Catching Up

Spring is here - hooray, pictures of everyday objects, print mounting etc...

Everyday objects in your life are a fantastic photographic subject. Shot after a day out roaming the woods quite a while ago. You should see that pair of jeans now… Maybe I’ll show you.

Welcome to spring, well almost, for those in the northern hemisphere. Speaking for myself, I come out of hibernation and start to desire to go outside. Of course I will bring my photography with me. I am just starting to figure out where I want to focus my efforts and what I will point my camera at. I’ll try not to get too far ahead of myself. Instead I’ll start with notions already contained in my vast library of unfinished, undeveloped pictures that I’ve found interesting but never really found a fit in terms of other projects. I’ll keep all those in mind as I go on random walks, enjoying the season.

Maybe I’ll work on my horse farm/horse culture project I’ve never seriously pursued. Maybe I’ll work on my tree/forest project that’s never gone anywhere out of sheer frustration and failure. Maybe a local artist environmental portraiture thing… Maybe my Chesapeake fishing culture project? At this point it doesn’t matter. I’ll find my way as long as I get out there and start making pictures.

I Make A Lot Of Still-life Pictures, You Should Too

In last week’s newsletter I discussed some thoughts on longer tilt-shift lenses. The example subject I chose was an old shirt that I was wearing. A stupid subject by itself, why would I make a picture of a shirt? Why not a flower, a vegetable, fruit, a hunk of cake, or anything else? The only answer I can give is that it was convenient and secondarily I am occasionally inspired to make a picture of a piece of clothing I am going to wear or did wear that particular day. That inspiration comes out of nowhere and manifests itself with a brief notion in the back of my mind fueled by things like the realization of how old the item is, how comfortable, how I refrain from getting rid of it even though it’s tattered, flashes of memories triggered when I’ve worn it before. I don’t spend a ton of time but I try to make what I think of as a “portrait” of the item.

Random selection of clothing and associated items.

I do a lot of everyday item still-life. Things I am going to wear that day, things I wore yesterday, associated items in pockets, everyday boring stuff that’s in my life or provokes a thought. I chose shirts and jeans today just because I have so many of them… I could have selected from dozens of categories. I started doing this because I do a lot of “testing” of camera gear, lights, and other related things. The subject matter is secondary in all of that testing right? Maybe not, or it shouldn’t be. At least that’s what I decided long ago. I decided that all the stupid pictures I take for no apparent reason in terms of the subject of the picture should count. Why not, I am taking the time.

I realized that “still-life” subjects are wonderful photographic subjects. You can make still-life pictures anytime, anywhere, of just about anything around you. I swear still-life photography will make you a better photographer in every way imaginable. What’s more is it will give you discipline and remove excuses as to why you are not making work. You know, all those excuses like location, weather, lack of access to the subjects you “feel like shooting today”. You’ll even start to develop project ideas that would otherwise never cross your mind. As an extra bonus, it’s relaxing, costs nothing (unless you want it to), and there’s no pressure, work at whatever pace you want, produce results only on your terms, whenever you want to work.

Making Prints, DIY series, Etc.

Every single workshop that Les and I host in one way or another is completely about making physical manifestations of your photographs. A few of you may noticed we’ve introduced video to our monthly DIY newsletters. We did this so that we can provide text, images, and now video where it’s most appropriate to cover three fundamental aspects of making prints. Specifically what to do after the print is made.

1. Mounting, there are many ways to mount prints to a backing board. We’ll be showing all of them from basic to advanced.

2. Matting, another basic skill that elevates print presentation that makes all the difference in the world. Again, there are a lot of options. We’ll be covering all of them no matter if you’ve never done it before or are an old-hand.

3. Framing, from making your own from scratch to repurposing garage-sale finds. We’re going to include step-by-step visuals for everyone, no matter if you have no tools or a pro-level woodworking shop.

We’ll mix in a bunch of creative ideas into these basics for every budget and skill level we can imagine along with advise as to when to use what materials and techniques. Why do we consider this so important? Because displaying your work is so important and outsourcing it is extremely expensive. A basic 8.5” x 11” frame with a single mat showing a 5x7 print, with plexiglas is around $90 from a popular middle-of-road provider. The price goes up drastically based on the size. It looks very nice but the sizing and matting options are limited. In the next couple of months we’ll clearly show how just about anyone can do this on their own.

We also believe in rotating your work and treating whatever space you have much like you’d treat a small gallery. Printing is only half the battle, how you present that work has a huge impact on how it is received. We want to help all of our readers to “Celebrate and Elevate” their work, and show more of it without breaking the bank.

I ran across a few items in the last week or so that I think may be of interest to subscribers. Here’s the person that produces Fuji and Frames magazines musing on the physicality, or the lack of physicality in our modern world.

Quite a while back I wrote a piece recommending the Canon Selphy dye sublimation printer and how much I use that cheap little device. Looks like I am not the only “serious printer” that has taken a liking to that printer. We both agree that the worst thing about it has to be that “Selphy” name, it’s just so cringe. Pay special attention to the end as it really underscores the point of celebrating and elevating your prints. The difference between that loose 4x6 print and it’s finished, framed, matted manifestation is tremendous.

Thank you to all of our wonderful subscribers. We’ve got much more coming down the road. We are experimenting with potentially adding some “live” features to the newsletter, please let us know your thoughts. We especially thank all of you who help us keep the lights on with a paid subscription. We literally could not do it without you.