Okanagan Orchards is a collection of photos I've been working on since 2005, mostly taken within a few miles of our home in Summerland, BC. I'm drawn to the rich visual patterns in this agricultural landscape as they change through the seasons. As orchards get removed after a century of fruit farming in the Okanagan, this project may come to represent a sort of time capsule. A selection has recently been published in a small book, and the photos have also been shown at the BC Orchard Museum in Kelowna.
Looking Into Ice catalogs my passion for ice photography over the past five years. I keep thinking I've taken enough pictures of local ice formations, yet I seem to get more excited every fall as I anticipate freezing temperatures. This pursuit has resulted in a couple of self-published books, a successful gallery show, and some media attention. The mosaic created by the thumbnails of all of the photos has become a piece of art itself.
A Closer Look at the Trout Creek Ecological Reserve -- through the summer and autumn of 2011, I took over a thousand photos in the Trout Creek Ecological Reserve, then selected 40 of the best. I presented a slideshow with commentary at a special TCER event, as part of BC Parks 100 celebration in Summerland. It was well attended, with interesting talks by local author/ecologist Don Gayton, Laurie Rockwell and Ellen Simmons. I'd love to do more projects like that, working with passionate people and beautiful places.
The opening to the show was wonderful, with many friends and family joining us for art, food, wine and music. We performed The Summerland Suite for the first time ever, and it was a real thrill to hear my compositions come alive in that space.
My photos often appear on our family blog as well. If you're interested in buying prints or using images, please e-mail jhiebert@gmail.com.
I help out with a Flickr group called I Love the Okanagan. I also do two regular articles for Awesome Okanagan: Focus Fridays features a photo with some commentary each week, and In Focus, which features an interview and selection of photos from a local photographer about once a month.
You've found Jeremy Hiebert's online home, covering photography, music, family and life in Summerland, BC.
father of three, husband to one, composer, photographer, word nerd, web geek, nature lover, INTP, over-analyzer, spinner of pedals, string-bower, skeptic, curious soul, prairie-rooted, mountain-inspired, reader, microbrew fan
Most of this page covers my non-work interests. My job is as an interaction designer for a company called Xap, based in Los Angeles. They bought Bridges Transitions a few years ago, the company that hired me back in 1999 -- an eternity ago in web years. They kindly let me work from home, which suits my introverted style just fine. I've studied educational technology formalling and informally over the last few years.
Music has always been important to me, but my involvement has come and gone over the years. Ivy and I joined a beginner Suzuki group in October 2008 and the violin became a real passion of mine, acting as an entry point into composing. I've since explored the viola and the cello as well. A few bits of stuff I've collected from this time:
I've accepted the role of Composer in Residence at Penticton's Shatford Centre for Strings the Thing 2012. Compositions will include one new piece for string orchestra and two new string quartet pieces for the instructors to perform at their annual faculty concert. I'm also teaching a short course for kids in the strings camp, focused on using the computer-based tools I've learned to do recording and composition, hopefully resulting in a piece that they'll be able to perform at the student concert.
My music project through the summer of 2010 was to compose a suite of short songs for string quartet. It has an Okanagan theme, and I call it The Summerland Suite -- that site documents the process of creating the music as well as links to my rough musical sketches and the finished scores. The debut performance took place Dec.5, 2010 at the Red Rooster Winery, with special guests Liz Lupton, Martin Kratky and Jasper Meiklejohn. Video below:
In September 2011, a string quartet played several of my pieces at a BC Parks 100 celebration at Manning Park. The thrill for me was hearing a piece that hadn't ever been played in public before, called KVR Quartet:
I turned one of the quartets from the suite into the March Duet for viola and violin, which Liz played with me at a spring recital: video and sheet music.
Although the quality of the video and performance in this viola duet is poor, I'm quite proud of the piece, and I hope I get a chance to play it again at some point (without the embarrassing mistakes). Thanks to Liz Lupton for learning her part and not getting sidetracked by my gaffes. I've also shared the sheet music.
I've been playing around a bit with electronic music and remixes -- here are two recent efforts: On We March (remix of a Trent Reznor for a contest on NIN) and Geometric Stretch, a remix of one of my string quartet songs with parts stretched and reconfigured.
The first proper violin duet I composed a few years ago is called Vienna. An early recording mp3, sheet music (Word doc), and the video of me performing it at a recital with our violin teacher Liz.
I post about music on my blog, often just about what I'm listening to, but also about the process of learning and recording.
Going back into the '90s, I played bass guitar with Reg and future (at that time) brother-in-law Chad to jam -- characterized by this post from a couple of years back.
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Updated January 26, 2010. Problems with the site -- contact Jeremy.
