Photography,    val atkinson

Val Atkinson's Photography Gallery Worth A Visit

By Tom Chandler 11/1/2012

Uber-photographer Val Atkinson's "fine art" gallery has just seen a few additions; if you've never seen it, it's worth a look.

Val Atkinson Gallery (click image to see gallery)
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Tom Chandler

As the author of the decade leading fly fishing blog Trout Underground, Tom believes that fishing is not about measuring the experience but instead of about having fun. As a staunch environmentalist, he brings to the Yobi Community thought leadership on environmental and access issues facing us today.

9 comments
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Hi all, I know Val personally and I can tell you he does not Photoshop his pictures. He is one of the most highly skilled and experienced outdoor photographers in the world. I was one of the folks in the San Francisco, area back when Val had his 50th birthday, that got to see a slide show of "shots that didn't make it." Even the shots that he considers sub-par, most people would be happy to claim ... more as their own. It was interesting to hear him explain why the shot wasn't good enough. It gave quite an insight into what his standards and abilities are. I might also mention that I have extensive experience with Photoshop and I can make most marginal shots look really good. As the Orvis webmaster from 1998-2002, I developed the methods we used in the process of optimizing our Hi-res 300 dpi catalog shots into the low-res 72 dpi shots that are actually used on the web. It's easy to change the resolution. It's not easy to change it without blurring the shots. So I am very familiar with what Photoshop can do. Val doesn't use Photoshop. Thanks, Dan
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I'm not a big HDR fan, but some of it is quite amazing. I think it tends to be over-used, and so I try to steer clear of it for the most part. To clarify what I said earlier, I use Adobe Elements, and find that it does most of the things that I want/need. Perhaps someday, when I have a little more money in my pocket, I'll upgrade to Lightroom, but then, perhaps someday I'll have enough money in my ... more pocket to have a good pocket camera, and a full frame DSLR... :-)
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About the only place where I find HDR acceptable is on my phone's camera -- it provides a bit of balance to an otherwise constrasty photos my phone pumps out.
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High Dynamic Range (HDR) is pretty common these days, and tends to result in photographs that look nothing like "traditional" photography. I've got a certain a resistance to it, but that might just be a sign of creeping geezerhood. Atkinson's stuff avoids it -- he's classically trained and his photos reflect it.
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These are some great images, I love finding other fine art photographers that have fished in the same places I have been. Years ago I used Photoshop Elements to post process my images, but I have found that sense its beginnings Adobe Lightroom has been all I need, and it has gotten better over the years. Lightroom is a great processing application for "light" full image processing with some local ... more adjustment capabilities as well. However, the real beauty of this software is it organizational component, makes my life so much easier.
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I live next to the Fall River near where those pictures were taken, near the Cal Trout launch ramp. I can assure you those pictures didn't need to go to photoshop. Just another summer in God's Country.
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Glider Dude: Kentucky – Most of the photos you see have been drastically photo-shoped for coloration contrast etc. I used to also get depressed when I could not get my photos to look like the “professionals” then found out they spend hours in photoshop adjusting one photo. Thanks, Glider. I do substantial post work with my editor. Some of my shots are pretty good, but I don't have the consistency; ... more I do not use Photoshop, since it costs a lot of money, and would take me forever to learn how to use. Out of several thousand photos, I have about twenty that I would consider "museum quality". All that said, I just learned that one of my photos has been accepted for publication in a magazine of national circulation. But the real bad side of me is that when I see work of this quality, I become depressed, rather than challenged. Oh, sigh.. :-)
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Kentucky - Most of the photos you see have been drastically photo-shoped for coloration contrast etc. I used to also get depressed when I could not get my photos to look like the "professionals" then found out they spend hours in photoshop adjusting one photo.
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It certainly is worth a look. But looking at work this good brings out the worst in me. When I see it, I get depressed, and realize how silly, albeit kind, my friends are being when they tell me I should open a small gallery. Yeah...right...
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