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Several times throughout the year, when Smoke Signals pops up on your screen, you may be immediately captivated by the visually rich photograph that greets your eye. This photograph immediately transports you from whatever you're doing into the romantic world of the beautiful American West. It's also very likely that Nadine Levin is the eye behind the lens that created the image before you. (As a matter of fact, check out her photo Heading Home in the Featured Photography section of this newsletter). For Nadine, life, and her photography, is about "savoring the ordinary, not just the extraordinary." What she captures with her lens, however, transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

"I've been taking pictures since I was a young girl. I always loved cameras and taking photos." It wasn't until after the birth of her first son some 28 years ago that Nadine began really learning the craft. "I was taking so many pictures and we were traveling so extensively around the world with my husband at the time, that I finally decided to take photography classes and learn everything I could about lighting and even developing my own photos. People would suggest to me that I should become a professional photographer, but at the time my two sons were my entire focus. My life was entirely devoted to raising my boys and taking a lot of pictures along the way."

Nadine, while East Coast born and raised, has always been a cowgirl at heart. Her passion for the West runs deep. "I grew up riding English (the hunter/jumper thing) but I didn't play with Barbie dolls, I was watching Bonanza. My Mom found an old picture of me dressed up like a cowgirl when I was very little - I guess I was born to it."

Nadine, and her current husband Alan (a man who is unquestionably a cowboy at heart) live the Western lifestyle just outside of Washington D.C. in Maryland. Their home and ranch is designed, both inside and out, to rival the finest in Jackson Hole. They've brought the richness of the West to the East, complete with a Western barn filled with horses wearing Western saddles.

Yes, passion for the West runs deep for both she and her husband. That passion has also led them to be very involved as sponsors of the TCAA show at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. "Being involved with these organizations has enriched our lives to such a great extent."

It's not often that passion becomes profession, but for Nadine she feels so lucky it has turned out that way. With both her sons, Mac and Josh, now grown and on their own, her life is entirely about capturing a time and place in history that will never again be repeated. This is how she views photography - they are virtual snapshots of a time and place that will never occur again.

While Western photography is where the fire in her soul really lies, her world travels are evidenced in her expansive portfolio of life and nature around the globe. All of her photos evoke emotion, whether it makes you smile or inspires a story, they captivate your imagination. "All of my photography is real and completely natural. You see what I saw through the lens at that moment. There is so much trick photography out there but my work is completely organic."

Nadine is also passionate about "savoring the ordinary, not just the extraordinary." "This was really a result of surviving an illness very few people survive. I can't explain it but after that experience, I began noticing things, simple things and their beauty, that I never noticed before. That experience also enriched my life in an unexpected way and it's a fundamental part of what I hope my photographs convey." Nadine did comment though, that a few times her photography has allowed her to photograph the truly extraordinary. "I shot a Space Shuttle launch once. Now, that was extraordinary," she recalls.

High Noon is honored that Nadine Levin and her photography is part of our family and of Smoke Signals. Her work transports us from our computer screens to a place we would all rather be. Rich and evocative - that's what her work is about.

For Nadine, she loves her profession now but what she loves even more is when people "get" what her photos are about. "It is so validating for me when someone looks at one of my photographs and exclaims, 'WOW!' That's the best part for me."


www.nadinelevinphotography.com
Nadine@nadinelevinphotography.com

Timothy John Fitzgerald McCoy came into this world in Saginaw, Michigan on April 10, 1891. His parents both migrated from Ireland to "Amerikay." Like many Irish emigrants, his father became a police officer and rose to the rank of Chief of Police of Saginaw. Due to his father's position, he was able to introduce Tim to the legendary William F Cody, after a performance of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. Later he was also able to see the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show. Tim would hang around the stockyards and watch cowboys break wild horses. The boss wrangler, noticing the dreamy eyed youngster watching them, gave Tim a lesson on throwing a catch twine (rope). Tim McCoy in his interesting autobiography - Tim McCoy Remembers the West recalled: "My experience inside that corral made me acquire a certain respect for the cowboys who daily stood in the midst of rearing, galloping, and half-wild horses. And while it was clear to me that a cowboy's life was fraught with danger, I still thought it would be a most exciting profession." The die was cast. Tim at age 18 (1909), left St. Ignatius Prep School, Chicago, IL, without his parents' knowledge and headed West on a train bound for Omaha to learn to be a cowboy. As an aside, award winning western singer/songwriter RW Hampton wrote a moving, autobiographical song "Born to be a Cowboy". Like Tim McCoy, they were not born and raised on a ranch; however they were born to be a cowboy and cowboys they would become.