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Introduction

A Love for Life

I love life. I have experienced life and want to experience more of life in every safe and interesting way, to stretch my experiences to the limit; to love all that there is to love in this life. I have had the opportunity to fly with the Snowbirds Demonstration Team (431 Squadron) as a photographer... so many privileges have been afforded to me in my profession, to travel all over the world and make a living in photography since I was 25 years old.

Portraits are my passion, to create an image from reality to art. To communicate verbally is an art, but to stretch oneself and speak with photographic art, my business name “www.photographicartvictoria.com”, has been my joy and delight. To share and be passionate, my brand FDP – feeling more deeply about photography – has also extended to my personal and professional relationships. As the saying goes, we live life once, and I feel like I have lived many lifetimes worth of experiences, and will continue to endeavour moment by moment in this pursuit. So hang on and feel the wind and enjoy the sun, experience the present moment in life! Every minute in which we are awake and experience it fully is being born again anew. What more can I say but that is what life means to me and relationships must mean and do mean, in the most fulfilled lives and fully awakened experiences.

When you look at my work I hope you can see my passion and feel my heart beating with joy and excitement right to the pit of one’s stomach, and if you miss this experience then perhaps you could read my books 50 Principles of Composition in Photography and The Art Within Portrait Photography. This current work about “the illusion in photography” that is currently in your hands is presented for you to explore and enjoy a different aspect of my life’s work, abstract and artistic photography.

My love for photography is filled with passion, but what is greater than making images from a camera is the continual process that affords the artistic liberty to create our own expressions so an individual is born, with each unique artist being akin to an unicorn, one of a kind and that is what I prize most highly above any measure, to make an image so original that it begs comparison! I value what is possible today by printing Giclees on watercolour paper and then continue the process by painting my added impressions.

Art is the “feeling” one is given, the talent to produce in a most unique way – extremely personal – that can’t be copied because it is from the heart. I don’t mean documentary but beyond one’s visual capability – the interpretation of the recorded or embellished finished image.

More than that – to have a vision – to see from the heart that each image can impart feelings that surge though your veins when the art piece is complete. Taking the photo is only part of the experience; Photoshop can add to the outcome, hand embellishments add one’s own hand at painting on a photograph, especially if it is put on canvas. Giclee finishes have been my bestsellers because of its long endurance over time.

Photography has always been an expression of my vision – not merely documentation. The art in photography goes beyond what is in front of the camera – what has been within the photographer’s mind and imagination. How do you accomplish this with an apparatus we call a camera – a mere machine? The answer is to focus on the result, the outcome, the end product. A chef once stated that when he makes a new dish he can taste it before it is made. As a photographer my vision is the end result – how I achieve it makes it ART.

These are my favourite photographs for me to produce, not only do I have a vision of what I want to finish with but it has also given me the opportunity to envision the end from the beginning! To capture the raw material one must have an insight of what we want to produce like any artist; then work on it. Nowadays Photoshop has afforded me additional possibilities. It is easy to create the outcome I desire. Embellishment is now possible because of the paper and the way one can still work on the image after it has been printed, with other mediums like coloured pencils, watercolour paints, and I have even used oil paints on canvases.

Photographic art lends itself to wall decor for homes and offices. It is possible to hang an artistic image practically everywhere, one that speaks to the viewer or at least can enhance the area and enable the environment to be more hospitable; incorporating it into a space to enjoy and make it more friendly, even in an office.

I wish this to be my legacy, what I will be remembered for and to move others in a similar manner.

There is so much to say. Please read my photographs with this in mind.

Some of the images in this book have been reproduced from the original framed photograph.

Depending on the photograph’s final finish, be that on canvas, watercolour paper or other unique substrate, this will impact the texture revealed within the images illustrated in this book.