Life Form at the Pacifica Center for the Arts. 2018. Canon EOS 5DSr. Upcoming Workshop Highway One and the San Mateo Coast. August 25-26, 2018
Welcome to the August 2018 Edition of the Stephen Johnson Photography Newsletter.
This month's View From Here column features the opening of the Life Form exhibition at the Pacifica Center for the Arts with other recent happenings and photographs. We hope you find the column interesting and will consider sending us some comments. LATEST NEWS:
Fine Art Printing Workshop July 2018. Scholarships and Mentoring As part of our ongoing commitment to photographic education, there is one student scholarship spot in many of our classes. Please pass the word along. For discounted time studying with Steve, keep in mind our Mentoring Program. With all of our busy schedules and limited budgets, destination workshops or classes become a challenge, but many of you still have questions you need answered, or feedback on some new work. We want to remind you of our Virtual Online Consulting Program. This service allows all of you out there around the globe to consult online live with Steve on technical, aesthetic and workflow issues using Skype and your webcam. Our Essays and Tutorials from the past couple of years can now be found on our Newsletter Archive and some on Google Blogger. We hope you can come by the gallery and see the original prints in the National Parks Gallery, and the Exquisite Earth exhibition with its accompanying very special Exquisite Earth Portfolio 1. We invite you to join us on a workshop, rent lab space, or just say hello and let us know what you are up to photographically and what you might like to see us offer. We value your input.
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FEATURED PRINT August 2018 Palms. Coachella Preserve. Thousand Palms, CA. 2018. Palm Coachella Springs Reserve. 2018. 9.5x14 Pigment Inkjet Print on Cotton paper The multi-colored palms were an absolute delight.
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Blue Steeple at Sunset. Pacifica, CA 2018. Canon EOS 5DSr. Originally from the Canary Islands off Africa, echium pininana (aka Blue Steeple or giant viper's-bugloss) can grow 13 feet tall and is crowned with conical blue-purple flowering spires. This wild flower is cultivated in Great Britain and can be found along the San Mateo and Mendocino coasts in California. Considered an invasive species in many areas, it is endangered in its native land due to habitat loss. A modern quandary. This highly sought after ornamental plant is a favorite of bees, butterflies and humming birds; drought tolerant; deer resistant; and easy to grow. They remind me a little of the boojum tree in Baja California crossed with a Lewis Carroll fantasy.
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THE VIEW FROM HERE Life Form Opens in the Main Gallery at Stephen Johnson Photography We opened the Life Form Exhibition on the weekend of July 21 with lots of appreciation and encouragement. Thanks to all of the people who helped build the show and all those who came by our weekend events. Twenty-two 40 inch prints are included, the largest showing of this work to date. Even in the 1000 sq. foot gallery, there was insufficient wall space for the show, so 8 prints are suspended from the ceiling hanging back to back along the centerline of the gallery. Although I was concerned about how challenging the suspended prints might be to install, I feel it turned out rather well and am pleased with the appearance. Thanks go to Alex Dziesinski for hanging help, we got the 14 wall prints up in a day. It took another day to get the cables up and the suspended prints hanging. Thanks again is extended to Nancy Davis of Shelldance Orchid Gardens for having such a wonderful place for making so many of these photographs.
Life Form Opening. Pacifica Center for the Arts.. 2018. Many old friends showed up at the opening, many whose friendship dates back as much a four decades. It is always nice to see familiar faces and to have people turn out to show support. The prints that we sold were also quite appreciated.
Life Form Opening. Pacifica Center for the Arts.. 2018..
Sandy, my 14 year old sweetheart,
Friday night July 20, was an invitation only opening for collectors, supporters and friends. The public opening on Saturday afternoon featured an afternoon lecture which is posted above. Any opening is a celebration and a relief. It was good for a long arc of prep to be over. It is also true that most shows reveal many little things to make it even better. I spent some weeks tuning the lighting so the aging quartz-halogen 4700k bulbs (now about 4200k) could be mixed with bluer 5000k and 6500k LEDs. I may yet change all of the lighting to LED, which gives me the opportunity to cool the color temperature and preserve the track-light transformers which draw much less power with the LED.
Life Form Opening. Pacifica Center for the Arts.. 2018.
Life Form Portfolio Now Available We premiered the Life Form Portfolio with the show opening and are pleased that is now available for purchase. I am very proud of the selection and the beautiful box custom made by Portfolio Box of Rhode Island. The long searched for cloth was worth the selection process which did take many months.
Life Form Portfolio.
The Life Form portfolio began a few years ago after one of my printing students said he would very much be interested in having a boxed set of prints from the work. Thus the Life Form Portfolio One was born.
Showing the Life Form Portfolio during public Opening. Pacifica Center for the Arts.. 2018.
Heathers. Filoli Gardens. Woodside, CA. 2018.
Life Form Announcement. 2018 Please come see the show. We'll be open on Saturday's in August. Pass the word.
Seeking Good Venues for Life Form We are seeking good venues to show this work. The Life Form Series is now available for museum and gallery exhibition.
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Don't forget to Check out our next workshops
Free Stuff (a few still left) Last summer we replaced the Epson 2400s in our lab with their new P600s and consequently have some printers to seed to photographers in need. We were also given some Epson Canvas to share. These are available for pick-up to those of you on my mailing list. Let me know of your interest. I do want to spread them out among a few people. We've had a few takers, but more are left. Take Advantage.
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Lunging Humpback Whale. Pacifica, CA. 2018.
Around Pacifica
So far, only a few humpbacks have been around, but I feel so grateful any time spent near them. The cliffs at Mussel Rock offered the perspective from above.
