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Hello NPN community! Thank you so much for having me and I’m looking forward to all of your thoughtful questions! My name is Beth Young and I’m a nature photographer living in Northern California. I am very passionate about capturing uplifting images that hopefully have a therapeutic effect on the viewer of my images, that is truly what drives me as a photographer! My work is featured in hospitals, clinics, cancer centers, and healthcare facilities throughout the west coast, and I’m deeply interested in the research and evidence base that inform the healing arts that have a positive impact on patients.
I grew up in upstate New York and have always been enthusiastic about the arts, expressing myself through drawing and cartoon animation. That creativity eventually led to my current, full time career as an architect, holding an executive leadership position in a national firm. It’s always a struggle to balance full time work with my passion for photography that is my true creative outlet, but whenever possible, my husband and I love taking off-road trips in our 4WD truck camper which has everything we need on a very small scale, and allows us the opportunity to spend more time and become more familiar with the places we both love to photograph.
Living in Sacramento, California, I am fortunate to be close to beautiful and iconic landscape photography locations on the west coast, but I get just as excited photographing plants and flowers close to home. I’ve participated in group and solo exhibitions in galleries throughout California, and have recently delved into photography education, leading and assisting in the field photography workshops.
I am learning new things all the time too, but please feel free to ask me anything, whether it’s about processing, selling or showcasing your work, balancing a career with photography, or whatever it may be, and I will do my best to answer!
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Beth - I just spent a few minutes on your website and love the soft, misty quality of many of your images. I can see that this quality would be appreciated in healthcare settings. I would love to have some of my own photography used by a similar clientele, and recognize that I need to curate my images more tightly than I have them at present. My biggest question is that I don’t know how to go about reaching out. Is a lot of it a matter of networking, research to find out the purchasing division, and making calls?
Hi Denise! Thank you so much for your question, and I also love that you aspire to have your work placed in healthcare settings, as artwork really does make a big impact. My advice is to focus your outreach efforts on art consulting firms in your immediate geographic area. Healthcare facilities will hire an art consultant to curate the artwork (in all mediums, including photography) and I’ve seen the demand for local, regional, authentic imagery, especially of non-iconic locations. What grabs attention and gets high engagement on social media is far different than the local nature images that are in demand by healthcare facilities that provide a calming sense of place and respite for the viewer. Once you have curated a select cross section of this type of imagery, I would include this with a professional looking biography or artist statement- I have used all avenues of reaching out, but, if the art consulting firm has formal guidelines for submitting your work listed on their website, I’d follow that, OR I find a carefully crafted email to be effective. I’d explain that you are a local photographer with a library of regional imagery and looking to collaborate with them. It took me a while to build these relationships, but once you do, they are invaluable to streamlining an income stream.
Hi Beth, thanks for doing this. I love your work, and am astonished at how aligned my purpose in photography is with yours - only I am 68 and likely have a lot more time to work on it! I am a retired RN and currently have my photography in local hospitals throughout my state of Idaho for the purpose of promoting a sense of well being. Being a science based person, I am interested in the research you’ve found related to how nature nurtures our physical and mental health, and how you’ve applied that in your educational efforts. I have volunteered to lead a class at our town’s Alternative High School the end of May and would love to hear your insights as I develop my lesson plan. I hope to turn this generation’s obsession w/ their phones into using it as a tool (taking photos) to connect with nature.
Hi Beth! Thank you for taking the time to do this AMA.
Like you, I am a design professional (landscape architect) with a long second career as a photographer. We are fortunate to have two simultaneous creative careers and I have taken the time to define how my design practice informs and influences my photography practice.
How does your practice in architecture influence your practice in photography?
Hi Connie! Thank you so much for your question, and I love that you’re a retired RN and a photographer with this passion, that is so cool! One source of a research repository of the impact of nature on wellness is the Center for Health Design (https://www.healthdesign.org/). Something to keep in mind is that site is partially behind a paywall but the research articles and recorded webinars are really thorough on topics related to nature, wellness, and biophilia, plus many more research topics in the healthcare realm. You could also go down an internet rabbit hole by looking for the healing arts research of Roger S. Ulrich and Laura Gilpin. As an RN, you may know this already, but Ulrich pioneered the study around post-operative surgery patients whose rooms had windows with views to nature and green space required less pain medication and were discharged earlier than patients whose windows overlooked nothing more than a brick wall. Another recommendation I have is the recently released book, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us” by Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross and Ellyn Jameson; it’s a fascinating book compiling the research around the effect that art and nature have on our brains, also known as “neuro-aesthetics”. I think there’s many things in that book alone that could inform your lesson plan with your students; not only does looking at art and experiencing nature transform us, but the act of creating art transforms us too, and smart phone cameras are an accessible way to do that!
