Save 20% on the Print of the Month – Hot Springs Zen. Captured on my trip to Honshu Island, Japan in February of 2013 I feel this shot perfectly represents much of what has been discovered about the Japanese Macaques, or snow monkeys, and their relationship with the hot springs in this location. According to this recent New York Times article, the monkeys use the hot baths to warm up and reduce their stress levels, much like I do when I hop in the hot tub after a long stretch of travel!
Years back, student Angels Gazquez Espuny of Spain interviewed Art for a school project. The title was “The Artist’s Psychology”, and considering that Art has made his Photography As Art seminar a continued exploration into the subject matter in the years since, it seemed like a timely re-post! Enjoy!
From your experience, what is art and what is an artist?
A true artist is an individual who creates from their soul be they a musician, writer, dancer, sculptor, painter or photographer etc…They have a need to express themselves in a creative way, revealing a part of themselves in the process. To restrict their creative outlet, whatever it may be, whether they sell their work or not, is to imprison their soul.
Art is a journey, for both the artist and the viewer. An artist will grow and mature over time. Myself, I began with a more realist approach to my painting and photography and have trended towards a greater appreciation for the abstract as I have followed my own journey. The same is true for the viewer. At one point in your life you may not ‘get it’ when you look at another’s artwork; perhaps it is too abstract or unusual; but later in life you may return to these same pieces and see them from an entirely new perspective, appreciating them in a way you couldn’t have before. Everyone sees and interprets art from their own experiences. It is because of this that you can’t simply define “art” or an “artist”, each is an ever changing and growing interpretation for the individual.
For me personally, the highest form of art is something that enriches the viewer and speaks to them evoking an emotional response from within. I fill my home with art, both my own and pieces I have collected during my travels all over the world. Some are highly prized pieces such as centuries old Native American baskets but they run all they way down to simple indigenous crafts I have picked up for a few dollars. I have even transformed my yard over the years into a work of art inspired by the Chinese paintings of the Haung Shan landscapes.
I am an artist, I have been since a child. It was when I was a young boy in middle school the teachers, upon seeing my paintings, were so moved, that they actually paid me for my work. It was right then that I knew I would make a living selling my art, my creations, and I have followed that path ever since. My roots are set deeply in painting. I went to the University of Washington receiving my degree in Fine Arts and I saw this as my path. It was only in my 20s that I would transition to a photography and make my name as a wildlife photographer and in my journey, now at 60 years old, I find myself returning to my roots as a painter more and more.
Why and what motivates you to create, what do you normally create?
As I said before, I am an artist and I have that same drive inside me that all true artists feel which continues to motivate me even after nearly 40 years. When I return from a trip my mind is instantly seeking out the next opportunity – whether it is with my camera in the field, a studio session, or time with paint and a brush, as an artist I will never rest.
I have always been a strong conservationist, even as a child. I grew up spending more time outside than inside exploring the woods near my home in West Seattle, Washington getting to know every bird, reptile, mammal, and plant I could find. At a young age I could see the need to protect and preserve our fragile natural resources. I strive to capture the natural beauty in works of art with the hope that it will inspire the viewer, evoke that emotional response, to see the need to preserve and protect our diminishing resources.
In my career as a photographer, I first began photographing animals and landscapes and that is perhaps what I am most well known for. Over the years, traveling the world, I was fortunate enough to encounter the elusive animals that inhabit the remote corners of our planet, and at the same time I got to know and appreciate the indigenous people that inhabit these lands as well. Their culture in many cases remains intact as it has been for countless generations. Getting to know these cultures, fostered an appreciation for the beauty of their approach to life and balance with the planet. With a career spanning over 30 years, I have images in my archive that can not be replicated today as cultures give way to outside influences.
Traveling the world I have also been exposed to a wide variety of religions and practices giving me an appreciation for the beauty you can find in each. Over time I have found myself bringing home more and more creations around culture and religion from these travels.
