Tag: portfolio

What’s in a Title?

For this image, originally titled “Canyon of Light,” what do you suggest as a more apt name?

Part of the enjoyment in working through my photo canon (as photographed with my Canon of various vintages) is the consideration of titles for some of these images. At some point in the life of an image its title becomes important, as it says something specific about the expression that is attempted through the depiction; as such, it also might steer the viewer in certain direction(s).

There was a working title for the image in today’s post…

What’s my name?

This is an image captured at Tower Hill Botanic Garden using a 100mm macro lens; even though it was shot at f/11 the depth of field is rather shallow. What caught my eye was the playful cascade of the light across the flower, which combined with the shape of the petals gave me the sense of the way light might fall into a slot canyon in the southwestern United States. This gave me the working title of “Canyon of Light’.

As I was working on re-processing this particular image (a dangerous habit, as tools and skills evolve and new creative opportunities arise), the thought came to mind that this is no longer a satisfactory title for the image.

So my question to you: what would you name this image?

Monday’s Portfolio Musings – v. 2.12

In a portfolio, how do I categorize the interplay between abstract and landscape imagery, such as when we capture mysterious reflections and shapes, evoking all kinds of ideas.

In last week’s post titled ‘Monday’s Portfolio Musings – v. .2.11’, I mentioned that categories and themes are emerging in looking through the volume of images from the last 20 or so years of my photography. At this time, I may not have descriptors for each of the categories yet, as they have me thinking that images are crossing boundaries between the categories.

One of these boundary crossings is between abstract and landscape, as might be the case for this particular image…

Floating Mystery

This capture from 2012 still intrigues me, as it has a combination of reflection, variation in light and dark, and unusual shapes that crop up in the pond. This gives a bit of an otherworldly sense, as one could imagine that alien creatures are arising from the pond, on a mission of exploration to find out what this Earth is all about. I can only think that humanity might confuse these aliens into either leaving in despair or taking pity…

As long as we’re not ending up the subject a Twilight Zone episode, we’ll be alright.

I’m curious how you would categorize this image.

Monday’s Moment – Portfolio v2.1

The challenge and joy of pulling together a portfolio. The memories of the circumstances are relived in this process.

As I have started in earnest to begin to pull together a more comprehensive portfolio, I’m also beginning to realize how monumental a task this may be. There are just a lot of images to go through and I really want to do a solid job gathering all that might come into play.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s an unpleasant task, as part of the fun is looking at older shots and remembering things about the time and situation. Among these, this is one…

Fixer-Upper near Vik

As there might be an opportunity to capture the Aurora Borealis while we were in Vik, a bit of location scouting was needed. Part of my thoughts about shooting the Northern Lights was that there should be a certain amount of interesting landscape silhouetted with the sky’s light display. Plus we should be far enough from any town to reduce light pollution.

This field became the location for our Aurora shoot a couple of days later (cf. A Return to Iceland post). It helped that there was good access by road and far enough away from a main road, and the experience was amazing!

A note about the process I am using to organize my portfolio; Lightroom is my tool of choice, as it enables me to quickly go through images. If I see an image that I want to take a closer look at later, I give it a rating of 1 star. On a second, slower pass I take the time to decide whether this image actually speaks to me, in which case I upgrade its rating. Sometimes this does mean that I will take a quick dive into processing the image to get some idea of what the end result might be.

There will be more on progress!

More portfolio thoughts

A next step in exploring what will make a portfolio from my work.

In last week’s post about my struggles with defining what might be considered my portfolio (Working toward a portfolio) I mused about how to define what could be considered a more cohesive representation of my photography goals and ambitions. Sometimes what it takes is to kick off a process, plant a seed in one’s mind and our conscious and unconscious processes will keep working on it; some of this is definitely happening.

One part is looking through my images (there are way too many) and seeing which ones still speak to me for one reason or another. As I have been doing just that, a theme or two has emerged. One motif is that I enjoy creating images that express some particular emotion or story element, such as this one…

Resisting Escape

This was shot during a workshop led by the wonderful Brooke Shaden in 2013. I remember how I came up with this image in very vivid detail, as I saw it in my mind’s eye the moment that I looked at this dilapidated bathroom. There were a large number of shots that were taken to get all the elements together, but they were all with an end-goal in mind.

The reason that this image still speaks to me despite all its imperfections is the concept and how I connected with it. There is also emotion in this image, as it communicates a struggle against an invisible hand that is pulling the woman toward the turbulent sky. This is a struggle that we can often relate with, as unseen forces seem to control us, trying to reduce our sense of free will and self-determination.

Over the next weeks, I will continue to explore and examine my images to round out a list of topics, emotions and subjects that drive my portfolio. I hope you will follow along!