Art in the Park 2017, Rain and Shine

Partially Packed for Friday Night

It is Labor Day Weekend, which means Art in the Park.  This is my one art show for the year.  The one time when I drag out my 10x10 pop-up tent and struggle to remember how I’m supposed to suspend my improvised hanging system.  

Ashuelot River Falls in the Rain

It is a long chore that is followed by hours of sitting while the multitudes wander in and out passing judgement on my work and, happily, occasionally buying some of it.

It is also the time when, instead of writing my blog, I am stuck In my tent.  So, this week, you get a short article about the  being stuck in my tent.

Aaron, My most loyal student

The annual Keene Art in the Park is organized by the Monadnock Area Artists Association and attracts a remarkably varied collection of artists from throughout New England.  Nearly 90 artists showcase a broad range of genre, including, oil, water color and pencil fine art, as well as  sculpture, and fabric art.  There was even some nice photography scattered about.

I have been participating in Art in the Park for years, primarily to show my work to my neighbors, but I also get enough sales to make the weekend financially worthwhile.  

Hanging the Art : Elegant System ?

The set-up is always a chore.  The Easy-Up pop-up tent is a marvel of engineering.  It really does pop up quickly, creating the standard 10 x 10 enclosure.  The difficult part is setting up the hanging racks that I have created from metal shelving attached vertically to wood strips.  It isn’t elegant but it was a lot less expensive than most of the fancy display systems.

Saturday, Beautiful and Busy

Everything Under Cover

Over the years I have been undeservedly luck with excellent early autumn weather.  It has generally been seasonably warm and sunny, and, most importantly, no rain.  That is until this year.  Saturday was beautifully sunny and cool, but on Sunday my luck finally ran out. 

Excitement of the Show

 Hurricane Harvey, which hammered the Texas coast, had lost most of its fury, but enough remained to anoint us with bands of rain on Sunday.  Happily the wind was gone and we were able to pull much of my work under the pop-up.  Surprisingly a few people actually came out to view the art, but much of Sunday was spent commiserating with the other poor artists as we huddled in our little tents.

Sunday, Rain and Solitude

Damp Oak Leaves on the Tent

Despite the rain, it was a successful weekend and, perhaps most importantly, I was able to get my pictures home without significant water damage.  It will take awhile to dry out the tent before I pack it away for another year.  

And tomorrow I will be hanging a show at Brewbakers coffee shop in downtown Keene.  The “Showing the Work” never ends.  And don't forget the Fall Foliage Workshop coming up October 13th -15th.  There are still a couple of spots left. 

Jeffrey Newcomer

www.partridgebrookreflections.com

603-363-8338

Art in the Park and the Autumn Photography Rush

 

It’s the end of another Art in the Park weekend and, as usual, after two full days of sitting and doing nothing, I am exhausted.

Art in the Park is Keene New Hampshire’s annual celebration of the arts in the Monadnock region and beyond. Every Labor Day weekend nearly 90 tents fill Ashuelot River Park with a broad range of artistic expression, painting, crafts, sculpture and off course photograph.

 

I have my 10 x 10 pop-up and a simply contrived, inelegant hanging system, but this is the only time each year that I do an art fair.  I typically sell enough to make it worthwhile, but the real reason to come back is for the opportunity to visit with friends and try to shame them into buying one more picture for their walls.  I enjoy sharing the stores behind my images and discussing my process, but it is a long couple of days.

It usually takes about two hours to set up the tent and attach my hanging system.  It is possible to spend hundreds of dollars on custom built hanging walls but I have settled on a more basic approach.  I suspend ordinary metal shelving from wood slates attached to the tent supports and arrange the pictures with simple S hooks.  I place my mated images in a couple of display stands, set up my table and chairs. I then settle down for hours of the pleasant occupation of talking about my work.

It's All About the Weather

Take Down

The weather is always a concern.  Early September is generally a great time to be outside, but we live in fear of thunderstorm related wind and torrential downpours.   This year hurricane Hermine drifted out to sea and we lucked out with beautiful early autumn weather.   The crowds tend to follow the weather and business was steady. 

 

It was a successful weekend, but I have to admit that it is a good feeling to pack up for another year.  My bins are cluttering the house awaiting the next to show; Kristen’s Café in October.  

