"What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered, and perhaps not even asked." -Aldo Leopold
“Probably if our lives were more conformed to nature, we should not need to defend ourselves against her heats and colds, but find her our constant nurse and friend, as do plants and quadrupeds.”
-Henry David Thoreau-
Ansel Adams and some of his cohorts fought an epic battle in the first half of the 20th century against pictorialism – the manipulation of pure, sharp photographs with other artistic objectives. Pictorialists often produced images that were deliberately lacking in sharpness, low DoF, were hand-painted or toned with various pigments, all in order to place more of an artistic interpretation to the relatively cold and literal technological tools that photography introduced. Although most of the greats of this period, Adams and Steichen, Weston and Cunningham, began as Pictorialists, by the end of their respective careers these folks had shunned this practice and those that persisted to its employ. The literal interpretive of negative to positive in the photographic process was considered to be the only truly valid option of the photographic artist. Certain protocol were acceptable – using darkroom tools to manipulate emphasis in tones of the final print, for example. But, other than focusing on composition and obtaining as much DoF and overall sharpness as possible, the photographer became shackled in the tools that were “acceptable” to being taken seriously as an artist.
This is pretty much true today. Sure photography has been and to this day is still used in other types of art – using photos in mixed-media, pop culture works for instance. But the modernist view of photography is still the dominant and expected form. Any manipulation in making the exposure “in the camera” is acceptable, but other than the digital manipulation that is analogous to the darkroom of old, you are not allowed to interfere with risk of being completely shunned. For as long as I have been involved in serious photography I have wholeheartedly agreed with this. We have all seen the effects of plug-in filters in “Photoshop” and how tacky and cliched they become. I have looked through images like these on Flickr and thought those thoughts exactly. Until recently. The latest Photoshop, “CS6” has a new and improved “oil paint” filter. I have experimented with it a bit lately and I must say, it is growing on me. I think it does a great job of mimicking a real oil-painting.
The “photographer” is given six sliders to manipulate their painting/photo: four for the “brush”: stylization, cleanliness, scale and bristle detail, and two for “lighting”: angular direction and shine. With these sliders the artist can manipulate the “canvas” almost as much as one of those snobby old people with an easel who insist in sitting right where you’d prefer to set up your tripod. Just kidding! The majority of painters I’ve come across have been quite friendly and eager to talk nature with me. My point is that you have a lot of options in how the final output can look like.
What I feel I like best about doing this to a photograph can be observed in the two images above. In both of these un-manipulated photos the bush was nearly too chaotic, although each had pleasing colors, shapes and form. It made the composition messy. Putting some brush strokes on top of this took a bite out of all that detail and presented, may I say – order? from the brush of the “composer”.
One of the most characteristic plants of the St. Francois Mountain region of the Missouri Ozarks, these trees are easily identified by their unique bark. If I were patient enough to paint, I know that bark would be my favorite thing to represent in this composition. The oil paint filter adds a bit of texture to the empty, white negative space. I feel this images is improved by this treatment as well.
I love that this technique can be used to emphasize texture and pattern, something that could be difficult to do in a traditional modern photograph. I can easily see an image like one of these printed on canvas. Would you be able to tell the difference? I’m not saying that all photos should be presented like this. It would be easy to overdo and I can see this one becoming cliche’ like the emboss or watercolor filters that have been in PS for years. I do think there is something interesting going on. Painters have been using photography, to greater or lesser degree, to help their art work for decades. In some of these cases the only difference in output is that the person lays down oils on top of projections. Here, the computer does the same thing in a shorter time.
Is there more of a season with dramatic ups and downs than autumn?
Good: cooling temperatures that are often a respite to a long, torrid summer
Bad: the inevitable freezing temp, rains and gloomy weather that will show up sometime in November
Good: the astounding autumnal palette that the fortunate can find, depending on where you live
Bad: picking up those leaves and cleaning gutters after the show
Good: the backing of the clocks in losing “daylight savings”
Bad: going back to school
Good: feasts of the late summer/fall harvest season
Bad: knowing that in a month or two you’ll have better luck growing a second head than finding something worthwhile of being called a “tomato”
Good: apple season!!!!
Bad: end of the baseball season
I think I’ve made my point. No other season is packed with so many highs and lows. I’d be hard pressed to find many complaints about spring. Even the most diehard winter fanatics must feel the hope and renewal that warming temperatures and fresh greens that spring in spring. Autumn will always remain a season of two faces for me. Now I can’t wait for the winter resident birds to show up! Come on winter!
Following the winter that never was of 2011/2012 came one of the hottest and driest summers on record in the Ozarks. Of course the autumn would be some sort of disappointment, right? Boy was I pleasantly surprised! Sarah and I have taken an October vacation, exploring the Ozarks, looking for color for about four years straight. Even if our trip coincided with “peak color”, more often than not that peak wasn’t necessarily anything to jump up and down about. Well, this year was nearly everything I dreamed an Ozark autumn should be.
Every tree tried on it’s best outfit a couple of weeks ago. The black gum and dogwood were draped in their dark warm shades of reds and violet. The maples were a schism of warm tones – sometimes on separate trees, sometimes with contrasting leaves on the same tree, and often with a mix on the same individual leaf! My personal autumn favorite, the grand sycamore was gloriously showcased in yellows, burnt umber and mild reds that set off so nicely it’s bright, ivory bark. Hickories, normally easily forgotten as the dull yellow leaves drop so quickly, were an incandescent display of quintessential amber. Even the usually boring – white oak wasn’t going into its winter nap without a show, bringing out a variety of mild warm tones before dropping brown to become part of next year’s forest floor. As usual, the small sumac and sassafras brought their best to stop you in your tracks.
This was darn-near too much! Driving hundreds of miles and putting tens of miles on the trails I wanted to stop every five minutes and find a composition. There was the problem. Everywhere I looked was a potential composition, but actually putting something together was often a tremendous difficulty! I now truly understand the concept of chaos in the biological world. There were periods of frustration as I realized I wasn’t going to be able fulfill my desire to nail all the potential autumn shots that I dreamed about. As I begin delving into and processing the several hundred images I took that magical week, I can only hope I nailed a few images. Over the next several weeks I hope to post a lot images here with some info or story behind it. Hopefully not all of the photos will be the typical cliche’. Geez, are there any autumn photos that aren’t?
A Thousand Acres of Silphiums 