With many people feeling the effects of the recession, it’s simply imperative to create images which reflect story and connect with people. I believe part of what art does is document heritage.

The internet and digital photography has made photography more accessible to people than ever before. At the same time it has created a somewhat altered perception of art’s value to those that rely on the internet to view images. Have you ever visited a renowned art gallery’s website, and viewed works of art on your computer screen? Have you then visited that gallery and viewed those pieces of art in person? The postcard-sized painting viewed on your computer screen turns out to be a 12 foot painting full of texture and colour you never thought possible. The small sculpture viewed on your screen contains such exquisite detail when viewed in person it captures your imagination and stays with you long after you’ve left the gallery.

The internet is chock-full of snapshots, mobile device captures etc. How many of those images are intended to be permanently displayed as wall art? The web reminds me of some sort of underground sub-culture; a world that effectively draws us away from the real world into the virtual one. Ever count the number of hours you spend on the internet during a typical month? I bet you’ll be surprised by how much time is spent there.

While the internet and digital photography has made the point of entry into photography more accessible than ever before, it also has created the opportunity for professional artists to stand out.

Film has been replaced with sensors and memory cards. The physical darkroom has been replaced with post-production software, computers and colour-claibrated monitors. But the vision that goes into creating artful photography still comes from the photographer.

Getting photography out of the digital realm back into the physical world allows us to celebrate, view, and enjoy photography the way it is was meant to be viewed. Don’t get stuck into the convenience of sitting in front of a computer screen to view images and art.

A boy runs towards seagulls at the end of a pier, his back to us.

Yesterday I delivered several pieces of wall art to a client celebrating their son. I spent a good amount of time photographing their son to capture his personality. He was busy playing a video game when I arrived. Some events simply cannot be interrupted!

A boy dances outdoors wearing a cowboy hat and cowboy boots

A young cowboy looks downward against shimmering sunlight.

A young boy with arms outstretched gives the peace sign with both hands.

If you’re interested in photography, you’re invited to attend My First Camera: Essentials for Everyone Workshops.

This change of season, for many, can evoke a poetic melancholy. The possibilities of summer have passed, and the cold of winter is on the horizon.

Five different sized pumpkins sit atop a red wagon, priced for sale in celebration of Autumn and Hallowe'en.

Autumn brings with it breezes of change. Multi-colour leaves fall from trees, crunching beneath our feet as we stroll over them. The promise of Thanksgiving will soon arrive.

In 1819, John Keats wrote an ode “To Autumn”, a famous poem depicting three stages of the season: its fruitfulness, its labour and its decline into winter.

One of my favourite paintings of Autumn, entitled Otono, is by Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900), an American landscape painter.

Bushels of red apples for sale at an outdoor Farmer's Market.

Think of crisp apples used to make hot apple cider. Pumpkins to make pumpkin pie. And we can’t forget the fun families will have carving pumpkins, eating pumpkin pie, and trick or treating during Hallowe’en.

Enjoy Autumn. It will be over before we know it.

Pictures
I often work on personal images to relax. Images that are just for me. They bring back memories and I enjoy bringing out the beauty of these images as I remember them when I first captured them. I’ve been so busy this past summer, and autumn will be just as busy. They also tend to be images that relax me when I view them. By viewing I mean viewing each image for a few minutes. I know the internet is obviously not best-suited for this, but if you view the larger version it’ll give you an idea. There is a lot of subtle detail which you’ll see the longer you take in each image.

I don’t typically release many personal images, however as I was working on these images this morning, I thought I’d share them because I like them, and maybe you’ll enjoy them, too.

My work is best appreciated when viewed as a large fine-art print, at least 13×19″. I prefer printing on textured art paper as it complements the feel and look of my images, and it has a matte finish. I’m providing these images as artwork, too. If you enjoy viewing any of these images, click on it to view a larger version with the option of owning it as a fine-art print or folded 5×7″ greeting card.

Music
Aside from pictures, I listen to a lot of music. Almost all genres. So I’ll share a short list of what I’ve been listening to this week, in no particular order (scroll down to the bottom for the list).

A rowing crew of five people row on the ocean as the sun sets.

Fishermen cast off a cliff in Ka Lae, Hawaii, the southern-most tip of the USA.

Two lone trees in the distance of a grassy hill seared dry by intense sun.

A tropical forest densely populated with trees, plants and other vegetation.

A variety of flowers, trees and shrubs manage to blossom out of lava on the Kilauea Iki Trail, at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, island of Hawaii.

Here’s the short list of music I’ve been listening to this week. Next week it’ll be completely different. I think you can find everything mentioned on iTunes.

