Fattail Gallery

Holiday Party December 5th 2009

2009-12-01T21:49:00.002-07:00

New Featured Artist- Shane Duerksen

2009-08-10T10:41:00.000-06:00

Shane Duerksen

Into the Night

Shane Duerksen divides clayboard’s dark India ink from its light China clay, atom by painstaking atom, blunting an X-acto blade per wildlife portrait. Reaching deeply beneath the shallow chaos of Darkness, Shane draws forth the majestic light of an animal’s Soul into it’s first day, creating harmony and beauty that evoke profound emotions.

His Majesty

About Clayboard/Scratchboard

Clayboard art is a relatively new art process that has evolved from earlier techniques such as wood engraving and etching. Used for illustrating books, magazines, newpapers and advertisements, the processes were time consuming and as a result modern Clayboard was introduced.

Clayboard is a board coated with a thin layer of white China clay. India ink or paint is then applied over the layer of clay, either by the artist or the manufacturer. The actual process involves scratching or scraping away the ink layer to reveal the white. There is no erasing or each mark is permanent.

Vanishing Point

Himalayan Princess

High Mountain Majesty

Grizzly

Golden Eagle

Ebony & Ivory

Dragon Eclipse

Crum Patrol

Shane Duerksen, a Colorado native, grew up with the Rocky Mountains in his backyard. His fascination with wildlife and art began at an early age and has transpired over the years into his work.

Shane worked as a commercial sculptor and illustrator after he graduated from the Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design in 2002. By 2007 he decided to dedicate his full attention to wildlife art.

Shane is an active member of the Society of Animal Artists and the Artists for Conservation. He has won numerous artistic honors and his work has been featured in national and international publications and museums.

Wolf

Vantage Piont

Pink Peek

Lions of Tsavo

Flow

Eagle Owl

New Featured Artist-Peter Eades

2009-05-13T14:15:00.000-06:00

Peter Eades

Trained in both Zoology and Biological Illustration, Peter Eades has devoted his career to capturing the beauty and drama of nature in his paintings and photographs. He spends many hours observing and photographing wildlife in the Rocky Mountains where he grew up. These wilderness experiences are the inspiration for his wildlife paintings which have received national recognition. In 1995 his painting "Moose in the Mist" was selected for the Wyoming Conservation Stamp and Print. His paintings have been exhibited in the prestigious Arts for the Parks top 100 national tour, and the Federal Duck Stamp top 20, as well as in several magazines including Wyoming Wildlife, Sporting Classics, and Wildlife Art.

Pouncing Coyote

Mountain Majesty
Rites of Spring
Sunrise Serenade
On Alert
Thunder Beast
Lazy Bugle
Early Snow
Autumn Echoes
Alpine Princess
Alpine HunterGone Fishing

Swan Lake
The Veteran

New Featured Artist- Brooke Ebel

2009-04-13T11:54:00.000-06:00

Brooke Ebel

Brooke Ebel lives and works from her home studio in Parker, Colorado. Her most recent work has appeared in several local juried exhibitions, including
The Wildlife Experience Museum’s “Celebration of Nature” and the Denver Botanic Gardens’ “Artists of Colorado State,” as well as group artist exhibitions at Space Gallery, Parker Mainstreet Gallery, Parker Library, Vines, and Parker Mainstreet Station. She is a member of the Parker Artist’s Guild and the Colorado Artist’s Guild.

Since childhood, Brooke has been intrigued by vibrant color and the unique properties of oil paints. Several years ago, while touring Spain, she was captivated by that country’s intricate patterns of mosaics, which inspired her distinct artistic technique.

By breaking her subject down into one-inch “light cells” and applying oil paint in high relief, she creates mosaic-like works of dramatic light, color, and texture. Most of Brooke’s works are on large canvases, and although she has worked in various mediums, her first love continues to be oils.

Brooke was born in Montana in 1961. She grew up in Miami, Florida, and settled in Colorado in 1993. She holds a BA in Education from Florida State University, as well as an MA in Counseling, and spent seventeen years as a high school culinary arts educator.

Brooke also works as a dance instructor at the Colorado School of Dance in Parker, Colorado, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Apex Contemporary Dance Theatre.

Have Your Next Event At FatTail!!

2009-03-17T14:09:00.000-06:00

FatTail Gallery is pleased to announce our space is now available for rent!!

Housed in a historic building built in 1883 and
renovated in early 2008, this elegant, clean space provides the perfect ambiance for any event.

