Truth be told, it’s not that I don’t ever have people in my images but it is extremely rare. And I will go to great lengths to work around people and keep my images people-free. Sometimes my work has [...]]]> Why aren’t there any people in my images? That is a question that I was recently asked.

Truth be told, it’s not that I don’t ever have people in my images but it is extremely rare. And I will go to great lengths to work around people and keep my images people-free. Sometimes my work has been criticized for it. Some want to see a person walking along that beach or a boat out on that lake… something to provide a visual anchor point for the image. But one person’s anchor point is another’s distraction and I find such elements to be a visual distraction. And a boat anchor around my neck. So I simply avoid them. After all, whose vision is it anyway? It’s my vision and people seldom have a place in it.

Freeman Patterson is photographer, writer, teacher who I have never met but admire greatly. He said “The camera always points both ways. In expressing your subject, you also express yourself.” I guess I really believe that to be true. In my work, I strive to capture the essence, the spirit of my subject be that a sunrise, a flower, a landscape or whatever. But at the same time, I feel I am sharing a part of me with you the viewer. Through my work, you can learn about me – who I am, what I like, what I am like, what really makes me tick…

I tend to be a loner. I know many people but really have few friends. (Sometimes while pondering my own mortality I wonder, will anyone show up at my funeral… will the many people I know care enough to show up or just those few friends?) I tend to shy away from group activities. I seldom go on a group shoot with my club preferring instead to go out by myself or with just my wife. I love sunrises because it is quiet, peaceful and I can be alone – just me and my subject. No other people around. No boats out on the water. It’s as if I exist in my own world. It’s as if I stepped into this scene and I am the first person to do so. It is a wonderful feeling. And it represents who I am. What I think. What I feel about the world around me.

And when there are people around, I feel like they are intruding upon the world I am trying to capture… my world. So I do the only thing I can. I eliminate them. Sometimes it’s not easy. Try getting a wide angle image inside the Conservatory at Longwood Gardens with no people in it. But I’ve done it because seldom are people part of my creative vision.

And when people are in my images, they are there because they communicate the same sense of solitude that I seek out in my work. One need look no further than an image I entitled “Fishing the Fog”.

I write this for the sole reason of giving you, the viewer of my art, a glimpse into what makes Ed Vatza tick… and why there are no people in my images… like in these two from Lake Nockamixon (Nockamixon State Park, Bucks County, PA).

“Marina 5:20 am”

“Red Sails in the Sunrise”

This post is [...]]]> Those of you who have followed my blog for the past year or longer know that Barb and I will often head to Jacobsburg State Park (PA) since it is close (a 20 minute drive) and a great place for Barb to bird and me to photograph (particularly wildflowers this time of year).

This post is a testament to keeping your eyes and mind open and always looking for other opportunities along the way. And also a reminder to do your research whether you are going to be in your own backyard or a thousand miles away.

A couple of weeks back (on Father’s Day, if memory serves), Barb and I headed to Jacobsburg so she could look for the Yellow-breasted Chat and I could photograph some wildflowers. She came up empty but I did come away with several rather nice wildflower portraits that I really like. But as Barb looked and listened for the Chat, I started to do some nosing around an area of Jacobsburg that we don’t often to visit unless we are just hiking through. The more I looked, the more I liked what I was seeing – meadow up close, rolling hills, farmland, what passes for mountains in this area off on the horizon. It had the makings of a very nice bucolic landscape. What would really set it off though would be a sunrise or sunset.

A quick check of the map showed, much to my delight, that we were looking pretty much east. The sun should rise over the farmland.

So this past weekend we headed to Jacobsburg in search of a sunrise over the rolling hills and meadows. As we left the car at about 0440 you could see the beginnings of sunrise off to our left. As we walked straight into the meadow to the main trail, we turned… a sharp right. The sunrise was now at our back. As we twisted and turned through the meadow and woods, we eventually got turned around in the right direction and when we arrived at the spot we had scoped out before, the sunrise was beginning to unfold… right in front of us.

