Photobook 4: Country Living

Visit the book's page here: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/238062/

Fourth in a series of articles introducing my new photobook which is now on sale at blurb.com. The last section was Farmscapes and this is closely related. I live in the country - for a time I lived in places like Montgomery Alabama, Midwest City Oklahoma (a suburb of Oklahoma City), and Harrisburg - but those times when I lived "in town" tended to be short-lived. The old adage "You can take the kid out of the country but you can't take the country out of the kid" fits me pretty well.

Country life, for me, is all about sunsets without buildings or other things to block them, foggy mornings, going fishing, etc. But in Pennsylvania, it's a bigger thing than just that. It's the covered bridges - many of which were built in the 1800s and are still in use today, or at least, available to visit. It's the old wooden ferryboats in Millersburg which cross the river, day after day, ferrying passengers and cars to the other side. It's sitting in the park at Millersburg, and watching fireworks exploding over the river. Living in rural America is the place to be!


Dauphin County and its neighboring counties are full of country scenes, from the covered bridges of Perry, Dauphin, and Northumberland Counties, to the ferryboats that have taken passengers across the Susquehanna River from Millersburg to Liverpool for more than a hundred years. On Independence Day fireworks light up the Susquehanna River in Harrisburg and Millersburg; in September, a local school remembers 9-1-1 with a tribute to all the people who lost their lives on September day. In the wintertime, snow blankets the ground with a soft cover. Amish settlements are sprinkled throughout the countryside. And when you look to the west in the evening hours, it is not unusual to see sunsets with barns or trees framed against a fiery sky. On any given day of the year, you need not look far to find something interesting to do or see. It is country living at its finest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All images copyright 2005-2008 James A. Wheeler or Karen Oudeman.

Contact me at arkansawyer@gmail.com for information on obtaining copies of any of these prints or information on the upcoming 160 page photobook, which will be a "coffee table" style hardcover book complete with paper sleeve cover, initially priced around $60 - which to my cheapskate pocketbooks seems high until I compare the cost to that of eating out at a nice restaurant, which for a family can quickly exceed the cost of this book, and is quickly forgotten.

The series so far:
Photobook 1: The Story
Photobook 2: The Church
Photobook 3: Farmscapes
Photobook 4: Country Living
Photobook 5: Waterscapes
Photobook 6: Wildlife

Photobook 3: Farmscapes

Third in a series of articles introducing my new photobook which are now on sale at blurb.com.

As a photographer, I love landscape photos - seeing expanses of land in a photograph in National Geographic or anywhere else for that matter, always makes me smile, appreciate some aspect of my world that someone was able to capture with a camera. Over time, I've come to really appreciate an altered form of the landscape photograph - that is, landscapes that feature farm scenes, or farmscapes. This collection, the second section of my photobook, is a record of the reasons why I live where I do.

We looked all around for houses - but even before we moved to Pennsylvania, we knew we would move to Halifax eventually. I suppose the housing market could have changed our minds - but I wanted a couple of mountains between myself and the city (and downriver, the infamous Three Mile Island nuclear power plant). I also wanted a small town life - where my children could go to school and get to know almost everyone - not to be lost in the system. We looked at a map, and said, "That's the place."

Mostly, I loved the countryside. When I first came to Pennsylvania, it was in May or June, I believe... and when I looked out over the valley where Halifax sits next to the big river, the first thing I noticed was the patchwork quilt of greens. Cornfields and other crops, bordered by forests, grain silos and old barns in the distance. And everything was so very bright and green and ALIVE.

And with that introduction, I present the farmscapes collection. From the introductory page:

Central Pennsylvania is a patchwork of farmlands and forests with small towns dotted here and there across the countryside. When I first came to Pennsylvania, I drove up over Peter's Mountain into Upper Dauphin County and pulled off at the parking area atop the mountain. When I looked out over the early summer green and saw the patchwork of farms and forests in the valley below, I was sold. I went back to work and within a few days had accepted the job offer I'd been given. The rural countryside varies from a snow-covered landscape during the winter months, a bright green and flowery spring, miles and miles of cornfields in the summertime, to colorful autums. It is not only the natural scenes which inspire, but also those which combine the man-made scenes with the natural ones, rural landscapes - or farmscapes.

