10/29 – A Non-Traditional Look at the Badlands

“There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. If one could but recall that vision by some sort of sign. It was in this hope that the arts were invented.” — Robert Henri (1865-1929)

There are many forms of photography such as traditional, contemporary, abstract, stylized and historic. Similarly, photos can be produced with different recording medium such as digital or film, and with various methods such as color or black and white. When it comes to photography, most people have a certain preference for one, or more, of these approaches. And with certain subjects, one technique or approach can be more effective or appropriate for an image than another.

     Since my work is to visually convey a sense of place (a sense of the park), and knowing that people have different photographic preferences, I’ve captured images using many of the techniques mentioned above. While most of the photographs shown earlier in this website were done using a traditional style of landscape and nature photography, dozens more were captured using non-traditional techniques. I’ve prepared an interactive slideshow containing 15 of those images. Once you begin the show you can either click on a specific photo to view it in a larger size, or easily navigate from one photo to the next. When you finish viewing the show return here to learn more about how the photos were created.

Click the Image to Start the Slideshow.

The images in the slideshow above were created using various photo accessories or cameras. These are described below.


Antique and Holga Cameras
The five photos on the bottom row were made using non-traditional cameras. The first three were made using a Holga camera. The Holga (click here for an example) is a modern, inexpensive medium (square) format camera which uses film (color or black and white). Although it’s considered by many to be a toy camera, it’s also used by artists because of the unique characteristics it adds to images. These include vignetting (dark edges), bluring, and other types of distortions. The last two images in the bottom row were created using an medium format camera produced in 1930–a camera made roughly the same time as the Badlands was proclaimed a National Monument. Antique medium format cameras like the Hassleblad, Rollfix, Rolleiflex can be found in many antique shops, certain on-line camera retailers and on ebay.


The Lensbaby
The top two rows of images in the slideshow were made using a Lensbaby–a special camera lens and fitting that’s mounted inside a flexible housing and can be used with most Canon or Nikon cameras. Because of its design (a single element lens) images tend to look softer and more dream-like, overall. Also because you can twist or bend the housing which contains the lens you can position the focus on just one area and distort the rest, or add a gentle distortion to the entire image.

     When I want to add a special effect or create an image which conveys a concept or mood instead of the subject itself, I use the Lensbaby system. I find the entire system easy to work with, fun to use, and its design lets me add special effects and personal expression to an image. The Lensbaby is bulit around a flexible housing called the Composer (see image at right). Into this housing you can insert a variety of optic lenses or accessories. The double glass optic lens, for example, offers razor sharp focus in one area of the image, and gentle distortion elsewhere, while the plastic optic lens gives a more dreamlike effect to the entire image. You can also purchase wide angle, super wide angle, and close-up (macro) lenses for additional effects. Click here to visit the Lensbaby website and read more.