[Ysengrain Wolf Participant Posts: 8]

New Article Announcements & Discussions

on: February 1, 2020 at 4:10 am

Hi,

For more than 40 years, I have been staying regularly in the region of Saint Guilhem le Désert.

The picture of the village, however beautiful it may be, is absolutely false in color.

I know ,better than well, the place where it was taken.

NEVER the sky, NEVER the ambient light were the ones shown here.

I am willing to be broad-minded, but I refuse to let the image of a region I love be distorted.

[Will Lee Participant Posts: 4]

Re: My Journey From Phase One To Fujifilm GFX 100

Reply #1 on: February 1, 2020 at 9:22 am

David,

Really good article, I enjoyed it very much.  I owned a Phase One IQ180 for several years. As a landscape photographer, I loved some aspects of it (the resolution and the color quality), I found other aspects burdensome (not weather-proof, weight, bulky/unwieldy, generally needed slow shutter speeds, and sometimes I couldn’t get the color right). I finally sold it at a huge financial loss due to depreciation and am now using full frame.  I’ve wondered if I would ever go back to medium format… I miss the quality but not the other negative aspects. Sounds like the Fuji might be a great solution.  So again, thank you for sharing your journey.

Will

[David Meaux Silver Member Posts: 2]

Re: My Journey From Phase One To Fujifilm GFX 100

Reply #2 on: February 1, 2020 at 2:50 pm

Hi Ysengrain Wolf,

Thank you for reading the article and taking the time to comment on my work. I appreciate your critique of my work and would like to note that all of my images are my artistic interpretation of what I see, and most are time blended images. While I do not make any claims that my images are documentary photographs, I only use images from the same photo session and do not composite skies or other elements from other places or sessions. The images I used for Saint Guilhem were all taken between 6:10 a.m. and 6:27 a.m. on September 16, 2018. The base image is from 6:23. The foreground has been lightened and the color balance shifted to cancel out the blue from the early morning. The sky is from a 2-second exposure taken at 6:22, and the saturation of the colors has been increased, maybe a bit more than Fujichrome Velvia film would have increased the colors. The light on the upper part of the mountains is also from the 6:22 image. The lights on the buildings are from 6:10, and the light streaks are from captures between 6:24 and 6:27. I also cloned-out several cars in the parking lot, and did several other adjustments for contrast and color.

So, yes, this is not an accurate representation of any one point in time. It is, however, the sky that was there that morning, just more accentuated. It is also my artistic interpretation of a blending of time (and therefore light) from about 40 or so minutes that morning. I would argue that it is no more a distortion of Saint Guilhem than Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings are of areas around Arles. I am in no way comparing the level of my work to Van Gogh but am merely comparing the difference between reality and the image in each case. I would also like to note that most of the people who visit my gallery are locals who very much love the region where they were born and raised and that the vast majority of those people compliment me on the work. Seeing the image of Saint Guilhem for what it is, almost all of the people who have bought prints of it are locals who appreciate it being captured in a way they have never seen before.

It is this different way of seeing things – a different perspective, a different emotional response/experience – that I try to bring to my images in order to push them toward being art. As others who use similar techniques have said, I use the digital tools that we have available today to communicate my artistic interpretation of the natural world in a way that enhances the subject, or as the locals here say, “sublimer les paysages,”  meaning, “to make landscapes sublime.”

[David Meaux Silver Member Posts: 2]

Re: My Journey From Phase One To Fujifilm GFX 100

Reply #3 on: February 1, 2020 at 3:02 pm

Hi Will,

Thank you for reading my article and for the compliments. The Fujifilm GFX system is great, but it has to be the right thing for you.  It’s worth considering if you’re in the market for a completely new system.

[Mike Nelson Pedde Participant Posts: 641]

Re: My Journey From Phase One To Fujifilm GFX 100

Reply #4 on: February 1, 2020 at 4:01 pm

David Meaux wrote:

Hi Ysengrain Wolf,

Thank you for reading the article and taking the time to comment on my work. I appreciate your critique of my work and would like to note that all of my images are my artistic interpretation of what I see, and most are time blended images. While I do not make any claims that my images are documentary photographs, I only use images from the same photo session and do not composite skies or other elements from other places or sessions. <snip>

Well said.

Mike.

_____
Mike Nelson Pedde
Victoria, BC
https://www.wolfnowl.com/

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