Patrick Zephyr
Patrick Zephyr grew up in Fall River, MA, where he spent majority of his childhood searching for creatures and natures hidden treasures. Once Zephyr completed University he went on a three month canoeing expedition in Northwest Canada, this was when Zephyr bought his first camera to document this trip. During more outdoor explorations his love for photography grew and in 1998 he decided to turn his hobby into a full time profession of landscape and nature photography. He has since photographed in amazing places such as Bugaboos in British Columbia, rain forests and mountainous regions on the West Coast, Everglades and many National Parks. Patrick says that his goal within his photography is to capture the nature that is around us and in our own backyards, most of his images have been taken less than 30miles from his home.
Image 1
This image taken by Patrick Zephyr is titled 'Winter Forest' and was taken in Wendell, MA. The image is of a dense forest filled with bare trees, snow on the ground and fog in the air. The fog that is consuming the trees gives the image a slightly dull and muted look, it takes away the colour you might usually see during summer or autumn and replaces it with a greyscale appearance. This grey appearance gives you a sense of what it would be like there, it makes me imagine it very quiet and eery with a slight fear of what it beyond the mist. The fog and snow implies that it is winter in this location, the viewer can tell from looking at these aspects that it is a cold setting. The blue tone of the photograph also gives this away making it look icy and dark. The dense forest and slight fading of the tree's in the background gives the image a slight confusion due to the lines becoming unclear the further into the image you look. This gives the photograph depth by drawing your eyes as far into the photograph as they can go. There is no sign of life in the photograph and it is easy to believe there wouldn't be giving the location a sense of isolation from the outside world. The punctum of this image to me is the trees in the foreground due to their darker appearance and the detail of the branches growing from them.
Image 2
The image above is titled 'Lyon's Brook' and was taken in Wendell, MA. The image shows a small water stream flowing over rocks to the front of the image, surrounded by colourful leaves. The bright orange and red colour coming from the fallen leaves implies that it is coming to the end of Autumn leading into winter when the trees become bare. The way Zephyr has photographed the water appears to be through a long shutter speed of around 1-2 seconds due to there being motion blur and no detail in the water. The way this has been done makes the water look like a silk sheet flowing over the rocks with a slight white appearance, this makes the image seem tranquil. I like the composition of this photograph as the stream is directly in the centre and acts as a leading line to draw your eyes through the middle into the background where the trees are. I believe this is quite enticing and makes you want to follow the path to see where it leads. Overall the image has a slight majestic feel with it seeming quite surreal. The surreal feel of the image comes from pictorialism, where photographs are beautifully perfect and aesthetically pleasing, the image looks almost to perfect to be real. The punctum of the image in my opinion if definitely the appearance of the water, its soft silky look makes me feel relaxed and makes me believe that the area is very quiet and safe. It draws my eyes to the image and leads them across the stream in a seamless motion.
Image 3
This photograph called 'Pool of Light' was taken at the Nubble Lighthouse, York, ME. In the image there is a cliff with a lighthouse on it in the background being shadowed by dark clouds. In front of the cliff there is a large puddle reflecting the cliff, lighthouse and clouds. The landscape here is very empty apart from the cliff which shows the only sign of life with the lighthouse and home that is on it. The dark clouds hanging over the cliff make it almost mysterious due to their purple/navy blue tone. The large puddle in the foreground leads your eyes towards the cliff whilst still occupying majority of the image. The puddle itself holds a lot of detail by showing the depth and colour of the clouds and the tip of the lighthouse. I believe the image has been taken with a wide depth of field as all of the subjects (both foreground and background) are in focus. The shutter speed may have been quick, due to there being no signs of movement in the photo.
Image 4
Image 1
This image taken by Patrick Zephyr is titled 'Winter Forest' and was taken in Wendell, MA. The image is of a dense forest filled with bare trees, snow on the ground and fog in the air. The fog that is consuming the trees gives the image a slightly dull and muted look, it takes away the colour you might usually see during summer or autumn and replaces it with a greyscale appearance. This grey appearance gives you a sense of what it would be like there, it makes me imagine it very quiet and eery with a slight fear of what it beyond the mist. The fog and snow implies that it is winter in this location, the viewer can tell from looking at these aspects that it is a cold setting. The blue tone of the photograph also gives this away making it look icy and dark. The dense forest and slight fading of the tree's in the background gives the image a slight confusion due to the lines becoming unclear the further into the image you look. This gives the photograph depth by drawing your eyes as far into the photograph as they can go. There is no sign of life in the photograph and it is easy to believe there wouldn't be giving the location a sense of isolation from the outside world. The punctum of this image to me is the trees in the foreground due to their darker appearance and the detail of the branches growing from them.
