We love featuring local art at The Alliance Center! In this blog, explore nature and wildlife photography with Jeanne Poling, whose prints will be on display in the upper levels of our building through September of 2022.
Hello! My name is Jeanne Poling. I have been photographing most of my life. I entered my first photography show when I was in elementary school using an old family camera and black and white film. The photo wasn’t great, but it was where I got my start. I bought my first “real” camera with my high school graduation money.
I majored in Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado. My next 20 years were spent focusing on my career and raising children, with only a small amount of photography in between. Although my degree was in mechanical engineering, my career very quickly drifted to environmental management. You can see this my photography—the environmental management work I did throughout the years inspired me to photograph what I loved most, nature and wildlife. It left me with a deep desire to protect our natural resources and the wildlife depending on those resources. I left my engineering career in 2017 to focus on photography and have never looked back.
I love photographing a brilliant sunrise or sunset, snow capped mountains and gorgeous wildflowers, but it is always the wildlife that grabs my attention and steals the show. My greatest pleasure comes from watching and photographing the interactions of the wildlife with each other. Those interactions can be loving, tender, humorous and even heartbreakingly brutal. I love all wildlife—except snakes! I am truly fascinated by their ability to adapt and live in changing environments.
I try to capture moments that take my breath away, make me smile or tug at my heart. However, as any wildlife photographer will tell you, the job requires a lot of waiting. This is when I turn to what nature presents. I love looking at things from a fresh perspective. You typically won’t see me photographing the landscapes and landmarks that everyone else has photographed. Instead, you will see me photograph a single flower over a field of flowers, or shadows at sunrise or sunset rather than the object creating the shadows. Reflections in water and glass also play a large role in my portfolio. Last year I made a commitment to stop looking for the perfect image and focus on the everyday, with an end goal to photograph the extraordinary in the ordinary.
In my spare time I volunteer at Foothills Animal Shelter once a week, taking photographs of the adoptable animals for the website and social media. There is nothing like a weekly dose of bouncing puppies and spunky kittens to practice fast focus and depth of field techniques—plus an endless supply of smiles!
All photos that I take are for sale. I sell through my website, Instagram or my Etsy shop. I also do custom orders and special requests. One of my prints, “Grizzly Eyes”, which is currently hanging on the 2nd floor of The Alliance Center building, will be featured in the upcoming Louisville Art Association National Juried Photography Show. This show runs for eight days, from May 27th through June 5th of 2022, and overlaps with the Louisville Memorial Day weekend events.
For examples of my work or to purchase prints, visit my website, Instagram, Etsy or email me at natureswildsideprints@gmail.com.
