Wednesday, October 14, 2015

The Art of Architectural Photography 10-14-2015

In preparing for a trip to India, I'm emptying my small Epson Multimedia Storage Viewer of the photographs I took on my last overseas journey.  That was in 2014 when I ventured to Germany.  I don't recommend storing images in a device for years; however, I backed up the Germany images shortly after returning home. I just hated to delete them right away because I had such a wonderful time.  And so the jpegs and raw images remained in the Viewer all this time.  And now, looking at the pictures I took many months ago, I am once again captivated by the sights I saw in Berlin, Potsdam, Munich, Ulm, Dersden and the other cities where I stayed.  The medium of photography allows us to vividly revisit the past with an immediacy that is breathtaking.  Each image I see on the screen perfectly captures the time, colors, scenery, people and essential perception of a past encounter.  Whether I snapped the shutter yesterday or years ago, for me the moment comes back fresh and intact.

Another way to keep time in a bottle is by using the app Instagram.  I have a good deal of pleasure in taking photos with my iphone and posting on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. It is a quick and fun way to share what I observe and that which attracts me.  Instagram provides an opportunity to instantly relate to other photography lovers and the give and take is not only enjoyable but a learning mechanism.  Right away, I am critiqued by others and in turn I can see great shots continuously.  Always fascinated by the immediacy of photography, I realize that technology has created a new time frame that will continue to speed up as new apps, like Instagram, evolve.

Having deleted all of my Germany files from my Viewer, I look forward to filling the Viewer with new images of India.  But the two need not be mutually exclusive.  The fresh look of the images I took a couple of years ago appeal to me in the same way they did when I was right there.  Recently, using Instagram has encouraged me to look for pattern in my images more than ever before. Thus another positive aspect of using the app.  To that end, when I came across this interior photograph, I was taken with the patterns and the darks and lights. Abstracting photography into shapes, patterns and darks and lights is a wonderful way to visualize architecture.  Instagram, with its lightening speed, is a remarkable tool for abstracting areas of buildings.  Using the app has made me even more aware of the individual parts of an image.  This one was taken with a Canon Mark II, but lends itself to my recent design inclinations. And, through the photography medium, the image transports me right back to Berlin!  Instantly!


                                                      Sepia Architectural Photography
To learn more visit:
https://www.moma.org/momaorg/shared/pdfs/docs/press_archives/1513/releases/MOMA_1951_0031_1951-04-25_510425-24.pdf

http://art.buffalo.edu/coursenotes/art314/words.pdf



    

Saturday, October 3, 2015

The Art of Architectural Photography 10-3-2015

Photography has become so much a part of our culture that it is incorporated into almost every aspect of daily life.  Who does not have a camera and multiple devices, tablet iphone, et. al. to record not only vacations and special occasions but trips to the mall, candy wrappers in the street and cups of coffee!  For billions, Instagram has become a wonderful way of communicating the moment to moment way we live to people all over the world.  I, too play with Instagram, taking pictures of the momentous and the mundane.  Usually I convert to black and white in my Instagram photography because monochrome is my medium of choice.  Currently I have no real sepia application for Instagram, although I'm sure I will begin to download many Instagram apps soon.

Yet, once in a while I find a subject out of my realm of architectural photography that is so breathtaking that it takes me completely by surprise.  Instagram, my cameras and any other gear I have cannot capture the image in my mind let alone on a device.  Such was yesterday as we drove through Crawford Notch, NH on Route 302.  This was not my first view of the Notch as I have traveled this road for decades.  However, the sight of early foliage and the chill (about 45 degrees) in the air gave the experience a pictorial quality that was entrancing and nostalgic: far beyond my own life, I could imagine the forest primeval.  Once in a while a view captivates me so that it is difficult to decide on how to present it.  And so I have it in color, sepia and black and white photography.  Each has ts own life.  Each conveys what I saw at the top of Crawford Notch in early Autumn. 

                                                                Color Photography
                                                                  Sepia Photography
                                                            Black and White Photography