View Finders

Photo credit Chris Greer.

View Finders Puts the Beauty of Georgia In Focus

Premieres Saturday, April 23 at 9 AM

By Mandy Wilson

As the credits roll on each episode of View Finders, you’ll hear “Chasing Light,” an original song written and performed for the program by the Georgia band The Lonesome Dawn. The tale of photographers capturing images is perfect for co-hosts and program creators Chris Greer and Jason Clemmons.

Though they come from very different backgrounds, the two connected through their craft, and now they’re giving GPB viewers the chance to be inspired by Georgia’s beautiful landscapes and learn photography techniques that anyone can use.

Chris, a professor of instructional technology at Georgia College, author and successful professional photographer, first met Jason, the owner of Sunrise Grocery, a popular Blairsville tourist spot, after they corresponded through social media.

“I bought a camera and just tried to learn how to use it. I shot everything automatic, but I came away with some images that compositionally, I thought were really strong.”

- Jason Clemmons

Photo credit: Jason Clemmons Jason, who owns the store with his wife Jessica, says he first really became interested in photography when he bought a camera for their honeymoon in Glacier National Park.

“I bought a camera and just tried to learn how to use it,” he explained. “I shot everything automatic, but I came away with some images that compositionally, I thought were really strong.”

Since that time, Jason has honed his skills and produced a calendar every year, while Chris is set to release his second book, Naturally Georgia: From the Mountains to the Coast, this summer.

Ironically, as Chris explains, the inspiration to produce something for television came after being out on a shoot and then coming back to his cabin, where he watched an episode of GPB’s Emmy award-winning original series Georgia Outdoors, which he’d been a regular viewer of since moving to Georgia.

“The wheels started turning, and I called Jason,” said Chris. “I had already done a little work with GPB in the past on the academic side doing some virtual reality field trips on the GPB Education site.”

Their hope was that the show would be a vehicle to get people out to enjoy the beauty of Georgia through photography.

“We didn’t want to get too technical, because a vast majority of the audience doesn’t want to learn about shutter speeds and aperture, but at the same time we did want to provide some insight into improving your photography,” said Chris. “We even have some scenes where we put up our professional gear and just get our phones out and show those pictures to the audience, so they can say ‘Hey they got these pictures with literally the same phone that I have, so that means I can take this picture too.’”

Photo credit: Jason Clemmons

Photo credit: Jason Clemmons

So what can people expect to see on the program?

“My favorite thing to photograph is woodland trees and stuff,” Jason explained. “Chris was like, ‘You’ve got to go to Cumberland. That’s like tree nirvana.’ We talked about Blood Mountain. The rest was kind of like going with a theme, like the coast, the swamp, the mountains, and the river. We’ve got these spectacular places, and they are totally different.”

In addition to sharing a love of photography, Chris and Jason are also big music fans and wanted to incorporate Georgia musical artists, such as the aforementioned band The Lonesome Dawn, into the program. A call out on social media resulted in musicians from all over the state responding that they wanted to be a part of the program.

“Jason and I are artists,” said Chris. “Musicians are artists. There’s a big artist community in Georgia, so why not try to combine all of our crafts into something special?”

Tune in for the premiere of View Finders at 9 a.m. Saturday, April 23.

For a preview of the show and more behind-the-scenes extras, scan this QR code for the View Finders web page on gpb.org.