It was a nice experience being an exhibiting Artist at the Mandarin Art Festival which I got to share with my family (they ran the booth).  Long story short, this wasn’t planned.

Got a phone call on a Tuesday from the President of the Mandarin Historical Society. Sandy was looking for a photo of the Mandarin tree canopy for her friend Susie, the Director of the Mandarin Art Festival. Susie wanted a color image of the Mandarin tree canopy, I didn’t have one and asked if I could have a week to get one. That night I got an email from Sandy, she was apologetic but Susie had to have the image no later than Friday morning.

Being a long time Mandarin resident, I had a few spots in mind, but getting the right light at the right location would be a challenge and I was out of town Thursday on a photoshoot, so Wednesday had to be the day.

Wednesday morning, it's overcast, foggy, and drizzling. The forecast said the solid cloud cover would break late in the day. At 4:03 PM, the sun starts to streak through the clouds, and Jo and I happen to be on Brady Road scouting locations when the light started to come thru the trees, we did a U-Turn and pulled off on a side road, parked the car, got the camera and tripod and walked back to a position looking down Brady Road. I had perfect light for about 10 minutes, just the right mix of clouds and filtered sunlight to keep details in both the shadows and highlights and no wind. Got what I needed.

Compositionally, the trees had to tell the story of what Mandarin was, the road and fence provided depth and a path for the viewer’s eye to follow. There was no wind so I was able to get details throughout the image using a stack of 5 images, each image taken at a different focal point, then combined in post-processing.

This image was picked as the background subject in the official 50th Anniversary Mandarin Art Festival poster and I was invited to exhibit my photography and to sign the art show poster for the Art Festival patrons.  A great weekend!

Canvas prints of the image used for the 50th Anniversary Mandarin Art Festival are available for purchase. They are not framed and can be framed later at a frame shop of your choosing. Your image is printed on a premium fine art giclee canvas with a luster laminate coating, plus 2 inches of blank canvas added to each side. It's delivered to you unmounted and rolled. Print size and prices; 

• 16" x 20" = $175
• 20” x 24” = $200   
• 24” x 30” = $250  
• 30” x 40” = $375  

If you would like a print, just send me an email: [email protected]