Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Shoreline Series

 Looking through my pictures from our recent trip to Lake Tahoe made me start thinking about working in a series.
 From one spot on the deserted beach I took this series of photos while waiting for my family to meet me (they bicycling which I couldn't do because of my still healing finger). 
Each of these pictures is so similar when looked at in thumbnail size, the orangey shore contrasting with that blue sky and darker blue water, and the darkness of indistinct mountains.  But when seen at normal size like I'm showing you here, all those differences come out and catch my interest and imagination and make me want to turn them into quilts or paintings or collages or..... 
This makes me finally get why working in a series is so satisfying to so many people.  I've been feeling that pull lately, and maybe this epiphany will help me get over the hump to actually working on it and giving it a try.
 All those different views possible from the same spot, the same day, the same camera, the same media, the same person making the image.
Until people show up and introduce even more variables! 
Well, at least they were the people I was waiting for, my two sons who were of course immediately set upon digging a hole and changing the whole view. 

3 comments:

Jaye said...

I took a class with Joen Wolfrom today and she uses photos as the basis for color selection. The resulting quilt may have no connection to the imagery of the photo, but I thought it was an effective way to choose color. Perhaps something to think about for your series?

Margaret Ball said...

Great idea for a series! We just got back from the beach too (Gulf of Mexico - slightly warmer water) and I have a world-class collection of foamy-water-on-sand photos. Hmmm. I look forward to seeing how your series progresses.

Julie Zaccone Stiller said...

I'm so glad you got to take a class with her, and that technique sounds a lot like what I was thinking of with using these photos as a jumping off point for a series.
Hey Margaret, those pictures sound great, are you posting them on your blog? And yes, I'd wager the Gulf of Mexico is quite a bit warmer than recent snow-melt runoff filled Lake Tahoe...