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ENLARGE
Nevada City photographer and Councilman David McKay’s images of western Nevada County waterways are gaining recognition; this is Deer Creek.
David McKay is turning into a business mogul. Not only is he a professional photographer, he’s a publisher, too, of Mountain Images Press; a photography teacher at Sierra College; and a Nevada City councilman.
How does he wear so many hats without going bonkers? By being super-organized, as a visit to his garage studio recently showed me. His day planner is a thing of beauty, with movable tabs so he keeps a step ahead.
He even does his own shipping. Having been self-employed for 34 years, this man has learned the fine points of efficiency.
Computer screens flash and hard drives buzz as he moves images around to show me some of his work.
McKay is receiving some serious recognition for his images of the Yuba River (see one on the cover of this issue). His calendar of the Yuba is selling briskly, he says. The reason?
“There aren’t any calendars with local scenes,” says McKay. “People went nuts when they saw it.”
Then there’s his award-winning book, “Yuba Seasons: Images of the Wild and Scenic South Yuba River.”
And you’ve probably seen some of his mirror images in shops around town: They work on the principle of the Rorschach inkblots, but the images are of the outdoors.
He shows me some flower images done in this fashion, a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors like something out of Disney’s “Fantasia.”
“I like to be playful with some of my images, and one of my techniques is simple to complex ‘mirror images,’” McKay says. “I do this by mirroring a single image to create a whole new image. My more complex mirrored images involve combining several mirrored images into one.”
McKay works with a team that includes an editor-in-chief, a graphic designer and a Web designer. He’s even considering enlisting the support of his photography students in yet another venture: A new calendar of California coastal abstracts.
About his photos that grace this issue, McKay tells a story:
“The snow scene on the cover of the Prospector was taken just before the sun came up over the ridge after a snow storm in February 2007. I have been trying to get shots of the river and snow for years, but it can be very elusive due to the warmth of the rocks at river level.
“The snow level was supposed to be very low, yet when I got to the old Highway 49 bridge that morning there was just a dusting of snow on the trees, but not on the rocks in the river. What was striking was the clouds and mist clearing from the river canyon and the primordial quality of the light on the rocks.”
See the Q&A between Prospector and McKay for more about his work.
Q&A
Prospector: How long you’ve been plying your trade as photographer?
David McKay: I’ve been doing photography for 40 years, and professionally for 34 years.
P: How did you start?
DM: I fell in love with the magic of photography at nine years old when my father gave me a Kodak box camera, and I dreamed of some day being a photographer. At the age of 15 my father gave me a Yashica Twin Lens 2 1/4 camera. Developing that first roll of film and making my first B&W print I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
P: What does photography means to you?
DM: Photography has been the “carrot-on-a-stick” that has motivated me to learn things I wouldn’t have otherwise, to explore places I had never been, to communicate with people I didn’t know and to be a great observer of this world we live on.
P: Explain, please, the breadth of your business enterprise.
DM: My photo business has covered many different types of commercial photography, from weddings and portrait work to studio and corporate assignment work. Currently I photograph original artwork for artists and then print limited edition reproductions that match the originals for them to sell to their clients.
The newest addition to my photography business is I just self-published my first photography book, “Yuba Seasons: Images of the Wild & Scenic South Yuba River,” my new book of photographs on the 39 miles of the Wild & Scenic South Yuba River in all it’s gorgeous seasons! The book came out in mid January of this year and has sold over 700 copies. This past spring it won four regional and four national book awards. This past summer I published a 2009 calendar of images chosen from my book. As of the third week of December I have sold out all one thousand copies printed.
P: Where does your work hang?
DM: I recently sold 14 of my images for permanent display to Kaiser Permanente’s new Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Roseville. My work is in private collections in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle and Poland (Maine).
I am not currently showing in any galleries, though I’ve shown in many galleries over the years in Northern California. I currently have a show of my work at the South Pine Cafe in Nevada City through Jan. 15. I will have a display of my work at J.J. Jackson’s for the month of January for the SYRCL Environmental Film Festival Jan. 9-11, and I will be doing a book signing there 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Jan. 10 during the Wine Stroll.
