The First Annual Kansas Masters Invitational

Two of my photographs will be exhibited in the First Annual Kansas Masters Invitational Art Show which is being held at Strecker-Nelson Gallery in Manhattan, Kansas. The show opens to the public May 4, 2007 and will run until June 16th. There will be a public reception for the artists Friday May 4th from 5-8pm. For information regarding my work click here.

All of the artists in this show are from Kansas or have been connected/influenced significantly by the landscape and culture of our state. The exhibit showcases the amazing talent of Kansas artists and is also a benefit for the Kansas Park Trust.

The event was curated by Don Lambert who is known for his early recognition of Elizabeth “Grandma” Layton and who is known as an authoritative art writer who has always been an advocate for visual arts in Kansas.

The works in this show rival those in any similar show, in any state, throughout the nation.

Some of my personal favorites:
Aaron Morgan Brown
Zak Barnes
Joseph Larusso
Patrick Deugaw
Jim Richardson

Click Here to see work by all exhibiting artists.

To visit my official website click here.

Photo of the Week

See more of my work by visiting the official website

If you don’t currently recieve “Photo of the Week” and you would like to, follow this link

This photo is entitled “Linear Flood” and was captured a couple of weeks ago as I was heading north on Highway 4 near Topeka. This photograph is available as a limited edition print.

REMINDER: I hope to see you all for my reception at Lawrence Bank tonight. Join us for refreshments and your chance to win a free limited edition print! Free notecards will be given away to the first 25 people attending.

PHOTOGRAPHS EXHIBITED AT LAWRENCE BANK @ 23RD AND KASOLD – LAWRENCE, KS

THERE WILL BE AN OPEN HOUSE AND PUBLIC RECEPTION FOR THE ARTIST!!
THURSDAY APRIL 19TH FROM 5-7 PM
COME OUT AND JOIN US FOR WINE AND SNACKS!!

Between Earth and Sky: Photographs by Daniel W. Coburn
March 26th – April 26th
Lawrence Bank @ 23rd & Kasold – Lawrence, Kansas

Regular Bank hours
9-5 Monday – Friday
9-12 Saturday
closed Sunday

Photography IS Art!!

Why is it so hard to understand? The camera offers so much in the way of versatility and self expression. I don’t think most people understand how much creative control can be taken. The photographer(artist) can elect to have complete control over things like aperature, exposure, shutter-speed, etc. and that’s only the beginning.

Be a photographer for the day!!!

Take your camera off the automatic setting and learn what those other buttons are for! Mount your camera on the handlebars of your bike and slow the exposure down to get a cool zoom effect. Have a friend drive, while you take shots out of the passenger side window. Over expose, under expose, and take some shots that are purposely out of focus. Digital cameras offer you the ability to experiment without spending a ton of money on film.

You be the critic!!!

Go to a photography(art) exhibit and admire the work.

Ask yourself some questions:
How much patience or perseverance did it take for the photographer to put him or herself in the position of taking that photo?

How did the photographer use or manipulate the camera or photographic process to create a unique image?

Does the photo tell a story or explore an abstract concept?

Does the photo cause you to react – with laughter, with tears, with grief, with jealousy etc.

Does the photo provide the viewer with a unique perspective?

Is the photo beautiful? What makes it beautiful?

Is the photo Ugly? What makes it ugly?

Read about Photography as Art:

http://photography.about.com/library/weekly/aa021400a.htm“>

My recent adventures as a ranch-hand and photographer in the Flint Hills.

I love getting lost… blasting down a gravel road with 2 dollars worth of gas in my tank. Grit in my teeth, wind in my hair, and and a thick sludge of mud on my boots and floormats. Ahhh… the glamorous life of a landscape photographer.

Spring is a great time to photograph the flint hills. As of late, I’ve been on several adventures chasing smoke and searching for flames. The weather hasn’t cooperated. Recent rains have kept a lot of ranchers from burning, and it seems things have greened-up a lot faster than usual. I managed to find a good sized burn near Manhattan (see photos.) I’ve tried many times to capture the phenomenon of a spring burn in black and white_ It just don’t work. The hazy orange glow of a blaze against a periwinkle sky makes all the difference.

