The Lincoln Gallery and the Thompson Valley Art League presents the 2023 REGIONAL PHOTOGRAPHYSHOW (Black and White ONLY). This is a juried exhibit open to all photographers residing AZ, CO, ID, NM, MT, UT, NV, WY, AK, CA, HI, OR and WA.
Three of my black and white infrared images were selected for this show. The Sierra, The Dawning and Earthborn.
The Opening Reception is Friday, April 14, 2023 at 6:00 pm. The gallery will also be going live on Facebook @thelincolngallery at 6:30 pm with the Juror and the award announcements. We will open for Artists and their guests from 6:00-7:00pm and open to the public at 7:00pm.
Gallery 6 is celebrating Month of Photography with two photography shows running concurrently through March.
IMPRINT Colorado introduces three breakthrough Colorado photographic artists with their own show, the center piece of Gallery 6 Denver’s Month of Photography in March. Each of the artists won their space in a statewide contest run by Gallery 6, Denver’s only dedicated photographic art gallery.
Robert Newman is a talented iPhone-ographer from Lakewood and captures 4-second exposures of Denver. Sherri Mabe is a infra-red specialist from Colorado Springs and captures what she describes as “half-remembered dreams” Kent Youngblood of Denver is a master of studio lighting which uses to evoke times-gone-by with his stylish film-noir photography
In ART-OF-THE-STATE, Gallery 6 features a dazzling range of Colorado landscape, cityscape and wildlife photography. Explore Art-Of-The-State works by Resident Artists Tony Eitzel, Kevin Schwalbe, Dave Stephens and 2022 Sony World Photography Awards Open Photographer of the Year, Scott Wilson.
The Resident Artists of Gallery 6 Denver are delighted to announce the three winners of our inaugural IMPRINT Colorado photography contest.
Skilled iPhone-ographer, Robert Newman of Lakewood, infra-red exponent Sherri Mabe from Colorado Springs and master-of-light Kent Youngblood of Denver all rose to the surface in a high quality competitive contest.
Robert, Sherri and Kent will show examples of their winning portfolios at Gallery 6 during Month of Photography Denver which runs through March 2022.
Each winner will also receive a complimentary framed printed crafted by Tony Eitzel of Gallery 6 to kick off their show.
We will run profiles of each of the winning artists in the run-up to March.
Last year, Life Pixel invited me to share my work via the Infrared Photography Gallery on the Life Pixel website. It was an honor to be among some of the very best infrared photographers who are also sharing their images via this gallery. I have used LP since my first exposure to the digital infrared world, and they are both helpful via customer service, and meticulus in their conversions. Please take a peek at the many talented photographers LP represents via this and other galleries on their website.
A little about infrared photography via Life Pixel:
“With the advent of digital cameras it is now possible to photograph infrared light with your digital camera and greatly simplify the infrared photography process.
The latest digital cameras are sensitive to infrared light, so much so that manufacturers place a hot mirror filter in front of the sensor to block infrared light to prevent infrared IR light from spoiling regular photographs. It is still possible to shoot digital infrared photography with an unmodified digital camera but the exposures become quite long and in most cases require a tripod, not to mention the need to place an infrared filter in front of the lens to block visible light. All this sure doesn’t help the creative infrared photography process. With our digital infrared photography conversion it is now possible to photograph infrared images hand held at low ISO speeds and without the need for infrared filters. Since you no longer need to use an infrared filter in front of the lens it is much easier to change lenses, compose and focus. To learn more about our infrared conversion services please go to our Digital Infrared Conversion FAQ page.”
My friend, Terrel Bailey, also know as Lifted Spirit, has invited me to exhibit two images with him at the D’art & Friends Invitational Group Exhibition 11/25/22 – 12/24/22. Opening day will be the day after Thanksgiving, Friday, November 25, from Noon – 9pm.
D’art Gallery is a contemporary art exhibition space featuring 18 professional artists located in the Art District on Santa Fe, Denver Colorado at 900 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO.
