Interview with Gary Crabbe – Outdoor Photographer, Owner of Enlightened Images Photography (Page 3 of 3)

BH: What advice or photography tips can you give somebody learning Outdoor Photography?

GC: Find your own personal vision. Photograph what you love and are passionate about.

Fill the frame with what you like. If you like something, try and include more of it. If there’s something you don’t like in a scene, move the camera and get rid of it. Don’t feel that every photo needs to be taken from around 5’4” off the ground, and exactly where you are standing. Move right or left, move up or down, look up or down, move closer or back up. Try to draw some connection between the subjects in your photo and between what’s in the foreground. Most importantly, learn to see light, all types and qualities. A great subject in boring light will never be as good as a boring subject in great light. Photography is about recording “light”. Subjects are what you find ‘in’ the light.

BH: From your portfolio, what are your two favourite photos and why are they your favourite?

GC: First and foremost is a recent image of a raven flying in front of El Capitan on a winter morning. I don’t do much in the way of cheesy “art –titles”, but this one I immediately looked at and thought “Native Spirit”. This is as much for the Native Americans that inhabited Yosemite Valley, but also it signified that perfect moment of the universe coming into alignment for one very brief instant.

Another image is one I took many years ago of some cows. I hadn’t set out to photograph cows that day, but rather I was hoping to catch sunrise light on a nearby mountain. As I drove past this area, something made me stop my truck, get out, climb a hill, and there I was looking out over the Central Valley with this huge band of dark grey clouds over my head. A storm front was just starting to come through, and the sunrise light was able to sneak under the clouds along the eastern horizon. At the same time, this small herd of dairy cows started walking toward me, like they figured I was bringing them their morning breakfast bale of hay.

BH: Where do your ideas and inspiration come from?

GC: My inspiration is simply nature, and for me personally, it’s that grand landscape; the majesty of our little rocky planet. If I’m working on a book project though, I have to keep my focus on, “What’s the story, here?” Photography is a communication-based medium, so I keep very mindful of what I want an image to say or communicate. It may be something from nature that people will want to put on their walls and look at for years to come, or it may just be a travel image designed to show part of an editorial feature in a magazine that will get seen for only a few moments, but either way, it needs to be saying something. I just try and keep my eyes and feelings open, so that when moments or opportunities arise, I’ll be there to take note and capture them with my camera.

BH: Where should people go to see more of your work or to contact you about your services?

GC: The best place to contact me and see my images is to start at my website and my weblog:

http://www.enlightphoto.com

http://www.enlightphoto.com/views

People can also sign up for my newsletter and get updates when I add new material. I’m just starting to upgrade the web site from version 2.0 to version 2.5 by putting bigger and better images in the galleries, so there should be a bunch of new images put up this year.

You are an amazing photographer and I’d like to thank you, Gary, for taking the time to answer my questions, for teaching us about outdoor photography and what it means to be a photographer.