My favourite photographers

During college and to this day I still look at other photographers work to see the different techniques and interpretations a single image can have.

Here is just a few of my favourite:

Firstly, there is Dan Mountford who uses double exposure to create some of the most amazing images you have probably ever seen. His images can be replicated post production, with the use of Photoshop you can simply over lap two images. However, he originally had to use film meaning a lot of trial and error. With digital technology now at our disposal it means we can cut out some of the time spent on perfecting these effects on our images.

Andreas Lie is another photographer who creates similar images, he is mostly known for the use of nature within his images. He uses the natural form of an animal and manipulates the image to make their natural geographical location appear as part of that animal showing that all nature has a home.

This is an image I produced during my time at college.

Dreya Qasem is an artist known for her portraits and figurative art, as a college student I found the way she was able to show emotion through her work fascinating.

 

In one of her drawings she used a females facial structure and overlapped it with a building and fluttering birds, an image now many mat see everyday yet not think anything else of, she used tones to create contrast and build emphasis upon the subjects facial features. Displaying the divide between man made and nature.

I was inspired by these artists to go out of my comfort zone and create images of my own using their techniques. Allowing me to create images with depth and add a spin of my own, whilst using the tools available to me.

When it comes to natural photography I always refer to the formal elements which are:

• lines
• tone
• texture
• motion
• patterns
• the rule of thirds
• balance
• dutch tilt

Ansel Adams uses some of these techniques within his work, for example if he’s taking a picture of a river he will use the natural outline of the river to guide the human eye to an object. He also be known to use a bed of water to reflect the surrounding landscape creating a balance effect making the image more appealing to the human eye.

Carolyn Meltzer specialises in nature imagery and many pieces of her art have been displayed in venues such as the Rose Squared Gallery.

She has one image that I have always found interesting and innocent. Its a very simple yet effective image, of a leaf surrounded by negative space by doing this she has made the leaf the focal point of the image emphasising it’s finest detail.

I have tried many times to try and perfect her technique yet have never found the perfect balance in tone, the image shown below is the closest I have achieved.

A replication piece I did during my time at college of Carolyn Meltzer’s work

As I develop my skills further as a photographer I hope to discover more artists who inspire me as those listed above have, by making me see things from a different point of view and using different techniques to create an intriguing image.