Creating art with your camera

They experimented a lot and in doing so they became quite skilled photographers. Some of those early images of their models are sought after today because even though they are black and white or sepia, they capture a moment in time that will never be seen again. They also demonstrate the skill of the photographer. This week one of my photographs was accepted for the Sandwell Arts trail. The works of art will tour the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell going from art gallery to museums and to the Art cafe. This was my attempt at creating art with my camera

Creating Art

You can go about creating art using any camera and any lens but you want something different and so a DSLR gives you the definition to create something beautiful. You might decide on something quite dark and soulful that would still elicit an emotional response from the viewer. That emotional response is part of the definition of what art actually is. If there is no response or very little response then there is no point in displaying the work. The other criteria that separates simple photography from art is the skill involved. Snapshots aren’t art but if you use considerable skill to produce an image and that image produces a response then it can be considered art. Even a wedding photograph might become part of an exhibition and people will view the images and be moved by them.

Bluebells

This picture of bluebells is another in the series of images I created for the art competition. I used a 55-300 mm lens and zoomed in with a wide aperture (wide open) and that gave me a nice bokeh. I arranged the flowers a little to get the white bluebells contrasting against the usual blue ones. I don’t have a macro lens so a normal 55-300 was used. I didn’t attempt to get every flower in focus. I wanted the finished image to be slightly impressionist but also have at least one flower in sharp focus.

Experimenting

Creating art is about experimenting and with photography you can experiment when you’re taking the shot and experiment even more when you’re editing. For the image I entered for the art competition “Bluebells in the Hedgerow”, I’ve added text and matched the colour of the text to the colour of the bluebells.

My next project

Before you start, you must have some idea of what you’re trying to create. My next project will be photographs of people. I want to use a long lens again and I’ve already took some photos with quite good results. I now want to do an art project looking for specific things. I’ve also took some long lens photos of parts of things, such as a guitar while it’s being played. This is where my imagination is taking me. Who will I photograph? Well, some people are photogenic and some people aren’t. I want to take candid shots of the ones who are photogenic. I don’t mean the beautiful people. I mean the people with interesting faces. I want to shoot from quite far away and capture their expression when they are in a relaxed state of mind or even annoyed! If you have a camera, why not try creating art with your camera? You could even try it with a smart phone camera.