And a beautiful sunrise, it turned out to be!

5:17 am

5:21 am

5:23 am

5:40 am

Hope you enjoyed the sunrise!

This first sunset image is one that I had been thinking about all week. I knew what I wanted to do or at least try. I wanted to make sunset (and sunrise) images using the Lensbaby with the Fisheye optic. I [...]]]> This is the follow-up to my previous post highlighting the sunrise images from the weekend.

This first sunset image is one that I had been thinking about all week. I knew what I wanted to do or at least try. I wanted to make sunset (and sunrise) images using the Lensbaby with the Fisheye optic. I just thought it would create a very interesting effect. I thought about it on my drives into work in the morning and on my drives home in the evening. I thought about it during the day. I keep trying different things in my mind. What would work? How would it look? Why? Why not? In the next day or two I will post a more detailed description of the process I went through leading up to making this image on my second blog  - “Making the Ordinary Extraordinary!” (see the link in the right-hand column)

Friday was my first chance to get out and put all my thoughts into practice. I didn’t get as much color in the sky as I had hoped but getting the fog on the water was a real bonus. Here is the result.

The next evening, Saturday, I returned to the same location and decided to try another, more traditional approach capturing “The Farm Across the Lake” which is just to the right of the view captured in the fisheye. I particularly like the reflections on the water in this image.

Hope you enjoy viewing these images as much as I enjoyed making them.

Virtually all my photography this weekend involved very short jaunts (it’s about a 20-25 minute drive) to a local lake (Lake Nockamixon in [...]]]> This has been quite the crazy weekend. Nothing really went as planned and yet as I sit here on Sunday evening, everything appears to be ending well. And for that I am thankful.

Virtually all my photography this weekend involved very short jaunts (it’s about a 20-25 minute drive) to a local lake (Lake Nockamixon in Nockamixon State Park, Bucks County, PA) for either sunrise or sunset. I caught sunset Friday and Saturday nights and sunrise this morning. Sunsets were not as dramatic as I would have liked but sunrise this morning was spectacular. So I will start with the sunrise images.

Both sunrise images are 5-image HDRs but that is where the similarity ends. The first image was made with my Canon 5DMk2 and the Lensbaby Composer with the Fisheye Optic. Using the fisheye optic with a full frame camera like the 5DMk2 results in an image surrounded by a wonderful circular vignette. (NOTE: On a crop camera like the 50D, for example, the vignetting will only appear in the corners – not near as dramatic.) Here is the fisheye sunrise over Lake Nockamixon as taken from the marina.

The second sunrise image was made just nine minutes later from precisely the same spot. The tripod did not more. But everything else changed. I swapped out the 5DMk2 and Lensbaby Composer w/ Fisheye Optic for the Canon 50D and 70-200 2.8L IS lens. With the lens at 70mm I was able to focus in on just that part of the sky and water with most color. The result was the following image which I have entitled “Fire in the Sky”.

Two very different views of sunrise shot just minutes apart. I like them both and hope you do as well.

As soon as I saw this first image on the camera screen, the song “Stars on the [...]]]> They go hand-in-hand. So often I find myself looking at a composition in the field or in-camera only to have some song title or lyric or musical genre come to mind. Here are two examples from this weekend past.

As soon as I saw this first image on the camera screen, the song “Stars on the Water” came to mind. Guess it goes with being an ol’ Parrothead. Here’s the song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iGge81mIIU and here is the image.

And while this second image was made shortly after the first, it took a while to come together for me. I was out there for sunrise and sunrise that morning was a bust. So I made a few images before moving on. Only upon returning to them did the idea of blues come to mind – blue sky, blue water, blue mood, feeling blue, singing the blues. It was sunrise so I started thinking “Early Morning Blues” and it all came together… the music is “Early Morning Blues” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v7Ng8RTb2I) and the image.

Hope you enjoy!