Monet's Garden
Everyone always asks what genre of photography I enjoy most. Without a doubt, it's the more creative side of art photography - abstract but still based on real subjects - what I refer to as impressionist-inspired photography. I am a photography purist and cannot bring myself to get acquainted with Photoshop or any other digital editing program, other than to adjust contrast and exposure a little after the image has been taken. The challenge for me is to see the interplay of light, colour and texture in life and then capture it with my camera. For my impressionist-inspired works I usually use a shallow depth of field and get in close with a macro lens. This gives a wonderful soft edge to the overlapping colours and textures, almost like they are dissolving into one another. Getting the light just right through the lens is crucial in giving me the captured image that I see in my mind.
Claude Monet dissolved familiar forms into shifting veils of blue, green, rose and violet to produce his most famous paintings. He loved the fog that often veiled the city of London where he spent many years, and said: "Without the fog London wouldn't be a beautiful city. It's the fog that gives it its magnificent breadth."
Like Monet and other impressionist era painters, I love the fugitive effects of changing light and atmospheres. The challenge of getting it perfect by eye is what inspires me to be a better photographer.
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