painting

Painting with Woodland Waters /  by Todd Henson

Woodland Waters

Most often I go hiking and photographing in the morning, and mostly on weekends. But every so often I have the opportunity to go in the afternoon on a weekday. Either I have the day off or I take off work early, grab my gear, and head out in search of new images. In this particular case it was mid-May and I’d left work early with a specific goal in mind, one that has nothing to do with today’s photograph. I was working on a post that would show the stages of growth of pink lady’s slipper orchids and I wanted to check in on the flowers, see how they were progressing this season. But as this post will demonstrate, it can be beneficial to stay open-minded to other opportunities as they present themselves, to keep your eyes open and to practice those skills that help you find interesting subjects.

With all that in mind, this trip also resulted in the recent post, One Afternoon Six Critters. While on my way to and from the location of the lady’s slippers I happened upon a number of interesting critters, mostly insects but also a lizard. And of course I took the time to stop and photograph each of them. Thankfully, I’d started my hike just after 1 pm so I had plenty of time to hike, and being mid-May it was still cool enough I wasn’t worried about overheating and I had plenty of water.

As I’m sure you can guess, today’s photograph also came out of this hike. Many of these trails are along a small creek and sometimes something catches my eye in the water or on its surface. The sun was positioned such that it was lighting up the trees on the far side of the creek while leaving the water in shade. This created what I thought were some interesting and painterly reflections. That’s one of the elements that often draws me to reflections, how they can create an almost painterly feel to a photograph. I also like how, being a reflection, they have a slightly different perspective than if we were looking at the actual scene above the water. And if you add in the element of clear water flowing in a shallow creek such that you can see some of the rocks below the surface, you get this great combination of elements.

One thing I found interesting about this trip were the number of images I created of each subject. I often create many images both to try to get something in focus and to try different compositions, different angles and perspectives. So it was no surprise to me that I created 32 images of the eastern tailed-blue butterfly, or 40 images of the black-and-gold flat millipede, or 22 images of wild geranium (by the way, the post Considering Composition for a Wild Geranium also resulted from this hike). But I’m very surprised I only created 2 images of these creekside reflections. Why? Thinking back, I’m not entirely sure. Perhaps I didn’t think they’d result in much so didn’t spend time on them. Or perhaps I was happy with that single composition and didn’t feel the need to explore. It’s also possible I was tired, though just after this I found the millipede and took the time to create 40 images of it.

In the end I don’t know why I created only 2 images of the creek, but I’m glad I stopped long enough to at least create those. The more I sit with this image the more I like it. I don’t know if it will work as well for you, but please let me know whether or not it does in the comments below.

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Painterly Pursuits in Photography /  by Todd Henson

I was thinking about how sometimes painters create paintings that could be mistaken for photographs. And that naturally led me to thinking about how photographers sometimes create photographs that could be mistaken for paintings. And from there I began pondering some of the ways a photograph might be made to look painterly, many of which would involve heavy post-processing, likely using Photoshop to craft a painting out of a photo. But I also thought about the various ways a photograph could be made painterly mostly in camera with any post-processing occurring strictly in Lightroom.

And so I sought out a few photographs that I’d created with a more painterly intent, ones I’d not yet processed, and took them through Lightroom to finish them. Most of the post-processing is similar in nature to that I do with any other photograph, adjusting exposure, highlights, shadows, white and black points, white balance, color balance, etc. The majority of what makes these photos painterly was done in camera. I did, however, make adjustments in Lightroom that might be considered overkill for a typical photograph, things like over-saturating colors or pushing texture too much in one direction or the other (affecting contrast in interesting ways).

Trees in Autumn

The first photo used a simple technique to distort the scene, giving it the impression of paint brushed onto a canvas. How was it done? Some of you may guess by looking at the photo. I found a pond surrounded by bright autumn foliage and pointed the camera at the reflections in the water and experimented with various shutter speeds to see the different looks they gave. Some seemed to give the impression of brushed on paint, and in post processing I accentuated that by adjusting the contrast in various ways (texture, highlights, shadows, white and black point, etc). I also flipped the photo so the sky was at the top, as we’d see in the scene or a painting, but the opposite of what we typically see reflected in a pond.

