportunity to make large prints like this for clients, and these were around 30×18″ each.
So, between being featured in a coffee table book, and doing a rather sizable order for landscape images I’ve been pretty busy with business as usual in addition to the new directions in photography. There are also three workshops that are happening in the course of a month that I have been preparing for and focusing on. There are still spots left in my composition workshop as well as my photowalk in North Wilkesboro which happen to be on the same weekend in a bit over a week. All of this planning and working with photographs that have already been created, I felt that I wanted to get out and do a little bit of my “normal” photography to give my mind a break from being the new guy and learning everything that he can. The question was where to go and what to shoot?
I wasn’t really sure about the answers to those questions as it seemed that it had been an awful long time since I had posed that question to myself. Looking at the weather, there were going to be some light clouds through the early morning hours on Wednesday, but they were going to be pretty much gone by 9am. Wherever I went, it would have to be kind of close since I wouldn’t have long at all to work with. The only thing that came to mind was a barn that I had passed on the way to shoot another barn in Ronda during one of my last treks. It was a barn that I was familiar with but had never shot before. The way that the morning light was catching it that day made me think about possibilities with it and I was able to figure out a rough composition. It was at least a starting point for a trek, and that was good enough for me.
Since Toni had to go to work this morning, she was up well before sunrise which gave me the ability to check the weather in plenty of time to see if it was worth getting up. The weather was showing less clouds that had been forecasted and the bed was quite comfortable, so I was less than motivated to get up. I just rolled back over and pulled the covers up as I debated getting up. The barn wasn’t all that great, and I was not all that motivated to go out and hunt for subjects and hope that the light would do right. I was about to go back to sleep when I heard Toni say something in a surprised voice. I asked what it was, and she said that another stink bug that had gotten in the house. Yeah, they are bad this year for some reason. Anyway, I got up and got the patented stink bug catcher we created and removed the bug from the house. Just like that, I was up and moving around. Might as well commit to it and get dressed and ready to head out.
The goal was to try and photograph that barn and look for other subjects of interest before the clouds cleared off. After that, I was going to go and check out some thrift stores to start getting my studio outfitted for some different sets. It was going to be an interesting morning, but I was looking forward to it. Once the sun started to come up, I got in the truck and headed out down Boone Trail. The barn wasn’t far from home, so I didn’t have to leave terribly early at all. The clouds were snuffing out the color of the sun unfortunately, but I was still looking at some decent light.
When I arrived at the barn, it wasn’t all that exciting looking, but I didn’t really have anything else to photograph so I decided to pull off on the shoulder and see what I could get with it. There was some nice light fog in the background and the sky had some interest to it as well which was good. The light just wasn’t really playing well with the barn which I would have to wait to see if it got any better. I pulled out the camera and loaded up the 24-70mm lens along with the polarizer. I started trying to frame up a shot and realized that I was wanting to go a bit tighter, so I swapped out to my 70-200mm lens. That was working much better for me, and I worked on finding the right place to stand for the composition that I was after.
I kept changing things around and not liking the framing. I tried horizontal and vertical orientations, but neither worked the way I wanted them to. The only thing that was making sense was moving to the right which gave a better perspective on the barn. I eventually got to the point where I wanted to include a tree that was to the right of the barn. At 70mm I wasn’t able to get everything in the photo, so I went back to the truck and swapped the lens back out to the 24-7mm that I had started with. I put the camera back on the tripod where I had left it standing and got the framing that I was needing around 60mm. From here I committed to the composition and just waited for the light. The sun was between two clouds and there was a soft glow over the landscape, but not quite the warm light I had been expecting. I stayed here about 15 minutes until the sun went behind a very large cloud and I could tell that the light was over at this point. By the time the sun came back out, it would be too harsh for the direction that it was coming in. I did manage to crank off about dozen frames of the barn with slightly different lighting so I was hopeful that I would have something in the bag.
Once I was reasonably confident that I had succeeded in capturing the first composition of the day, I loaded the camera up and started driving aimlessly which is something that I had not done in quite some time. I went down some back roads where I have had good luck in the past. I wasn’t really seeing anything that was sticking out at me, but I didn’t lose hope. As I was driving, I could tell that the sky was clearing off rather quickly which meant that I wasn’t going to be able to stay out too much longer. I went down to the other end of Boone Trail where I knew of several great subjects and hoped that I could see something that could be captured from the road. I had already approached the property owner for a chance to get some photos of his collection, but he had declined my request rather emphatically, so I knew that I wasn’t going to be getting on the property. Sadly, there were no compositions from the road that I could use so I just turned back and decided to explore on some of the roads that I drive on with the Miata from time to time.
