Canadian painter Dominik Modlinski uses his camera and ND Grads to help refine his landscapes

Since graduating from the Ontario College of Art in 1993, Polish-born painter Dominik Modlinski now calls the wilderness setting of Atlin, British Columbia, his home. "My work reflects what I most love to do -- live on the land and use my creative vision to bring people joy and greater understanding of the environment. As a landscape painter, my photography serves as a one of the primary tools for my art. I am a strong believer in painting outdoors, even in the most challenging weather conditions. But it is not possible to record everything that's happening at each moment of the day. The fleeting minutes of sunrise and sunset do not provide the most ideal conditions for painting since the ultimate light can last only several seconds. That is when photography becomes a necessary tool I take full advantage of.

"My inspiration comes from light, and when I am not able to record its character by painting outdoors, I use my Canon Rebel with an 18-55mm lens and two Singh-Ray ND Grads to take reference photos that will inspire and help me create my large, complex canvases. The ND Grads help me take more balanced exposures with greater color saturation that serve well as reference tools.

"I was introduced to Singh-Ray Graduated ND filters by a friend, professional photographer Jon Cornforth. After lending me a pair of his own ND Grad filters, Jon helped me discover how easily I could capture the scene on front of me with both the foreground and background more evenly exposed. When I am photographing an important scene, I take a series of photos to give me proper exposures of individual segments of the composition. These images are fine as reference information material, but as an artist I also want to have the one ultimate shot that shows it all clearly. Often the bright sky -- and sometimes the snow and ice -- in a scene can lead the camera's meter to underexpose the shadow areas in the foreground and create very unnaturally dark tones and colors. That's when I use the ND Grads to hold back the light from the sky and eliminate the problem.

"I am not at all concerned with trying to create the most 'correct' exposure or a photographic contest winner. What I need is an image that will inspire me and give me the most information from that moment. In some situations, I might rotate the filter so that the gradient area covers only one corner of the image. This often gives me ideas for applying color and saturation in future work. ND Grad filters can give me a more visually accurate contrast between foreground, middle ground and background.

"On many occasions I see paintings based on photos where the bright sky has been overexposed with no detail and saturation remaining. On the other hand, properly balanced exposures, when translated into paintings provide a chance to play with color harmonies and unique accents in the foreground. The experience of working with ND Grad filters has also given me ideas when I am painting an outdoor scene directly. I apply the basic balancing concept of the ND Grad filter as I am painting.

"Color is the unique language we all relate to, and as a landscape painter I use every tool at my disposal to capture and create attractive color harmonies and contrasts in my work. I'm sure many of the best photographers do, too."

Dominik is currently planning to go to Namibia and South Africa next spring for a 4-week outdoor painting trip. He will also have a solo exhibition at Canada House Gallery in Banff, Alberta in the near future. For further views of Dominik’s work please see his website, and to keep up on his journeys, be sure to follow his blog or check out his YouTube videos.