Statement of Technique

I have always seen my self a traditionalist, classical or straight photographer. Although my work for the most part follows that path, I feel at times that I must veer slightly off the beaten path and make some judgement calls in order to make my photographs work. For my fine art photography I try to create it as I have seen it in my mind's eye, although I use Photoshop to dodge burn, lighten, change selective contrast I don't use it to modify shapes, such as make mountains bigger, trees smaller, add or combine images. Occasionally I will employ the use of a variety of coloured filters from light yellow to medium yellow/orange to deep red at the time of exposure to enhance contrast which helps create mood and drama.

 I use the clone tool to remove dust, scratches and defects from the scanned black and white film negative, I will at my discretion in unique cases use the clone tool to remove certain intrusions that I can not readily crop out when making my photograph in the field, that might include, tree branches or power lines that show in small parts of the sky area of my photographs for example. For the most part the majority of my photographs are "full frame" un-cropped, I always strive to capture my compositions as I see them in the field, of course there are times when that is not always possible and cropping an image is a must to make for a stronger composition, however my goal and challenge that I find rewarding is to find those natural compositions as I have seem them in my mind.

 Gary Nylander
April 2015