n-re-k.com : nrek

Good day today, I came back with some Flickr-fodder, and a few for Series 3 on this site. Today was actually turned out to be a definition of what I expect Series 3 to revolve around: geometry, lines, creation, abstract… Framing these shots are either “on” or “off” and it takes a good steady hand to hand hold a 300mm at full zoom near in late afternoon light, lemme tell ya.

Though I wish I had my tripod on this shoot, I found it wasn’t really necessary. Swapping from lens to lens and fiddling with ISO, exposure & f/stop is a good way to not only get what you want, but it may also give you a totally different image than you were expecting - good or bad.

Interesting stuff? Well, we saw a 3 wheeled Segway knock-off, a random tupperwear container with spaghetti in it, some people almost get hit by a train (not kidding), and just loads of folks. I do enjoy going out at night a little better than day, given the lack of foot traffic at night, but there is a lot to catch when there are things going on around you. It can be a blessing, or a distraction, depending on what your goal is.

After nearly a 6 month authentic break from actual photography, piddling about within conferences, taking random snaps of random things and posting them to flickr, I’m hitting the streets once again. I’ve come up with a concept for this project round, and it will mix diurnal and nocturnal photography focus… for me, for the first time. The experiments will mostly take place during the diurnal photography sets, but as I love nocturnal photography, there will be moments of even more awesome night shoots that will most definitely make for new and exciting things to talk about.

On another note, a little blurb to the very few of you - and those even fewer unsung hero photographer artists:

I’ve been into digital photography for about 7 years now, before that I was a 35mm photographer. Over the past 10… 11? years I’ve been doing a majority of my work at night, not really getting too much into models or live subjects, as a result, I get very little attention for what I do. Combined with not actively promoting myself or really seeking out attention for what I create, I’d say there are about 500 people that have ever truly seen my work, and less than a dozen who have seen the whole collection.

The method to my madness is existent and simple: I never in my life ever really wanted technical feedback or creative input on my art. Call it being an artist snob if that makes you comfy - but I honestly think that if I never pick up a photography book, be active in a photographer’s network, nor try to take classes to learn what I do… I will find the way I want my works to be, and love my work much more than if I were simply proud of my eye and how I applied what I’ve learned to exploit it.

Technicalities within photography, I believe, exist for those who stop their creative genius at the surface to get their desired result off the ground immediately - taking good pictures, as opposed to authentically diving into something and making their own way from the ground up. I encourage those of you who might be searching the web for some tips and tricks to photography to simply go to the store, touch some cameras, pick the one you can afford that your hand likes, read the manual on how to charge the camera, and properly work with the mechanical features (tripod, lens), and then start. Walk around until something makes your heart light up, and take a photo. Forget powerful “need to have” tools and toys, and just go do it.

My art has always been that way; in writing, in drawing, in web design, in audio production, and in photography. Hell even in software development… If you make your own foundation, from the tools that you have available you, you’ll be outside of the box enough to make an impact no one would have ever thought possible if they went to classes for what you’re achieving. Be an artist, be a photographer. Leave the student for History and Physics, and in the end, you’ll be what we see so rarely in this day of standards, specs, technicalities and rules… Purist art created by the desire to be ultimately expressive.

Fast forward to September… I took a few months off from Photography, to a degree. I ended up hunting down a printer, redeveloped the n-re-k.com site, and created a new style of framing, using Acrylite. The material is tough, light weight, and … it protects the 7 foot long image inside of it just fine. I also started to sell my works.

Anyhow, kids are fun to work with… pets are fun to work with. Kids & pets at the same time? Well? … Throw in the nervousness of an event with an audience, and you have yourself some interesting model work [link], to say the least. It went really well though - even though I’m still rusty with this whole “people” photography thing.

I don’t recommend taking a slow camera to these things. In fact, I came to the realization that a 5D is so needed, its not even funny, and I may just step up to a Rebel XTi just to hold me over until I can fork over the $4,000 for a new rig with new lenses.