Welcome to Kates Nature Photography portfolio site.  Before continuing to the Home page, please scroll down and read below.  Thanks for visiting!

The short answer:  I'm "thumbing my nose" at social media.  These days, it's not in a photographer's best interest to shun social media; and, in my defense, I have active pages on various social media sites.  But I don't like social media dictating how I should present my images, especially when the format of my pages look like millions of other photographer pages; but I go along with it to maintain a presence.  (I could probably write a book on my feelings about social media and what is has done (good and bad) for photography.  But, that's for another time . . . ) Social media forces the photographer to present their work in a format dictated by someone else.  It strips away the personal element in favor of looking like everyone else.  The uniqueness is gone, the life is compressed out of the image, and simple elements such as aspect ratio (that contribute to the overall feel of the image) are discouraged or even unsupported.  But we happily play along in hopes of getting those precious "likes" while sacrificing the integrity and creativity of our work.  But not here.  Here, my work is presented the I want people to see it.  "Like" it or not.  No ads, no comments, no scams, no meaningless posts/pictures of someone's breakfast.

Most likely you arrived at this site via my other Kates Nature Photography site.  If so, or if this is your first visit here, you may be wondering why I have 2 separate websites for the same images.  My "other" site is an e-commerce site.  That site is strictly for selling prints and is social media friendly.  There you can browse images, see what they would look like on your walls, visualize them in other settings, choose various sizes/mediums/frames, and, of course, purchase prints.  All this can be done quickly and efficiently.  It's a great site and works very well.  If you haven't been there, I'd encourage you to visit the site and try out some of the images on your own walls by clicking here:  Kates Nature Photography.  All the galleries (in grid view) have a "Purchase" button in the lower right corner when you mouse over the image.  By clicking this button, it will take you to the image in my e-commerce site where you can choose various options, sizes, paper etc.

THIS SITE

This site is technically a "portfolio" site.  While I really like my e-commerce site, it has one short coming in my opinion - the images are too small.    While my e-commerce site has images that are restricted in size (due to logistics), this portfolio site is generally not restricted.  This allows for images to be shown at nearly full screen size.  I spend a lot of my time photographing enormous, beautiful landscapes.  I capture images in great detail using medium format cameras.  I re-touch and edit these images on huge monitors.  Why, then, would I want the image size reduced when I'm trying to convey the size, detail, and beauty of a vast scene?  An e-commerce site or social media page just doesn't cut it when it comes to showing the magnitude of most landscapes.  In real life, the scenes are breathtaking; and when I return from a shoot and the images appear on my 32" computer monitors for the first time, I have to admit, they can be overwhelming.  And, you can forget trying to convey the impact of that scene on social media.  So, I decided to build a second site where the viewer can enjoy the images as close as possible to how I experienced them - big and detailed.  Maybe someone just wants to browse through the galleries, or maybe someone is contemplating a purchase on my other site and wants to see a bigger version of the image.  Or maybe someone just wants to retreat to a gallery and immerse themselves in nothing but art - no salesmanship, no social media hype, no stupid comments, no pressure.  Many of my images don't lend themselves to the guidelines of social media sites; and I really don't like adjusting my artwork to fit someone's phone or to fit social media's idea of what makes an ideal sized image.  I know many photographers who shoot to fit their social media page(s).  While that's probably a smart business move these days, I prefer to shoot for the sake of creating art from my perspective - not social media's perspective.  If it physically fits the constraints of social media, fine; if not, well that's fine too. 

ENJOY MOCK PROJECT:

So, sit back, relax with a cup of coffee or tea, a glass of wine, or whatever your pleasure and browse through my work.  Immerse yourself in a site that is quickly becoming somewhat unconventional - no Facebook format, no Instagram aspect ratio, no ads or petty comments, and no "trendy" filters.  Just big, beautiful photography the way I want it to look and presented the way I choose.  After all, isn't that what art is? 

And, in the gallery grid view, mousing over any image will bring up a "Purchase" button that is linked to that image in the e-commerce site.  If you find something you like here, clicking the purchase button is a great way to see what it looks like in a frame, or canvas gallery wrap, or metallic/acrylic print; and view it on your wall.  If you need help, you can email me from that site.  Click the Home button in the menu above to get started with a sample slideshow of images.  Then, explore the galleries.