I would like to welcome and introduce you to the March Artist of the Month. It is James Hutchinson. While we all know the talented and friendliness of James you will be wonderfully surprised to see a new side of his work. James’ photography of nature is stunning. Please waltz over to http://home.cogeco.ca/~challenge/ArtistinResidence.html and enjoy his wonderful work.
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Wonderful collection of photos. Nature in all it’s various forms does make for an excellent subject. I envy you the shots of the bald eagle. They roost on the river here during the winter, but it’s awwwfulllll cold to try to shoot photos without a blur from shivering.
James – That is a lovely selection of photos, and a very nice bio from someone suffering from writer’s block! I agree, we live in a very pretty part of the world 🙂 My favorites: the blue jay, the buck in yard, nature’s ornaments, and the young bunny.
Nice set of photos. So how do you get all the wildlife to sit for you. Do you feed them to get them used to your presence, hang out in a hunter’s blind, or have a really good lens set up?
James, you have got an etremely good eye for composition. I especially love the images, made when you had sufficient time to compose in your viewfinder. This makes many of your images stand out above the crowd. Thank you for sharing with us.
Hi James, What wonderful pictures! They are beautiful, your close ups are astounding. This is a very inspirational gallery. I can’t pick a favourite,,,,, Jane
The Blue Jay is one of my favorites as well because of the way the wind was ruffling the feathers. I almost didn’t include it because of the CA on the right side of the photo. Thanks.
I am lucky in that I live in an area with abundant wildlife. It is just a matter of moving slowly so as not to frighten them. Feeding wildlife other than birds is against the law here and leads to all kinds of problems. I appreciate your comments, thanks.
Thanks Leen, that means alot coming from you. I have tried to put your first tip into practice, the one about composing the shot then putting your hands in your pockets while looking to see what may improve the photo.
Great stuff, James, and congratulations on your gallery show and upcoming web site. When you offer prints through this, what kind of prints will they be?
Thanks John. I have a friend who has an Epson 2200 and another friend with the Epson 7600, I will be using both with the Ultrachrome inks and archival papers. One of them does the Giclee Prints on textured papers that looks more like paintings and I am also looking into that.
Enjoyed looking at your pictures. You must be an extremely patient person or else the area where you live must be teeming with wildlife all waiting to be photographed by you. 🙂
Thanks Robert, we have a lot of wildlife and we do a lot of hiking which puts me in close proximity to it. I live on the edge of the Grand Mesa so the opportunities are endless. http://www.grandmesabyway.org/
James H, How glad I was that you did include the blue jay. I’ve been loking for such a picture for a couple months. Someone trashed my mail box and I can’t find the picture (blue jay) that I used to go on the new box. I would like to draw one from your picture if you don’t mind. I’ve gone through all your pictures, didn’t intend to go past 5 tonight but couldn’t stop. Will comment more tomorrow. Marty
Thanks Marty. The bird was correctly identified by a friend of ours who is a birder. The picture is actually a Scrub Jay and yes you can use it. Thanks Chuck for the help in correctly identifying the bird.
Wow! You have captured some terrific images. I love the simplicity of "The Trail." It says a lot with little to get in the way. The "River in Tenn." image reminds so much of many of the rivers here in Western North Carolina. And, finally, your "Christmas Cactus" image is just plain beautiful.
Thanks Dick. When we lived in Louisiana we would go to the Smokey Mountains every year to get our Mountain fix. We would usually stay in Townsend, Tenn. a few days then head over to North Carolina to whitewater raft on the Nantahalia from there we would head to Helena Georgia then to Callaway Gardens as our final stop before heading home. I said all of this as a long way to get to the point. The river picture was taken over 15 years ago and it’s quite possible it was taken in North Carolina, my memory is not what it used to be and back then I didn’t take very good notes on location.
Wow! You have captured some terrific images. I love the simplicity of
"The Trail." It says a lot with little to get in the way. The "River in Tenn." image reminds so much of many of the rivers here in Western North Carolina. And, finally, your "Christmas Cactus" image is just plain beautiful.
You are indeed a worthy "Artist of the Month." Dick
It’s impossible to pick a favorite, but there are those that stood out to me more than others. The photo of the doe with the barbed wire in front of her really spoke to me. I also liked the lupines and logs photo. That log all by itself would make an interesting study!
