JON PAUL GALLERY

Joshua Trees & The High Sierras

After a few days creating images in Death Valley National Park, my friend (and fellow photographer) Christian Fleury, and I ventured out of the park and into the desert for one final photographic opportunity. I was enamored with the starkness of the desert and wanted to share the feeling of vastness. I knew black and white film was a natural choice for the mood I was trying to convey, and the amazing cloud display begged for a this classic look.  I chose my 6×17cm film format for the wide view that accentuated the expanse of the desert. The widely spread Joshua trees growing in the sand redefined the traditional vision of “forest”. The wispy clouds danced overhead, celebrating the openness of this wild place. The mighty Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance pulled the scene together. I truly felt the mood of this location, and reveled in the artistic process of choosing how to visually interpret, compose and capture this image. If I had taken a modern approach of shooting hundreds of frames in color, weeding through them on the computer, and finally deciding “how the image should look”, I would have lost the mood and message I wanted to convey.  As an artist in nature, I enjoy taking the responsibility of choosing my final vision while in the field. It is very gratifying to have that vision come to fruition through that initial emotion, successful choices, and an individual capture. That is the art I enjoy. Enjoy the View!

Photo Tip:
Slow down and trust your feelings. In a fast digital world, it is easy to get caught up in the whole mindset of not wanting to miss anything. Note that this is a human nature & societal problem, not a digital problem. The issue becomes a lack of focus on what is moving us and drawing us to the subject we want to photograph. In a familiar location near home, try the old method of giving yourself just one sheet of film (or one last spot on the memory card:) ). Observe what you are drawn to and take the time to conceive of the expected light, choose the composition carefully, clean up those edges, refine the focal length, pick the optimal camera position, carefully select the exposure, use solid technique with your tripod, cable release, etc. Make this one exposure important relative to what it makes you feel, and what it might communicate to a viewer. Enjoy the process, and take control of your art. Don’t go home with hundreds, or even thousands of images wondering if you may hove gotten anything. This practice will build your confidence in your skills, refine your artistic eye, and enable you to create a higher percentage of “successful images” in the future.

Equipment used:
Canham 5×7 metal field camera, Canham 6×17cm roll film back,  Caltar II-n (Rodenstock) 90mm lens, Gitzo 1325 Carbon Tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ball Head, Acros 100 black and white film, Singh Ray LB Warming Polarizer, Red Filter.

Bison Portrait, Yellowstone National Park

Most of my images are produced using feeling and emotion. My strongest images “just felt right” when I took them. This image, a portrait of a lone Bison bull wandering the open grassland in Yellowstone National Park, had that feeling. I had just taught a seminar in Grand Teton National Park and chose to take a longer route home, giving myself the opportunity to spend an evening in West Yellowstone. I was glad to be in such a secluded location, I was glad to be alone with my thoughts and emotions, I was enjoying the simplicity of being away. When this Bison wandered along, solitary, powerful, just being, I felt priveledged to share that time with him. This portrait symbolizes the power it takes to be strong, self reliant, alone and in the wild. Our wild spaces, and the creatures that inhabit them, do more than just create a healthy balanced ecosystem (which is very important); they are symbols of the strength and power we have within us (or strive toward building in ourselves). We need these wild places and creatures to exist for more reasons than most people realize. I hope this image shares that strength with you.

Photo Tip: Photographing wildlife is exciting. It can bring great joy to our lives. Unfortunately, many people get caught up in the moment and don’t respect the animals they want to photograph, taking a “get the shot at all costs” approach. Animals have a hard enough time making a living without people interfering. Study their habits and the natural signals they give. If you are causing them to alter their behaviour, back off. Wait until the opportunity presents itself appropriately. Not only can the animals be harmed by our thoughtless behaviour, you might get what you deserve in the end. Be respectful, revel in the experience, be grateful that you can come back another day and do it again.

Equipment used: Nikon D300, Nikon 200-400 F4 AF VR lens, Nikon 1.4x teleconverter, Gitzo 1325 Carbon Tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ball Head. No camouflage was used in the making of this image!

Beaver Pond, Spring Reflections

 Many of you will remember my facebook posts from the scouting I did of this lovely beaver pond here in South Lake Tahoe. Along with a reasonable iphone image I shared, I posted a sweet portrait of my professional assistant, Toby (6), capturing his own rendition of the beaver pond and its inhabitants with a little digital camera. He always gets a great response, and ads huge joy to my excursions. Well, I returned the following morning to capture this beautiful moment.

 I was drawn to this scene for its sheer tranquility. Seemingly every shade of green in the spectrum (very welcome after a never ending winter!), along with the beaver hut, all reflecting in the still waters of the calm morning. I loved the composition and the feeling, but I still had one very important decision to make; in which light should I expose my film? I was hoping to capture the scene with everything in shade and a glowing reflection of the mountains and trees above the background lit with warm morning light. Well, the light didn’t enter the scene evenly, so that wasn’t an option. Fortunately, I arrived early enough to be set up and created this exposure with ambient light softly illuminating the scene before me. After everything was lit by the sun, I felt the image lost its soft relaxing quality. Overall, this image conveys the mood I was after. From the green color, to the stillness of the leaves, the depth of its layers and the mirrored reflection, the natural perfection of the moment takes me to a place of serenity. This wasn’t exactly what I had pre-visualized, but stayed open to what Mother Nature had to offer, and let my feelings influence the final image. I love it!

