At times I like to think about the history of where my photos may have been seen.
I seldom get the opportunity to see my work displayed. Ninety nine percent of the time my work is sold to the client never to be seen by me again. For the majority of my work I never see it in print. All too often it is edited then burned to disc (or flash drive) or uploaded to the cloud in the sky. Never do I see the photo hung in someone's home, office or whatever may happen to it.
My computer screen has evolved into my canvas...into my finished print. Even in my home when I think about getting enlargements made and hung, I stop and pause. I think the next image will be even better than the last.
This morning I awoke to fog and fall autumn colors; this is photographer's crack. I placed my daughter on the bus, grabbed my gear, kissed my wife goodbye and headed out into the forest.
As I walk into the woods I am thinking about the photos that I did not take last year and that I am hoping to re-create today (P.S. this can not happen; the light is never the same twice). October, 2011 I spent a great deal of time in the woods trail running through the fog. It was quite beautiful. More time than not I would be yelling at myself to stop running and break out the gear and create something new. I ran.
Today was my redemption! Fog, autumn colors and no will to run. I grabbed my new Nikon D800 36.3MP….this is a serious camera.
What in the hell do I do with 36.3MP? I can crop a photo down to a nose hair and still print an enlargement! Seldom do I do extreme cropping in post production, the bulk of my cropping is done in camera. Is 36.3MP too much? (note: this is not a review of the D800, it is a great camera).
A photo in reverse, creating art to fit the space. A while back I gave myself a photography challenge. The idea was/is to create a photo that would only enhance your environment; to remove the subject. I called this project ambient art. In weddings we create photos that are to be printed in an album. But in art when we do not yet know the destination of the work; how do we create to fit the space?
The easy answer is when it comes to megapixels you can always go smaller but you can never go larger.
For me, I envision my work printed large. Next month I will be having a private show where I will be displaying 20x24 prints. It will be the first time that I will ever see my work in print, with an audience to boot.
The bulk of the work was shot on a camera that was 12MP. A few of the prints will have been shot with 36.3MP. Looking forward to see if I see the difference…..
