Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: bill t. on June 07, 2011, 12:09:14 am
-
Have had some woeful threads here lately bemoaning crowding, bureaucracy, and other bothers at iconic southwest locations.
Well, here's a guy with superb vision and technique to die for, and he has somehow managed to make photo magic without too much reliance on cliche locations. I'm pretty much in awe.
http://cecilwhitt.smugmug.com/galleries
-
Thanks for sharing the link, Bill! There was a tweet from Joe McNally today, quoting Jay Maisel: " I'm sorry, I can't teach you how to be interesting".
Mike.
-
Bookmarked, many thanks!
-
Hello,
Sorry for my poor english. I came back from South Coyotte buttes and took some pictures. Could you tell me how you treated yours. Do you use photoshop to accentuate the colours?
Best regards
-
Great work that supports the theory that success is attributed by shooting 99% of the work near sunrise or sunset...................and the other minor details pointed out by Bill.
-
Don't forget to take a look at his bio it's a great read.
Amazing work!
-
Yeah, the bio is painfully wonderful. We've seen other examples of hyper-intensely focused creative individuals on these forums, it seems to be what it takes to make real art.
Hi Prahaut, those aren't my images. If you are interested in that kind of tonality look at Tony Kuyper's site (http://goodlight.us/index.html) including the tutorials. He charges a very modest fee for a set of PS actions that can change your life.
-
Great work that supports the theory that success is attributed by shooting 99% of the work near sunrise or sunset...................and the other minor details pointed out by Bill.
I have to confess that these shots don't do much for me. Everyone seems to get up early in the morning nowadays and shoot the same nice colorful scenery. Personally, I prefer muddy, dark and gritty landscapes. Storm clouds, fog wavering over the hills, diffuse light, pouring rain and rushing water. But I fully understand that for commercial success, one has to shoot upbeat, sunrise/sunset colors - which is why I'm glad to be an amateur only. ;)
-
Well the best landscapes are really about transcendence, where nature shimmers elegantly between reality and some deeper exquisite something.
At Magic Hour transcendence taps you on the shoulder and says "cheese." But you can also find it, for instance, in the middle of a perfectly rendered afternoon where all is right with the world. And of course new fallen snow is easy. And even mud, fog, rain and whatever provided you have the right psychological lens set at the correct metaphysical focus.
The implication of transcendence makes for very appealing imagery because at a deep level people badly want to experience something beyond the ordinary. Or at least they want to have an occasional moment when everything is not as screwed up as usual. And if your imagery can manage to apply a coating of transcendence on top of the scenery that surrounds people on an everyday basis, you have given them a sort of salvation.
To wit, the best selling image of all time in the US is Maxfield Parrish's "Daybreak." Not only does it transcend ordinary corrupt physical reality, it also ever-so-daintily transcends everyday morality with just a twist of modest, skinny-dipping Paganism. It is often claimed that in the early 20th Century 1/4 of American homes had a copy of this print. I'm not saying this image is necessarily good, I'm just saying transcendence sells.
Signing off, canvases to coat before it gets too hot, how un-transcendent is that.
(http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/parris2a.jpg)
-
Stunning work. His bio is so honest. I love it. Says a lot about the man. I'd see there isn't a pretentious cell in his body. and sweet divine. Those locations. I want to go there.
-
"Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real
are never communicated man to man.
The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable
as the tints of morning and evening."
Henry David Thoreau
-
What is unique in Cecil Whitt´s work is the control of light and his post processing. Never over the top in terms of saturation which is the general problem with american landscape photographers. Simply wonderful stuff. Bravo Cecil! I am envious. ;)