# So, you call yourself an artist.



## Markw (Apr 29, 2013)

Prove it!  Let's see your most artistic or conceptualized photographs.  Unless they are documentary-style shots, they should be pre-planned, thought out, production pieces.  Everything preconceptualized.  I'm really calling on not only the up-and-coming, but the elite that seem to like to dwell in the shadows.  Let's see what you call your most impressive pieces of photographic artwork.  I am hoping that this will prove to be a good use for my 4000th post on the forum.  Please don't post "look what my new lens can do!" or "drool over my camera's high ISO capabilities!" photos.  Nothing so pedantic.  I'd really love to see some hidden gems that I'm sure are lurking around these parts.  So, post 'em up!

I'll start.

This is one from a series I'm working on that I'm particularly proud of:
1




And some more...

2




3




4




I've shown you mine, now let's see yours!

:mrgreen:
Mark


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## 480sparky (Apr 29, 2013)

I'd love to, but my bucket doesn't fit into the well you've provided. :no smile:

But.. congrats on 4K.  When you get to 10K, you get a leather TPF jacket.


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## Trever1t (Apr 29, 2013)

those are really cool, I love the first one, she's leaving. Love the action of her putting on her shirt as she's in a hurry to get out....or am I reading it not as intended? The eye with pencil...creepy!


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## tirediron (Apr 29, 2013)

480sparky said:


> I'd love to, but my bucket doesn't fit into the well you've provided. :no smile:
> 
> But.. congrats on 4K. When you get to 10K, you get a leather TPF jacket.


And when you hit 15K they take back the jacket and make you a mod!


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## Robin_Usagani (Apr 29, 2013)

I'll play:


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## Benco (Apr 30, 2013)

"they should be pre-planned, thought out, production pieces.  Everything preconceptualized." (tick)   Yep, I do call myself an artist:


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## Theantiquetiger (Apr 30, 2013)

Here is my most "artistic" shot


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## Ilovemycam (Apr 30, 2013)

Nice stuff!

I don't call myself an artist I call myself a photog. Sure, am part artist, but I am more photog than artist.


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## Rafterman (Apr 30, 2013)

Ilovemycam said:


> Sure, am part artist, but I am more photog than artist.



Photography IS an art. Don't let anyone tell you different.


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## manaheim (Apr 30, 2013)

Robin.. that second one. LOLOLLOLOLOLOLOL

To the OP... pre-planned? That bins every single picture I've ever taken. Well... there are a couple where I anticipated a certain person to be in place at a certain time.. I suppose I could include those...






I carried my camera every day for a month waiting for this guy to show up.  Does that count?  If so... I have two more that probably fit.  otherwise, I guess I'm not an artist.


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## runnah (Apr 30, 2013)

Hidden symbolism.




cross by runnah555, on Flickr


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## Markw (Apr 30, 2013)

Rafterman said:


> Ilovemycam said:
> 
> 
> > Sure, am part artist, but I am more photog than artist.
> ...



Bingo!



manaheim said:


> Robin.. that second one. LOLOLLOLOLOLOLOL
> 
> To the OP... pre-planned?



And it says " Unless they are documentary-style shots..." lol.  So of course any of your shots would make the cut! 

Mark


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## TimothyJinx (Apr 30, 2013)

Here's my contribution...


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## manaheim (Apr 30, 2013)

This one was setup from the perspective of ...  I was waiting for a couple to walk into the shot I had composed already.  Without them I think the shot is way less interesting.


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## Jad (Apr 30, 2013)

It is only my opinion, but I think there has only been a handful of true artists in all of history. I consider myself an amateur, but a creative one.
Oh, and yes this was pre-planned. I knew where I wanted to photograph and visualized the final image before making the 4 minute exposure. I knew I wanted a Black and White image. And I anticipated the clouds coming towards me off the ocean would fan out in my direction. I hope my image qualifies.


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## Austin Greene (Apr 30, 2013)

Can't say I at all agree with your definition of "art" needing to be pre-planned, especially when it comes to photography, in fact almost every formal definition of art I know of doesn't support that. That said, I'll abide. 

Oh, and congrats on the 4k!

