Today I spent the morning with good great friends. We watched as Hunter and Heidi jumped and swam and chased and shook! It was a good morning indeed! Photographs by Richard Sayer
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Kristine's School of Dance was rehearsing for their annual spring show at Shafer auditorium. I had a time to be there, but was early. The time I was to arrive all these dancers were in costume rehearsing. Since I was early I got a chance to photograph some of the really little ones going through their routine. They were going based on instruction from two teachers off to the side so their eyes often went searching for one of the teachers to see what to do next. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
On Wednesday, May 18 I had an assignment for the Meadville Tribune to photograph Miss. Crawford County, Brittany Samler at Pizza Hut in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania. She was there in efforts to raise funds for her upcoming trip to compete in the Miss. Pennsylvaina Scholarship Pageant in June. Pizza Hut donated 15% of the pizza buffet sales to Brittany. Anyway, the photo that I posted is not fitting for the newspaper because, she is posing for the camera. Photo-journalistic photos tend to lean towards the real moments. I like this picture, because I have photographed Brittany a couple of times now and I think that this shows her silly personality....If anyone would like to support Brittany, she will be at the Pizza Hut in Meadville on May 24, 2010 from 5-8 p.m. If you don't like pizza and would like to make a contribution to help out out Miss. Crawford County. Mail your donation to MCCSPO, P.O Box 636 Meadville, Pennsylvania 16335. GOOD LUCK MISS. CRAWFORD COUNTY!!!
Photo By: Harmony Motter May 18, 2010 is the day of primary elections in the state of Pennsylvania. This piece has very little to do with that, but it does have three boxes and each one is a primary color. As I was thinking about this piece today and thinking about posting it as a tongue in cheek primary election day piece I began to see some things that could be tied directly to the electoral process. I guess I can't completely divorce myself from my past work which confronted directly what politics and politicians are all about. Most people associate the apple with religion and creation, I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean that anymore in my pieces, yet can it not mean this a little? I don't know anymore. I know that the pieces I'm developing now are really thought out and that the meanings of them are clear, especially at first, then they muddle, and then they muddle and then they muddle and even though I think they are still quite clear to me, I understand that they really are something beyond my meaning ultimately. At least I think I hope they are. By Richard Sayer---Vote if you want to!
I've written my thoughts about portraiture before. How odd it seems to me that it has become common practice to go to some place of business and sit in front of a backdrop and have a picture taken in order to call it a portrait and give it away as something that represents who we are as a person. I took this picture of Dane Moorhead several years ago and perhaps he greatest compliment I ever got about a portrait I've taken came from his mom after seeing this picture. "That is Dane!" To me that is what portraiture is, finding the essence of the person within the frame of our camera. This isn't easy to do....of course it is much easier to light someone nicely and get them to smile in their Sunday best than it will ever be to truly capture a persons individuality and uniqueness. One of the things that we hope to achieve at SayerMotter Photography is to capture a persons uniqueness and get them to understand that that is the way to represent themself. Aren't we tired of the same old same old pictures? Yes we can make a picture that looks like every other picture you've seen, but we really hope people come to us because we're trying as hard as we can to make something very unique from each portrait we take. Photograph by Richard Sayer
This is Eve and Elliott and they are sister and brother. I photographed them this morning at a local park. It was a great family portrait shoot and this is one of my faves!!
Photograph By: Harmony Motter I've been thinking about two old professors a lot lately. One is Enrico Pinardi who I studied with at Rhode Island College from 1987-9. I first met Rico when he came into our Drawing 2 class and gave those of us taking his drawing 3 class in the fall a summer assignment. He wanted us to do a full-length self portrait without drawing ourselves. I was the only one who did it. It wasn't very good, but it was possibly my best drawing yet. And it really got me involved with making my work on a larger scale. Rico paints in the metaphysical tradition of painting, painting that is surrealistic in many ways but not so dream-like that is taken completely out of the realm of reality. I'm working on a piece now that I think is somehow a portrait of Rico---though I'm unsure. One of the ideas that has come out of this is this idea of the road--the road not taken--or not yet taken--the road ahead. I believe its still a long road ahead and I took a photo today to begin exploring this idea. This isn't a finished piece, but a beginning of something. Its a cliche' right now, but I did sort of like the idea of surreal that I captured in it and think it will be eventually be something that you'll see in another piece. By Richard Sayer. Oh the other professor I've been thinking about is Chuck McCleary who taught me a great deal about drawing. I've been thinking a great deal about drawing as well.
Every once in awhile I try to change the way I photograph. I look at people's work and realize how many ways there are of doing things. Two photographers can stand side by side and snap a picture at virtually the same time and get two completely different results. I never feel comfortable with my work---I feel I do a good job and I work hard, but I always feel I could do better. Sometimes I push this notion by trying to change my way of making pictures. I remember the first time I consciously tried to this it resulted - eventually - in the best period of work I'd ever had. I've then since tried to do this several more times since and each time I end up learning many things - usually through failures or near hits. Here are some pictures from the last couple days that I think are near hits, a couple I like alot, like the falling pole vaulter I took only about two hours ago. I'm hoping to find a way to photograph these edges of moments or edges of the frame of the camera and worry less about the center. I also want to try to find the fringes of the story. Its not clear to me what I mean by this, but I hope to find this way none-the-less and hopefully make it work. If not, nothing is lost, just tried and not found. Meadville Tribune photos by Richard Sayer
A couple of years ago I went to a chiropractor in Maine to have my back adjusted. During my first visit there as a new patient, I was given a medical questionnaire. It consisted of approximately 70 questions. Most of the questions, I could relate to chiropractic care. But, one of them really stuck out like a sore thumb or back. ( a pun was very much intended) Question number #26 asked..."Do you have morbid thoughts." Of course, I circled the 'Y' for YES! So...here's to morbid thoughts and healthy chiropractic care.
Photo By: Harmony Motter This is a picture of our former publisher's son Jared Yount I took today at Techfest. He was practicing some welding techniques outside the Edinboro Meadville campus. It was fun to see him because it had been awhile and he's not a little kid anymore. But the reason I posted this picture was just the cool way sparks and smoke trails record even when shooting at t pretty fast shutter-speed and the glow of light from the torch creating a nice light. Its just always too bad you can't have all of that and see his face too. Meadville Tribune photograph by Richard Sayer
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