iPhone At Play – Charles Adams
My assistant, Charles Adams, spent this years Maine Fall Foliage Workshop photographing with the iPhone. Below he talks about his experience.
“Making images with an iPhone can be a terrific creative exercise. If you regularly shoot with a DSLR, the iPhone can simplify things and offer a new experience. I found this to be the case during this years fall foliage workshop. I left my Canon in the car along with all of the photographic requirements and responsibilities that I usually attach to it. It was a freeing experience. Suddenly the pressure to make the best photographs of my life was no longer there. I was free to play.
Being able to process your images seconds after shooting them is also key to the iPhone experience. The many apps available make it possible to shoot, edit, share, and get feedback before even getting back in the car. In my case, apps had a direct effect on which pictures I chose to make. I knew I was going to apply water color and oil painting filters to my images, so I tried to shoot accordingly. I set out to find good compositions with strong “bones.” “Bones” meaning solid structure that could benefit from the addition of dramatic effects.
The resulting images were fun to create. Changing the tools you use to make your images can offer new insights into your own photography. I strongly recommend allowing yourself to play.”
Visit Charles’ website here.
Find out about my digital photography workshops here.
Fall Foliage 2010 – Participant Images
Here are some of the selected images from this years Maine Fall Foliage Workshop.
Find out about my digital photography workshops here.
Walk With Someone
Paul Tornaquindici (top) and I (bottom) walked together many times in Namibia.
Standing a few feet apart, we made very different images.
Walk with someone and photograph together.
Then compare the results.
You’ll see a different way of looking at the world.
You’ll also have an opportunity to see how you see more clearly.
Even when the images you make are the same, you’ll learn that some results are driven by convention and this can prompt you to push further, to find something new, and to make your images more personal. Sometimes these differences can be found in context with your other images.
The comparisons and contrasts you’ll see by photographing with someone else can be extremely useful.
Find more resources on Creativity here.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.
Get Physical With Your Subjects
To truly touch your viewers you may have to touch someone or something else first.
We have many intelligences (intellectual, emotional, physical, etc), but when it comes to making images we often leave many of them out of the mix. Try energizing your creative process by using all of you.
Get physical. The power of touch can reveal volumes. Imagine how much and how quickly an extended hand or a pat on the back can say. This doesn’t only apply to interacting with people and animals. If you physically make contact with any subject, even inanimate objects, you’ll come to understand it better; its scale, texture, density and much more. You may even decide to make contact with more than your hands. Press your face up against a window. Step into the currents of swift-flowing waters. Lay down in shifting sands. Experience your subjects from many perspectives. Doing this will lead to many new ideas. It will also inform old ideas. As your understanding of your subjects grows, your images will take on new dimensions and new depths.
Find more resources on Creativity here.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.
New Book – Barbara Ventura – White Sands
White Sands : A Place of Being
A set of images with no words that evoke a sense of peace and admiration for the wonders of creation.
“One of those special, unique and majestic places that has been created as a sample and expression of beauty. Inspiring, sensual, magnificent exhibiting the touch of a master painter everywhere you look. To be in the Presence and surrounded by white sand as far as you can see, resounding with silence that penetrates the deepest part of being, with unending possibilities of capturing images, brands your soul forever!”
Find the book here.
Learn more about Barbara Ventura here.
Contact Barabara Ventura at barbara@barbaraventura.com
You're Invited ! – Annual Open Studio Exhibit – 7/31-8/1
You’re invited! Come visit my annual open studio event July 31 – August 1 from 10-5. Gallery talks are at 2.
It’s been one of my most prolific years to date. Producing more than one hundred new images, four bodies of work, in progress for ten years, have been brought to completion. The results are surprising, even for me.
Three new books featuring this work have been released – Reflection, Condensation, and Correspondence – which you can preview and purchase online.
Also on hand will be my playful iPhone photo sketches, some of which are featured in my column on the Huffington Post. I’ll even take, process, and transmit some during my daily artist’s talks at 2 pm.
Come enjoy prints, books, web galleries, performances and conversations during this very special event.
Click here for more information including directions, previews, reviews, statements, audio, video, and press kit.
Harry Sandler's New Book – iPhone Antics
.
“My personal exploration of the IPhone and it’s relevant applications stated 18 months ago. Since that time, wherever I am in the world, the phone is always with me – a camera and darkroom in my pocket. I really enjoy having the ability to capture, process, and share an image instantly from anywhere in the world – not to mention the applications for sunrise, sunset, position of light and various other pieces of information specific to photographers out on the road. The IPhone is an instant feedback and a visual record that helps us expand how we think about our images. It’s a valuable creative tool for any photographer.”
Find out more about Harry Sandler here.
Alumni Chris Alvanas' New Book – Apple 3GS
Chris Alvanas has been keeping his photography fresh with his iPhone.
See it in his new book Apple 3Gs.
Read my iPhone articles on The Huffington Post.
Find iPhone accessories I recommend here.
Chris Alvanas' Book – Apple 3GS
“Apple 3GS marks a career passage for me in that I felt the need to quiet all of the gear aspects of image making and get right down to perspective, light and composition – nothing else. It was so helpful that I have felt such an improvement in how I see an image or should I say pre-visualize an image before actually taking it. Adding the tools on top of this advanced my work greatly.
I recently showed a small portion of this body of work at a workshop with John Paul Caponigro in Maine. To my surprise and enjoyment, the work was so well received by all it lead me to go a bit deeper and continue the quest of simplifying the process.”
Find out more about Chris Alvanas here.