January

" 'Patio', Mykonos, Greece"

"I owed $20 for my sparse room at the 'youth hostel' - the Visa was maxed, and the ATM's weren't working! But the Lord says, "Don't worry, be happy, (my paraphrase) I'll take care of you!" So I continued working, wondering how He'd do it this time!?

"Are you a commercial photographer?" an older man asked as I worked a scene later that day. Did I need a permit? He's not dressed like the police. "Do you need one?" I instantly inquired. "Yes," he replied, "come to the Hotel Belvadere after 11p.m.." Later, asking for directions, no one had heard of it - was he for real? Finally, I found it- the most beautiful new four star hotel overlooking the city! "That's too much," he'd said the next day after thinking over my unusually low price. "Let's trade then, room and board for 10 days," I heard myself blurt out! "Ok," he agreed after consulting the wife. Wow, a $200 a night luxury suite, breakfast, lunch and dinner included in their plush restaurant- steak, lobster, etc.! I checked out of the hostel, the ATM started working, and I thanked and paid my previous host. Captured this new 'best seller' the day before leaving the island. Thank you Lord!"
MS

Sponsored by Mr. and Mrs.
Douglas Allred

February

"Dizzily I stare down from the bridge that I've chosen to explore the islands belly-button, while warm breezes toss plumaria laden air to and fro under my feet and through my senses. There seem to be more beautiful valleys on the Big Island than there are whales eyeing them off in the distance as they circle the islands as steadily as hands on a clock. One never knows what wonder excitedly awaits attention. I park off the bridges and walk back along them all, peering down with the excitement of a young boy viewing an unknown world through a microscope for the first time!

Gossamer waters descend from angels baths and dance their way under and through the African Tulip trees. They sometimes dive gracefully from small cliffs, hesitating for a split second in mid-air, basking momentarily in the hot sun, and then run off again lazily through the brush on their mysterious journey that leads them to where dolphins play. I capture the moment with a 250mm telephoto on my 'medium format' Hasselblad camera (equal to about a 125mm on a 35mm camera), so I can get closer (zoom in) to the most interesting parts of the scene."
MS

March

"My eyes were getting sore from having to shove them back into my awestruck face as there were so many wondrous scenes on this trip. Excitement! That is how I spell the 'Four Corners' area of the United States. As diverse as any in the world. I could spend a lifetime working there - many have. This spot nestled in between the many state and national parks which blanket the area. Blessed to have a job where I'm often 'working' in the middle of God's country, be it in the U.S. or elsewhere, I try not to take these scenes, or my job, for granted.

The serene atmosphere/change of pace is needed for one's soul. In my case I'm so busy promoting, printing and selling my art that when I do go out on a trip to create that I get excessively happy, like Patch Adams at graduation time. The only complaint I receive from my collectors is funny. They say that after hanging a few of my pieces they find it hard to get their visitors to sit down and talk to them, they keep looking at the art asking all kinds of question. Are these painting? Airbrush? Multiple exposures? No, they are all straight photos. Some display my new 4 by 5 foot ones, the size BEFORE framing!"
MS

Click on photos to enlarge.

Note: Each image is available as an 13.5"x13.5" reproduction,
besides an original in varying sizes, signed & titled
by Michael Seewald.  Go to order page.

April

"As I wake listening to the whirring sound of the playing cards hitting the spokes on my bike I slowly realize it's really the sound of rain hitting our hotel window. The strange surroundings alert me to the fact that I'm no longer a kid and that we were are, once again, on another photographic adventure. As I looked around our warm, expansive B&B room located in the heart of the old northern coastal city of San Sebastian, the bed whispers "stay and keep dry". And seeing the cold, rainy, gray November day thoughts of endless snuggling dancing in our heads.

I reminded my lovely wife/assistant Valerie that a dozen people have trusted/paid us to create a great piece of photographic art for them! This lone fact gently prods us out of bed and into our rain gear, still damp from the previous days trudging. An hour later, the discovery of this scene warms my being more than the double cappuccino I'd just had with my morning croissant. Misty light sprinkles over the scene like the gently rain now falling around us, softly mixing with the stall lights, making for a surreal scene. My usual long time-lapse exposure further enhances the effect, creating my 'blurred people'. Surprisingly, many gallery visitors ask "did you plan that!?"

