FALL COLOR ALONG THE WESTERN SLOPE

Fall color arrives between the first and second week in October in the high country of southwest Colorado. It is the time to get out and drive the Forest Service roads into the San Juan and Cimarron Mountains. This image was made just south of Montrose with the San Juan Range towering in the background
Left click on the image above to see the larger version.

GUNNISON RIVER ENTERING BLACK CANYON, COLORADO

This image was made near Cimarron, CO, and shows the Gunnison River entering the Black Canyon. The near vertical walls of the canyon tower to heights exceeding two thousand feet above the river below.

The Black Canyon of the Gunnison was designated a National Park during the Clinton administration.

By highway, the Park is about fifteen miles east of Montrose. As the crow flies, it is more like four.

FOOTHILLS OF THE APPALACHIANS

This is the general area where Jack's documentary of the Mountain People and a fast disappearing way of life in the Appalachians began in 1969



TO VIEW A LARGER IMAGE, LEFT CLICK ON THE PHOTOGRAPH

THUNDERHEAD OVER MT SNEFFELS 2011

AFTERNOON IN THE HIGH COUNTRY OF THE SAN JUAN'S

Mount Sneffels is located near Ridgway, Colorado, and this view might be obtained by taking a Forest Service road to about the nine thousand foot level.

From where we live, we can spot a number of fourteeners from our kitchen windows, and Mt. Sneffels is one of the more dominant peaks along the skyline.

This year the snow in the Colorado Rockies has been dramatic with a continual buildup of snow pack and little or no runoff because of cold weather and numerous storms coming across from the Pacific coast.

Rocky Mountain NP has been unable to open their Trail Ridge drive because of drifts exceeding twenty feet, and that means it will not be open during the Memorial Day weekend.

Even along the western slope, we are told that many of the forest service roads that I would normally take this time of year are still blocked by drifts at the higher altitudes.

The site where I made this exposure was open because it has been plowed numerous times to enable the home owners near the top of the ridge to come and go during the winter months.

MY FIRST CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPH circa 1947

The seeds for this collection of photographs took root during the late nineteen forties when I was growing up in a small rural farming community in south-central Virginia.

That was our screened-in porch in the background with the old concrete pump stand immediately to my left. And I still recognize the two dippers hanging on the post to the right of my head.

The pump was a cast iron long-handle job; ancient by today's stardards. But occasionally, I still see one in a Forest Service campground; many of which have not been updated since the fifties.

Detecting my keen interest in drawing and sketching, my mother handed over her old Brownie box camera (she and dad were both teachers). For whatever reason, she felt that I might be interested in photography. The camera was an early-teens relic by Eastman Kodak, and I jokingly referred to the lens as a leftover chip from a broken pop bottle. I took to it like red clay on a pickup truck. Eventually, I wore it out. I can still remember the day the leather-covered back fell off. I must have been about thirteen.

From this camera came a stream of 120-roll film negatives, which I used for making contact prints in the mid-forties. I worked on moonless nights in the back corner of an old wood shed with several wax-lined trays, assorted odds and ends, and a bit of primitive chemistry. The safe light was a single red bulb dangling from a high ceiling rafter.

This hands-on experience was my introduction to what would later become my fine art photography. The only remaining image from this era is the self-portrait that was made about 1947. Note the string that is being held behind my back with my left hand and runs across the foreground in front of my feet. From there it cut through a forked stick in the ground and connected to the shutter lever of the camera. The camera was mounted on an old wooden tripod. This was, perhaps, my first creative image.

My interest in photography later became a passion and it spread from the nearby Blue Ridge to the Allegheny Highlands; then north and south through the Shenandoah Valley and beyond. From these experiences came my images and tales about how I photographed the last of the mountain people and documented a way of life that was rapidly disappearing from the rural byways of the Appalachians.

In 1997 my wife and I moved west to satisfy a boyhood dream, and my camera was again focused on new landscapes from our first home in Wyoming and then from our final destination along the western slope of Colorado.

As you observe my images and read about some of my many experiences which took place over a period of more than sixty years, you will see how my childhood and early back-woods environment molded me into an artist, helping me to develop the themes of my life and to follow the trail established decades earlier.

My purpose in life has been my art. That is my legacy and gift to society and to future generations. If you are an ardent admirer of rural beauty and grass roots America at her finest, this is a documentary that will never grow old. Enjoy some of that beauty and dignity that still exists in this old world. Sit back, relax and reminisce.

Jack Jeffers

ASPEN GROVE SINKS CANYON WY

ASPEN GROVE IN SINKS CANYON NEAR LANDER, WYOMING ©1998

SILVER & OIL

Shortly after our move to Wyoming in 1997, I gravitated toward Mixed Media. I had practiced with oil paints back in Virginia, but I felt that the subject matter did not lend itself to transparent oils. However, the western landscape was a natural, and I made a series of hand-colored images. This was one of the first.

