Cindy Wilson Photography

There's no Place like Home

2011-12-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

After exploratory trips to Hungary and Ireland this fall, experiencing the excitement of new lands and cultures, planning the details of both travel photography workshops (www.profundojourneys.com) there is no place like home.

I have turned my camera to our local landscape, which has been the beneficiary of mild weather and beautiful light this fall. So often I take for granted the beauty in the familiar; we who live in Southern RI have incredible riches within a moment's travel. I have many opportunities to be out with my camera, but it is always the early morning and late afternoon that resonate.

One of my favorites has always been morning fog, but I also am captivated the painterly qualities of late afternoon light and by reflection on the surface of water.

There is no feeling like being an audience to the splendorof light in nature. It is all around me here in Rhode Island. Each day has something unique; often the best images come after I turn away from a sceneand look back one last time, with a fresh eye.

New opportunites and discovery

2011-09-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

I am getting ready for our 2^nd Profundo Journeys Autumn Light photography workshop & retreat, this year in Jefferson NH. I am very excited about the photo prospects of spending five days immersed in what promises to be a glorious fall display. Together with six students, Eileen Muldoon and I head to the White Mountains to explore landscape light and form in this natural and pristine pristine setting.

One of my personal assignments for the workshop is to talk about form in photography. Form is an aspect of image making I have becoming more conscious of, but has always been intuitively in my work. So, to speak about it as an educator has me thinking about it as subject.

Coincidentally enough, my work has been moving in this direction. As I survey the recent images that have the most impact, they are all about form. Some of these images are also represented in the Member's Invitational show at the South County Art Association. Thursday, September 29 through October 22, 2011.

In the fall of 2012, Profundo Journeys heads to Ireland. Since Eileen and I are not only instructors, but also tour advisors, it was necessary to make a trip to plan the trip. Thus, the second week of September found us in Ireland on a whirlwind tour of possible sites for photographing, lodging and experiencing the culture of the Irish. With all of our research in hand, we are now in the process of planning the itinerary for this two week photography workshop.

In November, we travel to Hungary, Slovenia and Austria for the same planning. This upcoming workshop is April 27-May 10 2012. We are extremely fortunate to have but one seat left for this journey to a mysterious, profound part of the world. Look for images to follow on our website at www.profundojourneys.com.

Recently, I have had the opportunity to not only engage with students in private lessons, but also have been offered the opportunity to teach at the South County Art Association. This class in Basic Digital Photography begins October 6 and runs for 6 weeks. Please contact the SCAA at 401-783-2195 for further information. The class will include instruction about camera settings, exposure and composition. We will also be photographing in the field for one class, to put all those new concepts into practice.

With 22 years of exhibiting artist membership, I have been honored as the Wickford Art Association artist of the month for October. I have been a member of Wickford for 22 years, have exhibited in the Wickford Art Festival for 18 years and am a past President and board member. Gallery director Sarah Tallerico conducted a skillful interview that will be on the Art Association web site in October http://www.wickfordart.org.

Finally, a family photo that is dear to my heart. Here is Ram Band sophomore son/Uncle Jack with his first niece Emily after the URI football game Saturday September 24^th. What incredible good fortune we have in life!

Summer Magic

2011-08-23T12:13:00.000-07:00

Summer has always been an incredibly busy time for me professionally. In addition to the weddings, portraits, boat photographs; I also try to keep my personal work alive. My revised website www.cindywilsonphoto.com highlights all of my endeavors.

Our family is blessed with the birth of Emily Lourdes Wilson. She has become a favorite subject as I follow her growth in photographs. I enjoy most the intimacy of available light in our weekly portrait sessions.

Family and senior portraiture has become a mainstay of my summer photographic activity. I allow more light, spontaneity and compositional awareness than ever before in my family portraits. This most definitely parallels the growth I am experiencing in my personal work.

What better way to prepare for the wedding of a daughter than by having 20 years of professional wedding experience? Kate and Ben were married on July 22 and together with my friend and colleague Matt Ellsworth (www.ellsworthphotography.com) we captured the day in over 1500 images!

