ART + LIFE: Christin Healey

ART+LIFE

Christin Healey Gypsy At Heart

ARTIST BIO Christin Healey is a self-taught landscape photographer who grew up in the Florida Keys and now lives at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband and two dogs.

The focus of her photography is to capture the true essence of earth’s awe-inspiring beauty, from its backyard wonders to its wild, remote outposts. From the serene to the dramatic, Christin works to incorporate elements of light, shadows, and natural contours into each landscape.

Some of her favorite places to shoot include Iceland, Patagonia, and the Pacific Northwest.

“From an early age I have been drawn to the outdoors and exploring all the wonders of this great planet. For me, photography is a way to share my love of nature and fuel my passion for all things creative.

Every sunset…every falling leaf…every angle in which light hits the water…is unique, every second of every day. The opportunity to capture these moments and share them with others; to transport someone to a special place, even if just for a moment – is both incredibly gratifying and deeply humbling. I’m on a never-ending quest to explore, create, and inspire. I take inspiration from the words of Pablo Neruda: He who does not travel, who does not read, who does not listen to music, who does not find grace in himself, who does not find grace in herself, dies slowly.“ http://www.christinhealey.com/ IG: @christinhealey christindouglas@gmail.com

EXPLAIN ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING ASPECTS OF YOUR WORK? The thing I think people don’t really realize most of the time about what I do is how much planning, trial and error, and sometimes pain and suffering go into a great image. The times that you just walk up to some great spot randomly, have perfect clouds and light, and the temperatures were perfectly comfortable are few and far between. Most of the time I’m studying locations for months, scouting exact shooting spots all day to go back to for that perfect light all day, and a lot of the time you are hiking many miles through extreme heat or cold to get that perfect shot. I guess the hope in the end is that your viewer doesn’t see any of that and only focuses on the beauty of that moment you tried to so hard to capture.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO DIG INTO WHAT YOU DO? I have always been such a visual person, drawn to the arts, and thrive on being involved in all things creative. Combined with my love for the great outdoors, my hope it to inspire people not only to get outside, but to cultivate more awareness and respect for this precious planet through landscape and adventure photography.

Image by: Tim Kemple

Ahhh, Patagonia!

This is one of my favorite images to date, and aside from traveling many thousands of miles to get here, didn’t take much effort at all. I was recently in Patagonia for a month for photography and adventure, and stayed at the most amazing place with this view for a few days. One morning, it didn’t look like much was going to happen, but my husband convinced me to walk out with my camera. After many years together, he knows how I can get if I miss a good sunrise ;-) I hung out on the dock for awhile watching the clouds roll by, was about to pack up and walk out for the day, and all of a sudden the sun burst through the clouds and this happened. It lasted for all of 60 seconds before the sun went back to hiding, but it was one of the most incredible sunsets I’ve ever seen.

Image by: Christin Healey

Image by: Christin Healey

I love this image because it represents the serendipity of life and those moments you just can’t plan for. This past winter a friend and I set out on a somewhat loosely planned trip to Yosemite.We didn’t over plan this one, and had so much more fun because of it.

The “firefall” happens once a year in Yosemite for a few weeks at the end of February, and people come from all over the country to witness it. I knew about it, but honestly thought we had missed it. The first night Meredith and I were headed to shoot a sunset in the Valley, we noticed a ton of cars parked on the side of the road, and caught a glimpse of Horsetail Falls illuminated by the setting sun. We turned the car into the nearest parking lot (blocking in about 5 other cars), jumped out of the car, and captured a few shots of this incredible phenomenon.

Image by: Christin Healey

I took this one in Iceland last November on a trip there with my mom. When I was younger, my mom and I used to take trips together all the time, but since marriage 5 years ago and life in general, it had been far too long since we had had this opportunity. It was one of the best trips we every had, and although I took lots of images that I love on this one, this is one of them that really resonates with me still. We were driving towards the airport after wandering around Skogafoss for sunrise, and I noticed the soft morning light hitting the scene with the leading lines of the river in my rearview mirror. I pulled the car around, drove down a side road, and took several shots with my 200mm lens. This is the very last image I have from the trip, and it brings back so many wonderful memories.

This one was taken in RMNP this past winter. I’m throwing this one in the mix because it was probably the most miserable I have ever been out in the field, and the closest I have come to ever giving up and heading back to the warmth of the car.

I headed out around 2am from Boulder and drove the hour and a half to the trailhead for this one. It took me WAY longer than it should have to find this spot as it was pitch dark, and the entire trail was covered in snow. Headlamp on, I picked my way through and after 3 hours of fumbling around,finally arrived at the spot I was looking for about 15 minutes before sunrise. The winds were whipping so fiercely across the frozen lake, that it was picking up pits of snow and ice and aiming them straight into my face, eyeballs, and any other teeny exposed piece of flesh. It was so strong, I struggled just to walk out to a good spot.

Tired, hungry, frozen, and pummeled by ice, it took every bit of mental fortitude I have to convince myself, even after the struggle to get there, to stay just another 10 minutes for sunrise. Sometimes those few minutes can feel like an eternity.

But I did stay, set up the tripod, and hauled myself on this rock for a little perspective. I look at this image and am so glad I dug down a little deeper and found that grit to hang on.

Image by: Christin Healey

HOW DOES OUTDOOR ADVENTURE PHOTOGRAPHY RELATE TO YOUR LIFESTYLE? Outdoor adventure photography speaks to me and relates to my lifestyle in so many ways.

I’m very much an introvert, so being able to hopefully show people what I’m passionate about in the form of images is so important to me. I also love a challenge and keeping things fresh. Going out into the world is always a different and unpredictable experience; you just never know what is going to happen and what happy surprises or unexpected challenges will come your way. I also connect so much of my spiritually the outdoors. Out in nature, the whole world just makes sense to me.

WHAT’S A DAY LIKE AT HOME FOR YOU IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA? A typical day in Charlottesville if I’m not going to shoot somewhere is this: Wake up at 5am, feed dogs and cat, make coffee. Take doggies out, coffee in hand, check emails, respond to a few, head out to gym for 6am class. Post-workout, is shower, breakfast, more emails, social posts, then head into the Borrowed & Blue office with doggies. In between work stuff, a trip to the Country Store and Mudhouse is pretty typical. Post-work is either heading to one of C’ville’s restaurants or cooking a meal at home, then more dog walking, reading, sometimes Netflix. If the weather looks good, I’ll often head to Shenandoah for a sunrise or sunset hike/shoot. I travel so much that when I’m home, I usually try to keep it pretty chill.

RANDOM TRAVEL STORY...

A few winters ago my husband and I embarked on what we were calling “The Great American Road Trip�. One of the parts of the trip I was most excited about was the Grand Canyon as it was my first time seeing it. The weather report was calling for a bit of snow over the weekend, and we were actually excited to see the canyon dusted in a bit of snow, and had plans to hike all around and explore lots of different areas. We arrived a few minutes before sunset on the first night, and raced to the best lookout for a view. For a few brief moments, it was incredible.

The next morning, one of the worst snowstorms to hit the area in decades arrived, and it was a total whiteout, predicted to last a few days. You could barely see your hand in front of your face, let alone the canyon. We decided to head towards Death Valley and were caught in a traffic jam that was at a complete standstill for 12 hours. Apparently the Southwest is not prepared for snow :) Still, it was completely worth it for those brief moments overlooking the vast canyon.

iPhone Image: Christin Healey

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.“ -Aldo Leopoldo