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Kimerlee Curyl is a photographer dedicated to capturing the beauty of wild horses. She currently resides in Santa Ynez, California with her two horses – a paint mare named Sequoia and a newly-adopted wild mustang called El Regalo. She is represented by one of the country’s largest fine art publishers, prestigious galleries, along with national, international, and celebrity collectors. Her work has been used in numerous advertising campaigns and product branding. Most importantly, it has become a small voice for those who don’t have one…our remaining wild horses. To see more of her work, visit her liveBooks8 website: www.kimerleecuryl.com.

I love all things WILD, believe ‘Art has a voice’ and am ridiculously in love with horses. That is what fuels the core of my work. If I’m not working on a gallery project, editing or out in the wild photographing our iconic wild horses in their beautiful home wild territory, I’m riding and playing with the coolest wild horse you will ever meet. Lucky for me, I’m surrounded by wild horse, the teaching and art of the horse every day of my life. Photography has been a love most of my life, taking my first class in high school and still have the project that earned me probably the only A+ that entire school year. I spent my 20s and 30s studying the art of acting in Hollywood and upon a visit to an orphanage in Tijuana in 2003 with my last coach, a 35mm camera in hand, a shift was made. I feel like I “returned” to something I was very intrigued by in my youth. Once a stunning mare entered my life in 2004 and the plight of our wild horses was revealed to me, I was captured and never looked back. Art and advocacy became my passion, photography my medium, horses my heart.

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

KC: Inspiring, Contemporarily Clean (I hope anyway).

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

KC: I have been with liveBooks since 2006, the initial site layout I used until this year! Colors, sizing, fonts (and images) have changed but I not only loved the simplistic look to my site, I received many accolades regarding it, so stuck with it. With the new platform and new available templates, I wanted to change it up a bit, so it’s been a work in progress this year.

Q: How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

KC: I like that I can change the homepage. If I have an opening or event coming up, it’s great to have the option to rotate what is featured here.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

KC: I have always loved the fact that I can edit without having to hire someone for each change, can update or change something in a moments notice. And while the new platform had a minor learning curve (for me), it’s now easy to navigate around. I also loved that I could incorporate my blog onto this site versus navigating away to separate site for it. Over the years with liveBooks, I have also very much appreciated the customer service I have received.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

KC: While you might be inspired by others, be unique and share your voice. That should be the heart of every artist and shine through in your website.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.

Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Joshua Holko is a full-time Professional Nature Photographer who specializes in polar photography. Joshua is a fully accredited AIPP Master of Photography and member of the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers (AIPP). He has won countless awards for his photography including being names the 2015 Global Arctic Photographer or the Year.
Joshua is officially represented by Philip Kulpa and the Source Photographica Gallery in Australia and Aspen, Colorado. To see more of Joshua Holko’s work visit his website: www.jholko.com.

I am extremely excited and proud to be releasing my new short film – Ghosts of the Arctic. The product of more than two years of planning Ghosts of the Arctic was filmed exclusively in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard in the depths of Winter. It is my hope that the film will impart some of the haunting beauty of this incredibly precious and endangered polar wilderness; as well as give you some insight into my life as a Polar photographer. I hope you will take six minutes out of your day, set your display to full screen, turn off the lights, crank up the volume, and allow Ghosts of the Arctic to transport you away to one of the world’s most spectacular polar regions; in it’s rarely seen winter veil. Please enjoy.

My most sincere thanks to both Abraham Joffe and Dom West from Untitled Film Works who worked tirelessly for a week straight putting in eighteen hour days in freezing temperatures to shoot and produce this film. My thanks and gratitude also to my friend Frede Lamo who likewise worked tirelessly with good humour and whose assistance with expedition logistics simply made the impossible, possible. Without the dedication of this team, this film would simply not have been possible.

It would be remiss of me not to also provide a little insight into what it was like to make this short film. During the Winter shoot we experienced temperatures that were never warmer than -20ºC and frequently plummeted down as low as -30ºC + wind chill factor. We were exposed to the cold and elements for up to sixteen straight hours a day. Many days we drove over two hundred kilometers on our snow mobiles in very difficult terrain and conditions as we searched for wildlife. The bumpy terrain left us battered, bruised and sore. We experienced three cases of first and  second degree frostbite during the filming as well as a lot of failed equipment and equipment difficulties as a result of the extreme cold. We had batteries that would loose their charge in mere minutes, drones that wouldn’t power up and fly, cameras the wouldn’t turn on, steady-cams that would not remain steady, HDMI cables that became brittle and snapped in the cold, frozen audio equipment, broken LCD mounts, broken down snow mobiles and more. We existed on a diet of freeze dried cod and pasta washed down with tepid coffee and the occasional frozen mars bar.

