I love what heat waves do to vision and when I can capture it with a camera its pretty neat. I did a video a few years ago where I put the camera on the road and filmed a runner running along the road for a hundred yards or more. I didn't realize it when I put the camera on the road that there was a heat wave and it made for a very surreal bit of film. I photographed people on the opposite side of fires before and got some pretty neat things. But today I didn't see this because I was concentrating so much on the firefighters fighting the fire that I didn't see what was happening with the background figures. When I saw this upon editing I knew I had something pretty cool. I began remembering impressionist and post impressionists and all I could think about was Bonnard paintings. This is an unaltered though cropped photograph. I love seeing this stuff either as its happening or later in post-production. Photograph by Richard Sayer.
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I won't even begin to equate the magnitude of the devastation to families who lost their loved ones to the loss of buildings or even an attack on a country. I cannot imagine the individual pain people feel when they lose someone they love, especially when they are 'taken' away. I remember Sept. 11, 2001. I stood like many, mouth agape watching as the sort of odd 'little' news story unfolded after a plane crashed into the trade center. I didn't even begin to think of the loss of life at that point. It seemed at first like it was some sort of weird incident where somebody didn't know what they were doing and had a terrible accident. Then the second hit and still I thought, wow maybe its an air traffic controller who is misguiding things. When the plane hit the Pentagon I knew we were under attack...but still I was standing there as if I didn't know what to do. I had never felt less like a journalist as I did right then....that is until later that day when I was sent to photograph reactions of people watching the news at Allegheny College. Again I watched the TV news repeating the second plane flying into the building and looking at people react...my camera on my lap. I missed every picture I saw because I too was numb. I had stood under those towers twice in my life and rode an elevator to the top once. I made a few pictures of the buildings, but not really of the people around or in the buildings. It is strange to me that I used to place such importance to the buildings themselves. Yes they were architectural marvels in many ways, but they were just stuff--steel, concrete, rivets, glass...etc... Its the people lost that is the tragedy. I don't even equate the attack on America as high--we're a strong country--we can survive attacks---in fact we're likely to defend out ideal for eternity. I have a friend who didn't know if her best friend was ok for several hours. He worked there. Thankfully he was ok, but the pain that my friend must've felt cannot be measured....though in retrospect it must pale in comparison to those who suffered the same pain only to find out their fears were true. It has been 10 years since 9/11/01 and I can't say we have done everything right since then as a country, but that still doesn't take away the fact that the folks that set up this country were really, really on to something...its our duty to see to it that what they knew to be right is somehow realized perpetually and doesn't loose focus. Photograph from 1986 during Hands Across America by Richard Sayer.
I've done self portraits since I can remember. One time I did a show of drawings at Rhode Island College that included several self portraits(I consider most of my artwork to be self portraits and self exploration). One of the comments left called me a narcissist. It was funny, I was studying pretty heavy Van Gogh and Rembrandt at the time and they used themselves to exercise they're techniques and in a sense practice their craft. I was learning to draw and learning my craft. Since then I have really made self exploration one of the key elements of the work I do. I often feel disconnected with other ideas. In photography It is more of a document of what I look like or where I am. Today I talked my way into climbing to the bucket of a ladder truck in order to take pictures of the motorcycle procession passing underneath the two ladder trucks put together to form an arch in which the American flag was hung. This is often done for firefighter funerals or memorial services. Today it was about the Flight 93 memorial riders leaving our area to head south. After they passed and I got my pictures I took this self portrait on my way down. Each year I make a best of slideshow and try to make a new self portrait to go along with the slideshow. I think this might have moved to the top of this years list. I noticed my goofy smile and thought---yep thats me--happy when I'm taking pictures! Photo by Richard Sayer.
Last week I photographed the Baker family (Jason, Robin, Tristen and Little Conlin). Robin had mentioned that Conlin was 3 years-old and that they had two, eleven week-old puppies that they would like to include in the photos. So, I knew going in to the shoot that it would prove to be challenging. We had a lot of laughs though. While I was snapping the photo above, Conlin was pulling on Robin's hair and Jason was struggling to get Tristen to look in the right direction. Robin started to laugh and said ..."This is our life!" I started to laugh as well because, she was right. They are a married couple in their mid 30's with two small children. This is their life and it is full of laughter and color! Thanks again for a fun photo shoot!
SayerMotter Photo By: Harmony Motter My yard has fallen by the wayside with this business and working for the paper and teaching a class. When we moved in we had this mum and I have managed to move it and keep it alive for many years, but this year, I'm not sure if it came back. My yard is so overgrown its hard to tell. Maybe I'll go looking for it this weekend in between designing and printing. One thing that has survived and thrived is this flower--its sort of a weed, but its a nice weed. Its peaking right now and my backyard is filled with yellow(and if I'd been keeping up on other weeds etc...--the yard would be magnificent). Anyway, its hard to keep up on everything when so busy with photography. Somehow I need to find a balance, but living a photographic life is a good life, so somethings have to suffer. My yard...well i wish it wasn't my yard, because it sure is nice walking around it when its mowed and kept up! Maybe next year I'll figure it out! Photograph by Richard Sayer.
