Speaking of inspiration, it does not end with local artists. One of the photographers I look up to is based at the other end of Europe.
His name is Frank Leinz and he is also an avid landscape and travel photographer. I came across his works by pure chance, someone from my Facebook friend list had shared an image of his and I immediately became a fan. Truth be told, I often use Facebook to scout for amazing photographs and use groups as both a means to promote my work AND a way to learn.
Frank is a also a travel photographer BUT unlike Krasi Matarov he is not a fan of camping at the place for days to get the perfect shot. I love his ability to create dream-like scenes, regardless of the weather conditions, season or location:
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| Fig 1 – Leinz, Frank – Mystery Castle, 2016 |
Leinz was obviously lucky with the mist and the drama in the clouds but apart from that, there is something subtle in the image. It is still a very popular location, Burg Eltz castle in Germany but it doesn't scream out loud "I am a commercial" or "I am a cliché" and I try to incorporate this into my approach, too. This is a very popular 'photographic' place but as you can see from the pic, there is no one in the frame. No humans, not even a silhouette.
We have that trait in common as we both tend to leave people out of the frame. I have had this habit ever since 2010 - it all started with a excursion to Italy during Easter when more than 10 million people had the same thing in mind. To avoid having crowds in my shots, I had to devise a way to avoid having people in the frame (wasn't that at image editing good to clone them out). Ever since, I always try to keep the 'human population' in an image to the minimum.
One of the reasons I came up with is that some scenes look better without a living soul around to give you the impression that you are the only one seeing this now, as if you are in the image itself. Another reason is that to me, images with lots of tourists in them may have some documentary value BUT they look rather like the snapshots most tourists come home with than the images I aim at.
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| Fig2 – Leinz, Frank – Beangil Sea Cave, 2016 |
The image above is taken at a very popular beach in Portugal, favourite to all visitors but still, Leinz made sure that no one is 'blocking' the view and if you see the place, you are the only human being in the frame (if we count out the photographer that created it).
Ever since I applied for Falmouth, I've tried to experiment with putting a human element into the frame to get more 'artsy' images and I started questioning this habit.
This image is one of my attempts to put people in the frame (which would normally be left without them) to get more impact:
To me, this image really works - because the place, Rila monastery in Bulgaria, is also very famous all over the Balkans. I have visited multiple times and I've tried to keep people out of the frame. The last time I went there, in December 2017, I added this image of the person getting out of the monastery. My initial idea was to keep him as a silhouette. One of my motivations was that I haven't seen anyone do something like this and I was looking for unique angles.
Another thing I admire about Frank Leinz' work is the use of long exposure in some images, such as this one:
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| Fig 3. Leinz, Frank - Pure, 2016 |
It is a classic landscape technique, especially effective in scenes when there is some water and kind of a cliche but I keep adoring the dreamy impact it has, maybe because the human eye cannot catch that slow motion.
Another reason I fall for images like this is that I lack the patience (and the opportunity/ logistics) to create something like this. I would really like to try it but I rarely have the time to wait that long at a location (and I suspect I lack in equipment, too).
Still, I will try to make an effort and see if the technique would work for me.
References:
- Frank Leinz’s Facebook page
Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/fldesign.info
[accessed 13 April 2018]
List of figures:
Figure 1 – LEINZ, Frank – Mystery Castle, 2016
Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/fldesign.info/photos/a.502329203234609.1073741828.502320593235470/892397237561135/?type=3&theater
[accessed 13 April 2018]
Figure 2 – LEINZ, Frank – Beangil Sea Cave, 2016
Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/fldesign.info/photos/a.502329203234609.1073741828.502320593235470/857367027730823/?type=3&theater
[accessed 13 April 2018]
Figure 3 - Leinz, Frank - Pure, 2016
Available at:
https://www.facebook.com/fldesign.info/photos/a.502329203234609.1073741828.502320593235470/810809369053256/?type=3&theater
[accessed 13 April 2018]
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