It is always amazing to me how completely the lack of color can change the feel of an image. Black and White photos of even the most mundane of subjects can often feel more artistic or somehow more meaningful. What I’ve found is that for some image types the removal of color takes away context and forces even more abstraction. In this case the image is of star trails shot with a telephoto lens over 35 minutes. With color the image shows the variety of star types, blues, oranges, and reds that show in long exposures. Here the trails are just white lines across the black canvass, and without the context I’ve provided above would mean very little. But for me the effect just increases the sense of wonder I get from an extended look at the night sky.
An Astrophysicist Kicks a Fire /
And sparks fly into the night sky.
This is a 2 second shot aimed just above a fast burning beach fire at one of my favorite spots along the Kohala Coast. This secret place is good for beach fires, star gazing, and proposing to future wives, but that’s all irrelevant to the image.
That the foot which kicked the fire belonged to doctor of planetary science is also probably irrelevant. However, the unique perspectives of someone who at one time made a career of studying reflected light not even visible to the naked eye has certainly been relevant to my own perspectives. And I would say they have shaped they way I look at light, and photography, in general. There is a certain type of mindshift necessary to visualize and capture a thing that can’t readily be seen. Lines from rising embers of a campfire on the beach. Star trails across a night sky. A distant black hole. We know they’re there, but how do we show it?
This particular astrophysicist and I have shared many a campfire, and countless night skies. As I look through my decades old photo library I’m realizing that it is people like him and moments like those that have inspired me the most through my life and in my photography.
The Ocean For the Waves /
The ocean is something to be stared at.
And for me the motion of the ocean is instantly hypnotic, no matter the condition. I can stare for hours. Once I started shooting images of the wave tops I found that when I stare at those I feel a sense of motion. Perhaps my brain replaying the instant of the shot? An implied sense of motion from wave pattern? In any case, I find images like this one relaxing in the extreme. Very stareable.
Can you see the motion too?
Boom Blossom /
Perhaps to commemorate the USA, perhaps to celebrate the launch of my site, or perhaps just because I like fire…
Fireworks have always been a thing of awe for me. So carefully crafted using centuries of knowledge and tradition. And on such a massive scale. And whenever they decorate the skies I find myself thinking of the pleasant and utter simplicity of their storied invention. It is said that the original inventor of gunpowder could think for it no better purpose than a pyrotechnic display. And while the substance behind them has worked wonders and horrors ever since, the art of showing off the beauty of organized combustion is something that always brings to mind the best of celebrations.
As a photo subject fireworks represent just the basics, light, motion and time. In this frame we see the motion of the explosion sure, but also the motion of the wind. And with those influences this is what the light did over exactly one second. After taking stills of fireworks for the first time I have never been able to look at them the same. So many details, like the wind effect, the exact play of colors, the trail of slight misfires, etc. are just lost in the bulk of a proper display. But even when I’m caught without a camera to freeze each blast I would still agree with the ancients who thought this was the best purpose for black powder.
Incidentally, not long after this exposure was taken, I very nearly set the small cruise ship under my command alight while attempting my own celebration under the guise of “deckhand parachute flare training.” Luckily, parachute flares are designed to extinguish before they can fall back onto your ship…
It sounds like fireworks consumption will be uncommonly high this 4th of July, which I think sounds pretty excellent, but remember, with great fireworks comes great responsibility. Stay safe out there ;-)
https://www.liquid-light.com
A New Endeavour /
It is said that the only constant is change.
And the recent changes to my chosen industry (marine tourism) have left me with an abundance of time on my hands. I’ve used that time to build something new, for me at least. For the first time in the 20+ years I have been carrying a camera I have decided to try and sell my images.
This has led me to a number of philosophical quandaries. What is art? What is an artist? What is the worth of my “work?” And so on. I’ve realized that the answers to these questions, and philosophical questions in general, need to be arbitrary. And so I have arbitrarily declared: this is art, and it is worth what I am charging. I suppose that makes me an artist.
But you will form your own opinions.
At the very least I hope that you like what you see if you visit my site. And I hope that you’ll join me in the belief that in a world of ceaseless change, one constant is the beauty of the natural world.
Stay sane out there
Shep