News

Collectors Print Special (IX)

February 1st, 2012

February 1, 2012

Dear Friends,

Thank you to all who invested in my 2011 Collectors Print Specials! The images for this year have been selected and with a savings of 45% off the full retail price of each print, this is an affordable way to add prints to your personal collection.

Barber Chair, Saloon, Bannack State Park, MT, 2011

There is one big change in this this year’s print specials: Each print will be offered as a limited edition of 25 at the 5” x 7” platinum print size. Images will continue to be available for $225.00 (which includes shipping). The “special” price will only be available during the month the print is on special. The full retail price ($500.00 plus shipping) begins on the first day of the following month. If you buy all four prints during the year, you will receive a free bonus print in December.

In addition, if you know that you plan to invest in all four images, register with us when you order the February print special and arrange to keep your billing information on file. This will insure you don’t miss a single image in this year’s series!

The Collectors Print Special (IX) for February 2012 is a 5 x7 vertical platinum print from Montana. Barber Chair, Saloon, Bannack State Park, MT was shot in 2011 during an exploratory trip for the new Ghost Towns of Montana workshop. Gold was discovered in Bannack, Montana’s first territorial capital, and approximately 3000 people called it home by 1863. It is an intact, high plains western town containing nineteen buildings, including a saloon, school, Masonic Hall, two hotels, jail and a variety of other businesses and houses. In the saloon, the incongruity of the barber chair on one side of the narrow room and the long bar down the other side gave pause for thought as I photographed the changing shadows on its surface. The image was made with a Heliar 240 mm lens on my 5 x 7 Canum camera.

In summary, the specifics for the 2012 Collectors Print Special are:

  • 5 x 7 platinum print, signed, numbered and unmated
  • Quarterly offerings: February, May, August & November
  • Discounted price $225.00 includes shipping
  • Special pricing only available during month of offer
  • Buy all 4 prints – get bonus print FREE!
  • Reserve all four prints at the beginning of the year to insure you don’t miss out on any Collectors Print Special in 2012!

 

The order form can be downloaded for both snail mail and e-mail or you can call in your order to (207) 230-0199. Just be sure to order before February 29, 2012 to reserve your copy of this first print in the 2012 Collectors Print Special!

All the best,

Tillman

www.tillmancrane.com

 

PS. In case you missed out on the 2011 Collectors Print Specials, they can soon be viewed in the Portfolio section of the website.

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January 2012 Musing

January 4th, 2012

Pilgrimage

pilgrimage n 1. a journey to a shrine or other sacred place 2. a journey or long search made for exalted or sentimental reasons – vb (intr) to make a pilgrimage (Webster’s Dictionary)

Pilgrimage is an interesting word, the same spelling used as both a noun and a verb. It is the second definition that intrigues me, a journey or long search made for exalted or sentimental reasons. I would also add for unknown reasons. It is the connotation of a pilgrimage as a search that I find the most interesting.

Walking into a bookstore looking for Christmas gifts I spied a new book by Annie Leibovitz. I think she is one of the great portrait photographers of our time, a personality superstar, who has had a tough few years. I was, however, looking at a book of images that were the antithesis of what I expected from her. Landscapes, still life, portraits of locations and places but not people. The blurb on the inside cover talked about her journey, her pilgrimage. She followed her whim and instincts, beginning at Emily Dickinson’s house and Niagara Falls, paid homage to Julia Margaret Cameron on the Isle of Wight, chased Abraham Lincoln thorough the artists who photographed and sculpted statues of him, visited the haunts of the writers of Concord, MA and even sought out Elvis, Annie Oakley and Eleanor Roosevelt. This was clearly a personal journey, not just to shrines but seemingly in search of herself.

Ms. Leibovitz was clearly on the second sort of pilgrimage, a search. This was an incredibly brave and courageous act on her part. She is a successful photographer, with an iconic style and reputation. Why go on a pilgrimage at all? For what was she searching? Why the need for change?  I don’t know “why” but I am glad she did. She may have had an inkling of a plan when she visited Niagara Falls but she ended up on quest she could not have predicted, one in which she says “I found my vision again.”  Isn’t that why we photograph – to find and share our vision?

What does the above have to do with this Musing? I recently recognized my own need to continue my pilgrimage, to keep searching for my own vision. Even though I teach workshops making my own work is still vitally important to me. I have to feed this need and not fall back on old habits, ideas and expectations. This is something a pilgrimage provides, whether by taking us out of our normal environment or simply by helping us to create a shift in our perceptions.

