All images and photographs © Scott Nichol. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
here are two images i decided to print yesterday from my trip to Rossland, BC. i wanted to print them in the dark room and chose to do them as salt prints rather than palladium because in some ways, its quick and easy (despite a 20 minute exposure time). the chemistry is simple and the results look wonderful.
Stephanie Anne - Corner Light, Salt Print, 9x11 inches
Rhus - Ferns, Salt Print, 12x8.5 inches
In August 2010 I had the opportunity to travel to Rossland, BC to meet up with some old friends and make some new ones. Our host, Michael Cordiez was instrumental in bringing everyone together including two truly inspirational photographers, Dave Aharonian and Ron Skei. The times we spent talking about our craft and philosophy of artistic photography will provide continued inspiration.
I hope not too much time passes before i get to see my new friends Doug Doyle, Jeany, and Michael’s wonderful wife, Row.
And our work would not be complete without the dedication and tireless work of the models who endure so much of our crazed inspirations. Getting up at 5:30 am to shoot in a freezing lake is not something that many people i know would endure. But the results are always beautiful and full of graceful serenity.
The friendships that emerge from these collaborations are something that I will cherish for a lifetime. And it is always difficult to say good bye, especially when the next meeting is usually uncertain. The times shared with these friends calms my soul and nourishes my inspirational drive. Excitedly looking forward to what comes next.
scott
27 august, 2010
vancouver, BC
The time so far in Rossland has been incredibly energizing. The landscapes are completely inspiring and the people even more so. But having a few moments to shoot a few art nudes with Rhus was all I really needed to make me realize how much there there really is to take advantage of here in this beautiful place.
So here is a quick iPad edit of Rhus in a beautiful grove of ferns from earlier this afternoon.
enjoy,
scott
So, I am writing this posting from a bus traveling from New York City back home to Allentown. It’s becoming quite apparent to me that we’re living in a world that is becoming simultaneously more interconnected and more mobile at the same time. The bus I’m riding on has WiFi and I’m connected to my blog through the Wordpress app on my iPad. I’m listening to Pat Metheny in the background and watching the high clouds intensify as we travel west.
Before I left yesterday, I finished up a morning shoot with a model named Firefly Sky and I quickly transferred some of the shots to the iPad so i could review them on the trip up. And I actually brought one of the shots into an app called Filterstorm and produced a really nice, clean edit of the shot. Sure, it’s just a black and white conversion, but I was able to use a curves adjustment tool to recover the highlights a bit and use the channel mixer on the black and white tool to get the skin tones looking really nice.
Is this a bit of gadget geekery? Of course it is, but it’s also kind of liberating. The experience is light and effortless where a laptop would just be cumbersome. The freedom to create while you’ve got the downtime of a bus ride is exciting in ways that are, dare I say, magical and revolutionary.
See you all when I get home…
Firefly - iPad Portrait
Lili Adonia - iPad Portrait
Bright Angel Trail, Grand Canyon, AZ
i recently made a short trip out to Arizona and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share the jawdropping beauty of the Grand Canyon with my friend Melissa. its one of those things that really just chokes me up inside when i see it and i could see from Melissa’s reaction that she was feeling the same way. its just so achingly beautiful and so vast that the feelings of humbleness and humility are overwhelming.
i created this image as a composite from 5 other images using Photoshop’s HDR (High-Dynamic Range) capabilities. the idea is that you over expose and under expose a few shots and photoshop blends the shadow and highlight areas into one well-balanced photograph that you camera would normally not be able to capture. this photo (or series) was taken late afternoon as we decided to take a short hike down into the canyon where the perspectives are a bit more dramatic. there’s a little bit of distortion in the clouds because they were moving. and i shot this at 16mm, so the movement of the clouds is really exaggerated a little bit. i’ll include the 5 original photographs used to make this shot just as a reference so you can see what we’re really working with here.
Bright Angel HDR image 1 (+2 Stops)
Bright Angel HDR Image 2 (+1 Stop)
Bright Angel HDR Image 3 (+/- 0 Stops)
Bright Angel HDR Image 4 (-1 Stop)
Bright Angel HDR Image 5 (-2 Stops)
Susie B - waking, dreaming
hello friends:
I am sure that many of you may have heard about Susie B (model mayhem, deviantArt) and her recent accident. While she is currently on the road to recovery, her medical expenses continue to mount. Susie is anxious to return to work as a nurse, but with the recent outbreak of swine flu and the surrounding media hype, she is prevented from returning to work. This presents a very serious challenge for Susie to make ends meet on a daily basis.
