Starting with this post, I am going to be sharing some of my favorite photographers to follow.  I’m not sure how often yet.  Maybe once a week or some other scheduled duration or maybe just whenever I feel like it.   Time will tell.

Who To Follow – Gavin Seim

I first started following Gavin Seim (http://seimstudios.com/) about two years ago during a phase I went through listening to any photography related podcast I could find. His Pro Photo Show podcast is the only one I still listen to regularly.  Why this one?  The energy and passion he brings.  He is clearly someone who thinks about things from many angles and is willing to try new ideas. You may have to rewind a few times because he moves at a pace faster than the rest of us, but it’s worth a listen if you are looking to get good photography advice from a pro.

Moonlake

I came up with the idea to show this image when I was writing about HDR last night.  This is not an HDR.  In fact, it wouldn’t even be a digital image if it wasn’t for a scanner.  This was taken on Black & White 35mm film and developed in a darkroom in my parents’ master bathroom.  The reason this image came to mind, was that it followed the same concept as the image of the river.  It began with a vision and finished with editing.  It’s hard to tell, I know, but this is actually an ordinary lake.  The black along the top is the result of severely underexposing the photo, and therefor, the evergreens on the other side.  The sun setting just above them and out of the frame provided a perfect moon-like effect that I envisioned before snapping the shutter.   The first time I made a print from the negative I was disappointed.  The beach was way too dark.  Today, that would easily be fixed in Adobe Lightroom© with a quick stroke or two of the adjustment brush.  But in the darkroom it was handled by arcing a piece of cardboard along the water line for one length of time, then with the cardboard removed, exposed for another length of time under the enlarger.  Getting those lengths of time correct took a lot of trial and error as well as enlarging paper, but using that technique allowed me to get the image I pictured in my mind when I took it.  Just like the HDR technique I used helped me get the desired result in the Mad River image.

Come back tomorrow for one from Cape Cod!