Hectic Autumn

Autumn is my busiest time both for teaching and fall foliage shooting.  Next Tuesday, I’m traveling down to Framingham Massachusetts for a talk to the Gateway Camera Club on the working with the variety of light that we enjoy in New England.  In a couple of weeks, I’ll be starting another session of my Basic Digital Photography Course for Keene Community Education and, on the weekend of October 13-15^th, I will be offering a workshop focused on fall foliage photography.  It is an exciting and hectic time, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Now I have to collapse in bed after all that doing nothing.

Jeff Newcomer

partridgebrookreflections.com

603-363-8338

A Group Photo-Shoot

My Introduction to Digital Photography Class is underway at Keene Community Education. This is my second try at this basic course and again I am pleased to be blessed with an enthusiastic and energetic group. I have been impressed with the number of people, even in our small community, who are struggling to grasp the challenges and great capability of digital photography. There level of interest is such that they seem willing to sit through my two hour classes of endlessly, mind numbing PowerPoint slides, but I am a strong believer that repeated practice is the only way to firmly embed the often abstract principals behind the faithful capture of the visual image. My essential rule is:


Practice, Practice, Practice
And Then
Throw Out Your First 10,000 Images

Five Minutes

Accordingly, in addition to my eight hours of lecture, I supplement the class with two group photo-shoots The shoots give me the opportunity to help the students work through the basic principals in practical situations. It is my experience that I can contribute more with five minutes looking over a student's shoulder than I can with an hour of lecture and the result of these sessions is a pile of images that I can ruthlessly (and constructively) critique in class.





 

Shooting What Nature Provides

Ashuelot River Falls
Scouted before the Shoot

Last Tuesday evening, nine of my 15 students were able to come out for my first group shoot at Ashuelot River Park in Keene New Hampshire. We escaped the rain, but the sky was mostly overcast. I welcomed the conditions, since it allowed me to point out the importance of using the weather to help dictate the best photographic opportunities. The clouds robbed us of the chance to shoot the glorious sunset color, but it did facilitate the capture of the soft, cotton candy appearance of the Ashuelot River Falls and made it possible to record the rich, saturated colors of the parks exploding spring foliage.





I started by gathering the class for a group photo and then answering a few of the many questions that my first formal class had created. After a quick review of equipment, which included admonitions to bring a tripod, I let everyone go to find their muse. We split up into two groups. One heading to the dramatic environs of the waterfall, which was rendered more dramatic by the recent rain, and the other following a more contemplative stroll along the path which follows the Ashuelot River up-stream.





A Little Help from a Friend

Steve Hooper Guidance

The most frustrating part of these shoots is that I can never help everyone at once. Happily I was able to share the support with
another excellent photographer and teacher. Again this year Steve Hooper generously offered to help coach my students. Steve is retired from many years as a photographer for the Keene Sentinel newspaper and continues to share his love of photography by teaching in at "Class", Keene State College's senior continuing education program. Steve and I enjoy sharing each others class shoots and on this occasion he shepherded the waterfall group while I ambled up the river.



Introduction
 These shoots provide the opportunity to cover a broad range of topics, reinforcing information already discussed in class and also introducing material that will be covered in future sessions. In about 90 minutes, I reviewed shooting techniques for maximum stability, the pros and cons of jpg and RAW image formats, automatic and manual focus techniques, and the use of the histogram to establish optimal exposure. We cover aspects of strong composition, including the importance of including foreground elements and the avoidance of distractions around the edges of the frame.



 

Ashuelot Reflection

The time went quickly. On these shoots I always concentrate on the needs of the students and don't leave with many of my own images. What I did come away with was a better sense of my classes level of understanding, their needs and a file filled with their images, ready for my gentle critique during the next class session. As I review the pictures I am always looking for images that will help demonstrate important points about digital photography, but it is amazing how many times the students come up with remarkably fresh and interesting perspectives that I had never noticed. I love praising all these efforts, and love even more my plans to go back to the location to feed off of their inspiration.

 



I have two more classes to come, one on composition and the final session on photography in different kinds of light, and we will have one more group shoot after the composition class.







Over the years I have prepared many short talks on aspects of photography, but it is amazing how much more time it takes to organize a full course with eight hours of fresh material. But the work is amply rewarded by the opportunity to share my passion for photography with so many people who are just discovering the incredible possibilities of photography in the digital world.

