Archive
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC Recognizes BSG’s FLAMINGO PREENING
National Geographic Recognizes BSG’s FLAMINGO PREENING….[VOTE CLOSED]: Final Tally in their Daily Dozen Editor’s favorite images for September 12, 2016.. Thanks for your support.
FLAMINGO PREENING
Addendum: Final Tally: 10 behind second place image from Saudi Arabia and 24 more votes took top billing from Singapore. Considering the images and votes were from all around the world and chosen by National Geographic, I am honored to have been a part of the competition.
NATURAL DESIGNS/ Birds of a Feather / COLOR ACCENT A PROJECT
I have been communicating and connecting on LinkedIn with many Interior Designers as of late.We have been discussing residential and commercial properties… and in my humble opinion, so often, I see a beautiful project with perfect lighting and spectacular design, yet there is
Peacock Triptych, 2015
Flamingo Triptych, 2014
something missing. To me, the pièce de résistance should be impactful Fine Art Photography that brings the space together. Images, that by themselves, evoke an unsolicited “wow” response from the viewer. Imagery that the visitor will think about well after they have left the property…and that they will long remember, as well as where they saw them.
Contact us directly at: barrystevengreff@gmail.com… to discuss your next unforgettable project, additionl images for which can be viewed at: http://www.barrystevengreff.com
After a Long Slow Burn, Time to Cool Down and for Dawn of a New Day
After a slow burn, no matter how long it takes, there must come a time to cool off and start a new cycle. It’ never easy, it’s not inevitable but it is necessary to avoid the alternative.
Tequila Sunset, 2014
So, whether actually physically ready or not, at least we must try to power the mind through… toward a new beginning. For if you don’t, you will only continue on, like the recent past, and reach a dead end…..and at least for me, I have never been good at dead ends, there’s nothing to see, nothing to photograph, nothing to create…only death and end, both too finite for my tastes.
So here it goes toward pushing through, to realizing, at least first mentally, that all bad must come to an end at some time and a new day must soon begin. …Here’s hope.
To that end, sometimes starting over, an image does not have to involve alot in order to evoke emotion. Sometimes going back to simple positioning, if not pure contrast and searing color, and nothing else, can get your point across. You don’t have to over do it…just do it right.
Cure the Blues with a long, dry walk into the Ocean / Lit Pier
For me, in the past, nothing cures the blues, or brings you right into them, like a walk out on the pier at night. No matter what time of year, there is ususally a nice breeze blowing and once out toward the end you are walking just above the ocean waves.
Lit Pier, Deerfield Beach, FL, 2014
If you are lucky during the summer months you might see some lightnining strikes out at sea, but whatever time of year you head out, you are sure to take a mental break from whatever is happening in your life at the time as the sea flows around you.
So, in order to cure the blues, head straight for them…the deep dark blues…and hopefully you can accomplish this and ..still stay dry.
_________________INDEPENDENCE DAY 2016__________________
“Whose broad stripes and bright stars, Through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, Were so gallantly streaming”..More stars than in 1814 when Francis Scott Key wrote those words, but this is my version of the image upon which they are based.
Broad stripes and bright stars, so gallantly streaming, 2014
Here’s to independence….it cannot be overrated.
Feeling the Heat / Good Days, Bad Days
River of Grass, Florida Everglades, 2009
Towering Inferno, Florida Everglades 2007
“In the days of my youth, I was told what it means to be a man.
Now I’ve reached that age, I’ve tried to do all those things the best I can.
No matter how I try, I find my way into the same old jam”..
Good Days Bad Days,
Led Zeppelin
Says it all…I got nothin’ else.
Magnum Editors recognize BSG’s jellyfish image:”Ascension” from his FLOW series in their Magnum Photos Award Competition Gallery 2016
Magnum Photos is historically, one of the most well respected names in photography. It is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo.
According to its co-founder (and one of the great photoraphers of our time), Henri Cartier-Bresson “Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually.”
The iconic Robert Capa, Cartier-Bressson and a few other founding members created Magnum http://www.magnumphotos.com/ in Paris in 1947. Over time it has continued operating by its roster of members who are some of the greatest names in the history of photography, such as Ansel Adams, Eve Arnold, Cornell Capa, Bruce Davidson, Elliot Erwitt, Ernst Haas, Dorothea Lange, Mary Ellen Mark, Steve McCurry, James Natchwey, Martin Parr, W. Eugene Smith, Alec Soth and Sebastio Salgado, to name a few.
For the Editors of this hallowed institution, who deal with such incredible photography each day, to recognize my work and prominently display it, is a great honor for which I am truly grateful.
