I’ll be introducing several new images from my recent Death Valley trip this next Friday, February 10th. I always introduce my new images in my Newsletter, are you signed up? It’s the fastest and easiest way to keep up to date with my latest images.
http://www.colethompsonphotography.com/NewsletterSignup.htm
Cole
You just have to love Irony.
Yesterday my interview with Aline Smithson of LENSCRATCH was published and on the same day I created this image in Joshua Tree.
To understand the irony, read the interview and please do not say “this reminds me of an Ansel Adams photograph!”
http://www.lenscratch.com/2012/01/success-stories-cole-thompson.html
I’m still wandering in the desert and having a wonderful time with no cell or internet service. It’s been a great time of reflection and seeking out creativity, and I’m coming home with a real smorgasbord of images.
Back to seeing!
Cole
Today is Friday, tomorrow morning I’ll be in the car and driving to Death Valley. I go there every year about this time, alone, to create. I really enjoy this trip for both the location and the solitude. It’s where I recharge my creative batteries by blocking out the rest of the world and focusing on just one thing: seeing.
I’m just going to write my random thoughts as I embark on this trip, and as I’ve been writing three articles for the last two weeks, my mind is a muddle of thoughts. All semi-gelled and semi-fluid at the same time.
Location, does it matter? Theoretically it shouldn’t, I should be able to find a great shot in my bathroom. But the reality is that going somewhere new does seem to help us see anew and fresh. I don’t need a fantastic location like Yosemite which wears all it’s beauty close to the surface, just somewhere where my eyes can see it freshly.
Shooting alone or with others? I never can photograph with others present, I must be alone. When I have others with me I am constantly focused on if I’m inconveniencing them by staying out too long. Plus if there was someone with me I’d have to talk. I don’t want to talk on these trips, I just want to see and think.
Expectations. Sometimes when I go on these trips I have expectations that I must bring something great back or I’ll disappoint others. I need to lose any sense of obligation to others and only seek to please myself. If I come home and I didn’t find anything, then that’s okay. You cannot force creativity, in fact I think that this actually retards the process. Let it be. In truth if I come home with just one decent image, I’ll be as happy as a bird with a french fry!
Photographing where billions have photographed before. Yes, going to a widely photographed location such as Death Valley has its drawbacks, everything has been photographed a BILLION times. That is why I avoid the typically photographed spots or at least if I do go there, I try to photograph them differently. Remember that anyone can stand where Ansel Adams stood, frame the shot the same way and produce a nice shot. But in the end it will only be an weak imitation and is that really what you want to do, imitate others? The key is photographing with your vision, that’s what will make the images uniquely yours.
Isolation. I’ll be isolated for two weeks and I’ll love it. After these trips I always become more appreciative of people, a little friendlier and more centered. City life is grueling and not so good for the soul.
Mexican food. I’ll be stopping at every little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant, looking for that local hidden secret. Mexican food is the best!
What’s important in life? I was recently asked in an interview to describe my perfect day, here is what I said:
With my many years of experience, I’d answer this question much differently than I would have when I was younger! Strangely enough the perfect day may not involve photography at all. Despite how much I love photography, I do not love it more than my family or my life. Photography is not my life, but it is one of those special things that help me to enjoy life.
A perfect day would be spent with my family and new grandson. We would spend the morning walking around the cove, and then we would dive the La Jolla ecological reserve and finish up by picnicking on the grass overlooking the Cove. I’d then slip away and go do some long exposure work while relishing the feel of the warm sun on my face, listening to the sounds of the beach, enjoying the smells and just being grateful that I could enjoy it all. And oh yes, we’d have Mexican for dinner!
Death Valley is such a wonderful place and especially so in the winter; it’s isolated, uncrowded and seeming barren. I say “seemingly” because if you stop, sit and look you will see the truth. It just takes some patience and time to see. But that’s also true life, slowing down and taking the time to look will reveal much.
Goodbye. I hope I’ll be back in a few weeks.
When I finish a series, I’m generally done with it and don’t add to it. It’ s nothing philosophical, I simply lose interest.
But the other day I was eating in my favorite Mexican Restaurant, the Rio Grande, and noticed this wonderful ceiling lamp. And like many ceiling lamps, it’s true beauty was only visible when viewed from directly below.
So I added a new image to the Ceiling Lamp series. Click here to view the entire series.
Cole
Receiving another rejection notice can be discouraging at best, and at worst can cause you to lose faith in your abilities and cause creative paralysis.
I have submitted my work to hundreds of shows, exhibitions and magazines; and while I have gotten in some, I have also received many rejections. What is one to make of a rejection? Does it mean your work is not good enough or are there other reasons why it might have been rejected?