Pacifica Magazine. August 2018. Photograph by Kyle Ludowitz.
The new issue of our local Pacifica Magazine also featured a cover story about my new work. The article author, Vanitha Sankaran wrote a nice article. The magazine's new photographer Kyle Ludowitz worked hard get the cover and some nice feature images.
Flowers and Grasses. San Pedro Creek. Pacifica, CA. 2018.
Photographs are everywhere! I pulled up to my studio, took my beautiful Golden Retriever Sandy out for a walk, flowers and grasses bordering San Pedro Creek were making a lovely scene right in front of me.
Arroyo Trail. Pedro Point Headlands. Pacifica, CA. 2018. A recent walk on our Pacifica Land Trust project site Pedro Point Headlands yielded some nice photographs. The light was both soft and dappled, allowing for a range of detail often impossible in bright sunlight, and sometimes so flat in overcast that a glow is hard to convey. It was a good walk.
Dove Tail Taking Flight. Pacifica, CA. 2018 Dove Tail Taking Flight I was drinking coffee on my front deck one morning in early June, watching the ocean for whales and enjoying the singing birds, when one of our local doves jumped into the sky. Its tail feathers were beautifully lit by the morning light, so I got my camera (Canon 5DSr) and 100-400mm Canon lens, then waited for him to fly past again. This take off photograph came from the experience. Small miracles…
Launching Redtail Hawk. Pacifica Center for the Arts.. 2018.
Photos from everywhere...just walking to my car outside my studio I was surprised by a very large red-tail hawk flying over the parking area which landed on a pine to the west. I grabbed a camera, with a medium lens on and walked toward the tree. I soon realized he was staying put and I was under-lensed. Just as I got out the Canon 400mm he flew over me again, leading to a bunch a blurry images trying to stay up with him. He landed again, this time in a tree to the east, and stayed just long enough to get the camera and me oriented, then took off again allowing this photograph to be made.
El Capitan Hotel. Merced, CA. 2018.
Coming back up the San Joaquin Valley from my Palm Springs Desert Landscape workshop, I stopped in on some old haunts. Across from a nice breakfast place was the biggest building I remember from my childhood, the now declining Hotel Tioga. I made a very high res six-stitch file and ended up liking a black and white version of this 1928 classic hotel. As it was also Mother's Day, it allowed me to visit my dear mother's grave-site and fill my head with so many memories of an amazing woman. The journey up the great valley was a wander home back to the bay area, up through the heart of California, my old homeland.
At Stephen Johnson Photography I've been working on a little side project. When I think about some of the best of what we are as a nation, the space program always comes to mind. I've been collecting space photographs for years, from PR prints at NASA headquarters in Washington DC, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and internet downloads. It also reminds me of a lecture I gave at JPL in Pasadena which led to a fascinating experience with the Saturn Cassini team. Above are NASA photographs of the Moon from LRO 2013 and Apollo 12's Pete Conrad with Surveyor 3 on Nov. 20, 1969. Prints on Canon IPF4000. Many prints coming... https://www.nasa.gov/c…/astronauts-pay-a-visit-to-surveyor-3 https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html
Scientific Visualization Studio. NASA Goddard Spaceflight Studio. This visualization attempts to capture the mood of Claude Debussy's best-known composition, Clair de Lune (moonlight in French). The piece was published in 1905 as the third of four movements in the composer's Suite Bergamasque, and unlike the other parts of this work, Clair is quiet, contemplative, and slightly melancholy, evoking the feeling of a solitary walk through a moonlit garden. The visualization uses a digital 3D model of the Moon built from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter global elevation maps and image mosaics. The lighting is derived from actual Sun angles during lunar days in 2018.
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The Stephen Johnson Photography Gift Shop Featured Products
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New Life Form Folio
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The Life Form Folio As we are premiering the Life Form Exhibition, I wanted to have a collectible item and record of the show prior to the full book I plan. So, now available is the 36 page 11x17 wire bound book, 5 years of work from 2013 to 2018 exploring these magnificent lives.
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Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog
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The Exquisite Earth Exhibition Catalog As I've been on a roll on fixing bodies of work into POD books, I decided before the Exquisite Earth show could come down for new upcoming show, I wanted to create a printed record. So, now available is the 56 page 11x17 wire bound book, 5 years of work from 2005 to 2010 traveling this wondrous planet.
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New Pacifica Book
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Pacifica Trail Map by Pease Maps special to the Pacifica Land Trust. 11" x 17" folded I'm proud of my 16 years on the board of the Pacifica Land Trust, and happy to have Ben Pease's great trail map as part of our outreach to bring attention to the natural wonders of Pacifica.
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Gift Certificates for Prints and Workshops!
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Life Form Note cards 5x7 inches (now in stock) $25
12 image Note card set with envelopes featuring photographs from Steve's new Life Form work. Printed by Steve in his studio in very limited numbers on a color laser digital press |
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National Park Note cards National Park Color Note card Set From "With a New Eye" Beautiful 300 line screen offset reproductions with envelopes in clear box. A great gift. |
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PLEASE VISIT US! Please come visit us at our gallery and see our original prints in person. The subtle detail of the prints and the beautiful texture of the fine art paper have to be seen to be understood. And while you're here, browse through our books, cards, posters, and specially priced prints. We're happy to mail you a copy of our product catalog, just send a note to info@sjphoto.com or call us. We're located at: Stephen Johnson Photography at the Pacifica Center for the Arts 1220-C Linda Mar Boulevard, Creekside Suites, 5-7 Pacifica, CA 94044 (650) 355-7507 http://www.sjphoto.com |
Pacifica Center for the Arts from Linda Mar Boulevard We're open by appointment. To find us, use our map online at: |
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