Behind the Shot – Alison Shaw Photography

My new favorite

I KNOW. How’d she get this shot?

Here’s what Alison said when I asked her that very question: “Can you hold on a second?”

You see, I’m writing this while Alison’s hanging this print on the main wall of the gallery. It’s face-mounted to plexi, backed by metal, and framed in a floater frame. We (that’s the royal we) need to screw cleats into the wall at the perfect spot. Our little gallery walls are all wonky, and not square. So it’s a challenge.

I waited and asked again – How’d you get this shot?

“It’s a location that I didn’t even notice for years, living on the Island. There’s something about driving past it every single day, seeing it in all different weather conditions, different light, that over time became a bellwether. These days I’m addicted to this spot. The work I’m doing now is so subtle – in terms of color, quality of light – that I really started keying into the tiniest changes. The jetty is visible from the road, so I get an instantaneous read on all of the subtleties of wind, weather, and tide.

On that particular day, it was a combination of rough water, a midway tide, a storm cloud hanging overhead, and a little clearing on the horizon, that caught my attention. I acted quickly, as the conditions are always in flux. It took me all of three minutes to set up and shoot, and this is the result. If I didn’t check in so frequently, I’d have missed the nuances that make this photograph work.”

We’re hanging an all-new show tonight, for our Arts District Stroll tomorrow evening (Saturday, July 7, from 4 to 7pm). We’ll be serving food inspired by the 4th of July. We’re excited that my dad will be here to sign his new book of poetry – Alison took photos for the book, and I designed it. It’s truly been a labor of love all around, and is full of beautiful, thought-provoking poetry.

I think it’s time to crank up the Stevie Wonder – looks like it’ll be a long night… :)

Sue Dawson2022-05-27T19:13:06+00:00July 6th, 2018|4 Comments

Behind the shot: “Rock Harbor II 2014”

I ASKED ALISON about the new photo on our main wall, called Rock Harbor II 2014. We’ve printed it as a large canvas, and we just hung it for tomorrow’s opening reception, for our third show this season of Alison’s newest work. It’s such a stunning, painterly image, I’ll have to convince people that this is a photograph. This is one I’d like to hang in our own house. Here’s what she said:

“I took this shot last fall, right before teaching a workshop for the South Shore Camera Club on the Cape. I had just done tests comparing the new Nikon D810 and my old D700. Being the picky, in-search-of-high-quality person that I am, I test all of the new equipment that comes along. I’m really frugal, but whenever I find something worth the leap, I’ll be first in line with my credit card at B&H. As soon as I ascertained that the 810 produced images with much higher quality, I ordered it. My new toy arrived the day before I left for the Cape – I was like a kid in a candy shop.

In doing last-minute scouting for the workshop, I hit all of my favorite places along the Brewster flats. These days, I’m drawn to shoot images that are either all neutral, or predominantly neutral with flashes of color. So I was looking for low tide, and flat, uninteresting light – that’s the neutral backdrop. Fall is my favorite time, because the plants in the marsh have interesting, often warm-toned flashes of color. In the summer it’s all green, but in the fall, there are gorgeous color variations.

For me, this shot really tactilely feels like I loaded a paintbrush with some cadmium yellow and a little burnt sienna, and applied those brushstrokes. That’s what it looks like on the finished print, but it’s also what it felt like when I was shooting. My technique really feels like painting. I’m carefully composing the shot, and then going on instinct as I create the “camera stroke.” As with my other painterly images, the effect is entirely done in-camera. There’s no post-processing that creates the painterly feel. The D810 enables me to print larger, with amazing resolution, and captures the nuances of color that drew me to the shot.”

Our opening reception is tomorrow (Saturday, August 8th), from 5 to 7:30pm.

Sue Dawson2022-05-28T17:23:42+00:00August 7th, 2015|2 Comments

Behind the shot: “Oak Bluffs 2015”

I ASKED ALISON about the new photo on our main wall, called Oak Bluffs 2015. We’ve printed it as a large canvas, and we just hung it for tomorrow’s opening reception, for our second show this season of Alison’s newest work. It’s mesmerizing – it looks like it’s just floating on the wall. Here’s what she said:

“That’s the direction I’m going in now – a more muted palette, fewer primary colors. It doesn’t have to be dawn or dusk for me anymore. I used to look for a stronger color palette, which you’ll find early or late in the day. But now I’m watching for the really subtle things that are happening. Quiet things, like the two different flat calms going on in the water in this shot. I love the height of the tide – almost covering the rocks, with just a few of them poking through. If you could see all of the rocks, it’d be really seaweedy, really messy-looking. This just gives you a hint of the rocks.

