Laying Somewhere Between

KDOI | Art Talk and Projects

Welcome back to KDOI Podcasting where we create more than we consume, Hello I am Timothy Kimo Brien the head instigator here at KDOI. Today our project will be Black and White Photography and we titled this episode laying somewhere between. What does that actually mean, well for me B/W photography is multiple shades of grey and lies between color and the absence of color. I think there is something striking about B/W photography, maybe even a bit of a throw back to older days. It also causes the artist to be very creative in dealing with the limitations of the form. You still play with saturation and tone, but with 2 colors vs an infinite amount of colors that occur in the natural and the digital world. Even with the restriction of no color you have an infinite amount of variables in the grey spectrum.

Many of us have a cell phone or a digital camera handy, and we snap pictures, perhaps we use different filters and stickers to personalize these pictures, but there is an art form behind all of this and we should remember that the early pioneers of photography didn’t have it so easy. Bulky and heavy equipment, toxic and sensitive development process, lets not even get into the superstition behind photography that the Indigenous Peoples had that caused them to believe that we lost a bit of our soul if we are photographed. With all of the developments and evolutions of photography that we have today, the general principles still remain in photography as well as all visual art forms. Balance, composition, drama, action, lighting, saturation, tonal qualities these are still important in photography today. There is a definite difference between just snapping pictures and making a photograph that you want to give or hand on your walls. By all means use your cell phone or digital camera to learn the basics, but when you are ready to step up your game, by all means get ready to make art and not just memories.

We brought back my good friend and tattoo artist Ashly Hutchins to discuss B/W photography and how to set up a good shot for yourself.

I was inspired to do this project after I had 3 level cervical spine fusion surgery and was recovering in my mancave/studio/basement. A friend on Facebook sent around a 7 day B/W photography challenge and with not much to do and under some good pain medication I accepted the challenge. Since the birth of my daughters I have taken thousands of pictures, but I wanted to do something a little more professional looking. One of the rules was that there was to be no people in the pictures and there need not be an artistic statement of the picture. I played along and posted these 7 pictures that you see below.

How does Ashly play into this, well I met Ashly at college and she was a photography student and I was in theater. We became fast friends and she did some portraits of me for a project she was working on. were all in B/W. Currently she is a tattoo artist and if you listen in to the show we did on her last season you can get that back story. When I decided to do this project my thoughts immediately turned to her and I wanted to get her eye on these pictures and give us pointers on how to do this better.

To do this project bare minimum you will need :

Smart phone with a decent camera - if you already own no additional cost

App that can adjust photo : most phones have a built in app that can handle this there are other apps that are fairly inexpensive

Photo paper 50 sheets 7.50

Photo editing software - most laptops have simple editing software and there is free software out there

Objects to photograph : free if you already own them

Framing supplies buy a multi pack and save Michaels usually has them for under 50.00 depending on size

Time it takes

Depends the ones displayed took about 1 hour each to set up, edit and print

Bedroom - obviously not mine, but this is what mornings look like after the girls get up and run down for breakfast

Best Friend - here we have my work computer. This kept me in the loop and sane because I wasn't able to be in the office and I couldn't see my Soldiers face to face. I spent 8 hours a day peering into the abyss

Desk - My old desk from my bachelor studio apartment days came in handy here as a plant stand and general toss stuff on here till we can figure out a place to put it.

Entertainment - Vinyl yup jazz records is what kept me going at night when I couldn't sleep with the collar on

Garden of Eden - I built these garden boxes for the wife and she utilized them. I wanted to grab something from the outside world as I was restricted to staying inside and resting, lol yeah resting

Surgery Supplies - what everyone needs, a rubber chicken, gloves and a breath measurement contraption as well as a neck brace, maybe I should have left on the brace.

Tools of the trade - bag to carry stuff, my id card and my keyboard so I can type and not cry out in pain all the time due to my carpal tunnel. All this is necessary to get the job done

Thank you for listening to this episode of KDOI Podcasting where we create more than we consume. Reach out to us via email or twitter

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