corwinprescott

Print of the Month: January 2020

I talk a lot, well maybe not a lot, about my inspiration when it comes to photographers that I love , but there is more to this thing we call art than just the inspiration that gives us an idea when we are clicking the shutter.

To me there is art in light, art in shutter speed, art in concept, and art in display.  

How many of us want to see our life's work printed in books?  Probably most.  I sure hope somebody cracks open my hard drives and puts together a Helme...

Vaunt and Juno LTK for Lady

2020 we are bringing back our dormant series lady.  I feel like I should start talking about series in volcano terms because who knows when inspiration is going to bubble up to the surface.  I've only been doing this photography thing full time for 10 years.  It feels like a lifetime, but I know just looking at 10 years of work a lot is going to change over this lifetime.

It also feels just right to kick off the year with Juno who was my first shoot of 2019, and honestly ...

Earthy Eva for The Jungle

Shelby Mason for The Jungle

Saint June for The Jungle

Reed for The Jungle

Kisa Hues for The Jungle

2020 is Looming

A new year approaches, and with that I suppose I must consider the future.  Without all of you this work does not exist.  I can't even begin to express what your support has meant and how it has allowed me to grow and dream as an artist.

It is amazing what stability has given me.  I have been able to look after my health.  I have been forced to think about why I create in writing these many many blog posts.  Its incredible.

Next year I will still be trav...

Amy Wilder for The Jungle

The light under the loan Douglas Fir that stands in our backyard is something truly special.  Not on every day, but towards the evening with thin clouds it streams in through a break in the trees.  A small but beautiful Hardy Fuschsia marks the perfect spot for a model to stand.  Light bright enough to grow flowers on most days, but soft enough to shoot in.  

If it was perfectly consistent I would build a series here.  Shooting this set with Amy and her incredi...

Rachel Dashae for Into the Wild

Its crazy to think that Rachel and I first met and shot 11 years ago at a meet and greet.  The internet was a different place then we would mainly network on DeviantArt (what happened there) and ModelMayhem (really though what happened there)

And while it seems every website is doomed to ruin what made it special, I have friends that I can trace back to every incarnation of this thing we call online.  Rachel and I have grown so much our work has moved so far from where we sta...

Icelandic Horses

One thing I always try and advocate for when I'm teaching is that as an artist it is often important to curb the the thought "what is the craziest thing I can do here"

A sense of an adventure, a camera, and an adrenaline rush are a dangerous and fun combination, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the most dangerous image is going to be the best image, or even look the most dangerous.  Same goes with the most models in an image isn't necessarily going to make a better image tha...

Devin Willow in the Summer Dahlias

There is a joy in growing my own flowers for photos that I probably can not convey.  You nurture a plant for a year, watching the earliest of shoots come up from the ground.  Water and light, and nutrients, and finally one day the first buds appear, and then they open.  

That alone is cause for celebration, but then friends and models alike visit, and share in this.  I did not create the plant, but here it is, and I am responsible.  Devin's love of flowers rein...

Carolyn Jean among the Daisies (and grass)

The unfortunate reality with photography is that really and truly a great photo is a fantastic lie.  

Models make impossibly uncomfortable poses, and locations look effortless.  Things that seem as though they should be simple and safe are not always what they seem.  Grass and wild grass, while the same are quite different.  About 2 seconds into our shoot I noticed a welt growing on Carolyn's leg and asked her if she was allergic to grass.  She said not that sh...

Freshie Juice for Into the Wild

The hues of summer are a battle.  I have learned not to trust my own eyes because they are deceitful.  I am looking at the subject, at the light, at the scene, and I think I am seeing one thing, and when I take that first photo I am met with the truth.  There are really only a few hours of the day that our brains can't color correct what is in front of us.  

While for a camera I have found its brain incapable of color correcting anything.  Turning on AWB to me ...

DatDeerDoe for The Jungle

Among the wildflowers at sunset I have found myself standing in this field.  Over and over again I am drawn to them, as week by week a new species reveals itself taking over the space that the growth and death of others has provided.  We experiences so much our first summer.  Dandelions gave way to daisies, which gave way to hemlock, which gave way to Saint Johns Wort, which gave way to Japanese knot weed, and there were more in between that I missed thistles I saw, but failed ...

Cam Damage and Ravyn Alexa for Into the Wild

We forget how hard traveling is on the body.  The glamour of a life on the road looks great for the internet, but moving from place to place to place is taxing.  I can't tell you how many times we've landed at home, and the flu has taken me down for a week or two.  I can't tell you how many times we've landed for a work trip and the flu has tried to take me down for a week or two.  

We push through when we have too.  

Cam showed up after working in Seatt...

Snaefellsnes Adventure with Lillias, Vaunt, and Svala

Following our Arctic Nude workshop this year, a couple of us made a trip up to a part of Iceland we don't do on the main trip to explore, and scout out maybe a few potential locations for 2021's trip.

