Last Night in OBX

After a week at the Outer Banks of North Carolina, I wanted to have one more sunset at one of my favorite spots on the barrier island – Corolla. On the sound side, behind Corolla Lighthouse, I worked with various birds and with reflections of the sun in sound waters. The sun was bright orange, pink and yellow as it set - a ball of color that itself made for an interesting abstract subject.

As families and couples arrived to watch the last vestiges of color in the sky, I was asked by one young couple if I offered prints of my work. I gave them my website which was typed into a phone (I didn’t have cards with me and of course now, every phone is a memo pad).

During my week in North Carolina I used pre-sunrise light, sunrise light,

Corolla Sunset

afternoon and evening light, sunset light, the light at dusk, and moonlight. During the next days and weeks, I will spend time editing and processing images and sharing them as I can. Several will become part of a new selection of images available in print form.

For now, these two images are from my last evening at OBX (August 27, 2010).

Dock and Duck, Corolla, NC

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Identity

Recently I’ve become conscious of something that should have been obvious, my identity is tied to what I do – photography. Of course I know I’m a photographer, but in the last couple of months it’s become clear that other people around me identify me as a photographer.

I’m “my husband the photographer” to my wife. I’m “my dad the photographer” to my daughter (even more so after her new camera purchase). I’m “my friend the photographer” to several including one I sold a used camera to. In fact we met for breakfast this morning and while talking about her photography, our waitress told me about her new camera (I’m “my customer the photographer” to her). And of course there’s the “my son the photographer”, “my son-in-law the photographer”, “my brother the photographer” and “my neighbor the photographer”. The neighbor identity really took off when the company my neighbor works for recently approved a new camera purchase for his job. We went over models of camera, lenses, and flash, software, methods…..and so on.

In my previous work in biology, I didn’t have such a far-reaching association between who I was and what I did. I like the association though, it just seems to have taken me by surprise a bit lately. I am to a greater extent now identified by what I do.

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Baby Sitters….

Sometimes its just plain tough to find someone to watch the kids. If you’re the mother of some young ducklings and no other ducks are available to keep an eye on them, what do you do? It seems in this case the mother duck selected to leave a few of her own with neighboring turtles, over 20 of them! It made for a rather cute image and offered an interesting contrast between the downy feathered ducklings and hard-shelled reptiles.

It was actually a challenging image to make because this humorous scene was actually a bit further away than I like to work from. The composition required some width because I didn’t want to leave any of the turtles out. As a result, I had elements in the  foreground and room above the log that I didn’t think added visually to the image. The scene was also in fairly heavy shade and so the light level was lower than I liked. Even using a sturdy tripod, image stabilization on the lens,  and a somewhat elevated ISO, keeping the lens (Canon 500mm f4.0 lens with Canon TC1.4X = 700mm of glass total) steady was tough.

Ultimately I had to do some levels and curves adjustments in Photoshop and some color correction to overcome the somewhat muddy tones from all that shade. I do like the image though, it has a lot of character and tells a fun story. As a print, it fulfills the visualization I had in the field of a panoramic representation. The finished print is 7×14″ and will be mounted and matted to a standard 16×20″ ($79).

"Baby Sitters" 7x14 inches

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Visions of Summer – Opening Reception

It was a beautiful summer day and a perfect day for the Opening Reception of Artists’ Gallery’s Visions of Summer group show. Turnout was good and compliments on the show plentiful. These receptions are always fun and a great opportunity for meeting and talking with art lovers and patrons. Here are a couple images from today’s reception.

The show continues through the month of August at the Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville, NJ.

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Visions of Summer….

This morning, myself and other Artists’ Gallery members, hung our summer show – Visions of Summer. And the press has already contacted us! It took several hours and extensive use of a bubble level, but the show is set and ready for our Opening Reception this Sunday from 2-5pm. If you can’t make the reception, feel free to come by Fri-Sun 11-6pm throughout the month of August.

I’ll be at the gallery all day this Saturday and will also be at the reception on Sunday. Here’s a bit of a sneak peek….

Part of "Visions of Summer"

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A Bit of a Break….

Last weekend’s PA Guild show at the Chase Center in Wilmington, DE was my last show until September. While I will be active and showing work at the Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville, NJ, this is a chance to get back out into the field. It is also a time for me to process images I’ve been wanting to print from previous outings.

The Chase Center show was a nice two day event and one I really enjoyed. It was made better still by being near friends and crazy talented craftspeople working in a variety of mediums. On my left and behind me were potters, across from me a furniture maker (amazing work), on my right a fabric artist and also nearby, a sculptor. Great diversity but consistently high quality and creativity.

Below are a couple of images that give a sense of the place. I was in Wilmington Hall which is basically one large, elegant black box.

My display at the Chase Center

 

A wide view of Wilmington Hall

 

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