new Etsy.Mini(8568904,’gallery’,4,3,0,’https://www.etsy.com’);
A special collection of 5″x7″ matted signed art prints by Edward M. Fielding
new Etsy.Mini(8568904,’gallery’,4,3,0,’https://www.etsy.com’);
A special collection of 5″x7″ matted signed art prints by Edward M. Fielding
Driving around my former hometown of East Haddam, Connecticut (one of many since I was an army brat), I came across a glorious site. Right next to formerly grand home in need of repair, parked along the railroad tracks of the Essex Steam Train and Valley Railroad and right across the street of the old train station now gift shop was this vintage beauty – a pink Ford Edsel.
The Edsel was an automobile marque that was planned, developed, and manufactured by the Ford Motor Company during the 1958, 1959, and 1960 model years. With the Edsel, Ford had expected to make significant inroads into the market share of both General Motors and Chrysler and close the gap between itself and GM in the domestic American automotive market. But contrary to Ford’s internal plans and projections, the Edsel never gained popularity with contemporary American car buyers and sold poorly. The Ford Motor Company lost millions of dollars on the Edsel’s development, manufacturing and marketing. The very word “Edsel” became a popular symbol for failure.
Despite the negative connotations of the Ford Edsel, it really is a beauty of a car. Decked out in all manner of extravagance from the excessive chrome, the elongated lines and distinctive shield like front grill.
I have to thank the owner for parking this beauty for me to discover. A few days later I returned to the same spot but alas it was gone. If there is one truism in photography it is to stop and take the shot when you see it. Don’t expect your subject to be there the next month, next day or even the next hours.
I’ve had countless experiences where I’ve returned to a spot to find my subject moved, demolished or otherwise just gone.
More car photography featuring Ford, Chevy, GMC and other American classic cars. http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/edward-fielding.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=193562
Classic cars in black and white – http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/edward-fielding.html?tab=artworkgalleries&artworkgalleryid=475432
Open edition unsigned prints are one thing, but for the true collector, signed and numbered limited edition prints are the way to go. I am not offering some of my best work as limited editions via my Zatista gallery.
http://www.zatista.com/store/index/Dogford-Studios
Why buy originals from Zatista?
Real Art from Real Artists
Buy something truly special
With more and more things in our lives becoming mass-produced, it is becoming harder to find truly unique objects to which we have a personal connection. When you buy an original work of art on Zatista, you can rest assured no one else in the world owns something just like it. How many other things that you own can you say that about?Express yourself
Original art provides us the opportunity not only to express our own unique tastes and styles, but also share that with friends and family who have the opportunity to see the art you choose to hang in your home or office.Support Artists
When you buy art from an artist on Zatista, you are directly supporting them and their local economy. It is only through people like you that artists can continue to bring their amazing works to the world and find success doing what they love all the while making the world a more interesting place.
A beautiful red classic vintage car parked on top of a sand dune with a path leading down to the ocean. Follow your dreams by Edward M. Fielding – http://www.edwardfielding.com
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Because no one is going to follow them for you.
Off the top of my head I made this list of thoughts about what makes a good photograph vs a bad photograph after looking through a rather mundane portfolio of snapshots offered for sale on an online gallery. Open for controversy, feedback and discussion!
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Good photography is clear and to the point. Painters add to the canvas, photographers subtract. In a good photograph you know the photographer took the time to eliminate distracting elements to provide a clear message. In a bad photograph you know immediately that the photographer stood in the most convenient spot or maybe never even bothered to get out of the car.
Good photography is purposeful. You know immediately why the photograph was taken.
Good photography isn’t boring. In a good photograph the photographer brings something new even to familiar subjects. Boring photographs are always taken with the same boring angle at the same boring height and aimed at the same boring subjects. “When finding the right angle for a shot…’Move your ass.’” – Jay Maisel
Good photography shows consistency. You know a good photographer when they consistently bring the goods. Each photograph in their portfolio is presented with care and attention to detail.
Good photography evokes an emotional response. Good photography grabs you deeply. Bad photography makes you wonder what attracted the photographers attention in the first place.
Good photography is selecting only the best to show. Bad photography is lulling you to sleep with every shot off the camera.
Good photography makes you want to be there, bad photography shows you places to avoid. In other words the bad photographer takes a great dramatic place and makes it look boring. A good photographer could take a boring place and make it look interesting.
Good photography shows the photographer got up early, stayed out late, has their camera with them always. Bad photography is the camera dusted off for vacation.
Good photography brings back a few great shots on every outing. Bad photography is the lucky shot.
Good photography is a unique vision. Bad photography is being satisfied with the same shot everyone else gets.