The main showroom consists of two spaces, one large open space for

cocktail tables, dinner tables and/or a dance floor.

The second space provides guests with

a large bar and buffet area.

TV and Computer system centrally located for slide shows,
movies, or presentations.

Upstairs is perfect for guest mingling, with room for a second
bar and additional cocktail/dinner tables.

Corporate meetings, intimate weddings, holiday parties,
and charity events are just a few of the options for this spectacular space,
providing your guests with a breathtaking
backdrop and a wonderful experience.

For more information and site viewings, please contact our event coordinator Dominick Rich. events@fattailgallery.com
303.733.1021

Photography from Aspen, Colorado by Joe Morahan IV

2008-11-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

Aspen Colorado during Fall Season

Joe Morahan IV just finished a shoot near Aspen, Colorado. These are all new shoots taken only a few weeks ago-

Rainbow Aspens

The fall season in Aspen, Colorado is one of the most picturesque and dramatic season changes in the United States. The small mountain town nestled away in the Rocky Mountains is packed with Aspen trees, which turn to all colors as the summer comes to an end. During the fall season thousands of people flock to Aspen to see the fall colors and witness nature at its most beautiful time.

The image was taken off Maroon Creek Road near Maroon Bells during the early morning hours. As the sun was rising behind the mountain the tops behind the set of Aspens, the light hit the trees just right making them light up. The colors of the trees falls from a deep red to an orange, then to yellow and finally green. This group of trees was calling my name as I drove by. I walked down to the set of trees and spent a few hours photographing these trees.

Maroon Bells

Sunrise at Maroon Bells near Aspen during the fall season could be the most beautiful scene in Colorado. As the sunrises and makes its way over the Rocky Mountains, the sunlight strikes the peaks of the mountains. The peaks light up a fire red color, which contrasts with the surrounding, scene perfectly. The yellow colors are created by the changing seasons, and the Aspen trees shedding their leafs. Early in the morning there is very little wind, which helps make the reflection in the lake crystal clear. The lake in the foreground helps show the curves of the mountains and makes the image look almost reversed.

As I arrived on the scene during the peak of the fall season, I expected to be the first person to arrive at the lake for the sunrise. I was up and at the lake at around 4:45am. I had to walk for nearly 300 yards to find an opening from the other photographers who were there in the pitch dark. As I waited I met many great people and many of who had been there before. I on the other hand was a first timer, and had my own image in my head. I used 6 images to produce this final piece. I sat in the same spot for 6 hours continuing to take images so that I could photoshop the pieces together later. I made sure to hit the perfect times, the sun rising on the peaks, the perfect reflection, the nice yellow colors and a few other images to complete the scene.

Ashcroft

I was driving around looking for a great place to shoot when I can across this old mine town called Ashcroft and it made for some great images. In the spring of 1880 two prospectors, Charles B. Culver and W.F. Coxhead left the mining boomtown of Leadville in search of silver deposits in the Castle Creek Valley. Together the men formed a Miner's Protective Association, built a courthouse and laid out the streets in Ashcroft in just two weeks. The town was renamed Ashcroft in 1882 after a rich ore strike was uncovered in Montezuma and Tam O'Shanter Mines. Ashcroft town population had risen to around 2,000. Ashcroft was also home to two newspapers, a school, sawmills, and a small smelter. At this point in its history the town was larger than Aspen and closer to the railroad in Crested Butte. By 1885 the town was home to about 3,500 people, had six hotels and 20 saloons. As quickly as the town went boom it went bust.

This shot shows the small ghost town of Ashcroft. It was taken during the fall season as all the surrounding aspen trees turn yellow and many other beautiful colors. Four old building sit just as they did more than 100 years ago. They are slowly breaking down after surving so many harsh Rocky Mountain winters.

Winter Water ColorsDuring the fall season in Aspen, Colorado there are many wonderful things to photograph that you might just walk by on a normal day. On this chilly morning, as I drove down highway 82 to find a nice spot for sunrise, I pulled the car over and started hiking. As I walked through the bush I noticed that I was soaked from the waist down. The freezing cold air had created a thick frost on all the plants and as I walked through them it got me wet. As I paid closer attention, the frost was only on the outer edge of the plant life. The fall season helps turn the ordinarily plain plants into color pallets of the imagination. The leafs on this bush seemed to be almost every color possible, yellow, green, red, orange, tan, magenta, brown, and even purple. It was every color and the frosted tips helped complete the image.