This year, my artwork has been a priority, and I can feel my work change as my awareness intensifies. The lessons learned in the Death Valley Contemplative Landscape workshop with George de Wolf February 2011, are truly making an impact, now 6 months later. I find myself drawn to form and light as never before; I feel in my landscapes the same intimacy as in my closer more abstracted work. It is exciting again to be photographing especially by the water. The infinite changes and reflections of the surface give rise to the magic of seeing old friends in new light.

Finally, the summer has been filled with the planning of our regional and international travel workshops. Eileen Muldoon (http://www.imageloftphoto.com) and I, partners in Profundo Journeys Photography Workshops, have been alternatively working on itineraries for Hungary and Austria in April/May 2012, and Ireland in September of 2012. In October, we travel to Jefferson, NH for five days to experience the joys of Autumn Light in New Hampshire. This area, once a highly recognized summer resort in the White Mountains is home to waterfalls, mountain trails, traditional dairy farms. Add the vibrancy of New England foliage to the mix, and it is a photographer’s paradise. Eileen and I have space for eight students in this workshop, and it promises to be an incredible opportunity to grow artistically with fellow photographers.We have posted information on these trips on our website: www.profundojourneys.com.

It is my good fortune to be living three passions rolled into one path; the research and travel aspect of the workshops, the teaching and sharing of knowledge, and in following my true path to photograph in new and intriguing locations.

2011-07-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend I will be participating in my 18^th Wickford Art festival. My booth is right in front of the former Wilson Scott Galleries at 14 Main Street, #235. The cover of the festival brochure is “Channel Fog”, one of my most favorite pieces.

Optimism for the show is high. I look forward talking about photography, travel and personal vision as well as publicizing the upcoming Profundo Journeys photography workshops to New Hampshire and Hungary.

What generates the excitement this year? I will be showing work that is going in a direction I have been moving towards for a few years now as if by osmosis.

The study of light is still important as if a distant shoreline, but now the flow of my photography has been to look closer and closer. I am all about being more aware of the renewed world around me as if another door has opened.

What are the characteristics of this newness? Light , water, form and stillness; there is an intuitiveness whose deep connection results in clicking the shutter; the world is mirror that reflects the stillness in my soul. This makes it self more apparent everyday and it is very exciting to be standing by the water practicing eternity. A couple of examples are posted here; “Red Pelican Reflection” and “Coot”. Come by for a visit. Saturday & Sunday July 9 & 10.

Comfort Zone

2011-06-08T06:27:00.000-07:00

For the upcoming Art League of Rhode Island show (Portsmouth Arts Guild July 14-August 14, 2011) “Comfort Zone” I have decided to go to my comfort zone; which is the study of light and stillness in the landscape. These images are reverent, reflective and intuitive. They are about the contrast of the hand of man, serenity, and the power of nature.

Additionally, in preparation for the Wickford Art Festival (Wickford RI, July 9 & 10, 2011), there is always the temptation to show what has sold in the past. I love my treasure chest of proven sellers; lighthouses, sunsets and Block Island images. This year, I will display images to which there is the flow of vision through many years of photographing. On the surface, they have different subject matter, but they all spring from the same well.

Reflections of our Greece Photography Workshop May 2011

2011-05-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

What a profound journey! Fourteen days of photographic immersion. The journey was in finding the authenticity in one’s own vision.

We were seven students, two instructors, and one cultural advisor. Our journey took us from the city life in Athens to the traditional in Crete to picture perfect Santorini and back again. We experienced Greek hospitality from our urban dining experiences to the warmth with which our hosts in the mountains received us.

There was technical and creative instruction from teachers, development of one’s unique visual perspective and the tasting of the Greek culture. We learned most of all from each other how to express with the camera what the eye sees. As an instructor, it was a joy to witness the mutual respect and encouragement within the group. From those who started the trip with much experience to those photographing with intent for the first time, the quality of the image making was incredible.

The images posted are some of the experiences of the group as we traveled together. I am proud to have been a part of this wonderfully deep and rich experience.

Linking with the past 4_20_11

2011-04-21T09:10:00.000-07:00

As I work with Cindy Blair on a redesign of my web site, I am amazed at how many different strands there are in my work, and yet how everything overlaps as from the same source.

I have taken a holiday from the sea; its light and atmospheric qualities. Yet the same reverence I experience in witnessing the moods of the coast, I find in this very personal exploration of ruins and forgotten places.

