Photographic Reflections

The Post title is somewhat ambiguous for it was not meant to mean reflections as in water or any shiny surface, but reflections as in “what just happened” or “what have I been doing.” Next week I’ll be off to Maine, specifically Acadia National Park and the Schoodic Peninsula, to partake in a Photography Workshop during the glorious Northeast Foliage Season. The workshop is run by John Paul Caponigro, whom I have followed for some time in trying to lean the ins and outs of becoming a better photographer.

While I have taken other workshops, this particular one seems to be more demanding or more of a challenge, which is not a negative, but quite the opposite. As an example, John Paul already had given three assignments before I had even crossed over the Maine border. While I embrace this challenge, I also sense that in many ways it may not speak to all of my needs at this particular stage of my life (72 years of age) and growth (having a unique take on a developing style of photography). Nonetheless, one of the tasks was to produce a portfolio. This produced an immediate existential moment of anxiety within me, for I had no portfolio. In fact, the whole purpose of my photography blog was to document my search in developing a style. In other words I was in an inchoate stage of having any resemblance of a portfolio. However, with the help of my wife I seriously started to critique my photos, only accepting the best technically and artistically, from our point of view. We ended up with approximately 12 first picks, and about 17 second picks. My conclusion to this assignment/process was that it was helpful in helping me weed out weaker shots, allowing a more concentrated collection of what I believed I want to achieve in my photographs.

In some ways, I feel  like I am at an unique stage photographically. When I am taking photographs, I try to align myself with the  Élan Vital of Henri Bergson, i.e., the life force and process which produces those ephemeral moments of creative expression in nature. “Can I capture that moment?” is what I strive for. I do not care about anything else. I am totally unorganized, in a most chaotic state, until I sit down and reflect on how do I produce a photo of what I thought I just saw and captured.

The currently posted photo was taken on the north shore of Aquinnah, Martha’s Vineyard, MA. It was shot with a Canon 5DS, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 100mm,, f/10.0, 5.7″, ISO 50, using a ND 10 stop filter, post processed with DxO PhotoLab 2, using ACR and Photoshop CC (2019) with a gradient map and DxO Nik Efex Color Efex Pro.

Out of My Element

Since my last post I’ve been putting together my portfolio. This activity is/was totally foreign to me and a bit disquieting, since I have always approached photography in recent years as an adventure, not knowing what kind of shots I would take. I really had no need to change this approach, but I decided to take a workshop in Maine in the autumn around the Acadia National Forest with John Paul Caponigro. One of John Paul’s suggestions to prepare for his workshop was to think of projects I wanted to do as well as put together a sampling of my photographing interests (portfolio, I presumed).

This caused a brief period of uneasiness since I really resisted in putting together a collection of my best (or what I thought were) photos. But, I decided that growth sometimes comes at a cost of uncertainty so I put together a portfolio. I was definitely out of my element and I struggled with doing this for two weeks; my wife assisted me in critiquing since I really did not trust my own judgements (at times).

Be that as it may, I finally began to see that what I liked about a lot of my photos (while valid) was not what others might see. Also, I began to see that while I liked certain photos for their composition they did not meet the precision of focus, color or tonality that I believed also drove me to capture scenes.

I have put my portfolio “to bed” for the foreseeable future. What it is, it is. I definitely am always thinking of my next photo, and still want to shoot photography that way. The portfolio exercise was good and accomplished something. There is a tendency to see a portfolio as static; however, I generally shoot photos in an on-going, dynamic fashion and have a running series in my head of the “real life portfolio” that I am involved in.

I have posted this current photo in this post although it also exists (at least currently) in my online Gallery on this site. The reason I did this was to use it as an example that what I thought was a good photo for my Gallery is not a good photo after completing the exercise of putting together my portfolio for John Paul. The current photo was taken with a Canon 5 DS, using an EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM @ 100mm, f/4.5, 2″, ISO 3200, and post processed with DxO PhotoLab 2 , ACR, and Photoshop CC 2019, using a Gradient Map.

Martha’s Vineyard: A Photographic Watershed

Indeed, the obvious fact is that the last post was four months ago. I will not bore you with the details but it was a busy four months with spring yard work, planning and completing two two-weeks vacations in the Baltic and Martha’s Vineyard, as well as simply doing the daily routines.

I had visited Martha’s Vineyard several times before and was inspired by both land and sea scapes, with some good photos forthcoming from these visits. However, this past July I had the opportunity to actually rent a seaside cottage among the sand dunes on the north shore of Aquinnah, providing such easy access to the beach and shore that I felt that I was a denizen of this idyllic place.

Wild life was abundant and everywhere, particularly all sorts of shore birds, deer, rabbits, and while I did not catch fish, there were signs of their presence due to multiple fishing boats of all sizes as well as people surf fishing. The surrounding air and sea breezes in conjunction with the special light of this island punctuated the fact that you were in a special place full of wonder.

Energized by this atmosphere I was constantly out and about shooting photos. So much so that I made four night and early morning excursions to catch the Milky Way, moon, and the early morning golden hour. I will speak of these in forthcoming posts.

The currently posted photo is of Gay Head Lighthouse captured after midnight. I had scouted this out earlier in day visits using Photopills, so was confidant that the resultant shot was possible. My wife insisted on accompanying me, which I accepted simply to have company and some assistance in setting up in the dark. My wife’s company serendipitously helped create this shot, for she had unwittingly provided some light painting of the lighthouse with a red light flashlight. The shot was taken with a Canon 5 DS using an EF16-35mm f/2.8L USM lens at 31.0 mm, set at f/2.8, 25″, ISO 3200, with post processing using DxO Photo Labs II, ACR, Photoshop CC 2019 with a gradient map, enhanced by Nik Viveza & Color Efex Pro.