Blog #9 Passing Thoughts...

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Shannon Norman
5 years ago
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roughly every 15 days. Then again in my new artistic freedom life, (whatever that is!), schedules are not as important as producing art, and that I've been doing.

1 Blog #9 Passing Thoughts... Sunrise Maple" Hank Erdmann Newport State Park, Door County, Wisconsin To be honest, this blog entry is late, at least in the self-imposed structure of putting these writings out twice a month or roughly every 15 days. Then again in my new artistic freedom life, (whatever that is!), schedules are not as important as producing art, and that I've been doing. The images in this newsletter are all new ones from during, after or before recent classes or outings except for the final two. In thinking about where to proceed from the "Artist Within" series of blogs just concluded I frankly am struggling to decide on what subject to select from a number of good suggestions from you readers and a number of other sources. So in my far too common usual way, I'm putting off that decision to the next blog and will go off in a couple of different tangents because life as usual proves that putting off non-important, or maybe I should say less important things is ok, but then life's real important issues need to be addressed on a more timely basis. So here's an ode to a recently passed friend. In life you meet lots of people. Most meetings are just passing brushes with folks that come and go, most who are good folks, some who are bad to a few who are plain evil. For the most part, I ignore those bad ones as best one can. Occasionally though we meet people who greatly enrich our lives. Some do so over long periods of time and through long wonderful friendships. I cherish "Lily Pad Autumn" Hank Erdmann Kangaroo Lake Nature Conservancy, Door County, WI

2 such relationships, they make our lives full. Then there are a few in short bursts as they are in your life for a moment and folks who come and go quickly or gone the next but leave a lasting impression, good feelings and good memories. Some folks come in and out of your life on a periodic basis, leaving you with great feelings upon seeing them again, and thoughts of "see you again soon" when they leave. But it's when you realize that seeing them was a "last time" you realize how truly good that person was and the impression they left you with. Teaching classes in photography often gives the instructor as much or more than the instructor gives the student. That is especially true when one teaches for an institution for a long time and through that time realize wonderful relationships through that association. My recent fall week class at The Clearing in Door County, Wisconsin was a great anniversary, it was the 20th year I've taught a class there. It feels nothing like twenty years, neither does it feel like yesterday, but certainly not like twenty years. The mention of such a number does seem a long time. Maybe it's the connection of a happy long association with the knowledge and understanding that things change like it or not and the realization that a twenty year anniversary also means twenty more years of life and the fact that that puts one, at least this one, in the "second half" so to speak! So it was a week of some contemplation, and some quiet inner celebration, as well as the usual celebration that just being at the Clearing always is. My fall week at The Clearing is also special as for all but two of my twenty weeks have been opposite a wonderful teacher, and a great artist; Bridget Austin. I'm fortunate to have a number of folks who've become friends and have taken my classes at The Clearing numerous times (they are too kind!). Bridget also has a great group of dedicated artists who come every year to her class and through my luck of teaching opposite her have become friends of mine as well. It is always so great to see these folks, say hi and catch up on the past year. Clearing Classes, Painters and Photographers Share a Campfire Around a Council Ring Hank Erdmann, The Clearing Grounds, Door County, Wisconsin

