Artist: Tim Simmons

Once again I've come across an artist who's work embodies many of the visuals I enjoy and often seek to convey in my own work. I found Simmons while searching for artists who depict the landscape as "sublime," something that he achieves with some of the most amazing night photos I've ever seen. He uses artificial lighting to light various natural and man-made scenes, often in which the source of light is eerily invisible. The complex lighting setups reveal beauty in these landscapes but also give them this slightly "off" feeling, as they seem a little too perfectly lit in ways that would never occur naturally. Many of the images seem to utilize HDR techniques, but I haven't been able to find out whether he does this or just uses a very complex lighting setup to achieve the amazing detail in light and shadow.

My last piece of the burning landscape from the Blue Ridge Parkway took a step in this direction I think, as I dropped the ISO down and lengthened the exposure in an attempt to get more perfect night photos with less grain, drawing in more light than the eye would see to get those enhanced nighttime lights and colors. I used available light however, and I wouldn't mind using some composed flash setups to create my own "light pollution," showing how eerie and unnatural it is when man's rigid control meets nature's fluid balance. Simmons has so many amazing, inspiring photos that I'm just going to link a bunch of them here.















































































http://www.timsimmons.co.uk/index.php