and then things got complicated
Monday, January 5th, 2009 | gear, photography | No Comments
rebecca lawrence
so, i’ve finally made the switch to the Canon 5D Mark II. this is a sea change for me since i’ve been shooting with Nikon gear for years now. buttons are in the wrong place and for my first shoot, it was very slow going. but i know that with continued use, everything will seem as familiar as an old glove. i made the change because this camera lets me shoot high definition video and i’ve always had a love for video as an expressive media. photography is still my #1 outlet, but in many ways the two can coexist in the creative hemispheres of my brain.
the complications arise when trying to work with video. really, with a still image, as long as it can be read with photoshop, you’re good to go. sometimes this requires software updates for things like RAW file decoding software, but in the end, the tools just work on pixels. but with video, there are frame rates, codecs, editing presets, real-time effects rendering, field dominance, delivery format, and a variety of devices and media hosting platforms.
right now i’m some transcoding 1080p high def footage to 60 frames per second using advanced frame rate conversions so that i can get high quality slow motion clips. its a lengthy process that can’t be done in real-time. but if i want to edit the footage the way i envisioned it, this is the way it should be done to look the best, visually. i guess i forgot how time consuming working with video is!
generally, i use Final Cut Pro and Motion to edit my video. for a while, i’d considered doing video as a semi-pro. i’ve shot event, know how to author a DVD and can edit a pretty powerful, emotional segment. but i have the original version of FCP Studio and its support for HD video is somewhat limited. and i’m considering a move to FCP Studio v.2 to facilitate the advanced types of edits i’d like to do. its a $400+ upgrade from what i’ve got, but it could be worth it, especially since the version i have is showing signs of age. it doesn’t seem to take full advantage of the 8-friggin-processor cores i have in my beastly tower, and some the the creative possibilities offered in the new version are just mind blowing.
so, is there an outlet for fine art video work? (i think i could produce some) is video too transcendent and ephemeral a media to be appreciated as fine art? (its hard to hang a video on a wall and video installations in galleries have never appealed to me that much) but since these questions veer way too far off the my original topic, i think i think we’ll leave this is a discussion for another posting.
making peace with ghosts
Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | exhibit, fine art nudes, photography | 2 Comments
i had so many plans this week. working on web sites, looking into developing an iPhone application, getting some holiday cards out.
but none of that has happened. i’ve spent almost every waking moment getting the artwork ready for the some ghosts show which i am opening on saturday january 3. some things didn’t go well (the press release got lost in the holiday rush, so the announcement won’t appear in the local paper). but other things have come together quite well (the photographs look fantastic and the words i’ve chosen to go with them bring the power and emotion i was looking for).
but now, i’m finishing the final images and should be heading over to start hanging my work later this afternoon. its been a lot of work preparing a solo show. a lot more than i’d imagined. i’m nervous and anxious to see people’s reactions. i hope it comes off as well as i envision and worry terribly that it won’t.
that sentimental feeling…
Monday, December 15th, 2008 | gear, photography | 3 Comments
Zinn - Spur Falls
in a little more than an hour one of my beloved nikon cameras will sell to the highest bidder on eBay. and suddenly, i’m getting sentimental about having to give it up. its a wonderful piece of machinery and it is the instrument i’ve used to take some of my favorite photographs. we learned the ins and outs of photographing the nude and made some beautiful artwork together.
so, is it ridiculous to get sentimental about a camera? it doesn’t know what great pictures it took. its not even aware that it takes pictures. its just a specialized collection of metals and semiconductors wrapped in a magnesium and plastic shell. but yet, it seems like such a part of me, even if it has been sitting mostly unused in a corner of my camera bag for the past year or so. when i hold it in my hands, it seems to fit so well and when i turn it on, the controls are right where i expect them to be.
and the new camera that will replace it will be something different. a new girlfriend with longer hair and curvier hips! but the first time we try to make love with the light, it’ll seem all wrong. i’ll fumble for her buttons and she won’t respond the way i like. but eventually we’ll get to know better how each other works. i’ll learn what makes her squeal and she’ll come to know what makes me groan. in the long run, the perturbations caused by this shift will cause new neurons to connect, new possibilities will open up, and the creative flood will rush forth. so stay tuned! its sure to be an interesting ride!!
now… what’s high bid up to again?!?
exhibit in west chester
Friday, December 5th, 2008 | books, exhibit, photography | No Comments
i will be showing a collection of both summer outdoor works along with selected studio pieces at Three Little Pigs in West Chester, PA. i have 11 pieces on display, mostly 11×14 with some landscape pieces printed slightly larger. if you’re in or around that area of Pennsylvania (just west of Philadelphia), stop by tonight.
