Book Review – Guy Tal’s “Creative Landscape Photography”
“The goal is not to make you creative. Whether you know it or not, you already are. The challenge, rather, is learning to tap into and focus your creativity and to help it find its ultimate expression in a photographic image.” – Guy Tal There is something about the winter that brings on the desire to curl up under a thick blanket, or stretch out in front of a warm crackling fireplace, and crack open a good book. I remember doing this often in my youth. My parents had a great fireplace in the living room of our old house above the Wisconsin River. Big flakes would be falling outside, drifting slowly to the ground and muffling all the other sounds. It was very easy to lose myself in the crackling warmth behind the mesh grate, and before I knew it...
Announcement: Project Black & Blue
The world’s moving so fast, the man who says it can’t be done is interrupted by someone doing it. - Elbert Hubbard 2010 will be the 6th straight year that I’ve been shooting solely in Alaska. In truth, it feels as if I’ve just arrived. Everything is still new and fresh to me, even though I have experienced it (whatever “it” is) several times now, in most cases. I’ve witnessed glaciers calving, both from a boat and from just across a raging river. I’ve seen humpback whales hurling their 40 ton bodies into the air, then the added blessing of seeing young whales being nurtured by mothers. I’ve watched pods of orca actively hunting, and sea otters frolicking in water so close that I could literally reach out and...
Book Review – Alaska: America's Wildest State by John Schwieder
Well, Oprah is off for the week. So she asked me to step in to fill the void for the book club puppet master. Sorry to say, no one go looking under your chairs… you won’t be finding a set of keys to your new Toyota 2009 Toyota Prius. She gave me the job, not the budget… But if you bring this review with you to any participating Starbucks location, they will give you the “Sixtyone North Special Price” on a Tall (their small) cup of milk (oops, I meant coffee) for only $12.99, while supplies last! In all seriousness, I haven’t had this much fun looking through a coffee table book in a long time, and I’m a card carrying member of CTBA (Coffee Table Books Anonymous). John Schwieder is an Anchorage, Alaska, based photographer...