MS
 

Sponsored by
Mr & Mrs Michael Kewin

May

"Songs of love in an unknown language reverberate down lonely canal alleys as I drink up scenes, one after another, trying to differentiate the taste of great ones from good ones. I stumble upon, due to deductive reasoning, what seemed to be a freshly cleaned and closed fish market. I discern this for certain strong, smelly reasons. Damp flooring greedily grabs and holds onto light spilt from lanterns above. The drainage system waits patiently as the monochromatic light will not follow the water down through the little holes in the metal grating until the floor loosens it's grip, and all the while arches slowly hop-scotch their way around the entire scene now that no one is around to see them play.

I counted to myself the elongated seconds necessary to make the exposure, "one thousand and one, one thousand and two…" all the while praying no one would come around the corner and scare the group of flighty elements away,… "one thousand and ten. There, got it. Thank you Lord!"

MS
 

Sponsored by John Patterson

June

"Plowing through a deep, warm, clean white sand on a secluded beach with my bare-feet, I listened to the rhythmic explosions of the ocean breakers off in the distance at a place aptly named 'cannons beach'. The tantalizing sounds were delivered via a salty breeze that had help usher them in from somewhere even more exotic and further away. Thinking I was seduced, which I was, the sea accidentally let down her guard, and I saw one of her well kept secret phenomenon's. As the breakers raced up and over a ridge playing 'who can run and jump the farthest', they 'floated' momentarily, like a trapeze artist hesitates at the top of his swing.

I hurriedly set up to catch them at play and noticed an annoying emptiness in the sky in the upper right part of my composition. I acted unconcerned as I waited patiently for a cloud to saunter into the scene I'd noticed off in the distance, completing the piece of art to perfection. But she was not happy, and as I worked she sent one wave up higher than the rest, necessitating me to thrust the tripod, camera perched on top unaware, towards the heavens protecting all from her deadly salt water. Just in time I'd avoided disaster. My short pants and camera jacket dripped with water, but I had captured the effect I'd wanted. As I happily retreated with the pearl she'd accidentally given me, I heard her excited laugh like a little girl who had just played a joke on her best friend. "

MS
 

Un-sponsored image.

July

"Waking and peering out the windshield of the rental car I'd picked up the night before at the Boston airport, I thought I must of died and went to heaven. The fog shrouded Maine harbor, filled with fishing boasts and men preparing them for their winter naps, was lined by trees so colorful I'd thought a kindergartner must of recently colored them. Valerie could not travel with me for my first trip to New England so every night I'd call and try to translate the visual imagery. "Boston looks like Europe and Maine has quaint old fishing harbors and New Hampshire has snow capped mountains and towns have strange names like Kennebunkport and the coasts have gorgeous lighthouses called 'head lights' and the homes all look like Kincaid paintings only prettier and and and…," and I'd take a breath, "and the trees have such bright colors they look like crimson and yellow stars turned up full blast and if I close my eyes the memory of the brilliance is actually not possible to remember, so I have to open them again to really see the intenseness." The next day the tirade could be about covered wooden bridges or pristine rivers overflowing with fish or all the moose and deer along the highways (until, I noticed, the day hunting season started), or giant specialty stores I'd discovered filled only with outdoor clothing.

Every once in a while I'd stop the rental car and take a walk about. That's how I found this scene with my kind of elements: understated color (like a black and white hand tinted photo, like the ones I used to do as a kid in college); soft, like a Renoir models hair, and balanced."

MS
 

 Sponsored by
Dr & Mrs Roger Fox

August

"Looking a lot like the Cinque Tierra area of Italy further north, the Amalfi coast boasts equally stunning views. Precariously stacked pancake buildings grip sheer rock walls in fear of falling, clinging with their cement roots for dear life into every nook and cranny that can find. Summer is on vacation, and as fall encroaches on winter, bringing with it chests full of Turkish colored earthen clothing that it slings over the terrain helter-skelter, it courts the inclement weather of November.

