Rich Collins
Welcome to the Artists Blog !!

1stAngel: When did you first become interested in art?
Rich: I can recall at age 5 1/2 moving onto a farm and for the first few months I was being surrounded by fence building, barn building, adding horses, cows, chickens, pigs you name it we were making a farm. Only I wasn’t old enough, big enough to help. It was this exposure I think which caused me to want to recreate it by drawing rough, rather jagged looking pencil sketches. I wanted to be a part of this great world-shaking event.1stAngel: What style of art do you use most?
Rich: This idea of style is being recreated in me constantly. I don’t particularly like settling on a rigid style as it is the fluidity of subjects and styles which I find most appealing, be it in simply viewing nature, people, still life or working on new techniques in fine art or digital art. However I will say that when it comes to capturing Mother Nature I tend toward “Saturated Accuracy”, if you will.

Iron Creek below Iron Creek Falls

1stAngel: Has your style changed from when you first began as an artist?
Rich: I think it has gone through a multitude of changes.

White Gladiola

1stAngel: What medium do you use?
Rich: I currently use 30D and 5D bodies and about 3 of my lenses the most: 17-40mm F4L, 70-200mm F2.8L IS & 100mm F2L. The application is PSCS2 or Photo Shop 9

1stAngel: What made you choose that medium?
Rich: When I first started shooting as a child a Kodak Brownie took me to worlds unexplored such as spider webs with or without moisture or frost, grasshoppers and dragon flies, but much of my shooting involved only parts of objects, such as the lower 1/3 of a Case tractor grille or just a spring on a multi-parts hay rake implement. So many of these didn’t turn out, as Brownie’s aren’t known for their Depth-of-Field focus, that I knew I needed something better. It was an Uncle of mine who gave me an Instamatic which helped a lot. It was able to focus much better. As time went by I eventually graduated to a German made Voigtlander Vitessa 35mm film body. From there it was an easy transition to digital.

Pink Tulips

1stAngel: Do your ideas come from life or imagination?
Rich: I am sometimes able to plan a shoot such as the best shot I have of Mt St Helen’s. It took many many tries. But most often I will just pack it up and drive until I feel like stopping, head out into a field, a RR track, a park or a riparian trail and it just happens.

Natures Lichen

1stAngel: How do you choose your images and colours?
Rich: If by this you mean in planning a picture, it is most often by memory of a scene I want to capture with the very best light, contrast and depth regardless of the actual colors. I want intensity in nature moderated only by accuracy.

White Oak in Fog

1stAngel: Who is your favourite artist?
Rich: I always shy away from this question because I tend to offer only the best-known names, Ansel Adams for his brilliant B&W film capture, George Lepp for intense reality, Richard Warren for sensuality uncompared and of course Jim Zuckerman. It is less the talent I envy these over-the-top photogs for than the ability to finance their world travels and extended journeys. I’d be willing to bet many of us at IK could capture some really terrific fine art images if only we had the resources, and in saying that I mean most of these men have used at one time or another not only FF (Full Frame Sensor) cameras, but Medium Format and Zeiss lens’s. It is the access as well as the equipment. Beyond that given both I truly believe great fine art is but a matter of time and attention to details.

1stAngel: What is your favourite piece of work by yourself?
Rich: That’s hard to choose. I suppose if you had asked me for my top ten it would have been much easier, but my ‘Mt St Helens A Looming Storm’ would have to rank if not at the top, right up there.

St Helens A Looming Storm

1stAngel: How much time (on average) does it take to complete a work?
Rich: Some go so fast I can’t believe it, others I agonize over for days. My most recent which I haven’t yet uploaded is a sunset I caught just a short distance from my home and I don’t think I spent 5 minutes with a bit of saturation and removing a Powerline. Yet it is as powerful an image as I have seen.

1stAngel: How well do you take criticism?
Rich: It’s been said a million times “I am my own harshest critic”. I doubt anyone could pressure me more than myself to fret over details before, during and after a shoot. And I still am seldom happy with just the capture. But overall in the context of general critique I don’t listen as well unless I have seen their work and consider the one critiquing my work, very, very good in their own right.

1stAngel: What do you do to overcome a ‘block’?
Rich: I used to have these when I wrote, both fiction and non-fiction, but I have too many image files needing work to allow for a creative block.

1stAngel: How do you know something is ‘finished’? Is it easy to walk away?
Rich: That’s like taking a walk about nature and deciding to go home or leaving from a camping trip on Wednesday rather than Friday. You don’t really want to but at some point one has to accept it as it is. I doubt I could find a single image I am wholly satisfied with so unless I am to be gifted another life span, I am forced to move on.

1stAngel: Have you had exhibits in galleries?
Rich: No I am only in the beginning stages of really looking at my work as professional and as such have only been a legal business entity since this past Fall as Rich Collins Photography.

1stAngel: Have you any exhibits in galleries planned for the future?
Rich: I mentioned this in a forum discussion but didn’t give details as it is not in a Gallery, but a local Mom and Daughter shop where they have begun the transition from a produce venue to a local artist venue.

I stopped by over a year ago and the reception was luke warm. After 6 months went by I could tell something was changing. When a year passed and I brought in some of my 8×10’s, they informed me that they were changing the whole store over to an art and craft shop. Within they will have only local photography and paintings among other artsy folksy items I am not clear on yet. But in time I hope to have even larger prints.

This will happen the first of May 2008.

Because the area surrounding is full of upper middle class residents and I am only 1/2 mile away this might work out well for me.

1stAngel: What has been the best part of your work?
Rich: I must say that planning a photograph is busy work, capturing it is always a satisfying part, perfecting it is very gratifying, printing it is at the height of satisfaction, but when all is said and done, and someone looks at one of my prints and says “Wow, that’s gorgeous”, that’s the best part of my work.

1stAngel: What are your plans for the future?
Rich: I have a Matte & Framer who is interested in taking a portfolio of printed 8×10″ prints around with her to shows, gallery openings and sales calls she makes more on behalf of some of us local artists as well as herself, as she does basically the same thing that IK does, in making her income from the matte & frame sales. The Hilton chain is one of her clients but they are very hard to deal with she tells me. So it will be a partnering arrangement.

Since I am a long-time employee of a National Park and our area has a number of Historic buildings and structures this too affords me the opportunity to create Historic photos of local interest.

Then farther out once I retire in 4 years I’ll be set free to roam as I choose and that I think is when my fine art work will really begin.

Thank you Rich for allowing me the interview. Amazing colours and images in your work. I wish you all the luck with the local venue and the galleries!

You can view Rich’s gallery HERE