Taking some time to fish during the morning hours is always a great morning. But fishing at Maroon Bells during the fall season could be one of the best places and times to go fishing anywhere in the world. This fly-fisherman was out at sunrise trying to catch the hungry fish as they woke for their day. Maroon Bells which is located near Aspen, Colorado is one of the most picturesque places in the state. During the fall season all of the aspen trees change colors to beautiful yellow, green, orange and red colors. This particular shot was toward the beginning of the season change and that is why the colors are yellow. The lake in the foreground is Maroon Lake and it shows the reflection of the Maroon Bells clearly. The reflection is crystal clear and fresh mountain runoff.

Colorado DreaminColorado Dreamin was taken in the fall season 2008 near Aspen, Colorado. The location was just off highway 82 about 3 miles to the east of Downtown Aspen. I was driving to a location when I saw a group of dense aspen trees, so dense, you could not see through to the other side of the trees. It was about 10:00am when I had pulled over to walk through this set of aspens. The sun was directly behind all the tress making the leafs glow in the light and make all the wonderful colors that you see. The bottom of the frame the bushes in the foreground are glowing from the light that found a hole in the trees. The colors go from a yellow toward the bottom to an orange to a light red color. The transition of colors go from top to bottom creating a rainbow of colors.

Ashcroft in Black and White

Old Ghost Town near Aspen Colorado

I was driving around looking for a great place to shoot when I can across this old mine town called Ashcroft and it made for some great images. In the spring of 1880 two prospectors, Charles B. Culver and W.F. Coxhead left the mining boomtown of Leadville in search of silver deposits in the Castle Creek Valley. Together the men formed a Miner's Protective Association, built a courthouse and laid out the streets in Ashcroft in just two weeks. The town was renamed Ashcroft in 1882 after a rich ore strike was uncovered in Montezuma and Tam O'Shanter Mines. Ashcroft town population had risen to around 2,000. Ashcroft was also home to two newspapers, a school, sawmills, and a small smelter. At this point in its history the town was larger than Aspen and closer to the railroad in Crested Butte. By 1885 the town was home to about 3,500 people, had six hotels and 20 saloons. As quickly as the town went boom it went bust.

This shot shows the old ghost town of Ashcroft, Colorado. The shot was taken with a digital camera, but using the inferred color spectrum. The grass and all the living shrubs in the foreground are glowing white, and beaming off inferred light back to the camera. The clouds are puffy and blowing fast overhead. You can see the old building that were built more than 100 years ago. They are starting to break down after surviving so many harsh Rocky Mountain Winters.

New Featured Artist-Joni Tomasett

2008-10-01T22:12:00.000-06:00

Renowned for her celebratory interpretations of native landscapes and architecture, local Denver artist, Joni Lynn Tomasetti, breathes life into memories and snapshots taken from her exploratory travels around the world. Combining her lifelong passions of painting and traveling has allowed Joni to draw upon her personal experiences to convey the ambience of each setting with grace. Joni’s personal expressionistic style moves audiences by bringing dimensions of abstract realism into one unparalleled and synergistic work of art. Using watercolor, mixed media, and oils, Joni has the distinct talent of capturing reminiscences and transforming them into idyllic masterpieces: the resulting complexity appearing effortless. From galleries to homes and offices of private patrons around the globe, Joni’s work is truly unbounded.

More of Joni’s work can be viewed in the Philinda Gallery in Edwards,
The Bell Studio/Art Gallery in Denver,
Joni Lynn Studio in Columbine Valley (Joni’s flagship studio)
or online at www.jonilynnstudio.com.

New Nature Shots From Joe Morahan IV

2008-08-25T11:22:00.001-06:00

Sunrise Looking at the San Juan Mountains near Durango, Colorado

Wow. What a sunrise this day was. Great way to start a shooting day.

A Buffalo near Denver, Colorado

A Buffalo grabbing some dinner near Denver, Colorado

Monument Valley

Mesa Verde, Spanish for green table, offers a spectacular look into the lives of the Ancestral Pueblo people who made it their home for over 700 years, from A.D. 600 to A.D. 1300. Today, the park protects over 4,000 known archaeological sites, including 600 cliff dwellings. These sites are some of the most notable and best preserved in the United States.
(http://www.nps.gov/meve/)

Lake Molas in Durango was a great place for camping and even better for shooting.

I found this bear just after sundown on my first night in Yosemite. He was just cruzin around feeding near Valley View.