Good photography shows you something you never saw before or makes you stop and see something you’ve walked by a thousand times without even noticing. Bad photography shows you what you’ve seen a thousand times before. – Edward M. Fielding – http://www.edwardfielding.com
WHAT SAY YOU?
How do you frame your prints?
Modern DSLR cameras produce images in an 8×12 format which is a bit more rectangular. In comparison an 8×10 print looks much squarer. The tricky part is finding mats and frames for 8×12 or 13×19 which is the largest size many people’s home photo printers can produce.
4×5, 5×7, 8×10, these standard sizes that you would get from a photo studio or school photo day photographers are easy to find in your local Kohls, Target, Walmart or any other store that has a home decorating section. But try to find a non-standard size and it gets trickier and expensive.
Let’s face it. Framing outside of standard sizes gets expensive. Rarely does one save as much money as they think they might framing it themselves. Often it better to simply order a framed print when ordering a unique from size from my gallery. Or ordering a canvas print. Canvas prints are basically always made to order and the labor is less than having a mat cut and a frame made to size.
Where did these photographic ratios come from?
Some say that the 4 to 3 ratio comes from the printing industry. 8.5×11 inch was a common paper size even before the first photo was ever made; and goes back several centuries. 4×5 inch film was popular back in the day of large format camera including those press cameras you see in the movies. 8×10 is simply a multiple of 4×5.
35mm format is 3:2 and there are not a lot of 6×4 frames or mats out there. One solution is to shoot with cropping in mind. Give in today’s cameras large megapixel counts, as long as you are not producing billboards, one can easily crop to fit a more standard ratio.
35mm still is 8 sprocket holes on 35mm movie film; which makes about a 24x36mm frame. “regular” movie film running vertically is 4 sprocket holes. Still 35mm cameras evolved from 35mm films used with 35mm movie cameras. Mechanically it easy easy to make the film advance an intergral number of sprocket holes. Thus 8 was used with most 35mm still cameras; one sprocket hole is 45 degrees of sprocket rotation. – Kelly Flanigan
Hip to be Square
Shooting, cropping and formatting for a square aspect ratio has a lot of advantages. There are ready made square frames in smaller sizes like 4×4, 8×8, 10×10, with the popularity of Instagram, frame manufactures have created a lot of ready made frames for this ratio.
Another advantage is the square online often gets shown larger on certain websites. Because the square is easier to layout on a page, photos are often cropped willy nilly into squares, you by creating a square yours is less likely to be cropped in a strange way when displayed in certain situations.
The downside is composing in a square format can be challenging. Square frames and mats:
Wood Frame, 14 by 14-Inch, Matted to 7-inch by 7-inch Opening, Black:
Kiera Grace Langford Wood Frame, 14 by 14-Inch, Matted to 7-inch by 7-inch Opening, Black
8×8 frame:
Malden International Designs Manhattan Matted 8×8 Black Wall Picture Frame
16×16 black frame:
Art To Frames Picture Frame, 16 by 16-Inch, Black
Framing the 13×19 Print
I recently had the chance to prints some photographs on an Epson photo printer at the arts center where I teach. Now what to do with the output without spending an arm and a leg on custom framing.
If you print with a 1/2-inch margin all around (12×18), and then mat with 3 inches all around, you will have an 18×24 matted print, which is a stock frame size found in most art supply stores.
You can choose to frame casually without a mat (poster style) or buy a mat and then a frame.
You can get pre-cut mats here:
10 of 18×24 White Pre-cut Acid-free whitecore mat for 13×19 + back+bag
18×24 frame:
Art To Frames Picture Frame, 18 by 24-Inch, Black
13×19 Frame (no matting):
Art To Frames Picture Frame, 13 by 19-Inch, Black
Canterbury Shaker Village, Canterbury New Hampshire
There were no pulpits or decorations because those things were worldly. “In meeting, they marched, sang, danced, and sometimes turned, twitched, jerked, or shouted.
“Their buildings are very complete and in excellent order. They have a steam laundry, with mangle, and an admirably arranged ironing-room; a fine and thoroughly fitted school-house, with a melodeon, and a special music-room; an infirmary for the feeble and sick, in which there is a fearful quantity of drugs; and they take twelve or fifteen newspapers, and have a library of four hundred volumes, including history, voyages, travels, scientific works, and stories for children, but no novels.”
“In the dwelling-house and near the kitchen I noticed a great number of buckets, hung up to the beams, one for each member, and these are used to carry hot water to the rooms for bathing. The dwellings are not heated with steam. The dining-room was ornamented with evergreens and flowers in pots.”
