Newsletter #158: August, 2018
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
Hi everyone,
Wow! Life continues to be full of amazing adventures and I can’t wait to share some of them with you. I am so grateful to have my health; and photography as a hobby. Together they inspire me to live fully.
This seems to be a long Newsletter, but if you enjoy photography, ENJOY!
“Why Limit Yourself”?
This is my new motto! I think I have lived by these words most of my life, but more recently I have been applying it more and more to my photography. No matter where I am or what I am looking at, I am excited for the creative possibilities.
Newsletter Contents:
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This Year’s Sojourn in the Mountains. Beyond Beautiful.
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Meadow Lake Road: Another journey to a place I never got to!
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Barkerville Photo Workshop. I can’t wait!
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Photo Workshops. Take your photography to new horizons.
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You can host a presentation for the Legacy Tour. Meaningful & inspirational
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Our New Blue Ray Disk to be Released Soon! Exciting News!
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This Year’s Sojourn in the Mountains. Beyond Beautiful.
Where should I go? I felt free to photograph wherever I wished. I thought back to all the places I had explored and photographed over the years, asking myself which landscape was the most meaningful, and which resonated the most for me artistically. I chose Ape Lake as my destination. Here, the balance of nature and our cultural understanding of it, stretches back unbroken to the first footsteps of the first humans in North America. It’s an amazing narrative to photograph.
I was so excited to go, and my partner Rita, who has accompanied me on all my photographic adventures, and her daughter Teresa and partner Jill Matlock, were also thrilled to accompany me.
We planned for 9 days in the mountains; we would be completely out of touch with the world.
Our pilot, Ian Shipmaker, asks Rita,’ do you really think all of this will fit into this plane’? It did, including the four of us!
As we approached Ape Lake (in the distance) I scanned the 3 main areas we would explore and photograph, once in our camp. These graphic forms of land and water really resonate with me; simple, intricate and new.
This ‘Beaver’ plane has flown more hours than any other Beaver on the planet. After it left, we would not see another person until the day it returned to pick us up.
Every day we set out, hiking toward a retreating glacier
Crossing streams and small rivers was part of every day’s adventure. By mid-afternoon, however, water levels had often risen requiring us to ford these streams in a more serious manner.
Rita and I carefully explored the configurations of giant granite and glacial erratic’s. This continent was settled by people making these same journeys thousands of years ago.
As the glacier retreats, it scours the granite. Beauty is created in the first contours of the land.
We literally got down on our hands and knees to feel the smoothness of the highly polished rock. When I rubbed my cheek on it, I felt a most powerful energy.
Two glacial erratics guard over us as we enjoyed lunch on a glistening granite table.
As we walked over this glacial terrain, massive boulders were breaking down into small pebbles, and eventually sand, silt and soil. This is one of the most remarkable stories that draws Rita and I here time and time again. It’s a miracle happening beneath our very feet.
The newest of soils together with the smallest drainage’s from melting glaciers provide a place of opportunity for first generation vegetation.
Larger drainage’s created this oasis, a perfect habitat for plants, insects, birds, and animals.
Perhaps these wildflowers spring from seeds that landed on the ice 20,000 years ago and were carried here deep within it.
Perhaps they were brought by the wind and dropped in the lee of large erratics.
Each evening I would climb the moraine behind our camp to watch the evening spectacle of light as the sun set behind the Coast Mountains.
No place has ever resonated with Rita and I as much as Ape Lake. We each respond to it from entirely different perspectives, and we enjoy discussing our thoughts in the late evening when my camera is momentarily put to rest.
I have many more stories and images to share with you over the next few Newsletters. Stay tuned!
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Meadow Lake Road: Another journey to a place I never got to!
One day last month I was up at 4:30 am, ready to drive to Churn Creek Protected Area to photograph. As is often the case these days, I never got there. My new motto “why limit yourself” has me looking more deeply at everything I see along the way. It now takes me hours to go anywhere!
The morning was misty with intermittent showers. As my emotions adjusted to the mood of the land, I knew it was going to be a great day!
