“The Ordinary Meets Extradordinary”

This months chosen is artist is the really creative and talented Steve Taylor, who has kindly agreed to share his favourite photographs. I started following Steve on Flickr as I was struck by his exciting use of bold colours, and humour which transforms the Ordinary into the Extraordinary, (This is also the title of one of Steve’s albums on Flickr ).

Steve’s images remind of the work by the colour-revolutionary photographer William Eggleston,  Andy Warhol and Martin Parr. His art starts off as pure photography, but he then uses post-processing to enhance the images so they can look more like paintings or prints. He does this to give his images more meaning…see Steve’s comments to read  more about this.

 

 

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“Happy Days  : In the original photo you could still make out the features of the family group, so increased the contrast so that the joy of walking/running on the beach was emphasised rather than seeing the actual people.” – Steve Taylor

 

” The Measure of a Man   I took the picture to show the line of the shadow pointing at the man sitting on the wall. After increasing the contrast the shadow of the wall looked like the markings on a ruler; thus the title The Measure of a Man.” – Steve Taylor

A few words from the Artist himself :

“I started off as most people did using black and white negative film which I could develop and print myself. I then moved on to colour transparency for the wonderful vivid colours. When I had kids the photography slowed down and it was all colour negative that you took to the chemist to print. Film was a lot harder than today. You had to visualise the result in your mind. One of the ways of doing this was to squint your eyes. The more you squinted the more contrast you could see. So the faster the film the more contrast. Also we used to press the aperture (depth of field preview) button to see what would be in focus. There was a lot of looking at the lens to see if the aperture was set to a particular aperture can I bring the focus closer and still have distant objects (clouds) still in focus. Also back in the film days the aim was to get a perfectly clear picture with little not in focus, blur or bokeh.”

 

Steve’s Art features a wide range of everyday subjects such as street art, quirky decorated buildings, objects, nature, landscapes etc. which tend to feature bold colours and contrast, ironic juxtapositions, and humour. It is these characteristics which I really love. He also   creatively and skilfully  uses digital manipulation to emphasise meaning, and also create some really interesting   abstract images.

 

All Alone illustrates his creative use of instead of increasing colour saturation he  reduces the  colour and details . This   emphasises  atmosphere, and the  juxtaposition of the sofa   which to me conjures up images of people socialising but the reality is,  the loneliness of the virtually empty house.

“All Alone  : When I was in real estate I was selling a house with a sleep out and the only thing in the room was this small couch. I put it in the corner and took this picture. In the processing I reduced any details and emphasised just the couch and carpet.”- Steve Taylor

 

“How white is your underwear: I took this picture with a bright winter sun coming through the door. I processed it to get the most contrast on the washing basket and to have the feel of the glow of the super white washing is causing the shadow of the basket. ” – Steve Taylor

I love the contrast which highlight the patterns of the washing basket and that the object is an everyday house item.Also it reminds me of the subjects featured in Andy Warhol’s images.

 

 

 

Leadership: The Art of Mending Fences: I loved the look of this broken fence, but on it’s own it looked a bit everyday. I ran the picture through DAP http://www.mediachance.com/dap/ and combined the DAP picture with the original. I would recommend trying out DAP and look forward to the version 5 coming in the near future. – Steve Taylor

Thanks to Steve for sharing his vivid, intriguing and thought provoking art. It has been an honour to showcase it and if you are curious to see more of his amazing photography   see:  https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevetaylors/

 

 

“There’s often beauty in unexpected places…”

This months featured Artist is Joy Jordan , who I find inspiring. She captures simple but beautiful images of nature that transmit a sense of peace and self reflection.

Joy Jordan – Winter

 

It was therefore no surprise when I discovered that as well as being a talented photographer ,Joy also is a teacher (and student ) of Mindfulness.Knowing this Joy’s images make perfect sense, as they convey emotion through beautiful details,textures and colours all captured in soft light.These are some of the qualities which drew my eye towards Joy’s work.

Joy Jordan – Spring

 

Joy describes her work …..

“My photography is more than a creative outlet,it’s a mindfulness practice.It’s a way to pay attention and stay open. I find solace in the natural world. I look for light,texture and details.There’s often beauty in unexpected places. I try to tell visual stories that have an emotional impact. It’s persistent yet patient practice. I make mistakes, learn something, and try again.Each day I remind myself :Slow down, pay attention,and be kind.I hope this comes through in my images ”

Joy Jordan – Fall

 

Joy Jordan – Summer

 

Thanks to Joy for sharing her thought provoking and beautiful images.If you would like to see more of these and are interested in mindfulness  see Flickr ,  Born Joy blogspot , and  Born Joy Mindfulness Facebook

“Mostly doodling……” Chris Hawes – January’s Chosen Artist

This is the first monthly post featuring an artist who I follow on Flickr. I am delighted to showcase the beautiful photography of Chris Hawes, who is my first chosen artist.

I am inspired and admire Chris’ photography as he loves to capture atmosphere and a sense of time in both his landscapes and street scenes. He achieves this by skilfully capturing the light and by the way he frames the  composition.

Chris also captures the simplicity and gorgeous patterns of nature in his macro images ……it was this aspect that initially drew me to follow his work. Again, it is Chris’ skilful capture of subtle lighting that creates atmosphere and simplicity. His technical skill is also shown in his photographs featuring  ‘bokeh’, (the blurred quality or effect seen in the out-of-focus portion of a photograph taken with a narrow depth of field. ). 

 

Chris describes his inspiration and work as

“Mostly doodling.It’s a lifetime mission and that really sums it up.I’m just enjoying the process of making and sharing pictures and getting some feedback. Maybe I’ll get sophisticated one day but I’m not in a hurry.”

 

I’m sure you will all agree these are much, much more than doodles and you can look at more of his work at https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisotruro , but for now enjoy, and thanks Chris for sharing your art.

 

Canary Wharf after work, January. a 1950s Leica lens adds atmosphere

 

Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire. A misty morning in October last autumn. I love the English seasons.

 

Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’. This was the view from my front door one summer’s day

 

A foxglove in the garden at Truro.

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn Blaze

There are good and bad bits about Autumn; dark nights, but also a blast of beautiful colours. These are a few images I have taken recently to celebrate the beauty of Autumn.

 

 

This photograph was chosen to appear on the Flickr Explore page, which was brilliant as it received my record number of views.

 

A Wider View of the World – My Flickr page!

When I started this blog I was obsessed with taking close up photos of things that are often overlooked. This led to me becoming drawn to abstract patterns caused by light, and this in turn started me down the track of playing around with black and white images. If you want a glimpse at at my wider view of the world you can click on to my Flickr page which is…..

Dawn’s Flickr Page!

Here are a few samples, hope you like them.

Torn Roses

In To the Light

Spring has Sprung

The Mower