Western Colorado Art Scene - Jim Pettengill, photographer

CLARITY—that's what Pettengill is all about. He is a purposeful man, who's life, work, and life-long interests have followed a clear path to where he is now: writer, photographer, and through both, preservationist of western American history. Jim Pettengill tells it like it is, in words and pictures appearing in more than 130 articles and photographs sold to national magazines over the past 25 years.

Pettengill's photographs are sharp, crisp, and clean with an incredible depth of field. "Sometimes I go right up to the photograph, take off my glasses, look and ask myself: 'Is this sharp?'" Looking at his photographs currently on exhibit at the Ridgway Library or permanently on exhibit at the Ridgway Railroad Museum, the answer is a resounding, Yes!

His scenic landscape compositions are artful, carefully composed and requiring little "darkroom" processing. Today Pettengill uses a digital (Olympus C8080) camera, but he began with 35 mm film and often did his own darkroom work. Those lessons learned translate into how he perfects his digital work today with computer software, although as he says, "I rarely have to do much except maybe crop and adjust shadows and highlights. The 8 mpxl Olympus I use is basically a point and shoot, so it' more a matter of composition than anything else."

He finds the current technology easy to work with. "Back when I was shooting motor sports (another avid interest), I had to carry around two camera bodies and multiple lenses. The equipment would often get dirt in it, and I'd have to send it out to be cleaned. Now I carry one camera. It's small and light with good optics. It works for me!"

Viewing Pettengill's photographs of trains, you also notice how he has mastered motion. That ability harkens back to the days of shooting motor sports. "Trains are a lot easier to photograph," he says. "They don't go that fast, so there's more time to setup and take a shot, although I still use the "sports" setting on the camera to eliminate as much camera motion as possible." His railroad photographs are sharp and clear, no blurred motion, an engine coming right at you, so real you can hear it coming, and smell the smoke billowing from the stack.

Pettengill, and his wife Kathy, a weaver and quilter, are outdoor enthusiasts, and enjoy exploring the country he writes about and photographs. A retired geologist, Pettengill divides his time between his writing and photography with the Ouray County Elks (he has held most offices there) and the Ridgway Railroad Museum, which he helped fund. He is also active in the Ouray County Historical Society and a member of the Western Writers of America.