impressionist photography
“Light makes photography. Embrace light, Admire it. Love it. but above all, know light.”
I chase light like others chase fame, or power, or money. Me, just give me my camera, shafts of light and a natural setting - and I am happy. Knee deep in the water, or laying on the ground, the world becomes limited and limitless at the same time.
Here, I chased the colors of the wind and the water in a lily pond. Colors... water ...hmmm....water ... colors. Water Colors!! An idea is born :)
The first sketches - "Water Colors" photo collage by Amy Kanka Valadarsky
“Listen to your intuition. It will tell you everything you need to know.”
Funny how images are born. I started experimenting with Cyanotypes, and was looking at images I shot in the last few month in order to find one I can play with. One image in particular looked like a good candidate, and as usual, this was an image that at the time, I did not even mark as one worth earmarking for future use. Once changed to black and white this image started whispering, obviously wanting to tell me something.
A few minutes and a few more adjustments later the whisper turned to a clear statement: "I belong to Misthaven" (The photography portfolio I thought I finished months ago ...). Can I not listen to this voice? Of course not, hence Misthaven 28 joined its friends. See top 20 images from Misthaven portfolio here
“Very often I try to find something that matches a feeling I have. On the other hand, a lot of times I photograph with nothing specific in mind. I just play it as it comes. If it’s good, fine. I find ‘letting it happen’ relaxing, a playful vacation. Stimulating pictures almost always result.”
Playing with the camera. I do not want to capture the magnificence of the beach. It's the ripples of light, the salty air, the sound of the waves, the continuous movement that I am after.
Hundreds of images of the beach, and I am still looking for the right way to photograph it. Ironically, it is when I am starting to play and let it happen that some of the barriers break down.
Movement and light
Moving, standing still
Wings and waves
“The forest is essential, the trees incidental”
I love trying new things, experimenting with what the camera can do. But every few months, I find myself returning to the initial love - Impressionism. I love how it captures the essence of things. The forest rather than the trees.
New ideas are born. Would I dare to print and hand-paint these? Something to explore now that I start making friends with my printer....
Golden grasses by Amy Kanka Valadarsky
Two women by Amy Kanka Valadarsky
“For otherwise he would have lost faith in his power to fly, and
the moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”
Experimenting today with zone plate photography. No lenses. Ironic when sooo much money went into these fabulous lenses sitting on my shelf. But today, all I took with me to the ebach was the zone plate. Trying to figure out how the world looks via its concentric circles.
....and I love it. Looking at this set of 3 images, it brought back memories of my first photography project, and farther away memories of me as a little girl reading 'Peter Pan in Kensington gardens'. The baby Peter Pan who could fly, since he never doubted that he could. And ceased flying when he started to ask himself whether he will be able to do so without wings.
Looking at the images of the little girl 'flying' bring an unexpected wish. I wish I would not doubt whether I can fly, I wish I would just fly.
3 hours on the beach. Soaked shoes and socks getting dry now in the sun. 3 images capturing one magnificent moment. I am flying !!!!!!!
Flying by Amy Kanka Valadarsky
The girl who doesn't doubt she can fly
“Photography, as we all know, is not real at all. It is an illusion of reality with which we create our own private world.”
I know the beach at Netanya for more than 40 years.
That's where I spent time as a young girl.
Where I studied for high school exams.
Where I had my first kiss....
It's the view my dad saw from his apartments' window until his last days. The building is still here. His body is not, but for me his spirit still looks at me when I am on this beach.
Now, before leaving, I went to say goodbye to the beach. With the camera. Trying to capture the present and the past. And who knows, I might have captured a glimpse of the future as well.
Self portrait, Netanya beach June 2015
Girls at play, Netanya beach June 2015
Who's this girl? Netanya beach, 2015
“...and hope, if it had a scent, would smell like spring, like rain, like something new and alive.”
April 4th. My 51 birthday.
Closing another year, my best one yet. The year I found a new path to me. Through the lens.