It’s a location that’s so subtle, you’d never stop and take a touristy picture there. It’d never be subject matter that you’d hear, “Oh, honey, let’s stop and take a picture.” I feel like what I’m looking for now is something that’s evocative, but understated – something I think is beautiful, but not in an obvious way. A scene where a little change of light, wind direction, wind velocity, the tide, will make me screech to the side of the road, get out my camera, and ignore my appointments for a half hour.

I drive by this spot every day, and pay attention to what the tide’s doing, what the water’s doing, what the light’s doing. I stop there once a month and take pictures. But this particular day was unique. The sky was almost white, and the water took on two distinct tones. In the distance was flat calm, and up close, the water was moving over the rocks. So you really have this gradation from the whitish sky up top, to a sliver of the most distant water that’s moving, to flat calm water reflecting the sky, and into the moving water in the foreground. Beyond the end of the jetty, that flat calm is like a mirror, reflecting the sky. And nearest to me, the water was choppy, so I used a long exposure to make the moving water look soft and smoothed out over the rocks.

The centered one-point perspective draws you into the photo. And I kind of love the fact that the thing in the middle of the jetty is completely practical – not picturesque – and yet becomes the center of interest in the shot. It’s totally mundane – not like the fishing pier, which is beautiful unto itself.

I love the concept of the contrast between extreme sharpness and extreme softness in the same picture. And I already mentioned the two types of water – the flat calm, and the choppy waves I smoothed out in the foreground. There’s a duality throughout, really – a complexity that you see, the longer you look into the picture. At first it’s simple, calming, deep. But as you’re drawn in, there’s so much more to see, so much more to feel.”

Please come by tomorrow – Saturday, July 11th – and see it in person. Our reception is from 4 to 7pm, and this show will be here through August 7th.

Sue Dawson2022-05-28T17:26:44+00:00July 11th, 2015|3 Comments

This might be my favorite shot of 2014

WE JUST HUNG a canvas of this image on the main wall of the gallery, for tomorrow’s Arts District Stroll. I’m in love. This is a detail of one of the lifeboats that used to be on-board the Ferry Islander. I’ve heard customers say to their partner (on several occasions) “Honey, we need to buy another house so we can buy this canvas to hang on the wall.” Today, that’s exactly how I feel.

I asked Alison about this shot, and here’s what she said: “The Martha’s Vineyard Museum owns this lifeboat now. She was originally on-board when the Islander was launched, in 1950. The Islander went out of service (for the Woods Hole – Martha’s Vineyard run) in 2007, and was scrapped in 2012. The lifeboat has wonderful layers of texture and color. I love the understated, stenciled look of the word “ISLANDER” on the bow.”

In honor of this photo, and the 12 additional new shots (including three of the Charles W. Morgan, which visited the Island in June), we’re having an opening reception tomorrow, from 4 to 7pm. It feels appropriate to serve hot dogs again, since we’ve had lots of requests since we last served them a few years ago, and Offshore Ale for you seaworthy types. See you tomorrow!

Sue Dawson2022-05-28T17:53:46+00:00July 11th, 2014|2 Comments

Behind the shot: A stormy winter

by Alison Shaw

Eastville 2013

THIS WINTER WAS FANTASTIC for photographing storms on the Vineyard. Anytime there’s a storm in the forecast, everything in my life comes to a screeching halt so I can focus on shooting. Once the storm is close to its peak, I leave my cozy home and happily head out into the elements, telling my family I’ll be back once the storm subsides or the sun goes down. The ones I particularly enjoyed shooting were Hurricane Sandy in late October, which was downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached us but nonetheless packed a powerful punch; winter storm Nemo in early February; and a March nor’easter. Sandy, in particular, was quite exciting, because there were really humongous waves and powerful winds, and it actually rearranged some of the shoreline of the Vineyard. I noticed this most dramatically at Lucy Vincent Beach, where the waves literally scoured all the sand off the beach, leaving rugged clay and stone exposed underneath. As it turned out, it wasn’t just the day of Sandy that was exciting – I continued to visit Lucy Vincent a couple times a week for several weeks. Each time it was different, often dramatically so. The big cliff at the end was weakened by the storm, and kept changing with the tides, until it finally collapsed into the sea.

