Upcoming Exhibition and the Power of Water

I am honored to share an upcoming exhibition in which I’ll be participating along with two outstanding photographers, Tess Davis and Scarlett Hoey.  The exhibition, Captured Moments, will take open with a reception on Friday, January 17 beginning at 5:30 PM at the Aldrich Heritage Gallery, at Alternatives Whitin Mill, 50 Douglas Road, Whitinsville, MA.  You’ll see an interesting collection of work which I think really speaks to the exhibitions title, Captured Moments, special times or perhaps times with meaning.  You can read more about the Heritage Gallery, the exhibition, and get directions etc. by going here.

I’ll say more about my work below but first I have to give a thanks and shoutout to Alternatives/Open Sky, one of the largest providers of services to the disabled in the region.  They have been working for many years to get beyond the basic challenges of providing services in an effort to develop a truly inclusive community.  Their offshoot, Valleycast, provides cultural and arts programming that brings together those with and without disabilities.

I’ve been been involved with Valleycast for the past year or so and have been witness to what real inclusivity can mean, and how much we can all grow in the process.  Alternatives is also one of the owners of the Whitin Mill, former home of the Whitin Machine Works, once the largest manufacturer of textile manufacturing equipment in the U.S.  They along with other owners and tenants have been working to revitalize this massive beautiful mill that sits along the Mumford River, and they’ve made serious progress.

My own work includes a series of reflections on the power of water.  As you know if you read this blog, I’m a committed environmentalist.  I’ve had the good fortune recently to meet and work with others who share that commitment and have been impressed by their take on the problem.  We’re not trying to “save the planet.”  The planet doesn’t need saving.  It will be just fine, different perhaps, but it is going to be there regardless of how much we screw things up.  We’re really trying to save ourselves.  All you have to do to get a glimpse of the power of nature is look at what nature does with water.

Acadia

We haven’t had a particularly pretty foliage season in Central Massachusetts.  Not to my eyes at least.  Luckily, we had an opportunity to spend a few days further north in Acadia National Park, Mount Desert Island, Maine.  They were not so unfortunate!  I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such intense color, so of course I spent a good deal of time working in black and white.  We were with Tony Sweet and Susan Milestone and a bunch of very nice and quite talented workshop participants.  I always learn a lot from them, probably because of their depth of preparation, their knowledge and their positive attitude.  Tony has an ability to articulate the creative process and rationale that I always find inspiring.  He has a wonderful way of validating the imagination, something I need a dose of every so often.  I recommend them highly if you’re looking for a workshop experience.  You won’t be disappointed.

But, no thousand words today though, on with the pictures.  (And I swear, I did not touch the saturation slider on these.  You get up early in the morning and shoot late into the evening with Tony.  Mother nature is the one manipulating the colors at those hours, but that’s sort of her job so…)

From Eagle Lake at sunrise

Along Duck Creek Road

Boulder Beach at Sunrise, in the rain

From Thunder Hole (It really does sound like Thunder)

From Cadillac Mountain

Acadia National Park is about six hours north from our home.  I can’t believe it took us this long to get there.  It is a big Park, and I would recommend either going with a guide, or doing some serious research before hand, during the day time!

Tech Note:  I hate writing about gear because it’s basically irrelevant at this point.  But a number of these images were taken with the Nikon Z7, Nikon’s new entry into the mirrorless market place.  For whatever reason, none good, it seems to draw a fair amount of criticism on the good old internet, particularly from those who have never used it.  It seems to be a tribal thing, or a way for “influencers” to generate click bait.  It’s sad that all you have to do these days is make something up and it becomes fact.

I thought the camera performed exceptionally well.  I’ll be using it a lot for video as I have grown very tired of taking along a second system.  The still image quality, video quality, still and video autofocus, all worked beyond my expectations.  And we really did land on the moon in 1969.