A common suggestion to photographers is to be working on a project. There are numerous types of projects that one can choose from, but at minimum, a project should capture something you are passionate about and that will help your work stand out from others. In this talk we present the detailed anatomy of my project ‘Nature Images of Haiku’. This anatomy includes, the generation and vetting of the idea, the issues in developing the project including selecting haiku, matching with images, paper selection, printing issues, font selection, generating ancillary material, packaging, permissions, pricing, etc. There are a myriad of issues that impact the quality, presentation and impact of a project and they often require development of skills beyond photography. Developing these skills can be fun, but having a sense of the scope and requirements of a project before beginning is important in seeing the project through to completion.
Bio:
Although born and raised in Florida, I have spent the last 30 years in Boulder, Colorado. On my first trip to Colorado, the open vistas, clear air, exquisite light, and amazing clouds convinced me that this was the place for me. Easy access to the desert Southwest has also introduced me to that visually and emotionally compelling world.
My early experience with photography was in high school where I had a darkroom and did some B&W developing. However, I was more connected with music than photography. For decades my artistic outlet was musical, with a concentration in Renaissance and Baroque performance practice on woodwinds performing with a variety of ensembles.
Approximately twelve years ago, with the evolution of digital photography my interest was re-ignited. On family hikes I was now the one falling behind because I was capturing images. However, this was all snapshot work. Dissatisfied with snapshots, I was lucky to become aware of many fine art photographers. I followed their work, took workshops and classes and gradually evolved my own focus. From the panoply of excellent photographers I count Alain Briot, Tony Sweet, Bruce Percy, Michael Kenna, Guy Tal and Cole Thompson among important contemporary influences.
I have been fortunate to travel to over 50 countries and all the U.S. states and to photograph seriously in a number of them. The more I traveled, the more it became clear that people and journalistic photography were not my calling. Rather, the chaos of the cities led me to the landscape, to a world less directly connected to people, a world that could cut through the chaos and touch something basic and fundamental at our core.
Thus my photography has evolved to a goal and aesthetic of trying to capture, as simply as possible, my perception of the essence of places, in particular natural environments. For it is this essence which has the power to reach through our often cluttered and chaotic mental and emotional states and resonate with our deepest being.