Hummingbird At Trumpet Vine by Dennis Skillman

Essex Motif by Dave Saums

Dave Saums

The Seasons of Light and Color

Copenhagen Lightship Gedser by Dave Saums

“The use of shadows and light and colors — or the absence of color, as in a black-and-white fine art image — can be dramatically different and express so many different moods; as many as the earth gives us across all four seasons,” says Amesbury photographer and SAA gallery artist Dave Saums when speaking about his show ‘The Seasons of Light and Color.’

“The shadows and the angle of light in my one simple black-and-white photographic image of a key in a lock in an old wooden cabinet is dramatically different from the colors and angles of light that is seen in the other photographs. Heavy late summer clouds in a beautiful blue sky, very late in the day along the marshes of Essex, Massachusetts, is an example of bold colors, strong summer late-day light, and strong cloud contrasts against that sky. By contrast, very soft late afternoon colors in November on the floor of Yosemite Valley show the strong western sunlight illuminating the classic Half Dome, an enormous and incredibly beautiful shape that leaps from the earth’s surface — and surrounded by black oaks and other trees and grasses that are warm in the magnificent light. Moving into winter, a very unusual photograph of a fast-moving plow train on Pan Am Railways in Ward Hill, Massachusetts, shows the very soft light of a late winter day’s distant sun, yet with fine snow particles thrown out as the plow storms past. Winter light and the sharp angles of the sun’s position cast long shadows in another winter image, as we imagine an older birch tree against a snow-covered meadow with Stowe’s Spruce Peak in the distance, a classic Vermont winter scene.

Maine Coast by Dave Saums

A longtime SAA member, Dave Saums has been photographing for fifty years and exhibiting in fine art shows and galleries for thirty years. Having spent forty years invested deeply in Kodachrome color transparency film and black-and-white films, the majority of these images also demonstrate what can be accomplished with film photography as well as digital imaging.

Dennis Skillman

Close to Home

Hummingbird Moth by Dennis Skillman

SAA Board Member and immediate past President, Dennis Skillman of East Kingston, has a lifelong interest in nature and conservation which started when he was growing up in rural Pennsylvania with a family that loved the outdoors.

Bumble Bee On Coneflower by Dennis Skillman

His exhibit “Close to Home” focuses on the flora and fauna of our local yards and gardens as seen through a camera’s lens. “From the spectacular beauty of flowers to the hidden lives of smaller residents. the complexity of these ecosystems never ceases to amaze me! The closer I look, the more I see, and the more I appreciate nature’s genius in the intricacy of the web of life found where we live. The colors, the shapes, the birds, and the bugs that inhabit this ephemeral world are all subjects for my camera. Some are so fast or rare that they are a challenge to pin down, other subjects wait patiently for the observer to take notice and capture their beauty at the right moment. Many of the images were taken in our yard and in gardens in the local area. All of them were taken ‘Close to Home.’”

Asiatic Lily by Dennis Skillman

Dennis has been photographing the outdoors for more than 40 years. When he retired, the time he had to pursue photography increased dramatically. Wildlife, natural landscapes, and outdoor scenes are all of interest. His photography education comes from seminars, workshops, and self-study. He was greatly influenced by the late Galen Rowell, whom he got to know at one of his outdoor photography workshops. He was leader of the Bay Circuit Trail committees for the North Shore of Massachusetts, where he contributed photographs and writing to several published trail guides. He led the effort that created Prospect Hill State Forest in Rowley, Massachusetts. He was a volunteer in the 5-year New Hampshire Audubon Dragonfly Study and currently leads a team of volunteers for NH Audubon restoring Purple Martins in the NH Seacoast. He has twice won the NH Audubon’s Volunteer of the Year Award for this work.