Newsletter #138, January, 2017

Newsletter #138: January, 2017
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.

 

It’s 2017 and I’m Having a Blast!!

Contents:

1. Finding New Ways of Expression: the creative process
2. Revisiting the Chilcotin Ark: where the land and spirit meet
3. First Frost in Walker Valley: A ‘cool’ perspective!
4. A Technical Error Leads to Creative Discovery: Wow!
5. A Coastal Garden: A stroll in Dave and Deb’s garden.
6. Blog Posts: Look at them from time to time!

 

Hi everyone,

It’s 2017 and with my last book behind me, I am feeling a lot lighter and freer to launch out in new directions. There will be experimentation and new discoveries. If you follow along in these Newsletters, you will travel with me on this new creative journey. I’m excited!

This is the 138th consecutive monthly Newsletter; my TWELTH YEAR without missing a single month! Enjoy!

Our goal at the Chris Harris Gallery is to share photographic adventures and inspire others in the creative process. Please share this Newsletter with friends. We appreciate your interest and continued support for my work.

1.   Finding New Ways of Expression: the creative process

We have two choices. We can be afraid to experiment in new ways of seeing, playing it safe to increase our chances of making ‘good’ images, OR, we can burst out of our visual ruts, take chances, be more vulnerable, and possibly create ART.
How about investigating reality? How about freeing ourselves from seeing the world as everyone else sees it? Or, to put it another way, how about visualizing objects and places as they have never been seen before? This may be scary, but it is both exciting and original. That’s ‘way cool’ to me!
A few weeks ago I took some friends out to Farwell Canyon; located in the grasslands along the eastern margin of the Chilcotin Ark. This is a place I have visited at least a hundred times. It would be easy for me to say “I’ve been there and photographed that”, but instead, I tell myself I have only scratched the surface.

Grassland vista; representational

I was determined to visualize things differently. Here are two images. The first, above, is a representational image showing the line, form, textures, and tonal and colour contrast which drew my attention. The second image, below, made in-camera using the multiple exposure function together with some camera movement, is more abstract.

Grassland vista; abstract

If you spend some time looking into each of these images, your interpretations will take you on completely different journeys. Your emotional responses will not be the same. Listen to your different interpretations and learn from them. Finding undiscovered beauty is vital in the creative process. It’s how you create art.

 

2.   Revisiting the Chilcotin Ark: where land and spirit meet

In the eastern part of the Chilcotin Ark, possibly the largest and most diverse intact landscape in the world, lies BC’s most endangered ecosystem, the grasslands.

Grasslands above the Fraser River

My good friend Shayne Middleton and I went on a single day road trip to photograph the grasslands, high above the mid-Fraser River canyon. These are wonderful days of conversation, laughter, and of course, photography talks. But most importantly, it is a day of feeling in ‘awe’. The challenge, of course, is trying to capture that feeling of ‘awe’ in the images we make.
When I look out at these undulating patterns created by millennia of erosion, I am tempted to go for a walk so long, I might never come back. The grasslands have that power.

Undulating textural patterns

We often left our vehicle and went exploring above the canyon walls. Drawn by light and visual design, we were both in visual heaven.

Canyon walls decorated with light

We were on a ‘high’, in more ways than one! Excitedly we would yell back and forth pointing out visuals that spoke to us. We made many images that day.

Drawn to photograph by the power of beauty

After evening light had passed, we drove home. It was another amazing day in the Chilcotin Ark.

 

3.   First Frost in Walker Valley: A ‘cool’ perspective!

On a cold September morning, friend Mike Duffy and I headed to Walker Valley with our cameras. As it turned out, it was the season’s first frost.
The following images were made during and after sunrise using camera movement and the multiple exposure function in the camera.

Inferno

Aspen copse in first light

Aspen copse in first light, close up

Aspen copse in day light

It never ceases to amaze me what images I come home with after taking a short one or two hour walk with my camera.

 

4.   A Technical Error Leads to Creative Discovery: Wow!

During the September workshop which Dennis Ducklow and I teach at the Tallheo Cannery on the central coast, I made a discovery – by mistake!

I was discussing the multiple exposure function to a student when I saw another photographer silhouetted against an open doorway. I couldn’t resist. I quickly turned and made an image. When I went to see the result on my LCD screen I was reminded that I had 8 more images to make before I could see that image! Whoops! I had forgotten I still had multiple exposure turned on.

So I jokingly spun around, rotating my camera while taking eight more exposures in rapid succession. Wow! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I once again looked at the LCD screen!

My mistake!

With that image gaining interest in my memory bank, I began to visual new opportunities. Struck by the compositional elements of rhythm and repetition of form, I returned to the fishing net loft later that day and went to work. Here are three images that speak to those elements.

The net loft. Abstract I

The net loft. Abstract II

The net loft. Abstract III

 

5.   A Coastal Garden: A stroll in Dave and Deb’s garden

In November, one of our book presentations took us to Salt Spring Island, where Rita and I stayed with an old climbing friend of mine, David Denning. As it happened, it was the 40th anniversary of our climb to the summit of Mt. McKinley (now named Denali) in 1976. Four of the six team members gathered for a party and digitalized slide show up memory lane. It was a great evening of memorable recollections.
During our stay at Dave and his partner Deb’s place, I went for several walks; enjoying the coastal environment. It was a far cry from the winter we had left behind. One of those walks was just around their home.
With no tripod and a single camera and 24-105 lens, I did not make a single representational photograph. With the word ‘creative’ as my mantra, I set out, remembering that the word refers to something ‘original’; original expression resulting from original thought. Here are just a few of the images I made on that walk.

The studio

Flowers outside the living room window

Flower pots

Canoes at rest

Awaiting warmer weather

Thank you Dave and Deb! It was a wonderful weekend.

 

6.   Blog Posts:   Look at them from time to time!

I will be posting blog posts more frequently in the future. They will mostly centre around the following topics:

The Story Behind the Image
The Art Within
A Sense of Place

As an example, here is the first post I made just the other day.

The Story Behind the Image

I was driving home from Vancouver along highway 97 last week, listening to music and day-dreaming – or should I say night-dreaming. It was 8 pm and a deep darkness covered the landscape. I pulled off the highway at a pullout in order to clean my headlights; they were coated in mud sprayed from passing vehicles. I could hardly see the highway in front of me, let alone bighorn sheep, deer, or moose.

It was then, while stretching and taking in some fresh country air, that I saw light shining from a railway tunnel in the distance. Then vehicle headlights caught my eye as they traveled toward me along the highway. That is when I realized the potential to make a photograph.

/blog/

Driving home from Vancouver

My camera was on my passenger seat and my tripod was already extended in the back of my truck – both ready for quick action. I set up, made a few test exposures, and settled on one that picked up enough light to show the South Thompson River below me. I set my camera on Bulb and started my time exposure. During my 108 sec. exposure, two cars and a semi-truck covered with red lights passed through the picture space, reflecting their lights in the river below.

As soon as I put my camera and tripod back in the truck, a train suddenly appeared right below me, heading toward the distant tunnel. I tried to get set up once again but it was too late. I missed it!!

Thank you. See you next month!

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