Category: Photography

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Coastal Collection vs. Rolling Stone and Bill Swartwout Photography

Indian River Bridge graces the cover of Coastal Collection.

“…the thrill that’ll gitcha when you get your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone.” (1972, Dr. Hook, written by Shel Silverstein)

My guitar playing will never get me on the cover of the Rolling Stone but my photography has gotten me close. One of my popular Indian River Inlet Bridge photographs is the front/back cover of the prestigious Ocean Atlantic Sotheby’s International Realty “Coastal Collection” magazine.Coastal Collection Magazine w Narrative

I am honored to have my photograph of one of my favorite places, the Indian River Inlet Bridge, grace the cover of this popular and sought after local magazine. Ocean Atlantic Sotheby’s International Realty is the premier real estate firm of coastal Delaware, from Lewes to Fenwick Island.

I do live here and I enjoy helping to promote my love of the area through my photography endeavors.  Hopefully, my images of this wonderful place will help others learn more about why we love living here.

Links:
Ocean Atlantic Sotheby’s International Realty
Coastal Collection Magazine Online
My original “Sunset Under the Indian River Inlet Bridge“

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Are Art Photographers Not Real Artists?

Art Photographers Are Artists. Period.

A recent discussion over at an “art forum” had one self-centered (painting or drawing) artist complain that “Contests with art and photography are kind of feeble on the art side.” He goes on to explain it this way:

Hey, Alice, great painting. How long did it take?
“Thanks Mary, I worked ’til the wee hours every night all last week.”
“Wow, that’s a lot of work – you certainly deserve this honorable mention.”
“And here’s our winner, Bill. Kudos for the great picture of the sun setting over the canal. How long did that take?”
Bill replies, “About 1/125th of a second.”

Don’t ya just love that attitude toward photographers?

I get tired of some artists making comparisons like that. Here is my response to that self-centered complainer:

Actually one of my best selling photographs was captured in less than that 1/125th of a second. But that is only one tiny moment of the hours and hours needed to “get it right.” My best selling series (of the Indian River Inlet Bridge) has me being there on several dozen different occasions – in all kinds of weather (well, mostly good weather but in temperatures from below freezing to nearly 100 degrees (F). Oh, yeah, I’ve been “on location” from before sunrise to nearly midnight. And I have made, literally, thousands of exposures – which need sorting, culling and processing/editing down to the select few that exhibit what I saw when I made that short camera click. Yeah, maybe it would be nice to stay home, even if up ’til 2:00 AM, in my air conditioned home.

Indian River Inlet Bridge at Twilight

In summary: I sell photographs of places (landscapes/seascapes) that are photographed a gazillion times every year. But for some reason there are people who spend several hundred dollars on some of my pieces for images of the same “subject” that an iPhone captures for free. Maybe there is a reason. 🙂

PLEASE feel free to add your point of view in a comment below. 

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A Sinister Butterfly?

Well, it could be, if you are so predisposed – or if you don’t like bugs of any sort. When I shared my latest butterfly image on Facebook, a good friend, Cheryl, complimented the photograph but mentioned that this butterfly looked sinister.  I titled the piece “Butterfly Victory” because of the v-shape made by the wings. But the little beast does have a sinister-looking face.

Victory Butterfly Art Photograph

Actually, it is the life cycle of a butterfly, such as this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, that may be sinister. These insects are born as tiny worms – caterpillars, really (there is a difference). They spend most of their life eating everything in sight – your flowers, your vegetables, trees, you name it. If it looks like insect salad, it’s gone. When they’ve eaten their fill for a few weeks they take a siesta for a week or so and wrap themselves up in a blanket called a cocoon. Inside, during the siesta all of that food gorging makes the caterpillar begin changing into a chrysalis, of butterfly pupa. Even though Dr. Frankenstein has no part in this, it’s body is changing! When the nap is over and the metamorphism has completed, it’s time for “sleeping beauty” to awaken and crawl out from under the covers. The beautiful butterfly that emerges from the long sleep is a promiscuous sort – it will mate (have butterfly sex), lay eggs and die. All that happens, depending on the particular species in a few days or a few weeks. Most adult butterflies, sadly, live two weeks or less.

Caterpillar Camouflage

Then the cycle repeats. But we, as humans, do get to see the beauty in the adult and in some of the caterpillars…as long as they don’t eat our gardens, that is.

Note: the Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly in the first photograph was found “dining” at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.

See more of my photography at Bill Swartwout Photography.