When Bill Fell finished university and headed to Europe to travel, his father gave him his first camera to record his favourite holiday moments.
Little did Fell suspect the gift would spark a lifelong passion and grow into a career spanning decades, with his work being showcased in exhibitions in his home province of Ontario.
Now residing in Sun Peaks to be closer to family — including his three young grandchildren — Fell was most recently featured in the Kamloops Art Council’s Art Exposed exhibition, where he was awarded third place in the 2D art category for a stunning black and white photograph taken while visiting Yosemite National Park.
Fell began his photography career taking coloured photos of wildflowers in Ontario, but said he began to experiment with black and white imagery in the early 80s.
“I’d had problems with photography labs developing my colour photos. In one exhibition, I sold 40 prints of a certain yellow flower, but when it came back from the lab, it was purple,” Fell said.
“With black and white, I liked the control that I had over the photographs, and I gradually moved away from doing any sort of colour.”
Fell now focuses on natural landscapes and seascapes, which he prefers over taking photos of people.
“I really enjoy being outdoors, and photography is a great reason to slow down and have a good look at something, whether it’s the scenery or zooming right in on a single wildflower.
“I’ve been asked to take portraits or wedding photographs, but I don’t enjoy those. If I go out and take shots of nature and they don’t turn out, the trees and rocks aren’t going to complain too much.”
Fell keeps his camera gear in a backpack, and will take it with him while hiking, biking, or kayaking, in case he sees something worth capturing. He develops all his photographs in-house, using a special scanner to upload the negatives directly to his computer. He’ll then study the negatives to find his favourites, which he processes in a small dark room in his home.
The majority of Fell’s photographs are taken using a 1950s Linhof camera; which he has equipped with a variety of lenses and special equipment, but he has recently picked up a Nikon digital camera as well.
“I held off for as long as I could, but when my first grandchild was born two and a half years ago I wanted to be able to go ‘click, click, click’ like crazy.”
Fell is now busy getting ready to exhibit his work at Kamloops Art Council’s Art in the Park exhibit, where he’ll showcase his photographs to around 30,000 visitors at Riverside Park on Canada Day.
He’s also hoping to feature photographs at the Sun Peaks Farmers’ Market this season, as part of the Kamloops Art Council’s stall.
You can also view samples of Fell’s work on the Art Zone Sun Peaks website.
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