The mission of D’Art Gallery is to provide a professional gallery experience for artists, collectors and the public at large. Member artists have the opportunity to advance their careers and pursue a high standard of professional development while following their personal vision in the fine arts. The gallery strives to promote community awareness, and appreciation of contemporary fine arts.
“Sherri Mabe’s work has made a lasting impression on me since the first time I viewed one of her photographs. She works primarily using Infrared photography, and almost exclusively in black and white. Sherri spends much of her time photographing the plains or the desert – both areas that I deeply love. She captures the solitude and loneliness of these places with a great intimacy. Her use of shadow and the beautiful highlights that are often a result of capturing only a certain spectrum of infrared light, make for beautifully dramatic renditions of the scenes before her. And her work always does what a good photographer should do – it transforms a simple, often overlooked scene into a scene of beauty.
As Sherri’s work is often about the simplicity of the prairie or of a pinon pine tree in the desert, so too are my photographs often about simplicity. Just as her images often speak to the solitary nature of these places, so too do many of my pieces. Her work and mine seem to mimic one another in many ways. Although the content may differ in our photographs, the emotions felt are often very similar. Given the similarities between her work and mine, it was an easy decision to ask her to exhibit alongside me.
Her photographs are not only exquisite, but her knowledge of the history of the places she photographs is fascinating. She often shares tidbits on the history of the locations when she posts her photos on her website or social media, and it always makes for an interesting read.
It’s a pleasure and an honor to get to introduce my friend, Sherri Mabe, to the gallery, but also to have a piece of mine hanging next to hers.”
Such an incredible opportunity to speak with Kat. In these situations, I am often nervous, think too much and am struggling over words. Kat made me so very comfortable, and she is a delightful human being who has created an informative service, via her podcasts, for the “invisible light world” of photography.
Please check out the other photographers interviewed during her two seasons. There is some profound talent in the infrared photographic medium, and their sessions are availiable on her website link below. Thank you, Kat.
“Every now and then you meet a photographer who inspires, delights, and captivates you. Sherri Mabe, @starlitwaltz, was all of those during our conversation. Incredibly insightful and full of information and resources to fuel your creativity, Sherri shares her journey with ir photography and her passion for negative space”
I’m honored to have Nuclear Family accepted to this exhibit on “Trees.” Of the 1,093 submitted images, 55 were selected for the exhibit.
Juror | Kevin Tully Exhibition dates | April 29 to June 9, 2022
“Established in May, 2010, A Smith Gallery is located in Johnson City, Texas in the Nugent Avenue Arts District. The gallery exhibits the work of both amateur and professional photographers through juried and invitational exhibitions. A Smith Gallery along with the photography collective, Shootapalooza, created the world’s largest cyanotype in 2015.
Amanda Smith and Kevin Tully are the Gallery Directors. Izzie is the gallery cat.
Amanda has a thirty year background as a photographer. She was an active board member of the Texas Photographic Society for fifteen years. Her work is in institutional and private collections across the country.
Kevin is a photographer, designer and artist. He has over thirty-five years of experience as a landscape designer, furniture designer, fine art painter and photographer.”
Thinking back to my Seuss days with young children, it occurs to me that Joshua Trees have a strong resemblance to the Truffula Trees in the Dr Seuss book, “The Lorax!”
“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees. I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax
I made a visit to JTNP this past March. My first encounter with these trees was while driving across the Mojave Desert via Las Vegas. The trees appeared as I gained elevation, thriving at 4000-6000 feet. The drive was about 3.5 hours south of Las Vegas through the Mojave, and down into 29 Palms. Joshua Tree National Park is just a few miles out of town. Since it was early March, the park was fairly empty of crowds making photography easy. My daily schedule was to arrive in JTNP before dawn for the blue/golden hour, taking a break during the day, and then drive back into JTNP around 3 pm until sunset. The light was simply marvelous for infrared photography those few days.
