Traffic Lights

I spent some time on the road and in the Great Falls national parks today where I gathered additional shots to add to a series which first take was not rigorous enough.I was lucky enough to find a spot that gave me the same kind of matter even though the forms were richer the first time I saw the performance of Nature. In the process I even found some more exciting views aided by a high dose of sun.They now need to be processed.
In the meantime I felt like posting that one to remember that commuting doesn't have to be dull every time, that we can always find a plus in the ordinary.That's what photography is about, doesn't it?

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

In the Eye of The Hurricane

Successful, in my eyes ,use of a cross-processed capture that I didn't try to reproduce for a clear reason.Once you got it right, it's no use, at least for me, to go back and make another even to convince yourself that you understood everything that went on when you produced it. The magic of it is enough to last you for a hundred years or more.You now just have to go on to the next frame that will give you the same sense of achievement, and this, in another kind of way.It is about momentum and having all the wits about you and your craft and go along with it.I can't recall the other shots I've made on that roll of slide film but just this one made it worth the loading of it and the choice to have it processed this way.Another way to look inside a tube-like shaped environment compared to the one posted before .

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Circles in Mind

Here it is. I had said in a week or so but a good friend told me that high posting frequency is important when blogging, so...I heard.Better find in a quest.Closer to a final if not to a finer realization of a visual.A construction site nearby. A drive by find explored when weather conditions were riped.A first full out search for visual pertinence to achieve a capture. The neighboring captures are different and give a different perspective.You'll witness it.Pipe shaped blocks of concrete lying on a grass waiting to be hauled and positioned for a, mysterious to me, use but a construction.I set out to have my share of it before you need a pass to access a soon to be vanished material buried in a more fashion way.
Sitting around the area I had in mind Edward Weston and Ansel Adams industrial photographic renditions of factories. I have to be honest about the cold feeling I had photographing the area. I was invested with the know how but acknowledged the dominant lack of humanity in the process.It is from the streets but no playground for kids to be allowed into.Maybe I'll bring one of mine to deepen the discovery, all dressed in white on a sunny day. That's a good thought.I'll check tomorrow.A promise.Another promise I make is the posting of a photograph of my elder in a tube that I do find fantastic, which will be a good continuation to this one. For now I'm about to read a bit of Ansel Adams commentaries about some of his realizations.I'll digress on that too.


AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Photo Dished Out

I do take photography seriously but sometimes I do make a fool out of myself in the same serious way.That is oil on water after cooking some I don't remember of.Pointless detailed information indeed.But I was attracted no doubt. That is the kind of motion you're going through when you're deep in a visual project. Far from being senseless, it is just the natural continuation of an idea paired with a mindset full of eyes which is working while you're into something else than photography. It is the evidence of a work in progress or the beginning sometime of a work to be. A sketch.Nothing wrong with that. It is minor but not to be ignored for the one who's searching its way into a new or ongoing project. It is a map or another quadrant to be conscious about when you finally set the quest for a better finding. It will be there with you. It is not discipline but a remembrance of what lies ahead somewhere in your quest.A clue at most.Last, I had to put it out there before dishing it out for this place is better organized than my hard drive.


AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Reminiscence & Wandering

This kind of light (or candle of light, or even light candor) I like very much. For a fraction of a second or so it had me look at another tree, another place, another time, and I naturally raised my arms and added another tree from another place and another time. It also felt being in two places at once. It just felt good. It was taken in France last summer, can't you tell?
Right now I work on forms,lines and volumes (light+shadow). It's "cold" photography, boring sometimes but I need the discipline for another project. As for a glimpse of the disciplinary exercise, I'll post one later,in a week or so.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Poetic

"Everything around us,dead or alive, in the eyes of a crazy photographer mysteriously takes on many variations, so that seemingly dead object comes to life through light or by its surrounding. And if the photographer has a bit of sense in his head maybe he is able to capture some of this, and I suppose that's lyricism"_Joseph Sudek .

One day I'll be able to be as clear and lyrical in wording about photography as Mister Sudek's writing. In the meantime, I'll keep seeing the way I do and feeling a photograph and what it represents the way I do. Sometimes lyrical.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Major & Minor

I'm struck by the fact that a really good photograph has an essence that will outlive its time of capture and still stir interest even if your photography evolves into something different from the subject recorded at the time.And what's really striking is its apparent simplicity. Some are interesting in that they show a possibility.Sketches.Minors. Pleasure, patience and perseverance and luck put us on a path to major finding.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Casual & Formal(Washington DC)

Can't really relinquish.Never been the case. The pleasure is too big sometimes and the attraction just as present as gravity itself. Never to be ignored.Being so sensitive even to my thoughts I tend to react and express myself boldly, only to come back and readjust.Can't let go of the pleasure of making this kind of photos, if not any kind.Eyes have too much to offer and photography is one hell of a recorder.One that I know of. Its simplicity is lovable. And more so I am indebted to Her. I O U so I'll stick with U for it is my pleasure to serve U as You serve me. Can't turn my back on U.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Grass Stems Calligraphy

I am more into finding and arranging inside the frame than into staging when dealing naturally with photography.The element of surprise, the pleasure of finding the unexpected. That approach has a lot to do with being connected to the outside.My daughter is into picking grass and flowers lately(it is Spring after all). She had just laid down those stems before going for some more. It looked good enough for me to visually play with what had already a visual appeal to it.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

4 Women

I'm juggling with thoughts and repeating myself at times just like life repeats itself everyday with a different face. I need to find a consistent approach in general, but especially in doing photos, not to mismanage time and effort. Reason why I was happy about reading about Weston and Leiter's way of sort of "planning their photography" (See post Rush no spirit no rush spirit). I rarely do that, maybe because of the small territory of my photography caused by limited time to go around places, so grabbing anything that comes my way compensates lack of time and feed the urgency of doing photography.Not surprisingly, it has resulted in a lot of waste of film and time as well. Going digital crucial and mandatory is to define one's work, so that every frame gets you closer to your goal. For me a gentle reminder. As for references to photographers, I know "my classics". I now feed more on articles and essays about them than their photos which are results of a philosophy and a way of doing.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Another Muse (to ride)

I have became too sensitive to light. I mean light seems to be a muse and it touches everything...above dirt, so I photograph widely. A streak and eye click. I'd like to find me a muse other than light. So that light will work with me and not me for her. A muse would be great.I'll use that one light behind my eyes that shines so beautifully and eye and the camera would muse around our muse. Sounds great.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer

Blending in

I never could choose a main direction in photography. As the photographic film is sensitive when exposed in any given environment I too have been sensitive to the different environments I've been in contact with. The blend ,in time and spaces visited, is too enormous to manage. I enjoy and welcome the generous ability to photograph in any situation and environment, now that it came only to be that: a know how. It is an anchor that strengthens and stretches my being, but at the same time I'd sure like to stick to only one genre. I think the practice of color photography yielded too many possibilities that I'm driven to grasp every time(and I did). So eclectic my photography became I am more and more confused. But when I stick to one thing sometime, the feeling of repeating bores me. I'd like to dominate that impervious drive.I really do. The only way I found so far is to leave the camera at home and record with the eye only. And I do feel serene when so.

AllRightsReserved Copyright 2005-2009 Stephane Themeze Photographer