Usually I would do this sort of thing before the workshop, but the timing was to tight, so Lillias, Svala, Nicole, and I took a semi-relaxing journey up with the goal of getting one photo...we did not get that photo.  In the years since I last visited Kirkjufell tourism in Iceland ev...

Kelsey Dylan and Nicole Vaunt for Into the Wild

Shooting with Kelsey Dylan in nature is one of the most exciting and enjoyable and educational things you can do as a photographer.  Hiking with Kelsey on our many shoots I have learned more about the flora of where I live numerous times.  She is an encyclopedia of information able to rattle off plant names faster than I am able to absorb them and commit them to memory.  

Her knowledge of the land, and how she conveys it to me I feel has made me not only a better photogr...

Kayla Coyote and Jay Marie for The Jungle

Taking care of the forest, and garden is so intensely rewarding.  They both require care, and observation, but they live nearly worlds apart separated by only a stream.  So when I went into the forest with EC Bondage to shoot for The Jungle during Modelgedon II I felt like I wanted to bring the garden with me.  Something about the soft colors of the rope, bright colors of flowers, and intensity of the summer green just felt like it would work together.  

In summer i...

Jessa Jordan, Castle Reid, and Avery Black for Into the Wild

Back in the early summer days a giant convention came to Portland, and I was lucky enough to have a bunch of new people come through town and shoot in the forest.  Jessa was in town from Philadelphia, and brought the incredible Avery and Reid with her to shoot something outside of Fauna the last afternoon everyone was in town.  

After a crazy week of shoots it was nice to reconnect with an old friend, and shoot something just peaceful.  Ferns and friends hanging out in t...

Mika Lovely for The Jungle

For me creatively summer has been a time of struggle.  A sunny forest can be green to the point that color correction is nearly impossible.  Bright sunlight is contrast hell, the forests and parks are being enjoyed by thousands if not millions (fair enough the rest of the year I often find myself alone there), and instead of shooting all day I find myself doing the old photographer dance of waking up at the ass crack of dawn, and twiddling my fingers until sunset.

I don't rea...

Milenci for The Jungle

I've been experimenting with soft focus techniques again.  If you saw my earliest work (very little of which is still out only to be found on the far corners of early social media websites) you'd see images shot with hand made lenses that were incapable of focusing, and Vaseline covered filters.  

It was only after investing the time into making these lenses, and destroying countless filters that I stumbled upon a few better less destructive ways to get that soft ...

Jay Marie for The Jungle

Modelgedon II was an incredible experience, and gave me the opportunity to work with the incredible Jay Marie for the first time.  The evening light in the field in the summer provided me near endless inspiration.  Between the daisies, the green grass, golden dead grass, and the forest just behind I found myself looking at the field as a location more often than not.  

Little changes in life provide inspiration anew, and the field while changing only slightly it felt jus...

Ravyn in the First Flowers

Fall is here, but my mind is still all the way back on spring.  I've watched so many plants grow, bloom, and die this year.  These Yellow Anemone's were the very first moment of excitement.  A carpet of green and yellow shot up on our first warm day, so Ravyn and I ran out and shot this quick little set.  

Shooting with tiny flowers and people is hard/frustrating.  People are large flowers are tiny.  Its easy for it to almost turn into tiny yellow dots, bu...

Morgan and Kirstin for The Jungle

Slowly I'm getting caught up on my editing.  Thanks to you all and your continued support I have been able to get the medical testing and help I need to deal with my injuries, and after all of that I'm finally ready to tackle months worth of editing that has built up.  

The biggest issue with my health has really been that I can take photos, I can hike, but I can't sit down and drive, and I can't sit down and edit, but that is changing, and I can't express how exciting it is ...

Kayla Coyote, Tazia Diana, Dahlia Datura for Fauna

Our forest is lush and full of inspiration.  Months ago when we had our first Modelgedon it felt a mystery, and now in such a short time I feel like I know so much.  The color, sky, and light is familiar.  I can find my way down each path.  The turns, and bends have become part of me. 

So to revisit this with those I first discovered much of it with was incredible.

Vaunt Botanical Study - Rhododendron

I think that I'm starting a new thing, or at least I'm starting down a branch that will one day be its own thing.  Nicole and I have been working together for such a long time, and our rolls have for the most part stayed the same, but I feel a shift coming in both of our inspiration.  This home is changing us.  We are growing.

My interest in nature and photographing I believe is quite apparent, but as a steward of a small forest I am seeing new sources of inspiration for...

Jenn St June for The Jungle

Lila Rayne for Into the Wild

3 Pieces of Gear I can't live without!

I'm going to be trying to put out a weekly video with some thoughts about photography that go a little bit beyond my personal work, and more on things you can hopefully use in your artistic journey!