Above, clouds tirelessly repair holes torn through them by rays from the sun, and no sooner has the gray satin blanket repaired itself than the sun sends another, ripping through it with the conscious of a kids destroying sandcastles. As the rays continue down, the hit the nervous homes and castles. Got light? Got composition? Got patience? I did, and waited until the jostling of the heavens had unknowingly enhanced the areas of most interest for me. "

MS
 

Sponsored
by Mr & Mrs David Fisher

September

"As I enter the coolness of the 'narrows' at mid-morning, a dual fear envelopes me. As my eyes adjust, riding me of one of them, I contemplate the other - flash floods. Raging through, unconcerned and unannounced, they sweep away trees, tumbleweeds and lives with the same stealth and ferocity as a tornado hitting a mid-western town at night. (This happened to half a dozen unlucky tourists a couple of years ago just after my first visit here!)

As I enter the area where mighty bolts of desert light, hurled by an ubiquitous Sun topside, come down fast and furious through the passive openings above. Soon, the constant ricocheting splinters the spears into a fanciful waterfall of dancing, bouncing and tumbling light, down, down, down along walls the color of rich Navajo pottery. Finally, they land and lay quietly spent in small proud pools gathered on the cool, otherwise dark desert floor. I work fervently, as I know the performance will be short lived. By mid-afternoon the steep angle of the canyon walls rejects all such efforts, choking off the sun's assault until the wonderful eternal dance resumes the next day."

MS
 

Click on photos to enlarge.

Note: Each image is available as an 13.5"x13.5" reproduction,
besides an original in varying sizes, signed & titled
by Michael Seewald.  Go to order page.

October

"Fog is like a living, mysterious creature, moving, hovering, breathing, prodding, hiding and enveloping anything it so desires. And in ways, it's an artist's best friend, because as it lives it gives the artist an opportunity to create that which would otherwise not be possible. Fog changes the depth of a scene. Thanks to fog, background information that may not seem to recede at all recedes 'quickly', hiding trees, mountains, etc. that, in normal circumstances, would still be in the scene. Hiding details of a scene adds interest, by adding mystery. Fog adds other elements to the artists pallet- richness.

Richness comes from dampness, as the wet air dampens trees that are usually light colored and dry, turning them into dark and rich subject matter, ones with a reflective surface! I was cold and wet after working this scene, and as I turned and got into my car, I said goodbye and thanked my buddy fog for all the help in creating a much more interesting image. "

MS
 

Sponsored by Frank Huizar

November

"My daily 'battle' with the sun was ending. As usual, it had kept me busy most of the day dodging polished steel spears of bright light, and all along it's heat tipped arrows pelted the ground around me! I'd tried crying 'uncle' more than once, and as the oldest of seven boys, that was not an easy thing to do! But alas, the cold hearted sun was starting to tire, and was in need of more ammo. Oh, it would have a new supply by morning, it always did, but now my own fire was starting to build, and as the sun pulled away, I whipped out my camera to do my own damage.

Many photographers don't realize this invisible battle is being waged daily over the creating of good photographs, but it shows in their photos. The explosions of light caught all over their film is the evidence that is usually noticed all too late! But now I rejoice, for the tail of the Sun, being dragged through the skies westward, presents the right amount of light for me to capture the mountain across the valley from me, which had been split in two by the day's fierce battle. "

MS

Sponsored by Lisa Vander

December

"Meandering around Venice is an artists dream. In a way, if I see and capture an image that would make a great painting, at least to me, I'm most pleased. Most visitors to galleries that show my work are impressed by the artwork's painterly qualities. At first offended by statements that my photos actually looked like paintings, photographer Theo Bazdorf, a sponsor of mine, straightened me out. "They mean 'perfect' like paintings". (Most photographers accidentally show lots of distracting elements, focusing on interesting parts, oblivious to all that aren't).

So now I take it to be a complement. I'd been saying 'but mine are so much sharper than paintings', but like Ansel Adams said, "There is nothing worse than a sharp photograph of a fuzzy idea.". Probably one of the reasons they even win awards over so many paintings in competitions worldwide- sharp ideas. "

MS

Michael Seewald Galleries
Del Mar Plaza
1555 Camino Del Mar, Ste. 312, Del Mar, California, 92014 USA 
Phone: 858.793.3444 
Open Wed. thru Sun., 2 p.m. till 8 p.m.
Friday and Saturdays till 10 p.m..
Call first if going out of your way, we sometimes close to run errands.


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