Zion Subway: Click Twice to View Larger
Browse any internet photography forum and the majority of the landscape images will be of well-known iconic locations or common subjects. A frequent criticism of landscape photography revolves around this fact, with critics observing that too many photographers pursue the creation of derivative photos of well-known locations, all while calling themselves artists, instead of seeking out more creative work. This viewpoint has come to resonate more with me in recent months and I have been seeking to get beyond standard views of icons in pursuit of more personal work. Still, some iconic locations do represent another increasingly important aspect of my pursuit of photography – placing more emphasis on enjoying the experience of visiting incredible places as an equally important result of a photography trip. Icons have achieved their status for very good reason and experiencing some of those places for myself holds significant value, value that at times exceeds the value of pursuing creativity and originality. read more…
One way to get better photographs is to be better prepared. For landscape photographers, this often includes things like studying images to see what has been captured in a given location, reviewing maps, considering weather, identifying sunset/sunrise/moonset/moonrise times, taking an amble through Google Earth, and developing concepts for potential images in advance. And sometimes, one little oversight can toss all that preparation out the window. read more…
Pawnee Buttes in Eastern Colorado
Stephen Dickey, author of a great new blog on landscape photography, www.CapturingTheLandscape.com, recently asked me to write up the story behind this image. Here is an excerpt from the full post:
This area features small rolling hills, colorful badland formations, one of the few intact tracts of shortgrass prairie in the US, nesting birds of prey, and prolific wildflowers in the summer. The buttes are the main attraction for the small number of visitors, with hiking trails to explore areas that are accessible for most of the year. During my first visit to this location as a child, some 20 years ago, the region was dotted with an occasional farm but the area around the buttes was generally untouched. During my last two visits, an increasing number of electricity-generating windmills have been erected on the surrounding land and there is at least one natural gas well in clear view from the location where I took this image. While the buttes themselves are protected, development, in my mind, has encroached far too closely on this area that deserves more extensive protection.
You can read the whole write-up, including some technical information about the photo, here. I recommend a stop by Stephen’s photo gallery website and his new blog – a lot of inspiration in both places.
Just a quick reminder that you can also join me at Google+, on Facebook, or on photo-sharing site 500px.
Path to Blanca - Final Version
Whenever I post b+w and night photos, I get a lot of questions about my processing techniques. Since I have found these kinds of tutorials to be helpful, I thought others might find it helpful if I put a few of these together myself. Here, I walk you through, from start to finish, the processing of one of my images b+w images, Path to Blanca. This image represents one of my more straightforward and simple conversions, making it fairly easy to describe my process here. read more…
Unfortunately, the only photo of me and the Loka is this one of me mocking a sign in Oregon (yes, I act like a child sometimes...). Still shows how the pack generally fits.
Nearly every backpack I have owned has been seriously uncomfortable. There has been no love with these packs, just a lot of cursing bad design, sore shoulders, and feeling like I am carrying a bag of rocks on my back. Because I over-analyze any purchase, I have continued to wear uncomfortable packs, despite their ability to influence my mood and enjoyment of a trip. After two years of pondering the purchase of a new backpacking pack and analyzing the decision to death, I finally bought a new Osprey pack last summer. I was shocked that it was so comfortable because, I was convinced, there is nothing such a as a comfortable pack. If a comfortable backpacking pack exists, maybe a comfortable camera backpack exists, too…
After reading many positive reviews of F-Stop camera packs, I decided to give one a try. I purchased the F-Stop Loka with a medium Internal Camera Unit and – wait for it – love it! read more…