'Two Acres in Fallbrook' a magical show

“There is incredible magic all over the hills of Fallbrook,” said Greg Ballerino, my photographer neighbor, as he sat at his computer processing the 128 digital photos he had just made the last two hours while walking around his “two acres.” As he displayed his latest work on his specially calibrated monitor, I was awed at how he had caught the magic that I had seen but which had not registered in my mind correctly. It was a visit inside a magic kingdom. “These little kingdoms exist everywhere people allow God to perform his magic,” Greg explained.

Fallbrook is in for a treat: Ballerino will present his first art show of those two acres in resplendent color and ingenious recreation at the Woman’s Club in downtown Fallbrook this Saturday, December 16. Over the last six years, Greg has made a collection of over 14,000 photographs just from these two acres.

Greg is a SeniorNet instructor who teaches digital photography and Photoshop elements at the SeniorNet Center in Fallbrook. This is such a wondrous medium for recording all those little miracles we see every day in our gardens and groves, and reinterpreting them with the emotions we feel when we have walked through something God has created, he said, with a spiritual conviction.

“There is magic in a spider web, a leaf floating in water, the petals of a flower,” Greg commented as he flipped through the computer slide show. I had him stop when I was captivated by the extraordinary symmetry of one particular cactus. He smiled. Everyone is fascinated by that design, he said, explaining that it also appears in the sunflower and many other plants. He tried explaining to me the mathematical formula God uses, called the Fibonacci Sequence. I wasn’t sure I understood, but I saw its end result in that cactus. It is extraordinary.

The people of Fallbrook can catch a free showing of Greg’s digital photography for themselves from 10:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. this Saturday. Paintings and photographs will be offered for sale, with a percentage of profits donated to the Healthcare Foundation of Fallbrook.

Joe Howard Crews