An interview with Kelley Luikey at Pluff Mud Art Gallery of Bluffton

Buying a home is not just about buying a house, you are buying a lifestyle. It is not just the home but the community that you will be a part of. In the Hilton Head / Bluffton area we have a wonderful lifestyle with lots of culture, fine art, entertainment and fine dining.

So when you were thinking of buying a home in the Hilton Head / Bluffton area, you are likely to be very pleased with the culture and activities we have to offer. It is also very easy to get involved in your favorite art when you live in Hilton Head or Bluffton.

You’ll notice many of our residents are local artists and performers.  They are the purveyors of our local culture. There is also ample opportunity to volunteer and get involved at our museums, historic homes and cultural centers.

Each month I will be interviewing a local artist to share the great culture we have.

To see more of Kelley’s artwork visit her website a www.naturemuseimagery.com

To find our more about her forthcoming exhibit and workshop dig into Port Royal Sound Maritime Foundation for more details.

And, during our interview, Kelley spoke of Charley Harper as an artist she admired. To dig into his work see Charley Harper Art Studio.

To see home for sale in Hilton Head click here. To see homes in Bluffton click here.

TRANSCRIPTION

• Living in the Hilton head Bluffton area we get a lot of fine art in the area and we are lucky that there are so many local artists. This is a first in a series I’ll be doing all year, interviewing local artist.

Hi, I am Pamela Brown at Pluff Mud Art Gallery with Kelley Luikey we’re going to discuss her work today.

