Sunday, February 27, 2011

Botanica - Part Ten


White Tulips, 3
2011
© Larry Torno

Accidents happen.
     I shot White Tulips, 3 in a darkened room with a small amount of available light from a nearby window. It was a long exposure and just before the lens clicked shut, I accidentally nudged the camera. The result was a ghostly double exposure image that I then tried to reproduce but could not quite achieve again.
     Accidents happen and we make the best of them.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Focal Point - Part Four


Focal Point 013
2010
© Larry Torno

One more image from the new Focal Point series.
     I failed miserably as a painter in college because I wasn't ready. I wanted to do great things but I didn't have the skills to translate my vision onto a canvas.
     Decades later I find that a camera is the vehicle to capture my simple observations.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Focal Point - Part Three


Focal Point 024
2010
© Larry Torno

Focal Point 024 is the third image in a new series of etherial photographs.
     In my college days of the 1970s, I painted a series of vertical and horizontal striped canvases. They were rigid compositions of half-inch, neatly painted lines. Often I would mask off large areas of alternating colors so close in hue, that from a distance they would blend into a new color.
     None of the paintings survived, but this photograph reminded me of an idea I had many years ago.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Ten in Twenty-Eleven - ONE


Blizzard: Front Row Seat
2011
© Larry Torno

Blizzard: Front Row Seat is the first in the series Ten in Twenty-Eleven. You can review the previous collection, Ten in Twenty-Ten at Behance Network.
     Here in the midwestern United States, we were warned by weather reports of a pending blizzard of epic proportions with record snowfalls, ice storms and power outages. I prepared myself by setting this chair outside my back door, so I could photograph the historic precipitation as it came down by the hour.
     Fortunately for our neighborhood, but unfortunately for my great plan, the storm missed us and we only ended up with 1.5" of sleet and ice, covered by 2" of white powder. Gusts of wind took care of the accumulation on the chair but left this scene with smooth foreground and background surfaces. The soft shadows of the early morning light added to the solitude and beauty of this image.