musings

Australian professional landscape photographer (and fellow Fstop gear user!), Christian Fletcher, is having a great discussion over on his site. It’s in regards to creating art that people haven’t seen, particularly in photography. Photographers far more elegant than me have handled this topic before. Here in America, one of my friends and ‘phantom mentors’, Guy Tal has said: “Photograph for yourself and satisfy your own sensibilities and aesthetics. True artists do not pander to a pre-selected audience. Instead, they carve an audience of their own from those who will encounter and be moved by their work.” “The best way to use your imagination is simply to not stand in its way.” I think he’s right. We have to shoot for...

“Let every individual and institution now think and act as a responsible trustee of Earth, seeking choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will provide a sustainable future, eliminate pollution, poverty and violence, awaken the wonder of life and foster peaceful progress in the human adventure.“ ~ John McConnell, founder of International Earth Day (stew・ard・ship)   noun: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care. ~ via Merriam-Webster Dictionary Chernobyl Nuclear Reactor Accident – April 26, 1986 Bhopal Poison Release – Dec. 2, 1984 Kuwaiti Oil Fires – 1991 Love Canal Toxic Waste – 1978 The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill – March 24, 1989 Tokaimura Nuclear Plant Accident –...

I am happy to announce a new image, “Winter’s Embrace”. I captured this scene while on a snowshoe hike in the Chugach National Forest with my good friend Scott Slone of Alaska HDTV. We had set out to photograph the beautiful new snowfall that surrounds a remote creek deep inside the forest. The creek has that classic glacial run-off color, a cross between turquoise, milk and emerald. The water seems to glow from within, as it courses around large rocks that have been newly capped with a foot of pure white powder. We set out to film that contrast. But as we neared the crossing, the water’s color and depth had changed. Gone was the milky blue, replaced by just the perfect clarity that only plummeting temperatures and lack of glacial melt can...

What draws us to a certain image over another is simply an appreciation for a certain aesthetic. If you take 10 photographs and ask 100 people to chose their favorite, you will likely get at least 1 vote for every image. Everyone has different tastes, and it has always intrigued me why someone chooses a certain image over another. These two images are very similar. They should be, they were taken only 15 minutes apart. The exposures and gear are very similar as well. In truth, I shot the first image then saw something else a few feet away and only came back once I realized there were more options back at my original location. I’d love to hear your opinion, which image do you prefer? They are so similar, perhaps too similar… but still, try to pick one...

This is yet another composition made above Willow Lake, just southwest of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park boundary. We spent two incredible sunrises and two sunsets here, along with 2 moonrises near the sunset times. Each morning there would be a light mist over the lake, a slowly moving fog. As the sky brightened, preceding sunrise, the fog would coalesce. Thickening and speeding up, it would quickly enshroud the lake less than 100 yards from our vantage point. Unseen ducks would call from deep within the hanging mist, as it drifted between the trees just below. Everything become dimensional and layered. Closer objects were darkly silhouetted, but the further away we looked, they became hazy ghosts, dimly lit by the glow on the horizon. Sometimes, when...

I like odd angles. I’m an odd person. It just fits with my personality. The entire Labor Day “long weekend” fall color tour was shot in the company of two great photographers, and as I mentioned in an earlier post, they pushed me to take my photography to the next level. If you want to really expand your creative boundaries, shoot with people that are better than you. The other two photographers I shot with have been very nice to say very nice things about spending that weekend shooting with me, but I honestly think that I was the one presented with the gift. Their company, their photographic passion, their excellence has only pushed me into a new level of creative awareness – and for that, I am forever in their debt. While slowly walking...