The timeless visual elements of rain, storms, snow and sunsets are presented by local photographers at the Focus on the Arts Gallery at the Pittsburgh Mills in Frazer.
The New Kensington Camera Club is presenting “Weather: Many Expressions of Mother Nature’s Personality” for free until Sept. 3. The 32 entries were judged and are for sale.
“Weather is a universal theme where photographers find success,” said Joel Varga of Harmar, president of the camera club, which operates the Focus on the Arts gallery in the Pittsburgh Mills.
Gordon Sarti, 82, didn’t have to go far to snag his first place photo of droplets of water on grass in the front yard of his Plum home. “There was a heavy mist and rain droplets appeared on the plumes,” he said.
He won third place for capturing frozen buds on his dogwood tree, again in his yard in Plum.
A retired administrator from Community College of Allegheny County, Sarti took up photography in earnest in the early 2000s.
“I love being out in nature,” he said.
His favorite photography subjects are dragonflies. “They are extremely beautiful, delicate and hard to photograph, and they don’t stay still for long.”
Nan Belli, 59, of Lower Burrell, took second place for a moody rain image featuring a woman with an umbrella in downtown Pittsburgh.
She took the shot in October of 2017.
Photography has been her passion for 40-plus years. A fan of urban landscapes, the rain photo was her attempt at street photography.
Belli had just purchased her camera and was at a photography conference in Pittsburgh. She went out but it was raining.
From under the Heinz Hall awning, she saw a woman with an umbrella walking by.
The Focus On the Arts Gallery hours are 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays, and 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. It is located in Pittsburgh Mills mall, entry No. 2, between the former JCPenney and Sears, and to the left and down the hall across from Blackburn’s.
