Photographic Isolation & Inspiration

Published April 18, 2020

I have now been in Bosnia & Herzegovina for a month. A week ago the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton, where I am staying, introduced complete lockdown including a restriction on leaving one's residence. I wasn't traveling far afield as it was but now I am even more narrowly limited which has forced me to find new forms of photographic inspiration.

I am a Photoshelter client, using them to host my website and my image archives. In addition to these services, they've also been sharing all kinds of helpful resources from tips on selling images to sources of inspiration. They released a guide of "22 Photo Projects You Can Do Inside Your Home" which I used to kick off some exploration of my own. I will walk you through the categories I have tried to date, my results and takeaways.

Project 1: Pet Portraits

I have two models readily available here with me - Ozzie and Booker. They already gets lots of photo time from me via their Instagram account @ozbomom but generally those are candids of our adventures together. For this project I wanted to be more thoughtful about the photographic approach including posing, lighting, etc. As a refresher, I shoot the Olympus OMD EM1 Mark II which is a micro four thirds system (do not comment on my choice of sensor sizes, I will not engage in a debate since I use what works best for me. Likewise, you should use what works best for you.). I used my Olympus 40-150mm 2.8 Pro zoom lens (80-300mm full frame equivalent) for this series.

I liked this composition for the lighting and his position behind the gate. Ozzie's expression mirrors my feelings about this lockdown.

Here Ozzie is standing on a patio above me. I happened to notice him in this bush and put him in a sit/stay. He's used to being asked to model so is compliant. I like how the foliage and lighting frame him. Dang, he's a handsome devil, isn't he?

The lighting was a bit harsh in this location but I was experimenting with white on white imagery. I may go back and pull down more highlights in Lightroom. I have learned that I like more environmental cues vs. a stark background like this for pet portraiture.

Shot at evening Golden Hour inside the house. Getting images of Booker is next to impossible these days. He's 14 years old, has arthritis in his hips, is blind in one eye and is hard of hearing so posing him is a challenge. I caught him here looking out the door as the light illuminated his face. Regal old man.

Project 2: Around the House

This series is a lesson in observation of ordinary things and how to see them in new ways. I found myself attracted to curtains and the windows/views they enable or conceal. Maybe there's some deeper psychology to that...but I digress. I played around with how the curtains shape our view based on the focal plane, on the curtains themselves, the view into or beyond the window and reflections. I even played a little with abstracting the curtain patterns but that will be discussed in a separate section. I used my Olympus 12-40mm 2.8 Pro lens (24-80mm full frame equivalent) and my 40-150mm zoom for the pink curtains.

Project 3: Around the Garden

Exploring the garden on a warm sunny day is a welcome return to nature. I am lucky that this rental house has a huge grassy area that backs onto a small river. When we first arrived the fruit trees were blooming along with Spring wildflowers. Now the foliage is bursting with greenery. The river is home to wildlife, mostly ducks, but also a sheep herd that comes down for a drink and a nibble of fresh grass. I haven't tried capturing the animals yet, instead focusing on flowers. I love gardening so am always going to shoot flowers of all kinds. The majority of these were taken with the Olympus 12-40mm Pro lens. You can see the versatility of this lens from very close up to distance (the white flowering tree was shot from inside the house). The one exception is the purple flower with bee, that was shot using the 40-150mm zoom.

Project 4: Abstraction

I alluded to this while discussing the curtains but I think experimenting with abstraction in photography is something more of us should try. I have a friend from photography school who does amazing abstract work of water and I've often been inspired by her approach. You can check her out here: https://www.instagram.com/denayoungphotography/ . For this project I tried a few differing techniques to take ordinary scenes/objects and turn them into an abstraction, this included purposefully blurring them via focal length and/or aperture setting, using motion to create blur, narrowing in on a small section of pattern, etc. All of these used the 40-150mm zoom lens to achieve these results.

The first image is closer to reality but uses the patterns in the curtains to create an abstract image, it's not about the curtains themselves but the shapes within. The second takes that a step further by blurring the lines. Third is the most abstract of all, in the colors and shapes I see the side of a woman's body, almost an impressionist nude.

I confess I am in love with these water images. This is the River Buna which runs behind the house I am renting. The top three images have the focal plane closer to the surface which highlights the small wave patterns. The lower two are focused beneath the water's surface which highlights the play of light from the water onto the river bottom. These were shot around late morning - early midday, no filters on my lens, wide open aperture using the 40-150mm 2.8 lens. I look forward to continuing to experiment with this approach as weather and time of day changes the water color and conditions.

Project 5: Self Portraits

If there's one thing I dislike, it's posing for photos myself. I definitely am a behind the camera kind of gal. But, you aren't learning if you don't push yourself into uncomfortable places. In this case, very uncomfortable as I was using the white table top of the dining table as my "background" for these shots. I had my camera mounted high on a tripod, angled straight down and was using the 40-150mm lens again. I was trying to get close into areas of my body vs. doing a full head shot type of set up. Here's two images that I am willing to share from this experience. But suffice it to say, you won't be seeing many more self portraits in my future, although I am kind of partial to the second image for its use of negative space. For anyone who's curious about the tattoos, they are all images of my favorite travel experiences. They include Norway, Easter Island, Venice, the Pacific Northwest of the USA and one you can't see but is an homage to diving with great white sharks in South Africa and Mexico. Here's to adding more great places once we're out of lockdown!!

Project 6: Collage

After trying out all of the above, I have moved into a completely new territory for me, photo art. My definition of photo art is different than photography alone, it uses photos and technology to form compositions and artwork that don't exist without the artist's rendition. This can range from color editing an image to completely alter its look from what was shot to collage where you are layering photo images to create something entirely new. Here I have taken the abstracted water images from Project 4 and flower images from Project 3 to create these new artworks using Photoshop to layer, adjust transparency levels, cut and paste. I am having a ton of fun making these and can see these as something I continue to explore and evolve for years to come. It feels like I am combining my history as a painter with my newer world of photography, scratching two itches at once so it seems. Below are a sample of the final works and their original source files.

And with that, it seems that isolation has been a good thing for my craft. Not only have I been getting time for solid practice of photographic techniques but I have discovered a whole new artistic realm. I hope you all are finding ways to express yourselves and escape from the drudgery of home isolation. Stay well and stay safe!