Gallery News - September Edition

In This Edition:

* What's New in the Gallery
* Ten NEW Panoramas Released!
* Art in the Real World
* Introducing "January Thaw"
* Planning Our Next Adventure.......


What's New in the Gallery:

Where on earth did the Summer go? No sooner did it arrive and now the kids are back to school already!

It has been a busy season here in Jordan Village which has just re-affirmed our decision to move all gallery operations here as the right choice at the right time for us. While we do not get the volume of crowds here that we were used to in Niagara-on-the-Lake, I can now give our clients the time and attention you deserve. This is good - this is very good!

Even though this gallery is considerably larger, we still never have enough space to display everything we want to. A huge improvement that we made this summer was to install a 55 inch flat screen TV in front of my desk.

This allows us to display even more works on a rotating basis, plus we can run movies of yours truly working in the field. Another big advance is that I can now custom create grouping on screen and show you exactly what they will look like!

Ten NEW Panoramas Released:

I really like creating panoramas. There's something about the very wide aspect ratio I find very appealing.

These ten new pieces come in two sizes, 40 x 10 inch images size and 30 x 7 inch image size. They are of course available both framed or unframed. If you are interested in more information about any of these new pieces, just let me know.

Art in the Real World:

Once again, one of our great clients sent me a photo of "My art in their world".

We worked with Steve and Ellen in creating a great grouping for them that fit their needs. They selected "Through the Garden Window", "Garden Bench" and "Through the Garden Gate" as a triple group. We then framed up all three in the same 3 inch hand distressed frame and now that they are installed in their home, I have to say, they look fantastic -- well done!

Many thanks to Steve and Ellen for sharing this!

Introducing "January Thaw":

Before going away last Winter I decided to do some local hiking on some of the icy trails here in the Niagara region. I invested in a set of ice cleats for these hikes because with all the freeze-thaw-freeze cycles we can get here, walking on these steep hills can be treacherous at best. The investment was well worth it in terms of personal safety and the opportunity it gave me to explore.

I struck gold on one of the hikes when I was able to position myself in such a manner to compose this capture we now know as "January Thaw"

This piece just went on the wall here in the gallery yesterday. We have created the image in three sizes, all to match our very popular series of "Winding Rapids", "Autumn Splendor", and "Autumn Falls". As you can see, "January Thaw" can stand all on its own, or it also makes a wonderful companion to the original series as shown below.

For more information on this exciting new release, just give me a call at 905-562-0068, or toll-free at 866-211-9799

Planning Our Next Adventure:

Oh New Zealand, I just can't get enough of you.....

Yes, we are headed back for our third excursion to New Zealand. This time we will be exploring the Northlands district which will take us North of Auckland and all the way past the Bay of Islands, Doubtless Bay and finally up to Cape Reinga at the extreme top of the country.

We have most of the basic details planned now and we are of course looking forward to yet another outstanding excursion and of course seeing our Kiwi mates again!

I have just purchased a new video camera for Joyce so she can capture me, capturing New Zealand. I'm looking forward to creating more great videos to share with you!

We will be away for the month of February, but the gallery will be open for at least half of the month. As we get closer to the Winter I will give you exact open and close dates for the gallery.

Well I think that is about it for now. So to recap, we have had another great season, and I thank everyone that made that possible. We have some outstanding new pieces on display and I'd love to see you pop in for a viewing. If you cannot make it in to the gallery, just let me know and I'll do whatever I can to help you!

Most sincerely,

Kenneth

The Kenneth Lane Smith Gallery
Jordan Village, ON -905-562-0068
Toll-Free 1-866-211-9799
Web:http://www.kennethlanesmithgallery.com
LIKE Us on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/klsgallery
Blog:http://kennethlanesmithgallery.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/@klsgallery


 

Three Points of View

This is one of my favorites for a number of reasons.

While travelling through the Caribbean in 2007 we stopped into Fort de France on the French island of Martinique which looking at the map below, we can see it is in the southern Caribbean between the islands of Dominica and St.Lucia.

For those that haven't been to Martinique, I believe it is as "Old World France" as you are going to experience outside of the actual country of France. The streets are as you would expect, extremely narrow, just wide enough for a single lane of traffic. That physical limitation does not seem to stop some from "trying" to make it into a 2 lane thoroughfare. So maybe they have to drive up on the sidewalk to get where they are headed. A minor detail apparently.

The streets are populated with a wonderful mixture of commercial establishments selling everything one would expect in a busy European downtown, including what seems to be a baguette shop on every corner. Because Martinique is a territory of France, products from the "mainland" are plentiful and there is a certain "electricity" in the air so-to-speak making you feel as if you have just travelled back in time.

Some of the streets further away from the commercial shopping district are mainly residential in nature, but again, the efficient use of real estate so often seen in the Caribbean carries on in those area too. I suppose one has no choice but to get along with their neighbours who are clearly in close quarters. I imagine that there is no such thing as family secrets here.

