Blog 4: Michael Kenna - Composition, Light, and Shadows

     Michael Kenna is an English photographer who does a lot of work with landscapes and long exposures, sometimes up to 10 hours. He has shot in places all over the world, from Dearborn, Michigan to Hokkaido, Japan. Some of his images have a lot of contrast while others include a range of grey tones. 

    While looking through the photographs on his website, the one that really captured my eye was the one from Guatemala in 2003. While seeming simple at first glance, the longer I looked at it the more detail I noticed. There is a mountain in the background with water from a lake or sea in the foreground. Although neither of those shows much detail because it was shot at night. The sky on the other hand has the paths of the stars. The lines are not perfectly straight but have a slight curve to them, showing how the Earth rotates around its axis and the Sun. 

    I love the simplicity of it. While the landscape was rather plain, I feel that helped for the focus to be directed toward the sky. I do not see myself taking any photographs with exposures that venture over an hour in the near future, I do hope I find the chance to play around with longer exposures to I can capture the movement of light like he has done.