contact sheet Archives - John Paul Caponigro

New Images From Antarctica 2016 – Contact Sheet

Images - Contact Sheets Comment

0 Likes

Our 2016 Antarctica voyage was stunning!
After several delays our flight to Antarctica finally found a window through the low lying fog. Moody mists continued in the early mornings, lifting by mid-morning, revealing clear skies during the day, creating a marvelous daily transformation. Temperatures were unusually warm. Winds were unusually low. The still waters yielded fabulous reflections. I focussed on symmetry and minimalism punctuated by the imaginatively sculptural forms of ice.
Stay tuned to my social networks for more images.
View images from seven previous voyages here.
Preview my ebook Antarctica here.
View more Contact Sheets here.
View Seth Resnick’s images from the same voyage here.
Find out about our next Antarctica digital photography workshop here.

Contact Sheet – Iceland 2014

Images - Contact Sheets Comment

0 Likes

Click here to enlarge.

There were many surprises on our recent DPD workshop in Iceland. Anticipating auroras we encountered heavy weather, which we expertly dodged with resourcefulness of our hosts at Focus On Nature.
In the images I made during this week I found something old and something new. I revisited a few old themes – reflections and ripples. I connected new themes – contrails and tire tracks. But the bird’s eye views we saw during one hour of aerials both over frozen highlands and along flowing rivers were the most captivating. Related to aerial images I’ve produced in Namibia, I’m sure now that this kind of photography is something I’ll do much more of in the future.
That said, it’s really the relationship between a new image of a wave and an earlier one of a waterfall that excites me most. I thought that I hadn’t found what I was looking for, great images of auroras. But when I saw this wave repeatedly crashing into the air, I realized I actually found what I’d been looking for for quite some time. Expect the unexpected?
View more Contact Sheets here.
View Seth Resnick’s images from the same voyage here.
Learn more about my digital printing and digital photography workshops.

Contact Sheet – Morocco 2014

Destination - Morocco, Images - Contact Sheets Comment

0 Likes

Click here to enlarge.

I anticipated being out of my comfort zone for the majority of my recent DPD adventure to Morocco. As a surreal landscape photographer I’ve had very little experience with street photography and portraiture. It was great practice. I did better than I expected. Practice makes better. While I don’t plan to release any of these images, my vision and skills are stronger for having made them. The questions that were asked and clarified were the most important. “What kind of chemistry is necessary for an authentic event to happen?” “How many ways can you start chemical reactions?” “How long does it take?” “In which peak moment is this most intensely felt?” “How do the images you make reflect your personal relationship to the subject?” Ironically, it might be easier to answer these questions when photographing people than landscapes, but they’re equally valid for both.
I anticipated the days in the deep deserts to be the most personally productive – and I’ve got some good raw material to work with. It’s unfinished. This raises, another good question. “When is work complete enough?” But I made one rough composite, which gave me proof of concept. Though I’m sure there will be surprises along the way, I know where the work is going and what it will take to complete it.
View more Contact Sheets here.
View Seth Resnick’s images from the same adventure here.
Learn more about my digital printing and digital photography workshops.

Contact Sheet – Antarctica 2014

Images - Contact Sheets Comment

0 Likes

Click here to enlarge.

It took me some time to get a clearer sense for the images I made during my sixth voyage to Antarctica with Seth Resnick during our Digital Photo Destinations workshop. Lacking the big moments that immediately stood out on previous voyages (Curiously only a few of these selects were taken during our most dramatic moment when we spent four continuous hours in Pleneau Bay or The Iceberg Graveyard, where we found not one but three ice arches.), this voyage was a quiet sustained build of repeatedly chasing several ideas (minimal spaces, sheltering skies, glacial abstractions, ice details). The quieter more sensitive nature of this work became clearer as I reflected upon the way the files were processed, with a softer touch. Even as I left Antarctica, I wasn’t sure of exactly what I had, but the more time I spend with the work the more I begin to understand it. Antarctica’s many moods and its elusive mysteries are what keep me longing to return.
View more Contact Sheets here.
View Seth Resnick’s images from the same voyage here.
Learn more about my digital printing and digital photography workshops.

Contact Sheet – Atacama Desert, Argentina 2013

Destination - Atacama, Images - Contact Sheets Comment

0 Likes

Click here to enlarge.

