A Photographer's Journey

Photographer Chris Harris shares images with the crowd. — In Chris’ words, the book launch was the ‘evening of a lifetime’ for him and Rita. Here, he pauses to let his appreciation show.

My good friend Chris Harris enjoyed the evening of a lifetime recently when he and his partner Rita launched the last of 13 self-published books about the Cariboo Chilcotin, in BC’s central interior. The celebration took place in 100 Mile House, where Chris and Rita live. They threw quite a party for a few hundred people who came to celebrate Chris’ remarkable achievements as a photographer and publisher.

Chris has done something that makes him stand apart from many other photographers. He has riveted his photographic focus on one area, the Cariboo Chilcotin. Because he feels so deeply connected to the land, he has explored and photographed more of this beautiful, vast and relatively unknown region than anyone else. He has hiked, paddled, ridden on horseback and flown in helicopters and airplanes to access places where no one else has been.

At the book launch, Chris and Rita showed a series of slide shows, with music inspired by and created for the images by the talented Ken Marshal, that allowed us to go with them to these special places. You too can be swept away by these presentations if you catch one of the stops on his book tour during the next few months.

The pictures below show a few of the highlights of the evening and, at the end, there is a slide show to illustrate their ‘evening of a lifetime”.

woman serving food — Every party has food and drink and this one was no exception!

Chris Harris thanks Ken Marshal for music — Chris and Rita made a point of thanking each of the many people who assisted with the photographic endeavours over the years, from helping them get access to remote locations to sharing their knowledge of secret locations. Here, Chris thanks Ken Marshal for creating the music that accompanies the slide shows.

Chris with his sister at book launch — A very special and important guest at the book launch was Chris’ sister, Jane O’Malley, who came from Ireland for the event.

Woman speaks at book launch celebration — Rita shared the stage with Chris and provided background and insight on many of the slide shows.

Celebrating the gift of a First Nations carving — A highlight of the evening was the presentation of Rita’s Lifetime Achievement Award, acknowledging Chris’ incredible dedication and spirit.

The crowd cheers for Chris Harris — The evening ended, appropriately, with a standing ovation for a photographer who has dedicated his life, with his whole heart and mind, to showcasing the beauty of the land he loves.

A Photographer’s Journey, video.

A Photographer’s Journey from Double Exposure on Vimeo.

Notes on the photography

There was a considerable challenge in photographing this event: the auditorium was very dark. For many of the photos, my ISO was forced to the maximum of 12800 while my aperture was opened all the way to f/2.8. And, shooting with a 70-200 lens, my shutter speed fell as low as 1/20 sec for several shots. I was incredibly impressed with how well my Nikon gear served me in this challenge. The Vibration Reduction on the lens obviously made a huge difference when I was so far below the recommended minimum of 1/200 sec. Also, shooting at such a high ISO, I was totally impressed with the absence of digital noise in the images. None of the images on this page have had noise reduction applied to them. A few of the images in the slide show did received NR.

A Photographer’s Journey, video.

Notes on the photography

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