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As the sun dropped, I really wanted to make good use of the larger puddles of water that formed on the beach. I held my camera just off the surface of the water, aiming up slightly with my wide angle lens. After a handful of frames, Adam said “Get him!” and Squiggy ran right at me. In the past, I might have stood up to avoid getting bulldozed and stopped shooting. But after years of photographing, it’s finally instinctual to keep on shooting when something unexpected happens. Because you never know what you’re gonna get and you sure as hell can’t recreate it.

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I went to Tahoe over the weekend with my friend Adam and his dog, Squiggy. We had an unbelievably gorgeous friday at Squaw Valley, where the Space Cowboys showed up with the UNIMOG and rocked the apres ski patio. Saturday was the Snow Fest parade, which closed through traffic in Tahoe City. So we headed for Northstar, where unbeknown to us, they were having a big contest. The place was a nightmare till we got further up the mountain. We skied uncrowded Rendezvous most of the day, going as fast as we could, every run. So much fun… On our way home, we stopped at King’s Beach to take the dog for a walk. But once we got to the water’s edge, I looked through my wide-angle lens and saw the makings for some great imagery. We shot for an hour plus and did a lot of good work. The dog had no idea I was trying to make a classic portrait, so I had to be rather patient and hope that she would give me something that complimented where I’d positioned Adam. While he stayed still, she walked all over the place and I got this. I will release more images from this shoot as the week progresses.

http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/LEprimer.html

There is a lunar eclipse scheduled for February 21st and I’m planning to go photograph it rise over Mono Lake. I’ve never been there, but have always wanted to go. Just recently, I started reading Fred Miranda’s forum on his valuable-to-any-photographer website, www.fredmiranda.com. He has awesome Photoshop plugins and I encourage you to visit. It was in the landscape forum that I just read about the eclipse coming up in a matter of days.

While shooting the helicopter skiing adventure last March, I kept noticing my own reflection of the shiny chrome button on the video camera. I also noticed the simplicity of the three-mode control button and while looking at myself in the reflection of the button at the same time, how the whole scene pretty much summed up my life. I suppose you could substitute “off” with “sleep if you wanted to, but I like it just the way it is.

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This was an image that I hadn’t planned and never would have created had I not had my camera on my shoulder and ready to fire. We were on the ferry, leaving dock, as this entire scene started forming. The moody sky and the oily look of the water with the weathered dock was magical. But we were moving away quickly, so I got a series of shots as we left and the view kept changing. But this is the one. What’s crazy is that original file of this image is almost 17 megapixels and zooming in allows you to actually recognize the faces of those people waving goodbye.

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While I was shooting the pear trees, it started to rain again and I looked up to see the beginnings of a rainbow forming beyond the orchard. So I quickly jumped back in the car and headed towards an open field where I thought I could make a good image. And of course, the perfect farmhouse was right out there in the middle of it. It took driving about 300-400 feet to get it to line up just right. At first it was just the bottom bit. But as I was shooting, the whole top half opened up. It was pretty cool.

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On the way back from Tahoe, there is a stretch of the freeway that runs right up against an orchard of trees. So, of course they caught my eye and of course I had to pull over, get out in the rain and create and image that was calling to be made. The image creates a sense of orderly confusion that, in a way (I’m about to get deep here), mirrors modern human society.

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This is a great example of when to use a really wide-angle lens. I stood right behind the chairs, and shot down, in order to get this perspective. The morning was very dark and gloomy with a thin layer of fog on the water. Sometimes, photographers shooting landscapes get sad when there’s no sun. But if you pay attention to light and dark, you have the potential to make a great black and white. In looking at my settings, I realize that for even greater depth of field, I probably could have increased my aperture another stop or so before the shutter speed got too slow to hand hold.

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This is the largest water fall in Europe. And it’s in Iceland. It’s AMAZING… Wikipedia has another photo taken further to the right. I arrived here with my fellow travelers to find that the only 2 people there were leaving. There is no big gate, no big signs, no trashcans, no pic-nic tables, not really much of anything… except a realllllllllly big waterfall. When you are at a place like this and there is really no sign of man, it can lead you to imagine you are there at a time when the earth was created. Here in the states, a place like this would be crawling with yuck. I know that was SO eloquent, but also very accurate…

