Two Images in December SCA Show

The SCA Project Gallery will be having its last show beginning November 14 with an opening from 6-9 pm. It will be up through December 18th. The gallery is located at 281 S. Thomas Street in the Pomona Arts Colony Area and is an excellent exhibition space, which will be sorely missed. I opened my first show there in the summer of 2010 and this Blog really began with that show. I will miss them.

I will have two images in the show. That of the "Cormorant Diving" from Yangshuo in 2012 and "Prayer Wheel" from the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, both in China.

Cormorant Diving 16 x 20 Ultrachrome Ink - $200

"Diving Cormorant" is a favorite of mine because it is an intersection of several favorable conditions, the most notable of which is that there was virtually no ambient light for this picture. That meant that virtually all of the light was provided by the flash at a favorable 1/10,000th of a second, stopping action. Aside from that, everything was on manual, including focus. I was simply checking earlier photos to see if they were in specs. Otherwise, the auto features were too slow for these conditions. After many misses, I timed this dive correctly. Note the thread in the lower right of the picture. It is the one that binds the cormorant's throat so that it can't swallow anything that it catches. The fisherman permits it to eat after a night's fishing.

Originally, I had intended a much less active image, more along the lines of the meditative composition done by Lisa Kristine. But it was not to be. We didn't get on the river until we had lost the glow of the sunset.

Prayer Wheel 36 x 40 Ultrachrome Ink - $300

This is a well-used prayer wheel found along the "Kora" or pilgrimage route around the Labrang Monastery in Xiahe, Gansu Province, China. I like the tactice "well used" quality. It is large, heavy wheel and I tried to have the image reflect that. In fact, this is "quad" or set of four 16" x 20" images. (You will see four natural dividing lines on the actual print.)

So don't miss the opening on November 14, 6-9 pm. There will be a variety of other good things to see. Bob Pece always does a good job as curator.

This is part of the Second Saturday art walk, so come early to get good parking. I'll be there about 6.