Found Still Life

by Carol

To feel the grace of God in a painting of the dear, quiet commonness of a domestic interior, or in a landscape, seascape, cityscape, trains us to feel the grace of God in the thing itself in situ."
                                                                                    Susan Vreeland

I have just come across the term "found still life." I'm not sure if this term has been around for long, but its new to me, and it fits right in with my approach to photography. The definition of a still life is this: "a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. " It is basically the adoption or adaptation of artistic still life painting. Those paintings are all about design, with the artist arranging the elements into an interesting composition. Often the objects are symbolic. Always lighting is critical. In addition, shadow, value, color and shape are all incorporated. Do any of those terms bring photography to mind?

In a photographic still life, the same principals apply. The photographer sometimes works with the composition and the light for hours. Should I place 3 lemons in the bowl? One lemon out and two in? a sliced lemon next to the full bowl? Should I light the scene from above, below, right or left - backlighting perhaps? Should I shoot from above? from the side?  Which lens highlights the beauty? For me, although the results are much appreciated, the rigidity is too much.

Still life photography is a wonderful way to learn to work with form and light, but in practice, the controlled atmosphere fails to make my heart sing. For me the excitement comes from noticing the beauty arranged by a higher consciousness. How can I expect to match or surpass the grace of a dying rose caught in the golden hour, or the curve of an egret's neck as it bends into a stream for dinner? And then there is the water itself - in all its forms!

There can be beauty that's less obvious in a pile of leaves or twigs, or the way a shadow skims the water's edge, boulders scattered randomly near a river, a stand of birch trees. Even Man's sometimes heavy hand can create unexpected harmony in a pile of nails tossed aside, an old fence, a sunburst of rust. 

In photographing "found still life" the idea is that the objects are inanimate,  that nothing is moved into place by the photographer. There are no people in the shot. If the objects or their pattern tell a story, or symbolize something deeper in and of themselves, so much the better for creating as unique and meaningful image. Have you happened upon one of nature's still life compositions lately? Won't you share it in our gallery? And if you should choose to backlight it, it will even fit into our new monthly Focus On You theme. How ever you choose to shoot it, I'm guessing that your biggest reward will be from getting out into nature to look for it.  Happy wandering!

"No better way is there to learn to love nature than to understand art. It dignifies every flower of the field. And the boy who sees the thing of beauty which a bird on the wing becomes when transferred to wood or canvas will probably not throw the customary stone."

                                                                                                     Oscar Wilde

                                                                

Coming Full Circle

by Terri

As you may recall reading in several FOL blog posts in the past, the group of women who collaborate in writing this blog first became acquainted in Tracey Clark’s Picture series of classes on Big Picture Scrapbooking.  The first was Picture Spring in 2010. When I signed up, I didn’t know anybody else who was taking the class but I had admired Tracey for quite a while and that was enough for me.  However, I entered that class with a little bit of caution.

Although I had taken some online classes in photography and Photoshop, this was the first time I had been in a group where we were communicating with each other, commenting on each other’s photos and receiving comments on ours. This was seven years ago before Instagram and I wasn’t on Facebook back then either. “Talking” to people on the internet was still a new experience for me. But before long I was completely in love with the whole experience! 

"Beginnings" from Picture Spring 2010

My friends would ask me what this class was teaching and my response was, and I still remember it well, there isn’t a lot of teaching but there’s a whole lot of learning going on. We took a daily prompt that Tracey gave us, made our photograph and posted it, looked through and commented on other people’s photos and received comments on our photos. The learning came from the daily prompt to get out there and take photos, seeing what other people were shooting and being inspired by them, and receiving comments from others on our photos. Like I said, a whole new experience for me.

Photos taken during Picture Spring 2010

After Picture Spring came Picture Summer and many familiar faces from the earlier class were there.  I was a little more comfortable with the process and the other people in the class began to feel like friends. And I witnessed an amazing thing happening. Because we were shooting daily, we all started to see ours, as well as each other’s, photos improving. It was proof that daily use of your camera, trying different things and viewpoints, lighting situations and focus points, was a sure way to improve your photography.

"Hearts" from Picture Spring 2010

By the time we had completed Picture Summer, Fall, Winter and the Holidays it appeared that the adventure was coming to an end.  We all said, “Oh, no! What are we going to do without our daily prompt? What are we going to do without each other!”  Well, you probably know what came next -- the idea to start this blog and everyone who we asked to join us were people we only “knew” from Tracey’s classes.  Of course, now most of us have met in person but back then we were just online friends.

Now it all comes full circle. Tracey is reintroducing Picture Spring on a site called teachable.com.  We will be given daily prompts just like we were seven years ago at the beginning of this journey and all of us are going to be there just like old times!  

Class starts today.  I think you can still sign up.  If you are interested in finding out more, visit https://tracey-clark.teachable.com/p/picture-spring-a.  Any questions you might have should be answered there.  I’m telling you this not as a promotion for Tracey’s class but because I know how much we all enjoyed taking her Picture series of classes and if you have not had the chance to do that, I didn’t want you to miss out. Hope to see you in class!

And now that I have your full attention (I do, don’t I?), just as reminder that our Monthly Focus for May is “Leading Lines”. You can read more about it under the Monthly Focus at the top of this page and you can post your leading lines photos both in the Instagram group #focusingonlife and our Flickr group.  Hope to see you there too!