Last summer, I spent a week with my family on Monhegan Island and Boothbay in Maine. Boothbay is where one of my two uncles moved with his wife while he saught treatment for leukemia the last couple of years. Chip was an adventurer, often coming to visit with wild tales that seemed almost Indian Jones-like. He had the same sparkle in his eye my father does. My cousins and the rest of the family were all there together for several days, looking at very old family photos and eating lots of lobster. Chip passed away several months ago, bless his soul. We miss him dearly, but he will remain in our hearts. Here is a slide show I made of our time together. Remember to cherish the special people in your life. It all happens way too fast…

I recently came across this print of a very photogenic ex-girlfriend. I worked on this shot in the pool with her forever. It was in 2000 and I was just starting to get excited about photography on a pro level, shooting with a bad-ass Nikon D1. We were on vacation in absolute paradise; a little spot called Verana, in Yelapa, near Puerto Vallarta. I was learning how to balance flash with daylight all manually. She was very patient…. You should almost always use a fill flash in bright midday sunlight. Otherwise, you end up with dark shadows on people’s faces. You need to manually turn the flash ON with your small digital cameras that you think will flash whenever necessary. What most people don’t know is that your camera doesn’t know to use a flash in the daylight, because there is plenty of light. What you are doing is just filling in the dark shadows manually.

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In keeping with the beach theme, here is a lovely example of when you might want to watch your exposure. As the sun sets, it creates long shadows which can fool a light meter and over expose your image. Here, my sister Jill, is mostly in shadow, as is the building wall in the background. What you want to do here is expose for the light, not the shadow (which is what your automatic setting will do). You need to manually adjust the settings or use your exposure compensation to drop it down 2/3 of a stop or so. At sunset, the light is much softer and warmer in tone. So the way it falls across her back here is much more flattering than it would be at midday.

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I love this image for many reasons, especially the contrast in color and light. You might almost think I had the kids wearing those short on purpose. But I was just walking down a pier and these kids kept jumping off just as a wave would pass by, making it deep for only a moment. What I love are the brightly colored red and blue shorts, coupled with the dark shadows created by the angle I’m at in relation to my light source (the sun) and the boy jumping in the water. I am shooting perpendicular to my light source, such that the light falls across sideways, creating graduated shadows and visual depth.

In my travel photography workshop, we will discuss this image at length, including the settings used and why.

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While watching the sun set in Waikiki one evening 2 years ago with my good friend Sol, I noticed two surfers who had gotten out at the end of a jetty and were making their way across. The angle from which I first noticed them was not it. I knew that I had to be about 100 feet from where I was in order to get the shot I wanted. But they didn’t know that and continued walking. I started running as I checked the camera settings so that when I arrived I could begin shooting immediately. Time was not on my side here. I actually shot 2 frames as I approached (as JIC’s - just in case… you don’t get the shot you’re after).

I quickly got to a spot that was lower than they were, allowing me to put them up high on the horizon line. I got 5 frames off and by the last shot they were down below the rock line and onto the sand. Moving quickly and thinking fast will create more opportunities for you to capture the right moment, from the right angle…

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Since we’re in the middle of storm season, I felt it was appropriate to bring out a shot from Belize that was taken almost a year ago exactly. This is an example of a shot that will always frustrate most amateurs. When you have a bright sky and a dark foreground, unless you use a filter in pre or post production, one area of your image will not be exposed for properly. The first thing I plan to cover when I begin teaching my workshops is learning how to see light the way the camera does. Here, I shot without a filter but exposed for the darker foreground, which is why, even though I brought down the sky (in terms of brightness), there is still an area in the center which is hot (blown out). I wasn’t shooting RAW at the time, which has more blown highlight recovery potential. Woops, in looking back just this second, I found another image later in the image strip, where the clouds covered that spot and make for a better final shot. It’s interesting to me, that I just wrote “image strip”, because I originally wrote “film strip” but then realized there was no film and reflected on how my serious approach to this rapidly changing art form began just as the big time pros were still teaching with film, but beginning their own switch to digital. I feel so fortunate to have a such a solid foundation in film, which at least for now, is still the basis for digital…

[taken with canon powershot]

Dreaming of days like this… Big thanks to our guide John and the crew from Whistler Heli-Ski. Word is they recently sold the operation, allowing John to retire if he wanted to. But why would he??

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Self portrait, mountain top in the Chugach Moutain Range of Alaska.

Ahhhhhhh yes. Finally, the movie is ready from my the heli-ski trip to Points North in Cordova Alaska last March. You just won’t believe the incredible Northern Lights show I captured about a third of the way into the movie. Press play and enjoy. Full screen is great!