3 On receiving the combined class lists for the week I was happy to see the name of one such person that had bravely battled cancer the past few years. Upon seeing her again this year at the start of the week was encouraging but the news from those in the know hinted that this would likely be her last week at The Clearing. During the week she painted beautifully showing the spirit not only of a good artist but a more so, showing the spirit of a wonderful and beautiful person. It was if she willed herself to get just one more week in with Bridget, her painting friends, and a week at The Clearing. That says much about the kind of place The Clearing is, but much, much more so about relationships, whether they be long term, short term or on occasion, and about how such relationships can help us through difficult or even end times. It also says much about the power of art to enrich our lives and sooth our souls. To be able to create art is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. I just got word that Kay Smith, a wonderful person and watercolorist had passed a week to the day after her week at The Clearing. Conversations around Clearing meals with Kay left you knowing you were with a kindred spirit. She cared about things we should all care about, things like art, like people, like fairness, like spirit. Kay, you will be missed, but your wonderful spirit will be in our paintings and photographs and you will forever be a part of my Clearing week. Finding The Artistic Mind Set... The wonderful place that the artistic life puts one in is most obvious at some "art event"; an exhibition opening, visiting an exhibition, an art league gathering, and especially in an art education session. I just love being around art, artists and art appreciators. I think much of that "place" is found in the process of human beings sharing; sharing art, sharing technique, sharing experience, sharing a love for the process of creating something that can lift another's spirit as well as our own. In that process we do more than share, we become equals in our endeavors, regardless of our actual skills or awards or fame, we become co-conspirators in creating. Having said that, the ironic thing is that art is most usually an individualistic process. We paint, photograph, draw, write, sculpt, etc by ourselves, whether that be in a setting alone or with other artists. Even an artistic collaboration is a collection or combination of individual artistic contributions. It is when we are alone, in the field, in the studio, or in our office where and when we do most of our creating. Creating with other artists and folks about creates a completely different dynamic. With others about we may feel some apprehension about those folks seeing our "pitiful" efforts (especially before we feel the work is complete). Any effort however is far from pitiful, all art is a process, each "completed" piece (or started piece for that matter) is a part of the ones that went before it and a part of those that will follow. However the best thing about creating and learning in a group environment is that we become motivated, we become excited about making art, we are "juiced on" by those around us. The group dynamic makes it much easier to get beyond... "STARTING". Another reason for this blog issue being a "tad behind the intended issue date" or if you wish; late!... is just this issue of starting. Sitting down at the computer and starting the blog, at a point when I'm not even sure of what I want to "blog" about in next issue is never easy for me, or for many writers, just as that first brush stroke is difficult for many painters, or as the first momentum of any endeavor. Great, or at least prolific writers all talk about how they get up the same time every day, go right to their office/writing place, and begin writing. They may write anything, even something unassociated with their current project, just to get the "start" out of the way and the process of creating started. They treat the creative process as a job, as when you go to you job, you must start the job right away or you would get fired and not get paid... which makes starting easier, even if it is less a creative mindset. For the photographer, walking into the studio, moving lights about and gathering gear for the coming project or shot creates some of that "starting mentality". For the Nature Photographer, getting in the car and traveling to a site, throwing on the pack and walking in to the site usually does the same. For me I normally get a feeling that

4 comes over me of well being and just plain gratefulness of "being out there". Being "out there", experiencing nature, appreciating nature, and being able to share that experience through artistic expression is usually reward enough, and enough motivation to search for images and once found, to create art. But not always! The Step Back... "Milkweed and Grass Seed Head" Hank Erdman Ryerson Woods Conservation Area, Lake County, Illinois There are those days, usually days when the mind is on other issues and needs, other work, all the paperwork, the needed website updating, the correspondence not completed, the queries to magazines, galleries, exhibitions, etc not created and not sent, the rest of the "stuff" not done or even started, that forces a mind set where walking into the forest, into the prairie or along the shore doesn't produce the grateful attitude conducive to creating. Mother Nature, I publicly apologize as you are always a wonderment even when this unworthy humanoid occasionally doesn't appreciate you! There are those days where whatever mindset you posses that day, just won't let you into "creative mode", and rarely thankfully, on such a day I give up and leave without making a single image. Those days happen to everyone. I even consider the ability to realize the fact that that on a given day a part of the creative process may be to just attend to those noncreative things and get them out of the way. It will be smarter and less frustrating to do so, and you won't likely be any where near as creative if you blindly try to force creativity. Fortunately for me those kind of days are very rare once I do reach the field. What do you do though when you are in the field and creativity and compositions won't come? I use what I call the "step back". Over the 30 plus years I've been making images of nature's beauty, I've learned to pay great attention to what I see, or more accurately "what I look at". Having trained my eyes and brain through years of experience, I know that when I stop glancing about and actually look at a scene or subject, there is a reason and interest behind a glance turning to studied looking. When the glancing about isn't producing "studied looking" I slow down, walk in more widely wandering patterns, and walk off trail when it is allowed. I try to consciously clear my mind of worries, and concerns and think about what I'm seeing, the nature of the place, the peace of a place, and even the history of a place. Knowing a bit of the history of a site can be very helpful in creating art there. A little homework, even just some general knowledge of a site will pay dividends. Let's create a typical compositional roadblock. I'm walking along a trail in the forest in the fall and I notice some patches of color in the trees ahead on the trail. I've stopped walking and am looking at the color, studying the scene and searching for a composition, for an image to make. I take out my framing square. A framing square is a cardboard (or other material) rectangle with a hole cut into its center with the same size ratio (height to width) of your sensor or film. By looking through the opening and moving it away from me I approximate seeing with a long focal length (telephoto) or by moving it close to my eyes I approximate looking with a wide angle focal length. This usually brings a composition into my mind which I then approximate what focal length to use, and where to set the camera. Then I'll take out the camera, put on the selected lens and search the

