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January 14, 2017January 14, 2017

Artists Inspired Blog Circle | January 2017 – Grey

Desert BW | Scottsdale Photographer | ©CeriHerdPhotography | Family photographer

{Grey} (or {Gray} if you’re American)…

I will admit, this month’s colour had me completely stumped. Unless I really go hunting there is nothing grey here, just the desert. So if it is not here right in front of my eyes, what is it fundamentally? Grey is black and white. I almost said “merely black and white”. But in photography black and white is everything. It is the crux and backbone of it all so I should not say “merely” at all.

With that in mind, I would not be me if I did not take that as an opportunity to try something new. You see, these two boys in this desert location, I would never see a black and white image. I am just not that photographer. Some photographers, some very wonderful talented photographers, see their images in black and white before they have even taken them. To me that happens but only occasionally. These boys to me are life. They are bounds of energy. They are love. They are colour. Similarly, so is the desert. I moved here expecting a barren wasteland but I was so wrong. There is a full spectrum of colour (just maybe not grey) and so much life, I struggle to see it in monotone.

And so I took a walk from last month and made it {grey}. (And I did the conversion in a way I had not tried before, because, hello my name is Ceri and I can’t help but experiment). In the process I had a lightbulb moment. I see texture. I see connection. I see I need to make more effort to love the black and whites in my life.

This blog is part of the Artists Inspired Blog Circle series. Click here to continue the circle and see how talented photographer, Brandi Geoghagan, interpreted this month’s theme. Be sure to follow the links all the way round to complete the full circle.

The Artists Inspired Blog Circle is made up of an exceptionally talented group of photographers from all walks of life, from all over the world. They are wives, mothers, friends, daughters and visual storytellers who draw from their own experiences to create art that is inspiring, unique, beautiful and thought-provoking.

December 13, 2016December 13, 2016

Artists Inspired Blog Circle | December 2016 – White

Roosevelt Row Street Photography | Scottsdale Photographer ©CeriHerdPhotography2016

What does {White} mean to you? White in December…it has to be Winter! Snowmen and snowflakes. Thick crunchy frost underfoot glistening in the early morning sunshine. Cold. A deep down cold in your bones winter chill.

But I live in central Arizona. The valley of the sun. If we get frost here it’ll be melted by the time I get out of bed. If we get snow here it will be a light dusting on the surrounding mountains once a year and it’ll be a headline on the major news reports. But if we take the weather conditions out of the equation {white} says “outside”, so for this month’s blog circle I’m going to get out and about. White street photography is where I’ll be at.

I decided to take images specifically for this blog rather than revisit my archives. Truth be told I wanted an excuse to visit a part of downtown Phoenix that I’d heard was great for photographers: Roosevelt Row. Oh boy, I was not disappointed! There is so much colour, so much visual interest; there is art on every single building, every street corner. I could go back time and time again and always find something new. Take a look at what I found…

Wouldn’t it make an awesome location for a photo session – families, kids, seniors, all of it! First person to book a session with me here gets their session fee waived!

This blog is part of the Artists Inspired Blog Circle series. Click here to continue the circle and see how talented photographer, Channon Williamson, interpreted this month’s theme. Be sure to follow the links all the way round to complete the full circle.

October 14, 2016October 15, 2016

Artists Inspired Blog Circle | October 2016 – Pink

Pink. What does pink mean to you? What does it mean to me??! …I’ll admit, I’m stuggling with this one.

I suppose, stereotypically speaking, I’ve always associate pink with little girls; I have boys. I’m a girly girl though; I like pretty things and bags and shooooes. And yet pink has never been my favourite colour. Growing up my life was all about yellow, the colour of sunshine and happiness; and now I prefer cooler tones; sage greens and turquoise blues. So what do I think of when I think {pink}? …Flowers. You can’t beat a pink flower.

I’ve always felt that colour is essential to botanical images; flowers ARE colour. But are they? A month of {Inspired by…} themes at Artists Inspired’s sister page By HeArt, researching different artists, all of whom worked with black and white film, got me to thinking: how much does colour really matter? What difference does it make to floral images? By studying the botanical art of Imogen Cunningham, converting images I would never have considered candidates for black and white, my mind may have been changed. I see form. I see structure. I see light and dark.

“I see more in black and white – I like the abstraction of it.” ~ Mary Ellen Mark

What do you think? Does pink add anything to these images? Is the colour distracting? I will leave it to you to form your own opinion on this one. There is no right or wrong; just preference and personal taste. But I’ll leave you with this quote:

“Colour is everything, black and white is more.” ~ Dominic Rouse

September 14, 2016September 14, 2016

Artists Inspired Blog Circle | September 2016 – Gold

What does {gold} mean to you? Wealth, prosperity, pretty shiny things? Gold for me, and photographers all over the globe (and a large chunk of this blog circle I expect), means golden light and the golden hour, that short window of time where the sun is low enough in the sky to bathe everything with a delicious, warm, golden glow.

Last month I took images specifically for the Artists Inspired Blog Circle; this month I want to look back at my most favourite ever golden hour images. More specifically, I want to share with you one of my passions: my creative take on golden hour at the beach.

As I approach the end of my first Project 365 (goodness, I can hardly believe it) I find myself searching for ways to stay inspired. I am constantly thinking about what I can do to step it up creatively, be it in-camera double exposures, freelensing, intentional camera movement or shooting through objects. As you’ll see from the selection below, in the past few months I have rarely taken an image at the beach that is just ‘what you see is what you get.’

A word frequently used to describe my photographic style, and a metaphor I certainly aspire to, is ‘dreamy’. I aim to create images that feel like they’re part of a dream, that are memories before they have even departed, where the sound of the waves and the colour of the sky sweep you away and you feel like you’re floating in the moment. My aim is to capture that in-camera in a single image, using layers and textures to give you the sense of how a scene looks and feels. I hope to create a visual depiction of a memory, not purely what that memory looks like, and certainly not simply what it looks like now, but how it will look and feel after the blur of time. I want these images to hold the viewers gaze, to capture their imagination, to send them on a nostalgic journey, to make them feel the moment a little longer and a little more sincerely. I hope that the images I’m sharing now do that for you.

August 15, 2016August 15, 2016

Artists Inspired Blog Circle | August 2016 — Blue

{Blue}

What does {blue} mean to you? When I first heard the theme for our first blog circle my mind was a whirl with ideas: clear blue Arizona skies; our summer in the pool; a trip to the aquarium. But my thoughts kept drifting back to my youngest son. Blue is his colour. Not just his favourite colour but the colour he has when his brother is ‘green’, the colour of his eyes, the colour of his toothbrush, his prefered bowl and spoon and favourite shoes. But more significantly and in a photographic context, when I think of Dryw I think of his emotion turning {blue} when my camera is pointed in his direction for too long.

Dryw has the most expressive, speediest flick-of-a-switch range of emotions and expressions of anyone I know, from happy to crying to laughing to sulking and back again in a matter of minutes. This epitomises his entire character. I’ve lost count of the number of images I could title {blue} because of the face that I see through my viewfinder. But rather than looking back to existing images I decided to celebrate his no-nonsense, what-you-see-is-what-I-feel approach to life. I want Dryw to know how much we love this side of his character, how much his ability to express his emotions will help him in the future, how we embrace the little things that make Dryw, Dryw. So here is our family homage to Dryw (and the moment that follows {blue}).

“no more photos mummy”

This project was so much fun and the results far exceeded my expectations. I have so many images of each of us, I’m able to show to you the range of emotions that my sweet little one can muster in just a few minutes. This sums him up. What you see is what you get:

“It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, its another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” ~ Paul Caponigro