Ron Carlson calls himself a photographer but not a photojournalist. He produces fine art prints.
To do that, he edits his prints with Photoshop to reduce background clutter or to make a photo express a feeling.
The eye sees more detail than the camera, he says, and Photoshop lets him recover some of the details.
Carlson takes the photos one step further by printing them on canvas, giving pictures the texture and look of fine paintings.
He uses a large Epson printer to print a photo onto canvas that comes on rolls and has been treated to be water-resistant and to accept and hold the colors from the printer. The printer uses eight pigmented ink cartridges to reproduce the image on Carlson’s computer.
Once the print is made, Carlson glues it onto thin foam board. He then gives it two coats of print shield to protect it. When it’s dry, he mounts it onto a heavier foam board, then frames it.
He says the prints should last forever – or at least 200 years – as long as they are not hung in direct sunlight, which causes the colors to fade.
Shots around the world
Carlson has thousands of photos from trips he and his wife, Marilyn, took to places around the world. Marilyn started All Flags Travel in 1983. They took advantage of the free journeys offered to travel agents. The beauty of many of the places they visited inspired Carlson, then a lawyer, to take photography seriously.
He and Marilyn pro-duced travelogues with slides for several years. Friends started asking for prints of his slides and he learned how to make them. Printing on canvas is relatively new for Carlson.
While he has many pictures of wildlife from places such as Kenya, he finds now he is satisfied going to Florida about once a year to photograph the region’s wide variety of birds, his favorite subject.
Engineer, lawyer, artist
He likes to visit an alligator farm where the birds nest on an island. They are quite tame because the ‘gators are between them and the people. Carlson uses a telephoto lens and a tripod to get the close-up shots that make the best prints.
While he owns two cameras, he uses his Canon 40D almost exclusively.
Carlson spent 20 years working as an engineer for Battelle in Columbus, Ohio, before moving to the Northwest. He entered law school at the age of 51. He was an estate lawyer in Port Angeles for many years after that.
Carlson’s prints are featured at the Blue Whole Gallery, 129 W. Washington St., Sequim, in March. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday.
Reach Dana Casey at dcasey@sequim
gazette.com.
