This page last updated 04/11/2008
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| Blue Swirl 1 | Red & Yellow | Expanding Garden | |
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| Summer Visitors | Les Jardin | Between
Sky And Flower |
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| Flowertree | Study In Sun | Sun+flower | |
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| Tree & Sky |
Photoimpressionism is a term Freeman Patterson and others apply to photographic work that departs from the representational depiction of subjects that characterizes nearly all nature photography. The photoimpressionist photographer seeks to create a feeling of the subject in the same way as did the great painters of the Impressionist movement by skillfully combining and recombining areas of light and color to create an impression of what the eye saw, perhaps before the mind started sorting out and classifying, thereby removing the spontaneity of experience.
I reviewing past work I have discovered that I have for a long time created this kind of work, but have largely pushed it to the background of my experience as I sought to improve my traditional images. In the past two years I have been steadily moving toward the deliberate creation of a body of impressionist work not only using techniques shown me by mentors, teachers, and colleagues, but experimenting with techniques of my own devising. This is very much work in progress and what I offer here are baby pictures, my early attempts at breaking the photographic mold that tries to limit the nature photographer to creating what is instantly recognizable to the viewer, classifiable, able to be filed in a pigeon-hole along with all the other garden pictures, wildlife pictures, and landscapes.
All images presented were created on film, that is, the creative techniques were applied at the time the image was created and not through manipulation in image processing software. However, at the time of scan I set the black point in each of the color channels to adjust the tonal range to my intent and perform minor cropping. As an interesting aside, some of these images are being created with an old Sigma 300mm f/4 that capsized with me in Chesapeake Bay a few yeas ago. I had considered the lens junk due to internal water-spotting, but found that the lens still stops down and focuses accurately. The internal spots may create some soft sections in the image, but in this application, that does not matter and this lens has become the lens of choice when I need a moderate telephoto to create impressionist work.
If you like this kind of work come back often. As this work matures and I accumulate a significant number of images, I expect that this page will move from the Namaste Reflections portion of my site to a regular portfolio. In the meantime, this page will change images as I continue my explorations and develop my eye and techniques. I'll be happy to discuss how any of these images were made; drop me a line at john at johnellert.com.