I realize everytime I have to go to more populated areas just why I like to live in Meadville. I was stuck in traffic down in Wexford...you know that kinda thing were you hit the gas for about 2 seconds and then are back on the brake again....then once in awhile you feel freedom as you drive for a whole 30 or 40 feet before coming to another deadstop. The thing about this traffic jam however was it was beautifully lit. Nice afternoon near sunset lighting!!!! Good stuff. I started to make some pictures thru my car windows to pass the time. I was thinking how lucky I am to be a photographer--instead of getting bored and frustrated with the traffic, I just used it as a chance to make some photographs. Now I can't say for sure if I'd have the same attitude if it was crappy light, but I'd like to think so--maybe I would've concentrated more on my cd instead of the light and been just as content....but still I really wouldn't want to live in populated areas where this is a daily occurrence! Hooray for Meadville, Pennsylvania!!! Photograph by Richard Sayer
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I recently photographed little Meadow in honor of her first birthday. We snapped all kinds of photos. We had her with balloons, a birthday cake and even modeling a few different tutus. Towards the end of the photo session, Meadow's dad, Ian asked if he could jump into a few shots with his daughter. I gladly encouraged it and this is what we came up with.
SayerMotter Photo By: Harmony Motter I was asked to make some maternity photos awhile back and this has turned into more ideas that we'll photograph in a little more than a week. I'm going through the photographs now and am looking for those little moments of expression that tell the story. This was one of the first photos we made that session and it was telling me that the session was going to to produce many good images as these two just got into the idea of what they were there for---to commemorate their love for their baby and each other. I'll be sharing many more from Nerissa and Lee and am looking forward to more shoots with them in the future! SayerMotter Photograph by Richard Sayer.
I promise this won't become a hipstamatic only blog, but this is a new tool and it needs to be used and explored. These images were made only about an hour apart and I didn't realize at the time how they could appear to relate. Ed Kashi put together a book called 'Three' where he put three images together that were taken in different locations and different times, but somehow shared a commonality. I've been fascinated with this idea ever since I saw a few pages of his book. I love putting two or three seemingly unconnected photos together and see how they relate. Sometimes its easy...3 pictures of round objects for instance---they relate based on shape. This one I saw Jack's expression---which wasn't really sad as much as not wanting his picture taken, but still came out looking sad and a rainy day which, again isn't sad, but often we relate to rain as God's tears. So even though this is a somewhat far flung connection...there is a certain poetry to it... if we care to go there. iphone Hipstamatic photographs by Richard Sayer.
When world's collide--I've always liked that phrase. It means when your different groups suddenly over lap. Some people know this about you, others know different stuff about about. My world in the last 15 years has been pretty much photography related---people who know me know me as a photographer--or as the 'photo dude'. Before that for about 10 years photography was there, but my main life was as an art student learning to draw and paint. And my professional degrees are with a concentration in painting. I don't paint as much as I'd like these days....to be honest the photography world has really satisfied my need to make stuff and I can't say I miss painting....that doesn't mean I don't still desire to make paintings, its just that I am making work daily so I don't miss making work with paint. Every year I have some moments that I paint or draw for a month or so--usually comes about when I'm cleaning or organizing and suddenly start to work on a piece that has been abandoned. I now have a lot of unfinished work around as a result. A year or so ago I began to really combine photography and painting together. I think there will eventually be something there for me...though I'm unsure what. With the purchase of an iphone and its camera I'm beginning to look at some of this work again and making photographic sketches to alter the process even further. And again, I'm not sure where it will go... but I'll make something new everyday--thats for sure. iphone hipstamatic photograph of an in-progress photo/print/drawing self portrait by Richard Sayer
My first shoot with baby, Meadow when she was just 14 days old. My second shoot with Meadow at five months-old with her mom, Carmen and dad, Ian. My shoot today! Meadow is one year-old! Congratulations sweet, Meadow. You are growing into such a pretty little girl!
SayerMotter Photos By: Harmony Motter For those of you who have painstakenly read me ramble on and on over the last year about wanting an iphone...it all got started last year when I watched my friend Craig Walker make a handful of really great photographs with his iphone when he visited. One of those images was of this little statue in my house. Today I finally got my iphone and wanted to make an homage to him(fancy way of saying steal his idea!). So I made this tonight and wanted it to be my first hipstamatic post. Now I won't be wishing i had the iphone--just trying to learn how to use it---oh yeah and I guess it makes calls too! I'm looking forward to using it, another tool to create pictures with--its a good thing. Photograph by Richard Sayer
The calls, emails, facebook messages and the 'hey you--do you do senior pictures?' questions in passing are coming in. I've had conversations about what we do and how we do it...and of course...how much. We really want to make the best photographs possible each time, and we don't want to make the same picture over and over again, so we often suggest locations, but ultimately want to go where people like to go themselves to have their pictures done. So we ask and if the person doesn't care, we find something through conversation that fits. We like to ask--are you more country or hip hop? Are you rock and roll or punk? Rap or hipster? This gives me some clues. We love to combine formal with street, leather with country barns---opposites to see where we can take an idea. Think some of the best shots are when we combine say a soccer ball with a shirt and tie against a graffiti background or a Tux with a football under arm taken on a sidewalk. These combinations are both formal and show into the character of a person beyond the one-dimensional view of an athlete or a scholar only. We are much more complex than this. To see more of our portraits click on picture or here!
Another thought on self... there are times seeking something from within the person we find a projection into something that is neither that persons true identity, nor their projected identity.... we find something that has a poetry to it--that undefinable thing that we can speculate on and draw our own conclusions...often we draw some meaning and then we look further and we draw some other meaning. Alot of art deals with some topic or another---the great works are the ones that go beyond that topic and speaks on the human condition somehow. I remember looking at a portrait of a woman painted by Thomas Eakins. It was a portrait no doubt(it may have been his wife), but that person was far more than that individual--she was woman...she was human...she represented us all somehow. To me that was pretty magical that a painter could do that, lead us past the subject and into a discussion about humanity...and do it with a simple portrait. A former student sent me some recent images of hers today and they really struck me in that they were intimate portrayals of herself, yet they really spoke to much higher ideas. I talk and write about this all the time in my documentary work, that what I'm hoping to achieve with my photography is a better understanding our our community and I think that is ultimately the approach of art...or it should be, better understanding of self by exploring the place in which we live and inversely a better understanding of place by exploring within ourselves. I've got several ideas to explore, if I can find the time...when I find the time....when I MAKE the time! SayerMotter Ph
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