Shutterbugs

Featuring Marlin Harms

In this monthly feature some of our best local photographers share their passion for capturing beautiful and fascinating images. You will find more of their work on various photo sites, including Flickr, and in our own Great Shots section. This month Marlin Harms has been invited to talk about his interest in photography and to share some of his work with you.

Avocet Group and Reflections

Photography defines me as much as anything does. From the amount of time spent with a camera, to computer time, planning the next shoot, how friends and acquaintances know me—it's what I do. It wasn't always that way. After all, until recently I had a full-time job that wasn't photography.

Though I took photographs off and on for many years (I dabbled in a black-and-white darkroom 35 years ago), I became more serious in the mid-'90's. I remember being struck with an epiphany that I wrote in a notebook, "It's the light!" (As opposed to just the subject.)

After the Highway 41 Fire in 1994, I became a little more focused on the kind of photographer I would become as I was inspired to follow the natural recovery, especially of wildflowers, for over a year. In the late '90's and early 2000's, I was often busy photographing on weekends. My friendships with local wildlife photographers Dennis Sheridan and Rich Hansen—who had both been selling images for years—allowed me to learn some techniques.

White Pelican Group and Rock Pano

A few of my photographs were published, which encouraged me. In the '90's the late Richard Palmer, who recently passed at far too young an age, was editor of the Morro Bay Sun-Bulletin newspaper and frequently ran my "local color" photos on the cover of the paper's TV listing pullout. And in the early 2000's Dennis and I worked for two land conservancies—the local Morro Estuary Greenbelt Alliance and the nation-wide Trust for Public Land. I also sold photos to the American Land Conservancy for its efforts to purchase what is now called the Fiscalini Ranch in Cambria. Those land conservancy projects remain some of my most satisfying photographic efforts, especially since so many of the land conservation efforts were successful.

Also enormously gratifying was being a cog in the creation of the book, Wildflowers of San Luis Obispo, California, in which I have many photos. (The book was the work of a committee, mostly members of the local California Native Plant Society chapter.)

Digital revolutionized photography for me as well as the rest of the world. Besides the software editing opportunities, smaller sensors (compared to a frame of 35mm film) made existing lenses more magnifying. It made possible the proximity needed to take bird photos, especially with the addition of a slightly stronger (and higher quality) lens. And, at the other extreme, it made close-ups more magnified. I have used this advantage, especially in photographing wildflowers and tide pool creatures. In the last four years I have used my telephoto lens and my macro each more than my "normal" lens.

But equally life-changing for my photography has been on-line access. A photo-sharing site named "Flickr" allows me to show my photos to others and allows me to look at work of anyone I can find. Flickr is about showing more than selling. Mike Baird began Photomorrobay, a local group of photographers who share on-line via a Flickr site as well as occasionally getting together. And the site of the SLO Camera Club is one I check frequently because I know so many of the group. But besides the locals, Flickr is world-wide, so I can see or be seen around the world. I believe this opportunity to immerse in photography helps hone a realization of the wide realm of photographic possibilities. And there is also a world of instruction on-line, my current favorite being Arthur Morris's Birds as Art.

While photography is usually not a team sport—and I really do a lot of photography alone—I have had inspiring associations with other photographers. Dennis Sheridan, my most frequent photo companion, continues to challenge me—as well as himself—to "think outside the box" and to make "the world's best photo" of whatever our subject is. I have also enjoyed camaraderie afield with Bill Bouton and Don Quintana, as well as learning from their techniques and perspectives. (Bill leads by example on the after-shoot processing.)

On a wider scale, for years I have met with the Central Coast Photographic Society and more recently the spirited membership of the SLO Camera Club. My wife, Connie, who is aware of my addiction, more than just being tolerant, is an advocate for my photography.

Being an outdoor photographer, I have an enormous gratitude for natural light. On sunny mornings I often find myself by the edge of the bay, alternately looking for birds and being mesmerized by the light. This appreciation of light has been brought to mind frequently while my friend, fellow photographer Don Henderson, has undergone medical issues with an eye, which drastically reduced his sight for months.

As a birder and wildflower lover, I also have a huge respect for the many facets and intricacies of natural history. I love when a friend points out a tide pool animal I have never seen or some aspect of a wildflower's anatomy that has previously escaped my eye. I often accompany my photos on Flickr with a brief description, using my education and interest in biology to describe an animal or behavior or detail of a flower, hoping to inspire others to look a little closer into the natural world around them.

We each try to improve our game, whatever it is. Recently my efforts center on trying to make photos simpler, less cluttered compositions. Yet compositions.

All Photographs by Marlin Harms - Visit Marlin's Flickr Pages
Monarch Butterfly on Banner by Mike Baird