Diary of a Fine Art Print / Amongst other things, it’s all in the Details
Niagara, 2006
(Cropped portion of people and bird from- Niagara, 2006)
The discussion as to what makes a Fine Art photograph is one for the ages. I have long respected the genre and have worked diligently to hone my craft. Although there are various definitions of what makes a photograph fine art, I subscribe to a more tradional theory that such an image is created with an aesthetic intention, that the value lies primarily in its beauty, rather than for journalistic, editorial or commercial purposes. I also believe that the image should tell a story, be unique, iconic, powerful…or all of the above. As beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, so goes a fine art photograph which usually entails vetting by those respected in the field. Knowing this, I fearlessly spent my early years placing my work in front of some of the most well respected photographers, gallerists, curators and collectors in the business. With the help of their support, the work was widely published in fine art magazines, exhibited in galleries across the U.S. and over time, a significant resume was built.
I believe that one of my signature images, Niagara, clearly exemplifies these equalities (shot from atop a hotel two miles away to capture this angle)… It has countinously been singled out by many of those alluded to above, in that the composition juxtaposing the grandeur of the falls with the minutia of the toursists indicates just how small we humans are in comparison to the forces of Mother Nature.
After getting past the composition (and then lighting, both of which cannot be adequately discussed in a blog post, if at all), I personally take significant pride in capturing the exacting details of a scene, whether it be the people in this image or the fine feathers in one of my close-up animal portraits.
Then, finally, and consistent with the teachings of the great Ansel Adams himself, capturing the image is only one half of the process. The printing (again, not something that can be covered here), is crucial to the creation of a fine art photographic print. Being true to the process, I hand print each of my images (up to 17″ x 22″) on a professional Epson 3800 printer using Hahnemuhle Fine Art Pearl paper and I personally oversee the larger prints to make sure they are color correct (again, another significant concern for another day) and that they print without a single unexpected blemish.
Finally, I pride myself on the key details of my images being “tack” sharp, as exemplified by the enlarged cropped portion of the image above. Although some of the older images can go only so far, as a perfectionist, I have gone through an entire roll of paper (athough thankfully not often) in order to ultimately create a single large print for a collector, and to my exacting standards. When a gallerist who regularly sells the work of masters such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston calls my prints “magic,” I know that I am doing something right.
Hence, there are many sources by which one can obtain a Fine Art print. I simply offer one that is created in my mind’s eye…and always from my heart. It is universally accepted that the first rule of collecting fine art photographyy is to actually enjoy the work. Hence, I strive to create images that make the viewer not only think…but feel, and I have been honored to have satisfied a wide array of selective collectors, and look forward to doing so for many others in the future.
Colors of the City / Broadway Lights
Cab Ride in the Rain, Radio City Music Hall, NYC 2009
Tonight Belongs to Phantom, NYC 2008
Don’t Let the Lights Go Out on Broadway, NYC 2012
As a photographer, even one whose first love is nature, I never could walk around the streets of Manhattan at night without a camera. The constant motion of the yellow cabs, the continuously changing mega screens in Times Square and even the lit billboards, create a canvas of possibiities to make a great image come to life. Cab Ride, shot from the back seat of a Yellow Cab as the CNN cast scrolled by, took several drives around the corner to get just what I was looking for.
Phantom was much easier to shoot as long as I avoided being run over by any one of the various forms of NYC’s transportation vehicles such as taxis, limos, or tricked out bicycle chariot/rickshaws.
Finally, being able to spread out tripod legs and use a long lens allowed me to capture an electrician repairing a single light amongst millions in the heart of Times Square. Timing the capture was critical to its composition because the images on the screens changed every few seconds. Clearly, this man’s job was to make sure… the lights don’t go out on Broadway (nod to Billy Joel).
Missing the Mountaintops / Lofty Goals
Mountaintops Reflected, West Yellowstone, MT 2010
With all the News reports of snow around the country, I miss the endless photographic opportunities that comes with it, along with the all the chaos.
On this particular day, in a place where snow is a fabric of the landscape much of the year, I made my first and only, unsuccessful attempt at flyfishing in a Yellowstone river. When I finally realized there would be no fish this day, I looked up to see the remaining light highlighting what looked like the clouds reflecting the mountaintops below them. I quickly exchanged my fishing gear for my camera gear to capture the scene before the light was gone. Using the almost sihlouetted row of Evergreens as a foreground element, this image was the one good thing I caught all day.
Later that night I enjoyed a fresh local trout, pan fried to perfection, at a small, West Yellowstone restaurant …the next best thing to catching it myself.
And Now for Something Completely Different / Time for a Change
Fantasy Island, Ode to M.C. Escher, 2006-2010
Albert Einstein is attributed with the clever quote: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Although it has come into question as to whether or not he actually said it, it is still both catchy and thought-provoking.