1. Made for a class, the focus was fusing art and science. Ended up in a local gallery. 



Out From The Dark by TogaLive, on Flickr

2. You might not consider macro images to be pre-planned, but most all of mine are. In many cases I draw them out before heading to the field, but with that said, I never place my insects. I just set up all the elements I want, and wait. After thousands of hours in our Arboretum, I've got a good idea of what I can expect to have cross my sensor, and in this case, it paid off after 4 hours. 

To me, much of the world we don't see, the macro world, is living art. 




The Wolf by TogaLive, on Flickr


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## Derrel (Apr 30, 2013)

I consider myself more of a fry cook than an artist... although at times I do try to inject some artistic sensibilities into photos that might easily be just mere kitcsh. I don't upload or share much of my work any more... I have a little over 5,000 pic s on-line at Derrel's Photo Galleries at pbase.com    and, like I said, "fry cook". Not to be confused with short order cook!!!! Those guys suck! I have a handful of stuff on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10545656@N04/7154934200/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/10545656@N04/7075831359/in/photostream/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/10545656@N04/7075831317/in/photostream/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/10545656@N04/6929755924/in/photostream/


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## leighthal (Apr 30, 2013)

My favorite planned photo:




My favorite art piece I  made from a photo of mine..... NSFW. You can grab the link here.


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## Buckster (Apr 30, 2013)

I preconceive, pre-visualize, and plan in detail a lot of my shots.

Saw this one in a dream, and started planning for it as soon as I woke up.  Location, filters, time of day, etc.  I had to order and wait for a graduated mauve filter to arrive before I could shoot it.  It was a couple weeks altogether from concept to realized shot:







This started with the idea that I wanted to capture steam rising off food.  By the next day, I'd settled on the macaroni in a spoon against a black background concept.  I set it up in the kitchen, hanging a black background on the refrigerator door, which was right next to the stove.  The drip was an unexpected bonus, and determined which frame to use:






I'd seen a similar pepper shot on the cover of a book about lighting more than 20 years earlier, and always wanted to try it.  When I found myself with an empty 10 gallon tank, I decided to go ahead and set it up and shoot it:






When a tree frog hopped into a house I was staying at, I knew I had to shoot him.  It took a few days to figure out how I wanted to capture the creature, finally settling on the lighting and building a background out of sticks and paper for the shoot:











The spider situation was similar, but he died before I figured out how to shoot him, so in addition to building a background, I also had to pose him the way I envisioned it, and that wasn't as easy as I'd hoped:






I'd been fooling with the microscope to make photos through it, when I thought it'd make a nice subject itself.  I thought about the lighting for a couple days before deciding on this combination and setting it up:






I thought about how to pull this one off for a couple weeks, during which time I built apparatus to make it possible, made a few tests related to it, and waited for a moonless night:






I also scout locations by joy riding and playing with Google Earth.  Parking garages are some of my favorite spots for cityscapes.


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## Josh66 (Apr 30, 2013)

480sparky said:


> When you get to 10K, you get a leather TPF jacket.



Still waiting for the bastards to ship mine...



I don't really feel that it's "done", but this is probably one of my most thought out photos:



2012031303 by J E, on Flickr

Probably my best example of getting it right the first time...


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## MK3Brent (Apr 30, 2013)




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## TATTRAT (Apr 30, 2013)

Meh, these were thought out, but I find some of my favorite work is work that was candid, or caught naturally without a preconceived notion


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## manaheim (Apr 30, 2013)

This thread seems to be turning into a "show us your pictures of every damned thing!" thread.  Which isn't necessarily bad... I'm just not sure it was what OP intended.  It's also sort of... I dunno... recursive?  lol  Something.


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## Benco (Apr 30, 2013)

Can't say I've ever really pre-concieved or pre-planned any photographs, these two were subjects that presented themselves and I then went to some trouble to get what I wanted, worth it though (IMO).











Both these were taken with my doddery old HS10 so no danger of gear bragging.


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## Benco (Apr 30, 2013)

manaheim said:


> This thread seems to be turning into a "show us your pictures of every damned thing!" thread.  Which isn't necessarily bad... I'm just not sure it was what OP intended.  It's also sort of... I dunno... recursive?  lol  Something.



Every damn thing....as long as it's artistic.


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## TATTRAT (Apr 30, 2013)

Benco said:


> Every damn thing....as long as it's artistic.



