Category Archives: Working in a Series

07/27/19

The Power of REFLECTIONS in Creative Photography

Ideas on the PHOTO COMPETITION THEME of REFLECTIONS, and a few images to illustrate some diverse ways of creatively approaching this assignment.

I want you to have fun with this one!

Part of the Convergence series – first exhibited in 2014 at Mason Murer Fine Art.
The rippled water surface created a painterly brush stroke effect…
entirely in camera with no post production needed.

Here is a special message to the ROSWELL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY from Robin:

“Soon I will be judging your Photo Competition and the Theme is one of my favorites… REFLECTIONS!

When I last spoke to your group, I talked about “Dream Assignments” that we can give to ourselves, and the creative use of REFLECTIONS in photography is a great SELF-ASSIGNMENT and one that I’ve given to myself …MANY times!

Here below I’ve shared some images from my past exhibitions, where REFLECTIONS are a major element. In creating these SERIES of images, I first formulated a defined visual plan to follow.”

If you would like to create your own personal SELF-ASSIGNMENT, I am happy to offer you my half price PERSONAL SESSION to envision and complete your own Dream Project. From these fun and helpful sessions, my students have created meaningful photographs that they really love.

Five ideas to consider for your upcoming themed competition on REFLECTIONS:

#1 – Titles are important, and sometimes even a short one-line description of your intent can clue-in your viewer, to engage them, and give them a deeper understanding of the purpose of your image, or perhaps some of the photographic decisions you made while creating the image.

Just a few words can go a long way to make your photograph more meaningful to the viewer, who was not there when you made the shot.

The Series Title: AQUA AVIA – Birds in their natural elements of both air and water

Wild Bird Images were combined with Patterns of Water REFLECTIONS and printed on Silk

#2 – When we think of Reflections in photography, the first thing that pops into our mind are images of nature reflected in water. With this subject, it is deeply satisfying to practice our COMPOSE in CAMERA technique that we talked about!

Get closer and closer AS you a photographing your subject and do NOT after-crop. This is the way we discover fascinating shapes, hypnotic patterns, and abstractions that dynamically FILL our FRAMES edge to edge! These are the photos you will really love.

Fine Art Photo Exhibition Poster for Convergence Series by Robin Davis
The TITLE Convergence refers to the focal point
where both the nature reflection + the water’s surface patterns combine as one.
(Poster Design, Typography and Photography by Robin Davis)

#3 – The term REFLECTIONS can mean a lot of different things and is open to your interpretation. Please feel free to explore this to the fullest! While judging, I will be looking for personal creativity in each of your entries. If you feel the call to go beyond the obvious, then I support you!

“BEST FRIENDS, PRIVATE REFLECTIONS”
Street photography from the June Cortona Italy Workshop

Going deeper into the realm of the mind, a reflection could also be illustrated as a pensive or introspective moment. If you like photographing people, or creating dramatic stories, perhaps there is a deeper psychological theme that you would like to tell with your camera. Please note that if you choose to define the word REFLECTION in this way, be sure your photo’s TITLE describes it well, and perhaps include a short blurb or artist’s statement that supports your image’s intent.

This is a preview of a NEW SERIES that I will be exhibiting at pb&j Gallery in October.
The theme of strong archetypal women is one that I return to again and again.
Here my model Morgan, is playing the part of THE SORCERESS who is watching you from her magic mirror!

#4 – You may also consider other reflective surfaces such as mirrors, metal, or glass, and you may choose to show your reflected subject in tandem WITH its reflection to visually entertain us. I know you will find many exiting reflective surfaces to play with, and I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

#5 – One last thing to be sure to AVOID is any elements that do not serve your composition! A foreign or incongruent object (or piece of OFFENSIVE SHRUBBERY as I like to say!), should be consciously composed out of, or if necessary, retouched out of, your full image frame. Just be aware of those pesky branches, or unintentional wires or poles that sneak into the edges of your perfect image area, and be on guard to keep them out!

Here are some more examples below, and thoughts on designing your own photographic series.

