Hello all!!!
Some exciting news — I’ve got a photo up in a gallery!
This is the first time I’ve had a photo piece of mine properly displayed in a gallery, so I’m fairly excited about it. It’s a community gallery in a museum, so not huge, but it’s still exciting.
Let me tell you a bit about the gallery and the photo!
The idea for the gallery was to pair up a painter with a photographer and assign each pair an outdoor industrial site in Nanaimo (where I’m living). The photographer would come up with a shot at the location (no people in it), and send the unedited shot to the painter. Then the photographer and painter got to interpret the shot as they wanted, with a reveal at the show.
It’s a pretty cool concept!
And here’s what I came up with:
The idea I had was to represent the seemingly opposing sides of “industrial” and “natural” in the site in one photo. Also, Vancouver Island photography and art in general tends to be very nature-centric, so I wanted to mess with that by including very urban, neon elements. This bridge with the trees and concrete island in the centre seemed a perfect spot to have a split night-and-day image.
I pulled this off by taking several photos during the day, and then returning at night to take the same shot from the same vantage point (it was really difficult to return and get the same shot. It involved taking a photo of the legs of my tripod so I could place each leg right by the right leaves… it wasn’t the smartest way to do things). This time, I brought some lighting gear: a strong flashlight and makeshift colour gels. Because I’m stingy, I found the cover of a CD case that was see-through blue, and used a see-through red protein shaker cup (all things I found at my house).
My semi-fearless and wonderful spouse did the lighting work while I directed and took the photos. She was constantly concerned about cougars, and I was worried about taking a wrong step and falling in to the river. And also about cougars. But it worked!
I carefully stacked the night images and day images to get the lighting I wanted, and then layered and blended the two at what I thought was an appropriate spot in the photo.
In the end, I really liked what I got. In terms of light painting, this is actually a simpler setup than I usually go for, but that meant it worked out fairly well. I consider this a great addition to my #NeoninNature series.
If you’re in the area, check this photo and the other art pieces in the exhibition at the Nanaimo Museum in the Community Gallery. Also, the print from the show is for sale! I had it printed on aluminum to add to the industrial/urban aesthetic (most photographer go with canvas – more natural, etc). So if this print looks like it’s worth $400 to you, let me know if you’d like it!!!
Thanks for reading/looking!