Lastly, as I get older I find myself drawn more and more to the abstract. The photographs you find me taking today are less often about the grand scenic landscape and more often about intimate details, abstracting the elements in the natural world to tell a different kind of story, but one rooted in the same motivation for protecting and preserving the natural wonders of our planet.
Do you think an artist is born or grows with age?
I believe both statements are true. One is born with certain passions in their soul. No matter your level of physical fitness, if you don’t have a passion to climb mountains, you won’t be a mountain climber, that is a drive I believe you have deep inside of you and an artist’s drive is no different. You are born with this drive to create though not necessarily the talent to pull it off, for talent comes with time. This is how an artist grows with age. Some may be self-taught, others classically trained, and it’s the rare exception that may be inherently talented, but even with those, I would argue that you can see their work grow and transform over time as they follow their journey.
Whether your art form is photography, painting, music, whatever…talk with any artist and they will tell you of a journey where they grew as an artist, honing their craft, focusing their talents, changing with time and improving with each creation.
And I continue to evolve, I have taken photos in the last 3 years that I never would have seen just 5 years ago – at 60 years old I continue to get better, look objectively at my art, improve on it and move forward, never stagnating. I will be growing as an artist so long as I am still able to create.
Do you have any reference artists & what inspires you?
I am inspired by the works of many classical and contemporary artists. You will see direct evidence of influences from Jackson Pollack in my work in a composition showcasing the random line and chaos which can be found in nature. I have also long admired the work of dutch artist M.C. Escher. I have photographs that I explicitly composed with his repeating geographic patterns in mind such as the repeating black and white of a tightly composed image of penguins in the artic. As I am photographing in the field, a scene will unfold before me reminding me of a particular artist’s style and I will compose my image drawing upon this style.
As a lifetime student of art, the list of artists inspiring me is a long one. You’ll find all the usual suspects such as Salvador Dali, Renoir, Van Gogh as well as more contemporary artists such as Keith Haring, Jacob Lawrence, Mark Toby… To visit my library at home would provide you an understanding as it is filled with art books spanning the centuries, it would be far too difficult to try and list everyone I draw from here.
Additionally I am also influence and inspired by the original artists, those who left their art on rock and cave walls 10-30 thousand years ago in Australia, southwestern US and the caves of Spain and France. They were true artists abstracting their subjects, suggesting movement and exaggerating their features. They were not simply recoding exactly what they saw, they were creating art.
Lastly, I am inspired by the beauty of nature. The intricate designs you find everywhere you look, from a curled fiddle wad of a young fern to the beautiful colors in the wings of a McCaw. This is why I keep doing what I do, I love nature and all her beauty and I want to share this with everyone in the hopes that they too will fall in love and understand why we need to protect this precious gift.
Do you consider yourself an artist?
Absolutely. Art is my passion and I have been following that passion my entire life.
Last week I shared a terrific few days with fellow photographers in Atlanta, Georgia. We were able to get to a couple very gritty and unsettling locations, but the results were well worth any discomfort – psychological or physical. We even had local law enforcement provide a security escort through one location, though I was more weary of the spirits and specters hiding in the corner of these extra-creepy locations than anything a security guard may have been able to handle!
Thrills and chills aside, our group was able to explore some immensely unique locations and come away with unique shots that I guarantee won’t be confused for your run-of-the-mill travel photographs. I had a fantastic time on this trip, and the talented insightful participants as well as our local support made for a welcome return to workshops after my brief but necessary hiatus.
I am looking forward to scheduling more Abstract field workshops, and your input is always welcome. Abstract NOLA comes to mind! If you have any suggestions on somewhere you’ve visited or even a location in your own home town that would provide opportunities for a great abstract workshop, let me know in the comments! I’m constantly looking for new places to explore, and word of mouth is the best way to find them!
Now that I’m getting back to traveling, I’m reminded of all the details that come along with doing so – and some tips that can make the whole process a lot less stressful! Since it’s top of mind, I figured I would share on this #TravelTuesday!
