Month: April 2014

Learning to See – Again

This is one of the best blog posts on photography I’ve ever read. Especially in this day when so many photographers are practicing their art on a part-time basis and thus may feel rushed when we’re out there with our cameras, we need to keep these words of wisdom in mind.

In Flow with Otto

En blå himmel over Oscarsborg festning

It’s quite obvious that being able to see is an indispensable quality for any photographer who wants to create engaging images and surprise the viewer with startling visions. Anybody can see, you might object, but fact is it takes more than merely observing to see beyond the obvious. Seeing – in the finest and broadest sense – means using your senses, your intellect, and your emotions. It means encountering your subject matter with your whole being. It means looking beyond the labels of things and discovering the remarkable world around you.

Usually we don’t really see the world as it truly is. Instead we switch our mind to automatic mode, let our subconscious take over and impose previous learned concepts of the world onto the world actually surrounding us. We don’t see anymore, but make abstractions of what our eyes have registered. In most cases our seeing is hindered by…

View original post 1,043 more words

Two Hudson Valley Events

 

DSC0224 levels 236 s

Happy spring! I recently spent a few days on the New England coast north of Boston and will be writing some posts featuring my images and the history of that very picturesque region, but for now I want to tell you about two events occurring right now.

The Hunter Foundation is located in what to me is the most beautiful area in the Catskill region; you can visit their website to learn more about the Foundation.  I was invited to donate one of my photographs to their 2014 Online Auction, and so I chose one of my most popular images, Catskill Woodland Glow (shown above). The winner will receive this photograph, signed and beautifully framed, along with a copy of our book, Historic Hudson Valley: A Photographic Tour.  Please visit the Hunter Foundation’s website to see the page for my entry — there are many good prizes here. Why not place a bid on something? You may win something you’ll enjoy having. Bidding is going on now through May 1

Also — if you’re in the Albany area, this Sunday Anton and I will be speaking about our Historic Hudson Valley book at the Albany Institute of History and Art. That’s Sunday April 27 at 2 pm. We’re quite excited to have been invited to speak at the home not only of one of the most impressive collection of Hudson River School paintings anywhere but also of the complete collection of Thomas Cole’s papers.  You can get directions from the AIHA home page, and here is the page featuring our talk. We’d love to see you there!