Winter Blues — TimothyBentley.Photography

I know, I know.

It’s been months since I last posted a blog. And you may have wondered, “Is he done? Is he cooked? Has he departed?”

No, no, and no.

But recently being encouraged to connect with galleries that might present my work, I’ve diverted much of my energy to that task.

In preparation, I created a mini-portfolio of representative photographs to show curators what kind of work I do.

As a subscriber, I’d like you to have a virtual copy of A Singular Vision. Just click here.

I hope you’ll enjoy it, and share it with others.

About context

Being an outdoors photographer, I often find late fall and winter discouraging, and I have to admit that’s part of the reason you haven’t been hearing from me. Once the leaves fall, only a few signs remind us of the wonderful vibrance and vitality of warmer times.

So I’m grateful for this yellow maple I spotted in late autumn.

That image also reminds me to say that I’m a great believer in photographic context.

Those yellow leaves would be nothing special if it weren’t for their context: the bare trees and carpet of brown leaves, all reminding us of the near approach of winter, reinforcing our sense of the courage and resilience of this sapling.

Monochrome

This winter, I’ve been experimenting in the editing room with using monochrome in my colour images. Although colour is often glorious, sometimes simple black-and-white helps convey patterns and concepts in a more striking way.

You may remember this image, taken beside Casa Loma a while back. As an experiment, I decided to strip away the colour from everything except the subject herself.

Now, in her yellow dress, the woman’s image really pops. (The city she’s looking at is still recognizable in monochrome, but less distracting.)

The strong contrasting colour helps focus us on questions her pose implies. What has drawn her here? What is she thinking? How does she feel about the city? Is she at peace? Will she stay long?

New photographs

Much as I enjoy the comfort of editing indoors, I’ve been venturing out occasionally into the bitter January cold, and surprising myself with a few delightful images.

For example, I decided to photograph a tiny park near my home.

Back in the editing room, I undertook another experiment with monochrome. My first idea was to turn the image below from colour entirely into black and white. As expected, I found it enhanced the wonderful pattern the urban architect had created.

But I noticed too that it lost something. That sense of context I referred to.

Sometimes it’s important to crop wider, to display what’s around a subject. When the surroundings could help us understand the subject of a photograph, I think it’s important to honour them.

So, I thought, let’s let the surroundings speak here.

I returned to the colour original, and this time simply boosted the contrast.

You can see the result above. The wavy pattern of white and black bricks is certainly unmistakable. It’s dramatic and engaging.

Stare at it too intensely and you might be seasick.

Although this looks at first glance like a black and white image, notice the surrounding gardens. They have retained their simple brown colour, and the benches still display their understated green legs. In my view, these don’t distract from the dominant pattern, just quietly support it.

And they send a subtle message about context: “This, right here, is the location where the designers decided to plant their undulating vision.”

Colourful homes

Not far from where I live stands a small house dwarfed by Victorian 3-storeys and modern new-builds. It’s little but brave. So one cold day, I took a photograph.

I love the way its bold blue paint, unlike anything else on the street, seems to proclaim its right to existence – despite its diminutive stature.

Another day, another record-setting low temperature. At dusk I bundled up, to see if the fading light would reveal anything of interest.

Half an hour later, I spotted this encouraging poster. “Maybe I’m not so crazy,” I thought, as my frozen fingers fumbled with the camera. “Let’s make something beautiful anyway”.

That, it seems to me, is our sacred responsibility, not just as photographers, but as ordinary human beings – to challenge the ugliness in life with every lovely thing we can create.

Before I took my cold fingers indoors, another upper-storey window caught my eye. I’ve walked by it a dozen times in daylight, never noticing it.

But there it was, standing out under the deepening sky, contradicting the dark impulses around us, with a message from the heart.

The final picture I want to share with you is a reminder that winter does some things really well.

It hosts these dormant grasses, allowing them to cling to their seeds – harbingers of the green sprouts promised for warmer times.

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