I have looked at a lot of art and artists over the years(and yet I've barely scratched the surface) and there is a photographer named Manuel Alvarez Bravo whose work I've only seen a handful of images, but what I've seen I've admired very much. Tonight as I was finishing toning a shoot I had earlier this year I found this frame which reminded me of his work. I remember shooting this picture with the lighting the way it was and thinking about Bravo--not exactly sure why, but it still reminds me of him looking at it now. I'll have to look more at his work again and see if I can take this little lesson and turn it into something I can consciously use in my work. It amazes me how much there is to learn in this life. I've been doing photography for over 25 years now and there are still hundreds of ways of making pictures I haven't even explored--thousands probably. What great thing it is to be making pictures! Photograph by Richard Sayer
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Brett Turick of Conneaut Valley ended up in front of my lens twice on Friday, once I was photographing his elongated reflection in his tuba as I stood behind him and the rest of the county high school band and then again about a half hour later when I was looking for layers of information and selective focus on an individual. At first I didn't realize it was the same guy but found it interesting later on how different the pictures were and yet still quite similar. I know I've said it before, but when we have assignments we get to go look and see, the pictures we can find are so much better than taking limited knowledge of a story and trying to make a picture up that still maintains the ethics of a journalistic portrait or illustration. Documentation is so much more akin to what we're about as visual journalists than illustration will ever be. Its more real and it shows us who we are. Meadville Tribune photographs by Richard Sayer Click on the 'watch the slideshow' icon below to see more photos and hear why events like the annual county band concert are important. Yesterday Harmony Motter came to show my photography 1 class at Allegheny College her work and talk about symbolism. She told the class that symbolism can be personal and that you really don't have to explain it to anyone. She brought in a pear as an example of something that could be a symbol. She then gave me the pear and I ended up taking about 35 pictures of the pear. I ate the pear and it was good. I'm not going to explain the symbolism. I have used an apple plenty in my work and the occasional pear back when I was drawing and painting. I liked what Harmony told my students about putting in symbolism that means something and even leads to making other pieces and how we are not obligated to explain ourselves. It goes back to the idea that making work, keeping your thoughts active in the pursuit of personal expression--thats what we got into art for in the first place. Photograph by Richard Sayer
When I started working at The Meadville Tribune I photographed a lot of hockey. In recent years I've only photographed a few games in the regular season and then usually a few more in the post season. This year I'm not sure if I was at the hockey rink for the total amount of time of one game. The two or three games that I took pictures at were always on the way to another assignment. Last night I traveled to Pittsburgh to photograph what would be the Bulldogs last game. I almost didn't even do this as we've been struggling with the schedule and keeping hours to the set 40 hours we have to stay on or under. But I felt, as a photographer, that photographs are what I need to make, so I found a way to shift other duties to other times so I could make the trip. This is the best picture I took last night, not just because of the action of the spray and the puck getting passed the goalie, but because it told the story. I miss shooting hockey, though it is more difficult at the MARC since they put in taller glass, but in this arena in Pittsburgh which is the Penguins practice rink, the glass is cleaner and the stands are high enough to get above the glass, which is where this was shot with a 300 mm lens. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
I admit, I never heard of Dick Groat before working for The Meadville Tribune and photographing the annual sports banquet where Groat is an annual speaker. Groat played on world series championship teams that beat the Yankees twice. That alone is a great thing. But he was also a college basketball player and one year while playing for Duke he led the nation in scoring and assists. This is nearly impossible accomplishment. I would 've said impossible instead of nearly impossible if it weren't for the fact that he did it. I like this photograph of Groat that I took last night because of how he emerges from the blurred foreground which is from the hulking figure of Olympic Gold medalist Bruce Baumgartner who was also a guest speaker.I'm not celebrity chaser or even one who gets excited around famous people, Dick Groat is just a nice man and I've enjoyed taking his photograph---and I guess, despite all his accomplishments, his fame isn't quite like Mickey Mantle or Michael Jordan....but I'd still rather photograph him over the more famous. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