After an absolutely awful year of health, which is still challenging me through the new year, it leads me to think it would be insane not to try something new going forward. That being said, my work has always been known for its rendition of Mother Earth’s natural beauty with very little, if any, help from post production “magic.” Notwithstanding, over the years, I have (secretly) dabbled in the creation of scenes which have been born in my mind’s eye and then generated from several composite images I have captured over time.
Hence, for the first time seen beyond my eyes, one of my more complicated compilations, Fantasy Island. Created from over a dozen images taken over several years, this is truly one that the viewer can see new things at every different turn. Produced in the mystical style of M.C. Escher, following the composition around, brings you back to the beginning…or does it? It’s enough to drive you insane.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016 From BARRY STEVEN GREFF PHOTOGRAPHY
Rainy Night Dock / Weather or Not, Expect the Unexpected
Rainy Night Dock, Deerfield Beach, FL 2014
I haven’t posted for a while, because I have been laid up due to a couple of surgeries. When I do post, I often look for an image that relates to an event, season or mood I am in at the time. Although I actually enjoy inclement weather personally, and for photography, a dreary, rainy night sums up my situation (and has for some time).
On one of the last nights I had actually been able to go out to dinner, a casual dockside dining experience was cut short by a South Florida rain storm. Although the outdoor patio was closed to diners, I used a bit of an overhang to capture a moody image of the scene. The rain was so intense, it was blowing the door closed and I was barely able to shoot without my camera getting soaked. Notwithstanding, sometimes the worst conditions can result in the best images. Using a soft filter and shooting the scene in black and white, I like to think I created a moody, timeless image from a scene that many would avoid.
Moral of the story, don’t let some unexpected weather keep you from creating something…. unexpected.
Twin Towers – 9/11 – Never Forgotten – Remembering and Rebuilding
Twin Towers, Never Forget
Unable to Post my usual 9/11 tribute yesterday, better late than never, I do so today. Three of my own fond memories of the Towers include this (never before published) pre-digital image I took from a New Jersey hotel room; having an elegant business dinner at the Windows on the World and a wonderful tourist visit with my buddy JC and Goddaughter Ari.
To say that the buildings, their occupants and the first responders will never be forgotten…is an understatement for the ages.
WTC Memorial, NYC 2013
Here in their place, as I have posted before, the WTC Memorial and new One World Trade Center tower rising to the Heavens, to always remind us of our loss….and our determined spirit to rebuild.
Rising to the Heavens, One World Trade Center 2013
Seen Again, but Through Different Eyes / Falling Water
Multnomah Falls, OR 2009
In my humble opinion, the Pacific Northwest in one of the most beautiful places our country has to offer. From spectacular granite cliffs, to sand dunes to majestic waterfalls cascading through dense, green foliage. Back in another lifetime, I went there when I could, to re-charge my batteries through the peaceful energy Mother Nature provided in her most spectacular locales.
The 620 foot Multnomah Falls is the most well-known of a series of 77 waterfalls that dot the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. There are only three higher falls in the nation and Multnomah is arguably the most beautiful of those. A trail from the famous Multnomah Falls Lodge (built in 1925) climbs up the side towards the Simon Benson Bridge and then winds further towards the top. Due to 25 years of spine issues, although I have been known (on a good day) to head down a relatively level trail, this uphill battle was not one that I took on.
Instead, I tried unsuccessfully to capture the entire falls, including the zig zagging upper part, in my frame. The bright light at the top of the image is from the setting sun which also prevented me from properly exposing the entire falls. Finally, using a wide angle lens and a tripod, I cropped out the majestic lower falls and slowed down how the eyes see the water movement, which I could only do after the sun had slipped almost entirely behind the mountain. The smooth cascade and deep green surroundings transforms this visual capture of an iconic place from the usual scenic shot into a Fine Art image.
As my analogies have gone for some time, for those of you who actually read what I say, this also exemplifies the downward fall I have been experiencing with my health. After a very long battle, hopefully my future posts will begin to elicit some hope in that department. We shall see. …Either way, I have captured some serious magic in my time, in my images and in my mind.
Reign O’r Me (The WHO, Quadrophenia)
Slanted Rain, Florida Everglades 2012
With the remnants of Erika, we are seeing a great deal of rain in South Florida. It’s better than a Hurricane.
Often, we can see the storms as they approach. This one was out in the Florida Everglades a.k.a. the “River of Grass.”
Somewhere Over the Rainbow… Way Up High
Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Florida Everglades, 2013
E.Y. Harburg wrote the lyrics sung by Judy Garland in the Wizard of Oz.”Somewhere over the rainbow..Way up high. And the dreams that you dreamed of…Once in a lullaby”
I wonder if this is what he was writing about. (Graduated Neutral Density Filter/Tripod for the photographers).
Now, if I could only get out there and catch some more of them…or at least find that Pot of Gold at the end of it.