June's Photographer of the Month
It’s June, which means a new month and time to say goodbye to Edward Weston. His images have been educational and inspiring, and I’ve added greatly to my Evernote list of Edward Weston quotes (my favorite of which is, “Anything more than 500 yards from the car just isn’t photogenic.”). My choice of this month’s photographer has been much more deliberate than in previous months. While his name has been on my not-to-miss-as-part-of-this-project list this entire time, I’ve skipped over it until now. Lately I've been thinking about areas where I’ve felt I haven’t progressed photographically and where I’d like to touch on before our grand Fall Adventure (more on that in another post), and once I figured that out, I knew who I had to study. Have any ideas who it might be?
The whole thinking process started in large part when I came across the images from Ono Beach that had reminded me of Edward Weston’s images from Point Lobos and the way I used to work with my 4x5 camera.
That image got me thinking about my older work, and one of the subjects that I feel I still have not done justice to since I’ve started photographing again. At least not in the way I had before. Trees. Single trees, groups of trees . . . it doesn’t matter. Just as there is something magical about rocks, there’s something magical about trees.
So I started scrolling through my Lightroom catalog, thinking about the older 4x5 images I loved, looking for trees. I’d stop when something was of interest, and work on it a bit in black and white.
Time and time again, just as I’d felt the first time going through them, something was lacking in the images.
Not that they were necessarily terrible, but compared to what I’d produced before, my images of trees seemed to be missing something. That applies as well for the quality of the black and white work.
And as I mentioned recently, the way forward is through work. Focused work with a purpose.
So as part of that effort, it was time to go to the photographer that, for me, is the master of trees - John Sexton. Between his superbly printed books “Listen to the Trees” and “Quiet Light,” both of which I have, if I don’t come out of studying his work with me doing a better job of photographing trees . . . well then it’s my own damn fault.
As Ansel Adam’s former assistant, his black and white skills are amazing as one might expect. So I’ll also be able to work on another area where I need to boost my craft, though this time I won’t have to live with the smell of fixer on my hands.
And as if that’s not enough reason to study John Sexton this month, well he too is a Sportsmobile owner! At least that’s what the autographed copy of his Recollections book in the Sportsmobile waiting room said. Except he’s on his third one! Don’t worry Beast, Ann and I plan on keeping you a long time.