Stephen Card's Photography Blog

Wild Rose Photography Gallery

stephenjc — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:27:25 +0000

This past weekend I needed to go to another photography gallery. I was searching online for local galleries I could visit. And I found the Wild Rose Photography Gallery and visited the site on Saturday November 28th. After all, the past two exhibits I attended were what you I guess could call “well-known” artists. I wanted to see what the differences, if there were any, between these “well-known” artists compared to a diamond in the rough artists located in Escondido. I’m very sorry to say that I am disappointed. This Wild Rose Photography Gallery is nothing impressive at all. Photographs with decent imagery were paired with landscapes with a tint of oddly used infrared filters. To me, using infrared filters is like walking a very thin line between greatness and disaster. Unfortunately in this case, it was not impressive. Of course it was a gallery of landscapes with some floral, but nothing amazing, nothing great, nothing I would want to aspire to be. If anything, as bad as it sounds, I took away of mundane aspects of photography that I did not want to emulate. The landscapes had some cool lines, the floral photography had some cool close-ups, but once again, nothing that an amateur like myself could not replicated. I know it sounds cynical, but I want to be blown away by the color, composition, and subject matter by every photography I see. I know this is not possible with every gallery I visit. But I at least want to come away thinking to myself that the drive was at least worth it.

“Baja California” at the Ordover Gallery

stephenjc — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:14:40 +0000

All I can say is wow. I visited Ralph Lee Hopkin’s Baja California exhibit back on October 3rd. This was my first ever visit to the Ordover Gallery and I was thoroughly impressed with the facility as well at the exhibition I saw. I am a huge huge fan of crystal clear, sharp, vividly colorful photographs, and that is exactly what I saw at this exhibition. Not only were the photographs amazing, by my definition, as far as picture quality, but the subject matter was totally intriguing. Photographs with amazingly beautiful composition of nature and great timing photographs of wildlife really hooked me on Ralph Hopkins. You see such warmth in the eyes of the wildlife, especially the whales. And from my amateur attempts at photographing wildlife, he did an amazing job. As soon as I arrived home after visiting the exhibit, I went online to find some sort of pictures I could save to my computer for later references of color and composition. These photographs reminded me a lot of Chris Mayne’s photography but in my own opinion, Ralph’s caught and kept my eye for a longer period of time. This is one of my favorites on his website, I really wish I could have seen this one in his exhibit.

“Autumn” at the Ordover Gallery

stephenjc — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:05:21 +0000

I attended the Autumn exhibitions at the Ordover Gallery on November 7th. I just finally got to the exhibition the last weekend before it left. I am somewhat pleased with what I saw at this particular exhibition, although it was neither my favorite nor my least favorite exhibition. It was definitely a content medium. Now I love landscapes, but who with a camera has not done somewhat impressive landscapes? I guess that was my problem, as far as state of mind, when I attended this gallery. Artists such as Abe Ordover and Christopher Burkett, my two favorite artists from this exhibit, had decent photos displayed. But none really impressed me too much. I guess with landscape, one must do something different, something intriguing, something to capture my attention and keep it. Now although I like a few photographs, none really kept my attention. What I am gonna take from this experience is just that, do my own photographs keep my own attention? If it doesn’t, it sure won’t keep others’.

Natural Inspiration

stephenjc — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:40:01 +0000

I finished my photography book over the weekend and had it sent out to be printed. I am pleased with what it looks like on my computer but am extremely excited to see what the finished print out version will look like. If anything I will at least be able to say I have my own book that I can show to my friends and family. “Natural Inspiration,” photographs of nature with quotations to inspire.

