Photography Thinks
So, you go to a class expecting some instruction. Heisler appears with a raft of cameras. He plays with them. Shows you some of his work and then dares you to go out and shoot to kill, just like he does.
“I won’t keep this a secret,” he says. Someone taught him, mentored him and opened doors to the universe of photography that he gleefully walked through.
They be his babies. He shoots with them; fixes and repairs them; and loves them for what they should and could do.
Metalsmiths shape metal by hitting it after it has been heated in a furnace. An ancient art, it has probably been around since the Hittites, a 14th century bce group that hung out in an area which is now Turkey. Without metalsmiths, there may not have been wars, agribusiness or beauty accessories. The Morrell family, Dad Leigh and Son Justin, practice the craft, today, at Morrell Metalsmiths, relying on the same skills and knowledge as the first people with hammers to produce high quality decorations for home and office.
Farmers have smarts. They need to be vets, businessmen, and dedicated. Milk the cows in the morning. Milk the cows in the evening. Feed them. Keep them healthy. No days off. And they have to relate to cows, some of the dumbest animals God put on earth, but without whom we would not have chocolate milk or porterhouse steaks.
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Doctors told her that she had a better chance of winning the lottery than having a baby. She kept trying, despite the challenge of a rebelling body and an uncooperative mind. The baby came, requiring her to make choices. She has her idea of what a kid should be. He reflects her care and love.
I never shot a baby before. Lot of work. They don’t know what photographers require of them and they don’t care.
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Photographers create beauty. To take beautiful pictures, a photographer needs a beautiful person. When the person loves herself and lets the camera see it, beauty reflects. The camera facilitates the observation, but without the committment of the model to sharing, it don’t happen.
Phase II Final Assignment called for a revealing self-portrait. One of my classmates who drinks milk and says the white liquid defines her will submit an image of her in front of a milk locker in a grocery store. Me! On the wall hangs a portrait done by Gregory Heisler during orientation in January. Making people see more in themselves as he does defines my quest at Hallmark.
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Phase II finals at Hallmark Institute of Photography. Just about half way through the program. Only recently did I think I was getting it.
Environmental still life. Flowers from Sigda in Greenfield. Potatoes from Fosters in Greenfield. Beer stein from the Salvation Army in Greenfield. Contact paper and drawer lining from the $ store in Greenfield. Blue blotter paper from some stationary store. Total expenditures around $15, not including gas.
My potato head came up with the idea. A kid accompanying his sister on a tour of the commercial studio, turned to his mother and inquired, “isn’t that Mr. Potato Head?” Frenchy replied, “who does it look like, you idiot?” “What’s he doing here,” the kid asked? “I am a photographer.”
But the real problem was that I couldn’d find furniture to scale. Seems like they don’t make furniture for real size dolls anymore. Wanted a TV or a computer to throw light. Settled for strobes. Gels colored the set too strongly, so I post processed in Lightroom3.
Never did anything like this before.