Weldon Lee presents “Wildlife Photography: My Art & My Life” on Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 7pm, Lone Tree Civic Center.
Arrive 15 minutes early for social time, to visit with your fellow club members and meet some new folks. The program is 7pm – 9pm.
The following definition of art by Edgar Allen Poe, not only sums up my feelings about art, it also provides a clue on where I am today in my pursuit of wildlife photography.
“Were I called on to define, very briefly, the term Art, I should call it the reproduction of what the Senses perceive in Nature through the veil of the soul.” – Edgar Allen Poe
Photographs as they come out of a camera, assuming they’ve gone through the essential steps of post-processing – tonality, color balance, dodging/burning, etc. – can be awesome. However, I’m also drawn to images that that go a step, or two, beyond reality.
For years, I never knew why. Then one day it dawned on me. When they come out of the camera, they all look alike. Sure, some are head and shoulders above others, but they’re all reproductions of what we see in the real world. That’s fine; actually, I love them. However, I was craving something different.
I wanted to create work that captured what I saw and felt when I looked through my camera’s viewfinder into the eyes of my subject. My journey for the extraordinary has taken me through many styles and techniques to where I am today.
Not only will I share that journey with you during my presentation, you’ll also learn how I transform images of my wild brothers and sisters into art that I call photographic realism, with a touch of impressionism; images that look more like paintings than photographs.
Wildlife Photography by Weldon Lee
About Weldon Lee:
With a career spanning over half a century, my pursuit of wildlife has taken me around the globe to many of the world’s most exotic wildlife destinations.
My work has been exhibited in the Denver Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. A University of Northern Iowa photography professor once ranked me among the top five wildlife photographers in North America.
My early work focused on wildlife in the Rocky Mountains. My first book, Watchable Birds of the Rocky Mountains, contains over 50 photographs depicting a cross-section of avian species found throughout the Rocky Mountains. Erwin and Peggy Bauer, friends and lifelong wildlife photographers, had this to say about my second book: “No region of North America offers so many opportunities for wildlife photographers as the Rocky Mountains. No one has ever described its wildlife and captured their natural beauty so thoroughly as Weldon Lee in A Guide to Photographing Rocky Mountain Wildlife.” Additional books by me include Bears of North America and my latest, Rocky Mountain Wildlife.
My work has appeared in numerous magazines including Mature Outlook, National Wildlife, Backpacker, National Parks Magazine, Bird Watcher’s Digest, Outdoor Photographer, and Petersen’s PHOTOgraphic. I am also one of the editors of Nature Photographer magazine, where my images and articles frequently appear, serving in that capacity since 2001. My work also illustrates text and natural history books by assorted publishers. In addition, my photographs have been featured on all the major television networks including ABC, CBS, and NBC. Many remember my weekly column, Along the Trail, that ran seven years in the Estes Park Trail Gazette.
In January, 1995, I was elected Chair of the Education Committee of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) and served three years in that capacity. In addition to being a charter NANPA member, I am also a member of Rocky Mountain Outdoor Writers & Photographers and in 2007 received that organization’s Selected Works Award for Excellence in Photography. The American Bald Eagle Foundation honored me as the 2010 Photographer of the Year.
I am actively involved in wildlife preservation. In 2016, my wife, Lori Huff, and I founded MISSION: New Earth, a 501(c)(3) organization. Our mission is to help children create a new earth, where it is no longer necessary to save wildlife; a world where wildlife can live in peace and harmony as originally planned. If you would like to help MISSION: New Earth, we need Board members and volunteers!
