flowers, marbles, nicklels – and people

As many of you know, my photography exhibit “Up Close” opened last week, at the Darien (CT) Library. It was so terrific to greet many friends and  acquaintances – as well as strangers – at the opening reception.  We had about 150 people come, which was humbling and which also really blew me away!  If you have not had a chance to see the show, I hope you will drop by the Library and check it out. The show will be up until October 25th. The work is for sale, and there is a price list at the front desk of the Library.

I wanted to post a few pictures from the show.  The image above is one of three photographs of marbles.  These images are about color and depth of field.  I was also trying to convey a metaphor of one (a person? an object?) that is “different” within a crowd of many.

The image above is entitled “Lindsay Dreaming.”  It was interesting at the opening reception to hear which pictures various people liked best. This was one of the favorites and it’s one of my favorites as well.  I’m usually drawn to color, but this image definitely worked better in black and white.  Aside from that comment, I don’t want to say too much about the picture! Better to let you interpret it from your own perspective.

Most of the work in the show was created this year. I did include a few older images, such as “Nickel on a Park Bench.”  This was taken on a photography workshop in Savannah a couple of years ago. Our assignment for that day was to work on photographs using narrow depth of field – that is, the area in sharp focus is very narrow. In this image, the nickel and just a few inches of the bench are sharp, but everything else is fuzzy. The circles in the background were small colored street lights. I’m not sure I can understand the physics of how camera lenses work,  but often small bright lights that are out of focus will appear as these lovely larger circles of light, which is called bokeh.

In the show, I exhibited seven image of flowers.  One of them is shown below. In all of these images, I used a close-up (macro)  lens, shooting from about a foot away.   The pictures in this series are, in part,  studies of how light coming from different angles can help create a sense of three dimensions.  I was also drawn into and therefore wanted to emphasize the beautiful details of each flower, reflecting the rich variety of God’s amazing designs in the natural world.

As always, any comments and questions are welcome.

photography exhibit hung!

With a few dear friends, I hung the 33 images of my photography exhibit yesterday. Hope you will come see it! The opening reception is this Friday. The details are here.  Conceiving, shooting, editing, printing and framing the work has been a real labor of love for the past year.  There’s a mix of feelings for me to walk around the wonderful space at the Darien Library and see my work on the walls – relief, anticipation of how the work will be received and pride that, somehow, with the help of many friends and colleagues, I’ve pulled off my first solo show.  I’m already thinking about ideas for the next one.

publicity from the darien Library on my exhibit!

click here to see the link.

artist statement

As faithful readers know, my photography exhibit at the Darien Library opens next week. See details here.  When an artist has an exhibit, it’s expected that there will be an Artist Statement.  These statements, in my experience, can sometimes be a bit self-important and pseudo-intellectual – maybe I just don’t understand art talk.  Anyway, I’ve written an Artist Statement for my show. It is, hopefully, a more personal and down-to-earth bit of writing.  Let me know what you think.  And be sure to come to the opening reception! I’ll look for you!

artist statement for “Up Close”

I’ve been an avid shooter all of my life. Way back in the days of film, I’d go scuba diving on Caribbean coral reefs, wrestling with cumbersome cameras and balky strobe lights.  On a safari in Kenya, I shot 30 rolls of film, not knowing until we came home how any of the pictures would turn out. It was a long airplane ride home.

I retired – early – from the business world, just at the time that digital SLR cameras were taking off – a happy synchronicity for me! Over the past seven years, I’ve taken a number of photography workshops and courses, plus private instruction with photographers I admire.  But to a large degree, I’m self-taught.

With a relatively “late start” in life in the truly passionate phase of my photography, I sometimes feel as though I need to rush to make up for lost time. Then I catch myself, take a deep breath, connect with the moment at hand, and press the shutter button.

In recent years, my primary focus has been on portraits of people. In early 2008, I opened my own studio to do professional portrait work – such as corporate headshots, portfolio images for models and actors and family pictures for holiday cards.  But I also do a lot of shooting in the studio just for myself.

My work emphasizes bold colors and simple, spare compositions. In my portraits, I’m generally trying to capture something positive about the human spirit.

Most of the images in this show were created this year, with the theme “Up Close” in mind. There is a great temptation to describe how each picture was conceived, shot and then edited in Photoshop. But there’s an old saying: a good photograph is like a good joke – it doesn’t need explaining.  So, we’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. After you’ve seen the exhibit and developed your own impressions, I’d be happy to discuss any of the pieces with you. Most of all, I’m grateful and humbled that you are taking the time to look at my work.

Some quotes from one of my favorite photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson:

“We photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth can make them come back again. We cannot develop and print a memory.”

“To take photographs means to recognize – simultaneously and within a fraction of a second – both the fact itself and the rigorous organization of visually perceived forms that give it meaning. It is putting one’s head, one’s eye and one’s heart on the same axis.”

When asked by a portrait client how long the shoot would take, Cartier-Bresson replied, “Longer than the dentist, not as long as the psychoanalyst.”

Website:   www.blakerobinsonphotography.com

Blog:  https://blakerobinsonphotography.wordpress.com

Email:   blake.robinson@snet.net

Photography Exhibit! Opening Reception September 17