The best place to photograph today, in our garden. With the scent of childhood lilacs in my mind, I photograph the Wisteria and Brunflesia - both filling the air with their sweet fragrance. And I can remember the lilacs (that will never grow in my too sunny, too hot garden) with longing, but also with a smile. As this is a good day. A day filled with hope and anticipation for the next year, and all the good things it will bring.
If hope has a scent, it would definitely smell like spring.
Memories of childhood lilacs by Amy Kanka Valadarsky
“I would like to paint the way a bird sings”
A few years ago, my husband and I visited Monet's house in Giverny, France. We toured the sun filled house, soaked in its colors and endless treasuries.
The house is surrounded by the gardens, Monet painted so beautifully. The lily pond with its bridge and surrounding trees, the water lilies. It was a magical day in a magical place.
I wish I could draw like he did, but we are not all that lucky. For me, it is the camera rather than the the brush. Light rather than paint.
But the love of gardens, is the same and so is the constant wish to capture the things the eye can not see: the song of birds, the scent of lemon trees in bloom.
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
It is hard to resist taking the camera on my morning walks nowadays. I think my dog does not appreciate it one bit. All this stopping and taking pictures instead of having a brisk walk ...
On the other hand, she surely enjoys the different routes we take. New fields, new scents for her, new colors for me.
Today we went across the fields to the school where my mom taught and my younger son studied. My granddaughter will go to kindergarten there next year. So many ties - to the past, the future but most of all, so much delight from the present moment.
Lisa, who I owe the pleasure of morning walks - By Amy Kanka Valadasrky
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.”
The box of colors sat on the very bottom of my bookcase for years, actually since I got it as a gift from my mother in law. A beautiful and pricey wooden box with charcoal and pastels from Faber-Castel. Me, using it? That's for people who can really draw. Sometimes in the future. Maybe.
Then I started a class in painting photos. And the last assignment was to play around with borders.
For the last days I've been playing around and enjoying myself learning new Photoshop options.
Last night, my husband reminded me of the color box. And today, when alone so no one can see me, went upstairs, pulled the box out and dared to give it a try.
So this is it. The first time I combined drawing and photography. The frame was drawn in pastel colors, photographed and combined with a fall color image I took earlier this year in Vermont.
Autumn - my very first painted pictures. Who knows where it will lead?
“In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.”
Pure morning light. Streaming between the leaves in my front yard.
Reminded me of my physics classes long ago. About light being both waves and particles.
The thing that enables us to see.
Rather than painting with light ( the actual meaning of photography ) this picture is about the unbelievable beauty of light itself.
Suspended in space, partly revealed, partly concealed. Radiating. Mysterious. Magical. Dancing between the leaves.
“The two most engaging powers of a photograph are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.”
The best thing photography did to me is gift me with a new pair of eyes. Or maybe there should be a 6th sense by the name of 'noticing' in addition to 'seeing'.
As Marcel Proust said "the only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes". So true.
My morning starts with the first cup of coffee in the garden. I love this time. Just me, the coffee, the birds and the wind. I sip the coffee and look at the garden. Today, I happened to look at the cup of coffee. And really notice what I see.
It's like having new eyes. Eyes that can REALLY see.
Have a wonderful morning, and fro time to time, glance at your cup of coffee, you may be surprised by what you see :)
....shifting a bit and changing the angle - another view.
“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”
It's not about THAT first time, although I remember it too ....:)
Today I created the 1st image I liked with my new set of Lensbaby. While I am sure that in a few months time I will look back at this and ask myself what on earth possessed me to post it, for today I will allow myself to really love that image.
I needed the discovery of beauty today. Yesterday I returned from a social project I am involved in, full of anger at the stupidity of some people and my helplessness to magically change the world for a child.
So yeah, today was a good day to experiment with the Lensbaby in the garden.
“While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.”
The belly dancer
We met a few month ago. I was looking for a model to photograph for a portrait project, she was looking to renew the photographs on her site.
The click was immediate. I danced for many years, somewhere on my to do list is learning belly dancing. For her, dancing is the way you learn to love your body. not the perfect one you do not have, but the one you do. The way to connect with your most inner self, to pray, to be happy.
We went to a sandy park, when the sun was just about to set. She with a few costumes, I with a few lenses.