I had forgotten I took my camera with me to the fair. Each year since I can remember I have had a Sausage sandwich with Jim Stefanucci at the fair. We worked together for the newspaper for about 12 years and we made it a point to meet for a half hour or so during a very busy week to sit and eat together. Sometimes we'd talk about pictures we made that day or broke from our jobs entirely and talked about the blues or art or fishing or family---all sorts of topics. When jim retired nearly two years ago we didn't feel our sandwich tradition needed to stop, so we meet at the fair. This year I brought my camera and asked him if he wanted to shoot some pictures. He laughed at me and said something about how he is retired and that is my job. So I had my camera with me and when we were done eating I decided to try some shots similar to ones I took earlier in the week. I had forgotten about them until I was editing through some other client photos and stumbled on them yesterday. So decided to post. The picture that was very similar to this that I did for the paper was a little better. The lone rider on the chair ride was in silhouette and the feel was more timeless. What I was hoping to get was the ride in the background also running which I did in the picture but never got it and a chair rider in just the right spots in the same photograph. This was the closest one I got. By the way, when Jim was watching me photograph one assignment he then admitted he wished he did take the camera because he saw that I was really missing the right photo. Some things never change! He is still trying to make me a better photographer. Photograph by Richard Sayer
In yesterday's post I talked about moments and composition. Here is an example of a picture that isn't a great 'photograph' in terms of composition or design. I shot this out the window of my friend Mike's car as we were driving around looking at Buffalo. I saw this guy holding a baby and then I saw him kiss the baby's side. I lifted camera and hoped he'd do it again. And he did. This is a quiet moment between two people captured in a single frame. I didn't think--I reacted and snapped a photo. Would I like to not have the chair in the foreground--yes. Would I like to have been closer and composed more similar the the Migrant mother photo by Dorothea Lang? Yes! Many things I would like to do differently, but as a photographer do I sacrifice not taking a picture because of that? No. Photograph by Richard Sayer.
I was making a portrait of Lincoln(feeling all Matthew Brady and all) at this museum in Buffalo Sunday while visiting my friend Mike. I was thinking about the class I was starting to teach at Allegheny and working out in my head some things to discuss about composition. We learn rules about how to see and make pictures---these are good guidelines to have and practice until you let them fade into just being something that is there, in your own way of seeing--something that is a part of your vocabulary, but not always something that dictates your every action while making and editing your work. I bring this up because I go to critiques in photo clubs and listen to pro photographers all the time criticize really good photographs because they don't use the rule of thirds composition principal or some other such device. I usually play Devil's advocate in these situations and explain sometimes photographs don't follow rules, but they still capture something pretty special--thats the beauty of, and that which separates it from the other arts. Photographs capture and sometimes capture very raw. Thats what we strive for in documentary work--capturing real using our camera and our eye. I saw this picture but didn't have this format, so I shot it with the full roof line showing, but knew that the true photo was this cropped version. I also noted that the cheap kit lans I was using really has distortion along the edges--which I thought I had noted before, but it was confirmed with this image as I tried to make the bottom line of the balcony edge straight only to have it appears as a curve. Photograph by Richard Sayer.
When I made this photograph I was using a friend's studio, an establish photographer with much better equipment than we had. He was very good to us letting us use his lights and space whenever we wanted to. We have since gotten a place of our own and we just got new lights(haven't tried them out yet). One of the lights we got has a giant light box that I need to figure out how to assemble. Once I do it will allow us to create nice soft lighting that skims across the the model instead of hitting hard. Transitions to shadow will be softer and it adds to our ability to create an even broader style in our work. I've always prided myself at making the best of not such great lights(actually one of my favorite lights is a floor lamp that you can get for just a few bucks at Big Lots), but I admit that sometimes it would be nice to let the lights help me out more tham fighting with them to get what I want....so look out everyone...I'm ready to experiment with these new lights! SayerMotter Photograph by Richard Sayer.
Another picture from near the beginning of the business. Its funny when we look back on our work and feel two things simultaneously: 1. Boy I'm a lot better now at doing what I do and 2. but the rawness of not knowing somethings really shows through and in some ways is better. The creative process is always trying to find that balance, we want to improve and gain more consistency, but sometimes that means we lose some of that stumbling serendipitous stuff that is just great. The more we control the outcome of what we do the stiffer it can become. Trying to keep that raw drive can only come from pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone. I could make this picture better today for sure, but I probably can't make have the same sort of edge---maybe...I'll keep trying thats for sure! SayerMotter Photograph by Richard Sayer.
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