To put a rejection into perspective I first ask myself “why did I submit to this event?” Understanding your motives can be useful in understanding your reactions. For example there was a time when I submitted my work to receive validation, to have someone say “your work is good.” And of course when my work was not accepted I interpreted this to mean that my work was not good and perhaps I was not a good photographer.
But over time I have come to understand that my opinion of my work should be based on what I think of it and not what others think, and certainly not if it gets accepted into exhibitions! One of my favorite quotes is: “What others think of you is none of your business” and likewise what others think of my art is none of my business; my opinion is the only one that matters. That is not to say that I do not enjoy exhibiting or receiving compliments about my art, but there is a difference between enjoying compliments and needing them to feel good about oneself and ones art.
So back to the rejection letter and what it might mean. The first possibility that I had to face was that my work was not good enough. It is very difficult to objectively evaluate your own work and even harder still to admit that it may not be good enough, but we must do that if we are going to improve. Rejection can be a good thing if it leads to change and improvement.
But from my experience, a rejection can often mean something else much more innocent. Juror’s like anyone else have their own tastes, likes and dislikes. They tend to choose images that they personally like and that’s not a statement about your work. To increase the odds of my work being accepted I would research the juror’s own work and exhibitions they had juried to see what type of images they liked. If my images were in stark contrast to their preferences, I would skip that submission.
For example I used to regularly submit to Shots Magazine even though their selections were “younger” and more “hip” than my work. I never got in and that bothered me so much that I irrationally set a goal of submitting until I got in, which I never did. It took a while before I realized that this was simply not the right venue for my work and it was not a reflection on the quality of my work. It simply wasn’t a good fit.
Another selection factor is how your image fits in with the other images in the exhibition. A juror doesn’t just choose the “best” images but actually creates a new body of work by combining the individual images into a purposeful and intentional grouping. Sometimes images are chosen because they tie in with other of the juror’s selections, which is again not a reflection on the quality of your work.
And then there is the “different” factor. I’ve had jurors tell me that they see so many images that they end up looking for ones that are simply different. If “different” is not your style and you’re more of a traditional photographer, your work may not be selected by that juror.
There are so many reasons why an image may not be selected and so many of them have nothing at all to do with the quality of your work. That is why it’s so important that you believe in your work and continue to improve and persevere. Everyone has rejections and the people who win in the end, are the ones who do not give up.
Strategies for Improving the Odds:
Over time I devised a strategy that allowed me to improve my odds of getting my work selected, here is what I did:
1. You must have good work, and “good” is more about the composition and feeling your image evokes rather than its technical quality. From my experience a juror will almost always pick an emotional image with poor technical quality over a technically perfect image that has no feeling or soul.
2. Research the juror and their personal tastes. Does your work fit in? Can you select images for submission that seems to be more in keeping with their preferences? Are there jurors that have similar tastes as you, if so submit to shows that they are jurying.
3. Focus on the smaller exhibitions that are likely to have fewer submissions and less on the really big exhibitions. I’d rather submit five images to a show with 500 submissions than submit five to a show with 5,000. Also look for shows that extend their deadlines, that often means they have received fewer entries than they expected. Let the numbers work in your favor.
4. Submit as many images as you can afford. Submitting five images versus one dramatically increases your odds. Look for shows that are offering discounts, this will allow you to enter more images and improve your odds even more.
5. Submit a variety of styles. I often would see someone submit five images and they were all virtually identical in subject and style. I would submit five very different images, figuring that if the juror didn’t like one then another might appeal to them. This is one of the best strategies I pursued to increase my odds.
6. Select images that you love and have a passion for. In the beginning I would survey friends and family to try to pick images that had the widest appeal. That approach never improved my odds and it left me feeling conflicted and uncertain. You should pick images that you’re passionate about and forget what others think. I do not know how it works, but your passion does make a difference and improves your chances of getting accepted.
By using these techniques I was able to achieve a 50% success rate; meaning that for every two submissions I’d get into one. Some of that was accomplished by improving my art and some of it by using these techniques. Use both to improve your odds.
Rejection is a part of the artist’s life and while you can never remove it, you can reduce it. And more importantly you can better deal with rejection when you believe in your art and understand that the rejection was just another person’s opinion.
In the end, you must be pleased with your work regardless of what others think.
Cole
I’d like to tell you the story behind the image of Harbinger No. 1; how I came across it, how I created it and how it led to a ongoing portfolio.
My son Jem and I were traveling across Utah on a Father-and-Son road trip, it was summertime and it was 105 degrees in the Utah desert. Driving along I70 just across the border from Colorado we came upon these “mud hills” which caught my eye. They were so void of life that they made me think that this is what the moon must look like.
We stopped and I photographed for a while, but was unsatisfied. While the images were “interesting” they just didn’t feel complete and they certainly were not great. So we packed up and descended down the hill, eager to get back into the air conditioned truck.
