Lynn Goldsmith is an extremely adept multi-tasker as photographers go; she shoots personal work, commercial work (including celebrities and musicians), as well as travel imagery. She took a few minutes out of her busy day to answer my three most pressing questions. Take a gander.
1. You seem to have been very successful bridging the gap between your personal and commercial work. Which work do you feel closest to, and how do you manage to strike a balance?
it is not a matter of closer – it is a matter of feeling more satisfied by one kind of work or the other. My fine art work is both more difficult and more rewarding. Each image requires that I think about something I want to investigate.
stevie! bob! woody! hillary!
I spend quite a bit of time thinking about what it means, what it is I want to say and how can I create an image to manifest that. My commercial work has clearly defined goals which takes alot of the weight off of my shoulders. I see it more as problem solving as I am thinking about what the client wants.
2. Your flower images are beautiful, what is your process for creating them? Are they long exposures, do you enhance the colors?
The flowers came at a time for me that I wanted to go back to keeping it very simple , one camera, one lens. It was a Nikon and I only used available light and photographed flowers where I found them, not in a studio. I used film and pushed it at least 5 stops.
3. What is your typical gear set up? Do you generally work with film- how has that process changed with the rise of digital? What do you find is the most important feature a tripod needs for the way you work?
I shoot about 95 % digital and 5% film. My camera choice depends on what i am doing. It is either a Mamiya or a Nikon or both. With digital both the blessing and the curse is all the work one does in processing the files, as so many options are available. A tripod allows me to work without lights and to experience the magic of available light.
Holy cow, those flowers just slay me. Take a look at some more Goldsmiths, here.
–All images copyright Lynn Goldsmith–