I first met Manuella about two years ago when my student in a photography 1 class at Allegheny College, Janine Grant, photographed her in her pursuit to be a fashion photographer. I admit, I was guiding Janine, not so much out of know-how in the fashion business world, but from a gut instinct of what I thought made a good photograph and how I thought fashion should look. Janine did great work, beyond her photo student status. Manuella was her subject and when I met Manuella again this year we began to chat about her wanting to do model work. We have now gotten together twice and have taken a few images that I'm beginning to feel like are on the track that I find myself often writing about. The track where my love of photography merges with my subjects needs of an image of themselves. I often feel that I do work that I'm proud of, but the client isn't interested in. I shied away from commercial portraiture for many years because of this, I couldn't find that balance of satisfying my love of photography--my personal vision in photography and that of my clients. This work with Manuella recently seems to be moving towards that marriage of my work and the work of my subject. At least Manuella seems to be liking these. More can be found here at http://sayermodelportfolio.weebly.com/manuella.html
Though someday I want to control my lighting a little more, I am finding that using studio lighting can have more possibilities than I had ever thought before. Photograph by Richard Sayer Last week I photographed a band called The Electracons. I posted some photographs of them already. Today I wanted to go through the rest of them so I could get the band the images they need for their new web-site which should be up soon and I'll try to get the link to post on our site. I took individual shots of the members so they could do some funky things with posters and what not. I found this picture of Rick , the keyboard player--it was actually part of a off-shoot of the group photos I was taking, but I really liked his expression and just decided to heavily manipulate the background to make it go real dark and just allow his face to come to the foreground---something I'd never do in editorial work, but for this portrait I thought it really brought him out. A photographer named Annie O'Neil a few years ago took a portrait of a person in Pittsburgh that this reminded me of---I had fun photographing this band. Its the way all photo shoots should go, we got together, had a few laughs and tossed back a couple a beverages...oh and made a bunch of really cool images. SayerMotterPhotography photograph by Richard Sayer
This is a late night piece called, 'married together.' I will more than likely change this like 17 more times 2morrow. But this is what it is 2nite.
By: Harmony Motter Earlier today I posted a picture and some thoughts about not feeling it and finding my picture. Well I still didn't really get to the point of 'feeling it' today, but I did get this frame that I really liked. It was at the Hotel Conneaut and this assignment started out looking a lot like the first assignment of the day, like it wasn't going to happen. I was told to show up around 7 and there was going to be bands playing a lot going on. I showed up and noticed how quiet it was, no bands..... this wasn't looking good. I finally noticed two people posing for a picture and framed them between two heads. When one of the people I was using as a frame noticed me(the shutter was virtually going off in his ear) he turned and I just snapped a picture at that moment. I got my picture....finally. Then a little while later I made this picture and just liked how the light worked out in. I held my fingers up partially blocking my flash. I liked how the woman sort of looks like she posing for a movie still. These sorts of things, the movement in the foreground and these sorts of lighting things...those are the things that grab me in a picture to take it into something beyond the ordinary. When ever I try to change my way of taking pictures(I do this every few years on purpose to challenge myself to see differently...to see more) I look for things like this, things that aren't comfrtable to me, but might be something that could become comfortable for me if I learn to use them...to learn to trust that I can still make a good picture. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
This day just didn't start out right. I had an assignment before the St. Patty's day parade that didn't turnout well at all. A group of scouts were supposed to tour a sugar shack( a place where maple syrup is made from sap), The kids never showed and I wasn't exactly sure what to do. I still needed to take pictures to go with the story on maple syrup that will appear in the Meadville Tribune this week. I took some shots, but was largely disappointed with the whole thing. Then at the parade-- I just didn't feel it. My pictures seemed flat and I just never wrapped my brain around any photographic direction. I got a few photographs that will do the job they need to--including this one of John McCandless wearing over-ized green glasses, but I usually get one photograph from an event like this that I say--yes--thats the one. Today I just didn't--I didn't feel it today--even though I tried. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
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