One of those roads I had seen a Karmann Ghia from and thought that I would check it out today. I had stopped here before while on a trek trying to figure out a composition, but never really came up with anything at all that I liked. This time I didn’t have much hope, but I knew that there was potential at least. When I got there, I pulled off on the shoulder and looked at the car. The Honda Odyssee was still parked beside of it, close enough to really limit my compositional choices. However, this time, the trees were filled in and covering some of the buildings that were in the background which had caused me problems before. The clouds were looking good overhead as well, so I felt that it was a good enough scene to stop and give it a try.
When I got out of the truck, I could tell that I was going to have to get in kind of close in order to get a good composition. Looking around, the two houses that were on the property were obviously vacant and the yard was not being cut regularly. This indicates that nobody is taking an active interest here and that makes me feel more comfortable in getting in close. I know that this is a gray area and I’m fully prepared to leave if somebody asks me to. With no signs or fences indicating that they didn’t want anyone on the property, I moved in from the shoulder of the road as cautiously as I could. When I do this, I make sure and stay very visible to the neighbors and I don’t get close enough to the cars or buildings to cause any concern. I just set the camera up and framed my initial overall shot of the scene.
It was actually a harder composition to make than I had thought it would be since the car was so far from any other point of interest. I also wanted to make sure that I included the sky for a bit of contrast since the car and the grass were roughly the same tones. It was the sky that would provide that much needed visual contrast to keep the frame interesting. I ended up finding a composition that included a bit of the bright sky just to the side of the sun. I tried to avoid this, but the photo became too bland without the highlights in the clouds and the tool that was sitting in the field under that sky. This composition also allowed me to shoot kind of wide and get a nice perspective on the car. I was a little worried about the exposure with the sky being so bright but looking at the histogram I had plenty of information in both the highlights and the shadows, so I didn’t worry about adding an ND Grad to the filter holder. I wasn’t sure that I liked this composition because there seemed to be no connection between the car and environment on the LCD, but I really wanted this to work. It just wasn’t worth me spending too much time on it. I went with the easier vertical composition that just made the car the main subject and I felt that this was a stronger version by far when looking at it through the camera. This was where I spent most of my time.
Ironically, when I got the images home, it was the horizontal framing that I loved between the two. It had visual tension, drama, and a storyline to it. The vertical image was just flat and boring. It was the safe composition and it looked like it. I was glad that I had a couple of the horizonal image to play with because that was the one that I wanted. I was able to get the exposure balanced out very easily in Lightroom and started getting the details done so that it fit my editing style. It was an early favorite from the day by the time I was starting to edit it, but that wasn’t the only image that I shot from this location.
As I still wasn’t sold on the overall composition of the scene, I wanted to get in and do my thing with the details. The front end of these Karmann Ghias is rather distinctive and I wanted to celebrate that fact. I kept the same lens on and just got a bit closer. I wasn’t attracting any negative attention and I was feeling more confident about being on the property at this point. The grass was very tall, so I kept the camera high in order to see more of the car clearly. I decided to do a little different take on the front end. I normally don’t do a 75% shot of the front end, but it seemed to fit the subject this time. I also don’t usually crop through elements like the grill piece, but I didn’t want both headlights, and I didn’t need the visual weight of the grill piece on that side. I just cut it at the point where I could use the bumperette to block the eyes from leaving the fame to the right. The proportions were pleasing and balanced out the other side as well as the hood emblem. My goal was to do this one in black and white since the color of the car and the grass were so similar in tone.
When I got home, I decided against doing it in black and white because there was a color profile tucked into the Artistic folder in Lightroom that gave me the right amount of separation between the greens and left me with a really interesting photograph. I processed it in color and used that color profile to my advantage.
By this point in the trek, I was starting to have a lot of fun. I was kind of on autopilot and not thinking on the same level that I had been with the recent photo sessions. I can definitely tell which type of photography I am most comfortable with and have the most experience in. I hope to get to this point with my people photography, but I know that will take a very long time. It was nice being able to use the camera like an extension of myself rather than having to think about every aspect of the photo. I can certainly sympathize with those learning photography because in many respects I am right there with you. This type of photography just comes as second nature to me now and I know that I have taken that for granted over the years. No longer though!
