2015 My Year in Review
Every year Jim Goldstein runs a project on his blog, JMG Galleries, where he encourages photographers to post their best pictures of the year. It’s a great project and I’ve participated every year. When I started participating about 4 years ago I thought, “what a great way to have pictures seen by a whole new audience.”
That was me when I first started blogging but now there are so many other reasons that I participate. Yes I still like that fact that I may reach a new audience but more than that I find this to be a difficult and yet rewarding exercise. It’s tough to cull through your work and pick what you think may be the best of the year. It really gives me a chance to go though my images (some that I haven’t looked at for almost a year) and decide whether they’re good enough to make the cut of the top 10 or 15. I try to review my images from a technical perspective and from a creative one. Certainly I’m drawn to certain images due to the circumstances of where and when they were taken. The picks may not always be perfect and certainly wouldn’t win any awards but art is subjective and what one person views as a masterpiece another make look at and dismiss entirely.
It’s been a busy and rewarding year both on the photographic front and from a family and work stand point. I’ve taken on a new role at work which was unexpected at the beginning of 2015 but I am loving it. The only downside has been that its been so busy that my photography had to take a bit of a back seat.
From a photography perspective I’ve continued to sell prints and license new work which is always very exciting and rewarding. I won’t make any specific commitments for the new year because I know that my day job will still be taking up a lot of my time but learning new photographic techniques and honing my craft is something that I know will always be important and I will find and make the time to do it.
If you have a chance jump on over to Jim Goldstein’s site here in or about the second week of January and he should have a list of year in review post listed for your viewing pleasure. There’s always a great list of photographers on there, you won’t regret it.
As always you can click on the images to enlarge them or to Purchase a Print.
Cuba
Refracted Water Drops
Cuba
Hilton Falls, Ontario
Boston
Muskoka
Lake Ontario
Old Montreal
Jerusalem, Israel
Jerusalem, Israel
Tel Aviv, Israel
More Dizzying Heights & My Thoughts on Creativity
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend filled with family, lots of laughs and good eats 🙂 I don’t think any of my posts so far have garnered such opposing opinions as my Havana Rooftops multiple exposure that I posted last Friday.
Some of you didn’t like it…I mean really didn’t like it and some of you did. I actually found all the comments refreshing and I want to thank everyone that did comment and offered their opinion. As photographers we want people to like, no love our work. It’s one of the reasons we do what we do but it’s not the only reason. There’s also the self-satisfaction of creating something different. Sometimes when we look through the viewfinder we see something that may not be there physically but rather in our minds. The definition of creative is “having or showing an ability to make new things or think of new ideas.” While some of these ideas will appeal to some they won’t appeal to others. I can just imagine what some people must have said when Jackson Pollock create his first piece of art.
Oh please don’t get me wrong, I am in no way comparing my work with that of Jackson Pollock. I’m just making an analogy between his experimentation and mine.
Some of you asked what the original image looked like. Here it is…
And I’ll give you one more of my “experimentations” before I leave and I promise I’ll get back to my regularly scheduled program with my next post 🙂 Oh…and please leave a comment and let me know what you think…either way.
Click on the image to enlarge or to Purchase a Print.
Havana Rooftops
One of the best bird’s-eye views of the city of Havana is from the roof of the Bacardi Building. While I was shooting this scene I kept thinking about the layers upon lairs of roofs and how the different colour buildings played against each other.
I kept seeing this scene as a multiple exposure but unfortunately my Canon 7D doesn’t do in camera multiple exposures. I created the final image in Photoshop.
Let me know what you think. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and Happy Passover and Happy Easter!
Click on the image to enlarge or to Purchase a Print.
Taxi
Wide shots of urban scenes are great and really gives the viewer a sense of place but don’t knock a close-up.
Click on the image to see a resolution version or to Purchase a Print.
Shadows & Light
The sun was setting as we were walking around Havana casting shadows along buildings and streets. Standing here, for a moment I thought back to a similar building in New Orleans.
Click on the image to enlarge (it really does look better) or to Purchase a Print.
A Typical Day in Havana
Before we head into the weekend (with some milder temperatures coming our way) I thought I’d leave you with an image from Havana.
To convert to black & white I used Topaz Black & White Effects. I wanted to let you all now that Topaz Labs is having a sale until the end of March, you can pick B&W Effects for $39.99 (regular price is $59.00). Click here to purchase or down loan a trial version.
Edith Levy Photography 