I have been thinking quite a bit lately about the elements which come together to create compelling images . Certainly visual components of color, form, line, shape, space, texture, and value all come into play, however I think its the emotion felt at the time of capture that really makes great art. Although an image will most likely evolve past original capture in the editing process I feel its the original emotion carried through, that shapes and molds an image into its final stage. This process is often referred to as visualization but that's not exactly how it works for me. The moment I can step out of everyday and enter the loving embrace of the forests, coastlines, rocky outcroppings, waterfalls and lakes, I feel free and at home. For me the art process begins at the moment I find a connection to the subject in front of my eyes and am compelled to interpret the emotion it evokes in me into visual imagery. Its as if the soul of the natural world enters and joins mine through my eye. Once I set forth to make an image based on emotional relation, I begin to distill what I see and feel into one frame, employing the relationships of the elements and principals of art. These elements are here to aid me compose the emotional connection into imagery however without the emotional connection there would be no artistic interpretation.
"Gator Dance" Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore - Empire, Michigan
The Art of Natural beauty is my way of communicating the amazing energy and emotion of the natural world to others through my escapes into nature with my camera. It is a conduit to our true nature and the relationship all things share in the universal energy that ties all creation together.