Hi Matt! Thank you for taking the time to submit your question, and I agree, having two creative careers is something I’m also very happy to have! Both require a lot of hard work, long hours, and dedication. It’s funny, when I first got interested in photography, first in high school and later in college, I experimented a lot with architectural abstracts and details, as well as more urban street photography that are in closer alignment with my architectural career. But over time, I have really gravitated strongly to nature, and find that the same basic principles of composition apply; I may look for small details and structure in a natural subject, like a plant or flower in the same way I would look for small details and structure compositions in the built environment too. I strongly think that both architecture and photography strike this perfect balance of the technical with the creative using both our left and right brains in equal measure. Both photography and architecture benefit from an understanding of, and sensitivity to, light, composition and form.
Hi Beth! You have a beautiful website, and I was impressed by the way you have it organized and laid out. Very easy to find your way around. Well done!
As with the other questions, mine concerns getting into a healthcare environment. I live in a very small community, but live within an hour’s drive to a larger city that has three hospitals ( 2 ea. non-profit (Baptist & Ascension Healthcare), 1 ea. for profit (HCA owned)). I’m sure all three probably use Art Consultants, either locally or out of their corporate home offices. I don’t even know what department of the hospital to ask for. Who do you usually ask for (department name, position name, etc.) when contacting these folks? As you can tell, my strength lies in photography, NOT marketing (I’m probably the world’s worst when it comes to marketing!) Thanks so much for your time!
Hello Beth,. I am a recently retired engineer living nearby to Sacramento in Diamond Springs. Kudos to you on such wonderful photography while also working in architecture. I found it difficult to mix in photographic time with work and home life.
My question is about forest photography (mainly redwoods) and choosing good times to photograph there. How do you choose a good time? Is there a best season or time of year? Or, do you use an app like clear outside and see a few foggy days predicted and decide to head on up to the redwoods? I was just up in the Humboldt Redwoods and in Lieu of fog I tried early morning low light contrasts…I’ll see if that works out at all once I edit!
Hi Bill! Thank you so much for your kind compliments on my website- I personally think it needs work still, but I’m a perfectionist
And, no, I highly doubt you’re the world’s worst at marketing- I struggle with that very much, too, believe me! I think a lot of photographers struggle with that aspect of the business.
So, I don’t contact hospitals directly; usually, when there’s a project or an art need inside of a facility, the healthcare organization will contract with an outside, independent art consulting firm to help determine the artwork needs, desired art mediums, quantities of pieces, color palette, durability, etc. The art consulting firms are “one stop shops” that handle the curation of artwork and working with individual artists, all the way to the final installation of the pieces- a layer between the artist/photographer and the healthcare facility, if you will.
As simplistic as it sounds, do an internet search for art consultants or art consulting firms in your geographic area. From there, you can look at their past projects and get an idea of the project types they support, and whether healthcare falls into that, as some specialize in corporate interiors, hospitality, or high end residential rather than healthcare. Many times, they have an artist submission form on their websites, but each firm is probably a little different. I’ll often reach out with a direct email if there is no submission form. Like I mentioned to Denise above, a carefully crafted artist statement or resume along with a selection of carefully curated images that represent your strongest work and aesthetic is essential when reaching out. Honestly, I don’t take it personally when I don’t hear back- you don’t always get a response, which doesn’t mean your work is not worthy- it may just be there isn’t a specific need at that time. I started out just working with one art consulting firm for a long while; eventually, when others had seen my work, other art consulting firms started reaching out to me with artwork needs, too. It’s taken years to build a reputation in my region, but it does pay off if you stick with it. As with many things in business, professionalism, responsiveness and demonstrating commitment to your craft will help you stand out.
Yet another avenue to explore is to sign up for newsletters that aggregate “calls for art” which sometimes will include healthcare projects. I subscribe to CAFÉ (https://www.callforentry.org/) and EntryThingy (https://www.entrythingy.com/). These services are free and the newsletters will include a summary of current calls for art. I’m sure there are more but those are the services I’m most familiar with.
James! Thank you so much for stopping by and for your question! And congratulations on your recent retirement- I have to admit, I’m a little jealous! As much as I love my architecture career, it is a constant struggle to juggle that with photography. I can’t always plan photography outings around project deadlines, meetings, etc. I look forward to the day when I have the freedom of time to chase the weather.