Thanks Patti, I’m glad you enjoyed them. I’m sure the doe was laughing at the barbed wire, we have an 8 foot elk fence around most of our property and I regularly see the deer jump over it. Thankfully it stops the elk as they seem capable of doing much more damage.
It’s impossible to pick a favorite, but there are those that stood out
to me more than others. The photo of the doe with the barbed wire in front of her really spoke to me. I also liked the lupines and logs photo. That log all by itself would make an interesting study!
James H, Here are a few more I liked: #5 the sharp vs soft texture between cocti and flowers, #17 I would love to have had a "real" splitrail fence like the one in your picture, #19 In Nature’s ornaments, what kind of pine tree is that … the candles are so pear shaped. When I saw the bud in #20 I thought "I hope he follows up on this" and sure enough you did in #21. Few more favorites to mention later. Marty
Thanks Marty. 1. The cactus in #5 is in our backyard. My wife marked it and stood over it for a year while we built our new house so that it would survive the workers. 2. There are many split rail fences scattered about Colorado. This particular fence is on Last Dollar Road which goes from Hwy 62 to Telluride. The nice gravel road soon turns into a two track Jeep trail before dropping down into Telluride, CO. 3. The tree in #19 is a Colorado Blue Spruce. This is the first of about 20 that we planted on the property. 4. The plant in #’s 20 and 21 has had a banner year in 2003. It bloomed 4 or 5 different times and had up to 19 blooms at once. An Orchid Cactus has the most wonderful smell in the world. The blooms open during the night and are limp by morning. The fragrance is more than enough to wake me to take the photos. If someone could bottle the smell they would quickly become a fragrance millionaire. Our home is close to 40% glass on the sidewalls and we have hot water radiant heat in the floor, both of these help to keep the plants at their optimum.
James H, Here are a few more I liked: #5 the sharp vs soft texture between
cocti and flowers, #17 I would love to have had a "real" splitrail fence like the one in your picture, #19 In Nature’s ornaments, what kind of pine tree is that … the candles are so pear shaped.
When I saw the bud in #20 I thought "I hope he follows up on this" and
Your work is exquisite! You have a natural talent for capturing nature and are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful area like Cedaredge. Two of my favorites are "Golden Road" and "The Trail", both of these are excellent compositions, they draw me right into the gorgeous scenery. Your wildlife shots, especially "Doe", are incredible! Last night I was out trying to photograph a pair of Mallards and I know they don’t stick around for very long, you must have some stealth secrets for not startling these beautiful creatures.
Congratulations on being accepted to exhibit your work, fantastic news! I wish you all the best!
Thanks Chris, I enjoy photographing tracks almost as much as the animals themselves. I try to make myself believe that anyway since sometimes tracks is all we see.
Last Dollar Road and The Trail evoke fond memories of growing up in Montana. Buck in Tree is my favorite – the way his antlers and the aspen branches suggest each other – just right.
Oh… I also like the Jay, too!
In all, a collection of which you should be proud.
Thanks Juergen, I now know that it was in fact a Scrub Jay. I spent most of the afternoon trying to get another shot of one. I will find out tomorrow after converting some Raw files if I succeeded.
Thanks so much for the kind words Byron. I would like to spend my next vacation fly fishing and hiking in Montana. I’m glad I got the shot because the buck certainly had his way with my favorite Aspen.
My personal favourite is #27, "The Trail". It is such a strong image because of its simplicity. Just only white and blue dominating and the winding track of footsteps. Great image, well done. This image, enlarges at 20×30" with a wide white border deserves a place on someones wall.
Thanks Leen. This photo was taken with my old camera and the dimensions are only 2048 x 1530. I have never had that much luck with extreme upsampling but I may try a 14 x 11 and see what I get.
James, On with my happy looking. #23 red flower is gorgeous, a real RED. #27, if I missed someone asking … what animal? The prints are so exactly in line. #31 Ah, the baby squirl and such innocent eyes (that’ll disappear as she eats through my bulbs this spring. Marty
James, On with my happy looking. #23 red flower is gorgeous, a real RED. #27, if I missed someone
asking … what animal? The prints are so exactly in line. #31 Ah, the baby squirl and such innocent eyes (that’ll disappear as she eats through my bulbs this spring.
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