Questing for Beauty

Posted on February 1, 2016 by garbergeektography

High Key Light. The tiny heart-shaped hole, intricate veins, and beautiful color captured my eye on a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Print available.

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”

My photography mentor, Shari Miller, shared this quote by Henry Miller yesterday.

In case you are wondering why I have a photography mentor, I have spent the last few months giving careful attention to the incredible and mysterious world of photography through The Arcanum: The Magical Academy of Artistic Mastery. The best way to describe the Arcanum is a fun cross between Hogwarts, a MMORPG, and an online course—all geared towards improving your own photography through peer and mentor feedback, access to tutorials and videos, and the discipline of committing to quests … I mean challenges. I have just completed Sphere 0 and after 10 levels, I have a few thoughts on the whole Arcanum experience.

Henry Miller’s quote would be a perfect motto for our cohort in the Arcanum. Shari has named us “The Cohort of Seers–seeing more of the beauty in the world, in others, and within ourselves.” And with her guidance, my peers and I are embracing a joyful experience of exploration and encouragement. We’ve been having a great time discussing intention, experimentation, color, texture, and having fun with photography. I have taken the opportunity and the space to push myself to try new things, think about my goals and the story I am trying to tell, and learn to find my voice and style. Our cohort is not afraid to experiment or discuss the philosophy behind and in our art. Shari has been a great leader in helping us to ask questions and think about emotion, mood–and borders.

Through the Looking Glass. While on the driftwood beach at Jekyll Island, Shari’s words about borders and experimenting with mood and texture guided me to compose this other-worldly image. Print available.

While my experiences have certainly helped me improve my technique, both in composition and in processing, the most important areas of growth have been in the discipline of photography and the reflection on the images. For me, taking the time and patience to commit to improving and reflecting on my art has been enormous. I am somewhat competitive, and I love games and puzzles, so the structure of “challenges” is perfect for me! In meeting each challenge, I allow myself the time and focus to give care, attention, and space for growing my artistic voice. In a world filled with busy-ness and need, it has been helpful to allow myself this time and place for focusing on something that brings me joy and allows me to exercise my creativity.

Grounded in Solitude. I’m not usually drawn to landscape shots, but mindful of my tendency towards busy-ness, I found peace in focusing on this quiet scene. Print Available.

The discipline of photography has provided the foundation, but much of my growth has also come through the reflective piece that Shari and my cohort provide. While we do talk about gear, and theory, and software, and technique, we also talk about emotion, mood, memory, story, beauty, inspiration, gratitude, perspective, and philosophy. My cohort is composed of people from around the world with different ideas, interests, and styles. Hearing their viewpoints and seeing their images and the stories behind their images, provides both inspiration and instruction.

As I begin Sphere 1, the next level in the Arcanum journey, I journey with a sense of gratitude for the space, people, and time to focus on seeing and creating beauty. This journey brings balance and light and reminds me of who I want to be.

Starry Nights. The swirls and patterns in the driftwood reminded me of van Gogh’s painting. This was such a joy to process and I experimented with several new techniques, layers, and colors before finally settling on this version. Print available.

Poisonous Perspectives

Posted on August 20, 2014 by garbergeektography

It’s time to put the “geek” into “Garber Geektography” with a look back at one of my first photo assignments on “perspectives” in The Arcanum. Karen Hutton presented us with a pretty basic, but eye-opening challenge to produce three images of three different subjects from three different vantage points. She wanted one shot from below, one shot from above, and one from a straight perspective. So what’s a geek to do when presented with such a challenge? Go grab Michelle’s Poison Ivy figurine for a date at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, of course (the date was with Michelle, not Poison Ivy … ’cause that would be weird).

Poison Ivy from the low angle.

I really did not know how tricky this was going to be when I started, given the size of the small bust designed by comic book artist Amanda Conner. I wanted to place Ivy in her natural habitat and sought out flora that complimented the color scheme. This meant lying down on the sidewalk along the gardens, figuring out the best light and angle, while also trying to find a slight slope to get the “from below” angle. This proved the most elusive perspective, given the fact that Ivy is looking up while I wanted to focus on the eyes. I also had limited myself to using the 35mm prime lens that I had at the time, which meant that in addition to lying on the ground, I had to get pretty close. I wasn’t as happy with this image, because the angle didn’t feature the eyes or face as well as it should. I do like, however, how the lines of the background landscape look from this angle, something that would later influence my landscape photography. I probably also looked more than a bit strange as I was arranging the dead roots to camouflage her base. I think at one point, a mother came by as I was lying on the ground and said to her daughters, “Awww, look, he’s taking pictures of a fairy.” I don’t think Pamela Isley would like that one bit. Continue reading →

Launching …

Posted on August 18, 2014 by garbergeektography

Fourth of July, 2014 in Farragut, TN

Michelle and I have been tooling around with “Garber Geektography” for a while now. In fact, it has been about two years since I bought my first “real” interchangeable lens camera, and the past two years have been the most creative of my life. So we are starting this blog to share our photographic musings with the world. It has been a whirlwind summer for me, and I have quite a bit to share–from my trip with 13 students and 1 colleague to India, to our vacation to visit our good friends (Doug and Lindsay) in Alaska, to my rather eventful journey to Israel in the beginning days of the most recent Middle East conflict. So, I will be sharing some thoughts about each of those trips in future posts. This blog, however, is meant to be a more “fun” outlet for our creativity. While I will obviously touch on my vocation as a theology professor in various posts, we want this blog to be much more about our general life experiences and creative processes in the nexus between photographic images and geeky adventures (hence our tagline, “Adventures in Imagery”).

Continue reading →