Christopher Burkett

I actually found Christoper Burkett on wikipedia. I had googled for a list of large format photographers and just started looking at different artists on the wikipedia list. I'm drawn to Burkett's images because of the natural imagery (something I think I really want to do). I also love his use of color and textures. Some of his images become abstracted, and I just look at the lines and textures, which is something I do in my own work and really respond to. He travels all around the US to photograph using an 8x10 camera and makes enlargements to 20x24, 30x40 and 40x50 (I would love to see his images that big). He also makes some medium format images and large form panoramic images.

Mixed Light

So this is my attempt to find mixed light images. I seem to be struggling with this assignment a bit, but I'm doing my best with what I can. I don't know who took these images, I found them all by googling mixed light photography and had to search a little for the ones I got. It's not a very easy topic to find and some are more successful than others. Here's what I've got so far:

For me, the most effective ones are the ones that include neon or fluorescent lights in the semi-dark (when there is still some daylight left). I can see the mixed light sources better in those images.

Clark Little

Clark Little is a surfer/ photographer who lives in Hawaii. My grandmother actually forwarded me an email with some of his images so I decided to check him out a bit more because I thought they were beautiful images. I've always loved the water, and ever since my nature project in photo 2, I've been interested in photographing it. Little has an advantage, living in Hawaii and knowing how to surf, since he has beautiful scenery all around him and can really get into the scene to get his shot. I think there is a bit of luck that goes into his process, he obviously has to understand the waves and water so he doesn't get hurt and that's where his surfing experience comes into play. I love the colors in all of these images, they're all very striking. He does a great job of capturing the action, freezing the wave just before it crashes down- he has amazing timing. The light also plays an important role for him; it illuminates the water and gives it a glassy look. He seems to be doing pretty well for himself after only photographing for a couple years, he has already published a book and has had work published internationally. For more info, check out his website.

Chihuly

Dale Chihuly is not a photographer, but I have been fascinated with his artwork since I saw a video about him in one of my high school art classes. I love all the work he does with blown glass. It pretty much blows my mind that someone can create something so intricate and beautiful out of glass. And it's such an intense process; it takes a lot of work to get each piece perfectly blown and shaped. There is a lot of technique involved and a lot of time. I remember in the video, a piece was dropped and they had to start all over again. It seems to be an emotionally charged process as well. Some of my favorite works he has done are the chandelier pieces, like the ones he had installed over the canals in Venice. They are so intricate you could stare at them for hours. I love all the bright colors he uses, and the lighting set-ups on his installments accent the pieces even more. It brings out the textures and shapes of each piece of glass. While looking at his website, I discovered that he does some drawings as well. I think they are done with paint, but he calls them drawings. But I see connections to his glass work in the drawings, they both involve bright colors, a lot of movement and fluidity; they are very expressionistic. "The drawings have a lot to do with releasing energy. Somebody once said that people become artists because they have a certain kind of energy to release, and that rings true to me." - Chihuly

Monica Castiglioni

This week I discovered Monica Castiglioni. Born in Milan, but now living in New York City, she was originally a graphic artist and jewelry maker. She also does some photographic work. I looked through her book, "New York City: A Glimpse in the Puddle" when I was processing it while working at the library. She has taken pictures throughout the city, all in puddles. I was amazed at how bright the colors came out since they are just reflections. I think its a new and interesting idea, and brings a new view to this place that everyone seems to know. It's something I may think about doing in my own work.

Christian Patterson

I found Christian Patterson off the color photographer list Ron sent. I just decided to google a few people and I liked some of Patterson's work. He has posted work on his website from a few different projects, most of them are pretty recent and I picked out a few of my favorites.


I just love water. I like to watch the ocean and rivers, there's so much fluidity and movement. I like that this one is partially blurred because the water is splashing so quickly. It becomes somewhat abstracted.
Fire is just mesmerizing to watch and I think Patterson did a nice job of capturing that in this image. You can sense the movement of the flames.

This one I like because the blue is so bright. And I think its kind of funny someone would paint a building like this, but I like it because it resembles the sky on a pretty day.

I like the simplicity of this one, but the little patches of color are a nice touch. The bit of blue sky balances out the brown at the bottom for me. It's nice to see the bits of green and yellow and red for more variety.

