Summer in Central Ohio: Fine Art Photography

I wrote in my last blog that I was going to be turning my attention to the photographs I took on the Fort Belknap Reservation in the mid-1970s. After working for years on these photos, I finally have them completed. I will begin posting blogs and these photographs some time soon. In the meantime, I did some other photography over the summer that I wanted to share.

I was reviewing these images and mentioned to Nancy that I thought that what I was doing was fine art photography. Of course, Nancy responded with something like, you mean if you don’t say so yourself. When we aren’t kvetching at each other, Nancy and I have honed our sarcastic banter into an art form. To be clear, Nancy loves my photography. She makes her own greeting cards (even though Aaron is in the greeting card business) and she uses my images for her cards. Nancy makes beautiful and heartfelt greeting cards, and all her family and friends appreciate receiving them, even when they are filled with confetti that spills everywhere. I explained to Nancy that fine art photography was actually a thing. By the time I began this explanation, she was onto the next round of kvetching.

I have resisted thinking about the work I do as fine art photography, because it did feel as though it was a leap towards arrogance which made me uncomfortable. For most of my life, using a camera has not at all felt like doing art. My father, brother and sister are artists. I never made it beyond stick figures. But it became inescapable to me that what I was doing really was fine art photography. It is more than seeing it and framing it; it has become about an intentional creation. I don’t give lots of thought to what I’m doing while I’m out hiking with my camera. But what I do is consistent and systematic enough that it is easy for me to describe and explain my process. It is much more than what I see. It has become more about what I want to create. Ergo, I guess it is art.

Please bear with me. I found this article, What is Fine Art Photography? (Brian Rivera Uncapher), which does an excellent job of defining this genre.

The principal and underlying criteria that distinguishes fine art photography from other fields in photography is that fine art photography is not about digitally recording a subject. Using a camera to document what exactly appears in front of the photographer usually falls in the category of photo-journalism and is frequently found in publications that feature purist images taken with a camera to record the scene as it exactly existed at a precise moment in time.

Fine art photography, on the other hand, is first and foremost about the artist. It is not about capturing what the camera sees; it is about capturing what the artist sees. In fine art photography, therefore, the artist uses the camera as one more tool to create a work of art. The camera is used to make an art piece that reveals the vision of the artist and makes a statement of that vision rather than documenting the subject before the lens.

Ansel Adams’ expressed it best in the quote below:

Art implies control of reality, for reality itself possesses no sense of the aesthetic. Photography becomes art when certain controls are applied.

So, a fine art photograph must go beyond the literal representation of a scene or subject. It must deeply express the feelings and vision of the photographer and clearly reveal that it was created by an artist and not by just the camera. It must be clear that it involved an original, deliberate creation and that every aspect of making the photograph in the field and in the photographer’s post-processing digital studio, including the printing, are an individual expression from within the artist.

https://photographylife.com/what-is-fine-art-photography

I do a lot of documentary photography. All the photography I do for the Siegel Rare Neuroimmune Association is documentary photography. When I shoot our quality-of-life family camp, or our symposia or our support group meetings or our awareness and fundraising events, my goal is to capture the experiences as they are occurring. I’m also doing a great deal of environmental portraiture. As I’ve noted previously, I’m most definitely a generalist when it comes to my photography. Many of my instructors and most of my friends focus on a specific genre, from weddings and senior pictures to wildlife to nature or landscape photography or night photography. I enjoy engaging in all these forms. A drone is on my wish list as I love the abstract images that are possible with drone photography. I am working on being okay with flying around an expensive camera.

When I really think about what drives me when I’m out with my camera, I would characterize my direction as fine art photography. I have been drawn to a certain aesthetic that is formed around my passion for abstracts and impressionism. I love the graphic quality to many of these images. I shoot almost everything at the shallowest depth of field my lenses will allow. For the lenses I currently own f2.8 is what I get with my 100mm macro lens. I almost always prefer shooting with a zoom lens, particularly when I’m not certain about the environment I’m going to be shooting. Without the zoom, I frame my image by moving my feet as opposed to using the zoom. It works well for me and I have a lot of practice using fixed lenses. I also enjoy using the macro lens because I can get as close to the subject as I prefer. Based on the properties of a specific lens, you can get only so close to a subject before it is unable to accurately focus. Most of my lenses will not focus as close as I want to get for many of the photographs I’m taking. My macro lens allows me to shoot with high magnification or at a focal length of 100mm. This works well for almost everything I’m doing.

Because I’m shooting almost everything at such a shallow depth of field, what is usually in focus in my images is a sliver of the scene I’m capturing. I devote as much attention to the elements in my images that are not in focus as I do on a subject. I am drawn to finding something in focus in the image, usually driven by color or a contrast or an interesting element. I was taught how it is possible to direct the viewer through an image by the way it is designed. I also learned that the viewer wants something for the eye to land on, and if nothing is in focus, you might leave people dazed and confused. So, I often focus on something so as not to have my camera taken away from me. I would be totally satisfied with an image where nothing is in focus. Clearly I’m not deterred by being either dazed or confused.

In my search for background and foreground elements, I’m seeking interesting colors, patterns, light and shadows, textures and contrast. As so much of my images are these abstract, impressionist and out of focus elements, it is these elements that often determine how I frame the image. I’m a sucker for repeating patterns.

