Picasso Conversation

As I read many photo magazines or art books, even biographies, I like to read about the different ways artists approach creating personally meaningful shots.

I have a friend in Halifax who often goes to the waterfront and shoots the reflections in the harbour. He always seems to find unique shots, while other will present the same basic shot of random reflections.

In February, 2006 I took my tripod and Minolta 7D DSLR with telephoto zoom lens down to Historic Properties in the morning and did a series of shots of the reflection of the sun on the Casino Hotel. What you see here, literally is the sun on the side of the hotel (gold colour) and windows (blue colour) reflected on the water. I believe the hotel was north.

I find our style as photographers to be a matter of editing. Much of what I choose not to show is an effort to develop what I hope is uniquely my own.

Looking through the different compositions later that day I noticed this shot.

I could see two distinct faces, one on the right (with a goatee, even!) talking in to the "ear" of a face on the left. The face on the left seems to have an indifferent or "passive" mouth on the left side, and an angrier "reactive" mouth talking back to the other face.

Superficially I called this shot "Picasso Conversation" due to the design elements and stylized faces.

In a print the colours are very rich. The only Photoshop work I did was levels, +9-ish saturation to recover the "pop" of the reflection and a bit of colour correction to play up the gold undertones.

Bloggy.

I haven't got the steam for a rant at the moment.
I went to the gym and shot baskets for an hour-and-a-half today, to warm up for a wheelchair basketball tournament this weekend.

So I'll post a picture or two and explain what I hope to do with this thing.



This first shot kind of sums up what I do, photographically. Taken in May, 2006, this is one of several shots from the deck of the ferry the night my wife and I made the move from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island. Having a digital SLR, I am able to change the "film" sensitivity to shoot sometimes without a tripod in situations where I'd otherwise need one. There was a very nice graduated sunset over the water, and a fingernail sliver of moon up in the very dark blue. I shot several with the moon in view; very literal shots. I then took the ISO("film" speed) down to a more slow setting and began using the camera's camera chip, where the picture is "taken" as a canvas. I reasoned that I wanted the horizon to be relatively defined, in comparison to the "painting" element of the photo. Of a second-and-a-half exposure time, I tried to hold the horizon where I wanted(to make it more evident) for roughly 3/4 of the time, then "swiped" the camera upwards to paint the other colours the way they are.

I hope to post photos of mine from both my portfolio and new work, and perhaps discuss the thinking behind them and what they mean to me. Please feel free to comment, or check out www.paulvienneau.com, which is my personal website for my work (I am currently updating and re-designing the website for re-launch this month or so).