Positively a Negative Critique

When I first began shooting film, I greatly admired Ansel Adams' work, for no other reason than its appreciation by the masses. Yet, as I've grown as a photographer, I've slowly joined the ranks of "cynical artists" rather than being a purveyor solely of beauty. Artists - photojournalists especially - seem to have a collective reputation as skeptics, yet whether this image fits may really be in the eye of the beholder. I explored this concept - that art which is critical of culture is often construed as negative, but can have a positive message - through an experiment in "New Topographics," or "man-altered landscapes" as the pivotal 1975 exhibit at the George Eastman House dubbed the style.

The beauty of New Topographics lies in its irony, originally depicting urban and suburban American landscapes with a critical eye, commenting on civilization's "progress" and its (negative) effects. Though the style came to prominence almost 40 years ago, in this age of "green initiatives," climate change debate, and other seemly tree-huggerisms, this social commentary has truly caught hold - now with the added twist of media and technological analysis.

In my personal interpretation, I played upon the theme of [digital] photography and technology's impact on the viewing of landscapes. Photography has the ability to tell a story to the world of subjects many or most people would never know, and this applies especially to landscape photography.

In the first image, I wanted to show photography's ability to tell a story, even one not entirely truthful. With the ability to crop out unwanted information, a photographer can tell their version of a story, tailored to fit their motive. For instance, in my examination, I shot a still of my digital camera set up at the top of The Cut in Asheville overlooking the city with the mountains surrounding. Although the film capture shows the juxtaposition of man vs. nature, the viewfinder of my digital camera shows my ability to crop in closely on the mountains to show only nature, cutting out man's "destruction" (as some would call city-building - although I personally love architecture, culture, and all the bustle that cities have to offer.) True to the New Topographics style, while the photo shows a majestic landscape, beautiful in spite of and because of the contrasting geometry of the city, the addition of my camera creates a social commentary on the photographers' (politicians,' scientists', anyone's) ability to spread only a partial story.

My second image shows the increasing commercialism of photography, now the medium of the masses, and its decreasing difficulty. By overlaying the image of a computer screen on top of a landscape, I wanted to again show the basic contrast of technology (man) vs. nature.  The Google screen displaying a search for "how to photograph a landscape" is meant to demonstrate how lazy technology allows picture-takers (not everyone with a camera is a photographer, in my humble opinion) to be, with the ability to simply ask a search engine how to photograph a landscape or to find landscape images to emulate, rather than going out on an artistic adventure of their own. 

This final image is my favorite, possibly because it took me three hours to print correctly, and maybe because of the rich quality of the contrasting darks and lights. In this diptych, I picture two dissimilar scenes; one a landscape photo opened on an iPad which sits on a bed, the other an actual view of plants with a mountainous backdrop. This again is supposed to show technology's laze-inducing nature, where anyone with an internet connection can "visit" exotic and foreign lands vicariously through others' photos from the comfort of their own beds, instead of traveling there themselves. (The Cut may not entirely be exotic, but it is quite a steep hike to the top.)

As an added commentary, I shot these photos in black and white film (35mm and not large format 8"x10" like the first New Topographics photographers, but closer to the basics) on my fully manual camera in an attempt to distinguish the photos from its digital counterparts which I critique. As I said before, the beauty of art is its differing interpretation based on the viewer, and this series can be either positive or negative, both or neither. Photography has come a long way since the first cameras (arguably camera obscuras, which were quite literally holes in walls that let in light to show an image, although the image could not be "captured" in the traditional sense) and many would argue that this progress is a good thing. Technological progress's modus operandi is to create shortcuts, to generate comfort, to manufacture ease. For many, this is everything. For others, a little hard work - developing their own photos rather than transferring them from an SD card, for instance - is the fruit of life. New Topographics is about bringing these choices into visual perspective. Skeptical or hopeful, destructive or progressive, like much of photography, your opinion is all a matter of vantage point.

Unveiling One of my Favorite Photos

Last month, I worked a beautiful wedding at Yesterday Spaces just outside of Asheville. It was my first wedding of the season, and with almost a year of photography practice under my belt (literally - at this wedding I got to use my new camera belt!) I was very excited to see what I could capture. I couldn't be happier with the results: The 9 hours of photography granted me a resounding 500 "good captures" to edit.

Out of all of them, this sweet shot of the happy couple kissing, in their own little world under her veil, is by far my favorite. While I will post a longer blog next week talking about my wonderful experience in general, I'd like to dedicate a post solely to this one beautiful image.

