Tag: photography

Taliesin, Spring Green

A few weeks ago we took a trip up to Spring Green to see both the American Players Theatre and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin, his home in Wisconsin and on 800 acres he used as a place to teach his architecture students. It is currently 400 acres in the Taliesin Preservation Trust. The home is the third one Wright built as the two previous ones burned down. You can only visit the grounds and structures, of which there are many, in a tour group, so photography is limited in time as you stroll through and hear the history of the place. The photo’s are all shot during a tour using my iPhone.

Being someone who thought about becoming an architect and then starting my career in photography as an architectural photographer I have an admiration for many of Wright’s designs. Although he was clearly not good on the structural side of design. I love his prairie style with it’s overhangs and lots of windows. One interesting thing he did being only 5’ 5” tall was make short ceilings, especially when entering a room though a hallway or changing spaces within a room. His thought was it makes you want to move into the bigger space, often with vaulted ceilings.

On the house tour you also see what used to be a barn and is now used as apartments for those who studied under Wright and still live on the property as well as staff.

It is a trip worth doing if you like architecture! Enjoy the images.

Cheers,

Richard


Sunrise, Lighthouse Beach

I went to Lighthouse Beach this morning for sunrise. I wasn’t really planning on it but as I was awake at 5:15 I thought get down there! As you may know I have shot this particular area of the beach many, many times over the years as it is only a mile and a half from my home. It will certainly play a part in my book Twenty|Ninety-Five on all five of the Great Lakes.  I often wonder if I can see anything new, shoot a new view or make a more compelling image having been there so many times. But as I tell folks it is all in the way you see things and you must try and change your perspective, view point and work with how the light plays out in front of you to create a compelling image. No two moments will ever look the same. Maybe similar, but certainly not the same.

This morning I wanted to get down low and use a wide angle lens to get in close to the image and let it stretch out in front of the viewer. Then as the sun cracked the horizon I realized a long lens would be a different perspective. In addition the sun was coming up where I have wanted to see the moon rise for many months so I could work it into the image with the pilings. The sun instead of the moon at this moment.

When I arrived there was a gentleman already there who is a member of a camera club and wanted to shoot for a photo contest the club was having. We talked as I set my equipment up and he asked me if he could watch and learn. Of course. He also asked me to tell him my thoughts as I choose where to place the camera. It was an interesting experience which I enjoyed. Kind of like a mini-workshop!

Here is a link to the images from this morning. Only a small amount of adjustments have been made in Lightroom so far. Hope you enjoy the images! Maybe these will become a part of my book on the Great Lakes, Twenty|Ninety-Five which I am currently continuing to work on.

https://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/Great_Lakes_Project/LighthouseBeachSunrise/index.html

Peace,

Richard

 


Jill Buckner & Richard Mack Gallery Opening – Morocco Work

Jill Buckner & Richard Mack Gallery Opening

TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS | ONE VISION

Jill Buckner & Richard Mack Gallery Opening

Treasures of Morocco: A Sensuous Feast of Color

Join us for a uniquely exotic evening that will senses! A “taste of Morocco”.

OPENING NIGHT: Friday, November 9th 5:30-9:00 at Ysla Gallery in Wilmette.

What may have started as a mild competition while we were on assignment in Italy and Morocco became inspirational and synergistic. We were quite excited about the passion and energy which was unleashed.

It is seldom two photographers can work this seamlessly together and create one body of work with cohesiveness such as this. In some instances we do not know who shot one image or the other. Therefore in these collections, we will both sign each print. We travelled to Italy to capture the beauty of Tuscany, Florence and Venice. In Morocco we photographed in Casablanca, Marrakech and a small part of the countryside. The trip to Morocco was driven by the possibility of a book whose working title is Treasures of Morocco: A Sensual Feast of Color.

For more information or to download a PDF of the postcard invitation use this link:

Gallery Show Buckner & Mack

With less than three weeks to go until the opening I have a lot of work to do printing each image we’ve selected for the show and then getting them into the frames. Jill is in Atlanta on a few shoots for the next week which gives me the chance to concentrate on getting the prints done so we can both sign each one and then frame them.  I know we shall have everything ready by the opening but right now all you see is work as you only want the finest prints – which do take time. A print comes off the printer and you look at it with a critical eye and decide if any changes need to be made. No matter how calibrated your system is, it is much like being in the darkroom in the way you work with a print after it “develops”. Yet it is also one of the most exciting parts of being a photographer – bringing your vision into print so everyone can see your way of seeing the world. Your perspective, or in this case, our perspective!

We hope you will all come to the opening – it shall be a great night about our trip to Morocco!

To see more about the Two Photographers|One Vision project use this link:

Two Photographers | One Vision

To Purchase Prints go to the Quiet Light publishing shop with this link TWO PHOTOGRAPHERS | ONE VISION PRINTS

To see some of the images from both Italy and Morocco you can use these links:

Morocco Images on Mack Photography website

Italy Images on Mack Photography website

See you on November 9th!

Richard

 


Full Moon Rise – First of 2 this Month

This August we have two full moons we can all shoot. I went on down to my favorite location which is about a mile from my house and shot the full moon coming up. I have been trying to get the perfect shot of the moon rise over this old pier. So far to no avail the way I first envisioned it. And because the rock wall blocks how far away you can get it is not possible to back off and use a long lens the way I want to. So you adjust.

There was another person who has read this blog who showed up and recognized me. I gave her some tips on equipment she might want to purchase. For me a key ingredient is the polarizing filter. And for shots like these more important are the graduated neutral density filters. A most worthy thing to have in your bag. It will bring down the exposure in the sky to make images without a blown out sky. I use the .9 neutral density filter which takes off 3 stops of light. And the later you shoot – and I go way past most folks – you really need it in order to try and keep the moon without having it just burn out. You also have to keep your exposures to less than 1 second or the moon will move during the exposure and therefore not be sharp. Some of the last images from last night were 8 seconds, and I knew the moon would just be a small white circle – well a bit oblong though but also blown out. Acceptable since I wanted the glow on the water.

Now in all honesty I was not really into making images on this night. And there was a cloud layer, as usual, out over the lake, so once I got there I had to wait. A photographer doesn’t like just sitting so I made a few images before the moon popped out of the clouds. I tried to do something a bit different than anything done before. Sometimes you have to reach back and look at things in a very different perspective especially when the location is very familiar.

Not sure how successful these were, I will need to ruminate on them a while longer before deciding whether they might be worthy for inclusion in the book I am currently working on Twenty / Ninety-Five: The Great Lakes Landscapes. It covers all five of the Great Lakes. You can see more about it at Quiet Light Publishing. www.quietlightpublishing.com/GLP.php

You can also see more of the images from this shoot here: Moon Rise

The second full moon is on August 29 – known as the Blue Moon – a semi rare occurrence. And where the phrase “Once in a blue moon” came from. Wonder if I shoot that one as well. And where?

Cheers,

Richard