Cool. My blog is the featured blog of the month over at PJ Finn’s website, photomontana.net. If you aren’t already reading PJ’s blog, you should be. He’s not worried about HDR this, or marketing that; he simply enjoys taking photographs and writing about the simple joy of it all. PJ’s photos are unique, creative, and inspiring.
I’m honored and flattered to be featured over there. Thanks PJ!
Happy Father’s Day from Alpenglow Images! I’ve been in Zion for the past few days with my own dad, and as you read this, I’m driving back home from Utah, as quickly as is legal, to spend the day with my beautiful wife and my own son, Owen.
Hope you have a great day…
He was curious about the Photo Booth application...
Shooting Belding's ground squirrels together, August 2009
I also should add that my dad is an avid photographer, and I’ve learned a lot of my love for the Southwest from him, as well as about being a father and about life in general. Here is one of his large-format photographs, of a pictograph from Canyonlands National Park in Utah.
A while ago, David Leland Hyde asked a simple question, “Why are you a landscape photographer?” I offered my answer, and I even blogged (loosely) on it, but the answer didn’t truly dawn on me until today.
While on a hike this afternoon, we found a carcass of a gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). Watching it lay in the grass, I immediately saw in my mind’s eye an evocative black and white photo. More than that, though, I saw myself. You see, regardless of how much I work to prolong my life, I will undoubtedly eventually meet the same fate as that fox. In other words, I will eventually become part of the landscape.
So, perhaps in the same way that other people document their family tree, I photograph landscapes because I want to document my family tree. My ancestors. Those who roamed the land before I did. In this way, I am realizing my sense of place, and am making my connection with the land tangible.
Gray Fox, June 2010
Unbeknownst to you, I’ve been hard at work making some important behind-the-scenes changes to the website. Those changes aren’t so behind-the-scenes any more though, because they’ve resulted in a few really cool upgrades.
First of all, I’ve made the entire site more interactive by removing the simple menu bar and replacing it with a Spry menu that had drop-down features. Now, no matter where you’re at on the site, navigating somewhere else should be easier. The menu bar is also now at the top of each page, so you don’t have to scroll all the way to the bottom to navigate.
The first change involved most of my time, but it isn’t the coolest. I’ve separated images into two groups. I still have all the images (and layout) you’re used to in the Image Library, but I’ve set a select few images aside in a series of Portfolios. I have a landscape portfolio, one for flora and fauna, and one of my personal favorite images (with commentary!). I’ve tried to keep the layout simple, while still leaving it functional and user-friendly.
Check out the new changes and tell me what you think!
Having been pursuing the “photography business” for less than a year, I would consider myself a newbie. I make no apologies for that, because I feel like I’ve always been able to follow the lead of my mentors well, and I am quick to learn from my mistakes. However, its because I’m learning from my mentors that I’m having an issue.
One of the biggest complaints that I hear from people in the business is that with the availability of Photoshop and other image-editing software (both in-camera and in post-processing), “anyone can produce great photos.” They note that creative vision is becoming less and less common, and its being replaced with the “I’ll fix it later” mentality. I definitely see this (look around Flickr and you will too), and to some extent I’m guilty of snapping a photo, knowing that I’ll be cloning something out in post. You probably do too.
My issue, then, isn’t with my mentors, but with myself. How much can I justify altering a mediocre photo to make a good photo and still be okay with it?
Take for example this image I’ve recently reprocessed from the Fisher Towers:
The Fisher Towers, in color
My problem with this shot isn’t the harsh light, or the fact that its not at all representative of how pretty the Fisher Towers can be. Its that I really want to like it. But, its just mediocre. Others on a Naturescapes.net forum recently agreed that its definitely not a wall-hanger. But, when I convert the image to black and white, that harsh light is suddenly working its magic.
Fisher Towers in black and white
The image still won’t win any contests, but its drastically improved. So, by digital manipulation, I converted a mediocre image into a better one. The problem I have with this is that I didn’t set out to make black and white images that day. Maybe I’ve just over-analyzed this.
I ask you, though: where does the creative process stop? I have a feeling most will answer indicating that for them its a continuum, but where is the line drawn? Knowing that I didn’t set out to make black and white images that day, are you okay with my displaying this as art?
I’d love to know your thoughts!
Today is a great day to be outside with your mother, thanking her for all she’s done for you over the years. I’d particularly like to thank my own mother, for always supporting my dreams, and my wife Stephanie for being a fantastic mother to our son, and wife to me.
Hope your day is a fantastic one!
These are some portraits I took of the irises I got my wife for Mother’s Day. I took them in our kitchen, and of course Owen had to help…enjoy!
Mother's Day Iris I
Mother's Day Iris II
Helping Dad prep for Mother's Day
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Channel Islands National Park, located off the southern California coast. The park consists of five islands–Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Miguel, and Santa Rosa–each one with a different ecology and endemic species. For my first trip out there, I chose to visit Anacapa Island, as it is the most accessible from the mainland, and it has a very unique ecology from the other islands (its geologic origins are different from the other islands too).
