Chris Olson’s Photography art consists of rare and/or occasional acts of nature that include weather, the changing of the seasons, and other rare phenomena.
Other areas of interest include the diverse landscapes of the Midwest and beyond. Chris understands that rural culture is fading and many of the buildings that were built on that culture are vanishing as well. This drives Chris to have a strong interest in preserving the history and culture of the forgotten, neglected or abandoned rural architecture and homesteads.
He does so by documenting the subjects through photography. The process involves scouting back roads of the less traveled countryside. During the span of this process, Chris is on constant alert of his surroundings in all directions. When an opportunity arises, which they almost always do, his attention turns to a more detailed approach, narrowing the perspective in the direction of the discovered subject.
After this process, Chris turns his focus to the computer where he processes the strongest photographs. This involves refining, touch-ups and adjustments to match the mood or feeling that he experienced at the time the photograph was captured. These photographs can be found here on his website and can be purchased in various sizes on metal, canvas and photographic paper prints.
Watch a short video of some small edits to a raw image file using Lightroom.
His goal of instilling awareness and inspiration in his audience and others that may not otherwise get to share the same experiences continues to drive his work.
PUBLISHED AWARDS HONORS
Canvas Print Gifted to Norway
A four-image collage printed on canvas featuring scenes from the town of Elbow Lake, MN was gifted to the town's sister city of Flekkefjord, Norway by the Elbow Lake mayor Deb Hengel.
Grant County Living Cover Photo
Cover photo featured in the 2017 issue of Grant County Living magazine.
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
Awarded first place winner of a photo contest by Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar that featured submissions of scenes that can be found throughout the state of Minnesota.
Peoples Choice Award Recipient
Awarded the Peoples Choice Award at the Horizontal Grandeur Exhibit at the Stevens County Historical Society in 2018.
Photo Contest 2nd Place
Placed 2nd place in a photo contest by Otter Tail Lakes Country organization that had hundreds of submissions.
Local Newspaper Article
Featured Photo of the Canadian Pacific Railway Holiday Train in the Grant County Herald.
Front Cover of Published Book
Front cover photo feature of a book titled "Stepping Stones To Freedom" authored by Crystal Steege.
FOX 9 TWIN CITIES COMMERCIAL
Promo video for a morning show on local Fox 9 TV station. The commercial aired frequently over the course of one year featuring the sunflower field at sunset photo.
2020 Sioux Falls Business Directory Cover
10's of thousands of this yearly publication were distributed throughout Sioux Falls and the surrounding area featuring a photo taken at Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD during Christmas time.
Front Page Newspaper Headline
Frontpage headline article in the Daily Journal discussing the gallery exhibit display at the Otter Tail County Museum.
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
First place winner award for a photo contest held by a senior citizen care facility in Traverse County, Minnesota.
Art of Freedom First Place Award
2016 First Place Award recipient by popular vote at the First Annual Art of Freedom event.
Newspaper Event Promo Feature
The Fireworks display image of the Detroit Lakes Polar Fest was featured in a promo article in the local Detroit Lakes, MN newspaper.
Representational landscape photography
Representational landscape photography strives to present the viewer with an accurate depiction of the scene in front of the camera. It is not stylized. It is not abstracted. However, it’s probably enhanced to better meet the photographer’s vision of the scene rather than what the camera records (which is different than what the human eye sees). It doesn’t bear much in the way of description as it’s best to show rather than tell. The photos displayed under this heading are all representational landscape photography.
Representational landscape photography makes up most of the landscape photography you see these days. For some reason, most people like their landscape photography looking as realistic as possible. This means that a photographer taking a representational approach will always find a market for their photography if they look and work hard enough for it. The downside is that “everyone else is doing it.” This means that it will be MUCH more difficult to differentiate yourself if you are a representational landscape photographer.
Impressionistic
Impressionistic landscape photography seeks to present the viewer with a particular mood when viewing the photo. One may alter colors to be brighter or more muted for example. It is still somewhat representational of the scene but takes some liberties with the captured scene in order to create the mood the photographer wants to convey with the photo. Take the photos under this heading, for example. Each one has a different mood which it conveys due to not looking like representational landscape photography. Can you guess what each mood is?
While still grounded in the original subject matter, one must take certain liberties when processing up a regular landscape photo into an impressionistic landscape photo. For instance, one might alter sunlight shining through a cloud to look like a giant fireball. The mood is achieved but you’re still very much looking at a grounded landscape photograph (though not representational anymore).
You might consider impressionistic landscape photography the point were classic art forms start mixing in with photography to create unique compositions of light. I occasionally dabble in impressionistic landscape photography.
Abstract
You might easily confuse abstract landscape photography with abstract photography if you don’t know what you’re looking at. Abstract landscape photography uses a landscape but completely loses any representational elements in favor of abstracting to a mood. You may recognize that an abstract landscape photo is a landscape photo or you may not. It’s all abstract. Leaving you thinking and guessing is all a part of abstract art of any kind.
Abstract landscape photography will emphasize shapes, colors, textures, and other elements without a clear representational picture of the subject. Some abstract landscape photography will even de-emphasize or lose sharpness altogether in favor of those other elements. I’ve seen abstract landscape photography which have no sharpness at all. Everything is blurry in order to show movement of some fashion (think waves on the sea). Obviously, abstract landscape photography is not something I experiment with much, however, to each: their own.
Being a landscape photographer, I can say that this is comparatively a tough genre of photography, especially from a physical point of view. One has to be physically fit to do landscape photography. To do landscape photography, the photographer has to travel a lot to shoot good-quality landscapes. If one has to be considered a good landscape photographer, he/she has to be very strong in the following aspects:
1. Strong composition and post-processing.
2. Has to be well acquainted with what to include in the frame and what to leave out.
3. Have to shoot manually to get the best possible exposure.
4. Proper planning is another important point to execute in the scene in the best possible way.
5. Another important thing is to learn to visualize the scene, visualization is very important to become a good landscape photographer.
6. Have to see things in your own way, which makes your image different from others.
7. The best time for landscape photography is early morning and late evening when the sunlight falls at a 45 degrees angle.
8. Last but not least, for a good landscape one has to go beyond comfort level.