Chris Harris Photography Newsletter #167, April, 2019

 

Newsletter #167: April, 2019
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.

 

Hi everyone,

My April newsletter is going out early this month as Rita and I head off to present our multi-media presentation in BC and Alberta. I will also be teaching the 7-day Gabriola Island photo workshop with fellow instructor and friend, Dennis Ducklow. An exciting month ahead!

In this, my 167th consecutive monthly photographic newsletter. Enjoy!

 

Newsletter Contents:

1. Materials to Create Art: Do I need a new paint brush, chisel, or camera?

2. Follow Your Path: Your photographic style will accompany you; evolving naturally.

3. Inspiration Flows Both Ways: One of many rewards of teaching workshops on photography as art.

4. Upcoming Presentations: Join us.

 

 

 

 

1. Materials to Create Art: Do I need a new paint brush, chisel, or camera?

New tools to create art seduce us with their potential. New and forever ‘improved’ chisels, paint brushes, or cameras and lenses, always come with promises of better and more creative results. With whatever is new, comes the HOPE of being a more talented wood carver, painter, or photographer. It’s endless.

Photographers must ask ourselves, ‘do the tools we presently have allow us to create the images we wish to make’?

My very well used 7-year old camera (Canon 5D Mk III) can presently do everything I might wish it to do. Let’s look at some examples.

Long exposures with camera movement: Every camera can take exposures at slow shutter speeds. For the effect of motion blurs, it takes US to set the exposure settings and determine camera movement during that exposure. WE are the interpreter of our subjects, and we certainly don’t need a new camera to make images such as the following.

Single exposure with camera movement. Aspen trees.

Single exposure with camera movement. Ocean ripples reaching the beach.

Single exposure with camera movement. Evening cloud over the ocean.

Single exposure with camera movement. Shore line of a calcareous lake.

While new tools often can produce results of higher quality, and provide new possibilities and creative opportunities, they all come with limitations. They all require OUR creative participation. They will not make better carvings, better paintings, or better photographs without US. They are only tools of the craft. Cameras and techniques are NOT creative.

My 7-year old camera can also make up to 9 multiple exposures in any one of 4 Blend Modes and generate a single raw image file. Not all cameras have this function. Some can combine only 2 images. Other cameras can take multiple exposures but have no blend modes.

Here are a few examples of images made with my multiple exposure function combined with different blend modes.

Multiple exposure of nine while walking around a tree. Dark blend mode.

Multiple exposure of seven. Ceiling structure. Dark blend mode.

Multiple exposure of two; two subjects. Originally there was ocean outside the window. Dark blend mode.

Multiple exposure of nine. Eight of the ocean and one of a rock just above ocean level. Dark blend mode.

If you wish to increase your creative possibilities in photography, you might consider a camera with a multiple exposure function (minimum 9 exposures) and four blend modes.

Art materials (the tools of our craft) are what we use. Art is what we create. Depending on how you wish to express your subject and yourself, choose the art materials of your chosen craft carefully.

 

2. Follow Your Path: Your photographic style will accompany you; evolving naturally.

Over the past few decades I have mostly been a landscape photographer, generating imagery in the style I call Expressive Documentary. These images were to provide a ‘sense of place’, engendering a greater understanding and appreciation for the land here in the Cariboo Chilcotin region of British Columbia.

More recently, my work also includes the more spirited styles of Expressionism and pure Abstraction. Within these styles I examine the world with new and unfamiliar perspectives, often discovering what lies beneath external appearances. From a photographic perspective, I now travel less and see more. I am rewarded with artistic imagery of undiscovered beauty.

My shift toward the non-figurative, however, is not absolute. I enjoy moving freely between the outer representational world and the inner imaginary and more abstract world. I have never wanted to imprison myself with any one style.

Here are a few images to demonstrate.

Our daughter Teresa and partner Jill at Ape lake in the Coast Mountains. Expressive documentary.

 

From the mountain in the previous image, I created a new reality; a more mysterious ‘ice-cave like tunnel’. Abstract.

 

Small and detailed figurative landscapes abound at Ape Lake. Expressive documentary.

 

From within these landscapes come patterns of extraordinary beauty and intrigue. Abstract.

 

The Ape Lake area is an emerging landscape being revealed for the first time as glaciers retreat. Expressive documentary.

 

From out of the pebbles and rocks at my feet, comes another emerging landscape; one never yet seen or imagined by humans. Abstract.

 

While driving through the grasslands last week, I stopped and made this expressive documentary image of the road I have travelled over dozens of times.