A few night shots near our hotel....well.... from the nights we were not camping. But this is the Marced River that runs Yosemite National Park

This young bear took a quick peek at me to see what I was doing just before he jumped into the Marced River, Yosemite National Park

New Featured Artist-Martin Borja

2008-07-09T10:41:00.000-06:00

FatTail Gallery is more than happy to announce that Martin Borja will now be displaying his work at the Gallery. His work is original, beautiful, and a show stopper. He recently won first place in the peoples fair in Denver Colorado. His work is nothing short of amazing.

To view more of Martin's work please visit his website at-

http://www.borjastudios.com

New Shoot From The Grand Canyon

2008-05-29T13:33:00.000-06:00

Here are some new images from the Grand Canyon and some other local areas-

Hope you enjoy and have a great day!!!

Joe & the FatTail Team-

The Grand Opening

2008-05-05T22:05:00.001-06:00

Thanks to everyone who took time on a very busy saturday nite to visit FatTail for the 1st time. With nearly 1000 attendees we certainly got a fair representation on our opening nite.

We received some very positive comments on the space, ambiance, and art work content and received some helpful honest constructive criticism as well.

We hope to see everyone again over the coming weeks and months and fortuitously have a dozen 'holes' on the wall to fill already.

I will try to keep this message board alive with interesting and timely insights many of which will have little relevance to the art world but may be relevant to the avant garde thinker!

So we are off and running. Please come into see us, we promise it to be a worthwhile experience.

Joe Manager Owner

NOW OPEN

2008-04-17T13:20:00.001-06:00

We are more than happy to let you know that we are now open!!!!!

So come on by and say hi. We are waiting!!

GOOD AND BAD NEWS....

2008-03-13T19:06:00.000-06:00

The good news first......

The gallery is opening really soon-

The Bad News....

I need to do some work on the website archive some most of the images are down for a few days.

Sorry about that.

...but many new and images are going to be posted

Just wait and see. Here are a few brand new shots

Have a great day-Joe

Gina Klawitter- Special Event

2008-02-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

***Special Event for her on OCT 23rd from 11-7pm***

Gina Klawitter

This month we are going to have an extraordinary event on the 23rd from 11am-7pm for Gina Klawitter.

Her clients include “Last Comic Standing 2006” winner Josh Blue, Ellen DeGeneres, and John Elway. Gina’s work has also been recognized by The Denver Post and 9 news. Her unique art captures memories on canvas that are truly dear to your heart. She uses items such as children’s clothing that people don’t want to part with but have just been tucked away somewhere never to be seen. She makes them come alive again and allows you to admire and treasure them as a work of art. She has even used pet memorabilia in a few recent pieces. She will be at our gallery on Thursday October 23rd from 11am to 7pm. You are absolutely welcome to bring any clothing, pictures, color samples or any other ideas to get a quote and discuss the unlimited possibilities! Her work makes wonderful gifts for loved ones for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas , Chanukah, Valentine’s day, Birthdays, or any other holidays. It also makes a wonderful gift to yourself, just for you own enjoyment. We hope to see you soon and we strongly encourage you to come to this fun event and see what she does.

New Featured Artist-Chris Kates

2008-01-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

Fattail Gallery is proud to announce that Chris Kates has chosen us as one of his outlets of his work. Chris Kates is a California based photographer who does amazing one of a kind pieces where he puzzels together dozens of images to create an original amazing scene.

To View more work of Chris Kates please visit www.chriskates.com

New Featured Artist-James Thorpe

2008-01-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

James Thorpe has chosen Fattail Gallery as one of his outlets for his paintings. He has a distinct style and we are glad to carry his work.

To see more of James please visit his website at:

http://www.jmthorpe.com/

more from Fattail Coming Soon-

New Featured Artist-Brad Gorman

2008-01-14T09:25:00.000-07:00

Fattail Gallery is proud to carry Brad Gorman's paintings. He has an orignal style and will be featured on both the website and the physical gallery as well.

to view Brads website goto http://www.bradgorman.com/

Construction Phase-

2008-01-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

So the gallery is still under construction and here are some of the new images of the building being fixed

;P

News

2007-11-08T09:24:00.001-07:00

Hello again! I was hoping this letter was going to be my big invitation to our fabulous gallery opening. Unfortunately I think I was doing the wrong kind of rain dance for the gods to make it open faster cause we have had a streak of bad luck. The city is causing us lots of problems and putting a hold on production. But hey everything happens for a reason right? This is probably a blessing in diskise, and everything will work out just fine. It may work out that I was doing the right kind of little jig in the first place.

