Preparations are underway...

I'm really looking forward to my adventure as the Spring Artist in Residence for Badlands National Park, though I'll also admit the stress is getting to me as well. I'm still working on this technique of combining carved leather with photography to create a mixed media piece.  Tonight I did a large amount of carving on a piece created from the picture above. 4 inches of leather on each side will surround an 8x12 print. My goal is to have this piece finished in the next few days so I can post a what a final piece may look like.  This is something I've not seen done before, not saying no one has done it, and I have to make sure it is mounted right as the chemicals in the dye can affect the paper, so barriers have to be installed and care taken to help make sure both the leather and photograph will last a lifetime.

I have made some progress on funds to help with the trip, though it's only about 10% of what I need.  Granted, there are around 5 weeks left to raise more funds, but I do feel the pinch already as it is still a long way to go to make sure I am comfortable while gone.

One the flip side, there are so many great opportunities for shots while in the Badlands.  Looking forward to spending some days/nights in the South Badlands area, though it is a bit of water to carry as they say to carry 1 gallon for each day and I know I go through water quickly so I may want a little more. I would go through 1 gallon in 5-8 hours while at Glacier, and that was just in drink, maybe 1-2 cups for food.

So much to take into account.... What suggestions do you have for me while on this adventure?

Artist in Residence - Badlands National Park

January has been a GREAT month for me and getting opportunities to become better known as a photographer and artist.  It started with the piece above being accepted into the LaGrange National XXVII Exhibition.  There were 879 pieces submitted from 244 artists.  The competition was open to sculpture, painting, ceramics, photography and other artwork. They accepted 130 pieces from 65 artists and mine was one of them! This is an accolade to the work that I do.

The day after I sent the print to the museum I got a phone call and offered the Artist in Residence at Badlands National Park!  I decided to apply for this back in September 2011 and the application was submitted in December.  Any plans that I have been making for the last several months I've taken into account that I planned to be gone during the last half of March and into the middle of May.  I am working on the promotional pieces for a co-op gallery I belong to and I kept bugging them to have a meeting so we can decide on things because I plan on being gone and the work needs to be finished by mid March, or at least the majority of it as I could change some copy while on the road, but I didn't want to worry about getting artwork while away.  I am extremely excited for this opportunity even though there is a financial aspect to the trip, which I was fully aware of before applying.  The reality is, it will cost me several thousand dollars to go there and to get the materials to make pieces from all the pictures I will be taking. The park will be furnishing living quarters for the six weeks and a small stipend to help cover some expenses, but I am responsible for the rest and I am fine with that!

Over the next six weeks I have a lot of things to do to be ready to go.  I am working on an iPhone app that will allow people to look at my work, some modifications to my website, getting more of my pictures on my website, raise funds to go, prepare computers at work so if there is an emergency with one I can log into it on the road, etc.  I have a LOT to do, which is also good as I like to be busy.

I have started a crowd funding campaign on Kickstarter (new Kickstarter) to help me cover the expenses of this trip to the Badlands National Park so I can pick my son up from SMU and take him to Monument Valley and Lake Powell (better known to some as Lake Silencio from Doctor Who)

Thanks,
Steven

FYI I will be posting blogs here while I am at the park and on other portions of the trip that relate to the park or photography/art.  I won't be blogging on here about every little thing I do.  So if you want to keep up to date with some of the preparations and the adventure follow this blog!

A photograph is not an accident - it is a concept. - Ansel Adams

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There is a lot of planning that goes into going out and shooting, even if I don't always know exactly what I am shooting.  Sometimes there is a lot of thought after arriving as well because even the best laid plans don't always work out.  Again, I think that show with the madman in a box had a segment that explains it well.

The Doctor: You didn't always take me where I wanted to go.
Idris (Tardis): No, but I always took you where you needed to go.
The Doctor: You did!

My plans don't always take me where I want to go, but it's always where I need go.  This past summer is a great example.  I spent months working out the plans to go on a backpacking trip, 8 days in Glacier National Park. I had a couple friends agree to go with, planned food, transportation, permits, etc. I knew exactly where I wanted to go in Glacier National Park and had a good idea of several shots I wanted to take while there. The fourth day into the trip I dropped off the other 3 people to take a bus elsewhere, they weren't continuing with me.  I wasn't willing to go into the back country by myself, especially in bear country.  While concentrating on taking pictures I can be rather quiet, which isn't good to keep the wildlife away.  So I didn't continue on that trip, but talked with some of the people there, looked at maps and came up with a different plan to stay at Yellowstone National Park, which is where we were on day 4, for a few days and then head up to Glacier National Park and do something else.

