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| 11/17/2005 7:00:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Creativity featured at annual arts fare
ST. PETER — The Arts Center of St. Peter is hosting its Annual Holiday Fare on Saturday and Sunday at the St. Peter Community Center.
Saturday’s hours are 10 a.m to 5 p.m; Sunday is noon to 4 p.m.
St. Peter photographer Jon Smithers is among several artists displaying work.
Smithers in October received word he won a contest that meant his photograph of an eagle will appear on the cover of the 2006 Red Wing Visitors Guide. More than 70,000 copies of the guide, which promotes the Red Wing area, are distributed to travel information centers, the Mall of America and upon request throughout the country.
The eagle is the first photograph Smithers has put onto canvass. He has named it “2006 Red Wing Commemorative Print”
Smithers explained the photograph was taken near Red Wing at about 10:30 a.m. on March 25.
“There were lots of eagles in the area fishing the backwaters of the Mississippi River. This adult was teaching some younger ones how to fish and was coming around just after missing a fish on purpose. It truly is awesome to see eagles and their way of living at that time of year. It's really the only time they group together and interact with each other in this manner.”
Smithers has lived in St. Peter for 27 years and used to own a computer store downtown called Better Micro Solutions. He now runs that business from his home, repairing computers and consulting. He also has expanded in to web site design and hosting.
His interest in photography is fueled from several sources.
“My dad got my interest when I was growing up and then my wife re-inspired my interest. Then a friend of mine and I were in a heated battle of the digital cameras and who had the best one. Well, he gave up a long time ago and I kept going. I started taking really good photos about three years ago when I saw a pelican flying south on the river towards me and I got what I thought at the time was a great photo. But that camera and the lens did not have enough versatility and has a lot of noise in the picture, like using a very high ISO film. So I advanced to a digital camera that I could attach better lens' to and have progressed from there. Then one day I saw a pair of eagles perched in a tree across the river from Kasota in November of 2003. I raised my camera and one of them lifted off and flew towards me and I took the best shot of an eagle I still cherish today. This picture really drove my passion for getting the best eagle pictures I could possibly get. My favorite and most popular eagle shots have been taken in the St. Peter area. My favorite photo I have is a side profile shot of a female eagle from St. Peter sitting about 150 feet from me that I took in February of 2004. Just 2 months before on December, 30th I got pictures of both eagles eating a couple of soft shell turtles. I have never experienced anything like that before or since at anytime of the year.”
Smithers said he highly respects photographers Craig Blacklock, Ansel Adams and Jim Brandenburg. “But you still have to have something in you to get the good shots. It takes a lot of practice, patience and a lot of mistakes to come up with good wildlife and nature photos.”
Eagles can found anywhere there is water and especially large rivers, Smithers said. “Sometimes you have to really look hard to see them perched in a tree. Their nature is to fly away. I have only been studying them for about two years and found they are very un predictable.”
Smithers said, “Eagles to me really does spell freedom. No other animal in the world can travel and live with as much freedom as they can. I named a pair that I follow, Freedom and Liberty. His mane is Freedom and is banded, her name is Liberty and she is not banded.”
When asked if eagle photography takes patience, anticipation and precision, Smithers responded, “patience because they are always at a distance or not in a good place to photograph them. Anticipation because of the first answer, and you try to put yourself where you can to get a good when they move to another spot. Precision, because of the focal length you have to shoot at puts you way out there so it is like trying to aim a 40 foot tube at a moving target. I almost never take a tripod with me when I go to photograph wildlife. You absolutely cannot take a photograph of a moving object with a tripod.
Smithers said digital photography has really helped him up the photography learning curve. “Every time you take a picture with a good digital camera it records every aspect of the picture taken, including exposure time, f-stop and other information. It also allows you to change ISO on the fly to shutter speed up for those action shots. A really good digital camera is much better than a good film camera. I know there are a few diehard film people out there and they just have not been properly introduced to digital yet.”
Smithers will have his booth set up at the Holiday Art Fare.
His first canvas — 2006 Red Wing Commemorative eagle photograph — will be displayed. It is No. 1 of 450 limited prints and is a 20-inch-by-30-inch canvas.
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