Equipment and Technique Good photographs aren't dependent on a lot of expensive equipment - especially with the many highly sophisticated and relatively inexpensive digital cameras that are available today. I shot nearly every photograph you see in my Gallery with one camera, one lens, and a heavy duty tripod. My art is created in the camera rather than on the computer. That is to say, the images you see here are essentially what I saw when I shot them. Computer artistry, while a legitimate art form, is not my medium. My digital photographs aren't enhanced beyond what traditionally has been done by film photographers in the darkroom. On occasion I do go beyond the traditional! "Twice As Nice" and "Spherical Aberration" are two examples where altering an image made it much more interesting and magnetic. Even in cases like these, the technique used is so simple that it sometimes happens purely by accident.
Location I live in the small town of Julian, California, located in the mountains of eastern San Diego County. At an elevation of 4,300 feet, one can see from here the Pacific Ocean 40 miles to the west, and the Anza-Borrego Desert and Salton Sea in the distance to the east. This is an area of vastly diverse geological and climatic zones, where alpine forests, ancient oak groves, lakes, and desert terrain are all a short drive from one another. This diversity results in an infinite combination of ever-changing beauty throughout the year. Without a doubt, I could spend the rest of my life shooting pictures in this immediate area and never run out of incredible material. I'm happy to now call this place my home and have named my nature photography business "Julian Images" because nearly all of my photographs are taken within a 20 mile radius of Julian.
The Photographs Themselves After a series of disappointments in attempting to produce high-quality, fine art prints, I found a process of printing that comes the closest to actually capturing light on paper. All of my paper prints are now produced with "LightJet" technology. Following is some basic information about this for anyone who might be interested. The Printer The LIGHTJET® 430 PHOTO LASER PRINTER, created by Cymbolic Sciences, reads information in a digital file, then exposes light-sensitive photographic paper with red, green, and blue laser light, creating true continuous-tone prints. There is no ink and no printhead, hence no banding and no graininess as with inkjet prints, which simulate photo quality with half-tone dot patterns. The LightJet's 36-bit color space, capable of producing 68 billion colors, ensures optimum control over the light source to reproduce color with perfect fidelity. The Prints FUJI CRYSTAL ARCHIVE PAPERS. Fuji Crystal Archive papers enjoy the highest rating for image longevity of all the photographic papers made today. Independent studies by Wilhelm Imaging Research (an organization widely respected for its testing of materials) showed that under normal display conditions, Fuji Crystal Archive papers last six or seven decades before any noticeable fading occurs, outlasting other major brands by almost a three-to-one margin.
I also do some printing on canvas. While not all images translate well to canvas, those that do are exceptionally attractive. Giclée Prints on Canvas "Giclée" (pronounced Zhee-clay) is roughly translated French for 'to spray'. The term Giclée Print has come to mean any high-quality inkjet print. Giclée printing differs from traditional lithographic printing in that it yields a higher resolution, thus producing a much wider color spectrum. The results are deep, saturated colors and excellent detail. Archival inks and UV/Water Resistant Lacquer give these prints a 65-year Display Permanence Rating (years before noticeable fading and/or changes in color balance occur) for displayed, unframed prints. I stretch the canvas prints myself, "gallery wrap" style, which means the image wraps around onto the edges of the piece. My canvas prints are offered in Limited Editions.
Certificates of Authenticity Finally, signed Certificates of Authenticity are provided with all of my fine art photographic prints. If you have any questions about my photography or the prints, please contact me and I'll be happy to try to answer them for you.
Graham Wilder