Email  Print  del.icio.us  digg  yahoo!  Comments  Feed

LocalArtist

Buddhas and Beaches

"Through photography, I attempt to capture images that spark the imagination of the viewer. I hope that my images will transport a person to another moment and place in time and to evoke a feeling of wanderlust."

Growing up in Southern California, Scott has always been surrounded with beautiful scenery, and the vibrant artist community of Laguna Beach. It wasn’t until his junior year at San Diego State University that he developed a serious passion for photography while studying abroad in the Netherlands. Scott photographed his way through Europe and Egypt, and spent the following summer in China and Tibet. He returned to SDSU in the fall where he was a photographer for the Daily Aztec school newspaper, and completed his senior photography project A Photographic Pilgrimage through Tibet. He graduated in January of 2006 with a degree in Graphic Design and Marketing.

After graduation, Scott formed his own company SporlederArt where he has been self-employed as a Photographer and Graphic Artist ever since. Scott’s photography can be seen at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach every summer.

Hometown: Laguna Niguel

Favorite Beer: Carta Blanca

What is something only a local would know about Laguna Beach?
The best place to get a pitcher of beer is at Laguna Feast.

Favorite place to take pictures in Orange County:
Anywhere in the ocean.

How would you describe your style of photography?
Well, my unofficial motto is "Buddhas and Beaches" it's a lot of Asia and the Ocean. I have always surfed and love everything that has to do with the ocean and in the past few years that has been expressed through my photography.

There is a lot of different photography out there, but I would say that the only thing I really want to achieve is to allow someone to daydream for just a few moments when they look at my work. Even if it only takes them away for a second, then my goal has been accomplished.

What camera equipment do you use to capture your shots?
Canon 5d Mark II

How old were you when you first found an interest in photography, and what were your subjects when you first started out?
I only started really getting into photography when I graduated college and moved to China for a few months. I had done some various work in college, but it wasn't until I traveled through China that I really started to get interested in photography.

To date, what picture are you most proud of?
I can't say that there is one particular picture that I am really proud of. I love the travel imagery, from the Himalayas and the small villages but I also love the barrel images because I know how much time and effort I have put into learning the art of surf photography.

What’s your most popular picture? Did you know that it was going to be the most popular the second you shot it?
Everyone always loves a good sunset - those seem to be pretty popular. The weird thing about shots that people like is that they are never what I think. I tend to like images that are a bit more on the strange side or something that took a lot of work to get, but might not necessarily come across in the image.

How has your photography changed over the years?
Definitely I think any artist that grows as a person sees change in their work - you have to be constantly evolving in order for you to stay interested and motivated in your own work.

What is, and/or has been, your greatest challenge as a photographer?
Getting people to pay for photography.

What do you dislike most about today’s technology? Has it presented you with any challenges?
The toughest thing about the digital revolution is that everyone is a photographer now. People add all these filters to their camera phone shots and every person thinks they can sell their shots. That wears on you, but I think the people who really want it bad enough will prevail in the end.

What’s the typical time in the day do you get majority of your wave shots?
Sunrise. The best light on the coast in Southern California is the twenty minutes after the sun has popped up over the Eastern Horizon. It doesn't last long, but you had better be in the water if you want to get a captivating image.

How long are you in the water for during a set and how many pictures do you typically take before you capture the “one” you were looking for?
I would say that I am in the water for more or less an hour every morning in the winter - that's when the best barrel shots are. We get our best swells in the winter and the sun is coming from the right location.

I can shoot a week in a row and not get a good image, you really never know until you’re in the water. The wind might shift and get choppy, the tide is wrong, or even worse if there's no waves. It is a game of patience when it comes to photographing waves, but one thing is certain, you can't get a good shot unless you’re there.

What are your aspirations? Are there things, with regard to photography, that you haven’t done yet that you’d like to?
I would like to continue to work on my writing skills and start writing/photographing assignments for various publications.

Dream place to shoot?
Any beach that has palm trees and waves. It's a bit cliché, but my paradise is your textbook definition of paradise.

You just completed your first year at the Sawdust Art Festival in Laguna Beach. How was that experience?
Sawdust was a great experience for me; it was by far the largest show that I have taken part in. It's a bit of an endurance test, running for 66 days straight from 10am to 10pm, you can start to wear down, but it's a lot of fun. Not many people get a chance to have a venue where your art is seen by so many people, we get literally thousands of people through the gates at Sawdust everyday in the summer.

Each Artist has to build their own space from ground up. How long and how much planning did that take?
It took me about a week to plan the booth and then around three weeks to build the actual space. It is more or less like building a little house - you take care of electrical, the floor, etc.

The exciting thing about my booth this year was that I made my entire floor out of old planks from the Laguna Beach Boardwalk . I was able to get a few planks when they replaced the boardwalk last year and recycled those into my both. It posed a bit more of a challenge to build it, but it was cool to have people take a stroll down memory lane every time they stepped foot in my booth.

What would be the one piece of advice you would give to Photographers just starting out?
I would say to be persistent. In no way whatsoever have I reached where I would like to be in photography, but when I first started I had this idea that I would go on a trip, shoot, put it on a website and then the emails would start to flow in. Similar to how you hear about some super model getting discovered in a subway station in London - and I couldn't have been more wrong.

You have to write and contact as many people as possible and a simple email won’t do it these days. Pick up the phone and call people - Editors, Art Directors, and/or anyone who will listen. I called people that I didn't hear from until three years later!

So just stay on it.

What’s something about yourself that many don’t know?
My first passion was drawing (and still is in some ways). I originally was going to study computer animation when I started college and only shifted to graphic design a few weeks before school started.

Plans and goals for 2011?
Keep on rolling!

Website: SporlederArt.com

Upcoming Shows:
Sawdust Art Festival, Summer 2011

MORE LOCAL ARTIST INTERVIEWS:

//The New Limb