Newsletter #137: December, 2016
© Chris Harris. All rights reserved.
Contents:
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It was an Amazing Book Tour: Thank you all for joining us
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An Exciting Year Ahead: I can’t wait to go deeper into my art
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2017 Photographic Workshops: Deepening your Creative Vision
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Getting our Christmas Tree: A family tradition
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Winter Wonderland: It’s why we love to live here!
Hi everyone,
Rita and I have just returned from our six-week book tour around much of British Columbia. Most of it was in the rain-soaked Lower Mainland, so we are happy to be back in the beautifully Christmas-white Cariboo!
It’s been another full and exciting year, highlighted with the publication of my 13th book and the two photographic workshops which I taught with my friend Dennis Ducklow.
Now, for the next two weeks of 2016, it’s all about enjoying the Christmas Season, being with family and friends, celebrating another birthday, and excitedly dreaming about new and creative plans for 2017.
Thank you all for your kind letters and support throughout the year. Rita, our dog Duggan, and I, wish you all a wonderful Christmas Season.
This is the 137th consecutive monthly Newsletter; my TWELTH YEAR without missing a single month! Enjoy!
Our goal at the Chris Harris Gallery is to share photographic adventures and inspire others in the creative process. Please share this Newsletter with friends. We appreciate your interest and continued support for my work.
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It was an Amazing Book Tour: Thank you all for joining us
Presentation at Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops
Rita and I have just returned from our most amazing book tour…EVER! We drove 7,700km and made close to 30 presentations throughout a good part of British Columbia. We met so many wonderful people, and we were thrilled to share, both the images of our Cariboo Chilcotin Coast region, and the main story behind them; that of the Chilcotin Ark and Topophilia.
We wish to thank all the natural history and photographic clubs and organizations who sponsored and supported us through their invitations and their organizing of each event.
We also want to thank all those who offered to provide us with accommodation while on the road. We especially thank our good friends Jai and Renuka who gave us their entire basement suite from which we based our entire 5-week Lower Mainland stay.
As a small independent publisher in today’s book world, we absolutely could not have published this book (or many of the previous ones) without the support of so many valuable friends, organizers, and the public at large who attended these presentations.
Rita and I extend our most sincere thanks to each and every one of you.
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An Exciting Year Ahead: I can’t wait to go deeper into my art
As I have previously mentioned, this book is my last publication; certainly the last of this genre. It is time for me to move in a new direction with my art. Books of this nature require a certain style of photography; mainly representational. While I have certainly enjoyed this type of photography, always doing my very best from a technical and artistic perspective, I am now very excited to have the complete freedom to make photographic imagery which is more expressive of how I feel about my subject matter.
For me this is very exciting, and I look forward to sharing this new artistic adventure with you starting in my January Newsletter.
Here is a sneak preview of where I might be going!
When we were on Salt Spring Island presenting to the Salt Spring Island Trail & Nature Club, Rita and I stayed with an old climbing friend of mine, David Denning and his partner Deborah. During our stay, I had a few hours to walk around their property with my camera. With my new sense of artistic freedom combined with being in a new coastal environment, I made these two images; one documentary to show the subject I was working with, and the second a more expressive rendition which speaks more to the ‘feel’ than the ‘real’.
A documentary view of my subject
It is one thing to observe, it is yet another thing to participate in that observation.
This is why I am so excited to ‘break loose’!
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2017 Photographic Workshops: Deepening your Creative Vision
In 2017, Dennis Ducklow and I will again teach two photo workshops based out of the Tallheo Cannery on the Central Coast. Our goal is to assist fellow photographers express themselves more deeply by listening to their emotional responses to subject matter.
On the second-last day of this year’s fall workshop when students were working on a final assignment, I had a couple of hours to photograph on my own. With no book project in mind, and a new sense of expressive freedom, I headed to the Cannery’s net-loft.
On our workshops, we certainly encourage participants to shoot in all traditions (i.e. documentary, impressionist, cubist, expressionist, etc.). The above image is an example of a ‘go-to’ documentary tradition.
Fish nets. Abstract. Going deeper is where the challenge begins. If you walked into the above net-loft as a painting artist, you would realize that the possibilities were endless. They are for photographic artists as well. There is always that first question; where to start.
Fish nets. Abstract. Part of the creative process is experimentation. Artists of every medium must continually experiment in order to move forward along their creative path. We encourage this in our workshops.
Note: All my images are made using whatever functions my camera model has. I purposefully do minimal post-processing. My personal emphasis is on seeing astutely and listening to my authentic self.