•If you travel more than six times a year, it is worthwhile to get Global Entry, Nexus (US & Canada only) or TSA Precheck (domestic only)
•Have a detailed packing list and start packing well in advance of your trip so you have time to obtain any necessary items, such as prescriptions, before you go. Don’t forget your adapters, cables, and extra batteries for all your devices! A portable power pack is a good way to ensure you won’t run out of juice if you’re unable to charge your devices.
•Check the CDC for any necessary immunizations you might need before your travels.
•Acclimatization is critical. Set your watch to the local time of your destination. Try to sleep on the plane or stay awake depending upon the time. Use earplugs, noise cancelling headphones, and eyepatches.
•Flying with expensive camera gear. Take your camera bag with the majority of your gear in the plane cabin with you. Check big, heavy lenses.
•Enroll in STEP — Smart Traveler Enrollment Program — with the State Department before your overseas trip. If you lose your passport, this will make it much easier to get a new one. Always carry a photocopy of your passport.
•Always get trip insurance. Yes, insurance is a gamble. It will add expense to your trip, but it may save you a bundle as well!
Join Gavriel Jecan in Katmai, Alaska for a photography workshop in a one-of-a-kind location! Along with trusted Pilot and guide Jerry Jacques, be one of a small group of 8 participants photographing the wilderness and wildlife alongside a pair of professionals and experts on shooting in this unique National Park.
Gavriel started photographing at the age of 12 when his father gave him his first SLR camera. His appreciation of photography grew while photographing black-and-white on family hiking trips in the mountains. His love of nature, rock climbing and traveling inspired him to become a professional photographer.
In 1994 Gavriel joined Art Wolfe, Inc. and he traveled extensively with Art the world over. He was a member of the Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge TV field crew and teaches photography around the world on his own photo tours and Art Wolfe, Inc. The quality and scope of Jecan’s shooting has gained him representation by the world’s largest stock photography agencies (Getty, Corbis, Danita Delimont, OnAsia, and Okapia).
Gav’s images appear regularly in calendars and magazines worldwide, including International Wildlife, Backpacker, Audubon, National Geographic, Midwest Express, Nature Foto, German Geo, Asian Geo, Outside, Sinra, Terre Sauvage etc. He has published five children’s books: C for Coyote, Wild Colors, Alaska Animal Babies, Hide and Seek, and South West Colors.
For the last decade Gavriel has specialized in Southeast Asian locations. He lives in Thailand with his family.
Sign up now for Gavriel’s Katmai Alaska Workshop before it’s sold out – and check out the Katmai episode of Where’s Art? if you’re unfamiliar with this location!
This past week I got the chance to have a conversation with Mitch Stringer and discuss my recovery from surgery, upcoming workshops, and the goals I have for both myself and workshop participants who travel with me. This edition is mostly an audio podcast as I haven’t been on many trips as of late, but there is some important information about upcoming workshops throughout our conversation. I can’t wait to get back out on the road, and I’m so appreciative of how quickly these workshops are selling out! I hope you enjoy this extended conversation with Mitch, and stay tuned for more episodes of “Where’s Art?” from upcoming workshops!
This May, I’ll be leading a brand new retreat originating in Pacific Grove, California with an exclusive opportunity to join for just five participants. We will capture the beauty synonymous with this location as well as integrating many of the themes of my Abstract Astoria and Atlanta Workshops, as well as my Photography As Art seminars.
Without further ado, here are the Top 10 Reasons to Attend the Pacific Grove Retreat in May!
1. Visit a gorgeous location on California’s fabled Monterey Bay!
2. Limited to just five attendees, there will be plenty of face time for each participant.
3. Take your photography to the next level in this masterclass with two world-class instructors.
4. Free entry to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where I will be giving a brown-bag lunch talk.
5. Go kayaking and photograph otters with the world’s premier nature photographer; if you’ve never kayaked before, rest assured we will have trained guides so you can focus on your photos!
6. Great food! We will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo in a region renowned for its great cuisine. We will dine together, and I *may* have a margarita or two!
7. Explore the region that inspired the likes of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston.
8. Get your photography portfolio reviewed! Gavriel Jecan and myself will look at everyone’s work and provide constructive feedback that you’ll be able to carry with you onto future trips.