Autumnal Abstract

For the second photo I once again took advantage of the reflections of the colorful autumn foliage, but this time I decided to go with a more abstract composition. I focused in on a small patch of color and patterns and zoomed in enough you can’t as easily tell what the subject is. Instead it’s just a painting about color and pattern. And this being the case I had no problem adjusting some of the colors in Lightroom, making some of them brighter and more vibrant.

Fiery Fall Foliage

Finally, for the third photo I decided to include the actual scene instead of just reflections. But I still wanted a painterly look. Thankfully, the scene, itself, had a painterly look to it with the late afternoon sun lighting up some of the colorful leaves across the pond. I was also creating a number of long exposures, letting any breeze slightly blur the leaves, while also sometimes experimenting with moving the zoom or focus ring during the exposure. If you move the zoom ring during exposure you can create some interesting streaks and blurs as you actually zoom into or out of the scene. By moving the focus ring during exposure you can similarly create some interesting blurs as you capture things in and out of focus at the same time. In this particular case I don’t think I moved either zoom or focus rings, instead just letting the breeze move some of the leaves around for the 1 second exposure. I then made further adjustments in Lightroom that contributed to the slightly blurry feel, and made some creative exposure adjustments beyond the already brightly illuminated foliage.

All of these photos also took advantage of a Singh-Ray Gold-n-Blue polarizing filter to shift and accentuate the colors even more. The trip to this pond was all about experimenting, about trying to use various techniques to alter the look and feel of the images, and in some cases perhaps creating photographs with a more painterly feel. I’ll let you decide whether or not I was successful.

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Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden /  by Todd Henson

Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, side facing the National Mall

My brother and I recently visited the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden along the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Hirshhorn is the Smithsonian museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art and culture. Outside, between the museum and the National Mall, is their sculpture garden containing a wide range of sculptures, two of which I photographed. Inside is the museum, which contains several floors of artwork.

The main exhibit when we visited was a collection of Infinity Mirrors by Yayoi Kusama. This was popular enough it required (free) timed passes in advance, and they had already run out for the day. So we missed the Infinity Mirrors exhibit this time around, though I would still like to see it.

I think I still have a lot of room to grow and learn as an artist, and the Hirshhorn is a perfect reminder of that. There were many pieces of art I just didn’t get. I’m not nearly as drawn to much of the modern art out there as I am to the more traditional pieces you can find in the National Gallery of Art. But I do try to expose myself to all forms of art, both to learn from them and to try to appreciate them.

Voltri XV steel sculpture by David Smith in the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden

Sphere No. 6 bronze sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro in the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden

Untitled (Big Man) sculpture by Ron Meuck in the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum

I’ve included a small sampling of some of the pieces I found interesting. I really enjoyed the sculpture garden. I like the Japanese feel to David Smith’s Voltri XV steel sculpture. And I was fascinated by the detail in Arnaldo Pomodoro’s bronze sculpture, Sphere No. 6.

In the museum one of the very first pieces we viewed was Ron Mueck’s untitled sculpture of a Big Man, and it is a Big Man. There’s really nothing in the photograph to give scale to the sculpture. I should have zoomed out to show the sculpture in the context of the museum room it was in, but didn’t think of it. I was amazed at the detail of the piece. It very much looked alive.

One room we entered was completely dark, and on the far wall was a painting by Hamish Fulton titled Moonrise Kent England, 30 September 1985. As you can see the painting is of a full moon (a white circle) in a dark sky (a black wall).

Moonrise Kent England, 30 September 1985, painting by Hamish Fulton in the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum

One of my favorite exhibits this trip was in the inner hallway, which is a circular hallway facing the inner courtyard. The piece was titled World Time Clock by Bettina Pousttchi, and was a series of twenty-four photographs of clocks from twenty-four different time zones around the world. Each clock face has a different look, but all the photographs were created at the same local time, 1:55 PM.

World Time Clock by Bettina Pousttchi in the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum

World Time Clock by Bettina Pousttchi in the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum

I would certainly recommend the Hirshhorn to anyone who hasn’t visited, especially if you enjoy modern art. The exhibits change over time, so there should almost always be something new to see. I look forward to returning in the future. Let me know if you’ve ever visited the Hirshhorn and what your experiences were.

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