Newsletter - February 2021 |
|
It's hard to believe that it's been six months since my last newsletter - it feels like three. Our sense of time seems really distorted while we endure this COVID nightmare. Anyway, sanity can be achieved by keeping in touch with friends and loved ones.
Roy
|
|
The photographs in this newsletter, plus all other new photographs since the last newsletter, can be seen at the "New Photographs" Folder on my website, which is the first Folder at www.roysewallphotography.com/photographs. They are also duplicated in their appropriate Folders/Galleries. |
|
In 2016 I got in line at a mall with 350 other people to order a Tesla Model 3 on the first day possible. I then waited 2.5 years for it to arrive.(So waiting 6 weeks for a Canon R5 is a piece of cake.)
I wanted to take a unique photograph of it, something that I had not seen before. I set up on a tripod and focused before sunset, waited until it was completely dark outside, and turned off all the house lights. I then took a shot with a long shutter time while I walked from the front to the back while aiming a 9" x 6" LED panel at the car, and repeated this a few times. There were many false starts, such as when the LED light got into the frame. Four frames were combined in Photoshop.
The Night Creature is, of course, now my Desktop image. Since this photograph is like nothing else on the website, it has led to the creation of a new Folder called "Completely Random Cool Stuff."
|
|
These next two photos are admittedly a bit strange. You will NEVER guess how they were created, and why they seem to have a similar feel.
I made a second visit to the extraordinary Library of Congress a few years ago with the intention of doing "something different." So I started swiping the colorful rooms with a long shutter speed - why not? The results were quite unexpected.
In the first photo below the central figure was shaped more like a horizontal cigar. I carved it roughly into the shape of a human while keeping all the feel of the light and delicate streaks. "Return to the Mothership" is now part of the "Mysterra > Not Yet Themed" Folder/Gallery on the website.
|
|
To many viewers the scene below evokes waves along a mountainous coastline. The geese flew into the Library of Congress at exactly the right moment. The photo is now part of the "Great Outdoors > Nature's Mysteries" Folder/Gallery on the website. |
|
It feels so right to me to make a poster when a series of photographs is required to tell a story.
At the peak of an out-of-control guitar-buying frenzy I had 8 guitars. Reluctantly, I sold all but my three favorites I recently photographed them in my studio, and then turned them into 24" x 36" posters. All three posters now comprise the "Posters and Polyptychs > Guitars" Folder/Gallery on the website.
|
|
From the Guitar Poster Collection |
|
In the "Posters and Polyptychs > Cuba" Folder/Gallery on the website is a pair of posters about Cuba's wonderful people (below) and their old American cars. |
|
DC History Center Webinar |
|
In the last newsletter I discussed Joel Hoffman's and my 9-year 16th Street Project, and how we had donated our full collection to the DC History Center. Our project will be the subject of an interactive webinar planned by the Center for this coming Saturday, February 20 from 2:00-3:30. The hopes are that the audience will include photographers who are interested in documenting various sections of the city. The Center will explain their interest in documenting the city, then Joel and I will describe the 16th Street Project. Finally, a few photographers’ documentary photos will be critiqued by us to help reinforce guidance about such works.
To register, please go to:
100% of the proceeds go directly to the DC History Center to help their very worthy cause.
|
|
There is a broad range of architectural styles on 16th Street |
|
To repeat from the last newsletter: there should be no rules in photography, but we should be aware of human nature - how people are likely to react. And viewers' visceral reactions appear to be driven by subject, light, composition, and color (or black-and-white tones).
I mentioned the importance of managing the visual weight of various elements in the frame. Contributors to an element's visual weight are: size, position in the frame, brightness, sharpness, contrast, warm colors, and saturation (added since last newsletter).
Regarding position in the frame, we'll now look at how even very small elements in the perimeter of an image, and especially in the corners, can have a LOT of visual weight. Our eyes can't help but go look at them. Is that where you want the viewer to go looking?
Consider the first photograph below, of a striking sunrise reflected on calm water. The reeds along the bottom have a lot of visual weight: once you notice them you will keep going back to them whether you want to or not. They are a huge distraction.
|
|
Sunrise at Bombay Hook, as captured |
|
In this processed version of the same photo the reeds along the bottom margin were removed as was the fuzzy stuff along the top right margin. The resulting image is MUCH better (and a major award winner), even though the corrected elements were very small. We should try to avoid capturing junk in the perimeter of the image in the first place, but if we didn't or couldn't, it's so constructive to "clean the image" back on the computer. |
|
Sunrise at Bombay Hook, cleaned up |
|
As an instructor for the Capital Photography Center I continue to offer a number of on-line interactive classes: "Taking Your Photography to the Next Level," "Meet and Critique" sessions, and private critique sessions. These classes are typically scheduled one or two months in advance, so please check their website periodically:
Outside of Capital Photography Center I run other intermediate and advanced critique groups and provide one-on-one instruction.
|
|
From behind the blaze of streaking fall colors, he checks to be sure the coast is clear. (Now part of the "Mysterra > Not Yet Themed" Folder/Gallery on the website.) |
|
Contact Info for Roy Sewall Photography |
|
Commitment to:
Excellence
Continued artistic and technical growth
Customer satisfaction
My community
Mentoring and supporting other local photographers
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