Ealier this week I made a trip with my painter friend Louis Copt to a ranch near Council Grove. We had planned to observe the loading, transport, and release of cattle onto the prairie. Again… the weather did not cooperate.

“Adverse weather conditions make the most dramatic photos,” I always tell myself before I step out of the vehicle into a deluge of rain or whatever else the Kansas sky throws my way.

I got some pretty decent shots of the people and animals involved. I took a photo-journalistic approach which is something I’ve been experimenting with. Being the “big-city boy”, I left all the prodding to the professionals.

I hope you enjoy my photos
Check back soon,
Dan

“I discovered that nature was constructed in a wonderful way, and our task is to find out the mathematical structure of the nature itself. It is a kind of faith that has helped me through my whole life.” – Albert Einstein

A Recent Critique and the FU factor

It was long ago that I stopped relying on my colleagues and family for an honest critique of my work.

No, that just won’t work. The best way I’ve found to get an honest critique is to go to the opening of my own show and observe. I typically refuse the name tag that the gallery director tries to pin on me at the door_ or I won’t wear it for the first fifteen minutes or so.

Last night, Haley and I went to the First Fridays gallery event in Kansas City. We attended the opening of a juried show where I currently have work hanging. I went directly for the wine table, as I usually do, and then hovered around my work for about 20 minutes just listening to comments by onlookers. Ninety percent of the comments I heard were positive. Many people stopped to look for several minutes, examining the label and then closely examining the work. “Are these paintings or photos?” they would ask each other.

“That looks like a scene from Star Trek.” one older man whispered to his wife

GASP!!

I began to look at that photo again like I had never seen it before. It took me a few minutes before I just started to laugh. If you can’t laugh at yourself, then your taking things a little too seriously.

So what did I learn about my work from this most recent evesdropping session?

Love it or hate it… it’s not boring.

I’m fine with that. With a few exceptions, the rest of the show was pretty mundane. Very few people walked past my work without commenting. I’ll settle for that.

Will these recent critiques have an impact on my work?

Maybe… Probably… I am constantly criticizing and re-evaluating my own work

When to Say FU!
Dealing with peoples opinions has always been a struggle for me. When do you take a criticism to heart and when do you make a dismissal? I create images that I enjoy and find interesting, but I’m always looking for ways to create new images that I like even more. This is why I love the critique.

Welcome!

I’ve now joined the league of people calling themselves bloggers. I promised myself that I would never become one of “those people” but I was having a hard time keeping my website updated with current happenings_ a blog seemed the logical solution. I’m really looking forward to keeping a diary of sorts.

The path of an artist can be one fraught with emotional highs and lows. Many times I’ve found myself simultaneously wallowing in conceit and self-doubt. I feel like I am constantly walking the line between self-expression and marketability_ riding the fence I guess you would say. I hope these writings can give you some insight into my thought processes. I also hope that these writings will keep me from completely losing my sanity.

I enter a lot of juried competitions/exhibitions. My work gets accepted to a lot of those competitions, but I also recieve a lot of rejections. This can be challenging, and these type of rejections fuel the self-doubt that I spoke about earlier. At times, it may seem like I hate the critics and the business end of this thing that I call art_ and at times I do. However, I understand the necessity of a critique and the valuable benefits that agents and galleries offer the emerging artist. I understand that the struggle (I optimistically refer to it as a journey) is one of the most powerul influences on the life and work of an artist.

I love what I do. The art of photography is changing drastically and has done so for the last century. We live in an age when just about everybody carries a camera(cell phone) in their pocket. It’s an exciting time to be a photographer and a digital artist. Some photographers see these new technologies as an obstacle_they believe these advancements will remove any trace of humanity from what we do. I adamantly disagree. With each of these technological advancements I see more opportunities for self expression_ more opportunities to take the art of photography beyond documentation.

This worked! I’m excited to be an artist! Please check back regularly!

Dan

“Nature shows us only the tail of the lion. But I have no doubt that the lion belongs with it, even if he cannot reveal himself all at once. We see him only the way a louse that sits upon him would.” – Albert Einstein