TO VIEW A LARGER IMAGE LEFT CLICK ON THE IMAGE. THIS APPLIES TO ALL IMAGES. THEN CLICK ON THE RETURN ARROW, UPPER LEFT CORNER OF MONITOR SCREEN.

PINE TREE ARCH UTAH 1999

PINE TREE ARCH ©1999

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK, UTAH

SILVER & OIL

SPLIT ROCK WYOMING 1998

SPLIT ROCK WYOMING ©1998
SILVER & OIL

This was one of my favorite rock studies because of the natural design and the boulder lead-in to the pinion pine in the background.

I revisited this spot last October (2010) and worked it over again with digital. The pine was reduced to a lot of broken pieces and the scene simply was not worth a second image.

A lightning strike may have put an end to the Pinion Pine. That happens frequently in this part of the country at the higher altitudes.

JACK JEFFERS; MONUMENT DRAW WY 1997 SILVER & OIL

MONUMENT DRAW
WYOMING OUTBACK ©1997
SILVER & OIL

We had not been in Wyoming very long before a local photographer offered to take me out to Monument Draw. He was what I would call a camera buff but very much interested in photography.

It's a good thing I went with him because it was definitely a four-wheel drive trip. The ride alone was worth the time, but when we got to the monuments I could hardly get my 2 1/4 out of the pack fast enough. The view of the Wind River Range in the background was stunning. But the erosional feature was the first of it's kind that I had ever seen.

The lighting was perfect and the sky was made for the scene. If you look closely, you will spot my guide in the background focusing his 4 x 5 in view camera. This silver image was the perfect candidate for oils. So, between the toning of the print and the layers of transparent oils, this trip turned out to be a winner. And that is what art is all about.

DESERT TRAIL WYOMING 2001

DESERT TRAIL ©2001
WYOMING OUTBACK ALONG BEAVER RIM.

This high 7,000 ft escarpment is located in central Wyoming, south of Riverton and is just one more fantastic area for an artist to explore.

This landscape has all the elements for a nice photograph and you have the trail as a lead-in for the eye. That is Dishpan Butte in the distance with a dark polarized sky in the background.

I also made a color image, but in my opinion, the toned silver image is far superior.

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK UTAH 2008

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK UTAH ©2008

This is a digital image that was converted from color to black and white. You cannot go wrong in this park if the lighting and sky are working for you, In this case, the polarized filter helped to darken the sky to the point where I had a well balanced image.

Moab is one of our favorite areas to visit.

To view a larger image, left click on the above photograph

COLUMBINE COLORADO STATE FLOWER 2010

COLUMBINE

COLORADO STATE FLOWER 2010

While I enjoy photographing flowers, I do not consider it to be my major forte when it comes to photography.

The major problem here in Colorado is the wind. If you have ever tried to capture a flower in a slight breeze you have likely experienced dispointment because you must often woek with a slow shudder speed in order to get the depth of fleld necessary. The columbine is found at high altitudes here in Colorado and there is often a movement of air.

I use an 18-200 mm lens because it gives me all the range I need, and I do not ever have to make a lens change. Dust on a digital sensor can cause major frustrations and the idea is to keep that sensor clean.

On this particular day, the breeze was intermittant, so I was able to capture this image rather easily, and I had a nice background that was dark enough to show detail while allowing the light flower to stand out on its own. The aspen tree immediately behind the flower was in just the right place.

With the zoom lens, I was able to set up my camera and tripod several paces back and frame the scene exactly the way I wanted it. After getting all the elements just the way I invisioned them, I used the ten second delay timer to do it's thing. I often use the timer because it will help reduce any slight vibration that might occur from having your finger on the release button.

Toward the end of this Blog, I show one more flower from back east. It is a bloodroot along the Blue Ridge Mountains and just off the Appalachian Trail. I had a group of photographers from the Camera Club of Richmond out on a field trip back in the early seventies and one of the demonstrations I gave was how to build a background for flowers without damaging the plant. You may enjoy the story behind that scene. I hate to see flowers that have been trampled on or otherwise damaged by careless hikers.

NATURE'S ABSTRACT - COLORADO 2008

This is view of the adobe hills near Montrose, Colorado.

On this trip, I was working with abstract designs and color patterns, and I found this site to be of great interest.

The same exact scene works equally well in black and white.

OLD JUNIPER TRUNKS COLORADO 2010

In this dry west-Colorado climate, you can stumble across a lot of interesting dead wood. This happens to be a couple of old Juniper trunks which have survived for decades. No telling how old the trees were before they died, but they caught my eye and I always have this gut feeling about design & composition.