I came across what we now call "Three Points of View" on one of these narrow "Rues" while exploring the city that day and while I saw a number of similar compositions of windows, some with shutters, some without, it was this one that immediately caught my attention.

In much of my work I use a technique which I call "A Study in Contrasts" where I look for scenes with a mix of dark vs light, calm vs calamity, and in this case, soft vs textured. The rough texture of the cement parging and exposed brickwork is contrasted with the smooth surface of the mahogany shutters. I find scenes with these opposites very attractive.

As an artist I can allow myself the freedom to "imagine". My imagination is influenced not only by physical world around me, but I think there is a also bit of romance mixed in there too. When I saw these three windows, I was struck by the fact that only one of the shutters was open. Had they all been open, or closed, I would have walked right by without giving it any thought. But the fact that only one shutter was open, now that was intriguing!

I can imagine one or maybe many people through the years, elbows resting on the window sill having a friendly chat with a passer by. Or maybe it wasn't so friendly. Maybe it was more chastising than chat! Who knows?

All of these details real and otherwise are what inspires me to try to capture what I see in front of me. In this case I think I was successful.

Where Did The Name "Three Points of View" Come from?

My wife Joyce is an incredibly important part of this business. Along with designing the framing solutions for all of our canvases, she does the actual framing of every piece as well. She also handles what I call "a thousand invisible jobs" that are not always seen, but are vital to the business. If that wasn't enough, she is also the one that comes up with the names for all my pieces. I have seen her spend days trying to come up with just the right name for a piece. Such was the case here......... however as good as she is, sometimes things don't happen the way you want them to.

After about three days and nights of trying to come up with a name for this piece she was stumped. Nothing was coming.....

Now before I go any further, I have to tell you that thank goodness Joyce is so good at coming up with names because quite frankly, I am hopeless at it. If it was left to me, I might have a collection with exotic titles like, "Flower One, Flower Two, Bird One, Bird Two..... you get the idea. Hey, you can't be good at everything!

So, where did "Three Points of View" come from? Well amazingly enough, after three days of trying Joyce said, "I honestly can't think of the right name for this". Somehow, some way, I blurted out, "Three Points of View" with absolutely zero thought behind it. "That's it" she said! Now to this day I don't know if she really thought it was the perfect name or if she was just too exhausted from three days of thinking about it, but there you have it.

"Three Points of View" is a limited edition of only 100 canvases and as of this writing, the edition is getting very close to selling out.

For sizes and pricing please CLICK HERE, or call the gallery at 905-562-0068 for further information.

As the late, great Paul Harvey would say, "Now you know the rest of the story......"


Kenneth

The Kenneth Lane Smith Gallery
Jordan Village, ON -905-562-0068
Toll-Free 1-866-211-9799
Web:http://www.kennethlanesmithgallery.com
LIKE Us on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/klsgallery
Blog:http://kennethlanesmithgallery.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/@klsgallery



 



 

A Hard Day at the "Office"....

Did you ever wonder what a "Hard Day at the Office" looks like for me?

Click to view the video showing me in "My Office:...

http://www.kennethlanesmithgallery.com/Artist.html

All kidding aside, this shows a few snippets of me working in the field and some of the amazing things and places I have had the good fortune to see. It is these sorts of places that inspire me and they are the reason I have to do what I do.

Enjoy!

Kenneth

The Kenneth Lane Smith Gallery
Jordan Village, ON -905-562-0068
Toll-Free 1-866-211-9799
Web:http://www.kennethlanesmithgallery.com
LIKE Us on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/klsgallery
Blog:http://kennethlanesmithgallery.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/@klsgallery



It's in the bag.......

 

Here's a quick little tip that will keep you out of trouble when going from a cold space to a hot & humid one.

 

 As I get into another winter of shooting I thought I'd pass along this little bit of advice for taking care of your camera gear when going from one temperature extreme to another.

 

Here in Canada, it gets cold in the winter, but the humidity level is usually very low. In our homes however, we have to add humidity to the air through our heating systems, or via a stand-alone humidifier, to compensate for the dryness that can cause anything from painful static electricity shocks in the home, to drying and cracking of furniture and skin.

 

If you wear glasses you know what happens when you come inside to a warm home from the cold outdoors -- your glasses fog up. The reason for this is that the cold surface of your glasses causes higher humidity level in the house to condense on the cold glass surface. 

 

Well the same thing happens when you bring your camera in from the cold. The much higher humidity level inside causes your camera lens to fog up. Why is this a potential problem? Some higher end pro and semi-pro level cameras are weather sealed, but many consumer level cameras are not and this can potentially cause a build up of moisture inside the electronics of the camera, but more apparent, inside the actual camera lens. Once it is in there, there really isn't any simple way of removing it.

