Saturday, January 25, 2014

Week 3 of a Year of Photography and Art


Week 3 and the unusually cold weather continues. The challenge, in addition to fighting a wicked cold, has been to create photographs I find appealing and engaging. I'm longing to be outside but reluctant to expose myself to the weather - so, for the most part, I'm forced to focus on what is near to me.

Day 15 I created an abstract out of the scratches on a fence my dog makes as he tries to scale the wood chasing squirrels.


Day 16 is a photograph of a WWI Army wool uniform jacket, "Ike" style. I love the thick heavy wool and the brass buttons. This jacket came from my grandfather, and I love it. But I don't wear it any more, and I've decided to let it go to someone who would wear it or use it. So in preparation for "releasing" the jacket I have been making photographic studies of it.


Day 17 I met up with two friends for a day's outing - I layered on clothes, loaded up with cold medications, cough drops and kleenex and set out. It was exciting and exhausting - a day spent with like-minded friends and my camera is priceless. This is old barn, near a house that is being restored, the lowering sun was shooting over the mountains and the light was lovely. Somewhere outside of Frederick, Maryland.


Days 18, 19, and 20 found me recovering from my exertions and hunkering down to stay warm and nurse my cold.



Day 18 is a collection of found feathers I keep on the kitchen windowsill just as the morning sun started to streak in.




Day 19 is my dog, Bear, looking out into the back yard. I caught him just as he licked his lips.


Day 20 is a composition of a rose and a book at my bedside.
Day 21 was a day long snow storm, periodically I bundled up and ventured out into the blowing wind to try and use my macro to catch a snow flake. The snow was very dry so catching individual flakes was the easy part, dealing with the cold and the wind was more of a challenge. But, for a first attempt at macro snow flakes I was satisfied. I have more work to do, but I also have some idea of what I need to work on.


If you would like to see my work on a daily basis, as well as other projects I undertake, please follow me on Facebook at my page, tART - Photography and Art by Terry Rowe,  https://www.facebook.com/tarrowe.













Thursday, January 16, 2014

Week 1 of a Year of Photography and Art

This year I will create a work of photographic art every day - some days it will be a photograph taken that day, some days it will be a photograph processed in the digital darkroom for that day, and other days it will be a photographic composition created for that day. This is my fifth "project" year - previous years have been all photographs. This year I want to incorporate some photographic compositions, story pictures, digital painting.


Day 1 is a photograph of a daguerreotype in an old leather case that I found in an antique shop. I wondered who this young man was, who loved him, who did he love. Someone treasured him, enough to have a picture of him, enough to keep his picture.

I enjoy still life photography - the challenge to create the composition, imagine the story, and then capture the image.









Days 2 and 3 were explorations of digital painting.















Day 4 was a visit to Arlington National Cemetery. I wanted to photograph the Christmas wreaths put on the graves, especially with the snow still on the ground.

 Day 5 a still life of tulips in a window sill with digital painting and some textures.


 Day 6 found me traveling to the banks of the Potomac River to photograph one of my favorite trees, a sycamore on the banks of the river.

Day 7 a still life photograph of an old book, leather bound book and a costume jewelry right with the word, FLY. The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde is a story is about a golden prince and a swallow, about love and sacrifice.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

A Romantic, Gothic Novel of a Picture

On my first visit to Ireland I was a bit giddy (and greedy) about all the ruins and castles and ancient structures. Within an hour of landing in the country, barely a few miles from the Shannon airport, we pulled the car off the road to photograph the ruins of a castle sitting in a farmer's field.

We parked on the side of the road and walked through an open gate onto the field where the ruins stood - tall stone walls - and I was thrilled. A few quick shots and we were back on the road, letting the farm dog across the lane relax his guard against the brazen intruders and the farmer back to his plowing.

The day was bright but cloudy and drizzling (as it was for much of our visit). The stone walls dark against the bright sky. Later, much later, in the digital dark room I created the image I wanted to capture - a romantic, gothic novel of a picture.

Following is an abbreviated visual of how I got the picture I wanted to take, how I created the picture I wanted to make.

The castle ruins as photographed






The castle ruins with a more dramatic sky
Atmosphere and mood added
A bit more moodiness, a moon and some ravens.


Sunday, January 5, 2014

Exploring Digital Painting

As an artist I explore many avenues of expression - always searching, experimenting, exploring different techniques and methods to create the vision I have in mind.

My main tool for expressing my vision is a camera, and the photographs I take are often just the base of the final piece of work I present. I use the digital darkroom to modify my photographs, to tranform the image I captured into the vision I have in mind.

What follows is an example of what I do with a photograph. This is an image I took of a blooming red Camelia, surrounded by snow from a recent storm. The red flower in the snow was striking, but it also reminded me of all the color that will come with warmer weather in the spring.

Here is the original photograph.


I took this image into the digital darkroom, Adobe Photoshop, and made modifications. I used different brushes to paint in the colors of spring, layering shades of the flower's own warm red into the background. All together the working file had ten layers of enhancements and painted effects. Finally, I cropped the image into a square shape.

This image is the result.


I was looking to create a glowing picture of the beauty found in winter, and the promise of more color to come in the spring. The original image and the painted image are both beautiful, and I know some will prefer one over the other. The end result, the painted image, is the image I envisioned when I began creating.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

A New Day, A New Year

This first day of 2014 has been a quiet day, a day of planning and contemplation. I made two decisions relevant to the new year.

First, I decided to revive a personal custom of writing out a list of wishes / plans for the coming year. I write down what I'd like to see happen, what I'd like to do in the coming year. Once complete the list is placed into a sealed envelope and put away. On December 31, 2014 I'll open the envelope and compare what I thought I wanted to have 2014 be to what 2014 turned out to be.

Second, I decided to continue my 365 photograph a day project although with some modification. This year I will create a work of photographic art every day - some days it will be a photograph taken that day, some days it will be a photograph processed in the digital darkroom for that day, and other days it will be a photographic composition created for that day.

Today, for my first project of the new year, I worked on a still life composition. This particular work was a photograph of a daguerreotype in an old leather case that I found in an antique store. I wondered who this young man was, who loved him, who did he love. Someone treasured him, enough to have a picture of him, enough to keep his picture.


A Young Man, Day 1, January 1, 2014