We're Back

We're Back

DFG Studio

Download

Back Bone Odyssey 2019

The Pet Show

The Pet Show

David Glandon

Download

If you are looking for a new Veterinarian here is a link to a group of wonderful people at Animal Medical Center. https://amccedarrapids.com/

Interview with Justin Tedford

Justin Tedford

DFG Studios

Download

Justin E. Tedford

Tom Mangelsen

Michael Forsberg

Take Charge of Your Health

I’m disturbed by the observation of the decline of places that are open to people who need help with their mental healthcare. Healthcare overall is suffering funding issues and has for years but the biggest loser of healthcare has been mental healthcare. With our tech heavy sedentary lives coupled with the growing substance abuse and depression has resulted in self-destruction and senseless violence that has increasingly touched more lives. So what do you do? Take steps in your life and not only be the proprietor of your physical health but mental health as well.

I am not a professional psychologist by any stretch, but I know what helps me cope and that is getting outside and away from stressful things in my life. Photography has been that vehicle in which I use to get out and create images of nature. Finding subjects to create images from, is just half of the therapy with the other half being away from the noise, the electronics, and being surrounded by nature. I know that if I don’t get out on a regular basis I tend to get restless, irritable, and not too fun to be around. Prolonged absents from my favorite activities tend to eat at my motivation and desire to create while increasing my want to just sit and do nothing.

You don’t have to take up photography or a heavy physical activity to enjoy nature, just get out. I find the best way to start is to grab a friend and go somewhere you haven’t been before or in a long time. For me, exploring a new place is great distraction from the problems of the day. And discovery of new things along with the walking more than five feet seems to release the endorphins I need to better my mood. Once you have found a place that you enjoy, make it a part of a daily or weekly routine to visit. By establishing a routine of getting outside into nature you are taking charge of both your physical and mental healthcare in once simple activity.

In conjunction with getting out into nature, you could also surround yourself with nature in art form. Photographs, paintings and drawings of nature in your house can help you in between the times you are out experiencing it. By googling “Nature Art and Healing” you will find countless articles written by doctors of medicine and physiology of the effects nature and images of nature has on the healing process. I have observed in the two hospitals I’ve visited the number of nature related images have grown over the years.

Mental along with physical health is important enough for us to make it a part of our daily route. I see too many people in the ER who could have avoided it had they taken the initiative with their health. There are situations that medical intervention must occur but doing things before that benefit your health both mentally and physically will mitigate the more severe problems later down the road. So start by simply getting off your couch and take a walk in your favorite park. Whether it is in your neighborhood or one of the many state parks we have, just start now. And if you are looking for a park, visit Kepler State Park, it is one of my favorite places to be.

Kepler State Park, Fall of 2017

Waterlily #7

Most of my photographic life I have been told, “if you want to be shown choose any subject other than pets and flowers.” It seems that you are not taken seriously as an artist if you create images of flowers or pets. I don’t believe that to be true for the most part. Take, for instance, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Bouquet of Sunflowers by Claude Monet or Tuft of Cowslips by Albrecht Durer. A small portion of larger number of artist that at one time or another had flowers as a subject in their portfolio. “That’s paintings, what about photographs by famous photographers?” you might say. That one was a little tougher but here is what I found. Ansel Adams Rose on Driftwood, Imogen Cunningham Callla Lilly and Edward Weston Succulent. Three of the many photographers who had flowers as a subject matter. Some of these prints are still sought after by collectors today. So why are flowers as subjects of images so frowned upon? I think it is because it is so hard to create an image that, done well, is art whereas it’s very easy to create an image that can be labeled as trite.

If you look at what someone like Edward, or Imogen did you would see it, the flower, is a study of form and shape as well as how light defines that image. The drama of the greyscale and details the or comparison to a relating subject. It is study, an investigation of the subject to get a better understanding of how we feel or how it relates to us and our world. Now most of what I had seen for these three artists have been in black and white, not color. Color, for me, of a flower is a given is part of the subject that we all see form the start. Viewing the subject in black and white forces you to deal with the subject on a light and dark, shape and texture without the bias of the emotion of color. Take color out of the equation of any photograph and if you still have an image that grabs you then you a sound photograph.

Where flowers become trite is when the subject is treated as a sunset, all color with no real thought about form, shape, light or composition. A snapshot an afterthought that caught the photographers eye so they decided to take it. Then after a quick post processing show around to friends and say “ Look how pretty the colors are.”  This, I believe, is why the flower as a subject gets such a bad rap. The total disregard of the subject by so many people that the subject of a flower is tarnished for many people.

With that said I have a study of my waterlilies that I created over a summer season. These were in my pod that received shading from a large tree which created interesting patterns of light. I studied the light and how the shadows would fall on the flowers and when I found an interesting pattern I began to shoot. As spectacular as the color of the flower is, I found the images worked so well in black and white because of how the light played on the flower, leaves and pond.

I will be working on the rest of the photos taking them form color to black and white. I will have a set or a subset of color images only. I will also add more to this group as the season begins.

If you like these my images feel free to explore the rest of my webpage or check out my blog post on the side. Feel free to send me any comment or question you have or share my work with a friend that you’d believe would enjoy it. Thanks.

Landscape #3

Tuesday was one of those days where the light and weather was not what I was looking for to make images of downtown so I opted instead to head out to the country side to create photographs. Being spring the weather tends to be turbulent for most the days. In the latter half of spring into early summer the number of storms that produce tornados grow substantially. As Iowans, we tend to live by the weather. The farmer’s success is tied to the favor of the weather so it is common place that we keep one eye on the sky while going about our daily lives. And in the spring when the weather turns bad and storms roll across our plains we don’t always head for shelter. Instead sit out on our front porch and watch the violence of the wind, rain wrapped in thunder and lighting and the few tornados carve paths of destruction in our fields.  Only when the danger is truly baring down upon us do we seek shelter only to step out and face the destruction head on.

As bad as the clouds look it was one of those spring days where it could not make up its mind wither to rain and be nasty or just look that way. Many of times on days like these I couldn’t help be drawn to stand out in a field and watch the clouds race by. It’s the drama of the sky and the energy that swirls and builds in the atmosphere. It’s watching the clouds move one way or another and as they did the light change giving them and the landscape character rather than flat grey like winter.  

For me Spring is change, the energy that is building to push the life from the ground. I could feel it standing there as the clouds passed overhead creating a friction between land and sky, anticipating a spark, a bolt of lightning discharging the color of the planet breaking the monochromatic spell of winter. Just stand there and you will feel it.