Rangefinder Magazine
Columns

Insight/On the Cover

One of the great joys of being the editor of this magazine is discovering those unique characteristics or set of circumstances that lead to individual success and greatness. An overriding similarity among successful photographers seems to be their affiliation with other arts. In this issue, for instance, we feature the work of Robert Hughes (page 24), who made a successful living as a musician for 22 years before “becoming” a photographer. Hughes believes that music and photography are a lot alike. “The overall concept of music as the composition, applies directly to photography. Other translations such as creativity, tonal values, spontaneity, tension-resolution management and abstractionism are applicable as well,” Hughes says. Another photographer profiled in this issue, Jay Asquini (page 8), whose only formal training in photography consists of a single college course, spent much of his early career trying to become a writer, but eventually chose photography for a career when he realized, “a blank page somehow seemed more intimidating than an unexposed frame of film.” Another similarity at work in the careers of great photographers is the belief that work is play. Said the late Arthur Griffin, a pioneer in the field of sports photography, “When you do what you like you never really work, for your work is your play, and all the better that you get well paid for it. My life in that regard has been enviable. I have been fortunate in my choice of career in that it has never seemed like work.” This notion is echoed by Hughes. “Many people tell me that I don’t have a life. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. I have THE life! Making images is my life!”

Bill Hurter, Editor

ON THE COVER
PHOTOGRAPHER: Tony Sweet
CAMERA: Nikon F4s
COMMENTS: Professional nature/fine art photographer, Tony Sweet photographed this image at Kingston Lake in New Brunswick, Canada, and says of the shot, “We saw the beginning of a cherry-colored dawn sky and drove like a ‘bat’ to get there for about a minute of this light. What ‘makes’ this image is the spindly, delicate nature of the reeds juxtaposed with the rectangular bands of color reflected in the water.” This kind of searching is, apparently, nothing new for Sweet, “A lot of what we do as nature photographers is spend time looking for places to shoot when the light is right and I do that all the time, making notes on subjects and locations and trying to determine when the light will be best for them.” Intrigued by the simplicity of nature, Tony uses the raw materials of nature (line, shape, form, color,contrasts) to create his uniquely personal imagery.

Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Tony works the eastern seaboard each year, traveling from the Florida Everglades to Newfoundland, and west to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. He conducts location workshops under his “Art Of Nature Photography Workshops” company, and is a contributing writer and photographer to Shutterbug and Nikonnet.com.
For more information on Tony Sweet, see Peter Skinner’s profile of him which begins on page 16.