Artist Talk: Cloud City

 Hey everyone,

Happy New Year! This year we will be much more active on this blog. I have been posting a lot of things on the Facebook page but the blog has been getting neglected.So a lot of the same content will be in both places and I will start sharing my tips and tricks. I hope that I don't sound TOO amateurish!

The first thing that I want to share is the latest installment from the series of photos from the Met Summer outdoor exhibits. Two years ago it was Bambu and last year it was Cloud City.  I find the rooftop displays very image worthy! Cloud City was a series of mirrored, multi-sided orbs in the form of a cloud. The sculpture itself was magnificent and I took the image below and then decided to render it as a quad. It's now hanging in my dining room. The image was run through four different filters in Color EFX Pro 3 and generated these four versions.

 This next image was taken while looking at the city next to one of the mirrors. The view from the roof of the Met is spectacular to begin with but it was amazing to see that scenery reflected in the 'cloud'. The image below extends the skyline and the dramatic sky punches up the picture. I waited for a long while for people to completely clear out of the picture and then i realized that the people actually gave it a sense of scale. So I waited for someone interesting to come by and snapped the pic. What's interesting is that the forward subject is actually NOT looking at the sculpture! It's hard to compete with that view!

This next picture is one of my favorites! I like split images and color separation. Typically what people do is take an image and duplicate it in Photoshop then reverse it. After that they line them up next to each other. As I walked out onto the roof, I immediately saw this image in my head. I crouched way down near the sculpture and got this image that looks like it's Photoshopped. In post I desaturated the bottom half and punched up the vibrance on the top half. I mounted it in a gold frame and it really popped. Love this image!

Hope this gives you a peek into what makes me take certain pictures.
Until the next frame...stay in focus!
Hayden.

Ooo Ooo Ooo me Me ME !

Business has been good. I have been able to balance my career and my art. At the same time, enough people have noticed my work for me to make a little extra cash on the side. I have enjoyed the jobs that I have done because they are ones that I actually want to do. I have mentioned before that I do not have the pressure of having a constant stream of photo work to pay the bills because I have a pretty steady 9 to 5. I am thankful for that because it allows me to do the work that is interesting to me and not become a photographer's version of an ambulance chaser. Or at least I thought it did...

Recently there have been numerous monumental events in the lives of people that I know: engagements, weddings, births, etc. I am genuinely happy for my friends and I express that to them. Here's where it gets weird: I found myself hacking my services in the same breath that I am congratulating them! It got so bad that I would see that someone got engaged or announced a pregnancy in Facebook and I would immediately send them a message letting them know that I would love to be their photographer...when they were ready, of course! I had to stop and really think how that made me seem to my friends. I know I personally hate it when people only reach out to me to sell something to me or to tell me about a 'great deal'. But there I was doing just that...not intentionally though.

Here is the funny thing; I don't know if I WOULD be able to handle the volume if everyone that I solicited actually said YES!! I think would be swamped. I had to take a long look at what was driving those actions. After pondering it for a while I realized that it was driven by the artist not the businessman. Subconsciously, I think I saw the 'event' as an opportunity to capture something beautiful and I wanted to be the one to do it. I am always in search of that one amazing image and I guess I am always seeking new chances to capture it. Note: if I have asked to shoot your important occurrence it's because I think you and your family would create amazing pictures...my form of a compliment, I guess.

I have decided to pull back on the hard sell and go back to the guy who could just say congrats without people thinking that there was an agenda behind the well-wishes because there shouldn't be. It doesn't mean that I won't ever suggest to people that I should be the one to capture the important times in their life. I just won't do it in the same breath as my 'way ta go'! Hopefully, people will find their way to me when they start to make decisions about their photographic needs. I hope.... :-)

Well, on to the next frame...staying in focus.