By KELLY ZHOU / STAFF WRITER Link to article : Click Here
Cheyne Walls, an Orange County native, has been immersed in photography since high school.
The Dana Point resident, who graduated from Dana Hills High School and then attended the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, has an art studio in Laguna Beach. He recently won bronze awards for four pieces he submitted to this year’s EPSON International Pano Awards.
Competition curator David Evans commented via email that it was “an excellent result because it was a tough scoring year.” Walls, 32, said the international open competition was the first “real” awards he had competed for.
The four photographs were shot in Death Valley, Yosemite National Park, the Scripps Beach pier in San Diego and Los Angeles. Walls talked to the Register about hiking a ladder all the way up to the Hollywood sign, tips for beginning photographers and creating motion in his photography.
The conversation has been condensed and edited.
Q. How did you get involved in photography, back when you were playing baseball at Dana Hills?
A. I thought my path was going to be baseball. I was young, a little naive. In a freak accident, I blew out my knee. I was on the baseball field, going back for a pop fly, something I’ve done a million times. The grass was wet, my cleat caught and both my knees went. It was a freak, freak thing. I had to go through surgery. I was out of school for a couple weeks.
Baseball was over. I couldn’t play that again. I was sitting in a wheelchair for a while and I had my dad’s camera, and that kind of got me through it. I rolled around the backyard in a wheelchair taking pictures of flowers. I got into the high school photo class, and I was lucky enough to be able to develop it at the school and learn that way.
Q. What was the process for creating this set of photographs?
A. What I really wanted to do was a “motion, nature, spirit” landscape edition. When I started doing these, I’d take about 6-8 images and stitch them together to get that panoramic look. I really wanted to start focusing on the West Coast. Yosemite, San Diego, Death Valley and Hollywood – I’m really working on these iconic images of this area, and these were the first start.
In all of my photos, I do long exposures. I try to have some kind of motion, either it be the water, the wind blowing the leaves of the trees around. There’s always a little bit of motion in my shot, which almost in a way brings it to life. Say water – water becomes like a fog because it’s moving during a long exposure. It shows the motion of what’s going on in the scene.
Q. How did you take some of these photos? For example, snow at Yosemite.
A. I just kind of followed the storms. That was an early, early spring storm. I saw the storm coming, literally hopped in my car, drove out there and camped through the snow. Luckily enough, everything came together. I’ve been traveling for the last three years all up and down the West Coast. I want motion in these shots, so it really depends on the weather of where I go.
It was one of those where I didn’t know if the sun was going to come out. It was supposed to snow all day. I got up at 5 a.m. to get there for sunrise. It was still snowing, and I just waited there for probably close to five or six hours. Then finally, the sun peeked through El Capitan for a minute or so, and then it was gone. But just sitting there was totally worth it.
Q. What’s your favorite photo from this set?
A. That’s hard. They’re all so different. I really do like the Yosemite one; it’s a tie between Yosemite and Hollywood. That Hollywood shot, I’ve been trying to get for years at sunrise. It’s very hard to get; it never rains in Southern California. Finally, with that storm we had a couple months ago, I was finally able to get the clouds to pop; the sun came up perfectly.
I bought a ladder, kept everything legal. I was above the fence (at the Hollywood sign) and the camera was hooked to the top of the ladder. Let me tell you, that was a hike with the ladder. I went four days in a row, and didn’t get the shot until the fourth day.
I love all of them. Each photo definitely has a totally different story.
Q. What’s some advice for beginning photographers that you wish you had when you first started?
A. One thing I did have that I recommend everyone do is start with film. I actually contribute a lot of my photography know-how to learning on film. When I went to college, digital (photography) wasn’t quite there yet, so I had to learn everything on film. (After) shooting film for four years in college, now that even though I’m mostly doing digital, I can walk up to a scene and see how it looks. I don’t need to check the back of the camera that often. I know it’s digitally there. The film really helped me set it up in my head, and I don’t need to rely on a digital screen to make sure everything is right.
