Before we say our goodbyes to Winter 2010 (which I’m sure we are all looking forward to doing), I wanted to share my favorite images captured during the season of cold and quiet and subdued light. Locations photographed and shown within this online gallery include Dayton and Hocking Hills, Ohio and Zion National Park, Utah. Gallery – The Best of Winter 2010.
Also, I’ve created a short “Pictures You Can Hear”slideshow presentation to accompany the Winter 2010 web gallery.
Hands-down, the “Shoot the Hills” Photography Competition Weekend is the best event in Ohio for anyone with a passion for nature photography. I’ve had the good fortune of being somewhat involved with Shoot the Hills – which helps support all the great programs and conservation efforts of Friends of Hocking Hills – for …the last several years.
Contestants come from all over Ohio, and beyond, and have 24 hours to photograph in the Hocking Hills region. Images are then submitted for judging in several categories including flora, wildlife and people in nature, with awards presented on Sunday afternoon. It’s amazing to see the visual discoveries and photographic talent on display, and all around it is just a ton of fun. Mid-April is often an ideal time to be shooting nature and landscapes in Hocking Hills. Some of the wildflowers are at their peak, including fields of Trillium and Virginia Bluebells, and the streams and waterfalls are almost always flush with spring rain. A couple years back there was a beautiful, evening mist that filled the gorges and hollows.
My friends and founding members of Friends of Hocking Hills – Barb and Jerry Jividen of Jividen Photography and Jennifer Mitchell of Getaway Cabins, along with a team of other dedicated volunteers, willingly and enthusiastically donate a tremendous amount of hard work to make each Shoot the Hills event even more successful than that of the previous year.
This one photography event that I wholeheartedly recommend and endorse. It’s a blast and a great way to support Friends of Hocking Hills and Hocking Hills State Park.
I had been on that same trail so many other times that I’ve lost count. The trail at Old Man’s Cave in Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio. However, there was something about the quality of the light on that Saturday following what would become the first of several major snow “events” of February 2010. Rather than having to make the two + hour drive from my home in Dayton, this time I was actually already in Hocking Hills for the big snowstorm on Friday evening, February 5th. For the previous two days I was completing an assignment photographing the interiors and details of all the rooms, cabins and cottages at The Inn and Spa at Cedar Falls, for their soon-to-be updated and redesigned web site. On Saturday morning I awoke to a foot of newly fallen – and still falling – snow. The perfect opportunity for capturing scenes of the forest and gorges covered in a blanket of white.
But what would eventually catch my eye were the abstract patterns in the cliffs and open caves along the trail, away from the show of snow on the branches of the Hemlocks and along the stream and waterfalls. All that white covering just on the other side of the trail illuminated the colors and patterns in the sandstone in way that was different than a typical day in spring, summer or autumn. Details often overlooked now were easier to take in with the eye of the artist. There was also the added benefit of very few people on this, the most popular trail in Hocking Hills. I could take my time, in allowing the scenes to come to me and in positioning tripod and camera. The beauty of nature in the abstract on a snow-covered day, deep in a winter’s hush.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting a local office where prints of my work are on display within the client waiting area. The most recent addition to the collection is a 30″x40″ gallery wrap canvas print of Upper Falls in Hocking Hills, Ohio. Next to it is an older print, simply displayed on white mount board, of an autumn landscape from Red River Gorge, Kentucky. Both of these prints show how fine art photography can effectively be displayed without a traditional frame.
In my home I have 13 of the 30″x40″ gallery wrap canvas prints of some of my favorite photographs captured in Hocking Hils, Cuyahoga Valley, Dayton, Zion National Park of Utah and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
By all means I’m not against traditional framing. In fact when done professionally the frame in of itself can be a work of art. I just believe in providing customers who look to buy prints of my photography with as many options as possible when it comes to hanging and displaying large format prints.
The gallery wrap canvas print is an option that I wish more people would consider. It is ideal for an environment where there are neutral walls and where the print can be fairly safe from wandering hands. These prints come direct to the customer from my professional lab, wired and ready for display. For their size they are very light and easy to hang. These prints also provide that added dimension, hence, the “wrap,” that gives the pleasing effect of almost walking the eye “around” the photograph.
For more information regarding sizes and prices, please email or all 1-877-JCrotty (527-6889). Special pricing is available for decorators and commercial art representatives.
The dance of light on the autumn landscape. Photography of the season captured in Hocking Hills and Caesar Creek State Parks as well as Sugarcreek MetroPark.
Almost always the best nature and landscape photographs are captured in what I like to call “the margins of the day,” that being dawn and dusk. Even an hour before sunrise and an hour after sunset, when most photographers aren’t up or have packed away their gear for the day, the beauty of gradual light enhances the natural subject.
The following Pictures You Can Hear video and images were captured on the morning of October 20, 2009 at The Inn at Cedar Falls, in Hocking Hills, Ohio.
The sacredness of the light. To crunch about in the woods. To take in sunrise on the hilltop and then marvel at the sight of the Milky Way after nightfall. These are the visual gifts that feed the spirit and move the soul.
When all else in the “outside world” is ripping at the seams and falling in tatters, it is comforting to know that all is well, and right, in nature and at The Inn at Cedar Falls.