also, for the opening week of the show, i’ll be offering the remaining copies of my 50-print edition of my book in the still air at a discounted rate of $100. if you’re interested, please contact me privately since the link on the website will charge you the normal rate of $150. i’m also offering specials on signed original prints, so if you’re interested to purchase one contact me and i’ll give you the details.
thanks, scott
venue info:
Three Little Pigs
131 North High Street
West Chester, PA
Artists’ Reception: 7-10pm
South of the Mason/Dix
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 | photography | No Comments
yarrow - from "some ghosts"
driving south through rural pennsylvania you quickly cross over the maryland border and at some point there is a small blue roadside sign that simply says Mason/Dixon line. there’s a bit of historical significance to that sign and i assume it is there to serve as a reference to those interested in the history of the civil war. but i always humorously think of it as, “you’re in the south now, boy!”
the end of my journey brought me to the small town of frederick, md where a small group of photographers specializing in fine art figure work gathered to share portfolios, swap prints, and share techniques. and its funny how certain things happen at certain times and you really feel your connection to this group growing deeper. as i was looking through the various prints and portfolios left out on the table, two struck my eye immediately. they were not tradition inkjet or silver prints. one was printed on foil and another was printed on… well, i wasn’t sure what it was.
one of the photographers i’ve met before named linda carlson claimed ownership of the prints. i asked her how she’d made these and when she started to say, “well, there’s a product called inkAid…” i had to cut her off. during my recent trip to photo plus expo in new york city, i’d spent a bit of time at the inkAid booth talking to them about their products. it is a liquid emulsion that you can brush onto almost any type of paper or substrate and when its dry, you can feed it through your inkjet printer and get really wonderful results. you can find the most delicate japanese papers and when you print the right images on it, its just magical.
when i engaged linda and another woman named carol who was also working with inkAid, the conversation just came alive. i was throwing out problems that i had with making the prints and getting the papers through the printer. and they were right there with solutions and they so eager to share them!
so now i’m armed with so much of the right information to accomplish a vision i’ve got for the show i plan to do in january! all the prints for this show will be printed on a wonderful japanese okawara paper. and as the warm tones of the pennsylvania fall fade to a winter grey, i see a lot of long nights huddled around the printer watching love and warmth spill out the front of the paper feed.
Evil, Evil Men and the Women Who Love Us
Friday, October 17th, 2008 | fine art nudes, photography | No Comments
So, I’m fortunate in many ways to have the opportunity to have the chance to collaborate with so many creative people on a regular basis. The creativity often come in the form of collaborating with talented models and more often than not, the collaboration requires a fair amount of trust. The model has to trust that you’re going to be respectful, that you’ll portray her in a way that shows her beauty, fearlessness, or edgyness. It all really depends on how your collective mojos are coming together that day.
Lately I’ve been trying to come up with something that will fit into a particular halloween themed art show. Most of the contributing artists are tattoo artists that deal with skulls, demons, and other gruesome subjects on a daily basis. My art typically attempts to convey the beauty of women. So, trying to think outside this box and do something different proved to be a bit of a challenge.
Originally, I thought about working around the theme of, “Never Again.” using stage make up I envisioned a photograph of an angry woman who, although battered and bruised, was determined to never play the victim again. I tried my best to create stage cuts and bruises and then photograph the models in a compelling setting. Although the models were fantastically patient and trusting with my ideas, the rendering often fell flat.
Then suddenly, I found myself in the right location with a model that I’d worked with before and the photo revealed itself to me in an instant. The model was the incredibly talented Lela Rae and she was in Pennsylvania working with my friend Marcus. Marcus was gracious enough to allow me to come out to his place and share some of the time he planned on working wirh Lela Rae. We were all at Marcus’ studio where he has a couple prop rooms built. We had Lela Rae in a straight jacket and face mask and suddenly I had the idea to put her in this fantastically creepy medical exam room marcus constructed.
The shot was all natural light, shallow depth of field, and all creepy. Lela Rae knew it was a dark shot and I could see that little bit of doubt when I asked he to pose in this room with that outfit, bit again, we know each other, trust each other. When emailed her the shot last night her response was, “that’s FUCKING AWESOME!!”
The prints will be available only as an edition of 13 prints, signed and numbered. Each one will be printed on photo rag paper and hand distressed by me, so each one will be utterly unique. If you would like to purchase one of this series for yourself, please contact me directly… people are dying to get their hands on them!
