How I learn to see things differently and be more creative

In an attempt to learn to look at subjects with different eyes and be more creative I have choose the Mobile-home,  the infamous Trailer as a subject. I felt that this would offer a good challenge to my creative process and force me to think "Out of the Box" if I had any hope of making any good images at all. Often while out shooting with my photography buddy and would stop at a trailer to shoot,
 I would ask him if he was interested,  he would say "no, that's your style" and just sit in the car checking his email on his I-Phone.Which is OK.  But is the point of the project in the first place, which is to brake my NORMAL pattern/style of working  and try something different. One that forces you to look and think differently about what your doing.  Put another way
 "Get out of your comfort zone"
 and challenge yourself to do something new.You might find that it was fun and you
 learned a new trick or two along the way, I did.

Images number 6 and 4 are good technically but aren't very interesting and do not draw you into look at them beyond a quick look. But they do show what I'm saying about picking a subject that your not comfortable with.  They also demonstrate that I was still looking at the problem with old eyes and not thinking out of the box yet. The comfort zone is a hard thing to brake but it can be retrained.

  

I photographer many trailers before I started to find a look and feel that made me feel like

I was getting somewhere. It didn't happen right away, it took a few months before I was

 feeling satisfied with the results. The vision started to form in my minds eye and I could see

how I as going to capture the image and post processing it to get the look that I wanted.

The challenge had worked! I was seeing in a new way. A way that lent it self to the

 creation of other new images of subjects that I had long felt, " I was just not

 get the image to speak to the viewers". In the process of this project (on going )
 I have developed new skills that I will be refining while I continue to look for
 new opportunities to explore and inspire me to reach past me own vision and create new
uses for what I have learned so far.

You don't have to like the images that I've created and shown in this post.  But I do hope that you can see the transformation in in my creative process and that it inspires you to find your own challenge
and to look for new ways to see the subjects you do and don't like to photograph.

good luck--------------------------------------------------------------- Peter


Legal Notification,
Copyright 2012 - Peter Manship - all rights reserved
Reproduction, printing, or distribution of these images is protected by US and International Copyright laws and is strictly prohibited.

Fox and kits Brandon Vt 4-12-11

The phone rang, it was my friend Bill Jalbert. He said I just found a fox den. Do you have your camera with you? he said no, I looked at the clock to get a time reference, 6:25pm. Where are you ? Brandon. I set out for Brandon about 4:30 to try an photograph the Fox .  I located the spot and set up using my car as a blind to photograph the fox if it showed up. As I waited 5 cars stopped to find out what I was look at and still no fox. At 6;30 a Bill showed up, as we were talking he says "there she is" pointing to the road, I got the fox in the camera viewfinder, Bill says " hope the fox doesn't get hit crossing the road"! The fox walked down the slope to a den hole, looked around and nothing happened, then she moved to a second den hole and out poured 5 kits. All began nursing, when full playing was in order while mom kept a watchful eye.

The photos tell what happened over the next 40 minutes or so.

Even though I was about 300 feet from the fox hiding in my car with a camo cover covering the exposed side of the car and through which I was photographing , the fox was very aware of my presence and always kept an eye on my location. I think that the Fox and her kits will end up relocating to a little more private location as they grow up. But if they don't I will try to photograph them as they grow up and show the images here.

Thanks for visiting

Peter

All photographs by Peter Manship

Story and images © Peter A Manship 2011

Everyone that knows me knows that I have switched from Canon dslr-s to Nikon dslr-s. The reasons are simple I had a bad canon EOS 1d Mk III and after working with canon customer relations and 4 trip back to repair the canon mkIII , which didn't solve the AI-servo focus problems. I was very upset about the lost of time and the fact that they decided to not replace the bad EOS 1d Mk III camera. Thats when I deceided I should switch to Nikon. Now after shooting the Nikon D300s for the past four months and I'm get very good results with the Nikon D300s I decided to use this blog to post some image that I think could be of interest to others. So here goes.