A day or so before each wedding, I typically spend a couple hours scouring the web "studying" so to speak, compiling a shot list of ideas that I think fit the couple's personality. This involves a exploring a variety of work from exclusive wedding photographers to magazine tears of local weddings, albums of my Asheville colleagues' work to creative photos on Pinterest. One of the ideas I came across more than once during my latest pre-wedding cram session was that of the couple kissing or smiling under the bride's veil. I thought the idea was creative and interesting, not the same old couple's shot, and knew that I had to try it with Katie and Ethan.

Of course, I wanted to put my own spin on the shot. Most of the other photographers' images were dramatically wide-angled, which was certainly beautiful, but to me appeared editorial. In my own work I prefer intimate - often close-up - shots catching the emotion of my subjects, especially in wedding photography. This image proved the perfect shot for the intimate style, and I've fallen in love with its personal and private quality, the couple's pure happiness raw and open, as though we the viewers are intruding on their jubilant moment. To me, this photograph epitomizes my style of photography, capturing genuine emotion so that the couple can remember for decades to come how happy their wedding day was.

I'm a one-woman wedding photographer, and since I cannot grow any more limbs, I typically don't have the ability to hold a reflector. Luckily, nature decided to be on my side the day of the wedding, thank goodness, and the light yet cloudy day provided this beautiful natural glow. With front light streaming in to highlight the couple's heartwarming kiss, and enough fill light to subtly fill out any harsh shadows, my natural lamp helped me create this quality capture. Even better, the light lent itself well to classic black and white. In general, I favor boldly colorful photos, but in this instance the black and white softens the scene slightly, bringing the focus directly to the couple's kiss, while making it more dynamic because of the timeless factor.

I take hundreds (sometimes thousands) of photos per week and am typically happy with little more than a handful each batch. Even less often am I so pleased with an image I write a whole blog post on just one shot. But this is one of the few times I've made a photograph that I would say epitomizes my style.

For more images from Katie and Ethan's wedding, click here.

Home Preservation: Photography Style

Somewhere between aspiring to be a math teacher and pursuing my dream as a professional photographer, I wanted to be an interior designer. Color schemes, coordinating patterns, furniture placement and utility: Decorating a room for someone else (or just myself) is as much an adventure in learning about the person as it is in applying paint and situating bedside tables.

Well, those interior design aspirations only lasted about a year, but through photography I've gotten about as close to that aesthetically-inclined career as I can get with my mirror and lens tools. And by that, I mean that among my many other photographic pursuits, I have begun framing other peoples' spaces (homes, restaurants, offices, hotels) capturing the essence and personality of the room.

This weekend on my visit home, my good friend/coach/mentor Kate asked me to help her with a project to showcase her home for advertisement for rental on Airbnb. (If you haven't heard of Airbnb, check it out, it's a way for home, condo, or apartment owners to rent out extra space for travelers.)

Kate's plan is to have two newly-remodeled  bedrooms (yes, kids, this is what happens to your room when you move out, apparently) available for rent, so we started upstairs with them. I've nicknamed one the "orange" room and one the "blue" room. The "orange" room - obviously not just orange, but many coordinating warm shades of red, coral, and brown - was her son's old room, but is now a spacious guest room complete with a cozy entertainment alcove. The openness of the room made it very easy for me to photograph.

In addition to taking wide-angle images of as much of the room as possible, I like to capture vignettes that showcase the space in a more abstract manner. When I saw the reflection of a part of the room in this ornately-framed mirror, I knew this would be a descriptive vignette.

The "blue" room - with beautiful white, gray, yellow, green, and brown accents - was marginally my favorite of the two rooms, but only because of my obsession with the color blue.  I love making color-focused images that showcase my favorite part of interior design (basic color scheme is often the first thing people notice when walking into a room), so this room appealed to me because of Kate's play with the light and airy blues and white with just a hint of sunshine yellow. In fact, Kate and I joked about me just staying in that room the next time I come to town instead of my parents' house. (It was a joke...mostly...I'll come by the house at least once, Mom, I promise!)

I find bathrooms very difficult to photograph, not only because of the limited space to maneuver, but because of the subject matter. While it is an important feature, it is often rather difficult to make a toilet appear aesthetically pleasing. (Maybe that will be my next personal project. I'll call it "Majestic Toilets.") Yet, because it is important to show renters the bathroom they have to look forward to in this beautiful space - as opposed to a grungy hotel - I tried to take a photo showing the different shapes and lines playing together in the room.

Kate generously plans to allow renters access to her pool table and kitchen, so these were our next stops on the tour. I had not yet gotten a close-up of anything, so I took the opportunity to focus on the billiard ball slightly blurring out the background to make the photo a little less cluttered while still showing everything in the room.