With Nemo, I took a photo of Menemsha Harbor crusted in snow, the fishing boats and shacks covered in snow and ice, and a dramatic sky overhead. Earlier that day my car had gotten stuck in a snowdrift for the first time ever. Even though there wasn’t a lot of snow, the wind was creating significant drifts. I always foolishly plow through them, but this time didn’t work so well. Another car got stuck at the same time. I walked home through the snow to get a shovel, then hiked back to my car near Ocean Park to shovel it out. Total fail. Then, luckily, a guy with a large bucket-loader came to our rescue and pulled the cars out.

The March nor’easter brought high seas, spitting snow and rain, and strong winds. It was during this storm that I photographed the dock (top photo) at Eastville Beach – or what was left of the beach. What makes this shot unusual and compelling is that you’re not grounded by seeing the beach at all. In normal, non-storm conditions, the beach is very much in evidence. Here, the dock is isolated within the water – it’s a dock from nowhere, to nowhere.

To shoot this photo, I parked my car as close to the dock as I could, and planted my heavy tripod on the beach. I positioned my body to block the snow and wind from the lens, and took repeated exposures of 2 to 6 seconds, while the waves crashed over and through the dock and pilings. I chose a slow shutter speed to create the misty effect, caused by the motion of the waves. The bright reflection down the middle of the dock was caused by water sweeping over the dock as the waves broke, the wet wood reflecting the color of the gray sky. I stayed out in the frigid, windy, wet elements as long as my camera and I could bear it, and then took refuge in my car to warm up. Once my camera and glasses were dry (I keep a bunch of old white t-shirts in my car for this purpose), and I had feeling back in my fingers, I headed back out on the beach for another 5-minute stint. I pretty much repeated that process until the wind settled down a bit, making the conditions less ideal. One of the things I love about the resulting photo is the composition – the dock creates a strong line, leading your eye directly to the tip of West Chop in the distance.

We’ve just printed this image on canvas – big – and hung it on the main wall for the new show at Alison Shaw Gallery. Sue picked a deep blue-gray for the wall, to match the tones in the photo. The Arts District Stroll is tomorrow night (Saturday, July 13th), from 4 to 7pm – come by if you’re on the island.

Sue Dawson2022-05-28T18:36:57+00:00July 13th, 2013|5 Comments

Behind the shot: The “swimmer” series

by Alison Shaw

I’VE BEEN WORKING ON A NEW SERIES of photos of “Swimmers” at our local indoor pool. Truthfully, it started out as something I could do to pass the time while my daughter Sarah swam with the swim team each week, while I, otherwise known as “Mom’s taxi service,” waited until it was time to transport her back home.

It wasn’t long before the snapshots I thought of as entertainment turned into work I really cared about, as I filled up at least one memory card each Thursday afternoon, and headed back to my studio to download the images and tweak them a little in Lightroom.

I’ve been playing a lot with motion photos over the past few years, most recently starting to use my camera like a paintbrush, and “sketching” or “painting” with my camera. In the case of Sarah and her teammates on the swim team, I panned them with the camera as they swam past me, using a slow shutter speed to intentionally try to pick up the sense of motion, while simultaneously abstracting the images to a certain degree. I’m always trying to capture the “essence,” rather than the literal fact of whatever I might be photographing – this was true in the case of the swimmers.

There’s no doubt that Sarah (who, by the way, is an excellent swimmer) had to put up with a lot of silliness and demands from her mom, but after all these years I think she’s used to that. These include but were not limited to:

making her arrive at the pool a half hour early so that my lens had adequate time to de-fog.
making her squeeze into a hot pink bathing suit that was two sizes too small for her.
making her borrow a swim cap from her instructor, since her own cap was covered with distracting logos.
signing her up for a second session of swim team – this time it can be a “business expense.” And by the way, the same is true of the brightly-colored swim caps and kickboards I’m ordering on-line …

Sue Dawson2022-05-28T19:40:05+00:00April 2nd, 2009|0 Comments

My new favorite

Behind the shot: “Rock Harbor II 2014”

Behind the shot: “Oak Bluffs 2015”

This might be my favorite shot of 2014

Behind the shot: A stormy winter

by Alison Shaw

Behind the shot: The “swimmer” series

by Alison Shaw

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