If it looks good at first glance, chances are there's a good image lurking within the mass of old limbs and dead wood. I had this one figured out before I set up the tripod and camera.

There is one thing about being an artist that some people never get. You must practice and develope a feeling for what might look good and what may not. After a spell, you just listen to your gut. Perhaps the biggest mistake people often make with their photography is including too much in one image. Keep it simple and concentrate on what's in your direct field of vision.

I included a lot in this image, but it hangs together as a lovely abstract. I find it to be visually attractive. I went for maximum detail on this old wood, and I used a setting of about 1/25 at f18. And with a telephoto lens, I was able to set up several paces away from the subject and pull out what I mentally envisioned with the telephoto set at about 135mm. I also toned it just a pinch.

ADOBE HILL NEAR DELTA COLORADO 2010

This area of Colorado near Delta offers the artist all manner of stunning erosional features, and because of the varied shapes and sizes you can work in either color or black and white.

I chose black and white for this image and toned it just slightly. When I used to print from negatives I always used a sepia toner which combined sulfur with the silver and you could vary the degree of toning depending on your on personal feeling at a given time. Since this was a digital image, I worked with the three primary colors and tweaked it just a little bit. It was just enough to give it a feeling of warmth and I personally like that feeling.

The time of day to visit this area is important. You need strong shadows to give the finished image a strong abstract appearance. And I would strongly recommend fall or early spring because it can get unbearably hot during the summer months. About nine to eleven during the morning is my preference because at this time of year, the sun is already pretty low to the horizon. To me, this is one of those little gems which are scattered around Colorado.

Jack Jeffers explores COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT 2008

Colorado National Monument is located just a few miles west of Grand Junction and geologically, it is part of the Colorado Plateau.

This is an easy day trip, and I felt that a touch of snow would liven the image up a bit. The red rock against the snow did, indeed, improve the photograph.

This thirty-five mile route through the Monument is always a rare treat, and it reminds me, in many ways, of Canyonlands and Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. A tripod and a polarizing filter are highly recommended.

Before taking a field trip such as this, I always check out the area on Google Earth. By using this program, you can fly through the area and get a pretty good feel for the lay of the land in three dimensions. I strongly recommend it as a time and gas saver on long day trips. .

COTTONWOOD GROVE SW COLORADO 2008

Jack Jeffers - ASPEN GROVE COLORADO 2010

LAST DOLLAR ROAD NEAR THE SAN JUAN RANGE

This view of the aspen grove was made at the nine thousand foot level and all of the elements are in place. You have a nice foreground, middle ground and a striking background of dark blue sky.

The sky at high altitudes is darker than it is at lower levels, but I felt that the sky in this image could use a little extra darkening so on with the polarizer.

Notice the spacing of the dark brown patches of vegetation in the foreground. This adds another little touch to the composition.The finished image is about as close to being a perfect photograph as you can get, and I have always heard the experts say that there is no such thing as a perfect image. Well...that just depends on who is judging the finished image.

When I made the shift from film to digital, the actual process came naturally because I already knew the basics of the medium. What hung me up initially was learning how to use the computer. And then there was the processing program. I struggled with the computer for several months before I was comfortable with it.

I ended up purchasing Microsoft Digital Image 2006, and it was quite easy to walk my way through the various programs. A computer expert in the area recommended it as a great "starter" program. Heck, I am still using it five years later because it has everything I need plus more. It took me less than a day to figure out how to use most the various functions, and my philosophy has always been to keep it simple. And that applies to fine art work as well.

An engineering friend kept telling me how great Photoshop was, and that all the serious photographers used it. So, one day I broke down and dropped a hundred dollar bill on the counter and went home with Photoshop Elements 5. After one solid week of absolute total frustration, I took that program out of my computer and put the Microsoft back in. Enough was enough. I just wanted a simple program that had everything I needed. Nothing fancy!

As for RAW, I use the Nikon Picture Project 1.7. It too, is simple and easy to follow, and there are a few processing tools available for the user on page one. The Nikon program then channels your images directly into the Microsoft program with the conversion to tiff or jpeg already made. The simpler it is, the better I like it, and the results that I have obtained during the past few years vouch for the end results.

My objective was to obtain stock-art quality for the agency that handles my work, and my computer programs meet their quality standards.

I am from the old school, and I like to get the exposures right the first time. So why mess with Mother Nature. I have become a bit spoiled by the simplicity and accessability of the tools on my Microsoft program.cc

FALL COLOR IN THE ADOBE HILLS SW COLORADO

2008

When fall arrives in Montrose, CO, I am always ready to head out to the adobe hills. It offers all manner of photographic posibilities, and I am only two or three miles away by road.

This is a digital image of an old cottonwood tree and the clouds moved in and solved the blank sky problem. All the elements fell into place, and I returned home with some real nice color.

