I was fortunate and grateful last week to be able to visit two entirely different installations of fine art prints of my work with nature and landscape photography. One was a very visually appealing display of several 30″x40″ gallery wrap canvas prints in a customer’s home. The collection of images was selected based on the customer’s desire to include all four of the seasons on the Ohio landscape. I also worked with this customer in crafting a uniquely cropped version of “Dogwood in Rain” photograph.

The gallery wrap canvas style print is an excellent choice for display fine art nature photography in an environment where a traditional, behind-the-glass framed print is not required. These prints “lift-off” from the wall, hence the “wrapped around,” and work superbly on neutral-colored walls. The price is a bit more than a normal, unframed fine art photographic prints. However, the true advantage is that the pieces arrive wired and ready to be hung on the wall. There is a significant cost savings when compared to costs associated with frame, mat, mounting and glass, not to mention the weight and difficulty in handling on a framed 30″x40″ print. I provide additional information about the benefits of the gallery wrap canvas print on one of my YouTube tutorials, at http://youtu.be/EOOWZlX6Nxk.

The other installation of my work with nature and landscape photography was in the newly opened addition to Wooster Community Hospital in Wooster, Ohio. There is currently 66 16″x24″ prints installed, representing landscapes that I have photographed in Ohio, Montana, Colorado, Utah and South Carolina. I was very pleased with how the prints looked, particularly with the expert craftsmanship that went into the mounting and framing by a local frame service in Wooster. In a public, high-traffic location, such as a hospital, office or medical center, the traditional approach toward framing (mount, mat, glass, frame) is usually the better choice over the gallery wrap canvas print.

What is even more pleasing to see is how this display of photographic artwork helps enhance an environment that promotes healing and recovery in situations that are usually quite challenging for both patient and family, as well as staff and medical personnel.

For both installations I use a professional print lab service that caters to the fine art photographer. This particular lab has been crafting prints of my photography for over five years now and I could not be more pleased. Their quality and attention to detail is superb. For more information on fine art print installations of my nature and landscape photography, see http://ohiophoto.org/public_html/fineart.html.

Professionally taken portrait head shot photographs can go a long way in projecting an entrepreneur’s personality, particularly when used as profile images on Twitter and business blog pages. I provide this service here in my home studio. The following image is from a recent session with Sara who was looking for head shot images to use with her Twitter page for her business.

One of the reasons I like doing these photography sessions here at my home location is the opportunity to use an ample amount of daylight coming through my southward facing windows. I show how this works in the Photographic Moment video tutorial that was shot this past January. It’s worth the extra effort and time it takes for me to move furniture to the side and set-up my lights and backdrops. I’ll be setting-up this arrangement again this Friday for another high school senior portrait session.

The following image was taken using just natural window light -

Being in the light. The photographer – the artist – senses every subtle change to the light of each season. How it turns. How it changes the landscape. How everything reacts to it. I captured these images and video last week, after an evening run at nearby Sugarcreek MetroPark. I was setting-up my camera and tripod to photograph the closed Queen Anne’s Lace (resulting image in the video) when an older couple passed me along the trail. As usual the wife was a few steps ahead. The husband trailing slightly behind with his head toward the ground. The woman looked at me with that usual critical expression I see amongst older, suburbanite midwesterners around here and shot off a “what are you taking pictures of ?”

“The Queen Anne’s Lace.”

“Well why do you want take a picture of that – it’s all closed-up.”

Well excuse the (insert appropriate obscenity) out of me. I’m so sorry what I’m doing and what I’m photographing doesn’t meet with your approval.

That’s what I wanted to say.

“Well I really like the pattern and shape, and everything looks really nice in this light right now.”

“Oh, well, I guess it does.”

I then moved down further into the tall grass prairie while they continued the other way along the walking trail.

There’s so much beauty all around us, every minute of every day. It’s in the letting go of the limits and rules we place within our own mind when we can finally, truly open our eyes to all of the possibilities – all the visual treasures – all the signs in the light that guides us to follow the creative spirit that connects what is most important in life.

It wasn’t the Queen Anne’s Lace that was “closed-up.”

The art of black and white photography in effectively capturing texture and form in nature. Pawpaw plant in spring at Sugarcreek MetroPark. The digital conversion to black and white was completed using Nik Silver Efex Pro plug-in for Aperture. This is a powerful editing and enhancement tool that allows the photographer to make targeted adjustments – “control points” – within the image, very similar to the dodging and burning that was once completed by hand in the darkroom of years past.

I will be demonstrating, step-by-step, the in-camera capture techniques and the digital post-processing for optimal black and white nature photography during my upcoming workshop at The Inn at Cedar Falls in Hocking Hills, set for the weekend of September 24, 2010.

Emerging Pawpaw in black and white by Jim Crotty

“Goodnight Moon.” I never made the connection between this image and what I remember as the favorite book I’d read to my daughters at bedtime, when they were younger. It was the suggestion of a friend. I was motivated to not only revisit this image – without a doubt one of my top five nature and landscape photographs – as well as the heartwarming memory of those times that all parents can relate with – the wonderful innocence and love of those “early years.” That stack of books on the nightstand, and saving “Goodnight Moon” for last. I started reading to my daughters as soon as they were old enough to sit up and follow along, probably just after they each turned one year of age. And don’t let anyone say that reading to kids when they are that young doesn’t make a difference. It does. Now nine and 11 they excel in reading and English. My oldest, Emma, has been placed in pre-AP English as she begins her journey into middle school, this Monday.

And there’s no doubt to the positive impact of stories at bedtime has on mom and dad. The memory of first reading that book while she sat on my lap and we looked out the bedroom window in that house in Salt Lake City. I would point to the Moon rising above the nearby snow-covered peaks of the Wasatch Mountains and her eyes would go wide with wonder and then shared smiles. I am blessed beyond measure.

It was perhaps seven or eight years later that I captured this image in another location of shared experiences. The full Moon rising above the hilltop garden that sits behind the Inn at Cedar Falls in the Hocking Hills, Ohio. The evening following Thanksgiving. The light in the sky that evening was beyond ethereal. And then over the eastern horizon Luna came calling.

The signs that are sent our way are wonders to behold. They’re everywhere around us, everyday. It’s only a matter of slowing down, letting go, listening, observing with more than just the eye.

Every once in a while the photographic artist succeeds in capturing the connection between the outward, external presentation of subject and light and the internal, spirit-filled essence that is our love and common ground, and then we glimpse something that transcends time and the confines of the temporal and worrisome. We’re joined. We’re moved. We love.

The friend who suggested this connection between image and favorite bedtime book is also a parent. She saw something in that image that was always there for me but wasn’t fully aware of, until now. Shared experiences, moments that move the spirit and soul. A single photograph, also shared, and we connect back to what moves both artist and viewer.

Goodnight Moon.

November Moon by Jim Crotty by Jim Crotty