Just like my last letter out I would like to take this opportunity to share with you some of the publicity we are getting. We are a featured article in the February or March issue of 5280 Magazine. Joe Morahan is quite the extraordinary gentleman and lots of people are very interested in his story. So much so that another magazine would like do an article on him and the gallery. Art Business News has taken a liking to our extraordinary story and will also be printed in the next several months or so. I have yet to get a conformation date for that magazine.

Well now that I’ve sung our own praises about the gallery I have a favor to ask. Attached is a small envelope with a stamp. I’m asking you to fill out the little card and send it back to me in the mail. We have our website and email addresses working and from this point on I will be sending my updated news to you that way. I will also be showing new art and featured artists all the time. I’m assuming you will always want to know what’s new and what’s fresh in the decorative art industry. Technology has made life easier in regards to communication circles, but I need just one little thing…your e-mail address. I really would love to keep in touch with you and this is the most ideal way for that to happen. I hope all is well with you and I really hope to see your smiling face soon. Take care and may all wonderful things come your way.

Sincerely,

Kristi Leigh Haynes
AKA “the girl with the forever changing hair”

Under Construction

2007-09-12T17:09:00.000-06:00

Fattail Gallery

We thought you might want to know how things are going with the gallery....so here take a look. Lots of work to be done, however its shaping up to be one great place.

Fattail Gallery as of 9/12/07

Have a great day ; )

Joey

Joe Morahan Profiled by Rangefinder Magazine

2007-07-25T19:37:00.001-06:00

Rangefinder Magazine
May 2007

Profile: Joe Morahan by Larry Brownstein

While the tree in this photo is only five feet high, the camera angle and lens choice make it look much larger.

Room service changed Joe Morahan’s life. No, he wasn’t vacationing at The Ritz, enjoying a luxury suite while waiting for a filet mignon dinner to be brought up to his room. Rather, he was working at a hotel in Littleton, Colorado, delivering room service meals to guests. One day he had an epiphany: He couldn’t go on like this forever. Before long, Morahan enrolled at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California—though he didn’t even know what an aperture was at that point. While his grade point average in high school had been an unremarkable 2.5, he graduated from Brooks magna cum laude in December 2005.

Morahan is currently very busy. Last week alone, he shot for four days. Since he feels he still has some catching up to do to approach the level of other working pros out there, his strategy includes shooting as much as he can. He uses models he finds through the Internet, in addition to shooting his two younger brothers and his friends. Morahan is so committed that he even uses himself as a model quite often!

Morahan self-portrait: “I can’t jump that high,” he says, “so I used a picnic bench just outside of the frame of the picture.”

One of my favorite images from his website—a dramatic shot of a basketball player leaping for a slam dunk—is one of the images where Morahan doubles as both model and photographer (see image on next page). He managed to capture himself with a dramatic backwards arch in his back, the ball poised high in the air, ready to be smashed down through the rim just beyond. I wondered how he did this all by himself, especially since doesn’t look tall enough to dunk.

Morahan explains that he positioned a four-foot high picnic table near the hoop. A Canon EOS-1D Mark II with a 15mm fisheye was positioned nearby, which he set to burst mode with a shutter speed of 1/8000 to freeze the motion. Morahan jumped off the picnic table 45 times, until his ankle hurt and he worried that he had broken it.

“This shot was taken is Solvang, CA,” says Morahan. “The exposure was f/8, and it was taken over a period of two hours. The ISO was 100, film was Fujifilm Provia 100.”

His dedication doesn’t stop there, though. He told me about a soccer shoot in which he wanted to capture the perfect bicycle kick; again, Morahan used himself as the model. Knowing that he would be landing on his back repeatedly, he chose a location with sand, hoping it would be better protection than a grass field. When the weather was right, he went out and set up the camera focus and composition, positioning a friend behind the camera to trigger the shutter to fire the camera at nine frames per second. A few dozen kicks and several hundred exposures later, he was finished with the shoot, having captured the perfect moment. Unfortunately, his shoulder was sore for two weeks after that shoot.

One of his Brooks professors, Chuck Place, gets credit for this relentless pursuit of the great shot. Morahan recalls receiving a positive critique for an assignment he had done, only to have Place talk to him privately and encourage him to reshoot, believing his student could do better. Morahan did as instructed, taking his time to find a better approach. The real lesson for Morahan was that taking time to plan a shoot pays off in the long run. “He told me that the only way to fail on a photo shoot was by not getting exactly what you want,” Morahan says. “It proved to be one of the most important lessons I ever learned as a photographer.”

