LensProtoGo – Why They Rock!
Here’s why you find me recommending them, on the blog, in Captured or in person. They Rock!
This is Why We do What We Do!
Sharon;
Tell Moose thanks for me! I don’t even know if Moose has an email. And I am sure he and you are bombarded daily with email.
I have carried a camera around for 35+ years also. Recording a lot of people, places and things. The key word is “recording”. Not until DLWS Oregon in 2007 at the feet of Moose and Joe did photography become a passion. Moose helped me get from recording to creating. The challenges provided, the images shared and the knowledge from the DLWS ‘gang” was and is moving. But more importantly Moose’s blog message(s) carry to real life…family, work, God and personal. I forward many of moose’s blogs to family friends and associates. The messages are honest. Moose is honest with his words and actions. Few honest people left in the world today.
Moose signed Captured at DLWS California that I purchased for a friend (Dan). Dan is young and has a very young family and few resources. Especially for photographic equipment, and software. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR ANYTHING…JUST A THANK YOU! Dan aspires to be a better photographer. Challenge himself more. And enjoy life to it’s highest potential. I have shared my DLWS experiences in detail with Dan. We talk about the “message” in the blogs. We talk about the need to “go outside our comfort zone” As a result of Moose’s and Joe’s challenges he recently started a blog that really challenges him. It’s is being followed by a very surprising amount of people and growing each week. It is extremely difficult for him to approach people to photograph. He wants desperately to understand flash photography to it’s fullest. He wants to push his learning curve to the max! He has little time to shoot with three girls, work and other responsibilities. But he is. Thanks in part to Moose and his honest, inspiring and thought provoking challenges.
Tell Moose thanks for me ……and vicariously from Dan.
p.s. Dan does not know that I have written this email. I hope you have time to read it and share with Moose
More Perfect Color for Perfectly Beautiful Moments
I have a vast respect for and admiration for JP and his photography! I’ve learned a lot from him and truly enjoy our conversations (which are way too few). And when it comes to the art of technically understanding and teaching the visual art of photography, I think there is no better. It means even more and becomes even clearer when you get to know him. This video is of course a promotion for Xrite but that doesn’t matter, it’s not what the content is saying. And that’s the beauty of JP, his teaching and photography. Check it out, the man knows what he’s talking about!
Blog is 5 Years Old Today!
Yeap, five years and 6143 postings ago, we launched the blog. And remarkably, the website was launched on this same day in 1996, so it’s 15yrs old today. Not that means diddly, but I like trivia so thought I would throw it out there. I am bummed though, I can’t find the original blog. Its saved somewhere on the network but damn if I can find it. I do have a screen capture of the original website with the blinking Howdy but that’s way to embarrassing to post. Anyways, that’s my trivia sharing for the day!
The Magical, Magnificent and Most Important Ingredient
Faster than a heartbeat, a photograph is born. And if done correctly and if the stars are all aligned, that moment in time frozen by the shutter affects lives for time unending. If that is the possibility, and it has been proven over and over again, then why isn’t time reported as one of the most important aspects of photography?
I’m all too aware of the importance of 1/60, 1/500, 8sec and all the rest of the “times” that most associate with photographic time. And while they are important for communicating the emotion that exposure brings to life, I’m referring to an even more important measure of time. I’m talking about the time behind the camera. You could look at the time behind the camera for one image, one shoot, one day, one week, one month or more what I’m thinking about, one lifetime being the measure of time!
I was recently asked what went through my mind as we approached the subject. I was rather surprised when my answer, which contained mostly past life experiences that led up to my decision to my approach, was cast aside for the answer the questioner really wanted, lens, f/stop and shutter speed. Seriously! That’s probably why I couldn’t connect, the time before the click is just as influential in the approach as the time of the click for me. And if all goes well, that click will survive the test of time.
