This years 2014 Sierra Art Trails open studio tour has many talented artists. The Sierra Sun Times will be featuring a sampling of area artists leading up to the show. Check back regularly to see who the next featured artist will be.
Mike Reeves
Photography
I spent a lot of time in Yosemite growing up, visiting the park several times a year on family vacations. While attending Sacramento State, I took several photographic workshops where I really got involved in honing my skills. After graduating college in 2010, I moved to Yosemite Valley. Later that year, I accepted a position as a staff photographer with The Ansel Adams Gallery where I continue to work today. Teaching photography and conducting private guiding within the park gives me the opportunity to spend a large portion of my time outside hiking, backpacking and photographing.
Yosemite has obviously been well documented by many great artists, but the majority of my work shows smaller scenes that go beyond the classic views. Iconic Yosemite is dramatic, powerful, and awe-inspiring but the opportunities needed to create them are often few and far between. The majority of my time is spent looking for smaller scenes near rivers and waterfalls, working in even light and hopefully looking for reflected light and color. There is always something to photograph in the park, and smaller scenes often require more time composing where small movements can make big changes in the final image, becoming more rewarding when the conditions allow a good photograph.
I feel the creative process is just as exciting as sitting at a campsite watching a High Sierra sunset. Spending time in the valley and the backcountry is important, and each day I spend in the wilderness I feel more connected to the land that I am exploring. On backpacking trips, I feel like a small visitor among the giant peaks and alpine valleys that have inspired countless artists. Upon returning, I select images that give me the best opportunity to convey the sense of what I have experienced. I hope my photographs can convey just a small portion of that power one feels standing at the base of ancient trees, the sense of height felt at the base of a rock face or the sense of solitude that only a solo trip into wilderness can deliver. The final print is a combination of many of these factors, and I hope the presentation of that vision inspires the viewer to embrace the same experiences.
I work with both digital and 4x5 film systems. My color work is presented in inkjet form, while black and white images can be printed in either inkjet or silver form. I use a lab in Maine that projects digital images onto Ilford fiber papers and processes the prints in liquid chemistry for archival stability. Eventually I would like to make good silver prints myself as at work I have access to a darkroom. As a young photographer, I grew up in a digital world but I feel that the mixing of old and new technology is truly using the best of both worlds. The view camera allows me to be very precise in the field, where the digital camera allows me to photograph in conditions not suitable for a wood and leather camera. The darkroom process was often criticized as laborious and imprecise, but modern enlargement techniques allow for digital processes to be printed in more traditional ways. I feel that as an artist, I cannot shut out any process as an option to be creative. My first four years in Yosemite have been great, and I hope to grow in the years ahead!
Mike can be reached at: (916) 316-3603 or email mike@mikereevesphotography.com. Visit Mike's website: www.mikereevesphotography.com.