 

So, what's the solution? Easy, just make a habit of carrying a large plastic freezer bag with you when you are old in the cold. After you are finished shooting for the day, place your camera in the bag and seal it up. When you take your camera from the cold into the warmer, humid air inside the home, let it sit for an hour to "acclimatize" itself in the sealed bag. The sealed plastic bag keeps the camera away from the humid air, until the camera warms up and the danger of condensation is gone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter is not the only time you should be concerned about this though. Let's reverse the situation to going from a cool and dry air conditioned space to the hot and humid outdoors. For example, you are on a cruise ship where they tend to keep the ship's interiors at "meat locker" temperatures. You decide to take your camera outside to capture some images of the port you are pulling into and low and behold, the camera is all fogged up. Yes, the fogged lens will eventually clear when the camera warms up to the outdoor temperature, but this could eventually cause problems. This is very common on Caribbean cruises.

 

Speaking of the Caribbean, I am about to head there soon for some R&R and of course I hope to get some great captures while I am there. If you want to See some of my past images from that region, head over to the website at http://www.KennethLaneSmithGallery.com/Collection.html

 

Oh, and one other reason to carry a plastic bag is that it gives you a safe and dry place to store your camera if you get caught in a sudden downpour!

 

Until then, happy shooting!

 

Kenneth

 

The Kenneth Lane Smith Gallery
Jordan Village, ON -905-562-0068
Toll-Free 1-866-211-9799
Web:http://www.kennethlanesmithgallery.com
LIKE Us on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/klsgallery
Blog:http://kennethlanesmithgallery.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/@klsgallery



The best $10 I've spent in a long time!

Now that we close the gallery on Tuesdays during the Winter season, it gives me a chance to get out hiking and shooting. Last Tuesday I went to Beamer Conservation area in Grimsby and decided to see if I could capture any decent waterflow through the snow and ice on the stream, as we have had a fair bit of snow lately.

Starting at the top of the hill, I had to navigate my way down what is probably a 300-400 feet drop down to the stream, over a 1/4 mile or so of extremely slick ice and snow covered trail. Funny thing was, I was the only one down there:-)

 

 

Now it may not look too dangerous in this picture, but see that stream WAY down there on the right? That's a LONG drop down there!

Personally I find going down the trail much harder than coming back up, because on the way down, gravity is not your friend.

So there I was with my trusty hiking boots on and they have a pretty aggressive tread pattern, but they were no match for some of the glazed over sections. Like some of the great hikes I have done in New Zealand, albeit in summer conditions, I had to steady myself by holding on to any sort of root, branch, rock or patch of dead grasses to keep myself from rolling down the hill and becoming a human avalanche!

Well I did manage to make it all the way down and back up again - eventually! However, when I got back into the gallery the next day, I did some research on ice cleats and low and behold I found the perfect solution at Canadian Tire!

I got to try them out yesterday and these babies REALLY work well! Just stretch them over your boot and you are good to go. And they are only $10. Heck of a deal!

My only concern is that they might work too well! They gave me tremendous confidence over wet and slippery surfaces. I was fearless and that's the problem. I am way too old to be fearless:-)

So there you have it. If you are hiking over ice, snow or generally slippery conditions, I highly recommend these!

Oh, and after all that slip-sliding away last week at Beamer, here is one of the captures....

I think it was worth it:-) What do you think?

Until next time.....

Kenneth

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Wetter is Better

I am often asked why so many of my images have such vibrant and saturated colours – and I am happy to explain how I do it.  The secret to obtaining rich vibrant colours is so very simple - - I call it “The Wetter the Better”

Lighting is very important of course, and I will address in a moment, but first I want to illustrate how waiting for the right conditions can make the difference between a ho-hum capture and a great capture.

In the image below, notice that the bark chips and leaves in the Dry area are nice, but without a lot of character or dimension. Compare that with the wet area. Notice how there is so much more depth and punch to the scene, especially in the damp leaves. They have much more vibrancy to them.

In this second example, notice that the dry areas outlined in red are flat and almost neutral in colour. Compare that to the sections of wet slate where there is wonderful depth and rich texture not found in the dry areas. Also notice that the pasty beige colour of the paving stone is so much more interesting when it is damp.

Now let’s talk about light for a minute. When trying to capture detail and texture, bright sun or artificial flash is not your friend. Going back to the first image of bark chips and leaves, let’s see the difference between using natural light and a flash.

The one on the left was taken with natural light on a dull overcast morning which requires a longer exposure (the shutter stays open longer). The one on the right was taken with an on-camera flash. I think the results speak for themselves. I much prefer natural low light situations that force you to use longer exposures. Even though these were very quick hand-held captures, in most of my work I use a tripod to eliminate camera (actually photographer) shake for a sharp and dimensional image.

By the way, other than cropping of the last image, these images are right out of the camera with no adjustment what-so-ever.

So, to sum up, watch the weather and pick your times for the best captures. I find early morning light is the best, plus there is a much greater chance of finding that dampness you want that really makes images pop! Save the bright sunny days for tanning and golfingJ