Dam birds

[Paula VE]

Fantastic imagery.  The lyrical visual quality of the birds and their lives, the brutal industrial concrete, the endless vitality of the water, and then, the light she so clearly can see and capture.   Great stuff.

Thank you for taking the time to look, and to think, about the dam bird images. I am so honored by the way you describe them, which is exactly what I’d hoped to do but feared I could not.

[Jeremy Roussak]

Thank you so much for the kind words and especially for taking the time to start a discussion on my project. I’m accustomed to submitting or responding to images for feedback in forums, but it was an almost surreal experience to see a topic on my dam bird project started by someone else. I felt so honored! (I’ve been observing since your thread opened but have been flummoxed by LULA’s security protections for posting.)
[/quite]

You're more than welcome. Individually, there are some cracking shots, but as a series they're outstanding.

Trying to respond to your question about the “prize image”: were you asking about “Small Dispute”?? If so, it was a winner in a 2017 state outdoor photo contest with particular constraints. LULA awarded their grant based on the initial application set, with none singled out. Most of the images in this article were shot during the year of the LULA grant and just scattered kinda randomly through the narrative.

Yes, it was the success of "small dispute" which I found a little puzzling. It's a fine shot, without doubt, but there are many others I find more appealing. On the other hand, I am not now nor have I ever been (nor will I ever be, I expect) a competition judge!

Jeremy

[Paula VE]

I agree.
I just visited her website, and there is a fine set from 2016, including the ones in the LuLa article.
And then she returned to the dam this year, and I believe the new images are even stronger that the 2016 ones.
Fantastic work.

Thank you for these kind comments about the dam bird project, and for taking the time to visit my rather limited online portfolio. This has encouraged me to go back and do some updating! It’s a chore I neglect rather badly.

A note about the progression of the dam bird images: I do think I’ve become bolder and taken more photographic risks as I’ve worked through this project. Part of it may that be the validation of winning the LULA award made me bolder in 2017 & 18. But part is that the setting has such severe limitations. The “stage” is a finite size with shooting spots limited to about 40 yards and a fixed angle, so I struggle to find new ways to photograph it. Sometimes the Birds help me out!

[Paula VE]

Fabulous photographic essay, and narrative by the photographer.

Thank you!

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Joining the accolades.

[Paula VE]

Kevin,

A very worthy recipient of the Endowment that Michael started!


alan z

I’m honored that you thought me and the Birds worthy. The endowment is a wonderful gift to the world of photography. I had a chance to promote it on a radio show just last week and will do so again in a newspaper interview next week. We who win these awards can be some of its best spokespeople.

[Paula VE]

It's good to see, this got supported. Great photography. Thanks.

Thank you for the comments, much appreciated. The support from LULA opened doors for me that would not have been opened otherwise.

[Paula VE]

Yes, it was the success of "small dispute" which I found a little puzzling. It's a fine shot, without doubt, but there are many others I find more appealing. On the other hand, I am not now nor have I ever been (nor will I ever be, I expect) a competition judge!

Jeremy

Contests are funny things, it’s true! Each has its own rules, written and unwritten, that drive what’s submitted and what’s ultimately chosen for awards. That particular contest (which is the only one I had ever entered until the LULA competition) is sponsored by the state Wildlife Federation, and I always enter because I’m a big supporter of their work. But it’s honestly not the best fit for my images. It leans towards documentary photography, and rules don’t allow for much post processing, so I have to choose an image that works SOOC. The LULA competition, on the other hand, seemed perfectly OK with the more “fine art” approach I prefer to use. 

[Paula VE]

Joining the accolades.

Any many thanks to you for that! It’s been an humbling experience to read this thread about my work.

[Two23]

She only used M43, not $10,000 worth of camera gear?  How can this be?  Sarcasm aside, what counts isn't image quality, but quality of the image.


Kent in SD

[Robert Roaldi]

A pleasure to look at.

[Paula VE]

She only used M43, not $10,000 worth of camera gear?  How can this be?  Sarcasm aside, what counts isn't image quality, but quality of the image.


Kent in SD

Ah yes, and m43 with a kit lens no less. Heresy . I confess I was nervous the day I picked up my first large prints because of all I’d read and heard about the impossibility of printing an m43 file at any size, but my printer reminded me that it wasn’t so many years ago that 10mp was a huge digital file, and large prints were made regularly from them.

[Paula VE]

A pleasure to look at.

Thank you.

[rdonson]

Brilliant work, Paula!!!

[KenTanaka]

Outstanding project, Paula. I think the real key to your path to success was establishing the conceptual and aesthetic lanes you wanted to follow from the get-go.  That, as you suggest, is fundamental although not always possible until you're ankle-deep into the waters.

A well-deserved winner of this annual award.

[Paula VE]

Brilliant work, Paula!!!

Thank you!

[fdisilvestro]

Outstanding work!

[Ray Harrison]

Paula,
Just when I think that there are fewer opportunities for originality and sheer beauty in either landscape or wildlife photography, you come along and show these qualities in both. Outstanding and inspirational work and may we continue to see more of it here. Your website is now among my bookmarked favorites!


Cheers,
Ray

[Paula VE]

Outstanding work!

Thank you!

[Paula VE]

Outstanding project, Paula. I think the real key to your path to success was establishing the conceptual and aesthetic lanes you wanted to follow from the get-go.  That, as you suggest, is fundamental although not always possible until you're ankle-deep into the waters.

A well-deserved winner of this annual award.

Thank you for this interesting comment. I can’t explain even to myself how I narrowed this project down as quickly as I did because I am typically an experimenter who chases too many rabbits. The first image I made of these birds grabbed me, and it charted our  course for the next year. Once I got the LULA award, I began experimenting more, but within the framework I’d already set.