I recently began working on images at a local park that is somewhat between suburban and countryside. Much of the park is fairly open, but the area along one of the creeks that runs through it holds a wooded area. In the summer the area is lush and full of life. A place to get out of the sun and sit by the creek (and be attacked by mosquitos.)

In winter, the area offers a different feel. The woods are filled with dark & gnarled trees, an over-abundance of fallen branches and trees. Tall grasses, vines, and other plants lay yellowed and dead. Apart from the occasional runner, few people venture into the area.All of this lends a darker mood to the area. Since I tend to photograph there on grey days, that only enhances the gloomy feel. And while my work may be enhancing the darker mood, my goal is to capture the beauty of areas like these.

This area of the park perhaps has a more wild feel since they don’t seem to practice much forest management. It feels more like a wilderness area where trees fall, create habitat, and overtime return to the earth to become part of the soil. To me this is exciting to see, especially when compared to the rest of the well manicured park and the nearby suburban areas.

I’m tentatively titling this series Selva Oscura (dark woods), which is a reference from Dante’s Inferno.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
che la diritta via era smarrita.

Midway on our life’s journey, I found myself
In dark woods, the right road lost. To tell
About those woods is hard—so tangled and rough

 
Many may relate to the concept of feeling lost in dark woods, not knowing what path to take, especially those seeking change in their lives. When we fear change in our lives, our vision can be obscured. We can become lost if our path has changed, either by us, or for us. Clearing one’s mind can open yourself up to things yet seen. New paths can be found.

This photographic series looks at the overlooked. It finds new directions. And more importantly it finds beauty where one might normally expect to find it. Check back for more images as the series progresses.

I’ve added several new photos to my landscape gallery. The images are from a photo shoot I did last week at Bear Creek Lake Park, here in Lakewood Colorado.

 

 

Remember when Flash websites were the coolest new thing on the, um, web?  Things have changed, and you should move your site into the future.

Despite the fact that some people are still producing cool looking Flash websites, there are some really good reasons not to have a Flash website:

Your Site on iOS

Look at your Flash site on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. See what your customers see? That is right, nothing. If a potential client of yours is trying to look at your site on their iOS device, and can’t, chances are you’ll lose that potential client.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization: Flash is terrible for SEO, while sites built on WordPress offer ways to improve your search ranking. A site with proper SEO juju can help you show up higher than some of the competition… even if they are bigger than you. (more…)

I am now offering prints of my landscape and still life photography. I custom print the photos myself, using archival inks on archival fine art paper. I can print up to 13″ x 19″ in-house, but can provide a quote on larger print sizes. Affordably priced prints of my work can be purchased from my site on PhotoShelter. Visit interrobang.photoshelter.com to view the images that I currently have available for purchase.

I’ve added a new gallery of images from my industrial landscape series call Industrial Wayside. The images were shot in the late 80′s around Milwaukee and Green Bay. I never printed or displayed the series, but have always wanted to return to it. So I’ve begun scanning the old slides and refining my vision of the images.

While the topic of iPhone photography may be hotly debated as to whether it is “real” photography, or art, surely iPod photography must receive more scorn. While the iPhone camera ranges from 5 to 8 megapixels (depending on the model), the iPod Touch 4g comes in at around .9 megapixel. (yes, a hair under 1 megapixel.) Many will call the camera crap, or a toy. Of course compared to “real” cameras, it is. But I still think a person can get a nice arty photo from an iPod Touch 4g, especially with one of the many funky photo apps that are available for the iPhone & iPod.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve always been inspired by old photographs. I fondly recall looking through a shoebox full of old photos at my Grandmother’s when I was a young child. They seemed oddly different compared to the photos my parents took. Mostly black & white, many shot on old Brownie cameras whose lenses had some distortion or blur on the edges. Some with light leaks that streaked across parts of the image. And some tin types. The tin types were especially interesting. Dark & mysterious even.  Later in college photo history courses, I learned more about the very early days of photography, and was drawn in even more to that look and feel.

