Action in Nature Photo Show

At A Glance
What: 30th annual Bob Ross Open Invitational Nature Photography Show
Where: Forum Building 105 at Linn-Benton Community College
When: Friday, November 13th, 2009
Why: An event for local nature photographers to show off their recent work, as well as anyone else interested in viewing the pictures.

The large auditorium was pitch black, with only the reflection of the bright images cast on the audience to reveal the look of awe on their faces. A variety of “action” themed photographs had the audience gasping in amazement at this year’s Bob Ross Open Invitational Nature Photo Show at Linn-Benton Community College.

Friday, Nov. 13th marked the day of the annual Photo show, where photographers from around the Willamette Valley area came together to show off their nature shots in the Forum Building at LBCC. Each photographer was asked to bring no more than 20 digital photographs, without heavy manipulation or significant editing. A website with information on the show stated, the point was to show off the “elegance of nature ‘in the raw’.”

The show began around 7 p.m. with Bob Ross on stage flipping through the many slides submitted by each photographer. Each photographer gave a short explanation on the pictures as they appeared on the stage. There seemed to be a personal theme within each photographers work applying to the overall theme of action.

Some, like Mike Sullivan who had a lot of pictures of rivers and waterfalls, captured action in their pictures by using actual motion. Other’s used animals to capture action in nature.

Sherry Haywood’s pictures were all taken in the northern tip of South Africa. When talking about her pictures taken of elephants, wild hogs, giraffes, and more Haywood said, “We were in a safari car only about 30 feet from the actual animals.” Haywood also had a few photographs of the unreal African sunsets.

“I really enjoyed getting the chance to see some awesome pictures by local people,” said LBCC student Haley Cobb. “It was great to see photographs from around the world that they took for their own personal enjoyment. I’m interested in photography, so the show was very inspiring for me,” said Cobb.

Like Haywood, Ellen Hamill used animals to capture action in nature. Her photographs were all of dogs on the beach. She gave a short synopsis of each dog, and titled the pieces “confronting the wind”.

A few photographers felt the need to go into detail about the subject they photographed. Giving a detailed explanation of how and where each exotic plant and flower grows, Bredan Marsh had many pictures taken around volcanoes.

“A few of the pictures were interesting,” Cobb said, “but after hearing about each and every plant I started to get a little bored”.

The photographers were given the opportunity to display their works for anyone to see, and as the crowd "ooed" and "awed", it's safe to say the show was a success.

For any questions on the show, or information on how to sign yourself up for next years, email Ross at Rosspix@comcast.net.