All images copyright 2005-2008 James A. Wheeler or Karen Oudeman.

Contact me at arkansawyer@gmail.com for information on obtaining copies of any of these prints or information on the upcoming 160 page photobook, which will be a "coffee table" style hardcover book complete with paper sleeve cover, initially priced around $60 - which to my cheapskate pocketbooks seems high until I compare the cost to that of eating out at a nice restaurant, which for a family can quickly exceed the cost of this book, and is quickly forgotten.

The series so far:
Photobook 1: The Story
Photobook 2: The Church
Photobook 3: Farmscapes
Photobook 4: Country Living
Photobook 5: Waterscapes
Photobook 6: Wildlife

Photobook 2: The Church

Second of a series of articles introducing my new photobook which will be on sale starting in mid May, 2008. This is a 'self publishing' effort, so all the work going into formatting and layout of the book lay solely on me. I did have some help in the form of friends who proofed the text and/or gave suggestions, but I did the dirty work, and in the end am proud of what I've accomplished.

I grew up in western Arkansas, in a hilly region abundant with forests, lakes, and rivers. I lived small town life at it's finest... and when I turned 19, I left. I have/had full intentions of returning some day - but I had to find my own way in the world, and joined the Air Force. Eventually I completed my enlistment and started a new job, and the path led me to Dauphin County in the year 2000.

In 2001, I bought a house in Upper Dauphin County, and here I am surrounded by farmlands and forests, and the appalachian trail runs along the ridge on the side of Powell's Valley, where I call home. The entire area has become "home" to me - indeed I am at one time closer to home than I've ever been since leaving Arkansas in 1990, and farther away than I've ever been. Small town life is much the same here, and the climate similar although a bit cooler. But I am more miles away than I've been before.

Still, I find myself inspired by the scenes of my world, and the one photo that started this "photography" thing rolling for me was of this old church. Over the past few years, I've built up a collection of images featuring the church, but until recently I never really knew the story behind it.

On deviantART, I met a wonderful person named Karen Oudeman, who asked one day if she could paint one of my photos... Of course, I said yes. And so, a partnership was born. Two of the images featured here, including "Heaven's Light" are paintings done by Karen. There are 3 more in the photobook itself, but I will post those in subsequent articles.

The following is the text from the first page of The Church series in my photobook.

Over the past few years of life in Powell's Valley, I have been inspired time and again by the sight of this historic church. St. Paul's Lutheran Church, also known as Bowerman's Church, was first organized in 1825, and the first building, a log structure, was erected in 1826. In 1902, the old church building was deemed unsafe and was torn down. The new church's cornerstone was laid July 2, 1902. The new church was dedicated April 24, 1903 at a cost of about $4,000. One of my first serious "artistic" photos was of this church during an early springtime sunset. "Heaven's Light" remains my favorite photograph. Like many of my shots, it was just the result of being in the right place at the right time. Even so, it serves as an inspiration to do something more with the camera than I've ever before done. It spurs me onward to find within myself some sense of creativity and the desire to share my views of the world around me.

Without further ado, here is the series of images that comprise "The Church".

All images copyright 2005-2008 James A. Wheeler or Karen Oudeman.

Contact me at arkansawyer@gmail.com for information on obtaining copies of any of these prints or information on the upcoming 160 page photobook, which will be a "coffee table" style hardcover book complete with paper sleeve cover, initially priced around $60 - which to my cheapskate pocketbooks seems high until I compare the cost to that of eating out at a nice restaurant, which for a family can quickly exceed the cost of this book, and is quickly forgotten.

The series so far:
Photobook 1: The Story
Photobook 2: The Church
Photobook 3: Farmscapes
Photobook 4: Country Living
Photobook 5: Waterscapes
Photobook 6: Wildlife