But as were returning I saw this lone cloud moving very fast across the landscape. Based on its trajectory I knew that in just a minute it would be perfectly positioned over this dark symmetric hill that I had been photographing and would give my image the focal point that it needed. I ran up the hill as quickly as I could and hoped that I could get at least one shot, all the time thinking about the Ansel Adams story and how he rushed to get just one shot of Moonrise, Hernandez.
I quickly set up my tripod and camera, focused, adjusted my exposure and was lucky enough to get off two shots. I chose the above image of because it was centered above the hills and as many of you have noticed, I love centered and symmetric images. I was so fortunate to have this one perfectly shaped cloud come by and oblige me that day.
I like to name my images with the first word that comes to mind and this image immediately screamed “Harbinger” at me, and the dictionary’s definition became my artist statement:
Harbinger: \?här-b?n-j?r\ noun
1. one that goes ahead and makes known the approach of another; herald.
2. anything that foreshadows a future event; omen; sign.
People most often ask me about the processing of this image and I think that’s because many assume the key to a great image is in the processing. While there is no doubt that processing is important, it’s certainly no more important than the shot or your vision. If you focus on just the processing at the expense of vision or the shot, you may end up with a technically perfect but mediocre image. As an artist I try to focus on all three areas.
Vision
My vision for this image occurred at the moment I saw that cloud moving into position and I knew exactly how I wanted this image to look. It was going to be dark and that cloud was going to jump out at you! Sometimes that burst of vision can come later when I’m processing the image, but I don’t think it’s too important when the vision occurs as long as it does occur. Vision is what drives us to force the shot into compliance with our vision.
The Shot
When I composed this image I purposely centered the cloud and put the horizon in the center of the frame. Why? Because that’s just how the image felt to me. Next, I wanted a dark and graduated sky and so I used a polarizing filter which gave me both. On images i intend to be dark like this, I’ll often underexpose the image by 1 stop and then in processing I’ll dodge up the highlights.
Processing
When I converted this image to B&W I decreased the blue color channels to darken the sky, but I couldn’t go as far as I wanted because too much noise was being introduced. So to further darken the sky I burned it down with a very large and soft edged brush that was set at 1%. I work slowly to darken the sky to a pure black at the top and a very light gray at the hill’s edge. I dodged the cloud up so that it had a true white, but I was careful not to overdo it and lose highlight detail. This black sky and almost white cloud created this wonderful contrast that I love.
Next I burned the hills down so that visually they did not compete with the cloud for attention. And lastly I dodged up the very small edge of the ridge line to separate the hills from the sky. The final result is a dark image with a very bright subject, which is my preferred style.
When I created this first Harbinger image I really hoped that I could create an entire portfolio of similar images, but I never dreamed that I’d be lucky enough to find other such opportunities. I thought, how often will I see a single cloud over an interesting setting like this? But strangely enough I have found a few more and slowly my Harbinger portfolio is growing. Click here to see the entire portfolio.
Like all of my portfolios, this idea occurred spontaneously. I find that it’s easy to be creative when you are excited about a concept that inspires you!
It was autumn and I was driving on I70 just outside of Kansas City when it started to rain. The hills were covered in a dense forest of bare trees and as they soaked in the water, they turned black…except for this one lone white tree. Instantly I could see the potential for this image and I knew that I had to have it!
But I had already gone too far and so I had to travel several miles further until I could exit and turn around. Then I drove back past the lone tree a second time (but this time on the wrong side of the freeway) and traveled several miles further until I could exit and turn around again. I did this several times until I could find a spot where I could safely stop and hike to the right vantage point.
Then in the rain and wearing business clothes, I traipsed down a hill and sloshed through a muddy bog just to find just the right location. I’m not saying my trek was as tough as the pioneers had it crossing the plains, but it certainly would have been much easier to stay in my car, turn up the heat and act as though I hadn’t seen that damned lone tree!
However it was worth it, I like how the image turned out and this was just another in a long line of experiences that taught me to ALWAYS STOP when I see a great image. (See http://www.photographyblackwhite.com/photographs-create-images/) Yes, it would have been easier to keep going and yes, sometimes I do convince myself that I’ll come back later and get the shot. But my experiences have taught me that there’s rarely a second chance.
Always stop.
Cole
P.S. If I’d have seen this tree in the summertime, there’s no way I’d have stopped unless I had 100% DEET on my shoes, socks and pants. There’s a whole nother story about “chiggers” that I’ll have to tell sometime. I think I’ll title it “Chiggers: The Gift That Keeps On Giving” or “Why Pouring Gasoline On Your Legs And Lighting Them Might Sometimes Be A Good Idea!”
I’ve just created a short video to introduce people to the diversity of my portfolios.
