By
Merrill Shea
Piece description from the artist
I had been out "rambling" through the countryside a short distance from the little town of Mahlam in early January. It had been cloudy all day (par for the course during UK winters) and there had been a light drizzle for most of the afternoon. I hadn't taken a single photo and I had given up hope for any hint of a sunset. I was about to set off down the return path when, suddenly, the clouds parted to reveal the most glorious colors!
I wanted to capture more of the sky's reflection on the limestone "pavement" on which I was standing, but it was very—I mean very!—slippery, so I didn't dare step backward any further. I just sat down where I was and fired off maybe twenty-five shots until the light show ended a couple of minutes later.
While the camera/lens combination for this photograph was cutting edge technology at the time, it has been surpassed in terms of retaining resolution for enlargements. Therefore, I would caution against enlarging this more than 30×40", as the quality of detail might suffer.
Merrill Shea began his artistic career as a classical musician and then gradually migrated toward the visual arts. He has worked as a free-lance photographer in the commercial, non-profit and academic worlds throughout Eastern Massachusetts for over twenty-five years. He is entirely self-taught.
Merrill spends at least one month every year traveling primarily throughout New England and the Pacific Northwest. While his oeuvre includes urban imagery, his primary inspiration comes from the natural world. His TurningArt offerings represent a selection from his personal projects, which range from intimate and panoramic seascapes to interpreting the oldest living things on earth: the fantastically gnarled bristlecone pine trees that survive at twelve thousand feet above sea level.
Merrill continues to explore the varieties of color, graphics and texture that are possible within the photographic medium. Like many photographers, he has been influenced by the iconic black and white nature photography of Ansel Adams. In that regard, he has included identical images which he feels are effective both in color and black and white.
Merrill has always been fascinated with the medium of watercolor and has recently been exploring the possibilities of using various computer techniques to produce watercolor-like images from photographs that, in many cases, are indistinguishable from true watercolors.
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