Mysterious images with water reflections in classical themes,
with the sphinx, goddess, centaur, and a giant collossus figure.
These images were created in Pompeii and Ravello Italy, and Paris, France.
The final images for exhibition were printed on metal panels to enhance the reflective feel.
With this series the mirrored image was designed to relax & entertain the mind of the viewer.
It also serves to simplify and beautify the FOREGROUND of each shot.
In this series the clouds, forms and backgrounds were all really there
and composed WITHIN the frame of the cellphone camera.
The ADDED reflections were generated by phone APPS to mirror the original scene.
Le Sphinx Egyptienne 2 – ©Robin Davis

And here are two more examples that I will conclude with…

Here’s a CORTONA CENTER of PHOTOGRAPHY example that we created with the workshop class… The assignment? …to light our subject like a Renaissance Painting.
The secret?? …it’s actually the REFLECTION in a very old and spotty mirror.
Some fun on St. Simons Island during the Coastal Georgia Workshop…
Reflections add a beautiful dimension to our photos and we are always on the lookout for ways to use them to support our subjects and complement our overall design.

I hope this has been helpful to you, and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

-ROBIN

10/19/17

What Holds a Series Together? A Photographic Discussion with Robin Davis

There’s a deep satisfaction when a cohesive series comes together, and this is also a discussion I have enjoyed having with my photography students about their work.

When looking at a grouped display of multiple images, we want to give our viewers a pleasing continuity, a flow from one to the next. Beyond the subject, a consistency of tonality AND format are most important. This is what visually holds a series together, and also defines your Photographic Style.

When putting together NINE of my images for our group exhibition of NINE photographers, I looked through my recent favorites and thought about how they would fit together on the wall. As 12 inch squares, hanging in three rows of three, they would all be coming together to make one bigger SQUARE, so I began to consider TONALITY as the unifier.

 

The Show is appropriately called NINE

at pb&j Gallery in Atlanta’s Kirkwood Neighborhood

35 Howard Street SE, Atlanta, GA 30317

The Exhibition runs from Oct 21-Nov 22, 2017

open Thurs-Sat, 12-5 pm

 

 

In addition to the cool-toned limited color pallette,

Another connection is that each image has a pairing PARTNER IMAGE,

something that links it to other images within the group of NINE.

Can you figure out the PAIRS?

 

What Holds a Series Together? A Photographic Discussion with Robin Davis

The subjects are from various places, in France, Italy and the USA, and all from locations where I love to take my Photography Workshop students. These cool-tone images of blues and greens were also choosen because they worked to energetically vibrate within the true square format I was shooting with. The iPhone lets me design with the border edges, incorporating them in as the image is shot. It is also an homage to shooting with film, and the lineage of my teachers who composed fully in camera and never would have dreamed of after-cropping. This tension to the edge and seeing how close you can get is addictive! The idea of this ending edge of the “film” with the delectably thin areas of tension and separation, between objects, but also in their proximity to the edge of the frame itself are what delights my eye. How close can I get and still not go over?! It is an ongoing exercise in every shot, and sometimes you nail the moment and many times you miss. It is the fun of the challenge that keeps us trying!

 

Here is my Artist Statement for the show:

WITHIN the SQUARE – by ROBIN DAVIS
Meditative in-camera compositions, fully utilizing the perfect geometries of the divine square.

Serendipitous alignments and light coincide, as the shapes of subject and environment meld within the pre-ordained square format. Robin’s cool toned images are created in the moment, and framed as in-camera compositions, from edge to edge. There are no additional layerings, cropping or after-effects involved, and she approaches each image as a series of quickly meditated decisions, locked in with a click, the satisfaction being that there will be no other post production effects required.

This collection of nine images, printed by the artist on canvas squares, was created during some of Robin’s workshop trips, using her techniques for thoughtful image making, which she also enjoys sharing with her photo students in the US, France, and Italy.

The black-edged defining image border is also a conscious homage to the teachings of Robin’s Mentors and the long lineage of knowledge they handed down to her. In the tradition of the days of film, the inclusion of the black film’s border was an unwavering symbol of what the photographer had truly chosen to include or consciously crop out of their art… and the thought of after-cropping did not exist.

 

All images and Text ©2017 Robin Davis, all rights reserved.

11/13/15

A Seven Second Series

 

Robin Davis Photography Sunset Series The Third Eye Photography Workshop Adventures

 

The Sun is a star.

Once the sphere first touches the horizon line, it takes about 2 minutes to disappear from our view.

This is the last seven seconds covered in 10 clicks of the camera. Because it was shot out of focus the sun continues to appear as a circle and does not sink. Instead it just slowly vanishes, and is gone.

I could not resist putting the images together as an animated GIF loop that speeds it up a bit!

 

Robin Davis Photography, Fine Art Series, Sunset, Sun, Series, Setting, Stages

 

The view is across the water, seen from the porch on St. Simons Sound.

 

 

 

All Images and Text ©2015 Robin Davis