These Serendipitous Moments

We were camped at the edge of a lake along the Pacific Crest Trail, the only campers there – just me and Zillah, my faithful hiking companion. We had hiked all day and by evening were ready to snuggle into our tent. Expecting a warm evening, I had left the rainfly unzipped on the tent to hopefully catch a breeze during the night. But that is not all that we would catch. As dusk settled over the little lake Zillah leaped up, hackles raised and with her nose pressed against the bug mesh of the tent let out a low rumbling growl. Bear! I peered out the tent wondering what I should do to protect us both. The splashing from the lake told me that it was coming across the lake for us. Squinting against the darkening light I saw not a bear coming at us to tear us apart, but a herd of elk playing in the lake. They splashed in it. They chased each other. They squealed elk squeals of delight. Danger averted, Zillah and I settled back into bed and listened to the elk playing until we drifted to sleep. The next morning, I looked across the lake and one lone cow stood at the opposite shore. She trotted off into the forest when she saw me. At that moment I realized I alone had experienced that marvelous interaction.

After several years, I still treasure that evening near Fish Lake and I was reminded how special it was recently on two wildlife encounters.

The 1^st encounter occurred while walking around the grounds at American Camp in the San Juan National Historical Park. I had received advice from a couple who lived on the island regarding which fork in the trail would be the best. Their advice took we along the top of the bluffs overlooking Haro Strait towards Grandma’s Cove. The cove itself is well worth the walk but as I was just finishing up trying to capture the beauty of the cove, I turned to look into the brilliant brown eyes of a silver fox. She seemed to recognize that I was no threat to her at all and meandered around on the same bluff as I was on for 20 minutes while I happily photographed her. Finally, I decided it was time for me to head back and she decided to try hunting on another part of the bluff. All the time we spent together not a single other person joined us. It was my little moment with this beautiful creature.

A few days later, I was attending an artist and photographer retreat at Mt Baker. While many of the participants were spread out through the meadows with their easels and tripods or hiking in groups to see cloud enshrouded views, I meandered through the meadow talking to photographers and artists about the colors and inspirations. After a bit – close to lunchtime – I started back to the lodge along the road and surprised a couple of ptarmigan taking refuge in some bushes beside the road. Cars passed by as I quickly created a few images of one little gal eyeing me before jumping off her little rock. I couldn’t wait to get back to the lodge and look at the images and smiling to myself. 

Playing with Textures

Every now and then I like playing with photoshop to explore my creative artistic side. I was raised with the great painters - my mother taking me to the museum to see contemporary painters. She had books throughout the house showing the techniques of the great masters. I grew up admiring the likes of Monet and Degas and wanting to paint like them. 

Once I realized I couldn't paint especially as marvelously as they could, I turned to science. But I still held onto my love of beautiful art.

When I turned to photography, it was to capture scientific discoveries, experiments and progression. I studied the technical end of photography and turned to photojournalism for a while so I could capture the here and now, the event and (hopefully) the emotion it carried.

I left photography for a while to pursue teaching but still found a way to incorporate photography into my lessons with storytelling and photojournalism. And I painted (still poorly but I tried).

For the longest time I separated photography from art. My education emphasized photography as capturing the reality of the world and painting, drawing and sculpture captured the beauty of the world inside. Through "art" and artist could create a world that he or she envisioned beyond reality.

Then came along digital image making. I was resistant. Through digital image making one could "create" a scene or image not entirely based in reality. A photographer could create a lie! And that is not what photography is about. 

Finally I was won over by digital and even began playing with my images in photoshop to help recreate the image I saw in my mind as I pressed the shutter. And sometimes, as shown in the image above, a piece of art develops on the canvas of my computer screen, not quite based in reality - two images blended together to make something more than a record of the scene but a record of an artists eye that was never that good with a paintbrush. It may never match the great masters or be an inspiration to future generations, but expressing my inner artist brings satisfaction to my heart.

How do you express your inner artist, How do you bring satisfaction to your heart?

Lessons in Organization

Last week I received a text from a good friend of mine - Call Chad @ #, he needs a show hung in his wine bar this week. So I called Chad and left a message. I still had not heard from him by the time I got home late that evening, I figured he had found someone else to hang a show. They sounded desperate so I thought he had several feelers out for artists. Nope.

At 9:30, after I was tucked away in bed, the phone rings. "This is Chad." cmae the voice through the phone. "Can you get me some framed images tomorrow mid-day?" Not knowing how I'd do that, I said "Sure, no problem."

I spent the next 2 hours combing through prints, mats, and frames looking for something, anything to hang in his shop. In the end, I had 10 images ready to hang and went back to bed for a fitful night of sleep. The worries had started.

What if he hates the images?
What if someone else hates the images?
What if I don't have enough?
Can you tell if the show was slapped together?
And if so, will they think I'm a hack?

While hanging my images the next day, I had to restrain myself from pointing out every flaw to the employee helping me. Oh this was horrifying, my show was going to go over like a lead balloon. As I related my horror to my co-workers the next day, several of them artists themselves, they shared that they too had those fears and obsessions.

And this brought up the question - why is it artists who are supposed to be free and breezy and adventurous so uptight, stale and fearful?

I'm sure the answer is different for everyone. As I started looking at my fears, I realized that I begin to exchange the words "my art" with the word "me". So as I asked these questions I was really asking, deep down, what if they hate me? And there's nothing I can really do about their thought on my images, but I can remember that my images will be liked or not and it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with the viewer and their personal tastes.

Oh, and as I was hanging my images, the one posted above got a couple of exclamations of "wicked!" from my assistant. The opening went well. If you're interested in seeing the show yourself, it is going through April 7th at In the Red Wine Bar in Seattle.