I recently returned from my second exploration of the Atacama Desert in Argentina. In a contact sheet of new images, rather than seeing locations (Pumice Stone Fields, Dead Man’s Salt Flat, Red Labyrinth, Tolar Grande, Salinas Grandes), I see ideas I’m developing and patterns of thought. My first impression is that I probably won’t release most of these images, and perhaps only one or two as is, but the bottom row clearly indicates where I want to go with this material. Theses images are all fine images, but have I truly made them my own? Not yet. How would I do this? First, create a context (series or body of work) for them. Second, enhance them further, in some cases using special effects and compositing.
View my Atacama Desert 2012 Contact Sheet here.
See finished images here.
Stay tuned for a preview of my finished images from the Atacama Desert.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Contact Sheet – Carmelo, Uruguay

Images - Contact Sheets, Images - iPhone Comment

0 Likes

While visiting friends at their new house in Carmelo, Uruguay I enjoyed making photographs to help me savor the experience more. Muchas gracias Marinuccis!
Visit larger images on Google+.
View more Contact Sheets here.

Contact Sheet – Greenland 2013

Images - Contact Sheets Comment

0 Likes

Click here to enlarge.

In reviewing my Greenland 2013 Contact Sheet it’s become even clearer to me that once you get certain kinds of successful shots the bar is raised for your future efforts. There are many good images here. But are they as good or better than other similar images I have, both from Greenland and from Antarctica? If not, why use them? (How many images do I really need? When do the new images draw attention away from old images – for better or for worse?) The answer to this depends on how I plan to use them. Since I have fewer images from Greenland than Antarctica (I’ve only visited it twice while I’ve visited Antarctica six times.), if I were assembling a body of work on Greenland, many of these would make the cut. Since I’m not currently planning on doing this, they have to work within the context of an Arctic/Antarctic project. That project has been on my mind for many years and is still in development. This set isn’t enough to bring it to fruition. For now, I suspect I’ll put most of them on hold possibly using a few for composites.
View more Contact Sheets here.
Learn more in my digital photography and digital printing workshops.

Contact Sheet – Atacama, Argentina

Destination - Atacama, Images - Contact Sheets Comment

0 Likes

Click here to enlarge.

In preparation for my return to Argentina’s Atacama Desert this coming December, I’ve been paring down my selects from my first trip last year. Within this set of images is a smaller set of images that suggests a way of seeing – animated sculptural forms making light and space visible and felt. (These words are not complete but they begin to describe what’s going on.) This is what I’m going to focus on and hope to discover more about when I return. With practice we can learn to come up with many ideas, but in the end I think it’s important to look/listen to the work you actually make and answer the calls within it, moving into them to pursue more depth and their connections to other things/ideas/emotions.

View more Contact Sheets here.

Find out more about my Atacama digital photography workshop here.

Contact Sheet – Italy, Acquasanta

Destination - Italy, Images - Contact Sheets, Images - iPhone Comment

0 Likes

Click here to enlarge.

I enjoy seeing the flow of thought that becomes visible in contact sheets. One idea builds on (or diverges from) another. Some moves are repetitive; some moves introduce one or more significant variations. As I work, I ask questions like, “On what level does an image work?”, “What is a significant variation?”. “When do two or more images reinforce each other?”.

Will these images make the cut? It’s unlikely. But themes within them will resurface in future finished work. In fact they already have. These themes have been with me ever since I began photographing; they look very similar to two images I made for my first exhibit and are related to images in several existing series like Illumination, Refraction, and Resonance.
Even if these images and what I learned from making them bears no fruit, it was time well spent. I truly enjoyed the better part of an hour savoring and playing with light.
View more Contact Sheets here.
View finished images here.

Contact Sheet – California, Point Lobos

Images - Contact Sheets Comment

0 Likes

Click here to enlarge.

I had an intense session at Point Lobos, California recently. I was in an emotional state, reviewing the past, connecting ideas, letting some things go. That quality got into these images. Sure, I was working at understanding composition better, but I think it’s the emotional quality that makes these images strong. It was a great reminder of how important it is to be present (really truly present) when you’re making art.

Half these images won’t make the final cut. And I’ll want to return to this subject (if not location) to develop this set further. And yet, there are a few real keepers here, not just single images but also a whole new set of images.

Find out about my Point Lobos / Big Sur workshop here.

View more Contact Sheets here.

View finished images here.