Tag: Martha’s Vineyard

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Friday Inspiration: David Fokos

I first came across David Fokos’s work at the Granary gallery on Martha’s Vineyard last summer.  David works in black and white using long exposures ranging from 20 secs to as long as 60 minutes.  Using long exposures David is able to ‘average time’ to give results that he believes are more representative of our impression of the world around us.  This is particularly evident in  his water series where the raging surf is tamed to give images that are more calming.

In the video below David discusses his process and his inspirations.

David Fokos on Plum TV from clifford reese on Vimeo.

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The Essential Guide to Photographing Martha's Vineyard

I have a number of Countryside Press’s Photography Guides and I’ve found the guides for the New England area to be generally well worth the money.  I was excited then to see ‘Photographing Martha’s Vineyard: Where to Find Perfect Shots and How to Take Them‘ arrive on my door-step. I was also curious to see how someone synonymous with photography on Martha’s Vineyard would share the insights from 25 years of shooting there. Would she hold back favorite sites? No worries there! All the sites that Alison took her workshop to last year are described, with just stunning illustrative photographs rolled in for good measure. There are even the ultra-fine details of how to find some elusive spots such as Lucy Vincent’s beach.

As a guide to the potential shooting locations should be essential reading for everyone heading to the Vineyard with camera in hand. Additionally, the introductory chapters on equipment and dealing with the beach environment are useful for someone who hasn’t photographed extensively along the shore. Go to one of Alison’s workshops, you’ll have a blast. If you can’t get to a workshop, this book will guide you to some of the most photogenic locations on Martha’s Vineyard.

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Spinnaker Pole #1

There are few things that I enjoy more than poking around boatyards.  I was lucky last fall to have a chance to spend some time on Martha’s Vineyard and to have an opportunity to visit the Gannon & Benjamin yard in Vineyard Haven.  The shed that they started out using is still in use, although they now have a bigger building nearby.  I hadn’t realized that these buildings are three sided so that they boat builder can roll the hull right side up when it’s complete.  Poking around the shed there are all kinds of treasures that I can only imagine came from boats that were being refurbished and held onto in the hope that they could be useful in the future.  This spinnaker pole perhaps falls into the same category.  It was in a rack at the side of the shed, starting to show signs of being exposed to the elements.

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Tired, Fat & Happy

Earlier in the year I picked out a couple of workshops that I wanted to attend for 2010.  I’m just back from the first of those – Alison Shaw’s Photography Workshop that she runs twice in the fall on Martha’s Vineyard.  It was an amazing experience.  I highly recommend it and suggest that you run right now to book your place on the next one.

Tired:

The workshop followed the format that most photography workshops do – a flexible schedule that allows you to be at the best locations for a given weather.  We were very lucky in that most of the days we had a fabulous sunrise and sunset.  I think that the class found the sunrise and sunset to be less interesting than what the change in light did to the subject that they had chosen to photograph.  A topic for another post.  After a week of getting up at 4.30 am and then not getting to bed until 11 pm I was exhausted.

Fat:

The morning sessions typically began with the group arriving on location around 5.30 am, and went until the light got bad or we got hungry.  We then headed off to the local diner for breakfast, which was typically a pretty substantial meal since we had been up at that point for 3 or more hours but additionally calories that I could well do without!  Breakfast was a fun opportunity to get to know some of the other folks taking the workshop and to talk photography.

Happy:

One of the things that I really enjoyed about the workshop was the critique sessions.  Every day we reviewed as a group, 4 images from each participant with Alison provide her critique.  This meant that we were critically looking at least 64 images per day, most of which were a unique take on the locations that we had been to in the last day or so.  I felt that this alone was worth the price of admission.  The other thing was that I really felt connected to the group, want to stay in touch and see what they do next.

As I said above an amazing experience and one that I look forward to next year.