Image 2
The image above is titled 'Lyon's Brook' and was taken in Wendell, MA. The image shows a small water stream flowing over rocks to the front of the image, surrounded by colourful leaves. The bright orange and red colour coming from the fallen leaves implies that it is coming to the end of Autumn leading into winter when the trees become bare. The way Zephyr has photographed the water appears to be through a long shutter speed of around 1-2 seconds due to there being motion blur and no detail in the water. The way this has been done makes the water look like a silk sheet flowing over the rocks with a slight white appearance, this makes the image seem tranquil. I like the composition of this photograph as the stream is directly in the centre and acts as a leading line to draw your eyes through the middle into the background where the trees are. I believe this is quite enticing and makes you want to follow the path to see where it leads. Overall the image has a slight majestic feel with it seeming quite surreal. The surreal feel of the image comes from pictorialism, where photographs are beautifully perfect and aesthetically pleasing, the image looks almost to perfect to be real. The punctum of the image in my opinion if definitely the appearance of the water, its soft silky look makes me feel relaxed and makes me believe that the area is very quiet and safe. It draws my eyes to the image and leads them across the stream in a seamless motion.
Image 3
This photograph called 'Pool of Light' was taken at the Nubble Lighthouse, York, ME. In the image there is a cliff with a lighthouse on it in the background being shadowed by dark clouds. In front of the cliff there is a large puddle reflecting the cliff, lighthouse and clouds. The landscape here is very empty apart from the cliff which shows the only sign of life with the lighthouse and home that is on it. The dark clouds hanging over the cliff make it almost mysterious due to their purple/navy blue tone. The large puddle in the foreground leads your eyes towards the cliff whilst still occupying majority of the image. The puddle itself holds a lot of detail by showing the depth and colour of the clouds and the tip of the lighthouse. I believe the image has been taken with a wide depth of field as all of the subjects (both foreground and background) are in focus. The shutter speed may have been quick, due to there being no signs of movement in the photo.
Image 4
This photograph is titled 'Backlit in Rainbows'. It shows an autumnal leaf stuck in the branches of a bush that appears to be covered in frost. The title of the images correlates to the appearance of it, the first behind the leaf appears as a lens flare, showing just circles of colours that look like the rainbow. The reason the frost appears this way is due to the shallow depth of field, Zephyr probably used an aperture of around F4 or F5.6 to achieve the foreground being in focus and the background out of focus. In terms of the title, the photograph is lit from the back therefore 'backlit' in the colourful frost that looks like a rainbow, showing the meaning behind its name. I believe that the dark, rich red leaf is the main attraction of the photo as it is the boldest part. It stands out against the plants behind it which could show an originality or mis-fit similar to how when people are seen as different they stand out against the rest of people. I really enjoy the detail of this photograph, the crisp lines of the branches, the lines on the leaf and the sharp edges that show the leaf in an extremely bold way. I believe this was achieved through the low aperture, to just pick up the detail of the foreground.
Image 5
The image above is titled 'Autumn Kaleidoscope'. It shows a beautiful line of trees with orange, green, yellow and red leafs along the side of a river which is reflecting the image. The colour of the tree's indicates the season which quite clearly is Autumn. This is a very typically represented Autumnal scene as the colours are extremely prominent, it almost looks fake or like a painting. One aspect of this photograph that I particularly enjoy is the fact that the colours and the tree's are reflected in the water, this really fills out the photo. Without this reflection the bottom half of the photograph would look blank and empty, making the whole photo look like it lacks in detail. Instead the photo is full of life, full of detail and really draws your eyes into it. As I mentioned before the image looks fake, like a painting, to me it looks like something out of a fairytale perfectly crafted. It looks quiet, beautiful and idilic. linking to the aesthetically pleasing view of most nature photography.
Influence
Patrick Zephyr was the first photographer that I researched therefore his work was at the beginning of my project. Throughout the project I didn't end up photographing any images that are directly linked to Patrick's work visually nor conceptually. Instead I looked at his techniques of using colour to portray season, weather and the feeling of the area. As shown above this is what I done in the image of my sister. I had her dress in red and stand against the bush that showed red and green leaves. The red leaves especially show the season that I was taking this in, it is very autumnal a good indicator of season and the weather.
Summary
Overall I didn't use Patrick Zephyr as a conceptual or visual inspiration, instead I took an aspect of his work that stood out to me and incorporated it into my own. This aspect being his use of colour, not only for an aesthetic reason but as a signal for something else. Importantly in my work as I was documenting the change from autumn to winter was the bright, abundant colour that was found in Autumn to the bleak greys that came out in the winter. I think this worked really well as it helped me show a clear progression between shoots and the different weather types I photographed in.
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