Artist Statement:
Some of the enjoyment I experience in landscape photography occurs while I’m searching for scenes that excite my eye and mind. When I arrive at a location I want to photograph, I may not know what image I want to make. So, I wander around, perhaps aimlessly, and sometimes with a viewing card such as that used by Ansel Adams and John Sexton. In the case of the images in this show, I visited some areas in Yosemite Valley that visitors do not frequent, hoping to find a scene that might be overlooked by others.
Once I find an scene that excites my eye, I set up the camera and begin composing the photograph. Placing my camera on a tripod allows me to compose very precisely, creating an enhanced feeling of creating an individual artwork. The first level of composition is determining where the camera is pointed, and where to place the edges of the image. Both Mark Citret and Fred Picker said this was the first and perhaps most important step in creating fine art.
The next step is to determine what the final print will look like: how to place the light and dark tones on the black and white scale; whether to adjust the relation of the tones with a filter; and how the film might be processed differently to achieve the result. Eventually, I make an exposure. All of these careful steps define my enjoyment, and “bliss” in making photographs in the landscape.
John Clark
© The Photographer's Eye: A Creative Collective
"Pine And Cones"Pine And Cones