I stopped and looked at Annie’s book because I enjoy her portrait work but I walked away changed. I was reminded of all the portraits I shot when working for the newspaper. When I left that job I didn’t want to carry lights and all the other paraphernalia that I thought was necessary for portraits. Instead I concentrated on portraits of places, inferring the presence of people through the location. I’ve been rethinking my self-imposed rules for portraits for awhile now, making a few while working in various workshop locations. They were okay but I didn’t push on. I am not interested in flattering representational images but want to make portraits with a sense of truth, where the photographer and subject share a conversation and the viewer later gets to sit in on a part of that conversation. In a way the image is more about the moment than the person. As an introvert this whole process is very challenging for me.

However, my New Year’s Resolution is to go on a Pilgrimage of Portraits this year. If the great Annie Leibovitz is willing to take a pilgrimage that ties together widely disparate locations and people, trusting her instinct and talent to find the images that will enlighten her and allow her to find a new vision, why can’t I do the same? She took a huge risk to her reputation and sought her vision. I hope her journey proved healing as well as revealing.

I hope you will consider making your own pilgrimage this year, seeking new ways of seeing, trying out new ideas for your photography, and taking your own visual quest, wherever that may lead you.

All the best,

Tillman

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Newsletter: December 2011

December 23rd, 2011

December 2011 Newsletter

Dear Friends,

The days have been hectic this month so this Newsletter is long overdue. In the spirit of the season, I will keep it short and to the point, highlighting the news in list form for a quick read. I’ll be back on track in January with a new Musing.

The Workshop Schedule for 2012 is available on the website.

  • New workshops: Western Remnants of the Erie Canal & Ghost Towns of Western Montana
  • Expanded workshops: View Camera with Richard T. Ritter & Soft Focus: The New Pictorialism with Russ Young
  • Additional venue: Platinum Printing at Photographers’ Formulary  (Montana)

 

Workshop Registration begins January 1st.

  • Send $150 deposit with your completed order form to reserve your space in a workshop. Full payment is due 30 days before the workshop.
  • You will receive 10% off tuition if you register through Tillman Crane Photography and pay in full by January 31, 2012.  This does not apply to workshops held at Peters Valley Craft Center, Maine Media Workshops or Photographers’ Formulary.
  • If you are taking a workshop for a second (or third) time and register through Tillman Crane Photography you will receive 25% off the tuition for that particular workshop.
  •  Discounts can be combined.

 

The Photographers’ Retreat will be held April 13 – 15 at Peters Valley Craft Center, (Layton NJ). A “no host” opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new ones who share your passion for making photographs. For more information: www.tillmancrane/contact_us.php.

The first print in the 2012 Collectors Print Specials will be available February 1st. This year the prints will available as a limited edition of 25, and each will be numbered. If interested in the full 2012 collection you may reserve your print at the beginning of the year and your print will ship with an invoice each quarter. As we done in the past, if you buy all four images you will receive a bonus image at the end of the year.

I wish you good health, joy and time to make photographs this holiday season and in the coming year!

Tillman

www.tillmancrane.com

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Collectors Print Special VIII

November 1st, 2011

Cathedral Woods, Monhegan, Maine, 2009

The final Collectors Print Special (VIII) for 2011 is an image from Maine. Cathedral Woods, Monhegan, ME was shot in 2009. I spent a September weekend on Monhegan island, exploring and photographing while contemplating the area for a workshop location. This small, rocky island (less than a square mile in area) is accessible only by boat. For over 100 years generations of artists have sought out the quiet isolation and wild beauty of Monhegan to do their work. With approximately 12 miles of trails taking you through wooded areas, over rocky ledges, up high cliffs and down to the rocky shore it is easy to find creative stimulation. I made this image on a gray, misty morning with the Kodak 305 soft focus portrait lens on my 5 x 7 camera. The day and resulting image remind me of being in the woods in Scotland.

This final image of the 2011 series is available for $225.00 (price includes shipping) only from November 1 – 3o, 2011. (The regular price of $500.00 for this size platinum print, plus a shipping charge, will begin at the close of this offer.) Your print will arrive signed and un-matted, no later than the end of December. Included with this special offer is the continued pledge that if you purchase all four images in this year’s collection you will receive a “surprise” bonus image free with the mailing of this fourth print.

Download the CPSVIII Order Form here or CONTACT me before November 30, 2011.

Thank you for your order!

Tillman Crane

 

 

 

 

 

 

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