Lightning strikes again -- "Spiral Staircase" now accepted into Louisville's National Photo Exhibition -- one of 100 chosen from over 900 submitted. Third exhibition so far.  The show runs May 24 through June 2, 2024. Awards reception is May 24, 6-8pm.

Shelton PhotoWorks' image, "Spiral Staircase" has been selected in a juried group show as an offering in the architectural category, and will be displayed at the "Exploring the Light Photo Show" at. the Lone Tree Arts Center.  The show opens Mar 27 and runs through June 11, 2024.

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"Spiral Staircase" won a 3rd Place Ribbon in the exhibition.

A creative group of photographers, Photo Pensato, brings their unique lens back to the Sangre de Cristo Arts and Conference Center in 2024.

Photo Pensato will be exhibiting in the White Gallery beginning February 16 and continuing through April 27. The reception will be on Friday, March 1, from 4 to 6 p.m., in conjunction with First Friday activities. There will also be an artist talk on Saturday, March 2, from 11 a.m. to noon. The exhibit will showcase fine art photography with traditional and contemporary themes featuring landscape, abstract, portrait, still life and more.

Following professional portfolio reviews hosted by Colorado Photographic Arts Center (CPAC) last March in Denver, PhotoWorks is developing a series of collage works, multiple exposures and abstractions intended to address the role of man within is built environment, while also exploring personal perspectives where permanence is no longer guaranteed — embracing an unsettling instability in ourselves and in the community and land around us. 

In June 2023, John Shelton spent three weeks exploring new material in spring around and near Puget Sound, including Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Whidbey & Vashon Islands, and along the Olympic Peninsula.  The trip was mostly exploratory with no specific exhibition or project intent, but rather to gain perspective on natural and urban variances outside his usual faire.  The most intriguing observations included work around docks, the ocean, and marinas -- including work in stop-shutter work on sea wrecks and pilings throughout the area.  Please check the galleries for new additions.

Opening: February 23, 2023 to April 1, 2023

Works by Shelton PhotoWorks and other Photo Pensato members will be featured in the Center for Arts Evergreen's new exhibition, "Immortalized: Lens & Light."  The show includes work by photographers and glass artists. Artists have used glass to create art for centuries. Estimates say that glass lasts longer than 1 million years—an almost infinite amount of time in human history. Immortalized: Lens & Light explores the way in which artists create with glass and glass lenses—stained, fused, blown, mosaic, and fine art photography—to celebrate and commemorate people, cultures, or moments in time.

Opening: January 6, 2023 to April 1, 2023, 4:00 pm. to 7:00 pm.

Artists participating: Thomas Carr, Ron Johnson, Linda Little, Raj Manickam, Jim Montague, Stephen Podrasky, John Shelton and, Russell Ward.

Photo Pensato is a collective of photographers with varied styles and techniques, inspired to create images that reflect their unique and personal perspectives. “Pensato” is an Italian term for a musical note so exquisite that it can be neither played nor heard.

As part of its partnership agreement with the Art Center of Estes Park, Hike Rocky Magazine is featuring a G=gallery artist with each new bi-monthly issue.  John Shelton has been selected as the first such artist, with feature coverage and video coinciding with his new 37-piece solo exhibition currently displaying at the Center.  Hike Rocky editor, Barb Boyer Buck, traveled along with John on a trip into Rocky Mountain National Park collecting shots featured in the April/May issue of the publication.

Shelton PhotoWorks is featured in a new solo show at the Art Center of Estes Park, running from April 29 - June 6, 2022.  The show, entitled "Anywhere But Here" includes 37 images taken outside Colorado, both nationally and internationally.  Images include landscapes, street, architecture and abstracts, including "Ukrainian Sunflowers", a recent and popular piece in support of US-Ukrainian solidarity.

On March 5, 2022, the artwork of Shelton's "Ukrainian" Sunflowers was featured on the NBC Nightly News broadcast, serving as a backdrop for social media efforts in support of Ukrainian solidarity against Putin.  The complete segment is shown here -- the artwork appears at counter 1:13 in the video.

On March 2, 2022, Shelton's "Ukrainian" Sunflowers was featured in the 6:00pm newscast on NBC-Affiliate, KWCH-TV in Wichita, Kansas.  The segment focused on the viral popularity of Shelton's work on Facebook, drawing comparisons between Kansas and Ukraine sharing sunflowers as their state flower.  The subject was timely given the nature of conflict now impacting both Ukraine and Russia.