Squirreling Away the Kids,  Ashuelot River Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry I could only show a few of great images that came from our shoot, but I'm sure there will be much more to come.


Coming up later this year I plan to repeat my Introduction to Digital Photography Course along with my Adobe Lightroom for Digital Photographers class. In the fall I am planning an Autumn Foliage workshop and who knows what else in the new year - I'm hooked - The only challenge is to find time to actually get out to shoot.

Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com

Autumn Album , September

Last Light, Ashuelot River Falls

 


November is here and although there is still some rusty gold color in the Oaks and Beeches, I'm settling into my usual late fall torpor. Through October I have been splashing selective examples of this year's color, but as always I have a pile of images to work through before I become distracted by the first snows. A quick review of my September and October archives shows that I have collected nearly 5000 images. Even at my usual ratio of 3-5 images per scene that leaves a lot of editing to do. 

 Matured Pasture

Many of the foliage images that I have published so far were those attached to specific blog articles and my traditional autumn postings have been reduced by two productive trips to the southern New England coast in the middle of the peak color. I'll eventually get back to the surf and lighthouses, but it is time that I got down to the serious and time consuming business of editing my "pile of leaves". There is a lot of work to be done, but, as a start, I will focus this week's blog on a collection of some of my favorite autumn images, beginning with the earliest signs of the season from September.









September's Promise  


As usual middle to late September provided signs of the coming autumn color. The images usually all about transitions with patches of color seen in range of light from brilliant sunshine a cool mists. September is also a time of living change with the arrival of the years produce and the livestock greedily gobbling up the last of the pasture greens.

 

 



Apple Picking

Abigail & Grayson, NOT Picking

We made our usual trips to the Green Mountain Orchards in Dummerston Vermont. The apple harvest was abundant this year, but our first two attempts were blocked by the arrival of impressive rain and thunderstorms. Our persistence was finally rewarded on our third trip with a beautiful warm sunny day, and the delay allowed us to convince our daughter Abigail and her boyfriend Grayson to join us in the picking. As usual we loaded up with more apples than we could possibly consume, but the nice folks at the orchard agree to sell my calendar in their farm store. Much of the harvest will be destined for the apple sauce that will get us through the winter.  

Perfect Macouns

Walker Farm Produce

Green Mountain Orchard Dummerston Vermont




My  Ugly but Delicious Macouns

We also had a good crop from my small collection of apple trees.  Since I don't spray, the apples weren't pretty, but underneath the skin they were excellent.  We had an especially abundant yield from my Macoun.  These apples seem to hold their taste and texture longer than many of my other varieties.








On the Farm 

The Roads End Farm is part of my photographic routine in every season. Early in September I circled by to capture some of their 60+ horses in the morning mist. This is quite possibly my favorite weather and two images from this shoot were recognized as Photo of the Day on the popular Photofocus Web Site.















 

Peek-A-Boo, Roads End Farm

In the Classroom

Field trip to Ashuelot River Park

A significant part of this September was devoted to preparing for my first full Digital Photography Course at Keene Community Education. Over the years I have presented many lectures on photography, but assembling a coherent and comprehensive program to fill eight hours of classroom time was a real challenge. Thank goodness I was able supplement my droning presentations with two shoots and the subsequent delicate critiques. It was great fun with a wonderful group of dedicated students. I plan to do more teaching in the coming year, especially since the slides for my Basic Digital Photography Course are safely "in the can".  I'm thinking of doing my next class of a Introduction to Lightroom for Photographers, just because I know so little about the subject.

River Park Falls

Ashuelot River Color

2015 Art in the Park

Among the various pleasant distractions of September was another lost weekend for the Art in the Park Show at the Ashuelot River Park in Keene New Hampshire.  This is the only time each year that I pull out my tent.  It is a lot of work but worth while to see all the local artists and art lovers.


 




Wandering About September
 



The course consumed an inordinate amount of time in September, but I did get out for occasional glimpses of the growing color. By the end of the month the autumn show was looking promising. The October color blitz was well on its way, and I'll be working on getting those images ready for their "close-up" in a couple of weeks.

Hubner Farmhouse

When it comes to displaying the imagery, autumn's abundance of visual  treasures can be frustrating.  More of this year's autumn images can be found in a Gallery on my Web site.



Jeffrey Newcomer
Partridgebrookreflections.com