Cutting Room Floor

Images make the cutting room floor for many reasons.  While constructing this website I revisited many of my images from the past 5 years.  One in particular has haunted me, this dramatic sunset from the Mittens in Monument Valley, UT.  It was during the Natalie and Alain Briot Navajoland workshop on March 14, 2004.  The moment was one I will never forget as it was host to the most dramatic sunset I have witnessed to date.  I had been working on the Mittens Panoramic composition, which was 180 degrees from the sunset.  Moments after the light in the east had faded on my composition the sun decided to step it up a notch to this incredible display of intense light.  That is what I remember about it the most...the INTENSITY.  You could almost feel the heat of the moment.  It was very invigorating.  In my hands was my relatively new Canon 10D.  I was still learning the ins and outs of the system, but that isn't what ruined the technical execution of this image.  It was a simple matter of violating the 1/focal length rule for exposure times.  My focal length on this composition was 40mm and my shutter time was 1/10 of a second.  Too long to be hand held and there is a bit of softness on the image to ruin a high quality print.  I also left the ISO to 100 which could have been increased dramatically to shorten the shutter speed.  But it all seemed to happen so quickly, which is why we really need to be well versed in all of our camera controls.  Another problem I had with this image is that I really struggled with the color balance.  Bringing some new techniques, software, and a better-trained eye, I decided to take another run at processing the image today.  Most of the work was performed in Light Room 2.5 with some tweaking in PS4.  Even with all of this, the image would be very challenging to print well as the intensity of the color and light are difficult to translate from the monitor to the printer.  I have added no saturation to the image at all...like I said...it was intense.  I love the image for what it does for me...recalling an incredible moment in time of intense light at a beautiful location.  Enjoy the image and prepare for your next moment of intense light in the landscape.  Take care. 

If accumulating bad photos means anything...

I have read references to some insight by Ansel Adams about not being a good photographer until you have taken enough bad images.  I think he also said that 12 quality images a year is a good crop.  The website "redo" has provided an opportunity for me to step back and really evaluate what are "good" images.  The process is not entirely pure as my bias has many influences that don't necessarily have anything to do with the quality of the image.  One strong bias is the difficulty in either acquiring the image or in processing the image.  The harder one works on acquring or processing an image the more likely that image is going to make it into the portfolio.  On the relaunch of my website I have thrown out some images that have taken many hours of my time to get just right.  Upon further review these images simply don't reflect my artistic presentation style or meet my quality standards.  This is a good thing!  I am now embracing the current tag line "less is more" when it comes to portfolio construction and web presentations.  I hope you enjoy the images in the gallery so far and I look forward to adding quality images to the collection over the next few months.  Take care and Happy Thanksgiving. 

New website coming along

Hello all,

I am well on my way to testing and implementing an entirely new website presentation.  This is my first day working with the interface and I have to say I am very pleased so far.  The host is squarespace and what makes it interesting is the ease of use and customizability of the web presentation.  If you are reading this you are just seeing the beginning shell of the site.  Many features have yet to be turned on.  I will keep you updated over the next few weeks as to how the site is coming along.  Thanks for your patience and have a great Thanksgiving in the U.S. 

Photographic education

Photographic education never ends. The sources I utilize for continuing education are listed in the links section to the right. Most recently, Charles Cramer provided an update to his Photoshop handbook to his email subscribers for free! Charles is one of, if not the best, photographic instructors in the word today. I owe a great deal of my improvement to his instruction and photographic examples. The update covers a lot of the changes with PS CS4 and there were a lot of changes. I encourage you to visit his website and sign up for his newsletter and to certainly look into taking one of his workshops. I hope to attend one of his Yosemite workshops in the next couple of years myself. One additional note is that I have been working very diligently on the Smoky Mountain portfolio or "folio." This will be an entirely new presentation and one that I really find conducive to my artist vision. I will keep you updated as the folio nears completion. I am expecting the folio to be completed in the next couple of months. Take care and have a great Thanksgiving.

Smoky Mountain Rain

I was hoping for at least one day of rain for atmospheric enhancement on our Smoky Mountain photography trip and boy did we get one. I have more portfolio images from the rainy day than from all others, but I didn't need 1-2 inches of rain, just a mist or a sprinkle would have been just fine. I love the saturation that the rain provides. My gear selection for rain prevention included garbage bags and umbrellas. Many other photographers recommend the garbage bag option as a way to demonstrate frugality. I have now yielded to the more elegant option for rain protection which includes a Kata E-702 camera rain cover from Amazon. I received the unit a few days ago and while I haven't had it out in the elements, it appears to be just what I need. It can cover my 5DMKII with the 24-105 zoom and even the 70-200 f2.8 IS zoom. You can find more information at Amazon or by Googling Kata. This will now be a permanent part of my supplemental bag for those rainy/snowy days. Can't wait to use it on our return Smoky's trip in April!