Beginning in late February, 2022, Shelton's work entitled "Ukrainian" Sunflowers has gone viral on Facebook with an image of Kansas sunflowers superimposed with the flag colors of Ukraine.  Shelton created the piece in solidarity and support of the Ukrainian people now at war with Russia.  Initially posted solely on his personal Facebook page for social reasons, the work has since been shared, viewed, and purchased by thousands in appreciation of this timely issue.  Shelton has arranged that 1/3 of all proceeds have been (and will be) donated to charities in support of Ukrainian aid during to the war.

More than half a dozen of John Shelton's photographs will be featured at the Sange de Cristo Art Center's King Gallery beginning January 22 through May 7, 2022.  The work is included as part of a group showing of Photo Pensato, a photography Collective. Photo Pensato is a collective of photographers with varied styles and techniques, inspired to create images that reflect their unique and personal perspectives. Every member comes from decades of experience across a diverse field of photographic output, all of whom are now focused on a fine art imagery.

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A public reception is scheduled from 5-7pm, February 4, at the Art Center.

The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), Colorado Chapter, has appointed John Shelton to its Board and Executive Committee as Treasurer for the FY2022 season. ASMP is a professional association of imaging professionals, including photojournalists, architectural,

underwater, food/culinary and advertising photographers as well as video/film makers and other specialists. ASMP advocates for photographers' legal rights, supports information-sharing among members, and provides business and technical information. The ASMP has more than 4,000 members in over 30 countries.

John Shelton recently completed a digital collage course at the Colorado Photography Arts Center (CPAC) to better utilize Photoshop and iPhone applications for building digital asset files and creating composite artwork from multiple image elements.  Thanks to artists Fran Forman and Suzi McGregor for their insights and expertise throughout all three days.  Fran Forman is a nationally recognized photo collage artist.  Her new book, "The Rest Between Two Notes", is available at PhotoEye.

John Shelton's photography is again in exhibition as part of Photo Pensato's second group exhibition at Colorado Mountain College in Leadville.  The show opens October 15, with a reception from 4:00-6:00pm, and runs until November 19, 2021.  Thirteen of Shelton's images are featured, including ten 16x20 prints, plus three wood-mounted, architectural collage pieces.

As a member of Photo Pensato, John Shelton's photography will be featured in Photo Pensato's new exhibition at Colorado Mountain College in Vail, Colorado, from August 13 to September 17, 2021.  A public reception will be hosted on the 13th at 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.  Photo Pensato is a photographic collective featuring quality artists based around the world.

The Art Center of Estes Park, working through their satellite space at US Bank in Estes Park, is featuring 12 landscapes created by Shelton PhotoWorks.  Images will be on display from May 6 - October 7, 2021.  My thanks to the Art Center, Anne & Jim Sneary.

The Louisville Art Association in Colorado has selected a submission by Shelton Photoworks, "Nurturing Roots", to be included in their National Photography Show, May 28-June 6, 2021.  "Nurturing Roots" is one of 100 pieces selected out of 619 entries from photographers nationwide.  A virtual awards reception is scheduled for May 29, 2021.

D'Art Gallery in Denver has selected "Regeneration" for its annual photography exhibition, "Your Vision," opening on April 8, 2021.  Shelton Photoworks was selected along with 36 other artists for the show.  The opening reception is scheduled for April 9, 5-7 pm.

The Estes Park Trail Gazette has featured four Shelton PhotoWorks images in its annual wall calendar for 2021.  Images were drawn from news coverage throughout 2020, as well as unique photographs retained for calendar use only.

A total of 24 images are now available, or on display at the Art Center of Estes Park for the 2021 display season -- 21 images are new, never hung at the Center previously.  Works include a variety of color and black-and-white frames and wood-mounted prints.  Subjects range from landscape to urban collage.  Unframed matted prints are also available.  The Center is located at 517 Big Thompson Avenue, Suite #245, Estes Park, Colorado.

Shelton PhotoWorks has donated two framed photographs in support of the Art Center of Estes Park, in Colorado, for a fundraising auction running through December 13, 2020.  All auction proceeds are retained by the Art Center for operations and programming.  The two pieces include "Aspen at Mill Creek Basin" (icon pictured), and "Sunset at MacGregor Ranch"  (background).

John Shelton has received a Certification of Completion for the Photography Assistant Workshop sponsored by the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), Colorado, completed on September 27, 2020. In addition to being an active professional photographer, Shelton's participation in the Assist Workshop prepares him to work effectively in a studio or on-site shooting environment for other photographers. This includes the use of lighting equipment, modifiers, stands, backdrops, booms, and editing software. 