JTNP 8
According to the National Park Service, there is a fascinating history behind these mythical Seuss like trees…
“Like the California fan palm, Washingtonia filifera, the Joshua tree is a monocot in the subgroup of flowering plants that also includes grasses and orchids. Don’t confuse the Joshua tree with the Mojave yucca, Yucca schidigera. This close relative can be distinguished by its longer, wider leaves and fibrous threads curling along leaf margins. The Joshua tree provides a good indicator that you are in the Mojave Desert, but you may also find it growing next to a saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert in western Arizona or mixed with pines in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Years ago, the Joshua tree was recognized by native people for its useful properties: tough leaves were worked into baskets and sandals, and flower buds and raw or roasted seeds made a healthy addition to the diet. The local Cahuilla have long referred to the tree as “hunuvat chiy’a” or “humwichawa;” both names are used by a few elders fluent in the language.
By the mid-19th century, Mormon immigrants had made their way across the Colorado River. Legend has it that these pioneers named the tree after the biblical figure, Joshua, seeing the limbs of the tree as outstretched in supplication, guiding the travelers westward. However, this tale is not substantiated in the historical record. Some evidence suggests that the biblical figure Joshua, and the Joshua trees, represented the Mormon conquest of the desert. Instead of the branches resembling outstretched arms in prayer, perhaps the tree’s sharp, blade-like leaves brought to mind the arrayed forces of Joshua’s army.
Concurrent with Mormon settlers, ranchers and miners arrived in the high desert with high hopes of raising cattle and digging for gold. These homesteaders used the Joshua tree’s limbs and trunks for fencing and corrals. Miners found a source of fuel for the steam engines used in processing ore.
Today we enjoy this yucca for its grotesque appearance, a surprising sight in the landscape of biological interest. The Joshua tree’s life cycle begins with the rare germination of a seed, its survival dependent upon well-timed rains. Look for sprouts growing up from within the protective branches of a shrub. Young sprouts may grow quickly in the first five years, then slow down considerably thereafter. The tallest Joshua trees in the park loom a whopping forty-plus feet high, a grand presence in the desert. Judging the age of a Joshua tree is challenging: these “trees” do not have growth rings like you would find in an oak or pine. You can make a rough estimate based on height, as Joshua trees grow at rates of one-half inch to three inches per year. Some researchers think an average lifespan for a Joshua tree is about 150 years, but some of our largest trees may be much older than that.”
If you decide to visit, I recommend autumn or spring for the best temperatures and less people visiting. This National Park is a jewel and a beautiful location for infrared photography.
Off the shores of Uncertain, where the Big Cypress Bayou flows into Caddo Lake and the water is lined by moss-draped bald cypress trees, modernity has no place.
The lake’s surface is dotted with lily pads and coated with duckweed.
All around, brilliant water hyacinth blossoms. Along the shoreline a dense forest of hickory, ash, oak, pine and sweet gum trees grows.
Within the water and surrounding woods a menagerie of wildlife — including some endangered and threatened species — flourishes. Alligators and panthers add to the wild, remote ambience.”
Kelley Reese
North Texan Online
Photographing bald cypress trees has long been a dream of mine. My first introduction to these trees dates back to the beginning of my journey with infrared photography. I attended a swamp walk with Clyde Butcher one Saturday, while I was a student assistant to a photography professor at a local college in Tampa. It was love at first photograph with these magnificently mysterious trees.
Fast forward to to this past November, when I received an unexpected invitation to photograph cypress at Caddo Lake. I had recently met a photographer, Katherine, during a trip to Maine, and she extended an invitation to meet her in Uncertain, Texas to photograph the otherworldly bald cypress. It was impromptu, but I managed to arrive in a few short weeks after my visit in Acadia. I drove in at night to this mysterious land of the cypress. It was very dark and there were no cars on the road that Monday evening.
