I was born and raised in northern New York and grew up in the tiny hamlet of West Leyden, on the southeast corner of the Tug Hill Plateau. Cows outnumbered people in the county and dairy farming and logging were the only major "industries" in the locale. It was a very rural and open environment with hard winters but great natural beauty that fostered an appreciation of landscapes showing little or no sign of the impact of human activity on the environment. I lived in Port Jervis in southern New York and in other locations in and near the Catskills for almost 30 years, and returned to northern New York, living just outside the quiet and peaceful hamlet of Norway in Herkimer County, about three miles outside the southern border of the Adirondack Park.
Although I occasionally do shoot some "colorful" scenes (such as "Desert Light" and a few sunsets) my passion is often for scenes that don't show bright colors but rather a natural beauty and serenity in subdued tones of green, brown, and blue, (or black and white in winter), and my favorite subjects seem to be wetlands, streams, trees, and occasionally an old building or the ruins a of man-made structure. More often than not my intention while shooting is to capture the feeling a particular place evokes in me more than a physical scene, and as you can see from my work here I am somewhat successful in these attempts. I often ignore the "rules" of classical art, preferring instead to let my eye tell me what is right. Perhaps I won't win prizes from those that judge based on strict adherence to the rules, but following the rules doesn't necessarily make good art and often the most stunning of photographs completely ignore them. To me, the primary question in judging a print (beyond the technical aspects of exposure and focus) is "Does it communicate the feeling of the place?"
Eventually I hope to be offering perhaps 150 different prints from my work up to this point (consisting of some 2000 negatives/slides), and in addition I continue to shoot film as time permits and intend to rotate new work into the offerings over time. I am willing to sell stock photographs, generally from the films that I won't be offering as prints, but I don't presently have plans to advertise the sale of stock photographs.
My passion is to record the wonder and beauty of unspoiled natural places and to share that beauty with those that may never have the opportunity or desire to visit these places on their own, or that may not notice that beauty when they do. Some of my work comes from places that people rarely visit, and some work is of scenes generally unnoticed or unrecorded in places that have regular visits from humans. Inanaturallight was created to share the art I create with others. Although I hope to have an income from the business, it's not about money, it's about art. Everything we do will be based on the principle that honesty is the best policy and that you, the customer, are the best judge of what is right for you. In addition to offering my work here I also offer advice on photographic art in general that is of value to anyone purchasing it regardless of the source, and the advice given is in most cases the common wisdom of experts in the field from whom I learned it, not simply my own opinions.
I also do limited freelance work and occasionally a bit of portraiture, but I do not do weddings and usually don't do other 'event' related photography or 'for hire' photography, both because I'm presently employed full time by a large computer firm in a high-tech high-stress position, and I've done weddings in the past and found the work to be far too stressful and unfulfilling as an artist. As you can surmise my "day job" usually limits the hours of my working on the photography business to evenings and weekends at the present time.
For those living locally or visiting in the area I also will make prints or enlargements of digital camera files on CD, DVD, or memory card. I will also scan, create restorations of, and print (or write to CD or DVD) old, deteriorated photographs.
I am also available on a limited basis for special photographic needs requiring large format negatives or positives, or other large-format related requirements like offsets to eliminate perspective compression in building photography, etc., or work requiring exceptional camera skills (such as photography under low-light conditions), and may make myself available on a limited basis when possible to assist worthy local charities with photographic needs at reduced costs. As a result of bad water and higher priority construction projects I don't presently have a darkroom so my processing is done by a professional lab in the area, after which I scan the films at high resolution and process the images digitally.
At present I do not have a business phone number, I can be reached via snail mail at P.O.Box 147, Newport, NY 13416 See the Site Map (link below) for a means to post me a message.
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All images on this website ©Curt Bronson 1980-2005, all other content on this website ©Curt Bronson 2005-2006
Website designed and built using stone age methods by Curt Bronson