Personal Background: Deb Snelson is from Frostburg, Maryland and always knew os the art of photography since her older brother was a photographer. In her junior year of college she went to London for s semester and purchased her first camera. In London she took a photography course and took photos mainly in black and white. She took pictures of the interior of old buildings. After college she joined the coast guard and was the first women to be permanently assigned to a combat vessel. When she left the coast guard she started her career in photography and is now a professional.
Style: Her work is very colorful and is mainly landscapes including water nature and beautiful landmarks. Most of her photos have mountains in the back ground But all of them have stunning clouds. They are clean photos that have lots of contrast. I can't compare this too any old photos because her pictures have such vibrant colors and details that couldn't be captured in the olden days.
Philosophy: She takes photos because she enjoys traveling to different parts of the world to find perfect images. She also has a bucket list of photos to take and places to go. She continues to try and find amazing photos all over the world to share with others.
Influence: Her photos help me understand the planning in getting a good picture. For example I had to plan how to get the best lighting, angles and color in my photos. While taking my photos I looked at how she took hers and tried to mimic the technique she used.
Essay:
Deb Snelson is a wonderful photographer whose work is very colorful and nature infused. She wasn’t always a photographer. She grew up in Frostburg, Maryland where her older brother was a photographer. In her junior year at college she took a semester in London, where she bought her first camera and took a photography course. In London, she mainly took black and white photos of the interiors of buildings.
When she returned to the Americas and graduated from college, she became the first women to be permanently assigned to a coast guard combat vessel. On this vessel she went to the Alaskan waters and patrolled for unwanted fishing boats. While in these waters she took many pictures of killer whales and the Alaskan landscapes. This was the start of the next passage in her life.
Once she returned from the Coast Guard she started taking photos wherever she went or traveled. Over time she realized the art and meaning in photography. She learned how to plan and wait for the perfect shot. She formed a bucket list of places to go and photos to take and she is slowly making her way down that list as she takes more pictures. She travels all over the United States and around the world to get stunning photos.
Today, Deb Snelson's photos have become recognized for landscape photos filled with color, movement, beautiful light and most of all very nature filled. All of her landscapes appear surreal and have a clean look but at the same time are filled with meaning and depth. Her photos are mainly based on open spaces that look like no humans have ever inhabited. Because of all the color in her photos, they are full of life and look like a small paradise. Her photos also often include light rays or a beautifully colored sun. The clouds bounce the colors of the sun back and create amazing swirls of light. Her still life photos are often of everyday things or flowers. The way she emphasizes the meaning of these pictures is through the colors of the photos.
Since I have tried to recreate her photos, I realize the effort, planning and time that goes into making a good photograph. I had to set up props, reorganize props, move props, build backgrounds, adjust lights and take dozens of photos from many different angles. This has taught me that photography isn’t a simple job and requires lots of work, time, planning and patience. Deb Snelson is an excellent photographer that takes stunning pictures. I personally think that she could be a photographer for national geographic.
My Photos
Compare and Contrast: In my photo the fruit is a little darker which I like because it look like the fruit is coming out of the depths of the black. I also have imperfections in my fruit like the spots on the lime and grape fruit slices which i like because is shows that it is natural. In her photo the fruit little spots and her fruit looks like candy. I tried to get the same looking color and size of fruit slice in which i think i didi well.
Compare and Contrast: In my photo I use different sprinkles and a different size cupcake the what Deb uses. My photo like hers has a shadow around the base of the cupcake and has one red sprinkle laying on the table top. In her photo her flame was multiple flames put on top of each other. My photo is just the natural image.
Compare and Contrast: I tried to get the same fruit as hers in the same positions in the bowl. Her photo is taken at a higher angle then mine but I think the angle of my photo looks good. One thing I couldn't add was the extra orange in the bottom corner because my bowl was too small and the orange was too big.
Artist statement: Over the course of taking these photos I had to rearrange many items, figure out how to keep my fruit in place, get the right lighting, right angle and many other things. These photos and this class have taught me that photography is not just snapping photos. It take problem solving and hard thinking to get a good shot. This was a very fun project and I got amazing results. To set up the black background I had to tape black construction paper together. to get the reflection off black paper in the sliced fruit piece I had to put saran wrap on the black paper and rolling pin it out to make it smooth. This gave me a perfect reflection.
Deb Snelson Photos