I experience a lot of fun travelling to and walking through wilderness areas and showing my finished photographic prints in exhibitions. Commissions from clients are also a source of satisfaction.
I have recently discovered that , after reading his biography, my photographic outlook has significant common ground with a past Australian landscape painter, Sir Hans Heysen (1877 - 1968). Sir Hans always strove to maintain truth in all he painted and sketched. I have been of the same persuasion for some time now. Critical are things like shadow detail. Careful exposure and a reliance on my "memory" at time of shutter release, when viewing the RAW files are integral in my workflow. Admittedly, the results are not always one hundred percent successful, but hey, I'm human. ;-)
But here's my take on this "picturing" described above: I possess a distinct NEED to respect nature for what it is, not what I might perceive I WANT it to be. I intend to leave "over-saturated" high contrast colours where they belong - in pretty picture books and magazines. Truth is more important than "artificially fuzzy warmth".
And now, as a complete contrast, the classic motor car illustrations depicted here are very labour intensive. I favour re-creating the "seamless white backdrop" studio environments that were so popular in my formative years in Holland. Those printed, full page, photographic ads used to "catch my eye" when leafing through magazines back then. You could concentrate on the automotive designer's finished stylistic exercise, without being distracted. Beautifully lit too. I have no access to a photographic studio spacious enough to hold a car, so I decided to develop sufficient skills in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to draw them.
My work tools continue to be Foveon sensored cameras from Sigma, Wacom tablet/stylus, Apple Macs, and on the software front, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign round out the toolbox.
I'd love to hear from you so invite comments on my work either here in the comments sections or by PM to discuss related matters and points of view.
