Into The West by Blake Tucker

Into The West by Blake Tucker

I keep my camera with me all the time—something new always awaits, something previously unseen, either a moment or a detail or an entire world that I would have walked by and never noticed.

—Blake Tucker, San Francisco

In California, dramatic vistas appear as soon as the sun rises in the east and when it sets over the Pacific Ocean in the west. California skies are showstoppers that are further enhanced in the Bay Area by its many San Francisco landmarks. According to Blake Tucker—"A photographer's best hours are sunrise and sunset.

The interplay of sunlight with trees, animals, and water is an important part of his photography. As Tucker composes an image, he establishes relationships between objects in the foreground and background to create a feeling or emotion. For him, meaning changes as focus and color change in a photograph.

To take a photograph, Tucker may lie on the floor, climb into strange places, or place his camera on the ground and walk away. These experiments are a means to capture different perspectives, a way for Tucker to experience various vantage points and choose the best one; he might explore saturation and contrast as a way to observe the vitality of the photograph. These techniques lend themselves to exciting discoveries for the artist and audience alike.

Tucker's focus on composition and color is strongly influenced by a decade of work in the film industry. Where is the tightest focus? How can you best dramatize what you are feeling? Will the message come through even if this is seen at a distance? The answers to these questions inform and shape his finished work.

Into The West enlightens and broadens our understanding of the artistic process. Tucker believes his work offers the possibility of transformation. "There's no better feeling than developing your photographs and discovering something wondrous and beautiful that transforms your point of view. It's that sense of exploration that draws me into the west.

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