scene/composition for what I can actually compose. At this point I usually have not one but a number of compositions in mind and will go about executing one or more images.

5 scene/composition for what I can actually compose. At this point I usually have not one but a number of compositions in mind and will go about executing one or more images. But what happens when even this produces nothing in my mind or through my eyes that I want to actually record? I could give up and just go home. If the light is unexciting, the subject matter too busy or unappealing, that might be good advice. But in this example I've seen something that should in my mind produce an image. My next step is to move closer, both physically and image wise. If I had a landscape in mind, I look at intimate landscape, and then at close-up and finally if need be at true macro. There's always something tiny of interest, right? Ok, so I do that and still I don't have an image in my mind. Alternately let's say I do come up with an image and I can't find a way to execute what I'm pre-visualizing. I've set up images only to work at them and say to myself; "$#@%&, I can't make this image". Fortunately I get a bit mad at myself when I say "I can't". My solution in cases where I can't find an image or I can't find a way to execute what I'm seeing in my mind's eye, is the "Step Back". When I encounter a problem in making images, I'm physically working with the camera, standing behind the tripod within close proximity of my gear. I may have my camera pack close by or not, but even going back and forth between camera set up and camera bag, I am physically connected with the process and tools of making the image I am so frustratingly trying to make. Frustration and the anger it can create is definitely not conducive to creativity. "Morgan Falls Swirl" Hank Erdmann, Morgan Falls, Chequamegon National Forest, Ashland County, WI. (Ask Will Clay about a windy, make that "typhoonish" winter day I had on the Lake Superior shore!) Since there is such a physical connection to the gear and the process of trying to make a problem image or with finding a composition that won't appear, I break that physical connection. I physically step back and away from the camera, from the problem image, and away from the scene at hand. I break the connectivity of the problem, the source of my frustration, and quell the feelings of anger and angst that making art is supposed to help rid our lives of in the first place. That physical separation is a key, a trigger that breaks the train of study and of the effort, but also allows me to refocus and reconsider on what I'm trying to accomplish. And I do mean a sizable physical separation of space from my gear. I look for a log, a boulder, anything that's 10, 15, 20 feet away to go and sit on, Even the ground will do, but it must be far enough to create the physical separation between me and my gear and/or the image or scene at hand. If there is no place to sit, I'll just back way up, and stand, still, looking at the scene. In the case of not finding an image, with the break, I can reassess the scene. I will ask myself questions like; is there something I missed that may work, is the scene better from another angle, and the key question, the key issue, what just was it anyway that first grabbed my eye. Re-identify or verbalize what that singular element is and ask yourself is that

