Eureka, with a population of 500 in a county of just 1,500, may seem an unlikely place to relocate a business from the bustling environs of the Portland area especially for an artist.
But Trish and Deon Reynolds, owners of Reynolds Photography, managed to secure the peace of small town life yet remain true to their muse.
"Eureka is a wonderful place to be," says Trish Reynolds. "We sold the second car. We hardly ever use our vehicle and can walk everywhere we go."
Still, she admits, "Part of living in a small town is having a variety of jobs. We are diverse."
Collectively, the couple's work includes:
* Artist in residency at schools in Fallon and Virginia City.
* Artists in residence at Great Basin National Park.
* Workshops scheduled at St. Mary's Art Center in Virginia City.
* Selling photos on spec to Nevada Commission of Tourism.
* Selling photos for an annual Las Vegas calendar.
* Selling photos represented by stock photo agency photolibrary.com.
* A photo gallery in a narrow-gage rail car opened last Fourth of July, the height of the tourist season.
* Plans to run a greeting card business from perennialpress.com.
* A photo rich book, "Las Vegas: Portrait of a City," published in 2006, which followed a 2001 coffee table book, "Nevada."
* Portraiture and photo restoration. "In a historic town like this, it's amazing what people have stuffed in shoeboxes," Trish Reynolds says.
While a remote location makes finding some services a challenge, printing photos is not one of them.
Since photography went digital, the couple can produce everything on the spot, including prints up to 17 inches wide. And a darkroom is on the way.
The Nevada book sealed the move from Oregon to the Silver State.
"Once the Nevada book was published, we found the majority of our work was coming from Nevada," says Reynolds. "We would drive to Death Valley for warmth and sunshine to escape the cold and gloom of Oregon. We fell in love with back roads of Nevada and traveled the state for 12 years, capturing imagery."
(Photos are online at deonreynolds.com)