The next morning before dawn we met up with, Mike Griffis, our tour guide for the duration of our trip. Mike is a local and grew up in the area. He has extensive knowledge of Caddo Lake and experience with photographers. Mike was incredible, he knows light, its direction, all the prime locations to seek out, at both dawn and dusk, for the best light. Mike also had his favorite locations and generously shared them with us. It was such a gift to see the sun rise and set over these ancient trees.
The Musician Connection
Long ago I read about Don Henley’s work to preserve an area in the East Texas wetlands, and also remember his video “Taking You Home,” which was partially filmed at Caddo Lake. In a “Texas Heritage For Living” article, by Peter Simek, he writes…
“Caddo Lake’s most famous protector is none other than the Eagles drummer and front man Don Henley. Henley grew up near the lake in Linden. When he was a boy, his father brought him to Caddo Lake and taught the future rock star how to fish. Those experiences helped instill in Henley a deep connection to Caddo Lake’s mysterious beauty.
Henley has continued to return to the lake throughout his life, bringing his own children to Caddo and teaching them to fish there, too. He has called Caddo Lake his church, a place where natural beauty and peaceful seclusion provide a refuge from the world and a site of spiritual nourishment. In the 1990s, Henley founded the Caddo Lake Institute to study the lake’s delicate ecosystem and help foster its conservation.” https://texasheritageforliving.com/texas-travel/caddo-lake/
Indigenous History
According to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, “In the late 18th or early 19th century, Caddo Indians settled on this rich land, where according to tribal legend, ‘water thrown up into the drift along the shore by a wind’ formed Tso’to (Sodo) Lake. Legends tell of the formation of the lake and Sha’childi’ni (Timber Hill), the first and last known Caddo village in this area. People have lived in this area for at least 12,000 years. For centuries, they hunted and gathered among the wetlands, forests and broad floodplains. Then they began to settle in permanent villages. The Caddo hunted wild game with bows and arrows, fished, and farmed corn, beans and squash. They built ceremonial centers and maintained far-reaching trade routes.”
The rest of the story: In 1835 the land of and around present day Caddo Lake was purchased from the Indians for $80,000 by the U.S. government, and within a year the Caddo Indians were removed from this region. Via Indian Country Today
Someday soon, I will return to visit these hauntingly beautiful cypress, as they have so enchanted me.
“The first experience of the plains, like the first sail with a “cap” full of wind, is apt to be sickening. This once overcome, the nerves stiffen, the senses expand, and man begins to realize the magnificence of being.”-
Richard Irving Dodge, The Plains of the Great West (1877)
“Native Americans tolerated wagon trains passing through their territories. Many pioneers would not have made it if it had not been for trading with the tribes along the trail. There were conflicts between Native Americans and emigrants, yet, death by Indian attacks were very rare. Emigrants on the Oregon Trail suffered tremendous hardships.
Death was an ever-present companion. One in 10 emigrants died on the trail—between 20,000 and 30,000 people. The majority of fatalities on the Oregon Trail were a result of poor sanitation. Cholera and typhoid fever were the biggest killers. Falling off the wagon and getting run over was a common cause of death. Crossing “the great American desert” and the perceived dangers caused many people, who were not hunters or soldiers, to purchase firearms. Mishaps by people inexperienced with firearms caused many injuries and deaths. Other deaths on the trail are recorded in personal dairies, including stampeding livestock, attacks by emigrants on other emigrants, lightning strikes, gunpowder explosion, drowning at river crossings, and suicide.
An estimate of 20,000 fatalities during those years, means an average of ten graves per mile. The Oregon Trail served as a natural corridor for eight decades as the United States grew from the eastern half of the continent toward the west coast. The Oregon Trail ran approximately 2,000 miles west from Missouri toward the Rocky Mountains and ended in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The California Trail branched off in southern Idaho and brought miners to the gold fields of Sierra Nevada. The Mormon Trail paralleled much of the Oregon Trail, connecting Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City.”
Via the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, Scottsbluff, NE
open to all photographers residing AZ, CO, ID, NM, MT, UT, NV, WY, AK, CA, HI, OR and WA.