Kate has one of the nicest home kitchens I have ever seen, so capturing a couple photos to do it justice was quite a difficult task. By showing the details of the brick bar sides as well as a wide-angle shot of the whole space leading back to the entertainment room, I tried to show some of what the kitchen has to offer.

 

Our last stop of the tour was the deck. On a warm spring day, this would be the perfect place to read a book while smelling the flowers!

On my way out I grabbed this cute shot of her pup, Duncan (or "Dunkin" - she's a doughnut fan) to show to renters what kind of dog they would get to play with while enjoying their stay.

I had a blast with this shoot because I got to photograph beautifully decorated rooms all while catching up with one of my good friends and enjoying the afternoon. As I learn more about capturing the personality of a room, I hope to expand into the real estate market photographic for home owners looking to sell, or for decorators looking to showcase their work.

Uno, Dos, Tres, ¡Sonríe!

 

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! Or, for your Star Wars nerds out there, today is Revenge of the 5th (the day after May 4th - "May the fourth be with you.") Dorkiness aside, I'm just happy the weather is finally nice again. And with warmer, sunnier weather, Jaimie and I have been able to shoot outside, taking advantage of the warm natural light and beautiful array of colors that Asheville in bloom has to offer. 

For me, outside shoots (especially in the spring) are all about color. Not only do the clothes saturated in bright hues come out when the weather gets warm, but the green and flowery scenery makes for the perfect backdrop for outdoor portraits. 

The trick with all the color is to create a balance so that the photos are vividly colorful without being overwhelming and cluttered. A couple years ago one of my professors taught us about "color key," as he called it, where dissimilar objects in a photo are the same color, creating a connection where there otherwise wouldn't be one. So for the first outfit (all black with the gray and yellow purse) I immediately remembered the lesson and set out to position Jaimie -unbeknownst to her! -  so that the yellows of the purse connected to those of the "no parking" paint and fire hydrant, and the black outfit refered to the black and gray asphalt. It may not be every model's dream to allude to a street, but I think the color key makes for a simple yet beautiful color scheme.

On the opposite end, I also love contrasting colors, and Jaimie's pink dress easily stood out from the yellows and greens of the foliage. We did this particular shoot right beside Montford Park in front of a couple historic buildings, and the architecture there was a serendipitous find in terms of back drops. Although Jaimie's outfit was decidedly modern, the light airiness of it blended nicely, especially with the bench scene under the tree, as the soft backdrops brought out her femininity.

Of all of the shoots we have done, this last outfit was by far my favorite. Until now, we haven't done any "lying down" poses, but I do believe we're onto something. Though I've been very happy with many photos previously, these are the first I might venture to label "editorial." Whether it's Jaimie's elongated limbs posed elegantly on top of a very uncomfortable stone wall, the odd angles of the photos with a more intimate perspective, or simply the flatter, yellower tones mimicking magazine tear sheets, these next two photos are by far my favorites.

This shoot goes to show that you don't need professional equipment and fancy backdrops to create beautiful and elegant portraits. "¡Sonríe!" means "smile," and I'm certainly smiling at the prospect of more outdoor shoots.

I'm With the Band

We interrupt the behind-the-scenes series of fashion photography blogs to discuss a new (to me) genre - concert photography! Concert photography is, in many ways, like any other kind of event photography. Low light, people drinking, lots of interesting outfits and expressions to capture, it might as well be any other brand of party.

Yet, in many ways, shooting concerts is unlike any other photographic job. For one thing, taking photos of a stage show where you are on a different level than the subjects can make for either some awkward angles, or incredibly dynamic shots that look larger than life.

By far, the most difficult aspect of concert photography is the lighting, which is constantly changing brightness and color. When I worked my first concert last month at the Orange Peel - the bluegrass band Yonder Mountain, featuring the Travelin' McCourneys - I learned all too well that although I could have the perfect shot ready, right when I pressed my finger to the shutter the spotlight could suddenly change from red to blue, dark to light, and I'd have to start all over.

Luckily for me, a photojournalism background (a style which photographs authentic and candid human emotion and captures the atmosphere and story of an event) lends itself well to concert photography. While many beginners may focus on the band, spending the majority of their time front and center to the stage, crowd shots are often equally as interesting. Shooting from the pit in the few feet of space between the stage and the most enthusiastic fans, I had a front row view of Yonder Mountain's loudest head-bobbing, arm-waving cheering section.

I love close-ups, so I tried to add a few into my album, finding small details that could add to the larger story; such as the bass player plucking the beat of a bluegrass song.

