Newcomer shows eye for photography

MOSES LAKE - It's true that photography is a skill that requires a lot of practice as well as a unique way of looking at the world.

It's also true that sometimes kids don't get enough credit when credit is certainly due.

Take 10-year-old photographer Jonas Keller, for example.

New to the Moses Lake art scene, Jonas says he has only been a photographer about eight weeks. His color photograph on display at the MAC is his first ever.

"There's a lot of things to know about cameras," Jonas says, "There's shutter speed and settings ... there's hundreds of settings to know."

Jonas, like any first-time exhibitor, is very modest about his abilities.

"I didn't decide on anything, I just took the picture," Jonas says of his framed color photo. "It's the lake in fall with the mud starting to show."

He says using the "rule of thirds" helped him in taking his photograph.

"The rule of thirds is where you have three lines in the picture," Jonas says. "The land, the water and the sky all together in the picture make the rule of thirds."

Jonas comes to Moses Lake from Seattle. His mother, Wendy Keller, says the move was "like setting a bird free, he loves it here."

"I've always thought he has an artistic eye," Wendy says. "Drawing sometimes takes too long; photography has a faster product."

Wendy says she and husband, Mark, will continue to encourage Jonas "to continue looking" carefully and closely at the world around him.

Pops Carter, Jonas' teacher who instructs the eight-week photography sessions, says he was more excited about Jonas' photo in the juried show than he was about his own.

"The eye was always there with Jonas," Carter says. "He just needed to focus. The first five weeks of homework he turned in he was seeing good pictures and but he wasn't talking to his camera. He had to slow down and let the camera set itself up, then he started looking at all the stuff in the background."

Carter says a lot of new photographers drop the right hand because that's where the button is, and Jonas did that quite a bit in the beginning.

"I didn't lean on that in the beginning because we were leaning on things like, why doesn't your chicken have a head?" Carter says Jonas submitted two photos, but the landscape scene was better suited for the show.

Carter says he will continue to instruct Jonas during the advanced photography classes coming up.

"I think the thing that stood out the most with Jonas' piece is the use of perspective," says Museum Manager Freya Hart.

When asked if he was going to exhibit his advanced work in the future, Jonas just smiled and said, "Maybe."

Jonas Keller's photograph is on display at the MAC, 228 West Third Ave., until Feb. 4.