Search Photos

Here's a double feature...a #spookychallenge entry and a #storybehindtheshot image...
This was taken during a backstage tour at Knott's Scary Farm this year, 2015. This particular maze was centered around the "Tooth Fairy"...it began in a child's room and then wound through the lair of a particularly wicked tooth fairy who would take more than children's fallen teeth. "Victims" were taken as well, and turned into "fairies", only not your average glitter and rainbows genre. Of all the mazes at Knott's, this is one that they have had for several years and one that is continually improved upon. Spooky isn't quite the word for what it feels to walk through this thing with all of the decoration and costumed actors jumping out at you along the way. I'm not easily scared, but this was an unnerving experience. Of course, I loved it :)

When leaves are like chocolate underfoot...

I was driving along a particularly tree lined road in my little town and caught a glimpse of something almost "glittering" in the fallen leaves along the curb. I immediately pulled over and grabbed my camera. I surveyed the scene, got down on my knees and elbow and was enthralled with the way that the leaves appeared almost like chocolate in the sunlight. I was snapping way, trying different angles, probably talking to myself...and then I happened to look up to see a group of high school kids standing stock still across the street watching me as though I was some sort of alien from another planet. I stood up, dusted myself off, gave them a wave and got into the car. So, I looked like a bit of an idiot, but ask me if I care? Whatever it takes to get the shot, right? :)

Surfing through my timeline on Facebook, I noticed the coolest image..it reminded me of an imressionist's painting but it was actually a photograph! I inquired as how to do the certain technique known as camera shake. Very simple process. This is one of the better attempts.

For me, photography is a way of expressing what I am thinking or feeling through images. If I can go out into the world and find images that evoke the emotions that I am feeling, I've won. Sometimes, though, when I have something to say, I can't say it with a landscape or a pretty, bokeh laden floral image, so I find ways of "creating scenes". The idea for my "Artie" series came to me one day after I read an article about how to evoke an emotional response to an inanimate object from a viewer through posing, lighting, and perspective. I thought, "What better way to attempt to create human emotion and tell a story or make a point in a photograph than by using a somewhat 'void' human form". I had played with form subjects in art classes in college, and I immediately knew what I needed to get. So, I went out and rescued Artie from his cylindrical prison at a local store, put together a home-made light box and set out on an adventure to create a character that people would respond to in a human way.

Artie has had many adventures thus far...this one deals with the heavy topic of religion and spirituality. By nature, Artie is "Artificial", so I attempt to convey certain juxtaposed sentiments through him, and this is one of them. The world is full of different religions, races, creeds, etc., but at the most basic of levels, we are all so very much the same. Spirituality is nothing different...we can all believe in what we want to believe in and still have a "spiritual" nature - some find it through religion, some through family, some through looking to the stars, some just by taking a walk through nature, some playing baseball...whatever you do that makes you feel as though you are connected to this world and to something greater than yourself is your spirituality. You don't have to find this through meditation or in a church (though it is perfectly beautiful if you do), you need to find this in your heart and practice it in whichever way makes YOU feel the most connected to what you believe in.

So, that was the message, but how did I attempt to achieve it? Artie does most of his modeling in a 2 foot by 2 foot light box with black flooring and background and directional diffused light from the sides and top. I shoot most of my Artie images with my 70mm to 300mm telephoto, because it allows me to get the best overall perspective with the least amount of cropping (the idea is to not have to crop if possible, and I'll usually take multiple images in order to get a properly fit shot). Posing is really important; I will sometimes spend 10 minutes trying to create a pose that looks authentic; this one having the slightly dropped shoulder and conversely tilted head, as well as the bent leg and hands. Lighting is key with Artie...I want to make him look and feel human in a way, so I have to use the contours of his "body" position and shape to create shadows where I want them and highlights where I want them to give him character - here I knew I wanted the flat plane of his face to be a shadow for facial depth. It is best to shoot Artie (or most light box work) when it is completely dark in the room except for whatever directional lighting you have chosen. And that's pretty much it...he's posed, the lighting is directed until I'm satisfied, and then I take shots from multiple angles until I'm happy with what I've gotten.

Whether the image resonates with you or not, hopefully this helps you to understand the "reason" behind this series...it's not just that I like to play with stick men.

Not usually my type of subject in photography, but It suits the atmosphere i experienced today.

The sky was a bright blue and the sun shone through the trees and brought out many different colours of the plants. It was cold, but only in the shade, a sublte cold and the blackbirds of the forest flew over and into the leaves, this was a very peaceful day and to do it justice, all you had to do was walk slowly and admire.

Walking in the ancient forests of Wales, along the pathway with my dog and my Nikon camera in my hand on a beautiful sunny day I walk past quite a few people along the way with their dogs. besides the path there stands many different types of trees which have changed colour due to the season. I stopped and stood under a tree whose leaves were a bright red, I had never seen leaves this beautiful and red before, so as natural I take a few photos and compliment the tree as much as possible in my photographs.
My dog shoots off as he's just spotted another dog coming up the path, this is usual so I didn't become distracted, the other dog dashed over to greet my dog. The owner of the dog stops just beside the tree I'm standing underneath, he looks to be about mid 50's maybe even 60, with a subtle Italian accent but spoke perfect English, he greets my dog with the happiest voice I've ever heard. He looks up at the tree and says "Isn't nature beautiful?" to which I smiled at him and replied "Yeah, I've never seen the leaves so red before"
He continues to look, and says "See, nature can provide you with the best sights, I came here a month ago and the leaves were a bright pink, it was absolutely beautiful" at no point did he stop smiling, behind him walks his other dog, who looks quite old too, the man wished me a good day and continued to walk up the path.

My words probably didn't do this conversation justice, but let me tell you why it was important to me today. The way this guy smiled and spoke, was that of someone who knows the value of everyday life, the way he walked, right down to the way he looked at things, he wasn't in a rush, he greeted everyone with a smile, even the dogs received more of a greeting then the people, the way he spoke was so innocent and kind, the Elderly really are so important, This guy brightened up my day, I felt I didn't even need my camera after that! .

It's a type of kindness that I love to encounter, and what could be a better place for it, so I hope this photograph does the scene justice :)

Virginia is steep in history from the birth of our nation through the war between the states and Richmond is no exception. This is a picture from Hollywood Cemetery, the burial place of two United States Presidents, the President of the Confederacy (Jefferson Davis), 6 Governors of Virginia, Jeb Stuart, George Pickett, John Randolph and more than 18,000 confederate soldiers (3,000 of whom were brought back from Gettysburg).

I pulled the focus of this shot to the right with lighting, this little girl just out of focus was in all the third barrel shot (this is the barrel the horses explode with power to make the run home), I shot over 500 images that day and didn't notice her at first until post processing, the more I saw her, the more I could see the story behind the picture, the focus will soon be on this little cowgirl because one day she is going to win it all ......
Exposure: 1/200 sec;
F/9;
ISO; 160
Manual;
Pattern Metering