Mwwahh ha ha!!
some ghosts
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | fine art nudes, photography | 1 Comment
Carly Erin - Some Ghosts
this weekend i had the opportunity to work with carly erin again. we’ve been friendly enough to each other on the socializing sites, but it suddenly came to our attention that we hadn’t actually tried to collaborate on making some art in almost a year!
i set up some time at my friend george’s studio here in town and another friend bill from lightphile studios also came along to have some of carly’s time as well. the wonderful thing about working with friends like this is that we all tend to feed off of each other’s ideas. there really is no competition, although some of us tend to guard our ideas so that we can come away with something truly unique.
i had one or two solid ideas for working with carly, particularly placing her within the great natural light afforded by the large windows in george’s studio. but other than that, i wasn’t sure what i was going to do. then suddenly i had an idea to slow down my shutter speed and give carly free reign to dance about and express herself through movement. she’s had a lot of dance training, so this comes very naturally to her. the idea was to let go of the absolute sharpness i’m used to capturing and allow the blur of motion into the photo. watching what remains, the sally mann documentary, i’d seen her embrace and take full advantage of the fact that her exposures were 1/5th of a second or longer. some of the portraits she’s done are 3-5 minute exposures. and they’re beautiful! so much more so than a crisp, sharp, flashed exposure.
i expected that the results would be good, but carly exceeded my expectation on expressiveness. i’m pretty sure that this has launched a new series of photographs for me, enough so that i hope to bring it full circle into another book. look for more in the future.
Drill Baby, Drill!!
Saturday, October 4th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
In the recent vice presidential debates, republican candidate Sarah Palin exclaimed, “Drill baby, drill!!” inferring that there is lots of oil off the shores of our own country. And this is how they propose to solve our energy problems.
Do you ever think that in our evolution as a species that we will figure out that sucking everything out of the ground that the earth ha to offer and burning it might not be the best way to power our lives?
Wind, solar and other renewable sources along with frugal conservation methods can bring us so much closer to energy independance than more drilling, draining, and burning ever could.
Time to start thinking differently about lots of things and this is a fundamental difference in approach to this problem that proves to me that I can not support this McCain ticket.
sally mann
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 | photography | 1 Comment
3 muses, 29 Palms Inn
i recently met ted preuss and had many wonderful conversations with him over the course of a week in joshua tree national park. at one point we got to talking about the idea of doing a very, “sally mann” styled shoot near my cabin that might involve 2 or 3 models set against the wonderfully rich wood textures of exterior walls of my cabin. i managed to make the shot with stephanie anne, dominique, and mia and it turned out different and somehow better than i’d expected. i didn’t quite get the sally mann feel i wanted, but the different skin tones added a depth and dimension that really took on a meaning of harmony for me.
in my discussion with ted about sally mann, he recommended a documentary called, What Remains that chronicles a lot of sally’s work including the seminal collection, Immediate Family. the film is a wonderful look into the process and thoughts of a photographic artist unlike any i’ve seen. i am a huge admirer of sally’s work and it is fascinating to see video footage of her working with her children to create some of the pieces from Immediate Family and the journey she goes through to find the next steps in her evolution as an artist. what to do next, how to maintain relevance, and struggling with what will keep the public’s interest now that her children are not the centerpiece of her headline-grabbing early works is all shown here in vivid detail.
in many similar (and much smaller) ways, i struggle with the same things as i move through my own work. i feel like i need time to pause, look back on what i’ve done, and evaluate what i have. create collections of work that speak to an arcing artistic vision and find ways to present this to the public. the film will have a lasting impact on my work going forward and provides inspiration for the future.
29 palms
Monday, September 15th, 2008 | fine art nudes, photography, travel | No Comments
its been a fabulous and very intensely creative week of shooting in the high desert of california for the past week. is it hot here? you bet it is. the bullshit about it being, “a dry heat” is a lot of bunk. its still hot. most everyone plans to shoot either in the early morning or in the later afternoon. its not so intense then and somewhat manageable. there have been a couple mornings when i actually felt a chill while hiking to a destination.
the week really started to feel like summer camp after a while! well, summer camp with lots of naked people! the inn staff really didn’t seem to mind us shooting in and around the grounds while we were there. i chose to shoot in the park quite a bit and would often come back to find someone posed near the spring or in the palm trees outside my cabin. really refreshing to have that kind of freedom to work as an artist.
the inn is actually located at the oasis of mara which are a series of natural springs in the desert. native american indians settled there and really had a wonderful life. wildlife would come to visit the spring as a watering hole and the indians could then take their pick of the game for food. they also used the springs to irrigate crops. really, the best life in a harsh desert.
Niecy Moss - Joshua Tree
while i was there, i had the chance to shoot with a lot of models that i normally wouldn’t have the chance to shoot with. one of my first interactions was with a woman named Niecy Moss. we’ve had several wonderful conversations in the past about each others’ work. i’ve always admired her work on community zoe and she’s always told me how much she admires my work as well. so, it was all but inevitable that we would work together.
she turned out to be a wonderfully creative model and brought a lot of positive energy to our collaboration. i was saddened to hear that while she was in joshua tree with us, her home was hit by hurricane ike. she was having a difficult time just getting back home since airports and trains back into Houston were not fully operational when she had to leave. i will be thinking of her as she attempts to make it back home and hope she makes it back to her family safely.
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