It's lovely weather for...

Photographing!

It's been a mild winter here in the northeast (at least by New England standards), but it finally snowed last night. While my students and I were all hoping for a snow day today, or at least a delay, inclement weather usually means great photo opportunities. Most mornings I'm up before the sun rises and on my commute I drive along a lake... It's lovely. Depending on when I leave, I can catch rich orange and pink colors reflected in the water, or if it's earlier, the flat, blue-grey pre-dawn light that renders everything the same color and tone.

This morning I pulled into the coffee shop and realized I left my wallet at home, so I turned around, drove back along the lake and saw this.

 

 

I see a lot of photographs that I want to make... I'll be driving or walking and see something, but won't stop because I don't have the time. I'm really glad I forgot my wallet this morning. This was literally right in front of me as I turned to drive along the lake, but I never would have seen it if I hadn't left my wallet at home.

Portraiture.

So I'm not really a "portrait" guy. I took several portraiture classes at school, I've shot portraits, headshots, weddings, and generally have no problem shooting portraits; but... I'm not a portrait artist. I shoot landscapes. That's my thing. I always have. But when some close friends asked me to shoot some portraits for them, for their new website, I jumped at the opportunity. See, my friends David and Ari, at Number 16, are two guys that I would just about do anything for. Go click that link and read a little bit about what they do. They're awesome. And what they do is important to me.

 

Check out the rest of the photos on the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/stansfieldphoto

 

 

 

Gallery Opening Tomorrow!

Come to the gallery opening tomorrow! RSVP here.

If you would like a free print, yes, a FREE print, be one of the first five people to visit me at my new studio tomorrow night, and say the secret password, "Santa's got a brand new bag". THAT'S IT. See you then!

New Studio!

I'm excited to announce that last week I moved into a new studio space in Beverly, MA. It's a HUGENORMOUS spot on the first floor of The Studios at Porter Mill, a four-floor building filled with artists (and there are some openings in January or February, if you're interested). It's exciting to have a dedicated space for making and showing art, something I haven't had before, even though the pictures I make are exclusively done outside. I've always had a home-office for working on printing, post-production, mounting, etc., but I recently outgrew that space. My friend and colleague Jenn has been in the building since last spring; after seeing her work really take off after moving in, I realized how much I missed having a community of artists to share work with.

Right now I'm playing with some different ideas for the space. It's far too big to fill the space myself, considering I don't shoot in the studio much, if ever. I'm considering renting the studio as a shooting space on a daily basis, taking on a studio-mate, or using it as a gallery to showcase other artists' work. Or maybe all three! Or maybe something altogether different...

For now, I'll be there this month getting ready for open studios on December 3rd. More info on the Facebook Page. Come say hi, enjoy some refreshments, look at some art, do some holiday shopping, and maybe, just maybe, if you mention that you read my blog, or follow me on Facebook, or twitter, I'll give you a print.

More California

I have a thing with water... And rocks. I can't not shoot them. Some day I might be able to resist, but now, today, I've accepted that this is what I shoot. Slow shutter speeds, soft, simple, black and white images of water. This one is from Pescadero State Beach from our drive down the PCH. I took several different images, many with a lot of swirling water around the rock, but this one is my favorite, with the slight reflection in the foreground.

 

Shooting with infrared...

When I was in school I had my old Canon 10D converted to shoot infrared. These guys did it, and the camera's held up, so I suppose I should recommend them. Shooting with the camera is fun, and it provides a fresh look at the landscape. One of the things I struggle with is making sure the images I'm shooting stand up on their own and aren't gimmicky. It's really easy to take an infrared photo and just let the technology trump the image itself, but once in a while it works. This is from Tulomne Meadows.

 

California

I'm in the middle of a week-long road trip from San Diego, through Yosemite (from East to West), and today we drove down the PCH from San Francisco (hanging out with my little brother who just moved there) to Santa Barbara. This is  the first chance I've had to process and view a few photos from the trip. File this one under "Are you freaking kidding me?"

 

Half Dome at Sunset. July 4th, 2011.

A pond of lilies.

Yesterday I taught an outdoor photography class for REI at Rocky Woods. The weather was great and I was able to capture this image of lilies. I saw the image in my mind but after trying a few different perspectives and compositions I gave up. It wasn't working the way I wanted and I moved onto a different shot, but I was inspired to try again after seeing one of my students try a certain angle.

One best things about teaching is that I get to watch students get inspired and get psyched on discovering new things. Sometimes, that turns into me learning something new about myself or my photography as a result.

I'm happy with the way it turned out. I shot it with my Canon G11 point and shoot camera. The quality is excellent on this camera and I'm especially glad it has a pivot screen. For this shot I held it at arm's length and pointed the camera straight down to see the incident angle of the sun, but I wouldn't have been able to compose the image without a pivot screen. What do you think?