How does he wear so many hats without going bonkers? By being super-organized, as a visit to his garage studio recently showed me. His day planner is a thing of beauty, with movable tabs so he keeps a step ahead.
He even does his own shipping. Having been self-employed for 34 years, this man has learned the fine points of efficiency.
Computer screens flash and hard drives buzz as he moves images around to show me some of his work.
McKay is receiving some serious recognition for his images of the Yuba River (see one on the cover of this issue). His calendar of the Yuba is selling briskly, he says. The reason?
“There aren’t any calendars with local scenes,” says McKay. “People went nuts when they saw it.”
Then there’s his award-winning book, “Yuba Seasons: Images of the Wild and Scenic South Yuba River.”
And you’ve probably seen some of his mirror images in shops around town: They work on the principle of the Rorschach inkblots, but the images are of the outdoors.
He shows me some flower images done in this fashion, a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors like something out of Disney’s “Fantasia.”
“I like to be playful with some of my images, and one of my techniques is simple to complex ‘mirror images,’” McKay says. “I do this by mirroring a single image to create a whole new image. My more complex mirrored images involve combining several mirrored images into one.”
McKay works with a team that includes an editor-in-chief, a graphic designer and a Web designer. He’s even considering enlisting the support of his photography students in yet another venture: A new calendar of California coastal abstracts.
About his photos that grace this issue, McKay tells a story:
“The snow scene on the cover of the Prospector was taken just before the sun came up over the ridge after a snow storm in February 2007. I have been trying to get shots of the river and snow for years, but it can be very elusive due to the warmth of the rocks at river level.
“The snow level was supposed to be very low, yet when I got to the old Highway 49 bridge that morning there was just a dusting of snow on the trees, but not on the rocks in the river. What was striking was the clouds and mist clearing from the river canyon and the primordial quality of the light on the rocks.”
See the Q&A between Prospector and McKay for more about his work.
Q&A
Prospector: How long you’ve been plying your trade as photographer?
David McKay: I’ve been doing photography for 40 years, and professionally for 34 years.
P: How did you start?
DM: I fell in love with the magic of photography at nine years old when my father gave me a Kodak box camera, and I dreamed of some day being a photographer. At the age of 15 my father gave me a Yashica Twin Lens 2 1/4 camera. Developing that first roll of film and making my first B&W print I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
P: What does photography means to you?
DM: Photography has been the “carrot-on-a-stick” that has motivated me to learn things I wouldn’t have otherwise, to explore places I had never been, to communicate with people I didn’t know and to be a great observer of this world we live on.
P: Explain, please, the breadth of your business enterprise.
DM: My photo business has covered many different types of commercial photography, from weddings and portrait work to studio and corporate assignment work. Currently I photograph original artwork for artists and then print limited edition reproductions that match the originals for them to sell to their clients.
The newest addition to my photography business is I just self-published my first photography book, “Yuba Seasons: Images of the Wild & Scenic South Yuba River,” my new book of photographs on the 39 miles of the Wild & Scenic South Yuba River in all it’s gorgeous seasons! The book came out in mid January of this year and has sold over 700 copies. This past spring it won four regional and four national book awards. This past summer I published a 2009 calendar of images chosen from my book. As of the third week of December I have sold out all one thousand copies printed.
P: Where does your work hang?
DM: I recently sold 14 of my images for permanent display to Kaiser Permanente’s new Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Roseville. My work is in private collections in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle and Poland (Maine).
I am not currently showing in any galleries, though I’ve shown in many galleries over the years in Northern California. I currently have a show of my work at the South Pine Cafe in Nevada City through Jan. 15. I will have a display of my work at J.J. Jackson’s for the month of January for the SYRCL Environmental Film Festival Jan. 9-11, and I will be doing a book signing there 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Jan. 10 during the Wine Stroll.
