Nature is photographer's focus

Library gallery exhibit embraces beauties of Alaska and Nevada

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Her roots go back to the Alaskan seacoast where she and her people, the Tsimshian Tribe, lived their lives in harmony with the changing tides. It is that ability to tune into nature which puts Marcella Brendible's photography in a special niche.

Her work is now being exhibited at the Rainbow Library, 3150 N. Buffalo Drive.

The 24-piece collection is titled Experience Nature in a Different Light.

"Her photography has very strong imagery," said Denise Shapiro, director of gallery services for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. "It's dynamic and sophisticated."

The exhibit encompasses pictures from both Alaska and Nevada.

"I put one flower picture in there, just to entice people," the 53-year-old Brendible said. "I was going to show (various topics) but then I started listening to my heart."

A Las Vegas resident since 1977, the artist has been listening to her heart most of her life.

Following that inner voice, she now concentrates on photographing the desert and spends as much time there as possible.

Brendible is delayed a little each time she starts out on a new trek. That's because she meditates about an hour before leaving home to open herself to clues from nature.

At the site where she decides to photograph the desert, she again calms herself with meditation for about 15 minutes.

Even then, the message may not be clear enough.

"Sometimes I'll think I'm done, that I've shot all there is to shoot and then nature will come along and say, 'Not yet,' " she said.

One time, she was sure she'd seen it all and was packing up her gear when she looked down and saw a single drop of water, just sitting on a flower petal.

"That one little thing, it encompassed everything I'd just spent hours trying to capture," she said.

Brendible has the freedom to set her own schedule and will drive hours for a chance at capturing a desert flower just as it blooms. She can be gone from home for three or four days.

"My other car gave out," she said. "I put, what, 40,000, maybe 50,000, miles on it a year."

Her newest vehicle, a Lexus 4WD, bears the scratches of scrub brush she tackled in the desert. The appearance of the car is unimportant, she insists. That's what you have to go through to get the shots that matter.

About a year ago, Brendible received a phone call from a friend who needed to talk.

The friend needed to talk so much, the phone call took more than two hours and Brendible gave up the idea of going into the desert that day.

In the middle of the conversation, Brendible felt compelled to say an odd thing.

"I think you may have saved my life today," she recalled telling her friend.

That evening, Brendible saw on the news that Cowboy Canyon -- the very place she would have been if the phone call had not changed her plans -- was ravaged by a flash flood that created a 20-foot-tall wall of water. No wonder she listens to her heart.

Brendible's gallery exhibit will be on display in the library through March 26.

For more information, call Blue Raven Fine Arts Photography at 228-0518.