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art, female, nude, photography, woman
Posted by mgm | Filed under MGM's Photos, Nudes
≈ Comments Off on Ella (August 2013)
30 Friday Aug 2013
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art, female, nude, photography, woman
Posted by mgm | Filed under MGM's Photos, Nudes
≈ Comments Off on Ella (August 2013)
29 Thursday Aug 2013
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Posted by mgm | Filed under MGM's Photos, Nudes
≈ Comments Off on Front Window (Nude Still Life)
28 Wednesday Aug 2013
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Just a one-off street photo (click to see large)…:-)
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Posted by mgm | Filed under MGM's Photos, Street
≈ Comments Off on Carson Street, Pittsburgh, PA (August 2013)
08 Thursday Aug 2013
Posted MGM's Photos, Street
in≈ Comments Off on 2013 GrassRoots Festival, Trumansburg, NY
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festival, grassroots, new york, photography, street, trumansburg
[Note: reposting due to addition of several new photos..]
(From the Grassroots Festival website):
“The Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance started a long time back as a concert to benefit local AIDS support organization AIDSwork at the State Theater in Ithaca NY. Featured artists were Donna the Buffalo and pals The Horse Flies, and Neon Baptist.”
“Encouraged by the success of that night, members of Donna the Buffalo conspired to create a festival that would continue to raise money for the fight against AIDS and other worthy causes, provide regional and national exposure for excellent local musicians, and expose the local and regional music lovers to excellent national and international artists.”
“The idea proved a success, and with the help of zillions of volunteers, and the generous support of many friends in the musical community, GrassRoots came into being as an annual event.”
“In the intervening decade(s), GrassRoots has grown from humble beginnings to become a nationally recognized event, unique in its focus on traditional and contemporary roots music, and one of the few self-sustaining non-profit arts organizations in the state.”
I’ve now attended this festival intermittently over the past 4-5 years, and officially photographed it the past 2 years. To me, the festival is a great opportunity to do some street photography and to help the festival live on by providing the organization with photos of all the fun and quirky stuff going on.
I attended two afternoons this year, whereas I was at the festival for about a day and a half last year. If I photograph it again next year, I’ll probably pick a single day.
I was very conscious of trying not to repeat photos from last year. Sure, the people are different; but the buildings, structures, landscaping and some of the vendors were the same. Also, things like the firetruck coming out and spraying people with water (to cool down), the happiness parade, and collections of people doing hula hoops is repeated from year to year.
Let’s just say the “lay” of the event was quite familiar to me this year after spending 1.5 days photographing it last year, and I was fighting to keep my photographic eye “fresh” and the photos from being mere carbon copies of last year.
After a slow and somewhat uncertain first afternoon of photographing, something “kicked in” for me during the second afternoon on the last day of the event that made it a better day of photography for me. One thing that helped (I think) was I told myself I didn’t have to take photographs…that I might as well relax and enjoy myself and have fun with it. This seemed to help a lot…:).
Anyway, I’m going to start posting the 2013 photos in the gallery below. I’ve got 35+ to begin with, but more will be coming!
Visit Michael's Art Photography Portfolio at SaatchiArt.com! |
07 Wednesday Aug 2013
Posted MGM's Photos, Nudes
in≈ Comments Off on Weekend Art Nude
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art, female, nude, photography, woman
Over the past weekend, I photographed a very interesting fashion show, was the second photographer for a wedding, and also photographed an art nude session (along with a videographer assistant). Photos from the fashion show and the art nude session will be appearing at this website.
Here’s a small sample from the art nude session…wherein the model suggested she pose upside down…:).
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17 Wednesday Jul 2013
Posted MGM's Photos, Street
in≈ Comments Off on Grassroots Festival 2012, Trumansburg, New York
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Last year, I spent a couple of days photographing at the Grassroots Festival in Trumansburg, NY. Although I displayed a few of the photos I took in a previous post, I never posted a whole bunch of the others I liked anywhere except for Facebook!
So, on the brink of photographing this year’s Grassroots Festival, I’m posting the rest of those photos from the 2012 festival!
(All photos © 2012 Michael Grace-Martin)
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10 Wednesday Jul 2013
Posted Commentary
in≈ Comments Off on The Diluted Eye
You shouldn’t overshoot. It’s like over-eating, over-drinking.