It is hard to put the experience into words, but just the simple act of removing ones gloves to change a memory card in these sort of temperatures when you are exposed and exhausted comes with serious risk of frostbite. In my own case, I removed my face covering for one three minute take and suffered frostbite (from which I have not fully recovered) across the right hand side of my face. And whilst not all of this will come across in the film, I think I can safely say it was without any shadow of doubt the toughest film shoot any of us have done.

For the technically inclined: Ghosts of the Arctic was shot in the 2.35:1 cinema ratio in true 4K High Definition with Canon, RED, Sony and DJI 4K High Definition camera systems.

Absolutely no wildlife was interfered with in any shape or form during the filming and everything you see is totally natural behavior.

Jeff Lewis is an adventure and rock-climbing photographer located on the East Coast of Canada. He travels throughout the Western United States and Canada to capture fascinating images. He also dedicates his time to conducting photo tours and private workshops. To see more of his liveBooks8 website, visit www.jefflewisphotography.ca.

I first started with photography after a trip to SE Asia to go rock climbing. I wanted to be able to capture my travels and the landscapes around me to show people how amazing this world really is. When I returned from that trip, I began to shoot photos of my home, Jasper National Park, as well as when I would go climbing with my friend. After a few years working in the “real world”, I decided full-time photography was the path for me and I haven’t looked back since.

Q: How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

JL: Clean, Focused, Simple.

Q: How often do you typically update your website?

JL: I usually do updates 2-3 times a year, unless I complete a new body of work I’m excited about, then I’ll add it right away.

Q: How do you choose the photos you display on your homepage?

JL: I want those that visit my site to get a sense of who I am and what I do right away. As I mostly shoot landscaped and climbing, I try to choose the best images from those categories to show on the homepage. Hopefully those few images are enough to entice a longer visit, where someone can take a deeper look at my work.

Q: What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

JL: One of my favorite features is that I can go to the Content section, add a page and then make it invisible. That way I can work on it until I’m ready to launch, or until I have enough content so that it is not empty when I publish it. Also, the ability to publish with one click is quite nice as well.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

JL: Take the time to make sure you have everything the way you want it. With the ability to make pages invisible or not publish changes right away, you can view your changes on your own before you publish to your entire web audience. I think it’s important when viewing a website to know that it’s a finished product and not a “work in progress”.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.

Michael Holtby is a Travel and Wildlife Photographer based in Denver, Colorado. His work has been exhibited in the Camera Obscura Gallery in Denver and has published a variety of print portfolios including a coffee table book called One Planet, One People. To see more of his work, visit his liveBooks8 website: www.denverphotography.com

I have been taking photographs seriously since 1968 when I traded a kayak for a Pentax Spotmatic. My mentor was a student of Minor White and inspired me to do more than snapshots. In the early 1980s, I attended the Colorado Institute of Art in Commercial Photography and was initially a Studio Product and Portrait Photographer. At this point, I am retired and can now take assignments only selectively, related to my primary interests: travel, ethnic cultures, and wildlife. I sell my work with gallery showings, but primarily I would describe what I do as “personal work”.

How would you describe the aesthetic of your website in three words?

Colorful, impactful, and joyful.

How often do you typically update your website?

I update my site usually about once every three months, usually following a lot of travel shooting. However, since updating to liveBooks8, I’ve been tweeking it every couple of weeks.

How do you choose the photos that you display on your homepage?

I try to display photos on my homepage that grab your attention, but also represent the various galleries.

What is your favorite new feature of liveBooks8?

My favorite feature of liveBooks8 is the ease with which I can modify my website, add to it, and display galleries. I also love the video gallery that allow viewers to quickly peruse or choose a closer look.

What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone designing their website?

The average time people are on a website is likely to be short, so tailor your site to hook viewers with a quick look.

Have a website you’d like us to feature? Email us at social@livebooks.com.