Photo By: Harmony Motter
Every once in awhile you need to stop and smell the flowers or the chard. Chard is also known as Swiss chard or silverbeet . It is a leafy green vegetable and has a slightly bitter taste.
Photo By: Harmony Motter
0 Comments
I make stuff---thats my usual response to folks who ask me what I do. I'm a photojournalist and a person who lives his life like an artist would--I wake up and want to create something everyday. It is sometimes an odd mix--a journalist has to uphold the ethical principles of documentation and observation. An artist has so much freedom to express themselves without regard to the stricter confines of journalism--in other words--the sky is the limit. Today I made a picture of some masking tape--to be honest this was meant to be a shot that I would then take into photoshop and use in a piece to make it look like I was covering something up with the tape--but somehow that didn't get accomplished--the tape I photographed wasn't right for that--but it made for an interesting--sort of abstract picture. I laughed at this because i recently read a documentary photographer sorta bashing abstract photography. Later in the day I was working for the paper and I made a picture for gas prices that I thought was composed nicely and then went to hang out with Darren and Michael and their house guests to document them in their home for a story we hope to run this week. This was a little weird and difficult because we know each other and I am trying to be a fly on the wall to document their life in their home as if I wasn't there. They know I'm there, I know I'm there so the document is always slightly skewed because of that. but my goal is to be there long enough to get authentic moments. This was the only moment I felt I was able to capture where it was as if I wasn't there and there was a genuine interaction between Darren and Michael. I did get other moments that were pretty close to authentic, but they really were aware of me and I was a little off because I know them--its easier if I don't know the subject--I am a sponge trying to learn everything--here I was asking questions based on a previous knowledge---a very difficult place for a journalist to be--the separation is skewed00the objectivity muddied. But I did like this picture a lot. Photographs by Richard Sayer.
Sometimes discussions in the newsroom are funny--in fact there is some blog out there that gets attention once in awhile called 'overheard in the newsroom' that usually contains blunders by one writer or editor and then becomes national fodder for all. I had a discussion with our sports editor about our Friday coverage--I was either going to travel to shoot a fringe coverage high school team or stay a little closer to home and cover a local college hosting an NCAA tournament game. It was decided that stay close, but then--what will go on the Sports Saturday cover. Neither team is really in our main coverage plans. So it was said--if you come back with an award winning photo we'll make that the cover. I like a challenge and even though I don't know if this picture would win an award, I know it has a shot at one and I was pretty pleased to get it. The action was really something I didn't expect to get a good photo from--the players were running full bore in the opposite direction, but I saw an opportunity when they began to dive all over the place for the ball and was very lucky to see that the Edinboro players face could be seen looking back. I had four or five frames from this sequence and each of them would've worked. I like this one because of the hand reaching up from under her for the ball. It also wouldn't really work for the cover because it is more horizontal. Luckily however--what we failed to think about in our earlier coverage is that we have wrestlers at the state tournament--one of which will medal and be the first in 9 years to do so from Meadville. So that is far more important of a local story and deserves the cover. And this can be run inside full without type or the masthead over the top of it. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer.
You get ideas in your head and you want to try them. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing or were its going to end up up, but I'm getting these thoughts with white on white high key images--just the opposite of my usually eye which always seems to want to get darker and darker. So I was thinking about white face paint for awhile and just haven't done anything about it until a friend offered me some paint to use--how could I not try it now. So tonight we tried a few ideas I had and then we just try shooting some pictures in the white face. I can see some ideas that I could even use on the commercial end of portraiture and such. One more thing to try and use. SayerMotter Photograph by Richard Sayer.
People that know me--know I like to laugh and I like to look at life with the idea that this a pretty fun and happy thing....why the hell not right? So I woke up this morning thinking about my friend who is a clown and how I need to meet up with her today so she can let me use some white face paint for a shoot tonight and how I need to get an apple and some other things(this is a shoot for a piece I'm working on) and I was thinking that I just want to have some fun making something. Its not work really--even though I call it that sometimes. Making stuff is life. This picture of Shannon popped into my head as I was getting some thoughts together and felt that maybe it would help brighten up some other people's lives a bit--its colorful on a grey day and its funny and she is blowing us all a kiss--what a great thing--to get a fun kiss during our day! And if that doesn't cut it for you I posted this funny moment from a recent wedding. The priest asked the standard question during the rehearsal ceremony the night before the wedding--'if anyone has anything to say as to why these two should not be joined......' and the groom, a very funny man himself who seems to want everyone around him to laugh non-stop...reaches back to cover his brothers mouth! The only thing that I wish--was that he repeated it the next day at the wedding, but Mark didn't--probably because it was serious the next day and partly because--once you start that sort of thing there is no turning back and they still had their vows and such to get through without losing it in front of everyone. I feel better already looking at these--hope it brightens up other's
Stuff happens for a reason right. About an hour ago I decided to try to drive home even though there was still some frost on my windshield. We I didn't get out of the parking lot before I realize how dumb that would be. So I pulled over to scrape off the windshield and noticed these trees lit up. I've noticed them before and I think I even tried making a picture before, but I hadn't seen them from this angle before. I'm not a landscape photographer, I'm just not good at it and a lot of landscape photographs leave me flat--I always want a person in it. Even this I kept hoping someone might stroll in and perhaps stop and light a cigarette or something. But this didn't happen and I'm left with my attempt at a landscape. And by the time I was done my windshield was pretty clear. Photograph by Richard Sayer.