Here is a LINK to the book preview

An-My Le

stephenjc — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:28:20 +0000

Today, 11/16/2009, we viewed a short film about a photographer, An-My Le, who is interested in the military; and more importantly in her own words “the preparation for war.” She takes photographs of actors as well as actual men and woman performing situations/routines/exercises that would happen during war. She is one of the more socially aware photographers that we have learned about. Her photography first started back when she was in Vietnam and was exposed to the war and its effect on the people. She also sees herself as a landscape photographer. She sees herself this way because she also wants to be conscience of how landscapes change throughout history whether it be natural or caused by man. She combines her need of showing the soldiers and their connection with the landscape around them. Personally, I do not think that these photographs are necessarily really appealing to me, the whole concept she takes is very interesting to me. Unfortunately I am one of those people who are focused on whether or not the photographs hit me and capture my attention (either through color, subject matter, size, or composition.)

Online Photographer: Jeffrey Jacobs

stephenjc — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:47:34 +0000

I took some photographs for my father a while back, he works in real estate and works for Coldwell Banker. I went around to different model homes and took many photographs both inside and outside. One thing I love about doing this was the houses were already build and furnished for me; all I had to do was bring out the lines both inside and outside the home that made the house attractive. I was looking online at different architecture photographers and I came across Jeffrey Jacobs. Now his “subjects” or buildings are much more contemporary than the simple houses I photographed, I really like the angles, the lines, and the colors that he brings out in his own photographs. The colors especially bring out the “liveliness” of his building subjects. I would be very interested in pursuing a set of photographs, particularly also architecture, that imitates the vibrant colors Jeffrey Jacobs brings out in his own.

Here is also a LINK to his personal website along with my favorite photograph of his.

Online Photographer: Kurt Ross

stephenjc — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:03:02 +0000

I recently have been looking online at a particular photographer, Kurt Ross. I love landscapes to begin with just simply because of the natural beauty Earth really has. Kurt Ross captures this amazement brilliantly in his photography. Not only are his compositions really spectacular, but the colors of the photographs are absolutely stunning. You can definitely tell that Kurt Ross has spent time out in nature, to know when and where he would get the best photographs as well as being able to capture the natural color and beauty, truly a great skill. I would love to travel around the Unites States and take thousands upon thousands of photographs like this, although coming back home to sit on a computer and cypher through them might be a bit drab, none the less I will definitely keep up with the photography of Kurt Ross.

Here is a LINK to Kurt Ross’ photography website, along with one of my favorite photographs on his website (due to the colors and composition)

Flikr Slideshow: Food Series

stephenjc — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:12:53 +0000

Here are some photographs I took of different sealed foods from my cupboards.

Here is a LINK to my Food Series in slide show format on Flikr

Cindy Sherman 11/9/2009

stephenjc — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:07:08 +0000

Cindy Sherman is a photographer that has been exploring different ways to portray a people in portrait series. What I find interesting with Cindy is her subject matter. She puts herself in each of the photographs, but in order to disguise herself she adds an immense amount of makeup. She also takes extremes of the characters she is portraying, for instance a rich Beverly Hills woman has very dark unhealthy skin with bleached white teeth and blonde hair. Of course this is not how all women from Beverly Hills looks like, but she was exploring different ways to portray these woman. Another point that I find interesting is her earlier work, her film shot series. These photographs were taken in a very deliberate mass produced fashion, a way that does not signify anything at all to the “free art” kind of movement. One last particular fact I found interesting was her decision to put these photographs on display in a extremely large way. She said the reason why is due to the fact that a lot of male artists, not necessarily big or popular or well known artists, always have a giant piece on a wall. She said to the extent that such ego was in these male artists that she said why can’t I as a woman also have a big ego and in return a big portrait?

Here is an example of her “mass produced film series”

Here is an example of her more recent styles, her portraying a southern lady

Vernacular Fashion

stephenjc — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:28:12 +0000

So I’ve been looking at this particular webpage I found on google of a particular leather shoe and photographs taken of it at different angles. I really liked the angles and sharp quality of the photographs so I tried to emulate it. Unfortunately only 10 megapixel cameras are left and it is hard to get a hold of better ones so here is my attempt. This first link is a link to the photography of the leather shoe I was inspired by:

THIS GUYS PHOTOGRAPHS