Findingviews

Posts Tagged ‘Snow’

Created by Gregory Colbert Ashes and Snow is a beautiful collection of works assembled from some of the world most eyedropping and spiritual places. The portraiture here is particularly moving. These are 35mm photographs that will give you a WOW experience. 

Link to Aspect of Winter T Shirt

Ok this is the final post about Aspects of Winter and I promise that the after this I will move onto something new.

I thought I would talk about how the Aspects of Winter T-Shirt came about.

It started with the original 3 image design and I wondered if it would look good as a wall print if I added the title to it. The image was always going to be called Aspects of Winter so I started adding the text above and below the image. At that point I realised that the font was part of the art and I had to find an appropriate font to carry the message. After some experimentation and quite a few rejected fonts I decided to use Lithos Pro. It had the feel of traditionalism and impact that I thought the image needed. With the font decided on I worked on the spacing of characters and words that to me at least worked best.

So I printed out some test copies. I always recommend testing. Its easy to work purely in the digital but when something is on paper you can often get a better feel for it.

I spent an evening looking the paper and decided that for wall and card art the images would probably look better on their own. Something kept niggling at me, it felt that I was missing a point.

That was when I thought T-Shirt!

So I made a note to work it into a T-Shirt. I finished off the print versions then I focussed on the Shirt. The spacing on the images had to change for the T-Shirt form factor but that wasn’t such a bad job.

That’s it – the Aspects of Winter T-Shirt came from the a printed test copy that didn’t work out. I’m very happy I made that print.

I promised to talk more about Aspects of Winter and now that I have released the final version of the image its time to do so. There’s a small copy of at the bottom of this posting, it also links to a larger version so that you can take a better look at it.

I started Aspects of Winter wanting to show the build up of colours in a snow scene, and I think going from black and white, to sepia, finally to a painting style of colour achieves that. As I was working on getting this right I released that there was something to gain by including a little unevenness. The images themselves are not clones of each other. Each is an individual photograph, and each has been cropped individually. The idea is to open up the view through the series of images and to try and capture that up and down trudge that is the hard work of walking in deep, and freshly fallen snow.

Aspects of Winter is an attempt to capture the changes in colour and movement that comes with snow.

What’s next – lets see what happens when I move this to a T-Shirt design.

This week I took a walk in the snow. Well actually this week there was little but choice – it was walk in the snow or not walk at all. The nice thing about snow is that we don’t see a lot of it where I live. That does not mean I am against snow, what it means is that snow transforms what it falls on and it is nice for these sudden changes in the world to not become routine. If I had a lot of snow I may not notice the subtle changes it brings to the world around me so readily. So I welcome snow. It gives me a chance to review my world with a fresh set of eyes. This is a good thing to do and a recommend exercise for anyone. Take a look at something you see regularly and try to review as if you had never seen it before. Its a good creative exercise and may help you come up with some good ideas.

Near me there is a park that I sort of do not use a lot. Its mostly an open space used by people playing football. During  this walk I entered it and noticed that the snow was untouched and perfect. I also could not help notice how snow changed the light, shadows and contrast. In this park there is a line of trees so being a sucker for perspective shots I started to take a series of photographs, playing with focal point and light as I did. So far so good.

When I reviewed my photographs I noticed that with a bit of cropping and a bit of adjustment I could create a series of images that went could expand along the view and also move from mono to colour in a near painted style.

So I worked up the images.

Then noticed that they would make a good set and maybe even a T-Shirt design.

All this from a walk in the snow.

The first image (part 3) is already up on m gallery and is available now. Over the next couple of days. This is the one that I feel is the strongest of the 3. It has a touch of snow other worldliness and also the ordinary creeps in too and I like this balance. When I finish the final compilation and T shirt design I’ll talk about the process behind these too.

In the meantime I hop you like Aspects of Winter. Click here to view it.

In the UK as a general rule we don’t see a great deal of snow. True there are some northerly areas where snow is pretty much guaranteed. However over the last couple of days pretty much all of the UK has been  covered in snow. As per normal schools have been closed, roads have been closed and people are enjoying the joys of being at home during the day (also called I can’t believe what they putting on daytime TV these days).

Of course its also a chance to get some pictures in and of the snow.

Except that none of us actually now how to take pictures in the snow.

So here are some  top tips for taking pictures in the snow.

1. If you’re camera has a snow setting – use it. Snow is bright and contrasting environment. Having your camera set for this will help. If you don’t have a snow setting, then try a beach setting. Beaches and snowfields are oddly similar places. If your camera doesn’t support these scenes try reducing exposure compensation a little. This should help
2. Use a flash to photograph falling snowflakes. You’ll need plenty of light to help fix the position of the snowflakes.
3. Snow is very monochrome. Find something that has a bright colour to it and include this in your photograph. This will help create an interesting looking photograph. Red works well in the snow.
4. Snow presents a rare and changing environment. Keep a camera handy. If you see something that looks interesting take the picture then and there. You don’t know how long the scene will last.
5. Snow also means fewer people around. This means quieter looking streets and roads and this may lend itself to some interesting atmospheres for your photographs. Remember this if you thing you photograph seems ordinary. It may not look so mundane when you come to print the photograph.
6. Beware of shadows! Snow is very good at picking up shadows and suddenly your pristine white piece of snow can have a dirty great shadow on it. Keep your eyes open to avoid this.
7. Check your white balance. Use auto white balance or manually set the white balance by taking a picture of some snow. Whatever you do do not use a white balance set for artificial light this will put an unsightly colour cast on your images.
8. Wrap up warm, snow is cold. Your hands will get cold when handling the camera so make sure you can keep warm.

Of course the most important thing – enjoy yourself.