And this sign one is just funny. I've never seen so many signs in one place. It makes me wonder why they are all in that fenced in space and how they got there.

Jason Christopher

"Jason Christopher is a fashion photographer based in Los Angeles California. His work has been described as Classic, romantic and clean. These are three qualities that make up a perfect image and Jason nails it every time... The photography of Jason Christopher has been compared to the French painter Degas and the Italian master of artistry Leonardo Da Vinci for the way he uses clean, classic lines of the body resembling a piece of fine art. Combine these qualities with his edgy, sharp lighting and you have the recipe for photography that anyone can appreciate and identify with, oftentimes finding a part of them in each of his photographs. Armed with intensity, passion and a contagious laughter, he commands control of his set and earns the respect and trust that his models and team have come to love and enjoy with every shoot. His motto: "Be prepared, or prepare to fail." "

So his bio is a bit annoying to me, it was just a bit to much for me and makes everything seem like it's great and perfect. A little over the top. But I do like some of his work. I prefer the fashion pictures he does outside, especially the few I saw when it was dark out. That just seems like something new to me. And being outside always adds another element to the photograph, its more exciting than a model against a blank wall. I found his "personal work" section to be more enjoyable to look at. Honestly, I got kind of bored looking through some of his work. It all seemed to be the same style, a girl standing there looking glamorous. But the personal work seemed a bit more realistic and not quite so stylized and done-up. He also has his own blog that discusses various topics besides his own work.

Photo Contest winners

These are a group, a somewhat random group, of some images I liked that won the National Wildlife Federation photo contest in 2009. I am really interested in nature photography and these few really stood out to me. The colors are great and I like the fact that most of them are from amateur photographers. Here's the full list.

The tiger is just cool, I mean how many people get that close to a live tiger?! And its at the perfect moment just before he/she takes a drink.

The flower is very powerful to me. It's simple but the color and lighting is so dramatic, it makes the image.

Underwater pictures are just cool and this is a giant whale. Same comment as the tiger, its not everyday that you see a whale upclose. And I love that texture of the water in the left corner.


This is just adorable. Baby animals are so cute and I love how the big giraffe frames the little one.

Great puncuation of color! The green leaves totally pop off the mostly white background and birds. The birds themselves make some interesting negative shapes and lead the eye across the page.

This one just amazes me. He caught this at the perfect time, a split second before the eagle grabbed the little bird. And they fit perfectly in the frame, with a nice dramatic diagonal from the wing.

Craft 2, post 3

I was tired of looking for portrait photographers, and so I decided to look at commercial food / advertising photographers due to a class discussion of whether or not commercial work is "selling out", and also probably because I was hungry at the time. I found Matthew Klein, whose website is flash so I couldn't figure out how to save his images but I found a couple on google. Some of his work is playful, like the beef ads set up like landscapes and the goldfish with one red fish popping out. Check out his website for more work. A lot of his work just makes the food look gorgeous. I don't think I've ever had food that pretty, even when eating out. But I guess that's the point.

I also found Bill Brady, but had the same flash issues with his website. I think both photographers have some good examples of color as punctuation and a bit of playfulness. It may not be the most exciting work, but I bet he's getting paid enough. And I think it takes some sort of skill to make food look that pretty and perfect.

Running from Camera

I don't even know who this guy is, I found him under "Blogs of Note" on my blogger homepage and just randomly decided to look at his blog. He is working on a project in Europe where he sets his camera timer for 2 seconds, pushes the button and tries to see how far away he can get (the title is pretty self explanatory). And although these images are exactly professional, they still made me laugh. I think it's an interesting project he's doing and he's pretty brave to be ok with setting his camera up & then running away in front of a bunch of people. I'm sure the onlookers wonder what he is doing & I imagine it would be a pretty funny sight to watch him make one of these photographs. I have to say that some of them turned out pretty nice for being somewhat random setups. I love the colors in the first photograph, the deep blue is gorgeous and I like the pink, yellow and red at the end of the hallway; it helps lead your eye through the image. He almost blends into his surroundings. I also think the color in the last one is great; the orange of the bricks really pops out and works nicely with the blue of his jeans. Here is his blog.