Fine Art Photography: Artist Susan Seubert shows at Kittredge Gallery and Blue Sky

I am pleased to announce the opening of a show at the Kittredge Gallery at the University of Puget Sound in Washington State.  The show opens today, August 21st and runs through September 22nd, 2012.

The show is entitled, “Nerve-Wracked,” and includes pieces from the series, “Panphobia,” and, “Neurasthenia.” Examples from the exhibit are below.

The opening reception is on September 5th.  Unfortunately, (or rather fortunately!), I have an assignment on the Oregon Coast at that time so I will not be in attendance.  However, I encourage anyone in the area to go and see the exhibition.

More information, including gallery hours and location, can be found here.

Information about Susan Seubert’s show, “Nerve-Wracked,” at the Kittredge Gallery

 

If you aren’t in the Puget Sound area, my work will also be included in a show opening September 5th at the Blue Sky Gallery/Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts  in Portland, Oregon.  The show is entitled, “The Unseen Eye.” My piece that is being shown is part of curator W.M. Hunt’s personal collection.  He purchased, “Neurasthenia #1,” and it has been chosen for exhibition at Blue Sky.

Title: “Equinophobia” Medium: Platinum Print, on view at the Kittredge Gallery from August 21 through September 23

Title: “Neurasthenia #1″ Medium: Dry Plate Tintype, on view at the Blue Sky Gallery beginning Sept. 5th, 2012

To view more of my personal work, you can do so by visiting seubertfineart.com

If you are interested in purchasing available work, you may contact any of the following galleries:

The Froelick Gallery, Portland, Oregon

The Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, California

The G. Gibson Gallery, Seattle, WA

Thank you for your time!

Read Full Post »

Canon 7D with the 70-300 f4/5.6L IS USM at high ISO: Hummingbird in the evening

We have a summer resident female rufous hummingbird that often visits the feeders and plants that we place for them on our deck.  As their migratory season comes to an end, which sadly means we’re entering into the early throes of autumn here in the Pacific Northwest, I thought I might test out my Canon 7D with the 70-300mm that I’ve been using on assignment lately.  I bitterly complained about the auto-focus when I first purchased the camera and, as usual, it was trial by fire.  I knew that I needed to have a higher fps than my Canon 5D Mark II cameras, so I decided to go with the 7D.  Now that I’ve been shooting it for a while, (and after reading a bit of the manual ,  I am now really loving the autofocus system and, although the camera is noisy at the higher ISO’s, it’s still pretty darn good.  The other night we were out on the deck and the female rufous came by to check out the salvia and other flowers.  She hung around long enough for me to get a few snaps.  These were all made at iso 6400 shooting in aperture priority.  I processed them in Adobe’s Lightroom using some capture sharpening and luminance noise reduction and I must say I’m impressed.  The focus is tack sharp, the shutter speed was fast enough to stop most of the movement and the colors look beautiful.   I do enjoy birdwatching and although it’s only a simple hobby that I do at home, it’s fun to use this as an opportunity to practice outside of assignment work.  I hope you enjoy these little snapshots of the wee bird.

female rufous hummingbird perched in a Western Cedar tree in the Marquam Greenspace in Portland, Oregon

Female rufous hummingbird investigating the salvia on our porch

Female rufous hummingbird investigating the salvia on our porch, showing off her diminutive gorget

Read Full Post »

Fine Art Photography: The Digital Divide by Susan Seubert

Yet another long overdue post…

This year I was one of  24 artists/teams selected for the citywide Oregon Biennial, Portland2012 which was held earlier this year. Portland2012, the Biennial of Contemporary Art, is a major survey of work by visual artists who are defining and advancing the contemporary arts landscape in the state.  The show was presented by Disjecta and curated by Prudence F. Roberts.

My installation at Disjecta is titled, “The Digital Divide,” and consists of a series of QR codes installed in the gallery which, when scanned with a smart phone or other hand-held device, takes the viewer to videos and/or text.  The artist statement follows below.  You can view the installation on my fine art web site here.  The videos can be watched by scanning the QR codes from your computer screen, or by visiting the multimedia portion of my web site.  I would like to thank the fabulous people at Disjecta, Ms. Roberts, Marc Greenfield and all the volunteers that helped make this piece possible.  Tri-Met was a wonderful sponsor and included some stills from the videos on the sides of buses and on bus stop shelters throughout the city of Portland.

A still from, “The Digital Divide” installed on the side of a Tri-Met bus as part of Disjecta’s Portland2012, A Biennial of Contemporary Art

A still from “The Digital Divide,” an installation piece for Disjecta’s Portland2012, A Biennial of Contemporary Art.

