Capturing the 3-D World

Capturing the Three-dimensional World

Part one of “Capturing the Three-dimensional World” appeared in the November, 1980, issue of Arizona Highways. There, we first featured a collection of some of the best works and interesting insights of seven of our finest photographers. The response from readers was heartwarming. This month we proudly present another eye-pleasing portfolio of seven more Arizona Highways artists with cameras. The following collection ranges from vast Western landscapes to people, from the top of the White Mountains to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. But the main ingredient found in all of these works, and the key to what makes these individuals great photographers, is the constant discovery of the unique essence of their subjects. Whether it is David Muench pursuing “an unending search for eternal beauty,” or Michael Collier “figuring out what the essential elements are and eliminating the rest” all of these experts are somehow able to capture the threedimensional world and bring it back to these pages full of color and full of life. These are Arizona Highways Photographers. A breed apart. "Images tend to fit together, if you just let them."

Part two of a series

Peter Kresan

When I have a cam-era, I tend to "see" more than I do if I don't have one. Photography is a way of seeing. When photographing, it's important to sit down, take a deep breath, and be still with yourself for a few minutes before you start rambling around with the camera. I just stop and take a deep breath, try to clean out the mind, and just let the images come to me. It's, in a sense, passive exploration rather than aggressively going out and saying, "I'm going to photograph this, or capture that." Images tend to fit together if you just let them. The most important process, I feel, is to look for simplicity, to separate the different photographic elements the foreground from the midground from the background, the sky from the horizon, and see how they interact. I try to simplify so that the photograph portrays a rather vital mood or dominant element. I look for lines, textures, and the placement of elements within a scene. I look for secondary lines created by different horizons within the landscape, versus the lines created by a tall saguaro or a tree trunk. Photography goes hand in glove with my background in geology.

I have been interested in photography since high school, and while completing my master's in geochemistry, I took a class in scientific illustration. That is where my photography blossomed. A geologist looks at the landscape in a different way. He sees a general fabric to the landscape that others often don't. I get the most satisfaction out of a photograph that shows an interrelationship or pattern in a little different light than what people would ordinarily see. It could be a very sensuous curved pattern in wood, an eroded rock, a reflection in a pool, or countless other things. It is often important to get the right mood in a photograph, but the eye is very sensitive to light, and film is very restricted, so you have to know your equipment and exposures well and be willing to wait for the type of light that will create the mood that you think is most impressive. A photograph captures a unique moment. I've never been able to return to a place and duplicate a photograph exactly. There's always something different. In catching those special moments, being in the right place at the right time sure helps. I don't think the old adage of waiting for a shot for days is very true or practical. Most photographers, myself included, will remember places, and go back to them if they have the opportunity, but they won't sit out there waiting for days. All my photos have memories attached to them, of the places I've been, the different things I've seen, and the people that have joined me when I've been there. I enjoy the outdoors and the wilderness landscape, and, if anything, I like the photography to communicate the importance of preserving that type of environment for future generations.

Dianne Dietrich-Leis

"I see my photographs as a gift to someone who wasn't lucky enough to be at a beautiful place at the same time I was." What I look for in photography is an emotional response to whatever I'm viewing. The subjects I photograph are things I find pleasing or beautiful. For example, I prefer photographs of sunsets, a mountain stream, a beautiful face, or a cuddly baby things which strike a responsive chord in me. I see my photographs as a gift to someone who wasn't lucky enough to be at a beautiful place at the same time I was.

I don't want my photographs to be just flat, two-dimensional images, but instead, windows which a person can look through to extend his visual world. I often try to achieve a sense of depth by putting flowers or trees in the immediate foreground to enhance that sense of looking through a window.

I strive for "balance" in the photograph, and, if possible, visual "motion" with lines leading into it, but if it is a scene that I like, I'll take it anyway. I'll break the rules.

I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, and I know that a good photograph doesn't "just happen." Sometimes it takes going back to a scene several times until everything is perfect, or waiting an extra two or three hours until the clouds are just right. Scenic photography is often an exercise in patience: patience to wait until the right time of year, the right time of day, and for perfect weather conditions before tripping the shutter.

David Muench

"Light is my constant companion and tool."

Any photograph is a journey in perception, an exploration in seeing. As a landscape photographer, I am, without any self-delusion, a maverick, for I study under the tutorship of Nature. By being attuned to the land its natural rhythms and its pulse, the duration of time, spatial forms, light, the mysterious - I am able, as a person, to become involved in the presence of a place. This involvement is as intuitive as it is inspiring and is the basic precondition of my photographic work.