9. Receive a copy of my limited edition book HUMAN CANVAS.
10. Experiential learning at its best. It’s my hope that the lessons you learn on this retreat will be referenced on your travel and photography adventures moving forward.
Spaces on this retreat are extremely limited, and some are already spoken for – sign up today to ensure your spot!
When photographing stars and star trails in the night sky, you’ll first need to decide which type of composition you are aiming to create – pin points of light, or long streaks of star trails. Ideally you’ll also want to find a location away from populated areas to ensure as little artificial light as possible is illuminating the atmosphere.
Now is a great time to experiment with photographing stars as the week of the new moon in April has been designated “National Dark-Sky Week“, when all are encouraged to turn their down or out at night to decrease light pollution. I wouldn’t count on all your neighbors to participate in this little-known event and advocate getting far away from population centers to achieve the best possible results – but it’s definitely something to mention when you are posting your fantastic new star photos to social media to raise awareness!
For pin-point stars, set your shutter speed to 30 seconds; any longer and the points of light start to become ovals and the image takes on a blurry look – especially if you are including our own Milky Way galaxy. Set your lens to it’s widest aperture and the ISO to 1600 or higher and expose. With a high ISO some noise will be apparent, especially in the darker areas of the image. Editing software like Lightroom or Photoshop can help reduce noise quite a bit.
If your goal is to capture star trails – the elongated streaks of light that arc across the image, you will need a much longer exposure than 30 seconds – anywhere from 10 minutes to several hours. how long depends on the focal length of your lens and the effect you wish to achieve. Just as longer telephoto lenses will “magnify” movement such as camera shake while hand-holding it, a longer lens means less time before star trails become apparent in your image. Telephoto zooming will make the small details larger, so using a 400 mm lens will yield short but definite star trails. With a wide angle lens, a 16 mm for example, you will need at least 30 minutes of exposure before you begin to see decent star trails in your final image. For arcs of light to traverse the majority of the night sky you are generally looking at exposures of 2-5 hours.
In the days of film, you would simply leave your shutter one for the entire exposure using the bulb setting to manually open and close the shutter and your wristwatch to time the event. However, in the digital age you cannot leave your shutter open for that long without the risk of damaging the sensor and creating an exponential build-up of noise in the image. Rather than exposing for 2 hours straight, for the purpose of this example, you can shoot 240 thirty-second exposures (to equal 2 hours) and then later “stack” the images using a variety of software packages like Adobe Photoshop.
So then the question becomes “How do I take 240 exposures over the course of a couple hours?”. Certainly you could sit there with your cable release and click the button every 30 seconds, and if you only ever plan on attempting this technique once, perhaps that sounds like a fun way to spend a few hours. If you’d like to truly explore photographing the stars in this way, you’ll want to invest in a cable release with an interval timer, or an “intervalometer”. This device can be configured to work with your camera to control it in a number of ways. In this case you could set it to trigger your exposures for 30 seconds over a course of several hours while you catch some rest before setting up for the next shot.
One of the more overlooked and crucial aspects of capturing quality images of stars is to pay just as much attention to what is on the ground as to what is in the sky. You’ll want to incorporate interesting elements from the landscape around you; mountain peaks protruding into the sky, whole trees or branches, rock formations, saguaro cactus – etc. You will need to tell the complete story so the viewer can appreciate not only the stars but where you were when you created such a striking image.
When including the foreground elements you have several choices as to how to handle them. First you can allow them to be silhouettes by simply photographing the scene after the sun has set using their forms as artistic elements in the image – this is perhaps the easiest and most common approach. The second approach is to begin creating your photograph prior to the setting of the sun, at dusk. Capture your lower foreground elements in an image at sunset and then leave the camera undisturbed on the tripod. Once the sun has completely gone and you are ready to shoot the star trails as before. Later in post processing when you are stacking your images together you will have the dimly lit view of the landscape to include in your overall composition. Now is this cheating? No. This is simply the same technique I have used for years with slide film when I would create a dual exposure on the same slide, one at sunset followed by a several hour exposure later in the night without moving the camera. Stacking is simply how you achieve the same result in the digital age due to the delicate sensor.