• Can you tell me how you got started in photography?
• I started in photography when I was in college, so in the ‘90’s. I did film photography. Then after college I continued to learn and took classes at Community colleges and such.
• Where you living in the South at that point?
• No, I was living in Cape Cod and on Nantucket.
• Oh, nice. That’s beautiful.
• I went to College in North Carolina and then I moved up there.
• So I continued, and then I kind of took a break when I had kids. Then when I enrolled in the Masters Naturalist program in 2013 I got my camera out again and started taking pictures while I was doing the class. And that is how it started it all again
• And what kind of camera do you use?
• I’ve got 2 cameras. I’ve got a Cannon 7D ii and 5D iv, So I have two a full frame and a cropped frame.
• OK, and I’ve seen photographs of you with very big lenses.
•  Yes. So I have two lenses that I shoot my birds with. One is a 100mm – 400mm lens and the other is a 600mm F4, That’s my big one.
• And your photographs, you’ve done lots of landscape and lots of birds. Are you focusing on birds these days?
• Right.
• Can you talk about the evolution, over the past few years and how your work has changed?
• Yeah, so when I first started out, Piggybacking off of the Masters Naturalist program, I had just a consumer grade camera and a zoom lens. And I was taking pictures of bugs and birds, And as we go through the class, landscapes. So that is how I started. Landscape lenses are cheaper than bird lenses.
• Uh-huh!
• A macro lens is cheaper than a bird lens so that’s kind what I started off doing. It was kind of the reintroduction to photography and learning the digital Lightroom and Photoshop. The digital darkroom seriously and so I…
• do you love Lightroom?
• I use both Lightroom and Photoshop And I love them both. So that is how it kind of evolved. As I gained more experience I learned that I liked the birds the best. As I learned, with the one lens I had then I wanted more. You know, you kind of evolve into wanting more. And as you learn with what you have and the capabilities and disadvantages of each thing, you progress.
• I’ve noticed in your work, a lot of your landscapes have a lot of whites and pinks. And the birds, you use a lot of black in it which makes them pop. How did you get to that?
• You know, I go through phases. And it really depends on the light. My birds, if I’m shooting dark That’s because the background is dark.  I’m shooting in the shadow of the landscape where there is dark water, reflection, that sort of thing. Then you underexpose your camera to bring that scene even darker.  Then, if I’m shooting a light scene, I will then overexpose to get pretty colors out. So this is a bird here with a beautiful pink background. That’s actually just a house in the background that I used to get the nice color. And then here This Great Blue Heron, that beautiful gold tone is from the sun setting. So I don’t, I do have some scenes where I’m shooting dark, but I flip flop depending on what the scenery is at that time.
• And as you started focusing on birds you must have had to learn a lot about birds?
• Yeah, as I go. I probably knew very little about birds when I first started, when I did the Masters Naturalist program They teach us some of the basics. Dr. Chris Marsh was a great resource, and I kind of just learn as I go. So, of course, when you’re shooting something you want to learn about it. So yeah, now I know quite a bit about birds and the more you shoot them the more you can anticipate what they’re going to do, what their behaviors are, where they’re going to be when. So yeah, I’ve learned a lot!
• Their migratory patterns?
• Their migratory patterns when we have that.
• Can you talk about how it is to photograph birds? Because I am imagining you have to be rather quiet, still and really kind of fade in the background so they don’t notice you there. How do you go about getting that shot where they are just in their element?
• I usually shoot alone. I don’t go with other people. And I find that helpful both for me to concentrate and also to just not disturb the birds. I shoot alone. I’m very quiet. If I am shooting shore birds it can take me 45 minutes to sneak up on a bird. Crawling on my stomach or whatever. You want to watch their behavior so if they start to move or are looking alert and have spotted you, you want to stop and let them get comfortable again. And then you move just a few inches or feet and keep going. That’s how I do that. And now I do have a little bird blind. It is a little tent it is a bird photography blind so I can shoot in as well.
• Very nice.
• There are all different little tricks, Depending on where you are going.
• Do you remember an incident that was just an absolute disaster?
• Yes! You must have known about this!
• No, no! I’m sure there are always disasters When you’re out doing stuff.
• Yep, so when I got my brand-new lens which is sizable. It’s about this big. It weighs 7 pounds. I got it last April, at the end of April. And I was shooting the Prothonotary Warblers at Beidler Forest. And I didn’t quite have the right tripod for it but I didn’t want to spend a lot more money right at that time so I was making do for a while.
• I’m feeling like “uh no”
• Right! So I set it up. This is a very expensive piece of equipment and I walked away to look for a fawn and it tumbled right over the boardwalk. The whole thing into the swamp. Yeah, Luckily the swamp was dry so it was just wet mud. But the next problem was retrieval. I had to shimmy myself between the boardwalk climb down there where we are not supposed to be but no one was there to help me and haul it all back up.
• Oh my gosh
• It actually turned out that everything was fine. The lens was totally fine. The camera, I thought was damaged but it turned out a dial had just gotten turned on. It changes your …If you wear glasses. I didn’t know that. So I sent it into Cannon and it was just a very minimal thing.
• Good
• Yeah, it is amazing what the equipment can actually handle.
• And how quickly did you get a tripod?
• Actually, I may do for a while but I did, I did get a better one.
• Some sandbags?
• I just make sure I held it, More like a monopod. And now I have a heavy duty tripod. Which Is another sizable expense. People don’t realize once you do this, then you need that.
• Yep
• And it never ends! And then I learned, I hadn’t been using the tripod on long walks because I had been doing a lot of shore birds up until now. I have a little tiny tripod mount for that and I just carry it like a baby but now that I’m back out walking 5 or 6 miles, then your shoulder becomes sore from carrying it, it digs into you, so then you need padding. There is always something different that you need with your gear. It never ends.
• Do you have an idea of where you want to take your work going forward?
• I really love presenting my images as art pieces, so maybe in the next five years I’d like to have my own gallery. But with young children and, they’re not that young, but with children at home and my husband is gone a lot, I still need to be available. So being in a co-op is really ideal right now. I would love to have a space where I can have lots of big pieces. As far as birds, I’ve started traveling more with them, so shooting birds all over the country Is the next step, I think.
• Nice, how large do you print?
• My favorite size for a large print is a 24 by 36 inch print. And then matted. I like a nice wide matt so a 4 inches and a nice wide frame. So the overall dimension is 30 by 40 inch. That is big enough where it can fit in someone’s home if they have a large space. But it’s not too big. So I do like to see them really large. It’s fun.
• Do you have any location in this area that you prefer to shoot at?
• I have all different areas that I like to shoot depending on the season. We are getting up to nesting season for our birds. So Pickney Is my favorite place that’s close to the Bluffton area. So we have all of our species of wading birds except for, we don’t have Great Blue Herons. They do not nest there, that are visible anyway. Our Great Egrets, our Snowy Egrets our Tricolored Herons and our Little Blue Herons all nest there. I’ll be looking forward to that.
• Can you tell me a little bit about what artists influence you in your work? Who you like, what your favorite piece of art is?
• Well my favorite piece of art not necessarily someone who influenced me but I love Charlie Harper who was a very prominent bird artist. I don’t know if you’re familiar with him but he says he is the only bird artist who has not been compared to Audubon. He did very geometric birds. Very simple. He took out all the frivolous parts of the bird and just made the real simple parts. So I collect some of his pieces. I love his write ups. They are very whimsical about the bird and he really liked to learn about the bird and behavior before he drew them out. He is a lot of fun, and I have a few of his pieces.
• And for your own work, how do you title your work? I always find that such a struggle!
• It is! And sometimes I am better at it than others. Sometimes it just comes to you so with writing them up, sometimes it just flows and sometimes it’s a struggle. Usually it has something to do with the scene. This is “motherhood” here. This poor mother, this baby is begging begging begging. We can all kind of relate to that if we have had children, and she just has this look. What I loved about her is that Just kind of like “not now” and not bothered by it so much. She kind of has this peaceful look about it “you can beg all you want but this isn’t the time”. I wish I had been better about that with my kids.
• I totally relate. I have just a dog but the dog is always begging me for things!
• She was just kind of like “not now”. It just depends. This one is called “sleepy owl”.
• That’s beautiful
• And of course the owl is sleeping. So it just depends on the image. And then, I don’t know which ones you can see, no you can see that one but Coquette,  which means flirt and the bird looks very flirtatious. It just depends on the image.
• And you mentioned you are doing a workshop series coming up soon.
• Yea, I am the artist of the year at the Port Royal maritime Center this year for 2020.
• That’s great
• so I have an exhibit, we are nailing down the dates to mid March. Following that I will be working on a 3 part workshop series. The first one will be March 28st and them May 30^th and July 25^th. It’s going to be a series for people can take one of the classes or all three.
• That’s great
• I am looking forward to that and sharing some of the things. I will talk about what you just asked, where I go, day trips and then I’ll talk about editing, the things I do for editing, shooting tips, equipment, all the different things will be covered in there.
• Very nice , that’s great. Thank you for your time this morning period this was really great.
• Yeah, thank you for coming!
• Thank you
• have a good day