Keeping a close eye on nature in photo show

CORNWALL — Ferns unfurling. Frogs sunning themselves. Images of Cornwall’s abundant natural scenery are the subjects in a photography show by Lori Welles showing through Nov. 27 at the United Church of Christ.

The church has been making the parish house walls available for local artists to show and sell their work. Welles is using it as an opportunity to share her love of photography and nature, and to make a donation to the church from each piece she sells.

Hers is not the usual story. She began taking photos in recent years, starting with an old single-lense reflex camera.

“With digital cameras, it was a whole new world. It became so easy to take and share photos, and it was something I could do even when my back was acting up.”

Welles suffers from a chronic spinal condition, which makes it difficult to hold down a “regular” job. She had not given much thought to pursuing photography as a career. She simply liked that when she felt up to it, she could explore her wooded backyard or hop in the car and search out views.

“I initially just did a lot of sharing on Facebook with people like my uncle, who lives in Florida and misses the fall foliage. I’m really not that social a person, but posting photos is a great way to share. I like to hear from Cornwall ex-pats who write that a photo brought back memories for them.”

Welles said the more photos she took, the more it inspired her to really discover her own backyard, or to find an odd angle.

“I like to observe and look at things differently, to show things in a way people have never seen things they’ve seen one hundred times before.”

She loves when a friend who is out with her while she is shooting is later surprised by a striking photo of something they barely recall seeing.

Thinking in terms of marketing, she takes lots of tightly zoomed nature photos. In the 1990s, she owned a Torrington shop called Second Nature, where a top seller was blank greeting cards with close-ups of frogs and beetles and such.

Being a photographer, and sought after for shows, is still surprising for Welles.

“I’m not an artist. I can’t put a stick figure together without a starter kit. But I realized there might be something to this when I gave some photos to friends who insisted on paying me.”

Welles exhibited in the Rose Algrant Show this summer and has two photos in the current Paint the Town show at the Souterrain Gallery. She was part of a show a few years ago at Cornwall Library that focused on the sky. 

This is her first solo show.

She has been tapped to do a show and talk for a Cornwall Woman’s Society meeting in February, which will be a new challenge. 

The Parish House Gallery is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (visitors should check in at the church office first), on Sundays, from 10 a.m. to noon, or by contacting Welles for an appointment. A reception is planned for Oct. 11, 11 a.m. to noon.