By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune columnist
Award-winning Northern Kentucky photographer Jon Reynolds recently released his first book, Illuminating Nature: Changing Light Across the Landscape. Reynolds, who lives in Lakeside Park, has taught at Gateway Community and Technical College for over 25 years.
His new work started out with the idea of being a collaborative effort with another writer but the idea changed.
“The book came together rather quickly, mainly because the publisher proposed it in November 2023 in anticipation of the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse, with an eventual publication date of September 17,” Reynolds said. “At first the book was to be a compilation of photos by me and inspirational quotes and text written by another author, but the publisher liked what I had written on my social media accounts and decided to let me shape the entire text. Fortunately, Countryman Press assigned a wonderful editor and creative team to help bring the book to life.”
In Illuminating Nature, Reynolds seeks to “understand and illuminate the beauty that surrounds us all,” according to Devorah Backman, Marketing Manager at Countryman Press, a division of Norton & Company. His offering is replete with stirring photographs, such as waves striking Arcadia’s Boulder Beach, a shot of a solitary heron near dusk at Half Moon Bay, California, and a herd of elks moving over the lower meadows near the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Along with those images, Reynolds supplies reflections on the peace found in nature, how both planning and serendipity play a part in photography, and practical tips for capturing scenes with a camera. Along with his personal reflections, he adds thoughts from such noted individuals as Ansel Adams, Henry David Thoreau, Robert Frost, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Northern Kentucky outdoors writer Ron Ellis praised Illuminating Nature, saying “Jon Reynolds has a painter’s eye for light, which he demonstrates with every image in this delightful celebration of nature.”
Best-selling author of Peace Like a River, Lief Enger, noted of Reynolds’ book that the “images are almost impossibly affecting—they seem to slow the world, deadlines of work and pleasure, your very pulse… are bottomless horizons and etched geographies, many with starfields overhead hinting at the at the beauties of worlds beyond our own.”
Jon shared an example of the challenges he encountered while shooting images for his book, one such while arriving at 3:30 a.m. at Boulder Beach in Maine’s Arcadia National Park.
“As I carefully descended the slippery slabs of sloping granite,” he said, “I was met with an all-encompassing fog, deafening surf, and an army of midges. In vain I searched for the east, but in the endless darkness I lost all sense of direction.”
But at 5:29 a.m., he wrote, “A blaze of orange splashed across the sky and an exultant smile spread across my midge-bitten face.”
Jon Reynolds was determined to present his best work, and in Illuminating Nature, there’s strong evidence.
But as much as I liked the book’s images and reflective words, my novice photography skills moved me toward the author’s “Eight Tips for Beginning Photographers” at the end of the book. I found his advice very helpful, especially the tip about starting by using your smartphone is okay, with no needing to buy an expensive new camera in order to take good photos.
For much more about the artist’s work, visit www.jonreynoldsphoto.com. Besides Amazon, the book is available in Northern Kentucky at Roebling Books and in Cincinnati at Joseph-Beth Booksellers.
This past Saturday, November 2, was another “Kentucky by Heart” day for me. It started with a visit to the 2024 Kentucky Book Festival in Lexington. As always, it proved invigorating though I wasn’t one of the over a hundred authors displaying their books on this occasion.
For a state that has often been decried as education-challenged, we sure have a lot of writers and readers that have excelled, many reaching outside our borders. The event always conjures up proud memories of Carl West, who grew up near the Campbell County town of Grants Lick, where I spent my early childhood.
That evening, Suzanne and I traveled from Versailles to Erlanger to attend the Northern Kentucky Fly Fishers (NKFF) Annual Banquet, where Tim Farmer spoke and a large fund-raising auction for the club was held. Farmer, former Kentucky Afield host and now, with his wife, Nicki, hosts Tim Farmer’s Country Kitchen.
I wrote about NKFF in this column a few years ago and pointed out that the club also does amazing community outreach in the area. For further information about NKFF, visit nkff.org.
