Stealing beauty
The 'Color Bandit' ventures from the corporate world into glorious darkness
By Bree Abel
Local photographer Paul deBerjeois' alias, Color Bandit, is in reality less menacing and more practical than it sounds.
"If you look at the spelling of my last name, you would see that it would be very difficult for someone to see that and memorize it and then find it on the Internet," says deBerjeois, adding that he decided to look for an unused Internet URL that related to his photography.
"Color Bandit" indeed reflects the vibrant hues he captures with his camera and with 30 years of experience. While he shoots exclusively digital, he says the only "enhancing" he does on the computer is to convert certain images to a black-and-white scale.
"I don't even own Photoshop," he says. "But there are things that you can do with lenses and perspective that will twist and distort reality."
He points out the nighttime spotlight on Kissing Camels at Garden of the Gods as an example of "light painting," or using artificial light to selectively illuminate a certain part of the scene: "That's not natural, but that's not done with the computer, either."
DeBerjeois' modus operandi calls for occasional midnight missions and knowledge of the lunar clock. Using the light of the full moon, he employs long exposures that "bring out all of the colors in the features ... and it looks like it's bright enough to be daytime." But, he says, there are some clues in the skies if you look closely. (Visit colorbandit.com for a look.)
Having left the corporate world in 2008 to pursue photography full-time, deBerjeois now contributes work to local TV newscasts and is the official photographer for the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce.
Colorado Classics, which opens at the Warehouse Restaurant and Gallery on Thursday includes Colorado landscapes, Victorian architecture, a sun halo and aspens in full flame.
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