The following is the artist statement for the piece:

To explore ideas of toxic waste, environmental impact due to rapid changes in technology, specifically communications technology, I have chosen to create a series of videos, which are accessible via QR codes using smart-phone technology. New methods of communication, (cell phones, smart phones, computers), have created forms of consumption which have had a direct correlation to the environmental impact of that consumption. Although not obvious, many natural resources are used to manufacture technological goods that we now rely on for communication. These materials are often harvested from third world nations, the most famous example being the Democratic Republic of the Congo where the thirst for Colton has fueled violent conflict. Some heavy metals are used in the manufacturing of communication technology such as cadmium, lead and arsenic. The rapid change in such things as processor speed and memory capacity has led to an enormous turnover in electronic hardware waste. (One statistic cites that the performance values of Information and Communication Technology double every 18 months.)
QR (Quick Response) codes are a type of matrix barcode, which consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. They were designed by the Japanese in the early 1990′s to track vehicles during the manufacturing process. The use of the QR code is growing as a point-of-purchase symbol, where the consumer can scan the code and be taken to a video about whatever product to which the code is connected. The codes can be used for urls, text or numeric information. The problem is that the consumer must have a smart phone, access to the Internet and the application that allows the camera to read the code. Using QR codes as a method of communication, in order to see the actual visual information it conveys, most of which could normally be seen using our eyes through traditional media, one must use a camera. Eyes will simply no longer suffice to handle the task of reading, (i.e de-coding), the image.
Semaphore signal videos installed on the Internet, transmitted to the viewer via QR codes, emphasizes the digital divide that is currently prevailing in our global culture.
Working on the assumption that most viewers of this piece will not be able to read the semaphore signals as letters, (which form a sentence relevant to each location where the video was made), and that there will also be a number of viewers who will not have the relevant technology to read the QR codes, the piece will have effectively alienated the viewer from at least one critical portion of the piece, therefore encompassing both ends of the digital divide. I chose to use the Semaphore code because it is being phased out as a means of communication. Although it is still used in certain military situations, (such as refueling ships or moving munitions at sea), it will soon be gone as a method of communication. The Semaphore Flags system is used for conveying information at a distance by means of visual signals with hand-held flags.

Read Full Post »

Beautiful Western Canada for Dutch National Geographic Traveler Magazine

 

The opening spread for Dutch National Geographic Traveler’s story on Western Canada

This post is extremely late as this year has been so full of fun assignments I haven’t had much time to write.  Last September, I worked with the editor of the Dutch edition of National Geographic Traveler on a story about British Columbia and a little bit of Alberta.  It was a marvelous adventure as we spent about two weeks traveling by car across British Columbia to the very western edge of Alberta.  We met in Vancouver, B.C. and parted ways in Calgary, although the adventure really ended in Banff.  It was extraordinarily beautiful!  We spent a good deal of time on Vancouver Island and one of the highlights of the trip was visiting a lodge only accessible by either sea plane or water taxi, the Eagle Nook Resort and Spa.  Here we went sea kayaking, salmon fishing and hiking through some amazing forest and along the rugged coastline.  The editor caught his first wild salmon and the incredible chef at the lodge cooked it up for us two ways that evening:  Sashimi style in elegantly cut thin strips and also as lovely fillets, served with amazing B.C. produce.  This part of the assignment also covered shooting a few whales in the Broken Group Islands through which one must travel via water taxi in order to access the resort.  Our last night at the resort was rewarded Canadian style with a bonfire and great beer!  The next segment of the assignment involved some grueling driving, after which we ended up at another incredible, off-the-beaten-path lodge, Bracewell’s Alpine Wilderness.  Here we went horseback riding and enjoyed the incredible views, went for a canoe paddle where we encountered not another living creature other than a loon and enjoyed the rugged and unobstructed scenery of the Chilcoten.  This place is wide open space and run by a generous and amazing family.  If you’re looking to truly get away from it all, I highly recommend taking a week or two and hanging around Bracewells.    I had my first grizzly bear encounter here and witnessed a spectacular moonset, among other vividly colored moments.  We also visited, among many, many other attractions, Tide Rip Grizzly Tours in Knight Inlet, located on Vancouver Island, Blue River Safari tours, located in one of the only inland temperate rainforests. This is where I saw my first “spirit bear” cub.  We also visited the Strathcona Park Lodge where we spent time hiking and canoeing.  I’m still working on getting all of the photos up on to my stock photography site, so keep visiting for more pix!  Since the story is not published online, if you’d like to read it, it was published in the January 2012 edition of the Dutch language National Geographic Traveler Magazine .  (I think you’d have to order the physical magazine directly from them.)  Thank you for visiting this blog and please feel free to share any thoughts!  More photos on the way…

A favorite double page spread for the story on Western Canada for Dutch National Geographic Traveler Magazine. These two images, like the opening spread, were made at Bracewell’s Alpine WIlderness in Central British Columbia.

The entire assignment was shot using Canon equipment: 2 Canon 5D Mark II, 1 Canon 7D, all the lenses I could carry and my trusty Gitzo tripod and mono-pod.  There were also the occasional iPhone pix, just for fun.  My editor took a nice photo of me with his camera which I love.  I was communing with the horses we were about to take up Potato Mountain.

Read Full Post »