San Diego County Fair, Del Mar - Photography Exhibit 2012

This year was my first entry at the Del Mar Fair photo competition.  The process started in February, as I began matching some of my new Rock abstracts with the various entry categories.  The one that excited me most was the theme this year, "Out of this World."

Recently, I had found a rock from Namibia, South Africa.  It was a Pietersite specimen - organic in shape, polished, maybe 2in x 1in x .5in in size.  What interested me about the composition of the rock was the area where the blues and golds collided.  There was a sense of duality and clash that was very powerful for me.  I had seen it long before I ever got behind the camera.

Revelations by Ryan Montgomery

I took the shot using cross-polarized light - a technique I learned from Bill Atkinson - which gives an incredible since of depth to the image.  I used 2 LED lamps, linear polarizing film, and a digital circular polarizer (set 90 degrees to the polarized LED light) attached to my older 90mm 2.5 Vivitar Macro lens (OM mount), finally mounted to my Canon 5d mark ii.

While I was very pleased with the final digital image, it took me several combinations of print materials before I finally arrived at the combination I submitted for the fair.  My favorite was the Fuji Supergloss printed on the Chromira by West Coast Imaging.  The paper has an almost "wet" look to it.  Some people explain that it looks like glass.

When I arrived at the artist reception, June 7th 2012, I was in a simple state of joy, finding my photo titled Revelations, right in front of me.  It was positioned at eye-level, in the very center of the exhibit, just inside the entrance from the south stairway.  It had earned the first place blue ribbon for the theme category, Out of this World.  My aspirations for the contest had been reached.  The photo now has a chance to be seen by the thousands of people who will enter the exhibit this year, and perhaps there will be others who enjoy the photo as much as I have.

I owe a great deal of thanks to Jeremy Kidd, a photographer based in Los Angeles, CA, who spent the day with me a couple years ago, inspiring me to focus on my mission as a photographer.  I also owe a great deal of thanks to Sue Linder, who showed me the appreciation, reaction, thought and interaction these types of photographs could inspire.  To David Vince, the owner of South American Imports, whose friendship and trust allowed me to learn most everything I needed - about the rocks and compositions - that led to this photograph.  And to my family, who reminds me of the potential everyone of us have inside, and the value of support in helping us realize what we set out to do.

Feel free to browse my site, ThePhotoBus.com, for more images and to purchase prints.  If there is a particular size you are looking for that is not available to purchase online, contact me at ryan@thephotobus.com

Cheers,
Ryan