1. Timing is Everything – Garrett Hedlund (from the movie “Country Strong”)
2. Give in to Me – Garrett Hedlund and Leighton Meester (same as above)
3. Houses – Great Northern
4. November was White, December was Grey – Say Hi
5. Everyday – Carly Comando
6. Cheers (Drink to That) – Rihanna

Take a time out. Enjoy it.

Dean Oros attends a Capic seminar on fine-art print reproduction.

I recently had two clients contact the studio inquiring if we had images from their photo-sessions from over three years ago. Why? Because their hard drives had crashed. Between the two of them over 1000 digital images had been lost.

We offer redundant archiving of original and enhanced high-resolution images, so I was happily able to say “Yes, we have all your images”!

As we become more reliant on digital technology, the article I wrote is more relevant than it was a couple of years ago. I’m re-posting it here:

The Beauty of Images and Words on Paper

Paper! Beautiful, sustainable, inspirational, protective, tactile.These are words that may leave you scratching your head when thinking about paper. True, most of us don’t often think about paper. And when we do, it may be in a limited way:

“Hmm I’ve got to print that report.”

“Urrgh! The photocopier is out of paper again!”

“Don’t squeeze the Charmin.”

Digital, because of its immediate convenience, is becoming the medium of choice for the written word and to a lesser degree, the medium to display photography.

A hard drive / discs and computer screen is where many people choose to keep and display their letters & photos. Seriously, when was the last time you held a hard drive and said “Wow, what a beautiful hard drive. I love how it feels in my hands. The texture is just lovely. It smells wonderful and reminds me of my last hard drive.”

Dean Oros Photo + Design uses a wide range of fine art photographic papers.

Paper: Why Not?

Paper has been around for so long that it’s easy for us to take it for granted, and it’s often not used to its full potential. It is what we make of it.

Photography is my primary method of communicating. But because all of us use words to communicate, let’s take a look at both words and imagery. Unless this blog post has been printed on paper, you’re now in front of a computer screen. Right off the bat, you’re experiencing LESS. Not more. NOT EVEN ANYTHING REMOTELY EQUAL.

“Huh?”, you may be asking. Allow me to walk you through the subtleties you’re missing right now:

1. If you want to continue reading this, you’re locked into being in front of a computer screen. Or worse, you’re reading this on a tiny screen like your iPhone, iPod, Blackberry or some other small device. Can you say: “Where are my eye glasses?” The image included with this blog post is now so small it might as well be on a matchbook cover.

2. You’ve lost the feeling of touch. You aren’t holding paper in your hands while you read. You can’t feel the paper’s texture. When was the last time you received a handwritten letter penned on beautiful stationary and ran your fingers over the words? Images that have been meticiously and professionally created and colour-corrected now look like two-day old soup on an uncalibrated computer screen – which most people are using. You can’t run your fingers over the images and words on a computer screen unless you want to leave it full of fingerprints and smears, and probably create a mess of static electricity in the process.

3. You can’t inhale the scent of a computer screen. Now imagine that hand-written letter on beautiful paper from a loved one. You instantly know who wrote the letter because you recognize the writer’s penmanship. Perhaps whomever wrote to you left a trail of fragrance on the paper and envelope. It smells wonderful. Maybe they’ve included a printed photo that immediately evokes a memory. That letter now has even more meaning to you.

4. The letter and photograph you hold in your hand is permanent. The words and images are protected and archived. Digital images, emails, text messages, and online blog posts can only be saved to hard drives. And ALL hard drives eventually will crash and die. Say good bye to all those beautiful words and digital images. And remember, you need a computer to even access the information hard drives / CDs / DVDs contain. That handwritten letter and professionally-printed print can be stored and displayed anywhere. And the bonus is that they’re immediately accessible – you don’t need to install a hard drive or boot up a computer to see them.

As a photographer, I do my best to educate clients on the benefits of paper, especially newlyweds-to-be and families. Creating a heirloom in the form of a professionally designed fine-art wedding album and archival prints will increase in personal value the longer you keep them. When created by the photographer you’ve commissioned to photograph your special day or family portaits, the final product is created with lots of loving care (at least here). We want the images we created to look their absolute best and to tell your story.

I hope you found this article helpful. Please note that if you’d like to use any part of this article for your own website etc, you must ask us first. Please call or write for permission. Respect copyright. Thank you.

A section of the Frank Gehry Staircase, part of the architecture, of the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario), Toronto, Canada.
© Dean Oros Photo + Design

Part of what I find fascinating about abstract art is the motivation of the artist. The process and thought behind the art. It’s easy when visiting a large gallery such as the AGO or the National Gallery of Canada to want to see as much as possible during a visit, especially if you’re visiting from out of town. But I feel it’s not the ideal way. I could compare it to viewing a movie trailer – it’s a sneak peek and if it’s a good one, leaves you wanting more.