Ever since I was a teenager, I have loved this painting. It has always brought to me a calm and comforting feeling. When I was in my twenties I had a poster/print of it hanging in my apartment. But, over the years and too many moves, It became crumpled and torn. So I tossed it.
It was painted in 1948 by American painter, Andrew Wyeth. The woman in the painting is Christina Olson and she suffered from Polio. Wyeth was inspired to create the painting when through a window from within a house he saw Christina crawling across a field. The house that is in the painting is known as the 'Olson House' and is located in Cushing, Maine. Christina died in 1968. She was 74 years-old. When I moved into my current apartment, it was already furnished. It had everything including dishes, silverware, pots, pans, wall hangings and this painting of Christina hanging above the bed. I will be moving to another apartment at the end of this month and will have to leave Christina behind for another tenant to enjoy as much as I have. Photo By: Harmony Motter We used to get called upon often to illustrate stories for the newspaper that didn't have photographs or illustrations already. We weren't really given enough time to make picture stories or document the story using real situations, people or events---in other words we needed to make illustrations because time didn't allow us to find the story to tell. I made this illustration to accompany a story on mental illness that was going to appear on the back page known as the Healthbeat page. We made probably 2-3 illustrations for this page a month--sometimes more. I remember making this image--part of which ended up in the paper(I think we decided to crop in and not have as many faces.) As with all pictures we make for the paper we print them out. I've had this b/w printout of the illustration for years and today I decided to photograph the print. I like doing this because these printouts are made with dots and this gives a neat texture sometimes. I try to re-photograph these all the time to see what I get. I get only a handful of successes doing this, but its those handful that keeps me trying it. I intend to use this in a bigger piece at some point, but for now I thought it might make a bit of a change of pace for our featured picture of the day. Meadville Tribune file illustration--further illustrated by Richard Sayer.
When I started working at the newspaper 14 years ago, photography was at the height possibly of its communicative ability in print. We were called upon daily to produce images of life around us for the front page of the paper. Its something we took great pride in as a staff. The leadership of Jim Stefanucci in this was one of lead by example. Jim took it upon himself to find a feature or news picture everyday---not an easy task. On days he was off it was our responsibility. Often we had an event or news item in which we could draw from---to work and find a picture we felt would capture our readers attention and in doing so--inform them about their community. Jim was great because if we came back with something he thought was better than what he had, he would push for our image to be the centerpiece feature on page 1. Even though the pressure was great to produce, that was the best of times at the paper. We really pushed ourselves to make the best images we could. This image, I made at a wildlife expo. I remember it was my responsibility to have a page 1 photo because it was the weekend and Jim was off. I struggled to find a good image. I noticed this one Turkey that I could position myself in such a way that the background was clean and I just had to wait for a person to come in and look at it(pictures need a person in them). I then got very lucky that the person that did come into the frame mimicked the shape and coloring of the stuffed bird. To this day I feel like someone was watching over me that day to send me such a gift and it continues to be one of my favorite photos. It was shot with film and it did appear on the front page of the paper the next day with a story about the event. I'm not sure why newspapers, including ours, have tended away from event coverage and using feature photos that show the life of the people around us...I know there has been the argument that people don't like to read about things they missed, but would rather know what is coming up so they can go...but I don't buy this. I've always felt one of the roles of a good newspaper is showcasing the day to day life of a community and documenting it for history. And I feel the best newspapers do this in a big way with big pictures by dedicated photojournalists. Perhaps someday we'll see this idea come back before newspapers become virtual altogether. Meadville Tribune file photo by Richard Sayer. I use thi
I used to say this line...'focus is overrated'...to compensate for the fact that my pictures were always a little softer than everyone elses in photo school. My eye sight and inability to hold my nikon fm2 still enough made my pictures just a little less sharp than they should be. This was something I had to fix when I started getting paid to take pictures for a living. And it wasn't easy--I had to really concentrate on the technical aspects which was making it more difficult capturing moments and seeing compositions. But when I got that down and started melding the technical with my eye my work became much much better. But I still think sometimes sharp pictures aren't as good as some moment captured that are less sharp. Yesterday I made this picture shooting it off the rear view mirror in my car through the back window in the rain--it might actually be in focus, but the stuff I'm going through makes it not look so, but it gives a feeling that a sharp picture of the same scene wouldn't have. Its like an impression more than a document. It remends me alot of those post impressionist and impressionist painters pushing mark-making to new directions in the art world---they were blamed for making out of focus paintings too. Photograph by Richard Sayer.
|