ND Wind Twins
Nuthatch going down
For Studio 26 - Painterly Obsessions
I had hoped to rework this a bit - make the bottom thicker and extend the tree down - but as usual time has run out on me as I am leaving town in a few minutes. I really enjoyed the thought process of this assignment, even though I had few opportunities to produce something. Very fun to look at art and consider how to reproduce the effect in camera.
My first attempt at imitating a painter I admire is based on the work of Heather Dieter Bartmann. She is a Colorado bird painter, and we first found her work many years ago in Estes Park, Colorado. At the time, I was taken by how detailed her paintings were, showing the birds very accurately, and depicting them in natural settings. It turns out she has an ornithology degree, and spends a great deal of time observing the birds in their natural habitat.
The painting we own is called "Top Heavy" and features a beautiful kestrel. It can be seen here:
www.heatherbartmann.com/hdbweb.kestrel.htm
Her other works, and her biography, can be seen here:
When I looked carefully at her work, the following seemed to be attributes that I should attempt to imitate:
1. Light - the light is relatively non-existent in her work. I don't see shadows, or directionality of light.
2. Composition - most of her images have a very strong vertical or a very strong horizontal. Some have a diagonal and a few have arcs, but to me the vertical or horizontal usually predominates.
3. Cropping - her images are always surrounded by a good deal of white space. She portrays an intimate little setting in the midst of all that white.
4. Subject matter - she always places the birds in the correct natural surroundings.
5. Mood - her images have an almost Japanese feel to me and bring with them the sense of calm that I feel in a Japanese garden. They are always always very light and bright.
6. Interaction - the bird is often, but not always, making eye contact with the viewer.
Trying to produce all of these in camera is simply impossible. Unless I lucked into a bird positioned with a field of snow behind it, I was going to have to create the white background. In the two images I used, there was some background that I brightened to almost white, and cloned out interfering sticks and twigs. I tried to get birds either in shade so would not have shadows. I overexposed a bit in camera, then brightened after.
Of the two images, I like that this one shows the holes in the trunk of the tree, making it more true to Bartmann and the particular environment that the nuthatch enjoys. However I like the composition of the other a tad more.
Nuthatch going down
For Studio 26 - Painterly Obsessions
I had hoped to rework this a bit - make the bottom thicker and extend the tree down - but as usual time has run out on me as I am leaving town in a few minutes. I really enjoyed the thought process of this assignment, even though I had few opportunities to produce something. Very fun to look at art and consider how to reproduce the effect in camera.
My first attempt at imitating a painter I admire is based on the work of Heather Dieter Bartmann. She is a Colorado bird painter, and we first found her work many years ago in Estes Park, Colorado. At the time, I was taken by how detailed her paintings were, showing the birds very accurately, and depicting them in natural settings. It turns out she has an ornithology degree, and spends a great deal of time observing the birds in their natural habitat.
The painting we own is called "Top Heavy" and features a beautiful kestrel. It can be seen here:
www.heatherbartmann.com/hdbweb.kestrel.htm
Her other works, and her biography, can be seen here:
When I looked carefully at her work, the following seemed to be attributes that I should attempt to imitate:
1. Light - the light is relatively non-existent in her work. I don't see shadows, or directionality of light.
2. Composition - most of her images have a very strong vertical or a very strong horizontal. Some have a diagonal and a few have arcs, but to me the vertical or horizontal usually predominates.
3. Cropping - her images are always surrounded by a good deal of white space. She portrays an intimate little setting in the midst of all that white.
4. Subject matter - she always places the birds in the correct natural surroundings.
5. Mood - her images have an almost Japanese feel to me and bring with them the sense of calm that I feel in a Japanese garden. They are always always very light and bright.
6. Interaction - the bird is often, but not always, making eye contact with the viewer.
Trying to produce all of these in camera is simply impossible. Unless I lucked into a bird positioned with a field of snow behind it, I was going to have to create the white background. In the two images I used, there was some background that I brightened to almost white, and cloned out interfering sticks and twigs. I tried to get birds either in shade so would not have shadows. I overexposed a bit in camera, then brightened after.
Of the two images, I like that this one shows the holes in the trunk of the tree, making it more true to Bartmann and the particular environment that the nuthatch enjoys. However I like the composition of the other a tad more.