Unconventional Photo Art

I love to experiment. I used a digital camera in very unconventional ways to create a new series of images. I experimented shooting with a large format camera lens, a cinema projection lens, through the back of an antique camera, and without any lens at all. It's exciting to not know how it will look until I get it on the computer and start to play. I remember that feeling very well from my many decades as an advertising photographer when the color transparencies (slides) and black and white film had to be sent out and it took days to see the results. I absolutely still am enjoying my craft.

Here's one from this new collection:

You see can more of these images in the Behance gallery.  

Bubbles Aloft - Revisited

If you saw the previous post, you know that the Bubbles images were horizontals to be printed on metal.  I was happily surprised at the Aloft Grand Opening party to see the images hung vertically, printed on plexiglass. The beauty of abstracts is that they're open for interpretation, imagination, and space constraints. I think Art Consultant Liz Barr was waiting for my reaction, and I suppose some artists may have been offended. But not me. I think they look great and I'm pleased and grateful to be included in the groups of artists whose work was selected for this new hotel. If you live or visit Asheville, I recommend a visit to Aloft Asheville Downtown if only just to see the amazing collection of artwork!

Bubbles Aloft Vertical

The Story Behind Bubbles Aloft

These three images are being hung today in Aloft Asheville Downtown for the hotel's grand opening on Thursday, August 23. The finished images are each 40" x 25" mounted on aluminum and hung in a row vertically. For the story of how these images came to be, continue reading below the images.

Bubbles–Yellow

Bubbles–Red

Bubbles–Green

Hung horizantically to create "Bubbles Aloft"

Here's how these images came to be: 

I was testing to see if I could put an old portrait lens from an 8X10 camera that I’ve had for many years in front of my digital camera and make some sort of an image.

"Bubbles" was one of many other images came out of the session. The original was a yellow color,  but the client needed them in 3 different colors. So off to Photoshop I went, and here they are—or will be as of Thursday—in Aloft Asheville Downtown, 51 Biltmore Avenue in Asheville, NC. 

Beautiful images and message

Blue Day Makes It a Happy Day

Blue Day, 26.5"x20.5"

This image was licensed by Soho Myriad for use in 71 guest rooms in the Durham Hilton earlier this year. Just signed a new agreement for an additional 35, with the possibility of another 90+ in the future. Yay!

Fireworks All Year Round

Purple Lace

Someone wants to celebrate that explosive feeling all year long. Sold this abstract fireworks print to Lisa Saltman Design for her client. I now have three galleries of abstract fireworks on Imagekind, if you want to see more...

Creativity vs Talent or ?

 PressPausePlay is a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world's most influential creators of the digital era.

Remember when Amazon meant the River?

Sold a print I shot back in the early 90s, taken while I was in South America on assignment for a cruise line. This shot of dead trees on the Amazon River in back light was taken from a canoe. One of my favorite assignments ever!

The image was converted to black & white for this client. You can see the original version and more from that South American series in Fine Art Photography in Digital Art gallery on the website.

Side Projects

When I saw this video I thought of why I started to do my Polaroid photography work years ago. At the time, it gave me an outlet to use my creative abilities as a departure from the constraints of advertising photography world where I earned my living. I loved my advertising work then, but needed a way to create without an art director looking over my shoulder. I’m lucky I found my Polaroid side project because when the industry changed and the work fell off, I had something to hold on to and expand to where it is today.

When Tina Roth Eisenberg, aka Swiss Miss, realized her side projects made her happy and could make money, she closed her design business and focused only the side projects, which support her completely now. Do you have a side project that gives you pleasure and also income? Please share in the Comments.

Digital backgrounds in films

This is a great example of what goes on behind the scenes on most movies today. I know you'll enjoy this.

Beach House Art

Recently sold to Pamela O’Brien at Room Redo for a client's beach house.

Sandcastle, Miami Beach 40”x40”

Sailboat in green water, Jamaica 24”x24"

Sail Boats, Florida Keys 24"x24”

Sailboats and Kayaks, Jamaica  24”x24”

You cam see more from this series here>>

Neither rain, nor sleet, nor bees deter a photographer from his shot

 I went out the other day to shoot something, I didn’t know what, but after about 3 months of cataloging my work I had to get out. Found myself at a Volkswagen bus repair shop / graveyard.

The guy there was kind enough to let me wonder around and shoot. He probably thought  I’m nuts staring through a camera at the side of a rusted old VW bus.

It got interesting when this black bee, the size of a VW Beetle, was hovering right where I wanted to stand. Being a man of the great outdoors (Big LOL), I figured we could share the space between the two old rust buckets.

This bee didn’t agree at first and let me know by flying right at me, buzzing angrily around my head and staying right in my view.  It was touch and go for a little while, but we compromised: I went away and came back when the bee wasn’t looking.

It was just so great to get out and shoot.

I made 6 variations in the crop of this shot because one never knows what format an interior designer will need for his or her client.  Here are 3 of them.

Love to have your comments on these shots.

Welcome to my Blog

I have finally got my blog together and thank you for coming to share it with me. You can see from the posts below that I started this a few years ago...but now I'm ready to stay with it.

I plan to post the same type of information I have been sharing with you on Facebook and emails over these past years. A nice mixture of art, good stories, videos, articles, photography, design, and who knows what else.

P.S. Please put your email address in the box at the top right so I can let you know when new stuff  gets posted. Thanks for staying with me on this journey!

Rainy Day Shots

Before

After

I had seen this shot a couple of times coming up the mountain from town. It was raining and that's what made it more interesting. When it's dry the warm color of these leaves don't pop. So last week it was raining pretty hard and I knew I could get the shot. I set up my camera under the back door of my Jeep Cherokee. Here is an example of the shot using HDR (High Dynamic Range) plus tone mapping, these are plugin filters. The top image shows you what it looked before HDR. I just love using these filters for the range you just can't get with conventional digital.

'bacca barn view

Its been a hard week or so for me. My computer went down, and I am still collecting my work from all the drives. It confirms that even when you are loading something simple you need to back your apps. I learned a lot about how to put back apps on the machine, but I would rather be shooting.

Here is another shot using HDR plus Lucis. Here in NC the farmers call this a 'bacca barn (tobacco). This was a rainy day and you can see what a help HDR is. After working for so many years with film, having such control now is like a miracle.

Save A Tree

This is a tree that is on the Center for Creative Living's land. There is construction going on and at first, the builders wanted to cut this beautiful sculpture down. Can you Imagine That? After it was saved I thought a shot of it would be appreciated. So after the service last Sunday I did an HDR interpretation of it. I also added another plug in filter called lucis, which gives more texture to the shot. Just Havin Fun.  JoeG

Cataloochee School House

I have seen a few videos on the HDR process, and learned some new stuff. Now I need to shoot more and make tests. Here is one from the old school house series.

Can't resist the snow

It snowed last night I went out this morning and shot for a couple of hours. I used HDR and tone mapping again. I had set this table up on a clear day for just this occasion.

Day at Cataloochee State Park

This was really fun shooting. I plan to go back again.