“A shot of my brother’s soccer team, in Lehigh, PA.”

Morahan learned another fundamental from Brooks professor Ralph Clevenger. “He showed me the most incredible shot of a flower that I’d ever seen in my life,” Morahan recalls. “He told me that you don’t have to search for the perfect flower—that it is all in the composition and how you light it.” Still, Morahan expressed his doubts; his suspicion was that the shot was taken in an exotic location. “When he showed me the wide angle shot and I saw that there were just two flowers at the side of a gas station parking lot, it really changed my view. You don’t have to go to some crazy location; beauty is everywhere.”

One of Morahan’s favorite subjects is surfing, and he approaches it with characteristic zeal. He told me about going out with his friend early in the morning. Usually, he shoots with a 300mm lens and a 2X teleconverter on a Canon EOS-1D Mark II—which is equivalent to a 780mm lens. He’ll shoot hundreds of frames while the light is good, then spend the middle part of the day editing. Later in the day, when the light is good again, he’ll return and shoot more.

Daniel Jacobs shoot for Santa Barbara Fitness Magazine.

There was one image in his portfolio that was of particular interest to me because of the use of water blur around Morahan’s surfer subject. It turns out that he shot this one at 1/20 of a second while panning with the 780mm lens!

Morahan loves saturated color. One way he likes to attain it is by underexposing the background. The image of Morahan dunking the basketball with the orange background is a good example of this, as the background is about two stops underexposed.

Photographed at 780mm at 1/20 at f/22 to blur the action.

While sports action photography is his main focus, Morahan is also quite adept at sports portraiture—“sportraiture,” as he calls it on his website. His site contains a portfolio of beautifully lit portraits of surfers, soccer players, golfers, tennis players and other athletes.

Another love of this diverse photographer’s is travel and nature photography. He has made several trips to Africa and hopes that this body of work will culminate in a book. He likes to experiment with long exposure images that capture the movement of the sky. For instance, exposures lasting one to eight hours are effectively able to show the circular trail of the stars against the backdrop of night.

Getting the star trail image of the windmills outside of Palm Springs, California, (see image above) was particularly challenging. He recounts that, as he set up the shot and felt himself battered by a mighty gust of wind, it became clear why the windmills were placed at that specific spot in the desert near the San Jacinto Mountains. Morahan was afraid the wind would ruin the shot, especially because it was a long exposure, but since he was already there, he figured it was worth a try. He braced the tripod with rocks around each of the legs and pulled it off without any blur.

“This shot was taken on my way to Arizona, from California. I saw some windmills and pulled my car over and shot for a few hours. The exposure was f/5.6; the film was Fujichrome Velvia.”

Morahan is busy accumulating tear sheets. His photos are published regularly in Santa Barbara Fitness Magazine, including a recent cover. He is represented by New Sport Photo and he also shoots stock.

In addition, Brooks is running an ad featuring a Morahan photo. It’s a beautiful shot of a surfer going airborne with water splashing all around. The shot is backlit by the setting sun, which makes the spray look like shattered glass. The surfer seems to be breaking free from the ocean. The copy reads: “Focus. Commitment. Excellence”— what an apt description of Morahan himself. Visit www.joemorahan.com.

Joe Morahan Talks Star Trails Part II

2007-07-25T19:31:00.002-06:00

Rangefinder Magazine
September 2006

Rf Cookbook by Joe Morahan
The Trees and the Stars

The Trees and the Stars

Surrounded by monstrous, magnificent trees while camping in Kings Canyon National Park, many opportunities to create great imagery flicker in the imagination. Around midnight while sitting near a campfire, I was inspired to create this picture.

I was gazing up intently through the treetops, amazed by how many stars were in the sky. In the city there are simply not that many stars visible; the ambient lights mask so much of the heavens. But here, away from the city lights, Kings Canyon was the perfect theater for the stars’ light show, and millions made their appearance known, flickering in the night for attention.

I was with my buddy Mike and his wife camping near a river. The tents were only 20 feet up from the bank, which provided a peaceful background noise, and the crackling of the fire made for a cozy, relaxing evening.

I sensed immediately the difficulty of capturing this shot. As a photographer, I know great shots don’t just happen. Mike, his wife and I had been trekking through Sequoia National Park for two weeks, and we’d each shot 30 rolls of film. This shot, however, would take some doing.

