Henry Jager

Why I chose Henry:

Henry Jager is a professional underwater and wildlife photographer who takes complex images of the planet and the different species that live on it. What stood out to me the most with his images and why I chose him to be in my further photographer was due to the beauty of his images. He manages to combine so many of the formal elements by editing his underwater images of animals and transforming some of them into black and white, or combining whats above the water to below it. Jager also takes pictures of different plants to show texture, while his extreme close up and detail on fish below the water makes his images stand out to me.

Bio:

henry jager is a passionate underwater and wildlife photographer with an incredible sense for an unexpected view on the subjects. in 2013, he started with experimental photography (high speed, liquid art, drops, underwater painting and more).

due to his outstanding portfolio, henry jager has been awarded the "grand master” title by the world’s largest and one of the most prestigious contest at "www.underwaterphotography.com”

besides that, he won a gold medal at the world biggest fotosalon, the "trierenberger super circuit" in 2011 category "nature" with his "sardines tornado". he was finalist at "the open" 2012 and achieved several recognitions by "national geographic" germany and international.

henry publishes in travel magazines as well as on scuba diving related webpages and blogs.  he writes about travel destinations, photo courses and special photo techniques.

This image is of a cactus and is in such high quality that it feels as though you are looking directly into one. The level of detail on each spike is astonishing while the use of black and white defines it and makes it stand out. I like how some of the image is not in focus, however the centre is which draws the eye to the middle. The main formal elements in this image are texture and tone, which exaggerates the inside of the cactus being focused and the outer part being blurred out. When you look closer, the spikes are also inwards to the right which is the part of the image which is most in focus. 

This image stands out to me through the fluorescent warm colours in the sky. I also like the use of the fish eye which makes everything circular. This allows us to see a lot more fo the sea and inside the water, while we can see the sky is round above it, resembling the Earth. I like the curvature the camera creates as it allows the audience to see a 360 degrees view of the Earth. The main formal elements shown is depth, as we can see beneath the water and the sea floor, and mainly colour. Through the crystal clear water, there is a strong blue colour. There is a hint of green which makes up the coral, yet much warmer colours above the surface of the water, these are shown through the strong yellows and pinks. 

I love this image through the use of the animal and how we can see it in its own environment. The fish above it fill the rest of the wasted space while the cool colours of the sea export different emotions to the audience. I like how the turtle in the sea is in the middle of the shot, and how you can picture it gliding through the water. It appears as though there has been a flash on the mammal, as you can see the turtle is a much brighter and in focus. There is also shadows underneath its arm, which suggest that the flash was taken with the camera. I like this affect as it draws attention to the turtle which is in focus, as appose to the swarm of fish and the darker reef in the background. However, I feel as though it makes the image less natural, but he has enhanced the background with a deeper blue which I like. 

This image was taken on a high speed lens and shows the different approaches you can embark on water within the topic. Although the underwater pictures are a big approach, you can also take pictures of water droplets in the studio such as the one above. The following image is one taken by Henry were a water droplet was dropped onto a pineapple slice. The high speed shot allows us to see the impact of the drop. The photographer has used a blue background, which contrasts from the yellow pineapple. This allows the pineapple to stand out, and also makes the water droplet stand out more than a white background. There is also a gradient, which draws attention to the pineapple as it starts off with a dark royal blue at the top, and goes much lighter towards the object. The composition of the image is composed so that we can see the object, yet it doesn't take up too much of the frame so that we can't see the splash above it. 

Influences

Henry Jager has influenced me, especially by looking at his water images in which he used a high speed lens and looked at the impact of water on different objects. In my shoot, I did it differently as instead of dropping water onto objects, I dropped food colouring into water. I used a close up lens and placed it on a tripod while I captured droplets of different coloured food dye into water. Without looking at the work of Henry Jager, I wouldn't have come up with this idea of taking these high quality images and therefore he has influenced me. 

Summary

To conclude, although a lot of his work did not fit into my topic and I didn't use, the water images that Henry Jager based his work on was extremely influential to me. He enabled me to take images which had a lot of detail and were based around something that I had not explored before, water. I still like the work of Henry Jager, although I didn't use a lot of his techniques in my other images, he enabled me to take my project into different directions due to his water shoots.