Silverdale Fine Arts Gallery in full bloom

Even though the weather may not agree, the Silverdale co-op gives a nod to springtime with Ed Book’s vibrant photography.

Though someone obviously forgot to tell Mother Nature, spring is upon us.

Beckoning and perhaps antagonizing the sun a bit, the Silverdale Fine Arts Gallery has been much quicker to represent than this year’s weather patterns. The gallery’s show room walls are currently plastered with the vibrant colors of spring as related through the fine art photography of local lens-man Ed Book.

His show, featuring giclee prints on watercolor paper of photos taken throughout his career, took root April 11 and will be up at SFA through the end of the month.

Book has had a passion for nature photography for almost 40 years, traveling to, hiking through and shooting pictures of many locales throughout the Pacific Northwest.

He started out as a forestry major in college and detoured his career into the field of nuclear engineering before dedicating all of his time to exploring and capturing the displays of Mother Nature.

His current show at SFA is a collection of colorful close-ups.

Macro images of flowers, other fauna and a few select insects, illustrate the sights and shades of springtime.

The colors are entrancing — deep “Purple Panzy” with an intense yellow center, the delicate pink “Light from Within” of a rhododendron, the soft white of a “Peach Rose.”

But the deeper into the show you get, the more prevalent the details become, and the more you start to wonder how exactly the photographer got this shot.

Like with “Portrait of a Dragonfly,” an incredibly clear rendering of a dragonfly hovering above a water lily, the detail is so precise even the translucent wings of the insect are articulated. In “Maidenhair Fern Unfurling Frond,” a deep green provides the backdrop for a little fern bud that is on the verge of opening up. Here again, because of the photographer’s detail, you can almost feel the fern unfurling.

For more info on the photographer, Ed Book, visit www.edbookphoto.com. WU

Book’s springtime exhibit of fine art photography hangs through the month at the Silverdale Fine Arts Gallery. In May, Eileen Schneegas’ enamel work will be featured.

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