Even while hiking and having no set idea on exactly what I want to shoot, I will have a concept. On my trip this summer the concept was running water and waterfalls.  I didn't know exactly what running water but I had a concept (even though I hadn't decided on how I'll print them) While hiking along a river something would catch my eye and I'd stop and look.  Sometimes the shot came to me instantly because it's what I saw while walking, other times I would move around, look at the water from different angles to come up with a shot, or a couple different shots. I had a concept of what I wanted in the end even if I didn't have the specifics.

The day I hiked up to Apgar Lookout, which wasn't along any water, I didn't take as many shots.  It was more of a "I want to see if I can do this" rather than taking specific shots.  Because I didn't have a concept for that day I didn't get much in the way of good shots.  My focus was elsewhere so I didn't see as much.

So, for those who think that photography is just pointing and clicking, follow a photographer around a day.  See how much thinking is involved in creating the shots we get.  Ansel Adams said it well because if you don't have a concept you won't get that fantastic shot... well, if you just shoot and shoot and shoot, anyone can get 1-2 good shots after a few thousand, but I don't want to waste that amount of time...

-Steven J Donley

Is it Photography? Art? Digital Art? What?

I get tired of this argument if photography is art or not though it seems that today it isn't even that simple.  I've read about certain photography groups who won't accept any digital photographers into them because they don't feel it's photography. With the advent of digital photography it's created a debate on whether something is photography or digital art.

Gone is the day where all photographers are print makers as well.  When the art first started, the photographer would have to develop and print their own plates, film and papers.  The photographer did all the work, like I did in the picture above. It was created with film in a wet darkroom.  People started to specialize in either making prints or taking the pictures, which I find sad.  I found, that I understood more about dodging, burning and other printing techniques my picture taking also improved. Ansel Adams is a great example of a photographer who was also a print maker.  He developed an entire system for taking pictures and printing to make it more systematized and easier to do. This is someone who really understood his art.

Many photographers have heard of Jerry Uelsmann, here is an photographer who is more known for his printing skills.  I don't know if I have ever seen a print of his work that isn't a montage and I don't know if he has done any since starting to work on his montage technique.  Yet, he isn't the first one to pioneer this technique. A lot fewer people know of a lady called Hannah Maynard, from the 1860-1900 she pioneered creating images with glass plates.

Look at that picture.  The statue is actually her grandson covered in powder to look like a statue, who is also sitting next to one of her images in the print.  She is in the picture twice. But is this photography?

Photoshop has given photographers a whole new range of tools.  It allows people to digitally do what Uelsmann and Maynard  have done with film and darkroom, though Jerry Uelsmann and his wife have clearly stated that it is not easier to create a digital montage than a darkroom one.  (His wife was a former student but does digital work instead) If you have ever tried both methods, you realize they are correct if you are trying to create an image that is seamless and fits together well. I have attempted to do them both. Are these photographs still though? Is it art? 

One of the newest techniques is HDR, High Dynamic Range Photography.  This is where you purposely take over and under exposed images and use software to create a composite image from them.  It gives you more detail and color, especially in the highlights and shadows. There are a few different ways to do it, and there is a pseudo technique using a single photograph, but it isn't truly HDR.  However, the question here is, is it photography still?

Now that I've briefly talked about these different aspects I'll give my opinion. All of these can be photography, but a couple of them it can be questioned if it is or not.  To me, it comes down to where are the original images coming from? Is the creator of the digital montage taking all the pictures to use in their work? Here, you have a photographer who is just creating the best print her can from his own work. If they are using another photographers images to create the final print, they aren't a photographer, they are a print maker or a digital artist. There are people who won't agree with me, and that's fine.  That part of what helps make this art.

Are these art though? I know I hear and read about how many curators don't like photography as they don't see it as an art form.  That all someone does is point a camera and take a picture, they aren't putting a lot of time into creating it, especially with landscape and nature photographer as we don't set up the pictures, we don't direct the subject.  Personally, I don't think these people understand what art is.  Just because they have a degree in it doesn't mean they understand it.  Art isn't a complicated thing, it's something that communicates on an emotional level. If looking at a statue makes you feel something and looking at a photograph makes you feel something different, they are both communicating on that emotional level.  They both are art.  Maybe it makes you feel disgusted, but it makes you feel.  If it makes you feel nothing, it communicates NO emotions at all, then you can say it isn't art to you.