Photography is, for me, part of an unending journey... an affair revealing my experience with light, space, and time... an unending search for eternal beauty... a continual searching of new horizons and impressions.

Forms and textures, sometimes elemental, sometimes man-made, are all sensitized through our eyes by the presence of light. Light is my constant companion and tool.

I am happiest when working in the field, especially in wild places. The farther back in I hike, the more the excitement and the greater the demand. Mysterious, bold, stark, and monumental forms mountains, canyons, hills, and plains are what particularly inspire and motivate my directions, both consciously and unconsciously.

The idea of just happening by a location and accomplishing a great photograph any time of the day or year is one I tend to reject. Most commonly, I plan a scheduling of images. First, I will discover and explore a strange location, sizing up its element s, getting a feel for itsbest potential. Then, later, at a favorable hour of the day or time of the season, I will return and go to work.

An unusual summer rain, an unexpected wind, a spring especially rich in wildflowers, a fall of particularly heightened color these are the kinds of wild rhythms and events I try to plan myself into.

I like to travel light, especially on arduous treks into wilder places, so I carry a limited selection of whatever equipment the situation may call for. The more I can forget the intricacies of my equipment, the more concentration is available for personal expression. Ideally, the camera becomes an extension of my eye.

The underlying ethos of my direction is to record the spirit of the land, a spirit of place, to make what I see so stark and real, visually, that my photographs express a communication with the universe and myself.

Traveling and making photographic impressions is my total involvement. Timing, patience in waiting for the right pattern of sun and shadow, for the precise angle of light, or the one moment of proper mood challenges my mind's eye and camera. To photograph in nature allows me to retain a childlike pattern of discovery and exploration an inspirational force in my lifesometimes to share and communicate the same impressions and feelings I experience. Hopefully, my work leads to a celebration of man and the Earth and the mystical forces of nature which help shape our destinies.

(Left) Sipapu Bridge, Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah. (Below) Gypsum dunes in the Guadalupe Mountains, Texas.

(Following panel, pages 24-25) Anasazi ruin, Zion National Park, Utah.

Alan Benoit

"A picture has to be technically and compositionally strong."

I always try to look at things through a child's eyes, unbiased, like the first time I've ever seen something. When I go to photograph an event or an area, I spend time walking around without my camera and try to feel the spirit, the energy of the subject. I enjoy photography. My favorite subject is whatever I'm photographing now.There is an energy force that runs through a subject, an event, or an entire area. It may be subtle or grandiose, but it has a flow, a feeling to it, an energy behind it. To find that, I have to look at the subject on a broad scope and discover something other than the obvious. I try to capture that essence, and reflect it through my photography.

You don't have to take an overall picture to show the total concept of what is going on in a scene. For example, to photograph migrant workers picking oranges, you don't have to show six of them in a tree. You can show one hand picking an orange. Sometimes the shadow of a person can tell more about mankind than visually portraying a whole room full of people.

A great picture has to tell a story by itself. It has to stand on its own. Visually, it has got to be a grabber, a jewel that stands out and glistens and makes everything pale by comparison. If it does that, then it has captured the spirit it's composed; it's graphic; it's a great picture.

When you look at a well-constructed photo story, you can remove one picture and that picture will tell the essence of the story. The individual photo works with the other pictures, but it works alone, too.

There has to be an element of technical ability in photography. You can have the strongest, most eloquent concept for a photograph and all the elements but if you can't capture it technically, it's useless. A picture has to be compositionally and technically strong. There's a delicate balance between the two.

The real thrill of photography, for me, is conceiving the picture in my mind. Before I ever trip the shutter, I think of how I want the picture to appear. Then it's like constructing something, taking the idea from my mind to the film. After I've composed the picture, moved the elements accordingly, and have everything set, the last thing I do is take the picture. From there it's anticlimactic, it's all over. Once I've shot a particular subject, I don't ever shoot it the same way again.

Wayne Davis

"I try to make my photos beautiful and not load them with hidden meanings."

Photography, for me, is a delightful activity. A camera seems a natural extension of myself. It gives satisfaction to my soul to be on a high mountaintop photographing a vast panorama of forest, meadow, and valley below. I find it much more appealing to walk along streams and lakes making pictures of the beauty of nature than to be hunting or fishing.

In my work, I try to achieve an expression of nature by using the best angle, lighting, time of day, and season of the year. I am a rather straightforward sort of person, and I try to make my photos beautiful and not load them with hidden meanings.

It is always a personal thrill to see my photos published, but the most satisfying part of photography is when everything comes together in the viewfinder, and I see a visual image produced just as it first appeared in my mind's eye. I compose pictures in my mind's eye wherever I go, whether a camera is available or not. I file these images in my mind and return to these places when the light is right and other natural conditions are best for making the actual exposures. There are hundreds of pictures tucked away in my mind now just waiting to become reality.

