From now until June 26 the Auburn Avenue Theater gallery will showcase the photography of Auburn residents Linda Hatcher, Jay Galvin and Dan Wright.
Presented by the Auburn Arts Commission and the Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation department, the show weaves together the work of a trio of local artists, featuring their shared love a nature photography.
For Jay Galvin, 59, an Auburn resident since 1981, the show is a chance to share his passion.
“What really gives me the passion to shoot is finding little pockets of nature in South King County,” he said. “I’ve always had an affinity for nature and we live in such a beautiful area. Even with our encroachment there is still a lot of wildlife in the valley. There are a lot of animals living right next door and we might not even know it.”
Galvin said that patience is the key to capturing wildlife in their habitat.
“I just find the place that will give the best opportunity and go there as much as I can,” he said. “I try to blend in. I walk very slowly through an area and I’ll walk it again and often see things that were right in front of me that I didn’t notice the first time.”
Galvin said he first got serious about photography four years ago.
“I’ve always had an artistic bent but no outlet until I started taking photographs. I started late in life to do something artistic, but you can ask my friends and family, I’ve definitely got the camera bug now,” he said.
Although he has dabbled in film, Galvin added that he prefers to shoot in digital.
“You can shoot all day long and it won’t cost an arm and leg to develop,” he said. “And digital quality is just as good as film now with the high-end cameras.”
Galvin, who will be featured in shows at Kent Cornucopia Days this summer and at the Knutsen Family Theater in Federal Way in the fall, said he hopes to have a Web site dedicated to selling reprints of his work up by the end of the year
For Auburn High School graduate Dan Wright, 39, photography has been an obsession that has lasted more than two decades.
While still in high school Wright said he began dabbling in photography while on vacation.
“I found a camera on a camping trip,” he said. “I wanted to learn how to use it and went from there. It took awhile to get serious about it. I was curious about it at first, but as I went along I just wanted to learn more and more about it.”
Wright said he chooses to focus his lens on nature to share the beauty he sees when out and about in the Pacific Northwest.
“I just like to catch the beauty of God’s creation on film,” he said. “I’ve always been into nature.”
Formerly, Wright said he worked exclusively shooting slide film because of their greater capacity to illustrate the colors of nature.
Now, however, he has begun to shoot in digital also.
“I do both now,” he said. “In the last year I got my first digital camera. I’m still learning digital. I’ve always worked slide film for the quality and clarity.”
For Hatcher the move to digital also proved instrumental, moving her from the ranks of amateur to professional shooter.
“I’ve been taking photos since before I was a teenager, but the digital photos I’ve been doing about 10 years now.”
According to Hatcher most of her early work consisted of shots taken for fun while on vacation with her late husband.
But 10 years ago when she upgraded to digital, she said she became a little more serious about her photography.
“For me with the camera, it’s easier,” Hatcher said. “You’ve got your auto-focus, everything is automatic if you want it to be. The picture quality is so much better than with the old 35 mm. I can enlarge my pictures to over 13 inches long.”
Hatcher said the ability to enlarge her work makes it easier for her to frame and mat her work to sell.
“I do the prints and make blank greeting cards and calendars,” she said.
For subject matter, Hatcher said she lets her surroundings speak to her.
“For me when I take them it’s my instinct and feeling I really don’t think about it too much when I take a photo,” she said. “I’ve taken pictures of mushrooms and snails and flowers. Just about everything, whatever catches my eye.”
Hatcher added that she hopes that people garner an appreciation for beauty everywhere when they look at her photos.
“There is a lot of beauty everywhere, whether it’s a waterfall or a simple mushroom down there on the ground,” she said. “Hopefully it will help people open their eyes to what is around them.”
For Wright and Galvin, the exhibit, like their work, is a chance to share their appreciation of the beauty of nature.
“I want people to appreciate natural beauty as much as I do,” Wright said.
“I’m just hopefully helping to inspire an appreciation for the nature that still surrounds us and is still here,” Galvin added.
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THE ARTISTS
The photography exhibit will be on display until June 26 at the Auburn Avenue Theater at 10 Auburn Ave.
Dan Wright’s photography can also be viewed and purchased at www.danwrightphotography.com.
Linda Hatcher will also be featured in Enumclaw’s Art in the Garden on Aug. 1 and 2 at Cathy Matson’s Country Garden Bouquets at 46620 228th Ave. S.E. in Enumclaw.
Jay Galvin’s art will be displayed this summer at the Kent Cornucopia Days and this fall at the Knutsen Family Theater in Federal Way.
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THE EXHIBIT
• What:
• When: Now-June 26, hours vary
• Where: Auburn Avenue Theater, 10 Auburn Ave.
