My goal has always been to recreate the feelings of place... to
portray how special and unique a region is, and to evoke the sensations of what
it was like to be there at the time the photograph was created. I am
inspired by the grandeur of the natural world, and try to seek out spiritual
times in the wilderness when light becomes magical, and we are transformed by
the simple power of beauty... CEH II
Biographical Information
Carl Heilman II has been photographing the wilderness landscape since
1975, working to capture on film both the grandeur of these special places,
and the emotional and spiritual connection he has felt as well. His
passion for spending as much time as possible in some of the wildest regions of
the Adirondack Park, soon became a life-long quest to create images that
record the essence of a true wilderness experience. Today Carl is a full
time professional nature photographer.
His photographs have been published regionally and nationally in
books, magazines, calendars, and advertising literature. He has had numerous
photography exhibitions throughout the upstate New York region and has won
several awards for his photography. Last fall he was awarded an
Adirondack Heritage Award by the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks
during their Centennial celebration for his photographic work on the
Adirondack region. Some of his panoramas and photographs have been
reproduced as wall murals in the Adirondack Museum and the new High
Peaks Rest Area information centers near exit 30 along the Northway. His
images are also available as posters, fine art prints, and in his coffee
table book, ‘Adirondacks: Views of An American Wilderness’, published by
Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. in 1999. Currently he is the
featured photographer for the 2002 Adirondack Mountain Club calendar.
To help communicate the emotional impact of being in wildness, Carl
has produced several evocative multi-image programs on the Adirondacks.
His programs produced for Adirondack Park Centennial were aired by PBS,
and his program on the Adirondack Waterways is shown daily at the Adirondack
Park Visitors’ Interpretive Centers. His most recent program, ‘Wild Visions’,
is a 3 projector multi-image presentation about our relationship with
the Adirondack wilderness, and our spiritual connection with the Earth.
Each year Carl leads intensive photography workshops on panoramic and
standard format nature photography techniques - and also Digital
Darkroom workshops that teach techniques for working with Adobe Photoshop.
Field sessions take advantage of the best conditions of the season, and are
designed to work around the finest light of the day.
Carl travels whenever possible to visit the National Parks and other
wild areas in North America. While he enjoys working with his standard
format camera equipment to photograph fine art details and landscapes, he especially enjoys working with his panoramic cameras - and finding
locations that work just right for capturing the full 360° view of spectacular
wild landscapes on film.
Equipment:
Carl’s equipment includes his two rotational panoramic format
cameras, and a variety of Nikon camera bodies, lenses, and Singh-Ray filters. His
Noblex 135 U works well for both handheld 136° panoramas, and tripod
imagery, while the Roundshot Super 35 is designed for use on a sturdy tripod. The
Roundshot gives complete panoramic flexibility with programmable image formats
up to and including multiple rotations of 360°, a lens shift both up and
down, automatic exposure throughout the image with manual adjustment
override, bracketing, and compatibility with all of his fixed focal length
Nikon lenses. This allows him to use his glass Singh-Ray filter system with
his Nikon lens system that ranges from a 20mm 2.8D wide angle lens to a
1052.8D telephoto / macro lens. In addition, he also has a 35-70 2.8D zoom
and an 80-200 2.8D zoom for the N70, and a 35-105 3.5-4.5 zoom for the
N2000.
He still uses his Nikon N70, N2000, and FM camera bodies for
wildlife, closeups, and scenics. Often he carries both formats into the
backcountry, with the Roundshot and lenses in a LowePro Orion pack / backpack on
his back, and the N70 equipment and zoom lenses in another Orion pack
slung over his neck and shoulder. A sturdy Gitzo carbon fiber tripod rounds out
the photo equipment. He likes to travel on the waterways in the summer
with his superlight 16 lb. Hornbeck canoe, and still enjoys heading out into
the mountains in the winter on a pair of snowshoes.
Carl’s choice of film depends on the lighting conditions and the type
of photograph. In addition to using Kodachrome 25, 64, and 200, he also
uses Ektachrome 100S, 100SW, 100VS, and Fujichrome Velvia. While he often
uses Kodachrome for sunny conditions, the Velvia has a real richness in
soft lighting situations, and the Ektachromes have a very wide exposure
latitude for both broad daylight, low lighting conditions, and night
photography.
Archival Inkjet Prints
Today’s digital photographic technology is truly
amazing. It has helped eliminate many of the constraints of traditional
darkroom techniques, and allows us to more fully recreate our artistic
visions. Digital technology offers better reproduction of the vibrancy
of the light found in the
original transparency. Digital files also provide better detail, and can
be enlarged to much larger sizes without a loss of clarity.
While digital technology can be used to completely change the content of an image, Carl only uses it to reproduce the original image as a print with the best possible color tones and detail. With digital techniques, it is easier to duplicate the subtle tones in the highlights and detail in the shadows and work with the colors and saturation.
To produce these prints, each original transparency was scanned to create a digital file and then meticulously cleaned and color corrected on a high end graphics computer. They are printed with a professional Epson 7600 photo quality printer using inks and paper that have an archival life of 70 years or more. All prints are shipped rolled in a tube.