Although I'd never heard Yonder Mountain's music before and I couldn't fully appreciate the concert by singing along like I could at the others I've been to of my favorite bands, the toe-tapping tunes made the joy of photographing in a new atmosphere that much better.

Fun in the Kitchen

Adorably-in-love couples may have celebrated Valentine's Day a month ago (while many single ladies ate Ben & Jerry's and binge-watched romantic movies), but romantic photos can be timeless. Last month, just before V-Day, Jaimie and I had some fun in the kitchen creating our own photo studio in her apartment kitchen. With the theme of prepping for the big date - both in the kitchen and in the mirror - we wanted to create a fun, sexy, and romantic atmosphere (something pretty difficult to achieve in a small apartment kitchen!)

Of course, I had to start with a photo of the shoes. 

We may not have had the most high tech equipment for a fashion shoot, but the lack of professional equipment pushed me to get creative with my light sources and her props. Where mood lighting is concerned, there is really nothing better than white icicle lights, and luckily she had a string running right through her kitchen illuminating the background with a pleasant warm glow. A floor lamp for front light expertly filling any harsh shadows also came to my aid.

For the first outfit especially, I wanted to photograph her being goofy to capture a few genuine laughs. Telling a model to put flour on her noise is a sure-fire way to get a few self-conscious giggles, making for perfect pre-date photos. 

As always, I did a few full-body shots to show off her slim frame. When shooting in a busy scene, it's important to keep the focus on the model, and Jaimie's short dress proved the perfect distraction. Jaimie pointed her toes, showing off her long legs, creating a nice line to draw the viewer's eye through the photo.

For a Valentine's Day shoot, you can't miss the sexy shots. There is, of course, a difference between sexy and scandalous, and Jaimie's classy attire easily walked that line, allowing me to capture some beautiful shots. For the sexy look I wanted to get shots of her lazing around showing off her outfit, but in a college apartment there are few scenic spots. However, her nice wooden dining room table with the kitchen in the background made a convincing set-up. If you read these photos as a story, perhaps she had finished cleaning, changed into a sleeker outfit, and was lounging around waiting for her date.

One thing I've learned from shooting fashion photos is shooting different angles. As someone who most often shoots straight-on, I began experimenting with tilted frames, and love the result. Diagonals are often more pleasing than straight lines.

Although the holiday may come only once a year, creating romantic portraits is easy if you use a couple of the keys - soft, warm light; smiles; and sleek lines.

No Day Like a Snow Day

 

     In honor of this week's snowpocalypse, I thought I'd begin my behind-the-scenes posts with a snow shoot. Two weeks ago, during 2014's first big snow storm, Asheville saw around an inch of the fluffy white stuff. While almost every part of me wanted to curl up in a blanket and read all day, that nagging little photographer voice in my brain knew that the weather had given me the perfect backdrop for a photo shoot.

     Snow is one of nature's most unpredictable artistic tools. On the one hand, a flat white snowy expanse can be about as boring as it gets, a blank canvas begging for a human or natural touch. (Of course, this is more of an exaggeration, snowy landscapes are often the most majestic.) However, a white blanket of snow also creates a natural reflector to throw indirect sunlight back into the shadows - perfect for portraiture. And the sun always shines a little brighter when you don't have class, doesn't it?

      For this particular shoot, Jaimie put together a (sassy!) white and animal print work outfit that happened to pair beautifully both with the white snow, and the earthen tones of the sky and trees. Though I am typically drawn to saturated colors, something about the flatter natural tones really brings these photos to life.

    My favorite part of the shoot was the quality of light that nature gave me. While I am perfectly comfortable shooting with an external flash and interior lights, working with natural light creates an aesthetic that I find much more pleasing. Sunlight brings out warm tones alluding to pleasantness, a nice change from the typical cold light of the not-so-great indoors.
     Not only did the sun act as a reflector, as I said before, naturally filling the photo with warm light, but it also gave me a great backlight and spotlight. The rays hitting Jaimie's profile gave her an angelic halo, and the sunlight streaming onto her face created a radiant glow that accentuated her features. Best of all, the snow and sun played together making a dark-to-light gradient that added interest to each photo and helped bring the viewer's eye through the image. And, of course, who can pass up a good lens flair?

I didn't take many close-up in this particular shoot because the openness of our "studio" allowed me to use my 50mm fixed lens at far distances. But, I couldn't pass up the chance to shoot one cropped-in portrait, and I couldn't be happier with the bright and beautiful photo that resulted. We certainly had a more productive snow day than many other college students did.