I know I’m not alone in treasuring time. The time spent with a spouse, the time spent with kids and family. We all know how precious these and others are. What about the simple pleasures, time with a good book, a glass of wine, watching a fire or birds in the feeder? Just as precious. How many curse the waste of time being stuck in a line, at an airport or in traffic? Why then is the time behind the camera for so many rushed? As a working pro, one of my biggest challenges is getting enough time in behind the camera to follow my own particular passion of wildlife photography. What pushes that desire?
And what makes the time behind the camera now so special? It’s all that has been learned from the time already put in behind the camera. It’s all the challenges, successes, failures and rewards already experienced from the time behind the camera that lead to promise at the next time behind the camera. Adding to these experiences are all the life experiences that make you, you!
Last week I was reminded about this again by Jeremy. While he doesn’t have the accumulative time behind the camera that I do, he does take his time when behind the camera. A luxury I didn’t have at that moment. He’s the complete opposite of what I call a “panicked photographer.” Jeremy took his time, made his shot and smoked everyone, especially me. His photos of Owl’s Head Light and at Firefly were images I wanted in my files. Then, the dirty, rotten kid made the image of Portland Lighthouse that I wanted. Talk about rubbing salt in the wounds! Seeing his B&W image from there on his monitor and thinking I had it drove me nuts until this week when I had time to go through all my images and finding I did have one frame. What’s Jeremy’s key to success? He’s 18 and doesn’t know time is so precious and hard to come by when you get older so spends it lavishly behind the camera now. And my little moment of triumph came not from confidence at the camera, but starring at a monitor after the fact. That’s the worst use of my time, the digital darkroom.
Now that I’m officially an “old fart,” (I like that title), I find shooting with “kids” very rewarding and a real photographic push. Talk about being pushed, look what our son Jake is doing to me! Holy crap, he’s running me ragged. Where does he find the time to shoot AND blog and go to college all at the same time? What the hell is my excuse for not shooting more? What Jake has going for him, which he just consciously realized this summer is that while his “time” behind the camera has only been a couple of years, he’s been preparing for the time his entire life. We’re talking about the youngest American ever to be on a permit to handle endangered species. He’s been in the field with his parents since he was two weeks old (says he doesn’t remember that). What does that all add up to? That culmination of time that is frozen in time when he presses the shutter release can’t be measured by that shutter speed, time in the field that day, week or year, but by a lifetime even though to an old fart, that time is short.
So why have I taken the time to write this? Perhaps because of my own frustration in not spending enough time with wildlife of late or perhaps counting the minutes until I am photographing wildlife in a couple of days. Perhaps it’s the sting still hanging around from getting skunked by a kid who took his time at a lighthouse and I didn’t. Perhaps it’s the frustration of dealing with a handful of folks who felt time in the digital darkroom was more important than being behind the camera. Perhaps I just felt it was time to talk ever more outwardly about what I’ve always felt is the most important ingredient in photography. Time!!
Do you know the work of Jay Maisel? He’s a real hero of mine for so many reasons. He can say your photograph sucks and that’s OK. I say it and oh man, the sky is falling (gotta work on that delivery). But more to the point, it’s his photography that I so love. I love seeing my world through his lens. Why is that, why are his images so powerful, so vibrant, so heart touching? He spends every breathing moment behind the camera! Jay always, always has a camera with him, in his hands, exploring his craft, expressing his life, his world, our world with every waking moment. Can you grasp what Jay’s saying, what I’m saying? Photography = time!
When shooting with folks, I often get frustrated and they contribute that as I have issues with them. What they don’t realize is having done this for 30yrs, I know the value of time behind the camera and when that time is wasted, I get frustrated. Now, I’m not saying every minute behind the camera that one is making a great click, not at all. It just takes one great click to make my day, week, or….nah, not going there. Sitting at my desk, working on a computer, doing chores, doing anything but spending time, time behind the camera is hard for me. Spending 9 months writing a book just about killed me. I have to hope that the time I put into it and not being behind the camera is worth your time to read it. Just like this piece. It’s all about time, the magical, magnificent and most important ingredient in a photograph!
Lytro Light Field
Hold onto your shorts…this is all the buz right now!