INCEPTION


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## TATTRAT (Apr 30, 2013)

manaheim said:


> This thread seems to be turning into a "show us your pictures of every damned thing!" thread.


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## mishele (Apr 30, 2013)




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## Josh66 (Apr 30, 2013)

ls -R |grep .art$

haha


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## Theantiquetiger (Apr 30, 2013)

There are some f'ing amazing images in this thread!!!!!!!!!!!!


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## kundalini (Apr 30, 2013)

Most of my planning stemmed from self portraits and never carried over to others. Well, except for Winston.


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## mishele (Apr 30, 2013)

K...you like taunting me w/ that last one...hehe


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## JacaRanda (Apr 30, 2013)

Wow, Kundalini has a really nice............shower head!


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## bentcountershaft (Apr 30, 2013)

I hate to post these because everyone has seen them before.

This is one of my favorites.  I thought about doing this one for several months and just took forever to get around to it.  It's the cash register at work just after sunrise.






One of my first practiced/thought out shots, Zoomville:






Another personal fav, done around the same time as above:


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## kundalini (Apr 30, 2013)

JacaRanda said:


> Wow, Kundalini has a really nice............shower head!



Thanks.  It hangs slightly to the left.


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## TATTRAT (Apr 30, 2013)

kundalini said:


> JacaRanda said:
> 
> 
> > Wow, Kundalini has a really nice............shower head!
> ...



Your tramp stamp?


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## Light Guru (Apr 30, 2013)

TATTRAT said:


> Your tramp stamp?



That's what I'm going to start calling watermarks on photos.


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## kundalini (Apr 30, 2013)

TATTRAT said:


> Your tramp stamp?



What can I say?  I was young and impressionable.  

And it's a cobra dammit..... a King cobra.


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## Ratboy (Apr 30, 2013)

I'll play -


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## Hof8231 (May 1, 2013)

Not really sure how "artistic" these are, but I'll give it a shot.


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## manaheim (May 1, 2013)

I always enjoy k's stuff, but I find too many of them involve pictures of him doing things I don't need to see in the bathroom.


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## DSRay (May 1, 2013)

I like this one


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## Markw (May 26, 2013)

Throwing a few more in the mix!









Mark


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## snowbear (May 26, 2013)

Nice work, everyone.
Here's mine.




Symbolic self portrait (2009).


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## Jad (May 26, 2013)

After two years of being on the road in an RV I came home to visit the place I love the most. Keuka Lake in upstate N.Y. It is the love of place and photography that made me go out and photograph after driving an RV for 10 hours that day.


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## jake337 (May 26, 2013)

I was waiting for these people to dance.  I really couldn't have the angle I wanted as the paid pro was standing where I wanted to without a cluttered background.  But hey, I came to party for my friend, not to take photos.  But here are couple.



















​


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## jake337 (May 26, 2013)

So we were having a campfire and I decided I wanted to photograph the smoke.  Sb600 to the right of the camp fire shot through a 3x2 softbox.  I waited for nice plumes of smoke to rise before releasing the shutter.


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## jake337 (May 26, 2013)

Although shot through a car window I had thought about the composition I wanted all afternoon while walking around San Fran.


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## jake337 (May 26, 2013)

One thing is strange.  Although many have asked about my art I have never called myself an artist.  Am I?


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## Markw (May 26, 2013)

jake337 said:


> So we were having a campfire and I decided I wanted to photograph the smoke.  Sb600 to the right of the camp fire shot through a 3x2 softbox.  I waited for nice plumes of smoke to rise before releasing the shutter.



Dude, this is definitely a face.


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## Markw (Jul 12, 2013)

A bit more inspiration:

D800
Sigma 180/3.5 Macro 

















Mark


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## Geaux (Jul 13, 2013)

The second and last one are wall worthy, wow.


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## tirediron (Jul 13, 2013)

Wow!  There is some absolutely superb work in this thread!!!


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## SoulfulRecover (Jul 13, 2013)

Probably my most "artistic" shots:




Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr




Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr




Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr




Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr




Explored! 12-28-2008 by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr




Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr




Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr




Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr




Untitled by Shutter_Inc., on Flickr


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## paigew (Jul 13, 2013)

jake337 said:


> So we were having a campfire and I decided I wanted to photograph the smoke.  Sb600 to the right of the camp fire shot through a 3x2 softbox.  I waited for nice plumes of smoke to rise before releasing the shutter.



