Artsy Shark asked some photographer friends to share a favorite image from their portfolio and tell us why they feel it’s special. Which are your favorites?
Alex Potemkin: I love unusual photo techniques, especially ‘monocle’. These vintage handmade lenses create magic directly from camera, without any extensive post-processing. This painting look is pure photography.
Armen Edgarian: I like this photo because of its abstract composition and intense colors in the common place of man-made beauty, which I find myself surrounded by in my everyday ordinary life.
Joyce Wasser: I love to photograph animals, especially horses. I think what makes this photograph special is the backlighting. It brings out the details of the horse’s mane, tail and face.
Serge Matsko: Color has the power of changing our emotional being’s temperature from cold blue to spring green to yellow sunny to red hot and sexy. Having no logic, the color contains only emotional information embedded in our DNA.
Jennifer Peters: This photo was taken when three of us gathered to watch the moonrise from Kirby Cove, Marin. We arrived to a fog covered city in the distance, until the moon emerged.
Jenny Setchell: I photograph organs partly because each magnificent one is unique, and has its own set of difficulties to capture, especially in the beautiful but dark European cathedrals. This photo of Steingaden Abbey in Germany has been chosen by my publishers to be the cover for my book entitled “Looking Up at Pipe Organs and Ceilings”.
Lisa Waddell: This is my current favorite photograph because it represents the whimsical direction in which my floral photography is moving. I like the challenge of balancing the whimsy with the realism.
Vinnie Oakes: This photo was taken on my only trip to the Texas Hill Country, and fortunately no one got in the way when I set-up, in natural light to shoot this tack room at Sauer-Beckmann Farm, near LBJ National Historic Park. It won a Speaker’s Choice Award at the 2012 “Shooting The West” photographic symposium in Winnemucca, Nevada.
Alyx Morgan & Craig Smith: This piece is called “Light’s Shadow”. The reason we’ve chosen this one is because we love the contrasting effects of sky/building & lamp/shadow. It’s almost a reflective image.
Ramona Murdock: I like zeroing in on details that people miss in the hurry of life. I backed this image with a wallpaper pattern I spotted in a Montana ghost town to pull the viewer into the magic of an ordinary, garden variety hollyhock.
Bruce Finocchio: Bald Eagle calling out defending its claim to a salmon carcass. The condensed steam shows how cold. It was worth the wait and patience to come up with a beautiful spiritual image!
Marc Jaffe: I have always loved this piece. Looking at just half of it is a tree scene, but the whole is a completely different Beast.
Donna Blackhall: My photograph entitled “In Fields of Gold” epitomizes spring in California. Mustard flowers in bloom, cows grazing in the field and warm skies evoke a feeling of peace.
Heather Kirk: This photo is “White Mare Approaches #1” at Return to Freedom American Wild Horse Sanctuary in Lompoc, California. The awe of being so close to the beauty and strength of rescued wild horses compelled me to use my art to actively raise funds for causes I believe in.
Jeff Goulden: The art of the landscape inspires me more than any other aspect of photography. This iconic view of Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border was taken at sunset, capturing the other-worldly glow on the red rock formations.
Greg Kluempers: This is my favorite photo from a recent trip to the Tucson Barrio. Bright colors, architectural detail and the sinuous shape of the tree make a dramatic statement.
Fred Denner: I can’t say in words why I like this photo other than to say it speaks for itself. Do we always need to put words to things? It’s enough to know in our hearts what we like.
Jon Stephenson: Found this potted palm sitting on a corner in the Plaza Cozumel. It seemed to be as one with the bright green wall it sits near. The combination of color and texture immediately spoke to me.
Jacqueline Deely: This Elegant Tern feeding its chick is a favorite simply because of the beautiful moment captured. The composition, soft colors and texture make it a unique piece of art.
Elaine Hunter: This photo is called “Ocean Dream”. I love to take you to an elusive world and transport you to a wildly fanciful terrestrial place. This image creates another dimension, one that is rarely seen.
James Cooper: I like the clean simplicity of the image and how the film rendered the colors. Reminds me of an Ellsworth Kelly painting.
Marita Gootee: I love the abstraction using a pinhole camera hand held on a beach. The final image was printed 2” x 3” in the darkroom and then hand tinted with colored pencil.
Jan Killian: I love the soft magical look! Memories of that morning, listening to Sandhill Cranes and Blackbirds wakening for the day, as the fall starts to meet winter.
Jocelyn Friis: This photo is an example of nature’s abundant beauty. I love the subtle colors, the patterns. Photography has taught me to appreciate the small and often overlooked details around me. Looking through the lens gives me the privileged opportunity to slow down and “see” things I would otherwise miss.
Jerry Sodorff: This image is one of my favorites because I am drawn to color, graphics, emotions and lines that let the viewer travel into the image and stay awhile!
Kurt Shaffer: This is one of my favorite photographs because of the simple fact that so many elements came together at just the right time for these (70) kites to seemingly disappear into the Sun. The photo gives me an uplifting and perhaps hopeful or spiritual feeling that I love.
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Beautiful images! My favorites are: (1) Jacqueline Deely “Feeding Chick” – a fabulous record of a moment in time and space that is difficult to capture in such perfect details. One has to be there at just the right moment. The softness of the overall tones and the very act of feeding touches my maternal instincts and speaks of acts of loving-kindness, giving and caring. Absolutely marvelous! (2) Vinnie Oakes “Tack Room” – a record of a timeless era. The natural lighting creates a beautiful symphony of darks and lights moving from left to right (looking into the picture) and perspective. Congratulations! and thank you to everyone who contributed to this collection of fabulous images. You’ve all made my day! 🙂
Great choices, Tina! Every artist offers something so different and unique that offering this collection was completely enjoyable!