-Steven

Art and Memories

Does this image bring up any memories? Maybe if you have visited this lighstation on Whitelake Channel, it might remind you of seeing it.  Maybe it reminds you of another lighthouse that you have seen, or something from a book or movie. There is even the possibility it stimulates something, but you can't put your finger on it or nothing at all.

Art can have a profound effect on peoples memories. Often times, a piece will can not only stimulate a time and place, but also a smell or a sound.  The strong emotions tied to a moment can be brought up in an instant all because of looking at a piece of art. 

That's a great power that artists have, to bring back memories whether good or bad, and it's a great responsibility.  If we can't accept the responsibility of bringing up painful memories, even when it isn't our intention, it can drive an artist away from their work. We have to be willing to accept the good and bad that may come from our work.  The picture above could cause some people pain because they had a loved one drown, whether near there or a similar place.  I can accept that is a possibility. I can accept that another couple might experience joy because they got engaged or married there as well. 

I recently posted this image and a friend of mine I'm just reconnecting with told me it reminded her of times she was at my house some nights and we were looking through my telescope. That one memory then started a flood of other childhood memories I have with this one person I've known most of my life. The good and bad ones.

So, next time you are looking at some art, or creating some art, think about what memories it brings about in you. People buy art because of the emotional connection to a piece so put some of yours into it.

Madmen? (Artists) in a Box

While one of my favorite TV characters happily admits he is a madman with a box, and I know a few people would state that I'm a madman who should be placed in a box, this idea of placing artists in a box doesn't really work well with me.

I know and understand I need to play the game, to a degree, to get placements in many galleries.  The game they like is a single body of work coming from an artist that deals with ONE subject (or related subject) and ONE style, I find it too confining.  When I'm out shooting, I rarely think of what I'll do with my pictures when I'm done.  Sometimes I have an idea in mind, but I won't just look for appropriate subjects for that idea as I could miss a lot. I like to shoot what grabs me!

There is one picture that sat on my hard drive for over a year before I even processed it and only now have an idea of how I will print it, just haven't had the time, nor materials, to make that print yet. It is also a great example of how I have an idea in mind, sometimes, when I shoot but take a picture of what I like.  I was shooting frozen waterfalls that day and here I took a picture of this bridge that was behind me as well.

I think artists shouldn't confine themselves UNLESS that is the only thing they want to do.  We should push ourselves, expand our minds and abilities to help keep our work more interesting.  It also helps to keep me from getting too burned out.  I switch to something else to 'take a break' or I just let my eye flow from subject to subject, capturing what interests me, and not thinking about will the subject work for a specific style or not.  The picture will tell me what style it should be. (Yes, I realize that statement only reinforces the idea that I am a madman, but I like it!)

So next time you are talking with an artist in a gallery and you only see that single style there, ask them what else they do.  Who knows, maybe you'll find a photographer who doesn't leather carving as well....

What was my first inspiration?

This something that most people don't know about me is what first made me want to take photographs, it was my love of the stars and moon. I've been fascinated by space for as long as I can remember, like it's been calling to me. Didn't like the math involved to become an astronomer, but the colors and energy that is 'floating' around out there....

Over the years I've gotten a couple different small telescopes and every time I try to grab some images, something didn't go right.  My sister picked me up a Celestron refracting telescope when she was working in a camera store one year.  I loved using it, but I didn't have the right mount to take pictures with it.  Objects moved to quickly through the field of view.

I picked up a Newtonian telescope a few years back, 118mm I believe, that has a motor mount with tracking.  The mount holding the telescope is too loose, the weight of the camera causes the telescope to rotate.

More recently I got another small telescope, compact enough that I can carry it around with me. The first time I tried using it with the camera I couldn't get it to focus properly and didn't try again for over a year.  Every month I head over to Troy, MI for a mastermind meeting with Michael Angelo Caruso and I noticed how beautiful it was outside, nice and clear for star gazing. I left that meeting and made the 3 hour drive home, which put me home after midnight.  Had some ideas going through my head and needed to relax so so I pulled out the newer telescope to try again and was able to get it to focus properly (not sure what I was doing wrong the first time), however, the balance is off enough that it won't track properly as the motor isn't strong enough to lift the camera attached to it. I wasn't able to do what I wanted, but I did manage to get the photograph of the moon up top.

I have a goal of getting a telescope that I can do astrophotography with. Not only to take shots of the moon, but of planets, stars, nebulae and some of the other beautiful objects in the sky.

Steven