Over the years I’ve been advised to pick just one subject and work to become known for that. However that approach has never appealed to me and I’ve always enjoyed pursuing a variety of subjects and styles. I have always believed that you must do what you feel and love because in the end your opinion of your work is really all that matters.
This is “Time No. 2″ that I created at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, perhaps the most photographed spot in the entire park. This image was created just before the sun went down and it’s amazing how Zabriskie Point can look so differently as the light changes from morning, to noon and to late afternoon.
Today I wanted to show a “before and after” so you could see what the original image looked and how your vision can change it. Sometimes vision takes place as you’re shooting and sometimes it occurs when you’re processing the image. And sometimes your vision changes over time and so you go back and change the image repeatedly (you should see how the The Angel Gabriel has evolved over time).
This original image is quite flat and muted, and so to make this a “Cole Thompson” image, I had to improve the contrast and separate the colors. I do this by adjusting the color channels in the black and white conversion tool of Photoshop CS5. By sliding each color’s adjustors in both directions, you can see how it will affect the contrast and separation. With the colors I had in this image, I was able to change the b&w version quite a bit by adjusting the color channels; the Red and Yellow channels brought out highlights, the Blue channels darkened certain parts of the image, and the green had no effect. When adjusting the channels, be careful not to go so far that you introduce unacceptable amounts of noise, particularly in the blue channels.
I then dodge and burn the image with my tablet to further enhance the contrast. In this image I used a very small brush to individually work each piece of the image so that I brought out the striations that separated each set of hills. I particularly paid attention to the ridge tops and brought out the highlighted edges.
One of the most important steps in my conversion process is to use the “Histogram” to check the blacks and white and then to adjust them using “Levels” if necessary (it’s almost always necessary). After you have established a good black and white, you can use “Levels” to adjust the midtones and really change the mood of your image, for my images I generally am pushing the midtones darker.
Once the image looks great on screen, I then use the global contrast adjustment to push the contrast even further so that it will print with the same “pop” that it has on screen. Remember that a monitor uses transmitted light and that always makes things look better than it will on a print. The reason for this is that a print uses reflected light which is quite dull and flat by comparison. By pushing the contrast further than you think you should, it will help ensure the printed piece looks good.
For me, the appeal of this image is it’s simplicity, it’s detailed contrasts and the compressed perspective. Death valley is really a spectacular place, especially in the winter. I go each January and just revel in the timeless solitude.
Cole
P.S. What I don’t like side by side comparisons is that someone always writes and says “I like the color image better!” I’m just kidding of course, we all have our individual tastes and mine just runs to the black and white.
Old Car Interior is one of those images that is both complex and yet simple at the same time. This 1934 Chrysler interior was found just down the road in my friend’s backyard (I say “junkyard” but Frank gets mad at me). I was looking at the car’s dashboard and marveling at the incredible nostalgic detail, and thinking “if I could only capture it!” I had an idea of how I wanted this to look, but wasn’t sure if I could actually do it.
I’ve always believed that the rule of thirds was the key to a successful image, however not the traditional rule of thirds, but my own! It is:
(you can read my post about the rule of thirds here: http://www.photographyblackwhite.com/rule-thirds/)
My first challenge was space, this was a very small interior and it was not practical to photograph from inside the car. Fortunately there was no back window and so I set up the tripod so that I could shoot through the back window. To capture the interior I used a 10-22mm zoom at 15mm on my 20d, making it a 24mm in full frame terms.
My next challenge was that it was quite dark inside the car and very bright outside. One exposure was clearly not going to span that wide dynamic range and so I decided on two exposures, one for the interior and one for the exterior. I chose not to use HDR as I personally find the look a bit unnatural. Using Photoshop I cut out the three windows from the exterior exposure and pasted them into the interior exposure, giving me a perfect exposure for the entire scene.
The processing was responsible for the uniqueness of this image. Using my pen and tablet I went over each piece of the interior to bring out the detail with what I call “local contrast enhancement.” This is a fancy way of saying that I would dodge and burn each piece to enhance the contrast in just that area. I prefer this localized approach rather than using a global contrast setting, which would affect all areas equally.
Part of my style is extreme contrast and so I would burn down the shadow areas to ensure great blacks, which further gives the impression of contrast and sharpness. In all I spent 50 hours to get this image right, which is the longest I’ve ever spent on an image.
The results surpassed my initial vision and has become one of my most published and requested images. I was by Frank’s today and visited “Old Car Interior” and was shocked to remember just how dull the interior actually looked compared to my final image. And something else that impressed me was the detail I was able to convey with 8 megapixels, demonstrating that it’s not always about megapixels!
Cole
Note: The matted 10 X 15 print of Old Car Interior sells for $400 but will be on sale for $275 until 11/1/2011. Just email me and please mention the discount.