She danced barefooted on the sand, I danced with the camera around her.
Is this her portrait? A portrait of my yet unfulfilled wishes? The essence of dance?
Or maybe all of these together.
““Don’t shoot what it looks like. Shoot what it feels like.” ”
The gift of rain
The Macro lens was reserved to photograph my jewelry art. Not only it allows me to take detailed pictures of the pieces, but it is also my quality control, as every tiny blemish will show.
Until now.
Back to Israel after a month away, when I left it was scorching summer. Now the air is cooler, and it already rained twice this week.
And my macro lens got another use. Shooting raindrops.
Not that it was such a success the first time I tries. Macro shooting and the wind are not good companions.
But I am stubborn (as my husband will readily agree...) and I kept trying until I was able to capture it. Not perfect yet, but already able to express what I saw.
The gift of rain. Nature's gift to us.
Enjoy.
One drop was caught on a spider web
...back to reflections. Light and a raindrop
“We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there. We have been conditioned to expect.... but, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs”
Reflections
Before you read on, take another look at the picture. what do you see?
Look again.
Do you see the seahorse?
I didn't until someone pointed it to me. And yet it is sooooo obvious. The first thing the eye notices when looking at this picture. The only bright thing in the dark.
So, how come I did not see it? Because I knew I photographed the reflection of the moonlight in the quiet lake. And 'knowing' this is the moonlight, I failed to SEE the seahorse.
To see what is there, not what we think is there. Aaron Siskind was so right saying we must relax our beliefs.
And I think this stands true for more than just the white seahorse.
A long way ahead of me, but the road, ah the road is fascinating.
““The less descriptive the photo, the more stimulating it is for the imagination. The less information, the more suggestion: the less prose, the more poetry.”!
”
Fall reflections in a stream
Can photography take us to magic places?
When I look at this picture the world quiets. There are no daily chores, no city noise, no emails to read. There is only the gurgling little stream beside our vacation cabin in the woods.
My husband and I on a dream come true vacation in Vermont.
Surrounded by forest. Immersed in colors.
Everything is breathtakingly beautiful whether rain, shine, morning or evening.
Even getting drenched on our hike down the mountain.
I take hundreds of pictures. Choosing only a few to print and display at home is an impossible mission.
You be the judge ....
“You don’t take a photograph. You ask quietly to borrow it.”
I fell in love....with reflections.
First came glimpses of tree branches in the rain puddles. I had the wrong lens with me and despite my best efforts, all I got were some blurry pictures of the ground.
Then came the reflection of the fall color trees in the quiet lake waters. Here I was a bit more prepared, had the right lens with but arrived at the wrong time of the day.
The next day, during a walk in the forest I saw the reflections in a gurgling stream. This time I was at the right time with the right lens. On my stomach on the narrow bridge, with the tripod in the shallow water, I started taking pictures.
...and yes, I returned to the lake when the sun showed reflections at their best.
Here are some of my favorite reflection photos. Nature art at its best.
Tree reflection in a forest stream
Fall colors reflected in a lake - Vermont
A small stream, just by our cabin. Spent at least an hour photographing the changing reflections
“There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.”
Under the Santa Monica Pier
The Santa Monica pier is one of the most well known and photographed places in the city.
The first time I saw it with a tourist's eye. I saw the colors, the restaurants, the too many tourist shops and attractions. I remained unimpressed.
My second trip to Santa Monica was for a few weeks, the beginning of a 3 years relocation period to this new and promising place. And between looking for apartments, furniture, and the rest of daily chores - I started going out with the camera. Walking on the beach towards the pier.
Sitting under it, with the sun on the horizon, looking at the waves crushing in - provided a whole new way of looking at the pier.
Feeling secure yet a bit dwarfed by the boards above and the giant pillars surrounding me, I kept looking at the waves through the lens. A struggle (or duet, I could not decide) of man made engineering and nature's force. The power of men ingenuity and the power of nature. The static and the dynamic.
Enclosed yet open.
Dark yet lighted by the setting sun.
Alone in a crowd of people enjoying the beach and people walking just above my head.
Under the pier - a different point of view.
Sunset as seen from under the pier.