HLJ Photography
| Contact: Heather L. Wells |
| 6406 SE 77th Avenue |
| Portland, Oregon 97206 |
| Website: www.hljphotography.com |
| Contact HLJ Photography via e-mail |
I was born and raised in Oregon and have been doing photography for over fifteen years. I received an art education at the Central Oregon Community College earning an A.A. in Art and then a fine arts education at the Pacific Northwest College of Art earning a B.F.A. in Photography.
My work is an ongoing exercise in exploring the beauty of life and the rivers of Oregon. Primarily I am interested in the relationship between light and water and the infinite number of colors it can reflect from its surroundings. I hope the viewer is left with a certain emotional or sensual response from seeing my work. If it’s successful, the viewer will feel it.
My tools are relatively simple, natural light, tripod, and camera and color film. I use Fuji film for its unsurpassed sharpness and color saturation. My exposures range from one sixtieth of a second to two seconds, the average being about one second.
Since August of 2007 I have been experimenting with using my digital Nikon D50. The results have been very satisfying and colorful, especially the images of the Wilson River, in the Tillamook Forest. Selected images have been professionally printed on metallic paper which has a glossy finish and metallic appearance that creates an image with exceptional visual interest and depth.
The attraction to rivers, the rhythms of colors that it reflects from its surroundings and the moods it creates are the foundations of my photography. I feel that photographing water is the best way to express my life and feelings. My photographs are the truest expressions of my mind. They are created through pleasure, pain, and the raw experiences of emotions, obsession, love and lust.
My photographs capture more than the subject but an emotional essence of the scene. I desire not only to capture the beauty of what I see, but also to add some aspect of myself and to share my distinct point of view with others.
The colors in the rivers are always changing, life is always changing and so am I.
