Celebrate the Challenge’s New Title=Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Devices Photo Challenge: Object (Light and Shadow)

24 March 2014

Lens:

1. Study of Bench #1, iPhone 4s, March 2014; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2014

2. Study of Bench #2, iPhone 4s, March 2014; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2014

3. Study of Bench # 3, iPhone 4s, March 2014; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2014

4. Study of Bench #4, iPhone 4s, March 2014; © Sally W. Donatello and Lens and Pens by Sally, 2014

Let me know which you prefer and why.

Pens:

With Spring slowly capturing the landscape, redefinition is prevalent. This tipping point between winter’s grey and spring’s hues is an apt point to introduce the challenge’s third title change: Phoneography and Non-SLR Digital Devices Photo Challenge. Mostly, it conveys a direction that photography is following through innovation to spirit one’s visual creativity.

For weeks this title was a work-in-progress. The final choice was made possible by a collaborative effort with YOU–the challenge’s community. I hope that it expresses the current flow of photography, which allows for a wide and deep consideration of stilling the moment.

Photography as an art form has evolved with such gusto that the present is but a sample of its legacy to humanity’s aesthetic and technical innovation. We are pawns and playthings in this transformation that will overflow into the annals of art history.

I’m having a difficult time getting the challenge’s new badge uploaded onto my homepage. I’ll keep at it. Meanwhile you can try one of these URLs: http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/320x240q90/844/x7dj.png/smaller version or http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/640x480q90/713/irgh.png/medium version.

Hope one works for you. I can get the badge as a widget onto the Homepage, but getting the right size and position are another matter.

In the Lens section is an ode to nature’s constancy in my life: a bench made into a sculptural object by light and shadow. The third element–snow–is a tour de force to emphasize the combination. As I walked in a local park, the symbiosis between them  drew me into their design.

Light and shadow are the photographer’s companion. Light cast a silent proclamation about (for example) positive and negative spaces, chaos and symmetry, the small and the large, the suspected and unsuspected, the known and unknown, variations in shades, and the continuum of our visual universe.

So I follow light to find shadows. I let them seduce my sensibilities and lasso my intentions.  Sometimes it is impossible to give a likeness to its magnificence. Sometimes the watching is enough. Or the image is too mammoth in character and size to fixate through my mind’s and camera’s lens.

Soft traces of shadows at twilight produce the slightest of hints, and it can be mesmerizing. Those sighs and signs of the day’s end also can be overly or subtlely dramatic.

Reactions to these evocative, illusionary and temporary absences of light are dependent on intensity and subject. The photogenic ones hold the lack of light, and expose the dark side. This duo of light and shadow provide ranges of whites and blacks, defining or ill-defining its subject.

Shadows whisper their folly or strength. They allude, seduce and temper our attention. Mostly, they form contours, silhouettes, outlines, profiles, and shapes that even in their reality intrigue us.

Each shadow becomes a memory–a memory of its temporary story. But a photograph records the observer’s vantage point, and insinuates what drew the eye to give it permanence.

Tip of the Week: I continue to revisit photographers that engage my attention, and discover new ones that enthrall. A favorite from the twentieth century is Harry Callahan (1912-1999), who had no formal training. Although Ansel Adams’ monolithic landscapes influenced his art, Callahan’s inspiration was found in any subject. He was known for experimentation in double and triple exposures, ethereal abstractions as well as emphasis on light and shadow. His legacy included groups of students that he taught at the Institute of Design in Detroit and the Rhode Island School of Design. In the March 18, 1999, obituary from The New York Times, Andy Grundberg said, “…he never believed that formal experimentation was an end in itself. Instead, he subscribed to the notion that the camera was a tool of personal revelation and expression, and all his experiments with the formal potentials of his medium bear the marks of a singular sensibility.” To see some of his masterful photographs, click here.

Detroit, 1943, Harry Callahan, from Masters of Photography’s website

View other entries for today’s photo challenge here:

http://pictograf.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/phoneography-challenge-architecture/

http://sustainabilitea.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-photo-challenge-any-three-can-play/

http://streetsofsfphotos.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/pink-victorian-3-photos/

http://completelydisappear.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/the-lost-faith/

http://thepalladiantraveler.com/2014/03/24/photography-architecture-italy-veneto-vicenza-parco-querini-phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-photo-challenge/

http://angelinem.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/phoneography-challenge-light-and-shadow/

http://piecesofstarlight.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/phoneography-tracking-animals-in-the-setting-sun/

http://steve-says.net/2014/03/24/do-have-a-cow-man/

http://irenewaters19.com/2014/03/25/phoneography-photo-challenge-the-german-shepherd-dog-convention/

http://irisgreenwald.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/phoneography-challenge-abstract/

http://livingwithmyancestors.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-photo-challenge-architecture/

http://shareandconnect.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-photo-challenge/

http://ohmsweetohmdotme.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/light-and-shadow/

http://watchingthephotoreels.com/2014/03/24/update-to-phoneography-challenge/comment-page-1/

http://helpalongthepath.com/2014/03/24/enlightened-phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-photo-challenge/

http://nwframeofmind.com/2014/03/24/iphoneography-monday-3-24-14/

http://19planets.wordpress.com/2014/03/24/vase-light-009-march-2014-haiga-and-haibun-for-the-new-title-phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-photo-challenge-object/

 http://pilotfishblog.com/2014/03/25/phoneography-challenge-grand-rapids-architecture/

http://artifactsandfictions.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/house-hunting/

http://denasgoodlife.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/phoneography-challenge-architecture/

http://allkindsaeverything.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/non-slr-challaenge-light-and-shadow/

http://blogagaini.com/2014/03/28/phoneography-and-non-slr-digital-devices-choice/

Note: As always I welcome any comment about this post or any part of my blog.

If you’d like to join the fun, please click here for details. If you have any questions about the Phoneography Challenge, please contact me.

Below is a reminder of the monthly schedule with themes for upcoming Phoneography Challenges:

1st Monday: Nature

2nd Monday: Macro

3rd Monday: Black and White

4th Monday Challenger’s Choice (Pick One: Abstraction, Animals, Architecture, Food Photography, Night Photography, Objects, Portraiture, Still Life, Street Photography, and Travel). (Animals and Objects are themes.)

5th Monday: Editing and Processing with Various Apps Using Themes from the Fourth Week (31 March 2014 will be the first challenge for this new theme).

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