As you well know, California is a HUGE state, so the drive from our area up to the redwoods is a long one! The time of year I have always gone up to the redwoods is around the end of May (I’ll usually leverage a long Memorial Day weekend for this), because that’s when you might get a beautiful combination of foggy redwood trees and rhododendron blooms- pure bliss!! June likewise is a good month to time your visit if you are looking for this magical combination. And, if you are lucky, you might see a lupine bloom along the ridgelines of Bald Hills Road past the Lady Bird Johnson Grove Trail, too. This year, I am going to try going up to the redwoods in July- the rhodies may have dropped their blooms by then, but summer is usually a better time for coastal fog when our inland valleys heat up in the 90’s or even 100’s. I’m hopeful with our state’s wetter weather patterns this year, we’ll see more fog, too, fingers crossed. Clear Outside is a great app to use, and it was David Kingham who turned me on to using the Windy app, which is super detailed about all aspects of weather including dewpoint and fog. That’s the thing with Mother Nature- you will never know what you’re going to get, but that’s part of the fun, too!
A presentation you made in the past year or two (possibly via Angel McNall) sparked my interest is trying to contribute some of my photography for use in retirement homes, memory care units, healthcare settings and so on. I think unfortunately, almost all of my work is B&W. I have assumed that that would be somewhat of a barrier, as clearly my images are not bright and colorful. Without actually seeing my images, how would you assess the appeal or appropriateness of B&W images in these types of settings? And any thoughts on how to overcome barriers to B&W, if they exist?
David, this is a great question, and thank you for asking it! I so often try to use color psychology and color harmonies in my editing, with somewhat specific color palettes that I tend to gravitate to (cooler, soothing blues and greens with pops of complementary bright colors) and while I greatly admire black and white images, my brain just isn’t wired in a way to process my images in monochrome to where I feel very confident about sharing them with the world (although I try)!
When I am looking at an image to process, I ask myself if the color is adding to the story I’m trying to tell, and for me personally, 95% of the time, it usually is, with just a few minor exceptions. Sometimes, choosing to process in B&W simplifies the geometries, and composition in an image, and suggests a powerful mood. My personal opinion, right or wrong, is that B&W images convey a mood of sophistication, sometimes even austerity, but that’s not to say, there’s no place for B&W imagery in those settings. I’ve seen a trend of mixing B&W images with color ones, printed on an un-framed, un-matted substrate or wall covering in a “collage” type style. To be honest, this is my only experience selling B&W images for healthcare purposes, if it is part of a larger collage type installation. I think there may be one or two examples of that on my homepage carousel of installation images- a high contrast B&W mixed with more colorful botanical images.
Overall, that’s such a great question, though, because color has such an effect on mood and reaction, and some of the larger healthcare facilities have set artwork standards for infusing more color into their spaces.
I love seeing you here! I love your style of photography and yes, it is super calming and peaceful. I am curious about your processing style. Your images are dreamy and almost high key. Do you take them that way? Or is this achieved when you process them?
Martha! It’s so great to see you here, and thank you so much for your question! I’m not overly technical when it comes to processing, even though that’s the part of digital photography that I actually really enjoy. I look at a RAW file like a canvas that I imprint my own style onto. But, there is so much I do not know when it comes to Photoshop especially. I find myself using PS only for spot healing, some clone stamping, some adjustment layers, maybe some layer masking, and that’s really about as technical as I ever get. One of these days, I’d love to immerse myself in learning PS for a solid week! But, in the meantime, I do most of my heavy editing in good ol’ LR, and I just try to get as much correct in camera as I possibly can.
When I’m editing, I’m really guided by intuition- looking at an image and asking myself, what do I want this image to say? Or, what mood am I looking to convey? And, a lot of times for me, that is in a bright, high key style. It sounds weird, but I also like to be in a certain frame of mind with a positive attitude when editing- I think that makes an impact on the final product also.
My other favorite program is a clunky old version of Nik ColorEfex Pro, I just love it. My favorite tools (or filters as they’re called in that program) are brilliance/warmth which somehow really makes those purples and blues really sing, as well as the vignette blur or vignette filter, which is a fun way to add more bokeh to flower images especially.
I will tell you I have had photographers message me directly or email me with unsolicited advice that my blacks and my contrast is too low, and my shadows are too high, which sorta used to bother me, but now, I just embrace my own style, and if folks don’t like it, they can keep on scrollin’! But, if a particular image warrants more drama, and I want to convey that kind of dramatic mood, I’m not afraid to clip my blacks either!
Like I said, I look at my RAW files like a canvas, and that really puts me in a creative mindset when I’m ready to crack my knuckles and get to editing!
