Newsletter No. 44: March 2009
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
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CONTENTS
- British Columbia Magazine: Get a Copy of this Issue!
- How Light Affects Our Response to Image Making
- The Volcanic Itcha Mountains: A Land of Beautiful Shapes & Colours
- Volcanic Landscape: Canim Falls
- What’s Happening at the Chris Harris Gallery: An evening with poet Anna Wärje
- Upcoming Appearance: Chris presents “The Bowron Lakes: A Lifetime Journey” at Quesnel Fundraiser
Hi everyone,
For most readers, spring, if not summer, must well be on its way. People are talking to me about gardens and flowers, but here in the Cariboo, I have just spent a week doing some spectacular winter photography! By my next Newsletter I hope I will have done some real ‘spring’ shooting!
Enjoy the Newsletter, and pass it on to interested friends. Our goal here at the Chris Harris Gallery is to share the creative process, promote the arts, and strengthen our artistic community. Thank you.
1. British Columbia Magazine
The spring issue of British Columbia Magazine is now on the stands and it has a wonderful article titled “Horseback Riding into Volcano Country”. It’s a story about the 100 mile trail ride through the Itcha Mountains that I photographed on assignment for the magazine. I wrote briefly about it in Newsletter #37 including an article on How to Photograph on a Horsepack Trip. Freelance journalist, Larry Pynn, with his great sense of humour, wrote the article. Pick up a copy at the newsstand if you don’t already have a subscription. I’m sure you will enjoy it.
2. How Light Affects Our Response to Image Making
Every morning when we wake up, we look out the window and respond immediately to the lighting conditions. As a photographer, when I first look out of my tent, my mind swings into action. I start creating a whole set of possible responses to the wide variety of subject matter I might encounter that day. These are emotional responses. They have to do with how I feel about what I am looking at under specific lighting conditions. How I configure my camera and assorted lenses are based on those feelings.
Grave site marked with bleached moose antlers
© Chris Harris; Canon EOS-1Ds MarkIII;
ISO: 200; Lens: 28-70mm
Shutter speed: 1/320 sec; Aperture: f14On this particular day in the Itcha Mountains, it was sunny with front lighting. I felt cheerful and happy, not only about the grave’s beautiful setting, but about the creative idea for a ‘grave-stone’. I thought to myself, ‘I would love to be buried here and in this way’.
To capture the landscape, as well as the thought-provoking relationship between the living and dead, I chose a wide angle lens set at 28mm. I later cropped a little off the sky to make the horizontal band of clouds the ceiling for the image.
Grave site marked with bleached moose antlers
© Chris Harris; Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III;
ISO: 100; Lens: 28-70mm (shot at 42mm)
Shutter speed: 1/250 sec; Aperture: f14By chance, we rode past this grave site one day later. The lighting conditions had changed dramatically and so did my response. I made sure no person or horse was in this image. My thoughts were entirely on the grave, the person buried there, and the sombre conditions of the day. Setting my camera up low to the ground, I placed the antlers against the foreboding sky.
3. The Volcanic Itcha Mountains
Volcanic Landscape
© Chris Harris; Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III;
ISO: 400; Lens: 28-70mm
Shutter speed: 1/500 sec; Aperture: f11These two images were made from the air, thus the higher ISO and shutter speed to eliminate wind-shake from the open window. There can be no hesitation deciding on compositions when the landscape before you is changing by the second. Throughout this shoot, I concentrated entirely on balancing shapes and colours. In the above image the placement of peaks and ridge lines is critical in leading your eye through the composition. Note also how the peaks on both the far left and right keep your eye within the picture space.
Volcanic Landscape
© Chris Harris; Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III;
ISO: 400; Lens: 28-70mm
Shutter speed: 1/1000 sec; Aperture: f 11
This image has a greater emphasis on the placement of colour; however, the diagonal line from the peak to the lower right and the triangular shape of the cut-off mountain on the left play an equally important role.
This summer I will be spending time with the mountain goats while hiking all these ridges. Hey, someone has to do this work!!
4. Volcanic LandscapeCanim Falls
Last week I decided to visit our local Canim Falls, for a winter portrayal of how water and ice crack open and erode through hundreds of feet of lava. Ever since the last ice age, the process of freezing and thawing has broken through layers of basalt lava creating a large number of beautiful waterfalls throughout the Cariboo-Chilcotin region.
Wanting to shoot the action from below the falls, the challenge would be to find a way down the cliffs in slippery winter/spring conditions. Not wanting to die alone, I called up my intrepid hiking friend Mike Duffy and asked if he would join me. With ice axes and snowshoes, we set off!
Canim Falls in winter
© Chris Harris; Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III;
ISO: 50; Lens: 17-35mm
Shutter speed: 1/40 sec; Aperture: f 22
After a descent filled with laughs and close calls we made it to the falls. The view was stunning, and the snowshoe climb over all those snow and ice coated boulders was adrenalin-producing.
Canim Falls with Rainbow |
Icicles from Basalt Fissures |
Moving closer in search of details, I made the above two images. The icicles image shows how the water is seeping through the lava rocks. By continued freezing and thawing, the breaking off of basalt constantly changes the appearance of Canim Falls.
Chris at Work image: I don’t often have a picture of myself photographing, but Mike made this image of me at work! Tough job!
Chris at Work
© Mike Duffy
5. What’s Happening at the Chris Harris GalleryAn Evening with poet Anna Wärje
“Anna Wärje’s awareness of body and identity defines for me a new generation: neither ironic nor sentimental, clear-focused, without illusions but with great hope, and with deep passion and intellectual curiosity. She is cutting free into a new world, and she is making it out of old ones normally considered lost. She is an exciting new voice."
– Harold Rhenisch
You’re invited to a poetry reading, and a writing workshop
Over the past two years Rita’s daughter, Anna, has been published quite widely; so we’ve responded to frequent requests for her work in print, by printing a little chap-book of selected poems.
Anna will be here at the gallery to present her work on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. It will be a ‘bistro’ style poetry reading with refreshments served.
Everyone is invited; the books will be available for purchase at $10 each, and if you can’t make it to the event, you can order by calling us.
Anna will also give a writing workshop on Sunday April 12; 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. The cost is $20 per person and will go ahead if there is a minimum number of pre-registrants; so if you are interested we can forward more information to you on request. Anna is a creative and inspiring teacher, so this is a good chance to release your inner writer in a relaxed and fun environment.
To let us know you’ll be at the reading, or to register for the workshop, please phone (250-791-6631) or email us at photography@chrisharris.com.
6. Upcoming AppearanceChris Presents “The Bowron Lakes: A Lifetime Journey” at Quesnel Fundraiser
If you live in the vicinity of Quesnel, be sure to join us for a wonderful evening of imagery and stories sponsored by Quesnel’s Blackwater Paddlers. My last presentation in Quesnel, “Spirit in the Grass”, was to a full house and was one of my most memorable presentations ever. I hope to see you all there again.
Presentation: The Bowron Lakes: A Lifetime Journey
Date: April 16, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Location: Correlieu School, Music Room
Sponsor: Blackwater Paddlers
Tickets: $5.00