Bainbridge Island boutique to showcase Uniquely Northwest Photography

Published 1:30 am Friday, October 28, 2016

Jason Shipley wasn’t looking for passion when he stumbled into his true calling. He was looking to be lazy. Searching to slack, man.

But when he sought refuge in the arts while striving to avoid the more rigorous offerings among his high school’s curriculum as much as possible, the innocent idler found himself inadvertently behind a camera — and hooked for life.

Shipley is the founder and lead photographer of Uniquely Northwest Photography. Though primarily known for his landscapes, he also does portraiture, architectural and more abstract photography as well. A sampling of his stellar snapshots will be on display at Paper &Leaf next month, with an opening night reception kicking things off at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4. Light appetizers will be served. The event is free and open to anyone 21-and-older. The display will remain available to view during the shop’s regular business hours for at least a month.

It’s a long way from where he started in the craft — which was practically by accident.

“When I was in high school I did everything I could to take the easy route,” Shipley remembered.

“I identified that if I took math and science in summer school, those classes were only 20 days in the summer as opposed to the 90 days in a semester. When I came to my junior and senior year of high school I had all of this open schedule where I had to fill it with electives, and I thought hanging out in the art building would be the best place to be and I found myself in the photography studio,” he said.

That, of course, was in the days of film. Even though he’s now a digital convert, Shipley said he still loves the alchemy of the darkroom more than time spent in front of a monitor.

“I’ve literally been shooting since 1991,” he said. “I started back with film and I’ve been doing it ever since, with the exception of back in the ’90s when film kind of went away and there was the conversion to digital. I actually stepped away from it for about five years. I didn’t feel like you could be as creative on a digital platform.”

He’s since changed his tune about that, and in fact found many of his most important skills were easily transferable to newer gear.

“I think I was probably intimidated and a little overwhelmed,” he said. “It wasn’t until I picked up [a] cell phone that had a camera and editing apps that I thought, ‘Wow, this is something. This is powerful.’ It drew me right back in. Ever since then I’ve been pursing it as much as I can.”

Whether he’s photographing cute kids or majestic mountains, untamed wilderness or the overlooked minutiae of everyday places, Shipley’s work is known for having precise composition, an arresting color palette and for being, well, unique.

“I think that the way that I process or see composition is quite a bit different from other people,” he said.

“The rule of thirds and composition, I think, is really what sets my photography a little bit more apart from other people and that’s something that I learned traditionally back in my 35mm days and I’ve carried that forward over the years.”

In preparing for the Paper &Leaf show, Shipley said he gathered an assortment of work, a myriad of subjects and styles, to summarize his vision.

“There’s going to be several different series presented at the show,” he explained. Landscapes, urban and rural, abstract reflections, astro photography and even some self portraiture is set to be included.

Shipley said he’s excited to exhibit his work at Paper &Leaf, the shop itself being of a uniquely Northwestern aesthetic, which the likes of no less than the San Francisco Chronicle’s SFGate called, “the nicest marijuana store in Washington.”

“It’s been very welcoming,” the photographer said. “Both [shop owners] Steven [Kessler] and Brendan [Hill] have been gracious in opening up the space and donating it to me.

“To get that kind of wall space in a boutique cannabis shop — or even in a gallery or wherever — it’s a high traffic space. For them to donate that wall space to me is incredibly gracious.”

Visit www.facebook.com/uniquelynorthwestphoto graphy.com or www.paper andleaf.com for more information and to see more of Shipley’s work.