INGREDIENTS: • Camera: Canon Elan; • Lens: Canon 17–40mm f/5.6; • Film: Kodak ISO 400 transparency film; • Scanner: Nikon Scan 5000; • Computer: Power Mac G5; • Software: Photoshop CS2; • Other: Cable release, flashlight, tripod

I knew I needed a bigger fire to help pump light onto the trees. They were hundreds of feet tall, and I needed light to reach the tops. Mike and I gathered dry firewood near the river. The fallen trees were too huge, but there were branches that made good firewood. As we broke the branches to throw into the fire, a sliver broke loose and shot into my eye. We found the park rangers, and they were able to extract the sliver. With a patch over one eye, I was still determined to get the shot; visiting a doctor could wait until morning!

Back at the campsite, we finished gathering wood (more carefully this time). The fire was now throwing off sufficient light so I could begin the shoot. I grabbed my tripod and camera, and set up. I was having a hard time framing the shot as the eye patch covered my shooting eye. I made the calculations, pointed the camera nearly straight up on its sturdy tripod, and started shooting. I was uncertain how much light was actually hitting the top of the trees, but I was able to approximate it with my light meter.

I wanted at least 45 minutes of exposure so the stars would have time to twist in the sky. I did a total of four frames, each at 45 minutes. I stoked the fire for the first two and let the fire die down naturally for the last two— a roughly calibrated bracketing with less light hitting the tree tops on each progressive shot. To obtain more light, we had backed a four-wheel drive down a slope so the headlights would illuminate the tree tops. They were daytime lights, yielding a color temperature of 5500°K and producing a green shade in the tree tops.

After two weeks of roughing it in the forest, I looked forward to viewing the film back in Santa Barbara. While I was interested in seeing whether certain shots had turned out, I was simply blown away by this one. I could not believe my eyes. The shot was everything I imagined. And to think, all it took was a campfire, car headlights, an eye patch and, of course, a little help from Mother Nature.

Visit www.joemorahan.com.

Joe Morahan Talks Star Trails Part I

2007-07-25T19:31:00.001-06:00

Rangefinder Magazine
July 2006

Rf Cookbook: by Joe Morahan
Star Trails Illuminate the Night

The ability to bring the night to life with photographic magic is a cathartic experience. To the naked, untrained eye, night might seem to be a dark, boring stillness—but this is to miss out on the beauty and motion one can see only at night. From a photographic standpoint, shooting at night is quite difficult because of all the variables. But the results can be exquisite.

My vision was simple—a photograph of a huge, triumphant tree, framed by star trails as they moved through the night sky. Making my vision a reality proved far more complex. Many issues confronted me and thwarted an easy setup.

Finding the right tree on the right hill with the right slope took hours of hunting. At one point, I was about to conclude that no such site existed anywhere near where I was searching. Then, like magic, the perfect specimen appeared right in front of me near Solvang, California.

The next step was more technical, calculating just how I could get the exact exposure I wanted. I would need a moonless night to avoid ambient lighting. Years of nighttime shooting have given me the experience to determine in which direction the stars will rotate by using Polaris (the North Star) as my anchor point. I used this insight to my advantage to support the composition.

From previous photographic shoots, I knew that a good base exposure would be two hours at f/8 with ISO 400 film. Shooting such long exposures requires film, as digital efforts produce digital noise that would ruin the exposure.

It was a tricky setup, and a sturdy tripod was an absolute must— the slightest vibration or movement over two hours will ruin the desired effect. Proper framing of a shot at night is quite difficult, so I brought a flashlight and spent an hour or so framing what I believed would be the perfect setup. I set the focus at infinity and used a cable release to keep the shutter open for the two hours.

I had to wait nearly a month to get the moonless midnight I needed. I set up early and waited for the dark blue sky to fade into black. In the deep darkness I started the exposure, making sure the North Star was framed properly. Then I just waited and prayed all would turn out according to plan.

The next morning produced bad news. I studied the developed film and saw that the star trails through the skies were broken up with huge gaps between them. The gaps were caused by clouds that had passed high in the night sky.

INGREDIENTS
• Camera: Canon Elan
• Lens: EF 17–40mm f/4L USM
• Film: Fujichrome ISO 400
• Scanner: Nikon Scan 5000
• Computer: Power Mac G5
• Software: Photoshop CS2
• Other: Cable release, flash light, tripod

I had no option but to reshoot. I would never have imagined it would take four more attempts to get it right!