As close as they are to the road, I have never taken note of these four trees before. With rain and mist creating the atmospheric conditions, they became characters, each alive with personalities.
The mood of canyon walls also changed. The consciousness of the innate was alive and well.
When I saw how the mist muted the colours of this calcareous lake, I stopped. It was as if it was revealing a new personality which I had never experienced before. The words subtle and simple come to mind.
By now I was hooked by the beauty of this normally unattractive calcareous lake. My new motto ‘Why Limit Yourself” entered my consciousness. I was here for hours! I moved back and forth between different photographic traditions; expressive documentary, free-form expressionism, and abstract. Below are just a few images I made there.
With a lens at 300mm, I simplified the visual design of the lake.
Then I put those paint brushes (I always carry them in my camera bag) into my camera and with various numbers of exposures and camera movement, I began to abstract the landscape.
Calcareous lake I: abstract
Calcareous lake II: abstract
When the mist rose, a group of horses past through the landscape.
Then it was back to painting with my camera!!
Calcareous lake III: abstract
One day I really hope to get to Churn Creek Protected Area. There is so much I want to photograph there. On the other hand, I’m in no rush!
3. Barkerville Photo Workshop. I can’t wait!
In a couple of weeks, Dennis Ducklow and I will be teaching another week-long photographic workshop titled Develop Your Creative Vision II. It’s being held within the historic heritage site of Barkerville.
Our hosts are Dave Jorgenson and Cheryl Macarthy who operate the Saint George Hotel in Barkerville. Dave and Cheryl are longtime friends who are excited to provide us all with an experience of a lifetime. Living and photographing within an 1880’s gold rush town also means (with any luck) we will all strike it rich creatively!
Last week I drove to Barkerville to confirm final arrangements and ’warm up’ my camera.
Still-life: Chinatown, Barkerville
While walking down the main street of Barkerville, I realized that the gold strike in the 1880’s was the exact time of the Impressionist Movement in Europe. I responded by making this impressionist-like photograph. It reminds me of a Paris scene that Monet might have experienced and painted!
Barkerville: free-form expressionist photograph
4. Photo Workshops. Take your photography to new horizons.
I am presently offering two distinct workshops; a 7- Day residencey workshop with teaching partner Dennis Ducklow, and a 2-Day creative workshop which I teach independently at different locations.
7-Day Workshops: This year’s workshops are full; dates for 2019 are posted on my personal website as well as on the dedicated “Develop Your Creative Vision” website. You can read the full description of these workshops there. Other 7-Day workshops may also be announced in October and November.
Tallheo Cannery. Bella Coola, BC
2-Day Workshops: This two-day workshop is designed for photographers who are interested in reaching for new horizons. With a refined tool-kit and new ways of seeing, you will jump-start your power to envision yourself as an artist.
‘Why limit yourself’ when you can turn any subject into pure art
Illustrated talks on art and photography, in-the-field art projects, and constructive evaluation sessions will help you:
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Go to new places in photography by bringing the familiar into a new dimension of artistry.
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Learn Free Form Expressionism and Abstract photography (see my Portfolios Page on my website for examples).
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Find beauty and art in unexpected places.
Meadow Lake Road
These workshops are available to any private group of up to 10 participants and to Camera clubs. For expressions of interest, please call the office at 250-791-6631 or email us at photography@chrisharris.com.
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You can host a Legacy Presentation. Meaningful & inspirational
Rita and I are presenting around Canada this fall, and throughout most of next year. We have a new and spectacular audio-visual presentation, “Cariboo Chilcotin: A Story of Resiliency and Beauty”.
Last year’s wildfires changed but did not destroy the regions natural beauty. We will explore wildfire as part of the life-cycle of the land, and as forces of regeneration and resilience. By exploring photography as an art form, I will share how I transformed my evacuation experience into art.
Based on our most recent books, we will also explore the natural beauty of the grasslands, volcanoes, and Coast Mountains as part of the Chilcotin Ark story; a story of international significance.
