In a different light
Photographers society’s Kentuck Knob shoot on display By Carolyn C. Holland At 5 a.m., July 10, a group of photographers positioned their tripods and cameras on Kentuck Knob, preparing to shoot sunrise pictures. However, the overcast morning sky prevented the hoped-for sunrise. That weekend, 23 Westmoreland Photographer (Society) members visited Kentuck Knob to snap outside pictures of its Frank Lloyd Wright house and the many sculptures on the grounds.
Marianne Skvaria, Kentuck Knob’s director, and Heidi Miller, Kentuck Knob’s educational marketing coordinator, were seeking unique photographs. Miller and Kern F. Little, Westmoreland Photographers (Society) events coordinator, designed a photographers’ shoot that encouraged the photographers to meet the challenge.
The gift shop will feature three sets of 16 juried photographs each in August, September and October. The opening event was Aug. 7.
“The work is incredible,” Skvaria said. “I was impressed with the freshness and crispness of the photographs when I saw them+It was just what I was looking for.”
The Westmoreland Photographers (Society) is an outgrowth of a 1972 Westmoreland County Community College photography class, according to Thomas (Tom) Vallana of Derry.
“My understanding is that after the class ended, the students wanted to continue. The instructor suggested, ‘Why don’t you start a club?’ I joined the group about 1974.”
Vallana doesn’t recall the names of the original members, but said the organization’s original name was Westmoreland Camera Club.
“People thought we were a bunch of camera collectors, not a group of photographers,” he said. “About 1985 the name was changed to Westmoreland Photographers.”
Vallana said that because the new name suggests that the organization is a business, its members recently added the word “Society” to its name.
“Since it’s difficult to officially change a name, “Society” is an unofficial name addition, and is placed in parentheses,” he explained.
When the group originated, SLR cameras were “coming in big,” according to Vallana. “Some were also shooting in large format, but most of the photography meetings revolved around SLR, explaining how they operated, all the fundamentals.”
The club evolved as photography did, moving through SLR, automatic exposure, rapid firing, and now, digital photography.
“There was an initial reluctance to go to digital,” Vallana said. “It was a new technology, not developed yet. When it began in the mid 1990s it was primitive and very expensive. People sat back and watched+”
To some extent, digital technology has evened the photography playing field, according to Vallana.
“The camera does all the work+shutter speed, focusing. Still people who can’t or don’t have computers, printers and software are at a disadvantage.”
The majority of Kentuck Knob photography was done with digital cameras. Little and his wife, Victoria A. Little, used digital cameras to produce the three works each had accepted in the show.
Victoria Little, who “loved the architecture of the house, its angles, natural brick and stone walks,” joined the society in January 2009.
“Photography is a lifelong dream. I wanted to go into the Navy for photography. I never had the time or the money – Kern took the time and patience to teach me,” said the woman who likes to photograph children, but is “now doing different things to find my niche – flowers, carnival rides, landscapes, car shows.”
Kern Little joined the Westmoreland Photographers in the early 1990s, about the time he founded the Tri-County Camera Club in Uniontown. The Uniontown group met at Malloy’s Cameracade in Uniontown, a locally owned business where he worked for 19 years. When it closed, he worked several years at Malloy’s Cameracade in Greensburg.
He became involved in the two photography organizations because he wanted to “interact with other photographers” and “learn new aspects of photography.”
Little describes himself as “more of a (photography) gypsy than anything else. I do a lot of different things – landscape, racing, cars, flowers. I never knew I should specialize in one so worked to do them all well.”
His most memorable shot was taking a picture of El Capitan at Yosemite Valley, Calif.
Brian Kloock, a Fayette County native residing in Uniontown and a 16-year member of the Westmoreland Photographers (Society), was president of the Tri-County Camera Club when it disbanded about 1998. Currently, he is president of the Westmoreland Photographers (Society), which he joined about 1996 to widen his contacts with photographers.
Kloock has no specialty – he photographs everything: “portraits, weddings, landscapes, macro, cars+” His career has taken him along multiple routes, from news to wedding to regular photography.
The three photographers feel “honored” to be included in the Kentuck Knob show. Kern Little participated because he “knew how challenging it was” and he “wanted to excel” to prove he had overcome some physical problems. He also wanted to mentor newer society members.
Victoria Little participated because “it was a sunrise shoot” and she “loves sunrises.”
“I’d never been to Kentuck Knob,” she said. “I knew it would be a very challenging subject.”
Although a lifetime resident of the area, Kloock had never visited Kentuck Knob. He felt the on-site photography offered a good photographic opportunity to capture the house in a way you usually can’t do it.
All three participants, who sought to photograph something they thought no one else might see, agreed about the biggest challenge: lighting.
They all agreed it was an exposure nightmare because of the light and shadow due to it being a bright, sunny day.
The Littles said “background distractions” were a challenge, and Kloock mentioned the “really long walk from here to there.”
Kern Little played with “highlight and shadow to the best of my photographic ability,” while Victoria Little had the only Red Army sculpture shot done with a zoom blur. Kloock took a shot of the house, framed by trees, with shadows in the foreground and light hitting it in an intriguing way.
Kentuck Knob is also known as the Hagan House. In 1953, Bernadine and I.N. Hagan commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build the home near Uniontown. After living in it for 30 years, I.N. Hagan became ill. In 1986, Lord Palumbo of England purchased it. Palumbo opened it for tours in 1996.
Skvaria said that Kentuck Knob is encouraging events, such as the Westmoreland Photographers (Society) photo shoot, in order to raise its profile in the community.
Many of the photographs taken on the Kentuck Knob shoot that are not included in the show can be seen on the organization’s website at http://westmorelandphotographerssociety.ning.com.