This morning I recalled some of the photographs from my photo history courses. La cour du domaine du Gras (View from the Window at Le Gras) by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce came to mind. This image was the first successful permanent photograph. It was created using a camera obscura on a roughly 8″ x 10″ sheet of pewter, coated with Bitumen of Judea.

As the use of silver nitrate began to be used in photography, image quality improved. Hand coated film plates always had their own unique qualities, and “perfection” was literally in the hands of the artist. As the process became mechanized, and mass produced, it seemed we strived for a more “perfect” image in an attempt to capture a more accurate sense of reality.

For me, this first photographic image by Niépce creates a more artistic feel than a sharp photograph would. It carries much more emotional energy as well. It is mysterious, dreamlike, and perhaps holds a touch of darkness to it.

The image reminds me of the quality of some of the photos I’ve taken with my iPod Touch using the Hipstamatic app. Well, the iPod obviously does a bit better job with sharpness and tonal range. (Although, in low light situations, and depending on the “film” used, I have seen iPod photos get almost as grainy as Niépce’s photo above, with only a slightly better tonal range.) And while the iPod camera is not the first digital camera, it’s low quality is vaguely reminiscent of the first photo process.

Art has always been subjective. It took a long time before photography was accepted as art, and it was no different when the digital photo age began. And while I also drool over the new digital camera gear that is coming out, I still like the simple, rougher feel that I get with my silly little iPod Touch camera. If had taken this image with a sharp lens on a high megapixel camera, I’m certain I’d find it less appealing than this shot from my iPod. Not to say that would be true with every image, as there are many times I wish one of my iPod photos had been taken on a better camera.

Perhaps some day I’ll move up to the higher resolution iPhone for my “pocket camera”, but for now I enjoy the high tech, low res iPod Touch for fast and fun shots. Some day I also intend on going back to some of the old photo processes with my 4×5 cameras, but that is a different story.

If you came to this post wondering if the iPod Touch is worth it for photographs, well, it just depends on your needs. I think it is suitable for the “arty” little shots I take with it. I’ve printed images to 5″ x 5″ on smooth inkjet watercolor paper, and the images looked fine. I also feel it is okay for basic shots where you need to document something that doesn’t require a high resolution. I’ve taken a couple farming workshops and it was great for snapping photos of how greenhouses where set up, and other details.  Plus I could type notes in the notepad, or even take a fairly decent quality video. Not bad for an MP3 player!

I’ve added a few more photos to my Landscape gallery. They are from a previous backpacking trip in the Indian Peaks Wilderness in Colorado. Prints of my images can be ordered here. Each print will be custom printed by me, using a archival fine art watercolor paper and archival inks.

I happy to announce that a portfolio of my black & white landscape photography will be featured in Issue 19 of Landscape Photography Magazine. If you’re not familiar with the online magazine, I highly recommend it. It contains beautiful landscape photography from around the world, great articles & tips, and is very affordable to subscribe to. Support their work, and find inspiration!

Creative inspiration for me often comes from being in the wild, and fully experiencing the elements and the landscape. I took this photograph on a backpacking trip in the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area in Colorado. We had just set up camp at around 11,000 feet as an intense thunderstorm rolled in.

Wind and rain pummeled our tent for 30 minutes or more, and then tapered off to nothing. We crawled out of the tent to find the darkness parting to allow the late afternoon rays of sun shine on the mountains around us. We were all in awe of the landscape around us, and the intense storm we experienced. Each of us silently wandered off in our own directions. Photographing this beautiful scenery was more like a meditation for me.

Fully experiencing the landscape around me allows me a deeper sense of seeing. It deepens my connection with the landscape, and makes me feel more a part of it, rather than an outsider looking in.

When I’m backpacking, that is my home. There is no rush to get somewhere else. No need to rush back to the car when the weather turns bad. No reason to miss out on the raw intensity of nature. I’m forced to relax. To be present in that environment. To quiet my mind of the random thoughts, worries, & desires. And to see the landscape in a way without preconceived notions of how landscape photography should look.

Here is another image from this week’s photo shoot at Red Rocks Park in Colorado. I wanted to create a bit of a moodier, dreamlike feel to accentuate the already surreal feel of these rock formations.