Two photos of the Cameron Peak Fire were published in the main news story in the Estes Park Trail Gazette on August 19, 2020. The fire, clearly tragic in scope, provided the backdrop for images taken from Alpine Ridge above Trail Ridge Road on Saturday, August 16. Images include a color and color panoramic of the fire, plus an unpublished black and white 400mm close-up of the central fire plume. 

Kathy Hill, President of the Spanish Peaks Arts Council in La Veta, Colorado, announced today that John Shelton has won a Merit Award for his entry, "Early Spring Marsh," in the Color Category. His work was invited for exhibition by the Council for its 2020 Annual Photography Exhibition. The opening reception will be held at the Council's Gallery on August 1st. The exhibition will run from July 28 through August 29, 2020. The image was taken in spring 2019 near the Fern Lake trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park.

Judge's Commentary: "I enjoy the de-romanticized swampy feeling of this place. The subdued colors are stark, and the whole piece speaks of decay and rebirth so eloquently." -- Cynthia Hollings-Morris 

The Spanish Peaks Arts Council (SPACe) promotes and encourages educational events in the arts in the Spanish Peaks region of southern Colorado. Their annual photography exhibition is open to all arts internationally, but with works included through invitation only. The exhibition is open to the public, July 28 through August 29, 2020. 

In support of two ongoing exhibits up through September in Estes Park, Shelton PhotoWorks was recently featured in the Estes Park Trail Gazette's "In & Out" Section of the E-Edition, July 8, 2020.

Installed at Estes Park Health, Shelton PhotoWorks is featuring six large photographic collage pieces inspired by the work of artist, David Hockney. In these images, I seek to find the moment to be uncertain, more fleeting — less a projection of the frozen "instant," but rather a statement of movement within a static frame. Here we see the future and the past all at once, the displacement of a photographic "reality," and the fragile instability of present time. People and things reappear elsewhere; embracing the known becomes unknown; perspectives become altered, and we are forced to examine our changing world differently. The display at Estes Park Health will run July-November, 2020. 

This is Shelton PhotoWork's largest solo exhibit to date totaling 37 images overall. The majority of pieces include images of natural landscapes, and architecture, with a few additional shots featuring places specific to the community of Estes Park. The show is free and open to the public -- all pieces are for sale and will be on display through December 2020. 

Four new photo placements of spring imagery placed in the Estes Park Trail Gazette, taken as recently as May 23 at Red Mountain Open Space in Larimer County, Colorado -- published, June 5-12, 2020.

Shelton Photoworks has an image featured in the Estes Park Trail Gazette in the April 1st edition, In & Out Section, Mountain Memories. 

Shelton PhotoWorks has started the new year with a total of thirteen new landscape images now on display at the Art Center of Estes Park in Colorado. The works include mostly color, plus black and white works representing scenery from throughout Colorado and Wyoming. Several images are specific to subjects found in Rocky Mountain National Park and the Pawnee Grasslands in northeastern Colorado. 

Throughout the months of August and September 2019, Shelton PhotoWorks will feature examples of its architectural portfolio in a solo exhibition on the 2nd floor of Estes Park Health in Colorado. The work focuses on black and white images taken in Denver, Saint Louis and Red Rocks, CO, in 2018. Architectural shapes, line, patterns and textures have always been a personal passion in the high-contrast environment of black and white presentation. Structures feature the Saint Louis Arch, Denver's Union Station, the Pulitzer Museum, and Denver International Airport, among others.

In an effort to move in more creative directions, and working beyond the basic image, Shelton PhotoWorks is starting to work with multiple images in the form of photo collage inspired by artists such as David Hockney and Abigail Reynolds. It's a process of shooting multiple images from a single spot, or from two spots in close proximity, but with different perspectives to add variety. The frames are layered in Photoshop and overlapped, staggered or extended out towards the viewer on a large canvas. The distortions, changing exposures, and content perspectives create a sense of a ripple in time, duplicitous imagery and variety of perspectives that challenge the viewer's sense of stability in hard image photography and up-end the frozen-image-in-time concept often associated with standard image photography. More examples of John's photo collage work are located in the Abstract Portfolio (button), or done by others on display on John's Pintrest page (just click the image). 

The recent Black Box Gallery exhibition, "Landscape and Architecture", which featured Shelton PhotoWorks' "Red Rocks Vomitorium", has now been published in a book by the same name. Now available at Blurb Books. 

