Blue Line Freeze Frame

Path Through Oak Woodland

I was pleased to to learn that two of my prints were chosen for Blue Line Art's Freeze Frame open juried photography exhibition. Details as follows:

November 28, 2015 – January 9, 2016
Freeze Frame (juried show)
Blue Line Gallery
405 Vernon Street, Roseville, CA
3rd Saturday Reception: December 19, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Accepted Work: Ephemeral Wetland, Path Through Oak Woodland
More Information →

About the juror, Bruce Temuchin Brown: 
Bruce Temuchin Brown has worked as a commercial photographer, director and fine artist in San Francisco Bay Area since 1997. His silver halide on copper photographic series “Paradoxes / cu 29” has been collected by the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento and the di Rosa Preserve in Napa as well as numerous other galleries, and private collectors throughout the nation. 
www.brucetemuchinbrown.com

Big Leaf Maple at Deer Creek

Big Leaf Maple at Deer Creek

The fall colors are in full bloom on Deer Creek. This image was captured on the south side of the canyon as the mid-morning light worked its way through the canopy to illuminate a Big Leaf Maple nestled between a pair of towering pines.

Deer Creek Tribute Trail

Deer Creek

Yesterday we took a hike on the lovely Deer Creek Tribute Trail in Nevada City. Here's some information from the trail brochure:

The Deer Creek Tribute Trail was created with funding from the CA Natural Resources Agency California River Parkways Proposition 50 grant program. Project partners include The Sierra Fund, Friends of Deer Creek, American Rivers, Nevada County Land Trust, the City of Nevada City, Nevada County, the Nisenan Tribe, the Tsi-Akim Maidu, the Bureau of Land Management, Greater Champion Neighborhood Association, the Chinese Quarter Society and Save Our Historic Canals. The trail was made possible through the generous donation of private land easements and contributions from investors.

The trail is a collaborative effort between governmental agencies and local community organizations, coordinated though the Tribute Trail Stewardship Council (TTSC). The Council’s goal is to ensure that the Tribute Trail becomes and remains a fully integrated recreational and educational resource to Nevada City and County, serving the community in perpetuity. To volunteer as a docent, adopt a section of the trail to steward, or work to maintain the trail and native vegetation go to: www.nevadacountylandtrust.org or contact info@nevadacountylandtrust.org

The highlight of the hike was crossing the new suspension bridge west of town. It's a beautiful pedestrian bridge that slowly bounces and sways as you walk across, 100 feet above the river. Enchanting and thrilling, all at once.

Photography is Not a Pursuit

Evening at Pleasant Grove

"Photography is not a pursuit — it is a medium. It is a medium that can be used in service of a larger idea. The great photographers invariably have a Great Mission. Circling back to my original list of masters, Evans’ great mission was the architecture of inspiration; Stieglitz’ great mission was bringing modern art to the masses; Weston’s great mission was using photography to explore the world and his place in it; Adams’ was at heart a conservationist with a camera; Minor White was a Zen enthusiast who used photography to immerse himself in the Eternal Now, etc. Each of the great masters of photography had, at their core, something they were trying to do or say — and photography was simply their medium of choice."

— Brooks Jensen

 

Sac Bee Feature

Three Oaks

The Sacramento Bee recently published a review of my exhibition that is currently showing at the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center. You can view the full article on their website or I've also copied the text below.

BY JACK CHANG
jchang@sacbee.com
Photographer Alan Craig Barnard roams the suburban streets and housing developments around his Roseville home looking for magic.
He finds it in the rippling clouds reflected on the perfect surface of a stream beside Interstate 80, or in the long shadows cast by oak trees at dawn in a patch of open space.
Staying local is a matter of principle, Barnard writes in the program for his exhibit of ephemeral black-and-white prints, “New Traditions in Landscape,” at the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Sacramento.
With carbon-fueled climate change threatening the world, it’s time to stop flying to far-flung continents – and polluting the atmosphere – to photograph pristine landscapes that need saving, he says. “Among environmentally conscious landscape photographers, a new mantra of ‘shoot locally, share globally’ is beginning to emerge,” his show’s program reads.
The 53-year-old father of three children, and graphic designer by day, is bringing to fine art the same local focus that has spawned the farm-to-fork and locally sourced movements – adjustments to a world where lifestyles sprout from the environment itself. In his daily life, that’s meant driving an electric car, cutting back on flying and forgoing eating meat, among other shifts in the routine.
“If all of us took responsibility, then maybe things would change,” Barnard said during an interview this week. “But it’s going to take that kind of individual effort.”
Staying local also encourages photographers to highlight the special places and people they’ve come to know near where they live, instead of traveling across the world to photograph the obvious, he said.
“It’s really trusting there are people out there who can do what you can do, and they can do it better because they know their own backyard,” Barnard said.
As inspiration, he cited the work of Welsh photographer Chris Tancock, who walked the boundaries of the same local meadow twice a day for years to capture every subtle change in light and season.
Barnard’s own photos reflect a suburban Sacramento emptied of people and buildings, like scenes from some pre- or post-human world. A field of tall grass stretches back to a stand of oaks, just a few hundred yards from an unseen housing development. A pond crisply mirrors full-bodied clouds, with the roofline of several houses obscured by trees.
“I think that you would be surprised to see where they were taken because oftentimes there would be homes just outside the frame, or a business,” Barnard said. “So the idea for me is that even those little slices of life, those local spaces, are really important.”

Exhibition at Viewpoint Gallery

Ferrari Ranch Wetlands

My exhibition, New Traditions in Landscape, opens this week at the Viewpoint Photographic Art Center in Midtown Sacramento. Details as follows:

New Traditions in Landscape (solo show)
September 9 – October 3, 2015
Viewpoint Photographic Art Center, Step Up Gallery
2015 J Street, Sacramento, CA
Artist's Reception (members): Friday, September 11, 6:00 – 8:30 p.m.
2nd Saturday Reception (general public): Saturday, September 12, 5:00 – 9:00 p.m.
More Information →

A Pleasant Surprise

Miners Ravine

I was pleased to learn that my print "Miners Ravine" was awarded an "Award of Excellence" in the California Fine Art exhibition at the 2015 California State Fair. The show runs the duration of the Fair, from July 10 through July 26. The awards ceremony is on Saturday, July 18 at noon. If you happen to be at the fair that day, be sure to drop by to say "hi"!

An Art of Observation

"To me, photography is an art of observation... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them."

— Elliott Erwitt