Embracing our Sense of Place
We invite you to share and understand these powerful phenomena for yourselves. By embracing natural cycles, we inform our lives and our very nature; we embrace our Sense of Place, and we invite the world to do the same.
Our Confirmed Schedule So Far:
2018:
September 4-11, 2018: Develop Your Creative Vision II workshop. Barkerville, BC
September 17, 2018: Burnaby Camera Club, Burnaby, BC
October 9, 2018: St. Paul’s Anglican Cathedral. Keynote speaker on ‘Creative Living’, Kamloops, BC
November 5, 2018: Montreal Camera Club. The Bonnie Nichol Lectures, Montreal, QC
November 13, 2018: Scarborough Camera Club, Scarborough, ON
November 20, 2018: Trillium Photographic Club. Burlington, ON
November 25, 2018: Shuswap Photo Arts Club, Salmon Arm, BC
November 27, 2018: Cariboo Camera Club. Williams Lake, BC
2019:
April 17, 2019: Nature Canada
Gorgeous, Chris. Thanks.
Thanks Harold. Hope all is well with you in fruit season!! Chris
Hi Chris …Wow!! Ape lake , love you photos , especially the smooth granite.
I must return to the Chilcotin Country again …. Maybe 2019 .
Next week I’m taking a group of friends to the Dolomites for day walks then a 9 day trek .
I like your new motto !
Stay safe and happy .
Best regards form Edrah and myself here in Nanaimo.
Graham
Thanks for staying in touch Graham. Great to hear from you. Have fun in the Dolomites- a beautiful place to hike. Next time you visit the our area, please drop in. The Chilcotin awaits!! Chris
Best! Newsletter! Ever!
You outdid yourself on this August issue, Chris. The Barkerville Impressionism image was the most compelling, but every shot was unique and equally creative.
Great Job!
(My wife & I stopped by your gallery about ten years ago and picked up a copy of your hot-off-the-press Bowron guidebook on our way up to that glorious place and have been fans ever since. We recruited our daughter into that cohort and I expect she will make the circuit herself some day.)
Thank you Neil for staying in touch via the Newsletter. I’m glad you enjoyed the Newsletter! Next time any of your family are up this way, please drop in again. All the best, Chris
Hi Chris…the Barkerville streetscape catches my eye! Mike
Thanks Michael. B’ville is always a great place to visit.
I was stunned by your comment about Barkerville and the impressionist period(It opened a window for me). On the wall at the St. George is a painting of Paris from that moment, and to see the mood and emotion recreated in Barkerville was exceptional. Weaving landscape and history(both geologic and human) together may be a key to our mutual excitement for life. I’m even more excited for the upcoming workshop we’ll be helping you host.
Thanks Dave, you have me more pumped than ever to get back there and run this workshop with you (our host) as well! That was a ‘light bulb’ moment for me; I can’t wait to make more impressionist like images; weaving that narrative of geological and cultural history…wow!!! I look forward to seeing that painting on the wall too. See ya soon Dave. Chris
You are truly a gift to the world Chris, and fortunate, as I, in having a partner that supports you no matter what. Lois says she sticks around, because she never knows what I am up to next. 🙂
See you soon in Barkerville. David
That’s great David. Hi to Lois and I look forward to seeing you soon. We are going to CREATE!!! Chris
I feel so lucky to be among the 10 in the Barkerville workshop. Your work inspires me so much. Whenever I read your newsletters I am immediately energized. In fact, as soon as I read this last one, I got up from the computer, grabbed my camera, and gave creativity a try in my house!
See you soon.
Wow…Joan, you are the best!! Did you jump up and down or swirl around in a circle as you made your creative ‘in house’ masterpiece?? I look forward to seeing you soon. Safe travels. Chris
Betty & I were just travelling in Scotland and your photos remind us of what a beautiful Country we have right here at home. Enjoy you making it possible to see new visions of our home through your Camera’s Eye (Lens).
Great to hear from you Betty and Ron. Yes, it’s hard to grasp what we have here, but there are also many other wonderful places…like Scotland! Continued health and happiness. Chris