Forest Dream II

Black and White

I grew up in Alaska and I knew the name of one photographer. The name everyone knew. Ansel Adams. I love his work and the power that it evokes. I love the way black and white focuses you in on the essentials in a picture. And yet, I can hardly bear to shoot any.

I love colour. The bolder the better. The richer the better. I don’t like colour to look too unnatural but I just love amazing colour. When nature presents amazing colour it is that amazing colour I want to capture!

This is a shot I took when I first got my large format camera. The shop I bought it from only had black and white film in stock. I like it. I like it for all the reasons mentioned above. But I’m not sure I can bring myself to do it again…

Rose Garden Rose I

As a photographer I find that I respond strongly to colour. Recently, however, I had a shoot where I had great difficulty achieving the coluor I had in mind. This seeming setback, as so often happens, was really an opportunity in disguise.

Colour profiles are not something I had really been paying attention to. Apart from ensuring that my monitor is calibrated I mainly have been happy just to move around controls until I like what I see. However, the brick wall I hit on this last shoot sent my flying down the rabbit hole of ICC. It just doesn’t seem like it should be all that complicated but the world of colour, like all of God’s creation, is as wide and as deep as you care to explore.

Along the way I came across the work of a great photographer named Joseph Holmes. His gallery is here:

http://www.josephholmes.com/gallery01.html

What this guy has to say about colour I want to know. Recommended reading!

Connor Being A Light Unto The World

Connor Being A Light Unto The World, a photo by Doha Sam on Flickr.

So, I built a beauty dish. On a stick.

I want my son, Connor to assist me with it on a shoot this weekend so I wanted both of us to get some practice with it. Whilst fooling around I got the idea of intentionally firing the flash straight into the lens for some very heavy veiling flare effect. I used a large bounce card to throw some light back on Connor’s face.

I quite like this one.