As I was working isolations in close, the sun started to come out and put the nice light on the opposite side of the car. Unfortunately though, I wasn’t really able to take full advantage of any compositions in this direction because of that Honda Odyssee that was parked on the driver’s side. I was able to formulate another isolation on the passenger side from the other direction for a bit of diversity in images. This time, I went about a third of the front of the car eliminating the emblem in favor of a more simplified composition. Since I was going lower here, I chose to shoot wide open at f/2.8 to blur the grass and soften the background a bit. Again, I was looking to do this one in black and white and that is just how it ended up.
Since this composition and the one that I featured previously were so similar in content, I didn’t want to edit them in the same way. This one was more about the chrome, so I decided that this was better presented in black and white. It took the similarity in greens out of the picture and forced the attention on the shapes and textures which was also helped by the shallow depth of field. It just worked better as a black and white image I thought. Before leaving the car, I spent some more time looking for other opportunities around it, but decided that I had done all that I could do with it thanks to the Hona beside it.
I had remembered seeing another Ghia parked between the two houses to the right and I walked back that way to see what I could do with it. It was a gray one which contrasted nicely with the grass, but I wasn’t really liking the idea of a car surrounded by green. When I got over there, I was happily surprised that there was a small building right behind the car that worked very well as a compositional balancing element. The white siding was neutral, so it went with the gray paint on the car. The sky was reflecting a bit of a blue tone on the car which was balanced out with the warm orange of the turn signals and the warm tones of the rust as well. I liked what I was seeing and decided that it was worth a few frames.
I started to frame my image with the 24-70mm lens but found that it was much too wide. I could have gotten in further, but since this was between two houses and partially obscured from the neighbor’s sight, I chose to avoid going in closer. The compression of a telephoto lens might actually help this image anyway, so I went back to the truck to swap out lenses. That didn’t take but a minute and I was back at the gray car. The long lens was just perfect for the composition I had chosen here and there wasn’t much difficulty at all in framing it up. I was probably here about five minutes to get a handful of shots with slightly different camera positions.
Once that was done, I was satisfied with my haul for the day. I had 36 frames shot and figured that I had 4-6 images to process when I got home. It was a little before 9am at this point and I was hoping that I could find a thrift store opened by now. The first one that I came to was closed until Thursday. I hit Goodwill next and found that they don’t open till 10. I then went by Carolina Treasures and found that they don’t open until 10 either. I decided to head out 268 for one more thrift store to see if they were open. Nope…10 on that one as well. It was about 9:20 at this point and I didn’t want to just drive aimlessly for 40 minutes since the sun was now out in full force. I decided to go ahead and pack it in for the day. I was interested to see what I had captured, and I could do the thrift store shopping later on. I didn’t really know what I was needing anyway and needed to wait to get paid for some of the work that I’ve been doing before I could buy anything.
It had been a fun and productive morning. When it was all said and done, I had five keepers from the day. It might not sound like much, but it is a really high hit rate for only 36 frames captured in just a couple of hours. It was really nice getting back out there again and doing this type of photography. I feel like it has been ages since I’ve had the camera on a tripod waiting for the sunlight to change. So, the question begs to be asked once again…what kind of photographer am I? Well, it looks like I’m just a photographer that loves creating visual art no matter what the subject. Bein diverse in my abilities also allows me to be able to mentor a wider variety of photographers. I don’t feel that I am nearly as valuable if I am very limited in experiences. Over the past year, I have really developed an understanding for so many aspects of photography that I have never really considered before. The more I learn, the more I can teach which is always a good thing.
I hope that you enjoyed the trek, and the photos that resulted. I’ll try to do better about getting out there more often and getting more photos added to my portfolio. Just know that if you aren’t seeing me posting here, I am still very much engaged with photography and having a great time learning new skills. If you are interested in any of my projects and would like more information, feel free to email me or even call. If you are interested in taking part in a test shoot let me know. There are several areas where I am currently needing willing subjects to put in front of my camera to try techniques out on. Of course, these test shoots are free in most cases. If you are interested, let me know soon because as I get my skills up to speed, I’ll be charging for the services in a short amount of time.
Until next time…
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