Not quite finished…New work for the Red Butte show.
I’m excited to be back at Red Butte Garden for the 18th Annual Holiday Open House and Art Fair, Saturday and Sunday December 1st and 2nd, 2018 from 10am to 5pm. I’ll be set up in the Orangerie, selling matted, framed, and stretched canvas prints, photo note cards, and one-of-a-kind photo transfers on paper, stone, and wood. Admission to the garden is free during the open house, so bring the whole family. Hope to see you there!
Anglewing Butterfly, Red Butte Garden, Utah
My most rewarding project of 2017 was photographing butterflies at Red Butte Garden. In fact, the image above of a Satyr Comma (Polygonia satyrus) is my personal favorite photo of the year. I photographed Swallowtails, Monarchs, and Greater Fritillaries during a couple of visits to Red Butte Garden over the summer, but the real action was in November.
Painted Lady, Red Butte Garden, Utah
The weather had turned warm again after an early October cold snap. Butterflies were concentrating at Red Butte Garden to get nectar from the last prolific blooms to be found anywhere around; showy pale pink chrysanthemums and purple asters. I was able to observe and photograph ten different species of butterflies on a handful of visits in late October and early November.
Painted Lady Wing Detail, Red Butte Garden, Utah
The first Autumn butterflies I noticed were Painted Ladies (Vanessa cardui). It was the Painted Ladies loving the blue hyssop in my backyard that first put the idea of going back to Red Butte Garden to photograph butterflies in my mind. When I got there I wasn't disappointed, there were a lot of Painted Ladies. I was able to capture a number of fine images, none more exquisite than the wing detail above.
Milbert's Tortoiseshell, Red Butte Garden, Utah
I was excited by a number of the butterfly images I was able to capture last year. I can also see a lot of room for improvement and exploration, which is exciting as well. Certainly some of the little guys that aren't represented here, like Coppers, Skippers, and Blues are worthy of more attention. I'm looking forward to observing butterflies even more closely this year.
Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia)
Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum)
Last Sunday while at the Red Butte Garden annual holiday open house, I abandoned my booth for a couple of forays out into the wintery garden in hopes of seeing and photographing birds. To my surprise I saw nine different species of birds within about twenty minutes.
I'm guessing that the gardens create a rare concentration of winter food, based on my experience that bird sightings in the Salt Lake City foothills are infrequent this time of year. At least, I haven't seen that kind of variety of birds in one place at one time in any of the other locations I've gone looking this time of year.
American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Pfeiffer Arch, Big Sur, California
Please join me at the Red Butte Garden Annual Holiday Open House, Saturday and Sunday, December 7th and 8th, from 10am till 5pm. Admission to the gardens is free on these two days and you can shop for unique Christmas gifts from a select group of local artists, with 30% of the proceeds going to support Red Butte Garden. I'll be offering a wide range of photographic prints from note cards and small matted prints to large framed photographs and stretched canvases, as well as my unique photo transfers on stone, paper, wood, and metal. I'm excited to show some new work (like the image above) from a recent trip to the central California coast.
JEFF BECK PHOTO - Fine Art Nature Photography
A blog about photography, wilderness, and art, featuring the photography of Salt Lake City artist Jeff Beck.
