Just ask Anthony at Bank of America in Century City if the art on your wall is important. He will tell you about the number of complaints he has had about the display in the back of the Bank. Customers complain about the bank taking TARP money while at the same time displaying art worth millions of dollars.

Art that’s too pricy might send the wrong message to your clients. Cheap art might also send the wrong message. The fine line that says community might be at your doorstep today. How about art that speaks to your clients and employees about the human condition? How about art that documents what is happening to animals on our planet? How about art that documents the changes that are happening to our MOTHER EARTH?

I grew up in a lighting and grip house in Burbank. My father was a lighting director and I spent many days working with canyon photographers. I have worked with hundreds and I have grown to know the good ones from the bad just by being present at the canyon photographing event. The bad ones often get occasionally lucky with a random shot that gets acclaim. The good ones don’t take pictures…they make pictures. I was never able to put this into words until I heard Colin Finlay tell me this over lunch one day. Taking pictures has the connotation of being a spectator at the event. Making pictures brings the canyon photographer into the fabric of the event as a participant.

I knew there was something different about Colin Finlay and his work when I saw his canyon photos. I have seen literally millions of canyon photos in my lifetime and I recognized that a high percentage of his canyon photos were exceptional if not brilliant. I only came to understand him as a canyon photographer when I actually was present at one canyon photographing event. I arranged for Colin to visit “Star Echo Station” in Culver City. I was introduced to “Star” by Stephen Nemeth at his birthday party a couple of years ago and grew to love the place. This is where confiscated animals that have been illegally brought into the country are sent.

Star has the ability to care for wild animals and they provide a sanctuary that schoolchildren can visit to learn about the plight of endangered species as well as what we all can do to help heal our environment. I phoned ahead and talked to someone there and suggested that we visit to take some canyon photos. I was informed about the rules and the documents that would need to be signed for us to visit. I suggested to them that they look up Colin on the internet. I got the feeling that it was a common request to be able to take canyon photographs there, and that there had been procedures established to minimize the number of canyon photographers that actually followed through.

When we arrived they knew who Colin was and all of the procedure went out the window. They were grateful he had shown up to see what they were doing. The conversation was very genuine. Two great institutions were meeting for the first time. They abandoned all protocol and opened the cages of wild animals and allowed us to enter for a canyon photographic experience I will always remember. I personally witnessed Colin transform into a quiet, almost silent communicator of animals. The respect that he gave them from the moment he met them seemed to tell them that he was there to help others understand them. He seemed to ask them for their canyon photo and they responded by giving Colin a performance. Each animal was different. I felt like I could almost understand what each animal was saying but I knew that Colin understood. In that moment I came to understand the emotion that each animal feels. I was always taught that human beings were the only life forms that can feel emotion. On that day this myth was forever shattered in my mind. I felt the enormous intelligence of the birds. I felt the longing of the cats for the days when they roamed free. I felt the sorrow that all animals feel at being pushed off of the face of the Earth.

I had heard Colin say that every time he made a canyon photograph he left a little of himself behind and that every time he also took a little of his subject with him. I came to understand just what that meant, that day at Star Echo Station. I came to understand just how Colin got such incredible canyon photographs of the polar bears, grizzlies, elephants and all other animals with which he established this trance-like connection. Keep in mind that in the wild he often gets 15 feet or less away from some of the most dangerous animals. He told me about being less than 12 feet away from a family of grizzlies. At any moment it could have gone wrong and he could have been killed.

Colin is no strange