Feb 24, 2015 | Random Thoughts
For the last couple of days, this is where you could find me. Sitting on a stool in wait, heavy jacket, blanket on my lap and gloves on, I’ve sat at this window hunched over with the 18 degrees winter blast rushing in. And as I sat there looking out the window waiting for the next pulse of birds to come through, I was thinking. How incredibly fortunate we photographers be! Ya, there is the frustration that comes with the craft, but that all dissolves away when you’re watching the world through the lens. I mean really, to sit, watch, whatever it is that makes your heart beat and when it is beating the fastest, when it’s heating up everything inside of you, you can can simply go click and there you have it! For that split nanomoment in time, your cares are gone and your memory is captured. Forever! What else brings that alive to us in our lives, and does it over and over again? So I sit there, playing with a new tool, working on a new project, really freakin cold and very uncomfortable doing that thing that is so magical. Na, the Robin photo isn’t going on the wall. But the time spent just sitting, waiting to make it will always be, a simple blessing!
Jan 12, 2015 | Field Reports, Random Thoughts
“Where are these rules written down?” The squinty eyed, glass wearing accountant asks the sage weathered, wise cowboy sitting astride his horse. He answers, “Damn it man, they aren’t written down, they’re lived!”
This quote from Monte Welsh strikes me every time I hear it. It makes me think back on the email questions that have arrived in my InBox of late, what I’ve seen on the web, and at times I scratch my head. I am amazed how often I put out something I use in my photography that I have found works for me and then I see it next put out as a rule and then the inevitable web debate begins.
While it is true there are some aspects of photography that appear to be craved in stone, no sooner you think this then you see someone, for good or bad, go and do the contrary and produce results. And while we need to have some of these “rules” they should be considered as a starting point, a fall back position when things go to hell in a hen basket. Rules can give comfort but they leave little room for passion.
While there are lots of photographers providing lots of insight into their photography, run these insights through your own photography, your own heart and apply only that which applies to your storytelling. Do your photography the favor and don’t make them rules. “Damn it man, they aren’t written down, they’re lived!”
Dec 15, 2014 | Landscape Photography, Random Thoughts
How big of a camera do you need? How big of a lens should you have in your bag? How big should the pixel count be that you work with? These questions find there way to my inbox it seems hourly with fews of my answers pleasing those asking. This simple click from a Nikon 1 V3 is of as big a subject as they come but has big impact only because its as big as your heart!
Nov 30, 2014 | Aviation, Random Thoughts
And in case you don’t know who the ass belongs to
Oct 10, 2014 | Random Thoughts
Now I’m bloody excited! I’m heading out for my first Africa safari in a few hours and going with the amazing Images in Africa folks for what will be a trip of a lifetime. Being all new, I’ve been busy doing my homework trying to learn the new critters I’m hoping to photograph. Knowing your subject is so important to coming back with that memorable photograph. Now the giraffe and elephant, I’ve got them down. It’s the Cape Fox, Lesser Bushbay and African Swamphen or White-backed Mousebird (great, they combine mammal and bird names!) and so many more I’m working on. Jake is there now and today he wrote us saying, “even the dirt birds are great!” so I’m jamming and cramming. Part of this process is creating my file naming architecture. Each night, I will go through my images and edit them, figure out who is who and then with that done, be able to rename, file and back all the images up so when I get back in the office, I just have to move them to the NAS boxes. These are the two books I’m taking with me and relying on. You can see the bird book is a bit page warn already. That homework thing, knowing your subject so you can photograph it … it’s giving me a bit of a headache! Good thing I have a 20hrs flight to get over it.
Aug 25, 2014 | Aviation, Random Thoughts
“Think vertical, vertical, vertical!” My good friend Richard likes to remind aviation photographers to think vertical when flying air to air photo missions. I don’t know about you, but I just don’t think verticals naturally. My vision is always on either the wide or intimate horizontal not the vertical. My mind’s eye just doesn’t naturally go vertically but if you want magazine covers, you gotta think vertically. In my entire editorial career, I was never after covers because I naturally arrange elements horizonatly. The one cover I cherish the most was the last wrap around cover Audubon magazine ever did in 1995, a horizontal image of a California Gnatcatcher. Not really worried about covers, I don’t shoot verticals for covers. Just having my 10th cover for 2014 hitting the news rack this week, it made me think I should say something about this unnatural photographic format that does pay bills.
Being an old fart, I still call them verticals still while most call them the portrait format. Anyways, the vertical used on magazine covers is not the same aspect ration as when we turn our cameras vertically. At that same time, covers have to have room for type and at the very minimum, the name of the magazine at the top of the vertical. So if verticals aren’t a challenge enough, you should leave room for the cropping to the right aspect ration and type. Just knowing those two things, you can see why I’ve never been really trying to get covers. Staying true to your style and storytelling makes covers hard to do. But covers are where the money lies with some going for as much as $2k on the big mags! What you see here is our 10th cover for the year and one I shot hoping it would be a cover. If you look at the top image and remove the type, you can see that it’s not an image you would normally frame in that way. Because without the crop and text, it’s kinda stale. If you look at the bottom and crop it to the right aspect ratio for a cover and place type, you can imagine how tight it would be. That intimate portrait was why I framed it the way I did to begin with in the viewfinder. So while we typically go to the vertical format to tell the story of height, I want to encourage you to think about the other life of the vertical.
