smeared trees, red rivers, weird dreams
June 14, 2017 8:50 AM   Subscribe

From photographer Julieanne Kost, three different excellent collections of work:
- streaked, blurred handheld pictures from a vehicle in Passenger Seat I and Passenger Seat II
- implausibly colored landscape abstracts in recent aerial photographs
- eerie photo manipulation collages in What I Dream
posted by cortex (13 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
- streaked, blurred handheld pictures from a vehicle in Passenger Seat I and Passenger Seat II

I came here all ready to snark about this idea (because I, too, have a lot of blurry pictures taken from the passenger seat) but decided to click on the links first. And boy howdy am I glad I did because those are incredible.
posted by chavenet at 9:01 AM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Right? I feel silly asserting this about something I already decided was good enough to make a post about, but they're really really good.
posted by cortex at 9:01 AM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


I've taken perfectly unblurred photos from a car (use a high enough shutter speed), and very blurred pictures from a car (too low of a shutter speed), but these all hit the sweet spot.

Haven taken good photos from a car moving 45 miles an hour (well, at least one good photo), I can tell you with confidence that after you know what shot you are trying to get, you have to try a lot to then get that good shot - as composition and framing at high speed aren't an easy thing to accomplish.

Yeah, I really like these.
posted by el io at 9:37 AM on June 14, 2017


It's one of those "I could do that" type art concepts, where it's easy to think how easy it would be to do it -- except that A. you didn't do it, and B. if you tried, you might find it's actually harder to do it this well than you assume.

What I like about those kinds of art concepts is that they make for great inspiration and learning. As an amateur photographer, it'll be fun and instructive for me to replicate this concept next time I'm in a passenger seat, and maybe along the way I can come up with an original idea of my own.
posted by cubby at 9:59 AM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


*gasps* It's HER!

I have been looking for this photographer FOR SO LONG after seeing just one un-credited photograph years ago, thank you so much!!!
posted by barchan at 10:17 AM on June 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Passenger Seat I and II are great! I wonder what the shutter speed/MPH combo was. Her use of depth of field really makes some of these... I wonder if she planned her focus distance ahead of time.
posted by Grimp0teuthis at 10:22 AM on June 14, 2017


The Passenger Seat photos are remarkable.

I think it would be interesting to see this aesthetic used in a video where the camera was stationary but the objects in frame moved naturally (e.g. trees waving in the wind). It obviously couldn't be made in the same way, with the camera whipping by at high speeds. But these photos are interesting because the movement artifacts look like they're features of an alien world or features of an alien perspective. Introducing movement but not having the frame move could heighten that effect.
posted by painquale at 11:59 AM on June 14, 2017


if you tried, you might find it's actually harder to do it this well than you assume.

If you wanted to try, she would be one of the best persons to explain how. I was surprised, in her bio, to see that in addition to her fine art background Kost has a degree in psychology. It certainly helps in her job explaining Photoshop and Lightroom as one of Adobe's chief 'evangelists.'

Earlier this year she blogged specifically about working with her Antarctica photos.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:02 PM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Her Instagram feed is a constant joy...
posted by twsf at 2:19 PM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Aerial photos are just too cool. Hers are really nice.
posted by Windopaene at 7:37 PM on June 14, 2017


Anybody can take a happy snap from a moving car.

Using motion blur like a brush, though? That takes skill. Working out that motion blur can and should be used like a brush? That's inspired.

These are wonderful.
posted by flabdablet at 7:53 PM on June 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


My favorite passenger seat photography trick is to confuse the auto-stitching panorama mode in a camera that has it by doing a panorama while in motion, it's wonderfully glitchy (self link just to illustrate the effect - try it out!)
posted by jason_steakums at 8:07 PM on June 14, 2017


Her blog is a trove of outstanding Photoshop and Lightroom advice!
posted by carmicha at 3:27 AM on June 16, 2017


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