Google’s Buzz is all the buzz these days and Justin Korn, a fellow photographer who’s active on the Buzz, asked a simple question the other day and received a ton of responses. Actually, he asked two questions: “Are you a Photographer? Are you active on Buzz?”
So far he has received over 120 comments of active photographers who are on the Buzz and I wanted to take the time to cull the information together and share with other photographers looking to connect with like-minded people.
I was browsing YouTube tonight and came across a great, 4-part series on Ansel Adams from the 1983 BBC series, Master Photographers. There’s no doubt that you’ve seen the work of Adams, but to sit and watch him be so candid and humble in his old age (he died the following year) about his photography is something else entirely.
Although Ansel died when I was only 7 years old, it’s wonderful to know that we lived at a time of one the, if not the most, influential photographers in the history of photography. His work has certainly inspired my own and I foresee myself coming back to his work over and over for inspiration and humility.
His quote, at the end of part 4 truly shows his wisdom on the art and craft of photography. He says: “The best picture is around the corner…”. Don’t we all feel that way.
I recently came across Cole Thompson’s work after reading about him the latest issue of Fotoblur magazine (Get the latest edition here). I immediately fell in love with his work and contacted him to ask about using one of his images in a post and he graciously said “yes”. I want to thank Cole for letting me use one of his images here and I highly encourage you to check our his portfolios of incredible black and white images. While you’re checking out his site, be sure to take a look at Cole’s resume - it’s quite impressive to say the least.
The image you see above is from his Harbinger series and was the first image of Cole’s that I saw which caught my attention and made me look into more of his photographs. I absolutely love the look and feel of this image (among others) because of its simplicity, composition, tone and its velvety feel. I’m not sure how Cole gets his blacks to look so rich and full of texture while maintaining the glow and brightness of his whites. I’d love to be able to see his prints with my own eyes.
In my “Why start another photo blog?” post I mentioned that I would be highlighting photographers who’s work I find inspirational and moving in one way or another. Well, the first photographer I’d like to share and call attention to is Christopher O’Donnell (blog | portfolio) who’s work I found from a comment he left on another blog.
First, I’d like to thank Chris for granting me permission to use at least on of his images on this site. He was gracious enough to let me use whatever I needed and I hope others out there check out his work and find inspiration as I did.
Second, in an exercise to improve my own vision and love for photography, I want to talk about what drew me to his images in the first place. The image you see above, titled “Maple Juice Cove V” is a fantastic example of composition, color and depth of field. I love the balance within the square format along with the glowing vintage-y look of this image which he carries across a lot of his work.
His effective combination of simple, yet strong, compositions and soft depth-of-field makes his photographs easy to look at while drawing you in and allows you to focus on what’s in the image. This also creates depth in his images which, to me, makes them very inviting while moving your eye around the entire image.
I was originally drawn to photography through landscapes and a lot of my images were taken through a small aperture and are usually in focus throughout the image. However, when I looked at Christopher’s images and saw that a lot of his photographs were taken with a very shallow depth of field, which really draws the eye to certain elements of the photograph first, it hit me that a good landscape and nature photography doesn’t always have to follow the rules of the book.
I’d encourage you to check out his work and thanks again to Christopher for letting me use one of your images. I look forward to seeing your new work in 2010.
