Minneapolis Stone Arch Bridge and “Chasing the Light” by Ibarionex Parello
Last weekend, we went up to Minneapolis for a weekend. Not too much of the drive from our place, and we never really visited the city. We spend the Saturday in the Mill City Museum, and went out for a walk in the afternoon on the river, in the Mill Ruin Park and Stone Arch Bridge. There is some beauty in old, industrial areas undergoing face lifting. I liked the place a lot. This is one of my favorite photographs from the day. It is all about contrasts- old vs new and cold (blue) vs warm (yellow).
Much credit to my recent photographs should be given to one photography book. I mentioned reading “Chasing the Light” by Ibarionex Parello few times on the blog recently. But did not have time to write the review yet. As a lot of tips from the book made this image possible, maybe the time is now. Here, I was walking with a camera, ready to shoot, being in the right place at the right time, and being able to take advantage of it because I was aware of the light and how it affected the scene.
I heard about Ibatrionex’ book before, but I made the decision to purchase it only after hearing him passionately talking about it with Martin Bailey on Martin’s podcast and strong recommendation by Martin as well. There is a lot of basic photography information in the book, like creating proper exposure with combination of aperture, shutter speed and ISO, which makes it accessible to photographers at all levels. But uniqueness of the approach come from the light-oriented look at the process of creating photographs. The approach reveals itself in the details like assessing the quality and quantity of light at every moment. Ibarionex explains, how he creates photographs, by finding the light first, by constantly observing it, and then being ready when the subject happens. He talks about something I appreciated and what is often not explained in other photo books – choosing the right metering mode not only for your shooting style, but for each subject matter. And why and when to change it during one shooting sessions. He also explains the 5 draws he uses in his photographs – brightness, contrast, sharpness, color saturation and pattern.
Ibarinex has a very interesting photographic style style, which you can see for yourself through many images in the book. I would consider him a street photographer, but he is not limiting himself to environmental shots of people. Between tight portraits and gestures, you can find some street scenes without people (like title image), architecture and nature details and many ordinary, everyday objects. You will probably also notice the high contrast between light and shadow, black detail-less shadows and bright light on the subject. They almost feel like midday shots, yet it is not bothersome at all. Many of the subjects might seem mundane, but the fantastic light turns them into the fine art. Which just proves this one truth- that photography is all about light.
“Chasing the light” by Ibarionex Parello is available as both hard copy and e-book at Amazon and other major booksellers. If you would like to purchase non-Kindle edition of electronic book, visit the site of the publisher’s site – Peachpit ($28.79 for downloadable e-book, $44.99 for a hard copy or $57.59 for a bundle).
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