Coreopsis blooms on Anacapa Island, April 2010
We almost didn’t arrive on the island, as landing is difficult on Anacapa, and the presence of a large swell almost prevented them from dropping us off. Luckily, the ocean smoothed out by the time we arrived in the landing cove, so we were able to get off and walk up all 153 stairs to the island. As I had hoped, the Coreopsis, or tree sunflower, blooms were going strong (the only place you find these flowers is on Anacapa Island and a small patch of land on the mainland). However, joining us in our relative solitude were ~50,000 nesting Western Gulls. Have you ever shared a small space with that many gulls? If you haven’t, its…ummm…noisy. 🙂
Western Gulls on Anacapa, April 2010
With only 1.5 miles of hiking trails, Anacapa is an easy island to scope out for potential photo compositions. I spent the afternoon looking for intimate compositions on the island before the sun went down. With gulls everywhere, it was only natural to include them in my shots.
About 1 hour before sunset, the wind started blowing. While not bad at first, by the time we walked to Inspiration Point for sunset, it was a full-blown gale. With wind gusts at nearly 50 miles per hour, how do you keep your tripod in place? Make a friend anchor it, of course!
How to anchor a tripod in the wind
By the time the sun went down, and we arrived back at camp, the wind was blowing significantly harder: I’d guess it was sustained around 45-50 miles per hour, and gusts were nearly 65 mph (it bent and broke some of our tent poles). We used guy lines to better secure our tents and went to bed. It is difficult to sleep when your tent is continually hitting you in the face and chest. After a few sleepless hours, I got up to a beautiful, windless sunrise over the Pacific.
Anacapa morning, April 2010
The photo above shows the water house and the light house on Anacapa (along with a whole bunch of our “friends”).
After packing up and hauling our gear down to the dock, it was time to head home. Despite the smell and constant sound of the nesting gulls, and the hurricane-force winds, it was a very rewarding visit to Anacapa Island, and I look forward to visiting the rest of the Channel Islands in the near future.
To see all my photos from Anacapa Island, click here.
For the last week, my parents have been in town visiting. I was able to sneak away from work on Friday and take a three-day weekend, so we decided to go to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. Driving down there, our two-year-old repeated “Amnal Pak” about 500 times, so we knew it was a good way to spend the day. At the park, all of the usual suspects were out, and I got some interesting abstract shots of a few different animals. My real hope, however would be that the Epiphyllums in the botanic garden would be be in bloom, but we were a little too early (save for one flower, below). Such is life; their annual butterfly exhibit opened on Saturday, so it gives me an excuse to go back!
Desert Bighorn Sheep, March 2010
The lone blooming Epiphyllum, March 2010
On Saturday, our local airport hosted an air show, and in the afternoon several F-18 Hornets flew over our house; I was able to catch one as it made a low pass.
F-18 Hornet in flight
On the way to San Diego, I had a chance to look for more wildflowers, and as others have reported, it doesn’t look like much is happening this year. There are a few small patches of poppies and other flowers here and there, but for the most part, things simply didn’t happen this year. My wife and I went for a hike locally Sunday morning, and we noted that things are definitely past peak, even with the grass.
This week is my spring break, so I’m planning on getting caught up on my blog posts, as well as taking a couple of short trips–one to Joshua Tree National Park, and one to Channel Islands National Park–I’m excited to share some new images on here!
Over the past couple of years, I’ve taken some of what I consider to be “personal projects”. The assignments I give myself aren’t difficult; they may have been to focus on a particular area to show it in a unique way, or to learn new techniques, or to push myself out of my box a little bit. Many of the projects are ongoing, but I find they are a great way for me to inspire my own creativity. So it was with my winter project; I wanted to take on a project that pushed me outside of my box.
As a group, one of my favorite plants are Agave. They have beautifully symmetric, radiating leaves. Their lines are smooth, easy, even sensuous, and their colors are–to me–calming. They come in many shapes and sizes. And, of course, they are the source of tequila (doesn’t a margarita sound good right now?).
Despite my admiration for these plants, until this winter I had only given a half-hearted attempt to photograph them. Because we were lucky to have many overcast days this winter with soft, diffuse light, I decided to take on the project of creating a set of intimate portraits of Agave. To make the set more “uniform” I chose to convert each image to monochrome, and although you’ll see uniformity may be left up to the viewer, I did stick with that as my theme.
Agave attenuata, January 2010
In addition to getting to know a new group of plants, I was able to learn about black and white conversions, as well as receive some lessons in extending my depth of field. To achieve the highest resolution, I wanted to stay at an aperture of about f/8, but shooting this close with my 24-105/4, there was no way the entire plant would be in focus. What I did was take multiple frames of each image, each one at a different plane of focus. I then used the auto-align and auto-merge features in Photoshop CS4 to produce a single image with extended depth of field; I hope to write blog post on this procedure in the future.
Wide angle, February 2010
I’ll share one or more of my Agave shots in the next few days; if you simply cannot wait, you can see them all (so far) here. Its good to remember that by taking on a personal project, you can often find inspiration very near to (if not in) your own backyard. Have you taken on a personal project? Share it in the comments section!
Enjoy…
After going through my images this morning looking for a “green” photo, its clear I need to plan a trip to Ireland.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Alpenglow Images!