Photo Tip: Light is the name of the game in photography. I prefer to use only one exposure, so I pay special attention to each phase of morning and evening light as they relate to my subject. This is important for proper exposure, but also for setting the mood of the image and how it conveys my feelings of the natural experience. For sunrise images like this one I like to arrive well before sunrise in order to experience the transition from night into a new day, and to give myself the opportunity to compose images with each phase of changing morning light. While there are many possibilities as the light changes, I like to be conscious of my feelings as the light transitions. My goal is always to share that moment in time, in that place, that makes me feel a special way. If done well, that moment in time can become eternal, and make the lives of its viewers that little bit better each time they view the image.

Details: KB Kanhan 5×7 metal field camera, 2 1/4 x 6 3/4 panoramic back, Gitzo 1325 carbon tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ball Head, Rodenstock 150mm APO Sironar S lens, Fuji RDPIII Provia transparency film, no filters.

Evening Cloud Reflections Panorama - Lake Tahoe

Late in the Fall (2010) Lake Tahoe was graced with a lot of stormy weather and dramatic skies. I happen to be a fan of softer, more pastel colored skies, as opposed to the over the top neon colors that have huge “wow-factor” (but I find hard to live with). This particular evening I visited the shore of Lake Tahoe to observe the sunset. While I enjoyed the softness of the sky, I wasn’t drawn to any particular foreground / background combination. I was, however, drawn to the reflection of the sky. The water turned my pastel “painting” into a water color. A bit of detail below the water adds a hint of perspective. This is the type of tranquility nature brings to me, and I hope to share with you. Enjoy!
(this image now available to collectors)

Photo Tip:
Remember, rules are a good starting point for composing images (they became rules for a reason), but the most important aspect of landscape photography as art is, paying attention to how the image makes you feel. The image above has no real foreground or background. I did, however, pay attention to the colors, tones and shapes in the image to make sure it had a natural flow and conveyed what I was feeling. I believe this image works because, it makes me feel the way I felt when I experienced this beautiful evening in person. Remember, it is easy to get caught up in technical minutia in this age of digital art. Try to put the technical aspects aside (or relax after you have mastered the basics) and focus on that feeling that gets you out the door to begin with!

Equipment:
Canham 5×7 Metal Field Camera with 6×17 cm panoramic back, 210mm lens, Fuji Provia RDPIII transparency film, Singh Ray LB Warming Polarizer, Gitzo 1325 carbon tripod, Really Right Stuff BH-55 Ball Head, Hasselblad/Imacon 646 virtual drum scanner.

In an age where high volume and over the top/oh my gosh imagery is what many people expect, my personal taste and style continue to be based in the subtleties of landscape photography. I have a passion for fine details, either on their own, or as an important part of a more grand landscape. My work is about the joy and escape I experience while out in the field. When immersed in a beautiful natural setting experiencing the (apparent) simplicity of nature, I just feel right, happy. While I revel in the grandeur of some of these locations, that initial excitement is often the trigger that moves my thoughts away from daily business, obligations and stress. Once “free”, I find that I am open to all the little details that are the building blocks of the grand (and obvious) surroundings. As an end result, I use my personal style of photography to translate what I feel and experience, along with what I see, to the people that view and collect my work.

I still shoot large format film for several reasons, which all relate to the above statements. First, I am a gallery photographer. My primary end product is a fine art print, most often in very large sizes. I love the look of a big print made from big film! Second, I like the ability to use camera movements to critically focus my images for greater (natural) sharpness. Third, this equipment slows me down and helps me focus on one composition. I can’t rush around creating many mages, each with only a bit of meaning to me. I want to compose that one image that requires all of my attention, enabling me to create the art I am passionate about, not just a bunch of pictures (Thus, my catch fraze, “Bringing the fine art of nature home”). Fourth, I enjoy the craft of using a big bellows camera with all of the manual adjustments. It gives me a nostalgic feeling and a sense of pride in making a daily effort to continually master the most basic, and most important aspects of landscape photography. Finally, all of these factors come together when I experience the reactions of people visiting my gallery. I realize the impact my work has on peoples lives when they are moved by my images. A large part of this impact is a product of the artistic process I have chosen to bring my vision to fruition. I am often told that my work goes well beyond the technical “work” of photography, and shares the emotion and passion I have for my subject.

Even with my choice of equipment, almost all of my seminar participants shoot digital. People do not join me in the field to learn HDR or how to work their particular digital camera. I take people out to great locations where we look through the lens together and work on solidifying the basics of image creation while capturing beautiful images. I passionately answer all of their questions, share important aspects of good technique, and focus on learning while doing. I have been amazed by how many people share with me that their photography has come to a standstill since they got their great new digital SLR. Most have become so bogged down by “all of the functions they need to learn”, that they simpy forget about composing an image, properly exposing the image, and using good technique for sharp image capture. I enjoy helping people get a jump start with the basic (and most important) foundations of seeing and creating the images that move them . I love photographing the natural world, and am very excited to share what I have learned with people who sincerely want to learn.

Please visit my web site, www.jonpaulgallery.com  , to view examples of my work. Also feel free to contact me directly to purchase my work or to arrange a field seminar privately or for a small group. When in South Lake Tahoe, visit the Jon Paul Gallery in person. I appreciate input and the opportunity to share my passion with you.