The Right Photograph for Your Wall

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Choosing the right photograph for your wall

Choosing the right photograph for your wall can be a difficult task. The biggest hurdle to overcome is visualizing it in context with your furnishings and decor. Taping a piece of paper to the wall can help you decide how large your artwork should be. However, the aesthetics and emotional character… the “feel” of the prospective artwork is impossible to assess with only a piece of paper tacked to your wall. Because of this difficulty many of us  postpone our decision, thus delaying the enjoyment that a well-chosen artwork brings to our life. As a gallery owner, I also struggle with choosing the photographs, their size and placement, that I want to show on my walls. Because of these obstacles we all face, I’ve looked for and have now found a powerful and effective solution.

ClearLake w. Couch Pano

Picturing Your New Photo

Last fall I acquired an application that enables me to simulate & virtually display photographs on any wall. I can move these photographs around, try different ones, re-size them, put up a single framed piece or even arrange a group. All I need is an image of your wall to provide you with simulations of my photographs hanging on your wall! I’ve used this service to help more than a dozen clients select their framed artwork… to assess the right size and the right compositions that works in their space.  I’ve also planned exhibits for my own gallery before making the prints and framing them! My recent New Work exhibit of infrared trees was arranged this way.

Service is Free

This service is free – available to anyone choosing photographs from my catalog for their location. It’s simple. Just take a photo – phone photos are fine – of the space you’re considering. Include a standard sheet of printing paper taped on the wall so I can calibrate.  Email me the image(s) with a list of the photos you’re considering. I’ll send you back pictures of your wall with sample photos laid in. So easy! If you’ve been thinking of adding a beautiful photograph  to your home or business, I hope you’ll contact me. Please check out the easy instructions with helpful hints here: Picturing Your New Photo.

Sample Photos

Following are some examples of artwork I placed virtually on photographs of walls that my clients emailed to me. These simulations were used to help folks select & size their new artworks. This process has been satisfying for all of us as  selections were made directly from these working files.

This large abstract image featuring bubbles was considered for a bathroom.

bubbles above bathtub

My client selected between the Eastern Sierras photograph and the Drakes Beach Moonrise for their living room.

road alabama above couch

drakes lrg above couch

The Tamalpais Ridges & Fog  photograph below now graces the wall above the mantle of a collector’s fireplace.

Tamalpais Ridges over Fireplace

A large oak seems fitting above this fireplace:

Stout Oak.

The Bolinas Ridge Triptych was printed large and presented in separate frame for this room.

Bolinas Triptych in Single Frames Bedroom

This large panorama of Double Sun, Abbotts Lagoon was considered for this bedroom.

Double Sun over Large Bed

Joshua Tree Night Sky Photography

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I’ve just returned from Joshua Tree National Park where I spent a week photographing with two of my photo buddies. We rented a house just outside the park boundary and spent five mornings and five nights exploring the beauty of the park which was transformed by March’s welcome rainfall. And although we saw and photographed a wide variety of scenes from the incredible blooms of desert wildflowers to the expressive shapes of the Joshua Trees and rock formations, what is most memorable are the two evenings at Joshua Tree when we photographed the night sky. The higher altitude and the isolation from urban light pollution provided us a magical, crystal-clear view of the stars and the moon during those evenings.

Our first venture was a trip to Hidden Valley around 5AM to await the rising of the waning crescent moon. The moon startled us when it suddenly arose to our east about 30 minutes before sunrise. This was the first moonrise I had witnessed in the desert. I cannot describe the feeling except to say I felt very small as I fumbled with my camera, trying to make the correct exposure as the moon lifted above the horizon.

The moon in the night sky at joshua tree national park

The next evening we arose even earlier, leaving the warmth of our house at 4 AM to look for the Milky Way. We expected it to be visible in the southern sky. This kind of photography was trickier because long exposures were required and working as a group, we had to be careful not to spill light from our flashlights or camera sensors into each other’s scenes.  I was able to get a couple of credible exposures, one each of the Milky Way and then the Big Dipper in the northern sky. Click on any of the photographs on this page to see more detailed larger versions.

The Milky Way in the night sky at joshua tree national park

The Big Dipper in the night sky at joshua tree national park

 

Several mornings later, while walking near Lost Horse Wall, a popular rock-climbing destination, my eye was drawn to several delicate seed-heads glowing brightly  like stars on the darkened desert floor. I couldn’t help but thinking how much the tiny world reminds me of the vastness of the cosmos. Stars above, stars below!

A seedhead resembles a star in the night sky at joshua tree national park

Looking more closely

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I’ve never lost my fascination for looking more closely… into the world of the very small. I’m sure it started as a boy when I knelt on the sidewalk to learn the mysteries of the red and the black ants that lived on either side of my childhood home. So, when last summer, Sony introduced their new Zeiss 90mm f/2.8 Macro Lens, I began to fantasize about the fun I would have exploring the small world, once again, with such a big boy’s tool. Early this March, I broke down and treated myself to one… for my birthday. I’ve begun to explore with this new toy, opening windows into the intricate and fascinating world inches from my eyeballs.

Last Friday morning. I mounted the new lens on my Sony A7R and headed out to the dew-speckled grasses in the wetlands near my home. I found teasels and other tall plants basking in the rays of the rising sun. Gossamer spider webs connecting the plants glistened in the morning’s low-angled light. Noticing this, I crab-walked along the forest perimeter keeping the glowing webs between my camera and the sun. After a couple of windy days made macro photography impossible, I returned again on Wednesday morning. The photos posted here came from those two days.  A more complete collection is here: Teasels

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The teasels expressed a body language reminiscent of human dancers. Webs draped on the teasel heads and shoulders looked like lacy veils. Sometimes I imagined a neural network connecting one teasel to another or out to the vast forest around them. I enjoyed the feeling of timelessness that comes when looking closely… deeply into the miraculous design of the very small world. My new lens has opened up new ways of seeing what has always been there, but oh so easily missed.

CALIFORNIA, dew, morning, teasels, webs, wetlands trailCALIFORNIA, dew, morning, teasels, webs, wetlands trail

On the second day of photography, instead of wandering around the teasel forest impatiently, I found one group of three teasel heads that provided over an hour of fascinating compositional exploration. I remembered to do what I often teach, but easily forget: Look and then look deeper, closer. Stay still for as long as it takes until you see what else is there.

 

CALIFORNIA, teasels, webs, wetlands trail