I’ve been asked by others within the community of artists if I would be interested to hold a benefit print sale of one of the images Susie and I created together while out in New Mexico. The proceeds will go directly to Susie to help her out. I thought this was a wonderful idea that would allow those interested to help out a friend in need and also have something really beautiful to have and hold. I spoke to Susie about this idea and we’re both very excited about this.
So, accordingly, I’ve come up with the following plan. I will be making a run of 12 signed and numbered wet transfer prints of the photo “Waking Dream” that Susie and I created recently. The water transfer prints are incredibly beautiful and completely unique (see the web site below for complete details). I’ve tried to keep these prints as affordable as possible and still maintain a high level of benefit for Susie. Each print will be priced at $175 and there will only be 12 made. Additionally, I will be selling signed (but not numbered) giclee prints of the image at $85 each. For each print sale I will keep a small amount to cover my cost of materials and paypal fees. The rest will go directly to Susie B. Some of the numbered prints are already spoken for and they probably won’t last long.
So, if you can, please help out by purchasing a print today from the web site I’ve set up:
thanks,
scott nichol
www.silverystars.com
Susie B - waking, dreaming
Traveling to Albuquerque, NM was a chance to work with my dear friend Stephanie Anne on some art photography in a region of the southwest that I’ve not had the chance to work yet. The landscape in New Mexico is unique and along with the community of artists there, I knew I would be able to create some wonderful pieces. Everyone I met there was excited to share their wonderful work and ideas. The trip has spawned some new ideas which will hopefully allow me to enable other artists to explore creatively on regular basis. I’ll be talking more about this in the coming weeks as I solidify my plans.
The most unexpected joy that came out of the trip was having the chance to meet up with another model friend, Susie B. If you haven’t heard her story, she recently had a very bad accident while riding a horse. The accident resulted in her having a 9 inch branch embedded in her cheeck. It narrowly missed her eyeball and ran down, through her cheek, under the jaw muscle, and stopped just before her carotid artery. Yeah, no shit!! The accident resulted in a fairly serious infection and a lot of medical bills. Not unexpectedly, the fine art photography community came to her aid and helped to raise some of the money she needed to cover these bills. The generosity of everyone within the community was really touching to me (and certainly to Susie as well).
Susie walks around right now tethered to a fanny pack with an intravenous feed of antibiotics. But what really surprised me was Susie’s upbeat nature and unbounded positive energy. She was there at Stephanie’s home while we were working on some photos and after a few minutes of watching us, Susie asked me if I would care to make some photos with her. We decided that there wasn’t much hiding the I.V. And what emerged from our brief session were photos charged with emotion. Her strength and determination showed through clearly along with a bit of the weariness that comes with the ordeal of all she’s been through.
After we finished shooting, Susie was clearly tired, but truly full of pride for the work we’d done. Later that day I told Stephanie that I’d decided that even though I could, I wasn’t going to retouch the I.V. tubes out of any of the photographs. Stephanie told me that her and her boyfriend were just having a conversation recently about the “truth” in every photograph. And this conversation cemented the idea that these photos needed maintain the truth of everything that Susie is going through right now.
Later in the weekend when Susie and I were looking back on what we’d shot, I asked if she had shot with anyone else since the accident. And when she told me that I was the first, I was touched deeply and quite emotionally. Truly, we’re all here for together for a short time. So, any chance you have to share good times with friends, be sure to cherish and savor them.
Good always gets better.
scott
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.
JFK Airport
we finally made it out to Joshua Tree National park and the 29 Palms Inn. yesterday’s trip out of NYC with Rael was a non-event and getting through the airport was a breeze and the flight was great. Virgin America seems to be a hip airline with seat-back entertainment systems that offered movies, a food menu, and nintendo-style games. fun, but i had my iPhone stacked up with a couple episodes of the documentary, “When We Left the Earth: The NASA Missions”. so i watched that instead.
the drive out to joshua tree was a bit tedious, especially after a 6 hour flight. once we arrived, however, it was such a relief to kick back and have a couple drinks and re-connect with old friends. a bit of drinking after such a long day just acerbates the exhaustion though!
Rael - Belle Campground, Joshua Tree National Park
this afternoon, however, we decided to head out and scout some locations in joshua tree and i was blown away by what i saw. there are so many interesting textures and the light was pretty good for early afternoon. rael, josephine, and i decided to do some test shots right there in the Belle Campground inside the park. the vegetation is quite varied with almost everything being prickly, pointed, barbed, or thorny. so, when i saw this small patch of soft grass, i asked rael to strike a quick pose. i really loved the soft texture of this grass and how it contrasts with the harshness all around.