The Sonoma Barn gallery is a portrait of a barn on a working sheep ranch. A barn with piles of recently sheared wool and hay. The view inside the barn of the sheep in the pasture through the large barn doors. The vintage stove where dyes are being cooked from real plants and flowers. The hale bales in the fields bundled and ready for transportation to the barn. Tools to weigh the wool bales and hand carters to prepare fibre or blend fibres or colors. The rafters with pulleys to lift the hay bales into tall stacks. The cobweb barn with skull bleached from the sunlight.
Local Wildlife Photo Exhibit @ The Jenner Inn
I am excited to have several of my photos on display at the Jenner Inn. Jenner Inn is located on Highway 1 in the town of Jenner by the Sea.
Old Barns
There is something about old barns that I like. There shape, story, relationship to the land and people. In this new black & white series on Old Barns I focused on there relationship with the land and their shapes. You can get these photos in a greeting card set on Strathmore Photo Mount Cards with Decorative Emboss. Set of 8 cards are $45 with free ground shipping. A 8x12 photo print on Metallic or Super Mat paper with archive mat is $30 plus shipping.
Graton Art Gallery Small Works Show
I am honored to have three of my photos accepted for this juried show at the Graton Art gallery in Graton, CA.
A Big Thank You
Classic Projects owners Rica and Randy Van Ausdall were clients of mine in Los Angeles. Over the years we have become family. How lucky am I to get my own wall! I could not do any of this without the support and love of family, friends and clients.
Sperm Whale in Monterey Bay
October 10th, 2016 around 9:40am on a Monterey Bay Pelagic Trip a Sperm whale was spotted. The captain stated this was the first sighting in over 5 years of a Sperm whale. The seas and wind were very rough. I had all I could do to get myself upright, raise my heavy 150 - 600 Sigma Sport lens and a Nikon D810 and snap a photo. Photographing Whale on a boat is a very difficult. Even on calm days you never know when they will be spotted and sometimes they will dive for more than 15 minutes than come up in a different directions from where they were last spotted. You also have the motion of the boat going up and down and side to side depending which way the boat is facing the wind. I love this type of adventure because of all these challenges.
Sperm Whale Gallery
New Work at Artisans' Day in Bodega
Come to Bodega on Saturday the Artisans' Co-op is celebrating 20 years of featuring works of local artisans using traditional methods in their art. Meet local shepherds, weavers, potters, painters, jewelers, photographers, sculptors, carvers, glass, fiber artists and more. Artisans' Co-op artisans take pride in traditional handcraft methods and materials. They will be demonstrating these methods throughout the day. Come and enjoy Bodega's local food scene. A family friendly event. The entire town will be celebrating.
Address: 17175 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922
Limited Jenner Prints @ Jenner Gift Shop
I am doing a limited series of Jenner coastal prints on metal and on metallic greeting cards. The Jenner by the Sea gift store is by Cafe Aquatica and the Post Office in Jenner. Any greeting card can be made into a larger 8x12 metal print for $65. Prints can be dropped shipped to your home for $10 handling and $5 shipping.
Art @ The Source Studio 2 16120 Watson Road, Guerneville, CA
I will be showing my photography during Art @ The Source June 4-5 & 11-12, Saturday & Sunday, 10am - 5pm. I will be showcasing some new work including wildlife and landscapes from Klamath Falls, Oregon. A new black & white series includes Coleman Valley Road and still life Calla Lillies.
Inspirations
Nature in Black & White is inspired by Edward Weston's, Robert Mapplethrope's and Imogen Cunningham's still lifes. It is through this exploration of abstraction that I find the sculptural beauty in the natural world.
Edward Weston's modernist style and his passion love of nature and form in his still lifes.
“Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.” – Edward Weston
Robert Mapplethrope's flowers and still lifes of timeless elegance. Arranged with his sense of balance and meticulously lit.
“…My whole point is to transcend the subject. …Go beyond the subject somehow, so that the composition, the lighting, all around, reaches a certain point of perfection. That’s what I’m doing. Whether it’s a cock or a flower, I’m looking at it in the same way. …in my own way, with my own eyes.” – Robert Mapplethorpe
Imogen Cunningham's plant photographs. Her floral studies were influenced by stark lines and were mainly of close-ups, as she believed the "paradox of expansion via reduction becomes vivid when one looks at the visual aspect of nature", each level of detail is echoed in the next lager and smaller level of scale.
"My interest in photography has something to do with the aesthetic, and that there should be a little beauty in everything." - Imogen Cunningham
Inspiration for photographing landscapes and rural life are Ansel Adams and Minor White. Ansel Adams photographed landscapes whose horizon are very high in the frame, giving favor to the landscape below. Minor White is one of the masters of photographic modernism. White sought to photograph things not only for what they are but also for what they may suggest, and his pictures teem with symbolic and metaphorical allusions.
"All art is a vision penetrating the illusions of reality, and photography is one form of this vision and revelation. . . . My approach to photography is based upon my belief in the vigor and values of the world of nature, in aspects of grandeur and minutiae all about us." - Ansel Adams
“No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the photographer It has chosen.” – Minor White
My love of wildlife photography is inspired by Eliot Furness Porter, National Geographic magazine and Jacques Cousteau's underwater adventures. Eliot Porter took up color to create more accurate photographs of birds. Soon he added other woodland subjects to his repertoire and became the first established artist-photographer to commit to exploring the colorful beauty and diversity of the natural world. "In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World." He combined his evocative color photographs of New England woods with excerpts from the writings of Henry David Thoreau, revolutionized photographic book publishing by setting new standards for design and printing and proving the commercial viability of fine art photography books.
"Sometimes you can tell a large story with a tiny subject." - Eliot Porter
In today's selfie age can photographs still be considered "ART"? I believe that it can and I strive to elevate my photos in the same spirit as the renowned photographers of the past who revolutionized the art of photography. Besides does the world really need another selfie of Kim Kardashian?
Categories Page
A Categories page has been added so you can easily link to subject you are interested in viewing.
Barn Owls Portraits
Owls are one of my favorite birds to photograph. There faces have many expressions. Please enjoy my new photo gallery "Barn Owls" - Photography Copyright Francesca Scalpi