 

From a perspective I had never thought of before, I used my 400mm lens to express the lines and contrast in an unfamiliar way. Abstract.

 

Since the wildfire of 2017, burnt sage trunks abound in the grasslands at Farwell Canyon. Expressive documentary.

 By photographing the burnt sage from a low perspective, I was able to pick up the blue cast of the distant forested mountain while I abstracted the burnt stems. Abstract.

 

Last week my friend Mike Duffy and I stopped alongside our favourite beaver pond. We keep an eye on this pond throughout the seasons. It’s not a spectacular place, yet it is saturated with artistic possibilities. Expressive documentary.

 

With my trusted 400mm lens, I texturized the distant trees and red osier bushes to create a more expressive image. Expressionist.

 

By using those tiny paint brushes, I keep hidden in my camera body, I attempted to make a painterly expressionist image. Expressionist.

 

I enjoy this creative process and I enjoy how easily I move from outer world to inner world; from representational to more expressive and abstract forms. My photographic style follows me, naturally.

 

3. Inspiration Flows Both Ways: One of the many rewards of teaching workshops on photography as art.

This past weekend I taught a photographic workshop with ten members of the Comox Valley Photographic Society. It was titled Freedom of Expression: A Workshop on Photography as Art.

To watch creativity flow is a wonderful and enriching experience. What participants probably never realized, or thought of, however, was how much their work inspired me. Inspiration does indeed flow both ways.

As we reviewed their creations and discussed their creative process, I often found myself thinking; wow, I think I’m the one in a rut here! I better get my ass in gear!

The exchange of energy and inspiration flowed freely, and we were all constantly reminded how invigorating and rewarding it is to be artists; all involved in a creative process involving our imagination.

Below are four participants’ images to share, each made with multiple exposures of two or more.

Reflection by Judy Johnston

 

North Island College by Tony Gusman

 

Reflection by Bryan Walwork

 

Trees in motion by Tracy Pickton

 

After the workshop, I drove home along the Duffy Lake Highway. Feeling inspired by each participants creativity, I felt compelled to stop and try to be a little creative myself! Below are two images I made while driving home through the mountains.

 

From the roadside I saw the remains of a snow avalanche.

I expressed it as a pattern

 

Thank you everyone. It was an inspirational weekend all-round; we were all teachers and all learners.

 

Testimonials:

I wanted to thank you so much for your guidance this weekend. The workshop was very much a stretch for me & totally outside of my comfort zone. I will continue to “stretch”! I had a fun, fun time! ☺️     J.J.

Thank you for the amazing workshop.  My interest in photography was beginning to wane & I was looking for something to inspire me…this past weekend certainly did that.  I learned about the limitless possibilities in the ordinary.  You have reignited my interest!!!        L.B.

Thanks, Chris, for a very informative and enlightening workshop.  I just love the way you can size up a photo and draw out a person’s intent and make them see the different possibilities and potentials they may wish to explore.  I’m still digesting the weekend experience.  It may take months to fully assimilate what you have nourished our soul and mind with.       N.J.

 

Check out 2-Day and 7-Day Photo Workshops

 

 

4. Upcoming Presentations: Join us.

 

Chris and Rita’s 11/2 hour presentation is based on their recently released Blu-ray in which Chris’ work, in collaboration with original music settings by Chris’ creative partner, Ken Marshall, contains the two documentaries titled The Chilcotin Ark and The Wildfire Summer of 2017.  The presentation includes segments and stories of The Chilcotin Ark; the unknown yet largest intact and most bio-diverse wilderness complex in the temperate world, and The Wildfire Summer of 2017, where Chris interpreted his evacuation experience as photographic art.

Chris also discusses his most recent work; an ‘in-camera’ process of turning familiar subjects into Expressionist and Abstract works of Art (refer to Chris’ website portfolio’s).  Both documentaries have been featured at the Williams Lake Film Festival.

Please join us if you can, or tell your friends who may live near the following locations. Post it on your social media. Thanks.

 

Salmon Arm, BC   (open to the public)
April 13, 2019;
2:00 pm
Fifth Avenue Seniors Centre

High River, Alberta
April 15, 2019;
7:00 pm

This is a private showing for about 20 people. To reserve a seat, please call Paula at 403-336-5772.

Calgary, Alberta    (open to the public; $5.00 for non-members)
Sponsored by Nature Calgary.
April 17, 2019
7:30 pm
Cite des Rocheuses Theatre

 

For details, visit the Appearances page on my website.

 

 

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Thank You. See you in May!