Shapes in Nature

I've always been drawn to the relationship between shapes and the environment and how they interact with, or relate to, each other.  It amazes me how such diametrically opposed shapes can work so well together.

Here are some examples of what I mean.

The softness of the clouds seem to match the curves of the rolling hills while the contrasting rough shapes of the chopped wood add a bit of tension, breaking up the scene's uniformity.  But it all seems to work.  This is nothing new to photography.  People have been composing images (paintings as well as photographs) like this for years.  From what I've noticed in many photo annuals (CA, PDN) there is a new resurgence of this style - minimalism that incorporates contrasting shapes.  It is actually everywhere, both in nature and man-made.

Here's another example.

New Stock Images

I'm getting more and more images onto my stock photography site (see it here). I've been working on it for a while and there is still some tweaking to do, but it's getting there. Images range from New York City, People/Lifestyle, Fine Art and Environment.
Here are some of the new images added this past week.
Traveling to Thailand on December 22nd so will have many more images in January 2010.
Stay tuned...

Vermont Tourism

Spent a week in Vermont shooting people in the environment - specifically at Quechee Gorge. It rained almost every day which created some pressure to get the shots I wanted. One nice thing about an overcast sky is the great quality of light when shooting in the woods.

The project was to capture real people enjoying the beauty of Vermont. It's titled "You Could Be Here"

Here is a selection images. You can see more on my web site under "New Work" (here)

A Strange Ring of Reality

As we end this week I wanted to share two quotes that I find kind of disturbing. The first was from the early 80's - a time when we didn't have a clue, or was not taught, about the effects we have on our environment. The second is just plain funny - although it has a strange ring of reality.

"We've got to pause and ask ourselves: How much clean air do we need?"
— Lee Iacocca,

"When President Chirac gave [President] Bush a souvenir statue of the Eiffel Tower... Bush said 'This is great! A little oil rig!' "
— Jay Leno

What Have We Done

What have we done to our environment? Here are a few of my favorite photos along with two timely quotes.

"For 200 years we've been conquering nature. Now we're beating it to death."
— Tom McMillan

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, Nothing is going to get better. It's not."
— Dr. Seuss

Mother Earth

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. ~Native American Proverb





I'm digging into my achives, showing you the beauty of planet Earth.

Convenient Truths

I was recently reminded of a quote by WC Fields: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There's no point in being a damn fool about it." Two things came to mind when I heard this - the Environment and Photography. Too many times people quit before they've really explored possible outcomes or tried to be successful at something. They are, what I would like to call, believers in the Convenient Truth.
They play it safe, never taking chances - afraid of being the damn fool.
There are times when being "the fool" means that you are the one that will succeed.

Pushing yourself to find new ways of shooting or using PhotoShop or actually believing that we are effecting our planet - and can change our habits in order to survive. These are the ones who will survive.

One of the great things about photography is that we can combine art with what's going on in the world. I recently went through some images in my stock archive on the environmental and noticed that many are about the relationship with our surroundings - how we effect it and play in it. Whether it is how we use and treat our air and water, what we leave behind when hiking and camping or how we travel - we have both a possitive and negative effect on the environment. Once we start truely believing this "Inconvenient Truth" we will begin to convert all the "damn fools" who want to take the Convenient path.

Here are some images from my archive