3 posts tagged “landscape photography”
Last night I went up Little and Big Cottonwood Canyons to photograph. I've always loved backpacking, and rock climbing and such, and lately I've been thinking of ways to incorporate those activities into a photographic project. If there's one thing I've learned from framing homes its: stop thinking about "it" so much and just do "it." So last night I did just that, and instead of sitting and stewing longer about how to approach this "project," I went out to begin making photographs (I actually learned this lesson during my B.F.A. project, but I guess I needed a reminder). I ended up making only three photographs, because I didn't get out the door till later than I had hoped; I ruined 10 sheets of film by dropping them in my bathroom sink with the leaky faucet, and had to open up a new box.
I'm fairly pleased with what I shot so far, although they may or may not have anything to do with rock climbing. Come to think of it, they look pretty similar to these:
One of them had a river in it, and there was more river than rock in it. So right now, they don't really portray anything like "hey, this rock is climbed a lot," but, like I said, things are still in the conception stage.
On an unrelated topic, I keep a few mini blogs that I update a bit more regularly than this one, so if you check here and don't see any new updates, you can check these out:
These mini blogs are actually pretty fun. They let me post things that I don't really want to include here, but do want to blog about. If you like em, sign up. Pownce is still in Beta, and you need an invite. If you want one, I still have six left, so email me or leave a comment and I'll get one out to you.
I just got back home fro m my reunion at Bear Lake. As usual, it was a lot of fun. The weather was much more stormy than it usually is, but that was alright. All the clouds made some good photographs. I borrowed my brother's digital camera, and went out and made a lot of photographs (I made a lot more that can be seen here under the photos section on the right). Here are some favorites:
I think I spent just as much time photographing or correcting the photographs as I did out swimming and playing on the lake. It felt really good to spend so much time looking through a lens, or in this case, looking at an LCD screen. I'm getting my "photographic confidence" back, and starting to look at the world and think photographically again. Not that I ever really stopped, but it's much more conscientious and deliberate now. I drove up through Logan, and drove past the art building, and got real excited and kept thinking: "I'll be there in a year!" I'm getting real excited about going to grad school. I don't know if I regret or appreciate me having taken so much time off between undergrad and grad school. So far, all the reasons for appreciating spending so much time out of academia outweigh any regrets.
Anyways, about the reunion itself: it was really fun to see old relatives whom I haven't seen in a year or more. And, probably most of all, it was awesome to hang out with my immediate family and reminisce about our childhood, and other past reunions.
I was almost sprayed by a skunk the first night. I went down to the beach that evening to do some yoga, and saw something on the sand that looked like a lantern. The beach was empty besides myself, so I went to pick it up, but as I got closer, it started hissing and jumping back, and I realized it was a skunk, and I slowly backed away. After that, I went and found a spot to lay out my mat, and do my session, but it was pretty unrelaxing, worrying about the skunk the whole time.
The mosquitoes were much worse this year than I ever remember them being. We were all eaten alive, especially the little ones.
About two weeks ago, I stumbled upon a website called My Art Space. It is a site somewhat similar to Photo Eye, though no where near as prestigious. I joined, and have just uploaded a gallery of the images from Bear Lake. You can see it here.
I just got back from photographing in Memorial Grove Park (yes, I'm still working on the Parks project; I have a few projects in mind that I haven't begun yet). I had passed by there a couple months ago, and it looked like it had some good potential. So, I decided to go there today, and was just a little disappointed.
It has some interesting structures and monuments, but right now, I'm not really sure they're in harmony with what the project has been all about.
I started to wander into the park, and wasn't seeing any photographs. I kept thinking "well, the light's just bad." But it wasn't really that...I think I just didn't really have my eyes open and my photographic thinking cap on just right. I finally made a few that I'm fairly pleased with. I'll know for sure once I process the negatives. But then, the last photograph I made was of the pond, and it is the epitome of what I have been saying the project is about all along. I've said, vocally, and in my artist statement, that parks are a place where people can come to enjoy a bit of nature and not have to drive a long way to get to nature. Parks are bringing nature to the city. This photograph (and I think once I get it processed, scanned, and posted, you will agree) shows just that. People relaxing, walking their dogs, enjoying nature, etc...in the park, in downtown Salt Lake City. It shows the perfect context of nature in the city, with the sky scrapers in the background. This was pretty hard to do in most of the photographs I made while I was completing my B.F.A. project, as South East Idaho is lacking in the sky scraper area, and that thought didn't occur to me when I made the few photographs I included from Seattle. So I think now that the thought finally has hit (and it's only taken three years), that idea will become visually clear, not just something the viewer has to read in a statement.