Yesterday I visited the AGO’s exhibit “The Passion of Kathleen Munn”. What I found breathtaking was her process. The “Passion” refers to her drawings of the death and resurrection of Christ – all 1000 of them! She sketched on transparent paper on top of a lightbox which her brother custom-built to her specifications. She layered these sheets of paper on top of one another as she de-constructed and re-constructed the human body from various angles. The drawings are fascinating to see. You can view “The Crucifixion” on the National Gallery of Canada website.

And though she did not consider herself religious, her near-obsessive devotion (these drawings were created over a ten year period) is incredible. Repeatedly she built the human body with cubes and rectangles from angles one does not typically view the body.

Though not religious, I read that she perhaps chose the subject matter because of its universality, and thought it would be a good vehicle to showcase her work. Her art was not appreciated by Toronto at the time. She completed the drawings in 1945, and never again publicly displayed her work.

“I am very hopeful that some day my art will be rediscovered,” she once wrote. If she only knew the impact her work had on me and the world today.

Art Gallery of Ontario. Left: Frank Gehry Staircase. Right: Galleria Italia. (© Dean Oros Photo + Design)

It was pouring rain and foggy this morning when I drove to the Art Gallery of Ontario to view the Abstract Expressionist New York exhibit.

Featured are artists from the Museum of Modern Art Collection: Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Jackson Pollack, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.

What did I think of it? In one word: Fantastic.

While there, I learned of Philip Guston. He was a Montreal-born painter and printer. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child. He was influential in Abstract Expression, and studied with Jackson Pollack under Frederick John de St. Vrain Schwankovsky.

I read a great quote by Guston:

“I should like to paint like a man who has never seen a painting”.

I often feel like that when it comes to photography. Imagine having a completely blank canvas in your mind when viewing and photographing the world, unencumbered by the influences of others or by circumstances.

That state of mind can never exist. But if it were possible, I imagine it might be beautiful and ethereal.

What struck me about these movies is how the subject matter, though similar, is told with individual vision. They’re very different films.

I’ve been invited to speak at the 2011-2012 Lecture Series at the Toronto Camera Club. Part of what I’ll be speaking about is vision. I think it can be a hot topic for some people. Story-tellers, whether writers, photographers, film makers etc., should have their own vision: their own way of viewing the world. Inspiration can come from anywhere, but I find particularly in photography, many of us don’t have vision. Following the latest trends or trying to copy another’s style is not vision.

Muhammad Ali said “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision”. Had another boxer attempted to copy Ali’s style he would most certainly been scoffed at and not taken seriously. You and I may have similar determination and dreams, but vision is individual. Discovering one’s vision is a personal journey.

Take family portraiture, for example. Google “family portraits” and you’ll find thousands of images that may be technically proficient, but they’re not consistently inspired. At the opposite end is a photographer like Annie Leibowitz, for example. I know I’m viewing an Annie Lebowitz before I confirm that she indeed created the image I’m viewing.

I understand that sometimes all a client wants is a straight-forward portrait combined with what a client wishes to invest money-wise in a portrait versus what they feel they can afford, or how they wish to be portrayed. Anybody with technical camera know-how and some people skills can create a competent portrait. But that’s typically not the vision I’m commissioned to do. Another example is Anne Geddes. She’s always had her own unique vision, and it’s incredible to me how many try to emulate her. When she felt she had said all she could through her art, she left photography for a couple of years, and then came back once she had found new inspiration to put into a new project.

Here are some favourite images from a recent lifestyle photo session. Either you love them or you don’t, I suppose. But they’re mine.

The broken ribs are in my lower back, which a doctor in the hospital’s emergency unit informed me is not a common break. Several tests were performed to ensure internal organs were okay. Aside from a small tear in my spleen I’m expected to have a complete recovery. It sounds worse than it is. I’m already feeling much better thanks to narcotics and lots of rest. It’s giving me a lot of time to spend in front of the computer working on pictures and other business-related things.

How to stop a sneeze. Need-to-know information for those with fractured ribs. It involves pressing a finger into the groove between the nose and the top lip of the mouth. It is an acupuncture pressure point. (Dean Oros Photo + Design)

I’ve been warned by several people about how painful coughing and sneezing would be. A couple of days after the accident I had to cough only slightly and it brought tears to my eyes. So I knew that a full-on sneeze would knock me off my feet and might even make me pass out. Ouch, I thought. I’m not looking forward to that.

A follow-up visit with my family physician brought about an anxious laugh when she went into detail about how to support my ribs with my hands and arms if I felt a sneeze or cough coming on to “avoid re-injuring yourself”.

Hmmm.

