Welcome to ZigZag Mountain Art!
I try to show the beauty of simple everyday things. Fruits, vegetables, flowers and plants are all seen every day and passed by without comment. Yet, the natural world we walk through contains wondrous things if only we would stop and look.
My goal is to show something very ordinary but in a way that allows us to appreciate how special that something really is. A beautiful sunset is worthy of recording and comment but why not a display of colorful carrots or apples? I need to show that the simple is far more complex and magnificent than a casual glance might imply.
As a photographer, I record what the camera sees, as an artist I try to show what I see. Making a good photograph requires dozens of choices: light, composition, time of day, choice of lens and other technical details. All of that requires skill, knowledge and a sense of what is trying to be achieved. But for me that is only the beginning, what the camera sees. I want to show what I see, and I use the photograph as blank media, like a painter uses canvas.
A painter starts with a blank canvas and adds elements until a vision is achieved. A photographer starts with everything in a scene and removes elements until a vision is achieved. I do both, starting with a scene and reducing it to the bare minimum required to show the meaning of what the camera sees. Then I adjust composition, make changes to color balance and tonality, add elements and textures until I can show what I saw. It may not be literal reality, but it is what I saw.
John Trax joined Pixels.com Licensing on January 8th, 2012.
