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 altered 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 actually changing a photo made it much more interesting and magnetic. In some instances, the computer process used is so simple that it can happen purely by accident! Whenever I present this type of image, I always indicate that it has undergone some degree of postproduction modification — even though it is usually quite obvious. This is why one of the Galleries on this site is titled “Manipulated Images“.
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, which includes all four seasons, 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, new material. I have named my nature photography business “Julian Images” because nearly all of my photographs are taken within a 20 mile radius of the Julian townsite.
Though good and beautiful photo subjects are often very obvious and nearly impossible to miss, I always strive to see “the extraordinary in the ordinary” — those incredible things right in plain sight that most people would never even notice. Sometimes this occurs quite spontaneously, on the spur-of-the moment, and other times it takes many repeated trips to a location before the weather — and especially the light — is ideal for shooting my subject. Many of my favorite and most popular photos are a result of this approach. In the Gallery on this site titled “From Ordinary To Extraordinary“, I’ve provided examples of some “before and after” photos to illustrate this.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Canon EF 16-35mm
Canon EF 24-105mm
Canon EF 70-200mm
Canon EF 100mm Macro
Manfrotto Heavy Duty Tripod
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
All material © by Graham Wilder. All rights reserved.