A fusion of art
I have had a few people ask me if they can paint my photo’s, and I always say yes… in fact, I am quite flattered when another artist recognizes my art as worthy to become their art. Painting has always been an art form that people appreciate, the amount of talent it takes to produce a great looking painting is more than we all imagine. I don’t know when you last had a go at doing your own painting… it is hard… so when I see a great painting I am bowled over.
To me, HDR is a way to take photo’s that ‘simulates’ what an artist is able to do when painting a picture. An artist is able to paint what their eyes see, usually they will stand at the scene with an easel and paint what is right there in front of them, and it is without doubt that an artist in this instant is capturing the high dynamic range of the scene, unlike a cameras sensor, that can only capture a limited dynamic range.
My good friends Rowan and Pania Gregson own and run the Boyd Gallery at Harrington Park in the South West of Sydney. I was at a function that Rowan & Pania had sponsored, and as part of their display they had James Boissett, an Australian watercolour artist painting a night scene of one of the local churches during the event. It was here that I met James and it wasn’t long before we were swapping tales of some of the best locations around Sydney Harbour and the beaches along Sydney’s coastline. One thing led to another and before I knew it James had agreed to paint one of my photo’s as a watercolour.
It was actually really tough to decide what picture to have painted, I knew James also loved Sydney Harbour and in particular, the view that can be seen from Blues Point. I had a photo that I had taken about 15 minutes before sunrise and the colours emitting from the horizon were amazing. There was a couple of issues with my image that had me set on going back to try and capture it again, there is a weird structure on the bridge (fireworks or something) and the mast of the sailing boat in the foreground is ghosted. I took this image before I really knew how to fix the ghosting… James was able to eliminate both of these distractions in his painting… and let me say… it looks AMAZING!
Here is my original HDR image…
And after James worked his magic…
I am really pleased with how this came out, James was able to really capture the emotion of the pre dawn, a time of day by his own admission, he rarely sees (he can’t believe how early I get up to take photos!) I will be framing this myself and it will proudly hang it on my wall.
Check out more of James Boissett’s work by visiting his website www.jamesboissett.com and you should also check out the Boyd Gallery website too www.boydgallery.com.au