FARMINGTON — SugarWood Gallery artist of the month of June, David Clinard, will be feted at an open house reception, Friday, June 1, from 4 to 7 p.m. The public is invited. Refreshments will be served. The gallery is at 248 Broadway.

“I was just a 12-year-old kid taking black-and-white photos with a Brownie box camera for 4-H projects I can’t recall anytime I’ve not loved seeing the world through the lens of a camera,” said Clinard.” My education in photography has been largely self-taught with the exception of a black-and-white class I took at the University of Maine Augusta where I honed my composition skills. Being now a senior citizen I was one of those who left black heel marks along the way as I resisted the transition from film camera to digital camera. Now I love digital, not the least reason of which is that I no longer come home from a coastal shoot with seven rolls of exposed film not knowing if I have any keepers.

Now my Canon SX50HS zoom gives me the freedom to throw the smallish camera bag over my shoulder and just go, as I’m not the sit-and-wait-for-it sort of guy with a heavy bag full of lenses. So far it meets my need to catch that next image waiting just around the bend. I love emphasizing the simple beauty of nature that, in our hurried life, we often pass by unnoticed — which is why called my little photo business, “Simple Wonder.”

Clinard is a retired respiratory therapist and lives in Oakland.

SugarWood is open Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

“Great Falls Balloon” by David Clinard