Twelve Months At Hurricane Ridge – Finalists

Thanks to everyone who actually voted. Okay, so it was only the folks who follow me on Facebook, and there were votes from LinkedIn, Instagram, and Bluesky, but Facebook had the greatest traffic. Those Shares and Likes on Facebook picked the five top photos from Twelve Months At Hurricane Ridge. It is a good thing that I asked because they were different than the ones I picked. Fellow creators take note, what we think is best is not what others think is best.

With no further fluffery, here’s the five.

There’s some overlap, but my list is different, and that is worth noting.

My list is longer because I’ll use these two lists to select the first photos to print. For past Twelve Month Series I printed everything – and sold about a quarter of them. For art sales, that’s good. Some photographers reliably sell the same four photos and live off the reprints. This time, instead of printing 48 (four photos a month for twelve months) on nice paper, I plan to print about a dozen on high-end metal. That logic may be covered later.

Back when my photos were in a gallery (pre-Covid) one patron unknowingly taught me to respect the patron’s point of view. Within those 48 photos there were always a few that were printed simply to fill out the four from the leaner months. Some months don’t have the lighting, and that becomes part of the story. I sat there chatting with the gallery owner not revealing that I was the photographer. A patron walked in, saw one particular photo which I was embarrassed by because the lighting was bad – to my eye. She stared. She bought it. The short version of the story was that I asked her why that one. Evidently, she hadn’t intended to buy anything, just look around the way many of us do. Light entertainment. To her, somewhat paraphrased, she said “I’ve never felt such peace looking at a photo.” I thanked her. She left. I never saw her again.

The most popular picture posted to Facebook was a photo I snapped, yes, snapped, because it caught that moment many hikers and skiers want to know about, when the snow begins to melt down to the road. It is a sign of Spring that has less to do with the calendar and more to do with switching from snow gear to dirt gear, from skis or snowshoes to bikes or boots. It was the most popular pick on Facebook.

Picking popularity from Facebook is flawed, but there is no flawless system, so I use it. A photo can be voted higher because of the day of the week it was posted, whether it captured some quirk of nature, or because some other folks picked it so they don’t want to miss out. Composition, framing, lighting, subject matter, drama, take your pick of artistic criteria can be prime to an artist, but to someone buying the print it can simply be because it matches the couch, or actually touches them somehow. Another odd pick was of a tree that also helped fill the month, and it turned out to be where people got married. Okay. I’m not going to tell them No.

The artist matters, too. My art is an expression of my feelings. I’m going to express those feelings even if no one cares. I matter too. It is one reason I have lots of wall art in storage, printed for sale, not sold, and waiting for one of my bare walls to adorn. (That’s going to take a while. I’m in a tiny house which is mostly cabinets, doors, and windows. Not much room for art. (MyTinyExperiment.net)

I’ll save the discussion about printing on metal for a post after I’ve printed on metal. There’s more to it than the material properties. Stay tuned for that.

There are various links to my online gallery (on Fine Art America) and to the book (lulu.com). Find something you like and want to buy. No need to wait for me or a gallery. They’re available now. 

If I only relied on my perspective and I ignored the viewing public, I would be lecturing without knowing if anyone was in the audience. Thanks to the voting, it feels closer to a conversation. Thanks to those who participated, even if you didn’t know that was what you were doing.