6 thing identified the same as what I've been searching for or working on. I the will re-walk the area, slowly reviewing the scene from a number of angles, working slowly, methodically which is a very soothing process, and looking for the image I haven't found. This may take a few some time, it may be just five minutes or maybe fifteen, even twenty minutes. At the end of this process if I still haven't found an image, I find that I've satisfied myself that I put forward the effort required, that I tried my best, and that sometimes the real beauty of nature is it's sometimes randomness, it's inherent beauty and importance versus its occasional obvious scenic beauty. I have found that Mother Nature rewards such work ethic and for every outing I spent searching for something that might not have been evident of that day, I am greatly rewarded at some point in the future with scenic beauty that takes my breath away. That is import to remember and another great reason for just "being out there". In the case of the problem image, the step back is even more important. Since I began employing this tactic, I have never left a scene without an image! It may not, is often not, the image I may have first envisioned or desired. It may be slightly different or it may vastly different or entirely a different image altogether and occasionally a better image than first envisioned. But I come away with an image, a frustration crushing and soul benefiting accomplishment great or small. Occasionally I am rewarded with the greatest accomplishment of all, the realization of the initial image pre-visualized, executed to near as perfect as an artwork can be. I'll site one example here. I held a class field session at Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve in Hinsdale, Illinois and after class ended near the spillway, I started looking around with the intent of making some images myself. I spied a small sub-branch of bright yellow autumn Cottonwood leaves caught behind some small boulders below the spillway falls on Salt Creek. Noticing that the section was entirely in the shade and that the water had a wonderful cool blue cast, that water would make a wonderful cool / warm contrast with the bright yellow leaves. This was not a problem composition at all, the image was immediately obvious in my mind's eye, I visualized the cool blue water flowing ethereally around the rocks and the leaves. The fact that the leaves themselves were dancing in the moving water was not initially apparent as my mind concentrated on the image as I imagined it. There was a distance of a couple feet from the leaves to the falling water of the spillway and I instantly realized that the brightness and visual power of those very yellow leaves would be very effective in a minimal subject size treatment with the contrast of the cool toned moving water. It also was immediately apparent that the water would have to be silky or flowing and would need a one or two second exposure to lose detail in the water that would take interest away from the yellow leaves in their small size within the image. I still hadn't considered the problem of the leaves dancing in the water. I set up the image, estimated the aperture needed for the image, and added a 2 stop ND filter to get the slow shutter speed I wanted to make the water silky. Then I started exposing some frames until I noticed that my slow shutter speed wasn't compatible with those leaves wobbling in the water. Instantly I knew I now had a problem as the leaves in their small size, not only needed prominent placement in the frame to gain the visual importance needed, they needed to be SHARP. At one or two seconds, they weren't sharp, they weren't impressionistic, they were soft mush and the image didn't work that way. So I started "Cave Point Autumn Shore" Hank Erdmann Cave Point County Park, Door County, Wisconsin.

speeding up the shutter speed and made a few exposures until I realized that at a 30th or 60th of a second, the leaves were sharp but the water now had way too much detail and again the image

7 speeding up the shutter speed and made a few exposures until I realized that at a 30th or 60th of a second, the leaves were sharp but the water now had way too much detail and again the image wouldn't work this way. Consternation, anger, frustration set in quite quickly when I realized that my masterful image, wasn't masterful and wasn't possible as I envisioned it. Fortunately my "I can't" defiance set in almost as quickly and I climbed out of the uncomfortable spot in the rocks along the stream required by the image and walked over to another set of boulders and sat down. I thought first about the concept, yes the concept was good, it was what I wanted, it would work and work well. So how do I execute my vision on film. (This image was from film days) So I sat on that rock and from about 10 feet away I stared at those dancing yellow Cottonwood leaves. And within a minute, something magical happened, they stood still! They were still for just a fraction of a second, but they stood still. That grabbed my attention. I watched some more. Then I watched with my watch in front of my face. Sometimes they stood still for less that a second, but over the next five or ten minutes I had a few instances when they stood perfectly still for a second or two. I had my solution. My solution was patience, lots of it and lots of frames of film. Back at the camera, I stared down my dancing leaves and every time they stopped dancing I hit the cable release. And even with the leavings starting to dance again during the vast majority of exposures, frustration was now replaced by resolve and determination. Two and a half 36 exposure rolls of film later, I was pretty sure I had at least a couple frames that would be what I wanted (oh for a digital camera then!). Next blog: History matters, a glimpse into the masters of our art and how they brought us to where we are now. Allbest, Hank "Cottonwood Falls" Hank Erdmann Fullersburg Woods Forest Preserve, DuPage County, Illinois. Hank Erdmann Photography 903 Windsor Drive, Shorewood, Illinois (Preferred Contact) ~ Cell hankphoto@sbcglobal.net Web:

"Peninsula Snow Sculpture" Hank Erdmann Peninsula State Park, Door County, Wisconsin

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