There was an exhibit of 25 images(20x28") from this group at the Turtle Ridge Gallery,Ellison Bay Wisconsin, Summer 2019
The elements in the photos are water, light and time. Water is in the forms of ice, condensation and liquid. Refracted,reflected and transmitted light are used simultaneously. The light sources are natural light, flash and led bulbs. Colored gels and colored backgrounds are sometimes used.
Nothing is lost or wasted during the process. Water is returned to the atmosphere as vapor and the gels and backgrounds are reused.
The main threads that have woven my life together are photography,boats and the sea. Anyone who has ever experienced night at sea under a full sky dome, uncluttered by man made light, is drawn to the mysteries of the universe. Sailors can not avoid dreams of navigating to destinations beyond imagination. For many years I have been fascinated by space photos. With the incredible photographs now being made by the Hubbell and Mars orbiter space craft,I can now get closer, but never close enough. These photographs,like a visual science fiction, are a way to move my imagination closer to the possibilities of the landscapes,cosmic events and details of space.This project has become a personal black hole.....Absorbing and bending my time and thought
The images are all macro images. The areas being photographed are as small as 2x3 mm and as large as 6x9 cm.When doing macro photography the depth of field(the area in front of the camera that is in proper focus) is very small. The closer the subject the smaller it is.
In order to have the entire subject in focus a technique called photo stacking is used. After the first photo is made the camera is moved very slightly to a new focus point. This is continued until the depth of the entire subject has been photographed.
With the time necessary to make this many images there are changes in the size and shape of subject(melting ,evaporation and movement of water. The final combined image becomes both a still image and a time lapse.
The total process can take as much as 2 hours per image and only about 1 in 10 are saved.