Weather predictions on the night of the last shoot called for a clear, cloudless night. This was lucky, as I found out the hard way that Solvang gets a lot of fog. I drove back to what I now affectionately called “my tree” and started the familiar routine.

I had been shooting approximately two hours when I noticed the fog rolling in over Solvang, creating an orange glow over the city. I made a conscious decision to continue the exposure for another 30 minutes, allowing ample time for the film to absorb the orange tint. When I studied the film the next morning I was amazed. It was a perfectly clean exposure and the sky looked incredible. It is in moments such as this that a photographer knows all that work is worth it!

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Joe Morahan Talks Composites

2007-07-25T19:29:00.000-06:00

Rangefinder Magazine
January 2006

Rf Cookbook by Joe Morahan
Composites

E verything changes when I step on the soccer field. For 90 minutes the world is reduced to a very small pitch of turf where 22 athletes compete. The exhaustion at game’s end is exquisite. Capturing such elusive feelings would prove a very difficult assignment. I’ve shot soccer many times before, but no shot I had taken adequately captured the emotional depth that I was looking for. So, after much trial and effort (and failure), I concluded I needed a composite shot, since nothing else was working.

By constructing a composite, I would be able create the scene I had in my mind’s eye and would have complete control of every element of the photograph.

I headed off to the beach—to shoot myself! I set up the camera and went to work. I would jump in the air and do bicycle kicks over and over. I would check my shot. Not quite right. The angle was wrong. My arm was out of place. The ball was too high. After 30 takes, I could not lift my right arm.

The next step was to shoot a beautiful tract of grass, simulating the thick, full pitch of a soccer field. I made sure to shoot the grass under the same lighting conditions. I then went to a local park and shot a hill so that the grass would carry over onto the horizon line. I now had the first two elements of the composite shot in place; I would have to wait for just the perfect sunset.

INGREDIENTS
• Camera: Canon 1D Mark II and Canon Elan
• Lens: Canon 80–200mm f/2.8
• Flash Card: Lexar 4GB
• Film: Fujichrome Provia 100
• Flash: Canon 550EZ
• Computer: Macintosh G5
• Software: Photoshop CS2
• Scanner: Nikon Scan 5000

I would wait nearly a month for the conditions I needed. I wanted a cloud formation that was somewhat triangular in nature that would add depth to the composition in the final image. Finally, that day arrived and the clouds appeared about right. I gathered my gear and went to get the shot of the sky.

The final element of the picture is a shot of a friend of mine looking down from the clouds. I shot this beautiful picture of her and placed her within the thick, turbulent clouds—a graceful presence, overlooking from above.

Now that I had all five images shot, it was time to put all the elements together in Photoshop. This proved far more challenging than I had originally anticipated. I first arranged each image on its own layer, displaying it as large as possible for precise work. I used the Pen Tool to select and cut out individual elements and used a Quick Mask to isolate the grass. Next, I blended the different elements together. I applied a Gaussian Blur filter to the grass to help give the photograph depth, which also helped blend the sky and the grass together. I took time to make fine adjustments—to position the soccer ball relative to my body position, to blur the edge of the grass just so, to blend the sky at the horizon line just a tad more. In time the image took form. Because all shots were made in the similar lighting conditions, the pieces came together nicely. It is really kind of a cut and paste composite photograph.

Joe Morahan graduated from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, CA, in December 2005, with a bachelor’s degree in photography.

Joe Morahan Profiled by Shutterbug Magazine

2007-07-25T19:14:00.000-06:00

Student Union - Joe Morahan

Joe Morahan
Brooks Institute Of Photography
Santa Barbara, California

Kick Start
Joe Morahan graduated from Brooks in December, 2005, with a degree in industrial photography. Currently working as an assistant photographer for the bodybuilding publication Iron Man, his long-term goal is free-lance advertising photography for sports gear manufacturers and outfitters, specifically location action images that highlight the gear in use by athletes.

“I was playing sports from the time I could walk,” Joe says. “Skiing, basketball, baseball—you name it, I played it.” When he took up photography in high school it was natural to combine his two interests. “As my father said, ‘If you find a job that you love, you’ll never work one day of your entire life.’”

In his pictures he tries to capture his feelings as an athlete. “When I step onto the field, I forget about everything else.

The photos are trying to show my mood when I’m out there playing the game.”

Joe may have graduated from school, but he knows the learning is far from over. “The more you think you know about the art and science of capturing a compelling image, the more you realize you have to learn.”

Joe Morahan was recommended by Carla White, a consultant to Brooks Institute of Photography.