Swing by my booth (#35) at this year's Utah Arts Festival, June 20th thru the 23rd, 2013 on Library Square in downtown Salt Lake City. I will be offering a huge selection of one-of-a-kind hand made pigment transfer prints on paper, canvas, wood, stone, and even metallic surfaces. The festival runs from noon till 11pm daily. For more info check the festival website.
Pelican Panorama
American White Pelicans, Baylands, California
Keeping with the bird theme - this post was originally published November 21, 2012.
This is my first ever wildlife panorama, stitched together
from four generously overlapped horizontal frames shot handheld. Come to think
of it, this has to be my first handheld panorama, as well. Shot at a fast
enough shutter speed, camera shake wasn’t an issue. Movement of individual
birds during the sequence wasn’t an issue either, as I was careful to allow a
generous amount of overlap between frames, around fifty percent, and place the
edge of each frame between pelicans. I also needed to leave enough room around
the line of pelicans to crop in on the panorama slightly in case my individual
frames didn’t line up perfectly, which they didn’t.
These birds crack me up; they’re like caricatures from some cartoon. Not only do they fly in line, they stand in
line as well. The Sibley guide uses the adjective ponderous to describe them. Slightly
larger than a male turkey, their landings may not be graceful, in the air they soar
on nine foot wingspans.
The Birds Are Back In Town
A short hike in City Creek Canyon reveals a number of migratory bird species back in town from their wintering grounds. I was able to see and photograph Lazuli Bunting, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Tanager, Chipping Sparrow, and Black-chinned Hummingbird. Made some progress on my Western Tanager trophy shot, but I haven't nailed it just yet.
Western Tanager
The Western Tanagers are in. I just found out a few days ago,
on a short hike in Killian Canyon, where I was lucky enough to capture this
image. The subject is sublime, even the situation with spring green leaves and red
branches of dogwood creating the backdrop is ideal. The execution leaves room
for improvement, and I'm looking forward to trying.
Really the only thing wrong with this image is the blurry foreground branches cutting across and cluttering the frame. However, they're also likely what's making this bird comfortable enough to stay put for a moment at close range. The compositions in my mind may require a lot of time in the field or very cooperative birds, and quite possibly both.
Not too many weeks ago I was staring at the snowy ramparts east of Salt Lake and daydreaming about photography in the high cirques of the Wasatch. Seeing flashes of red in the greening canyon bottoms has fixated my mind on other photographic goals. Right now is the time to be in the green zone photographing brightly colored birds alighted on flowering branches, as if in an Audubon print.
California Birding
Originally published December 7, 2012
It’s been over a month since I was in California, but before moving on, I wanted to share a little about my new discovery. (Thanks, Chris) At the south end of the San Francisco Bay, on the edge of the city of Palo Alto is Baylands Nature Preserve, a premier west coast birding location. Preserving one of the largest tracts of undisturbed marshland in San Francisco Bay, Baylands has fifteen miles of trails through the wetlands. You don’t have to go far to see a wide variety of birds though. In fact, as soon as I was out of the car, I was greeted by a Northern Mockingbird. The highlight of the afternoon was seeing and hearing flocks of Marbled Godwit and American Avocet take to the air en masse and circle around. The numbers of birds and the variety was truly inspiring. Here’s a link to a map of birding hot-spots for Baylands, and a list of bird species and the time of year they’re likely to be seen.
Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
April Gallery Stroll / Utah Arts Festival Gallery
Please join me Friday evening, April 19th, from 6-9pm, at the Utah Arts Festival Gallery for the April gallery stroll opening reception for “Contemporary Artists/Traditional Techniques”, a five person exhibit including yours truly. All of my work in this show is based in the photo transfer processes I’ve been working with the past two years, and consists of one-of-a-kind, hand printed, pigment transfers on cotton papers, wood, and stone tiles. One of my most recent pieces, made specifically for this show, uses crinkly silver metallic paper mounted on foam board, as the substrate for a two transfer composite, where each image is allowed its own organic imperfections. For more information on the show and the other artists involved check the Utah Arts Festival website.