As you progress into my blog, you will discover many more images showing the stunning fall color in the San Juan Range to the south of us, and the Cimarron Range to the east.

Don't forget to left click on the image. It will bring up a larger and sharper one.

Jack Jeffers - THE GREAT DISMAL SWAMP 1970

The previous entry featured my daughter Hilary. This one will feature my son John.

Backpacking and canoeing used to be my primary activities and this trip to Lake Drummond went into the books as one of our best. Lake Drummond is located right dead center in the Dismal Swamp, and the ideal time to take a canoe trip into such a place is during the late fall when the leaves are changing and the mornings are crisp and comfortable. I have always had a difficult time with high temperatures and humidity, and that is one of the reasons I headed west following my early retirement.

Finding a dry place to camp in the swamp is always a bit of a problem, but we managed to find a spot to pitch our tent. I often slept in my old kayak when taking long trips with the Boy Scouts, but this time we roughed it on dry leaves and soft ground with a light plastic tarp to keep us dry. In those days my camera pack was fairly light and the kayak was the perfect means for maneuvering into places to make exposures.

This image of John just sorta happened. As I recall, fishing was poor to nil in that lake, but we gave it a try. We did catch a few perch along the entry canal and that provided us with at least one nice meal. John was standing out on that log along about dinner time and I could not resist making several exposures on a roll of Kodachrome. This was my choice of the lot, and that transparency is as good today as it was forty years ago.

Adventures such as this stick in your mind, and the image brings back fond memories from the old days.

I can remember another camping trip to Buggs Ialand Lake near Clarksville, VA, shortly after the lake was completed. I was crusing along with a double bladed paddle when I spotted a pretty good size snake out near the middle of the upper lake. At my present pace, we would likely come pretty close to one another. I pushed it a little harder just to see the critter a little better and I got to the crossing point first. That blasted snake darn near jumped into the kayak with me. He literally made a jump to get over the kayak, and I quickly pushed it off with the blade of the paddle. I never could tell exactly what kind of snake it was. It could have been a water snake or quite possibly a cotton mouth. They are both short tempered. I have heard that the cottonmouth might range inland that far, but who knows. It was another memorable moment on a beautiful trip up the lake.

To view a larger image, left click on the photograph

OLD RAG MOUNTAIN 1972

WHAT CONSTITUTES A FAVORITE?

In this case, the young girl sitting on a rock atop Old Rag Mountain turns this image into one of my most memorable.

The Skyline Drive weaves its way through the Shenandoah National Park in the background.

The youngster is my daughter and she must be about seven or eight, I would guess. She joined me on this day trip, and with walking sticks in hand, we hiked to the top of this beautiful mountain in northern Virginia. Hilary even had her small back pack, and I carried my old Yashica Mat two and a quarter camera. This was my first 2 1/4 camera, and it provided me with the art to produce my first book.

This image later appeared on the front cover of National Parks and Conservation Magazine. I believe that was the name at the time. It just seems like a long time ago. The edition of fifty originals sold out rapidly during several of my early art shows. It was an image that people could relate to.

In 1973, I published WINDOWS TO THE BLUE RIDGE, and the Washington Post picked up the story and ran a major feature on my documentary of the mountain people. That article resulted in a sell-out of the first four thousand books in one week. I then followed with a reprint of five thousand copies which lasted for about a year. I did not pay one thin dime for advertising. I had approached several publishers about taking on the project, but they all told me that a regional book like this would never sell. Well....go figure!

I recently noted that some of these early books are showing up on the Internet in used book stores.

To view a larger image of the above, left click on the image.

JACK JEFFERS MAJOR DONATION TO ASU

MOUNTAIN MAN

Mountain Man is one of over six hundred original silver prints that were recently donated to Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

This is the largest donation that I have ever made, and it represents the core of my Appalachian Project which covered a period of nearly forty years.

The objective was to keep the collection intact so that it could be enjoyed by future generations who will appreciate a documentary of bygone days throughout the Appalachians. The collection is noted for both it's historic and artistic merit.

It was a tough decision, but I chose ASU because of its location and their established programs relating to the Appalachian area as a whole.

The image of Mountain Man took one of the most satisfying awards of my career. It was the first fine art photograph to take a best in show in a multi-media art show. It happened in 1972, and I had to take on the art league single handed before they would allow what they considered an "unacceptable medium" to stand beside painters, sculptors and other media.

This win dramatically raised the acceptance level of fine art photography, but for me personally, it became a cause that supported my belief that a photograph was as much a work of fine art as other media.

Over the years, I continued to put my art where my mouth was, and I took many more best in shows before retiring from printmaking in 2005.

I was also one of the first fine art photographs to number my originals. Each image was signed, numbered and documented by me personally.

To view a larger image of Mountain Man, left click on the above image.