This was from a “lost” (until recently) interview done with Henri Cartier-Bresson back in 1971. C-B’s explanation was that “over is too much, because by the time you press, you arm the shutter once more, and maybe the picture was in between”.
He basically said that photographers should spend more time “seeing” than shooting…and I wholly agree with that. I think his explanation for “why” may substitute a practical reason for a more insightful one.
I believe part of being a photographer is developing a critical eye. A “critical eye” means an effective mental mechanism for knowing when a good or interesting photo opportunity is present. Such a “critical eye” is developed through experience…the experience of having taken both effective and ineffective photos, and learning what elements or factors were present that led to the effective ones.
I think there’s a worse repercussion from indiscriminately taking photos than not being ready to take the “good” photos: it’s disconnecting the process of taking/making photographs from intentional or calculated seeing.
When critical seeing and the act of making photos get disconnected, you get a flood of mediocre and/or “garbage” photographs. And having lots of mediocre or garbage photos around you tends to “dilute” your critical eye and torpedo your self-confidence as a photographer (e.g, you may start thinking you don’t have “it” anymore–that you’re “washed up” and so forth). You end up with a diluted eye.
There are two important parts to effective photography:
Typically, photographic magic doesn’t just happen, you have to make it happen.
People can get lucky taking thousands of photos and ending up with a few winners. But making photographic success into a numbers game doesn’t reward skill; it rewards sheer physical effort and expensive equipment that can acquire a huge number of frames/sec. It’s no wonder that people sometimes credit a photographer’s success with the quality and price tag on the equipment s/he owns.
Critical seeing is a reward in and of itself because it’s a recognition of something good happening, whether you happen to have a camera to capture it or not.
Connect this recognition with the act of photographing, and you’ve got a partially controllable and rewarding means for communicating ideas and perceptions as a skillful and able Photographer.
Visit Michael's Art Photography Portfolio at SaatchiArt.com! |
14 Friday Jun 2013
Posted MGM's Photos, Street
inTags
americana, elvis, lake george, motorcycles, photography, street
I decided to drive 3.5 hours away and spend a day photographing in Lake George, New York. Why?
I have been in Lake George previously, and it’s a touristy town with a whole heck of a lot of Americana going on. But this last weekend had an extra “oomph” to it: an Elvis Presley festival and an Americade motorcycle rally were both in town!
There was so much “Americana” going on, my head was spinning. I walked around for about 11 hours taking select photos of all the the people and activities. By the end, I had blisters on my feet, my leg joints ached and I consumed eight bottled and canned drinks (Red Bull, Gatorade, water and lemonade to name a few) because it was pretty hot and sticky; but it was definitely worth it…:).
I’m going to start with just street photography here. I broke off the Elvis photos and put them into another post.
(BTW, you can purchase the camera + lens I used for this series in my Amazon Associates store. The small amount I make helps to support this website! Thanks…:)
Visit Michael's Art Photography Portfolio at SaatchiArt.com! |
30 Thursday May 2013
Posted Commentary
in≈ Comments Off on Photography More than Taking Pretty Pictures
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Knowing how to operate a camera (and photography equipment in general) is getting lower and lower on the list of obstacles one must overcome to become a successful photographer; just above that is knowing how to take “a pretty picture”.
You want to be a successful photographer beyond the hobbyist level? Study human psychology, art, and marketing. Also, learn how to edit your stuff.
The other thing that helps me–not sure if this is true for everyone–is being able (or least trying) to explain my photographic goals, projects, and scenarios in words.
Visit Michael's Art Photography Portfolio at SaatchiArt.com! |
10 Friday May 2013
Posted Commentary
in≈ Comments Off on Photography and Imagination
When a human has partial visual information about an object (including living “objects”) or scene, their imagination tends to fill in the missing information. Sometimes their imagination fills out the picture in a positive way (e.g. toward something they yearn for), and sometimes in a negative way (e.g., toward something they loath or fear). Being aware of this and “testing” a scene with one’s own imagination (to see if it’s particularly apt for imagination embellishment) is a big part of being a photographer, I believe.
Visit Michael's Art Photography Portfolio at SaatchiArt.com! |