LA Artcore, one of Los Angeles' more prominent galleries in the downtown art district, has selected Shelton PhotoWorks' "Mobility of America" as one of the pieces for its Third Annual Photography Exhibition, running February 1-28, 2019. Artist selection was juried by Aline Smithson. A photographic artist and educator, Smithson currently has her work on exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in London. 

The current exhibition at the Art Center of Estes Park features the work of artist members who joined the Art Center the previous year. This year's exhibit runs from January 4-February 10, 2019, and celebrates seven very talented artists and their variety of media: Russ Anson - Photography Carole Barton - Watercolor Bruce Boynton - Oil Laura Davis - Photography & Photo Collage Barb Richards - Fiber Pat Sebern - Oil & Pastel John Shelton - Photography 

The Plymouth Center for the Arts (Maryland) . announced its selections for its juried 5th Annual I-Phonography Exhibition, opening on January 17, 2019, through February 28. Shelton PhotoWorks' "Ladder" is included in the online exhibition. The Center's intent is to recognize that mobile digital devices offer the opportunity for spontaneous photos, an intuitive artistic workflow, and a multitude of easily available creative applications. Any image taken with a mobile device, (cell phones, tablets, or iPads) were eligible. "Ladder" is a black and white digital print taken with an I-Phone 8 in Loveland, Colorado. 

Black Box Gallery has accepted one of Shelton PhotoWorks' images, "Red Rocks Vomitorium" as part of its main gallery presentations in the upcoming Landscape & Architecture" exhibition, running from January 1-20, 2019. Black Box Gallery is dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary photography. Black Box's juried international photo shows provide important opportunities for emerging and established photographers. Black Box supports and encourages the creative production, exhibition and critical appreciation of contemporary photography. 

Every year, the Center for Digital Arts hosts their "Snap to Grid" open show, displaying hundreds of unframed works from around the world. Shelton PhotoWork's "Yellow Bus Stop" was included in the exhibition that runs from December 13, 2018 through January 5, 2019.

The Colorado Photographic Arts Center, in conjunction with the Denver Architecture Foundation, has selected the work of John Shelton, along with the work of 29 other artists to participate in a juried online exhibition from a field of 205 total submissions. The exhibition, entitled "Y/OUR Denver" was created as an extension of DAF's annual Doors Open Denver festival. Y/OUR Denver features photographic work that includes architectural imagery of and about Denver, and was juried by Samantha Johnston, Executive Director of Colorado Photographic Arts Center.

Established as Estes Park's longest running and most established non-profit arts gallery for 31 years, the Art Center of Estes Park has included the works of John Shelton as a participating member on its artist roster. Following a juried entry process, seven new pieces from Shelton PhotoWorks are now officially on exhibition at the Center beginning in October. The Art Center of Estes Park represents local and regional artists from The Rocky Mountain area. It's a non-profit gallery featuring the high-quality artwork of 40 local Colorado regional artists in a broad selection of media: oil, acrylic, mixed media, watercolor, pastel, etchings, jewelry, ceramics, glass, fiber, photography, sculpture, and wood. 

The monthly art display at the Estes Park Valley Library will feature a retrospective of sixteen Shelton PhotoWorks images, including landscapes, architecture and street photography. This is the Library's first exhibit since remodeling last year. The exhibit will run from March 3, 2018 through March 31, 2018 on both floors in the main library. 

The Art Program, featured as part of the opening of the new Estes Valley Community Center, will include a Shelton PhotoWorks image, "Long's Peak In Clouds". The full exhibition is a changing gallery in the main lower lobby, featuring the work of local artists, by invitation, for periods of three months at a time. The current exhibit will run from the opening on March 3, 2018 through May 2018.

Entitled "Rancho San Rafael Winter", this shot was taken January 3, 2016 at Rancho San Rafael Park in north Reno just west of the Wilber Day May Museum on the fields where the Reno Balloon Races are generally held in September. 1 /250sec, f9 18-50mm Canon lens. As a resident of Reno at the time, I had already speculated on shooting some isolated trees in Rancho San Rafael, and felt this particular day might make a nice outing for "bleak" winter themes. The sky was thick with inversion and would provide both a muting of the sun and a monochromatic backdrop for foreground subjects. In this particular shot, I was especially pleased with the linear format of the fence, white on white, and the symmetry of the trees (some bare, and some still with leaves) in alternating succession.