WTF!!! Omg this is so creepy. Put it in the paranormal thread NOW! Totally a ghosty/spirit thing :/


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## kathyt (Jul 13, 2013)

Markw said:


> Prove it!  Let's see your most artistic or conceptualized photographs.  Unless they are documentary-style shots, they should be pre-planned, thought out, production pieces.  Everything preconceptualized.  I'm really calling on not only the up-and-coming, but the elite that seem to like to dwell in the shadows.  Let's see what you call your most impressive pieces of photographic artwork.  I am hoping that this will prove to be a good use for my 4000th post on the forum.  Please don't post "look what my new lens can do!" or "drool over my camera's high ISO capabilities!" photos.  Nothing so pedantic.  I'd really love to see some hidden gems that I'm sure are lurking around these parts.  So, post 'em up!
> 
> I'll start.
> 
> ...


Love #1 and 4. Very nice.


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## DarkShadow (Jul 13, 2013)

Not an artist yet but I will show my geese painting.



DSC_0024 by DarkShadow191145, on Flickr


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## DarkShadow (Jul 13, 2013)

paigew said:


> jake337 said:
> 
> 
> > So we were having a campfire and I decided I wanted to photograph the smoke.  Sb600 to the right of the camp fire shot through a 3x2 softbox.  I waited for nice plumes of smoke to rise before releasing the shutter.
> ...


Lucifer him self.


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## terri (Jul 14, 2013)

Some wonderful, imaginative stuff in here!   Great thread.    

I'll play, since I rarely post.   What I do are alternative photographic techniques, which means I'm a film shooter.   Most often when I see something I want to photograph, it's because I see the end result in my head, or at least the seeds of an idea - so, I pre-visualize virtually _everything_ I do.   


This is a lith print - developed in LD20 lith developer, and I used Slavich paper if anyone wants to know.   This shot of a deserted shed involved only mild trespassing.  :mrgreen:  I used to drive by an old farmhouse with this shed on my way home from work, and suddenly the people who lived  there were gone, and someone had spray-painted this on the shed.  It seemed like  they vanished overnight, and the sagging door and message  seemed so tragic.  I wanted the image to seem like a dream since that  could have been how they felt, leaving.     The negative itself is quite  straightforward and boring, so I used this fast-speed paper and developed aggressively to get the effect I wanted.        




 



I shot this building in South Beach, FL, which is full of terrific art deco type architecture.   I shot this with HIE (infrared) and took off the lens hood to try to get some lens flare.  Worked perfectly.   This is a bromoil print, which is a process where the silver in the original darkroom print is bleached away, and the image is brought back with lithographic inks, brushed in by hand.   I used colored inks for this one.   The sun is the lens flare on the negative.       I wanted a surreal feeling to this image.   







Thanks for looking!


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## manaheim (Jul 14, 2013)

Wow pics from Terri.  Sweet!


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## tirediron (Jul 14, 2013)

manaheim said:


> Wow pics from Terri. Sweet!


Mark the calendar, call the 'papers!

:greenpbl:

Nice work Terri!


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## terri (Jul 14, 2013)

hee hee, yeah, I'm pretty low output compared to y'all.   :razz:    

Thanks for the kind words!


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## Majeed Badizadegan (Jul 14, 2013)




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## DarkShadow (Jul 14, 2013)

^^^ Wow


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## manaheim (Jul 14, 2013)

Yeah, I was scrolling up and saying to myself "I don't recognize any of these, but I'd bet you money it's Rotanimod..." Sure enough... 

He's one of the most talented people on TPF.


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## DarkShadow (Jul 14, 2013)

manaheim said:


> Yeah, I was scrolling up and saying to myself "I don't recognize any of these, but I'd bet you money it's Rotanimod..." Sure enough...
> 
> He's one of the most talented people on TPF.


I totally agree but to be fair there is more talent here all in one place then I ever seen anywhere else.


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## Majeed Badizadegan (Jul 15, 2013)

manaheim said:


> Yeah, I was scrolling up and saying to myself "I don't recognize any of these, but I'd bet you money it's Rotanimod..." Sure enough...
> 
> He's one of the most talented people on TPF.




Very nice of you to say, thanks!!!


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