I feel that a good photographer needs great patience, an understanding heart, and the will to expend much effort. While technical knowledge is very important, it can be learned by almost anyone who is willing to put forth the effort. But without an inborn artistic ability not much else can be achieved in photography.

I work mostly in the larger 4x5 format as I enjoy viewing this size, and I am convinced it is possible to make better photos through the use of adjustments available only on view cameras. Also, reproduction for magazines and large prints is much better with the larger film. The 4x5 camera is rather bulky and hard to handle, so when conditions warrant, I also use a 214x23% single lens reflex camera.

Being a native of Arizona, I cannot remember a time when I did not know about Arizona Highways. I grew up with it in my life, and I think it's played a key part in my becoming a better photographer, particularly because of its tradition of photographic excellence.

Gill Kenny

"I try to achieve a dynamic, forceful design...."

About 1953 I saw my first issue of Arizona Highways and wanted to take pictures like Ray Manley. I bought a Donald Duck camera and started taking pictures. I kept seeing more of Ray Manley's photography, and it was the main reason I eventually moved to Arizona. Later, I completed a degree in geological engineering and two degrees in commercial design, and went to work in the design field. Since then I've found myself doing more and more photography. Now, I spend three-fourths of my time at it, and the balance doing design work. In my opinion, the play of light and coordination of forms to stimulate a reaction in the viewer is more important than the photographer's philosophy. Often a philosophy is so obscure that it must be spelled out to the viewer. So I think that the viewer's reaction, or interaction, is far more important than a photographer's philosophy. In composing my photographs, I try to isolate objects or people within their environments to achieve a dynamic, forceful design, one which the viewer will find attractive. I look for several key elements in any scene, particularly negative areas to offset key items in the photograph. The negative areas of a photo are important because without them the main subject will not stand out as forcefully. Composing a picture becomes a juxtaposition of elements, contrasting the sharply focused areas with the blurred, the bright elements with the dull, dark with light, warm colors with cold, and negative with positive. In my work I use a variety of formats, from a 4x5 view camera to a 120mm to a 35mm, and really have no preference for one over the other. The format I use depends on the subject to be photographed and also how the final image will be used. When I am out photographing in Arizona, now, I do it as a release from the commercial and corporate work that I spend most of my time with. So, during the small amount of time that I have available, I do mainly what pleases me. I don't strive for deeper meanings in my photos. Mainly, I try to create a photo that is well-designed and will convey to the viewer what I felt while exploring a given area at a particular time.

Michael Collier

"The better the picture is, the more universally it will communicate an idea or a feeling."

I've always photographed landscapes, and I've always been interested in how the Earth ticks. I earned a bachelor of science in geology, figuring that if I studied what I was photographing it would be better than studying photography head on. Out of that geological interest grew an interest in the Grand Canyon, where I now work every summer as a boatman. The Canyon is an inspirational and spiritual place to me, and though I started out to photograph it, In photography, I try to communicate an impression, a thought that I've had, to the people looking at the picture. I can make the most beautiful, esoteric picture in the world, but if the viewer can't understand what I am trying to say, the picture is a failure. Emotional, geologic, and journalistic communication is the yardstick by which the success of my photography is measured.

I try to produce not only a scientifically appropriate picture, but one that, at the same time, is aesthetically pleasing. I think if you can make a photograph strong enough visually, people are going to look at it longer and perhaps better understand the geological point that was there to be made.

In taking a picture, I look first for a composition that is pleasing to me. I put together the elements of the picture, composing them so that their arrangement is "saying" what I see. My composition is constantly directed toward figuring out what the essential elements are and eliminating the rest. I do that by watching the Canyon and being aware of how the elements interrelate: how a canyon wall relates to the clouds, which relate to the blueness of the sky. It is a continuing process of introducing more elements into the frame without overloading it, without suddenly having so much going on in the picture that it becomes impossible to understand. I try to use a picture to make a single, albeit sometimes complex, statement about the elements, the people, and the landscape of the Canyon.

Too many people are bound up with what kind of camera you use. I think the most important thing is a sense of enthusiasm mixed with discipline. It's important to have a basic enjoyment and love of the subject matter that will shine through in your pictures.

There are infinite layers of meaning in any situation, and the meaning is as much in the scene itself as it is in the mind of the person looking at the resulting photograph. I don't try to foist any symbolism on my viewers. I simply ask them to look "here's a scene that was important to me. You look at it and see what you see." The better the picture is, the more universally it will communicate an idea or feeling.