I’d heard of several ways to stop a sneeze, which never worked. You know, from sipping water when you feel a sneeze coming on, or sitting down and placing your head between your knees. I don’t know about you, but most of my sneezes are spontaneous and arrive without much warning. I like a good sneeze. They feel great. But not with broken ribs.

After some research, I discovered that sneezing expels air through the nose at approximately 100 mph. (That’s 320 km/h with the average force of a sneeze at 167 km/h.) It’s so powerful because it is a reflex response that involves the mucus muscles of the face, throat, and chest.

During my research I found a method to stop myself from sneezing! I’ve now stopped myself from sneezing four times. Simply press a finger into the groove immediately underneath your nose. I’m so excited and thankful to have discovered this that I wanted to share it. If you ever bruise or break your ribs, remember this tip and maybe you’ll save yourself from a painful sneeze.

It got me thinking of what we can do for ourselves to lead happy lives. The thing is we can’t control everything around us and how those outside forces may affect us, the decisions we make etc.

I then came across a couple of online articles and arguments about regret. People were arguing about the top five regrets one experiences on their deathbed. Everyone has an opinion. I thought about my approach to photographing people in any aspect of life, from family to people in business.

A recent family portrait I created. I bet when this photograph will be viewed years from now it will hold special value. It'll bring back memories of not just the photo-session, but of time, place and family.

After reflecting on what I’d read and my own life experiences, I’m offering up:

My Top 5 Things to Live By:

1. Have the courage to live a life true to yourself, not the life others expect.
If my dad, God rest his soul, had had his way, I’d be a life-long employee of the post office. He said it offered job security and a good pension. He emigrated from Greece with “$12 dollars in my pocket”, and I think he always wanted to be a postman. When I pursued anything else he never supported it. Be a postman or go bust!

2. Don’t work so hard.
I can hear it already. My friends and family telling me they never see me because I’m always working. They’re right. While I love photography and often don’t think of it as work, I haven’t been making enough time to enjoy other aspects of life. I’m working on more of a work / life balance (pun intended). I’ll get there.

3. Find the courage to express your feelings.
This ties in with number one. Learning to express your feelings isn’t easy for everyone, but it’s worth the effort. Do it in a healthy way. It’ll lead to more fulfilling connections with people and yep, even yourself. Facebook and Twitter do not count.

4. Be happy and then let yourself be happier.
Don’t pretend to be happy. Life is too short. Happiness doesn’t always just end up in your lap. It’s a choice. Fear of change and failure can lead to a life of mediocrity. Being mis-treated or losing your health can make you unhappy. But make a plan to be happy and pursue it. The expression “It’s not about the destination, but the journey” is true. You’ll find happiness along the way. Or, will happiness find you?

5. Be kind to others.
It’s not just about you. It’s a big small world, and it’s getting more crowded. Be kind to others. Do something for others and not expect anything in return. It’s been said nothing is stronger than the heart of a volunteer. I think if we can be kind to others we’ll also learn to be kind to ourselves.

And if I were to include a 6th thing: Have me photograph you. Okay, I’m half-kidding (but it’ll be fun).

The Toronto (Canada) book launch of Cancer Connections: Images of Hope and Courage from Across Canada, took place the evening of April 12, 2011 at the First Canadian Place Gallery. Cancer Connections, spearheaded by PhotoSensitive, featured partners in the project: Canadian Cancer Society, John Wiley and Sons Ltd., JPMorgan Chase as well as contributing photographers and cancer survivors. The 192 page book features 1000 photographs and the written words of Canadians touched by cancer. Rick Perciante, National Vice President, External Engagement, Canadian Cancer Society (above right) speaks during the event. Photo: © Dean Oros

Last night’s book launch of Cancer Connections: Images of hope and courage from across Canada, was a success. The First Canadian Place Gallery was over-flowing with people who attended the event. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the close of the nationwide exhibit, which criss-crossed the country over two years. The images, words, and the project itself, now takes on a new life forever documented in its book form. It’ll always be a source of hope and courage for those touched by cancer.

As a contributing photographer to the exhibition and book, it was lovely to speak with partners in the project, as well as fellow photographers and cancer survivors. Such stories of bravery, compassion, and love. My father passed away from cancer before I became involved with Cancer Connections. The thought of photographing him during his last days entered my mind for only a fleeting moment. There was simply no way I wanted to document him during his last days. Some of the portraits in Cancer Connections portray those who didn’t survive the disease. That in itself is a testament to the human spirit.

The book is gorgeous. As much as I love my Kindle, this book must be owned in it’s original 11 x 11″ hard-cover version. It would never work as an e-book unless manufacturers eventually make a large format e-book reader (Apple’s iPad doesn’t make it as large format in my opinion). Perhaps if the book were to be offered as an online multimedia version for viewing on the web, viewers with large monitors could feel the book’s impact.