When explaining my interest in out of focus backgrounds, I would be remiss in not mentioning the concept of bokeh. This is a Japanese word which means ‘blur.’ When shooting in a narrow depth of field, depending on the light and the lens that is being used, there are often interesting and sometimes beautiful shapes and textures that result. These are often seen as soft circles in the background. Bokeh are the result of the physics of photography, almost all of which I don’t understand, nor have the motivation to learn. It is all pretty much camera magic for me.

As I’ve often written about, I’m always amazed at the symmetry, patterns and organization that is found in nature. Having said that, there’s also a lot of chaos in nature. The entire universe is a toilet for creatures large and small. Insects are eating holes into leaves and flowers. Stuff is falling out of trees onto everything. Insects are everywhere. Spider webs are everywhere. I shoot images in raw format and my camera creates very high-resolution images. What this means is that I can crop an image and still have a good image that can be printed as large as I’m ever going to want to print. And for showing images on a screen, the resolution doesn’t have to be that high. I attempt to frame an image so that I don’t have to crop, but I do lots of cropping, and thus far, no body parts have fallen off. I can often repair holes and other imperfections in either Lightroom or, if it is a complicated imperfection, in Photoshop.

You just don’t see a lot of fine art paintings filled with the crap I’m describing as these imperfections. They are distracting and they diminish the beauty in the image. That is unless you are focused on crap, which I often do in the fall and winter when the natural world goes into dormancy, to seed, or to decay. There’s some beautiful stuff in all those processes, as well. I feel no shame, guilt or embarrassment by manipulating, repairing or retouching my images. If I can frame it in camera without having to deal with this stuff, I do. But when I am drawn to an image, I have for the most part become proficient enough to fix these things. If it is art, I’m allowed.

One of the great challenges I have in this work is that I almost never shoot with a tripod. I have horrible arthritis in my neck, back and hands. If I’m out all-day shooting, I develop neurological symptoms. The last thing I’m looking to do is shlep around a heavy tripod along with my heavy camera and lens. Shooting with a macro lens is a challenge even with a tripod, and particularly when shooting at such a shallow depth of field. The slightest of movements is going to render the subject out of focus; it could change the focus. Shooting close up or macro without a tripod is not for the weak of heart. I’ve learned to shoot by rocking slowly back and forth and hitting the shutter when the focus is what I am attempting. And then I hope for the best. I often take a few shots this way to up the odds that I get what I’m seeking. Even the slightest breeze can cause problems (even when using a tripod). When the sun comes up, the wind starts. Sometimes I try to shelter the scene by changing my position to protect the subject from movement. If I get frustrated enough, I’ll hold the damn plant by a stem.

What I appreciate about my evolution as a photographer is that this effort has become intentional for me. I can’t always find precisely what I’m seeking, but it amazes me, that I can almost always find something of interest. I love shooting landscapes or seascapes. The most exciting photography I do involves these big and spectacular scenes. These are my most exciting adventures, and I do them when I can. The covid has limited my ability to do so. I’ve found a style and genre of photography that works for me in large part because it is accessible, and I thoroughly enjoy what I capture and how I capture it. Most of the photography I do takes place in parks that are within a half hour drive from my home in central Ohio.

I often get some of my best shots in my backyard. My neighbor who lives behind me dug up a large section of his yard and decided to allow it to grow wild. He later told me that he was inspired by what I had done with my backyard. If I was someone else (a normal suburban human), I might have been offended. I have lots of perennials and grasses. I weed for as much as I can tolerate and then just let things take their natural course. (Many weeds turn into the wildflowers I'm shooting in the parks). I have lots of purple flowers, per Pauline’s orders. We have two lilac bushes, a berry tree and a magnolia tree. Pauline has a whole trellis covered with honeysuckle. She loved the way it smelled. Of course, it is considered an invasive species, and fighting the honeysuckle has become a regular part of my life. I also have a very large bed of raspberries and I plant pumpkins for my grandkids every year. I would let my entire yard return to nature if I thought my neighbors wouldn’t hate me.

Here's how I will define my fine art photography approach; I would create these images using watercolors if I had the slightest bit of talent.

What has helped me progress in my work is that I have become very comfortable working in Lightroom and in Photoshop. I am proficient enough in using these programs that I can decide a direction I would like to take an image and use the tools that I have to achieve my goals. As an example, there are shades of green that I am not particularly fond of, and I will use these programs to find a shade that I prefer; or I will lessen the saturation so that it approaches something that matches my aesthetic. If I was doing documentary photography, I might get ridiculed for doing so. But if one is doing art, you can sort of do whatever you want. I think painters are allowed to mix on their palettes whatever colors they choose. I can manipulate light and contrast. I can modify colors or their intensity. I can sharpen an image or render it less sharp. I can cool an image or make it warm. There’s just so much creative potential in these programs. I want it to look real, but there’s great latitude in ‘real.’

I love digital photography. I love what I can accomplish with my camera and lenses and I appreciate that there are such wonderful tools available to work an image. Not everything I do with my camera is fine art photography, but I am appreciating more and more that I am learning and improving this part of my work/hobby.

Garden

Inniswoods Metropark

Boyer Nature Preserve

Wahkeena Nature Preserve

Highbanks Metropark

Olentangy Trail