The images contained in this entry taken during a three-day period last week, are freshly discovered old friends…mills and remnants of present day civilization. There is a sense of timelessness in the continued deterioration and in the weathering; a presence in what lies behind or beneath. What remains is in witnessing the story each has to tell, when one stops to consider.

In photographing in these places, I am drawn first to the subject, then to graphic qualities, textures and light.

My approach is of reverence and respect; the clearer I feel my relationship is with these feelings, the better my subject is represented in the image. There is a point of understanding when it is appropriate to move closer, and when to stand back and bear witness...

What goes around...

2011-03-24T07:07:00.000-07:00

March 24, 2011

My experience in the Contemplative Landscape workshop was eye opening in many ways; I came home to find more successes in my image making than what I thought when I was there. Such is the case with 'Frosted Hills'. In the chill of the morning, as I scanned the pink snowy mountains tops and setting moon, my eye kept returning to the texture of these frosted rock formations covered with snow In the editing process I was looking perhaps too hard for something more transcending, and yet this was what moved me.

My landscape work has traditionally featured some hand of man to create the context of the overwhelming beauty and power of nature. There was no such evidence here, and it took some time to get comfortable with trying not to turn over rocks, but to accept the richness in the given scene.

I also found myself going back to root subject matter; the kind of photos I was drawn to when I first started taking pictures; a trip to the ghost town of Rhyolite and a long contemplative session with a box car proved to be a gold mine.

I returned home intrigued with that sensibility. Following are images made with the feeling of forgotten places; that have stories to tell to those willing to pause and consider; a factory in Connecticut; a highway overpass in Providence; a rail yard in Portland Maine. There is an intuitive mystery in these things that I connect with on a soul level, one that continues to give me profound satisfaction to pursue.

The Journey Continues

2011-03-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

It is almost a week since the Contemplative Landscape workshop in Death Valley with Lydia Goetz and George deWolf. It was an incredible experience artistically; we were encouraged to explore our awareness of place and self through mindfulness training.

At times I felt like the new tools I was given were getting in the way of the visual experience, after all, I was in Death Valley, a place of remarkable beauty contrasted with endless desolation. I had to learn to let go of the search for the postcard. In reflecting back through the images, I see the beginnings of a heightened clarity of vision, and the intuitive sense of what can be possible.

What I now possess is the mindful practice of feeling/seeing what is in front of me without the filter of expectations. I have been told it will take a couple of years to truly grow into this new level of authenticity in my work. I am including a few samples of the week's experiences.

The blog starts here

2011-02-17T13:49:00.000-08:00

February 17, 2011

It's amazing how easily writing comes to me; I have been keeping a daily journal of morning pages for 3 years. I have been photographing what matters to me for 35 years. The blog is where it comes together.

As I embark on this endeavor what are my objectives?

To show the dichotomy of my work; the brilliance of light on the landscape to what is left behind by the hand of man…I have a passion for both subjects. In my recent cruise/shore side Fla experience, I was daily recording the phenomena of clouds at sunrise, as well as what a former instructor termed the 'vernacular'. In my cindywilsonphoto.com web site, the latter has been termed 'scrapbook' and 'out of the ordinary'. To me it is individual creations of humanity that speak of individuality. A great joy for me is to escape the eight-lane highway and travel the local roads to find these curiosities. The giant orange crab on the Indian River was cause for a u-turn and closer exploration. It's mission, to call attention to its existence was accomplished.

Being aware of light has been a constant for me since my years of living on Block Island, where, in being surrounded by the ocean, light takes on a all encompassing value. Light colors and shapes the landscape, but light, as a subject is a new doorway for me. My creative spirit is light and it is being able to see this feeling reflected that renders each manifestation exciting and personal.

'Cayman Squall at Sunrise' was taken from under cover on the 12^th deck of the SS Freedom of the Seas just outside of Cayman Island during a rainstorm. The squall line was visible as a low dense cloud mass and a mist seemed to rise from the land to greet it. As the squall passed it reflected the color of the rising sun. 'Caribbean Skies' is a testament to the awesome beauty of clouds at sunrise. One could create a strong image every day at this time, as it is the nature of light never to happen the same way twice.

And now, the journey continues. Saturday begins a week long photography workshop "The Contemplative Landscape" in Death Valley. Just the name conjures expectations of honing artistic vision, and being able to better share what it is I truly feel & see.