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Getting our Christmas Tree: A family tradition
Every year, members of the family head off to a nearby forest to get our Christmas tree. This year there was only Rita, youngest daughter, Teresa, and I. Oh yes, and our dog Duggan who wouldn’t miss this event for all the dog bones in heaven!
Off we go!
Back we come!
We all look forward to another Christmas around the Christmas tree. The rest of the family will join us
to celebrate on the 28th, my birthday!
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Winter Wonderland: It’s why we love to live here!
While out photographing the Christmas tree adventure, I got really excited about photographing the winter landscape. After experiencing so much rain on the book tour, I was pumped! So, once the tree was in the house, I headed back out with my camera, a 24-105mm lens, and no tripod. I just wanted to be free, unencumbered and creative.
Back up the same road
Along the route we pulled the toboggan and the Christmas tree
I saw just enough tonal contrast between the centre tree and the two outer trees to make a composition.
I’m glad I did. It’s an expression of real winter!
You will note that these images are a little more expressive than the three winter images in article #4 above. These images speak to me about winter as I love it, freshly coated with a heavy blanket of white snow. To give voice to this feeling, I made each image using the multiple exposure function on my camera together with minimal camera movement.
Very inspiring ………….. love your work………..
Thank you. Here’s to creativity in 2017!
Yes indeed, the book tour presentation was awesome – so well put together and narrated by both, you and Rita. The music, specially composed for accompanying the video show, was a complimentary addition. Please tell the composer that I thoroughly enjoyed the music. It was a lovely evening. And the images left me blue in my face from envy – what a precious compilation of awesome photography!
I am still bragging to my friends about the wonderful Tallhoe workshop! And your latest creative images of the net loft pay tribute to your new adventure – particularly the third one leaves me speechless. It is absolutely gorgeous!
Thanks for your artistic contribution
I am wishing you and your family a harmonious Christmas
Thank you Satya. It was great to see you at the presentation and to have you as a part of our workshop. Have a wonderfully creative New Year.
Wonderful newsletter Chris..so glad to have met you at Tallheo.
Cheers to you, Rita, Dugan and the rest of your family for a magical Christmad
Thank you Buzz. Wonderful to see you in Langley and to touch on the energy you exude. Have a happy and creative 2017!
Hey Chris! For a real winter shot from you, I’m expecting a snowman with a Habs hat on the top! Congratulations on such a successful book tour, and for keeping dry in spite of the rain. Wishing you, Rita and Teresa a very Merry Christmas!
Good point! After the next wet snowfall I’ll do a ‘Carey Price’ snowman with Carey doing ‘the stare’! (Habs fans will know what I am referring to here!!). Wishing Joan, Zoe, and yourself a Merry Christmas as well.
Great idea Dennis! On the next wet snowfall I will make a Carey Price snowman showing him giving ‘the stare’ (something all Habs fans will know about!). Wishing Joan, Zoe and yourself a wonderful, peaceful, and happy Christmas together.
Chris, this is like a coming out party.
You and the trees were celebrating.
Me too!
Yes…it’s exciting!! Let’s have coffee sometime in the New Year. Merry Christmas to you and Maddi, and good luck with ‘life’ in 2017.
Thank-you for your uplifting newsletter Chris! I’m happy for you that the book tour was such a success and that I was able to attend one of our presentations here on the ‘wetcoast’. Love, love, love the pictures! So inspiring!
Wishing you, Rita and family a joyful Christmas and may 2017 be the best it can be!
Thank you Bea. It was great to see you both at the presentation and I’m pleased yo hear you enjoyed the imagery! Here’s to ‘Creativity’ in 2017! Have fun with your camera…I’m so looking forward to doing the same! Merry Christmas…
Chris: As usual, I couldn’t wait to read your newsletter and view the images. I am entirely awed by your interpretation of winter. I am also waiting to hear if there will be a “graduate course” next year. Hope so….Have a wonderful Christmas and great birthday!. Joan
Thank you Joan; always a pleasure to hear from you. I think there is a very good chance there will be a ‘grad class’ in 2018. Sorry for the wait! Have a wonderful Christmas Joan.
Chris, I really enjoyed your workshop at Tallheo and the wonderful slide show and listening to you and Rita’s wonderful stories at your book tour night in Langley. I wish you a Merry Christmas and an exciting New Year. I also hope to continue with my own new creativity as well. I just have to keep exploring all the ideas you have presented. Cheers!
Thank you Michael for attending both! Yes, keep exploring new ways of expressing your creative voice… and 2017 will become the most exciting year ever! Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.