Driving home from Middlebury Vt on May 28th 2010 I was being followed by a bad storm, as I driving along I noticed brite flashes of light in the rear view mirror. I thought that I should pull over and try to photograph the rapidly approaching storm. Setting up my camera and tripod as quickly as I could and started shooting when I noticed the cars passing by which I thought I could capitalize on and incorporate into the images I was making. The rest is history, here are some of the images from that night. Enjoy!

Using the car light as car-trails during the exposure created a story within a story type image , one of my favorites. I was quite happy with the results, try it some time!

Thanks for stop by

Peter Manship

All image taken by Peter Manship and are subject to international copyright laws

Election Day in Vermont 2008

After voting and going to the dump I called my friend Harry to see if he had any interest in making run up Rt 22a on the western side of Vermont looking for hawks. Rt 22a runs north south in what is called The Lemon Fair Valley which is mostly broad flat farm country. Miles of hay fields perfect hawk country, in the spring and fall it is not uncommon to see 3 or 4 types of hawks and 20 plus sittings. Not this day though, we found a pair of Rough-legged Hawks early on in the trip but the winds started to pick up. Which makes birding of any kind difficult. In Bridport I turned off 22a and Harry immediately asks; Where we going?, to check a manure pile for Snow bunting or Horned Larks, I said. No larks or bunting,but if you stay on this road it loops around and you will eventual get back to rt 22a. As we round the corner in the village I see a 1954 Ford flatbed truck that's just begging me to take it's photo, so I stop. Harry says; Pete a pile of old rust just what you love, he's right of coarse he's been through the drill before. I'm standing there taking photos of the truck when a old Vermonter is heading this way , I ask if he's the owner ? What happens next could only happen out in real farm country. What it to ya?, He said. I'm doing a book about old Vermont hill farms-he reaches for his wallet and hands me his business? card which reads "I'm somewhat of a bullshitter ............. I couldn't help but chuckle , looking up at him there was a twinkle in his eyes and a warm smile on his face. He extended his hand , Please to meet you! We spent the next 45 minutes or so talking about anything and everything. He was joined by a friend from town who had just voted, all the while people were voting in the restored Free Mason's Building right behind us. Kent had parked his truck just to the side of it , you see his truck was like a rolling protest sign for many subjects and personal causes. We talked about many of them and got some local history too. When I ask Kent (76 yrs old) about his buddy in the cab of the truck he just replied, that's my drinkin buddy - don't talk much. Amongst the political bumper sticker was a sign that read; KENT for CONGRESS! and the stories rolled on. Harry was having a time of it talking to Kent, I asked if I could come up and visit him at his farm, he said sure but I'm a night owl so don't come before noonish OK! I can't wait to go visit him at his farm in Bridport, he told me that he has all kinds of old cars and trucks mostly from the late 30's to the 60's.
We could have stayed and talked for hours but we had to move on. As I turn to leave I noticed there was a American flag flying high over the village green and I thought that this is what makes America so great, in a small Vermont town people were voting for the next president, Kent had parked his rolling protest out front and no one cared. The people were voting for their future and their children's future and everything just seemed like it was normal again to me.
Thanks for visiting

Peter Manship
Revisited:
As I traveled around New England before the election there were many many John McCain sign up all over Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and hardly any for Obama. I couldn't help but wonder about that, it seemed like people were afraid to put signs out for Obama . But on election day the Silent Majority came together in great numbers and spoke with their votes. Which felt very good to me, Americans voting and the will of the people making history. Pete

Happy Halloween in Vermont

As if Halloween isn’t scary enough this the first post on Somewhere in Vermont’s color blog that will cover everything that the black and white blog doesn’t.

Riding down Rt 22a in Bridport Vt on our way home from Dead Creek Carol and I found these beautifully carved pumpkins sitting on fence posts at the edge of a field for all to see. Well with the sun setting I just had to stop and get a few photo’s after all this is the start of the Somewhere in Vermont color image blog. I am testing this new wide blogger format and have a few kinks to work yet.

Happy Halloween!

Peter