20080514 Eye for Art: Young photographer has high hopes for artistic future by Lyndi McNulty

Eye for Art: Kasey Keefer - Young photographer has high hopes for artistic future by Lyndi McNulty in The Advocate

May 14, 2008

http://westminsteradvocate.com

14.MAY.08 Eye for Art: Young photographer has high hopes for artistic future

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Kasey Keefer has grown up on the outskirts of the City of Westminster. He is a creative 17 year old who will soon become an Eagle Scout on May 28. Keefer is also a talented photographer.

“My Dad, Andy, has always been the family photographer for all five children for school, sports, and scouts,” Keefer remembered. “He has been an amateur photographer as long as I can remember. Anytime there is a family event, he is there taking his ‘15’ shots so that he can get the right one. He believes that someone will blink,” Keefer laughed. “Dad puts up with all the derisive comments on the length of time all this takes because he knows that everyone will love the photographs when they are finished.”

“I picked up some of his skills by being around him. One Christmas, my parents bought me a digital camera to take on my scout trips since I go so many places. After using for a while, I realized that I enjoyed taking photographs and that is when I got serious about it,” he said.

“One of the times I really started to play around with the camera and explore with it was when I went to The Bahamas High Adventure Seabase with the Boy Scouts,” Keefer said. “We met with the captain of a tall sailing ship who taught us how to sail.”

“For 10 days the Captain and 10 Boy Scouts sailed the ship around the Abaco Islands doing everything from swabbing the deck to raising sails. Sunsets, water, and native plants made great subjects. One evening the boat was keeled a little bit, and the flag was illuminated by the sunset. I had fun playing with that as a photographer.”

“After that, I started to shoot and learn more and more. I would read photo magazines, study other photographers’ work, and examine my own to figure out what I did or didn’t like about it, and what would make it better.”

“Last summer I went to Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico with 12 Boy Scouts. I saved up and got a more capable camera for that trip. We backpacked through the Sangre de Cristo Mountains for ten days. It was just amazing. I was looking forward to that trip as a way to really take some good photos. The last day of the trip, we got up at 3:30 a.m. to climb to the top of Schaeffer’s Peak; we watched the sunrise as if it were a movie. Everyone was standing there, looking in the same direction, just waiting silently. I moved around and shot a series of photographs so I could stitch them into panoramas on the computer. That means I took the photographs, lined them up side by side on the computer screen, and made them into one long photo,” he said.

“Anything and everything is a possibility for a photo for me. Every time there is a sunset or an ice storm I would grab my camera and go outside and take photos. I would spend hours just shooting and learning. Now I take my camera everywhere with me. I do macro photography which means that you get really close to an object such as a flower or a leaf.”

“Currently, I want to keep shooting and learning about photography,” Keefer said. “I want to do a photo show and I have just started selling my work.”

You can contact Keefer at Klunkymunky@comcast.net.

— Lyndi McNulty is owner of Gizmos Art in Westminster.