The last technique I have used involves artificially lighting the foreground elements in your landscape. Using a light source such as a flashlight, powerful search light or even a flash unit you can manually paint light over the foreground images during your 30 second exposures. It takes practice to go over the foreground elements just right, if you pass over an area too many times you will create a hot spot, miss an area and it will be dark, but when all you have is a flashlight to “paint with” there is nothing to tell you where you’ve been and where you have yet to go. So practice with this and over time you will be pleased with what you are able to paint in the dark. Here in the northwest snow camping is a popular winter time activity and lights inside of your tent or igloo make for wonderful glowing foreground elements in these compositions.
When shooting star trails you have two basic choices for where to point the camera. You can either create concentric circles of light around a single point in the sky by aiming at the the North Star (Polaris) for those photographing in the Northern Hemisphere, or arcs of light by pointing your camera in any other direction. Be aware of which you are choosing to compose and include your foreground elements for framing and balance accordingly. Unfortunately there is no convenient star in the southern hemisphere to point your camera directly towards so you’ll need to find that magic spot some other way.
Lastly there are some atmospheric conditions to be concerned with when photographing all night – namely condensation on the lens. I have shot start trails in many areas of the world such as the dry deserts of Utah and Namibia where condensation is not a concern but if you were to shoot them with say the sea stacks of the pacific coast you’ll be battling fogging on your lens throughout the night. One approach is to use a small battery operated fan to blow a steady wind across your lens to keep it dry. A second, perhaps easier approach, is to tape hand warmers around your lens, the kind hikers and skiers use. You’ll need several and they are only good for one night worth of shooting but they will help keep your lens warm and dry.
Finally, to reiterate one of my first points – you need really dark skies. Pick a time when there is no moon or just barely a sliver and choose a location as far away and sheltered from the lights of near by cities as possible. For the pacific northwest where I live this means heading into the mountains, which make for great foreground subjects to include in the composition.
Enjoy, and I hope to see your photos show up on my social media pages in the coming weeks, and don’t forget to mention National Dark-Sky Week!
Due to popular demand I’ve added several new workshops and retreats to the 2018 calendar, as well as an epic photo journey to Japan in February of 2019! Many new additions involve the Pacific Northwest, so If you’ve been meaning to join me in the part of the world I reside in and know inside and out, now is the time to get signed up for a workshop!
Building on the success of last year’s Hawaii retreat, we’ve added another to the calendar this year. As always, my goal in visiting each location is to teach you to see and capture the shots you won’t find anywhere else; the interesting perspectives and details that will give your photographic eye unique vision to capture the less obvious.
These workshops tend to fill up quickly – many 2018 workshops are already full – and several are right around the corner! Sign up today to ensure your spot!
An intimate and extensive new Photography Retreat is just around the corner! On the heels of wonderful feedback regarding both our Abstract Workshops and the more intimate Photography Retreats, I’m pleased to offer up the opportunity to join me on a very exclusive trip to Pacific Grove, California where we will spend four days and nights together photographing the beautiful sights of this location.
Gavriel Jecan and myself will lead a group limited to just five participants for full days working in the field, critiquing your captures, and dining together at several of the area’s reputable restaurants. We will focus on capturing unique abstract landscapes, and will also emphasize introducing you to new ways to see and capture the beautiful natural landscapes to ensure that you come away with much, much more than just your standard travel photos. My goal as usual is to challenge you the same way I challenge myself to come away with unique visions rather than simply parroting the standard postcard shot you might find at the local gift shop.
Assuming cooperation from local wild life, we also plan to photograph sea otters via kayak from the serene waters of the local sloughs. Fear not if the idea of kayaking is new to you – the waters are placid and we will have guides to ensure safety!
This workshop is coming together very quickly and beings on May 2nd. Only a few spots remain available so visit the events page for more information and sign up today!