The people are not great readers. The Bible, however, is much read. They are fond of music. In summer they entertain visitors at a set price, and have rooms fitted for this purpose. In the visitors’ dining-room I saw this printed notice:
At the table we wish all to be as free as at home, but we dislike the wasteful habit of leaving food on the plate. No vice is with us the less ridiculous for being fashionable.
Married persons tarrying with us overnight are respectfully notified that each sex occupy separate sleeping apartments while they remain.”
The Shakers believed God was both a man and a woman. That the fall of Adam and Eve was due to sexual intercourse and that men and women should be celibate.
To see more artwork from the Canterbury Shaker Village please visit my gallery – Canterbury Shaker Village Gallery – artwork by Edward M. Fielding
Just released – a new watercolor series from artist Edward M. Fielding (www.edwardfielding.com) available as art prints, framed wall art, canvas or even on the latest phone cases.
The series features scenes of New England, classic cars and Old Quebec City as well as beach themes for vacation homes, inns or hotels.
The series of watercolor artwork from Edward M. Fielding also features beautiful barns and farms along the Connecticut River which cuts through Vermont and New Hampshire as well as scenes of the Upper Valley region which is home to Fielding’s Dogford Studios.
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth and Ireland), also aquarelle from French, is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. Fielding starts the process with a photograph from his collection of images from the region.
Classic, beautiful doorways and home from Old Historic Deerfield, Massachusetts as well as ornate scenic classical brick and slate roofed timber framed barns from Shelburne Farms outside of Burlington, Vermont feature in several of the pieces. And of course the beautiful Autumn fall season foliage makes for a fantastic watercolor subject.
The above image is the the stucture known as the Old Red Mill in the small Vermont town of Jericho outside of Burlington, Vermont. Chittenden Mills – the “Old Red Mill” – in Jericho, Vermont was declared a National Historic Site in 1972 and is one of two remaining mills out of eight that were once sited on the Brown’s River’s seven water privileges in Jericho. The Chittenden Mills at site number 2 now houses a small museum, gift shop and cafe. There is a park along the river behind the mill.
This classic antique vintage blue Cadillac was spotted at the National Cadillac and LaSalle convention in Lake George, New York.
The sharp fins on this classic Caddy were also found at the 2014 Grand National, Lake George, New York.
To view more of the watercolors in this series and to purchase cards, frame and matted artwork, canvas or metal prints or even a cool and unique cell phone case, visit edwardfielding.com and look for the discount code for savings at check out.
More info:
Fine art prints, matted and framed prints, canvas and metal prints as well as products such as throw pillows and tote bags featuring select artwork by Edward M. Fielding/Dogford Studios are now available.
Links:
North America Product (pillows, tote bags, cases and more) – http://society6.com/edwardmfielding
Europe Sales – Posters, prints, canvases – http://www.artflakes.com/en/shop/dogfordstudios
Licensing RM/RF: http://www.arcangel.com/search?s=edward%20fielding
About the artist:
Fine art photography and digital art by artist Edward M. Fielding. Fielding is an artist working in the photography and digital media. As a freelance artist my work is currently represented by several leading stock agencies.
My work has appeared in featured in numerous magazines, greeting cards, advertising, book covers and media companies as well as been widely shown and juries into fine art shows.
Recently I was one of the featured artists in the PhotoReel art show at Gallery W at the Whitney in the Berkshires.
Moving steam train in animated sequence by photographer Edward M. Fielding – http://tinyurl.com/ocx3o83
Newly released fine art photography images of classic steam trains from the Valley Railroad in Essex, Ct and Heritage Park in Calgary. To see more train photographs visit the gallery at: http://tinyurl.com/ocx3o83
A steam train emerging from a cloud of steam in the middle of the night. Fine art photography by Edward M. Fielding – www.edwardfielding.com
A vintage steam locomotive thundering through a dark valley. Essex Steam Train, Valley Railroad, fine art photography by Edward M. Fielding – www.edwardfielding.com
Night time in a rail yard with a red caboose at the empty station. Photography by Edward M. Fielding
Old worn out train tracks and ties in the Connecticut River Valley. Essex Steam Train, Valley Railroad, Essex Connecticut. Fine art photography by Edward M. Fielding
Jonathan Luther “John” “Casey” Jones (March 14, 1863 April 30, 1900) was an American railroad engineer from Jackson, Tennessee, who worked for the Illinois Central Railroad (IC). As a boy, he lived near Cayce, Kentucky, where he acquired the nickname of “Cayce,” which he chose to spell as “Casey.” On April 30, 1900, he alone was killed when his passenger train, the Cannonball Express, collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi, on a foggy and rainy night.
His dramatic death, trying to stop his train and save lives, made him a hero; he was immortalized in a popular ballad sung by his friend Wallace Saunders, an African-American engine wiper for the IC.