Phew. Our most recent heatwave is over and I can probably get back outside. I say probably because it's horse and deer fly season and those just make me miserable. They're relentless and will bite you to death if given half a chance. Lately I've been playing a bit more deliberately with bokeh and its... Continue Reading →
Late last year I visited a nearby Nature Conservancy property called The Cedar Swamp Preserve. Yeah, real romantic sounding place, right? Well it's got two great things going for it - Atlantic White Cedars and Great Laurel or Giant Rhododendron as it's sometimes called. This is a small preserve jammed between huge condo developments, some... Continue Reading →
The weather and the hordes of mosquitoes have kept me from doing a lot of shooting, but I have been out. The thing is that the shots don't really seem to go together. Then I had a morbid thought about some of them. Poison mushrooms and grave stones. Heh. It's ridiculously me and goes with... Continue Reading →
So after the relatively bug-free California environment I get back up here and am basically in a cloud of mosquitoes every time I set foot out of the house. This time of year being a woodland photographer really sucks. Literally. Between the mosquitoes and the ticks I'm down a pint. No. Not really. But they... Continue Reading →
May in California is wildflower season and the high desert of the eastern Sierras is no exception. I took tons of photos, but due to the harsh light, relentless wind and time constraints (who can wait forever for the wind to die down on every single shot?) most of them are for my reference and... Continue Reading →
So I’ve been thinking about this blog post and putting it off because I didn’t have an angle, a theme or a cohesive idea to pull it together. As with a lot of my writing it just needed time to brew, like a good pot of French Press coffee. (Four minutes with 200 degree water... Continue Reading →
An online photographer friend said that he doesn't do much black and white landscape work because he feels he needs the color to be there because it was there. I agree with him up to a point. No, I'm no Ansel Adams, but I do like how a black and white photograph can work when... Continue Reading →
To many people the word desert conjures up images of dunes, rippling sand, cactus and brutal temperatures. While some of that might be true, many deserts are far from that. Their lushness and color just might surprise you. Even though I've never lived near one, I've always loved the desert. High desert especially. That's one... Continue Reading →
This was the first place we visited on our way down from Reno. We planned to go there during the trip, but not so soon. However, we found ourselves very near to it so decided to switch up the schedule. I knew going into it that it would be kind of a zoo, tourist-wise (worse... Continue Reading →
To paraphrase Clutch a bit. I'm back. Phew. Challenging was the watchword for this vacation. Between the weather and the accessibility issues, my photography skills were put to the test. Sometimes I passed, sometimes I failed, but overall it was a good trip. I just heard a weather update for the Eastern Sierras and the... Continue Reading →
Been working on my microscapes this year. Experimenting with light mostly. Including dappled sunlight, trying for some drama and separation. That's what the sunlight does in the woods, it highlights certain things and shadows others. It's some of what makes the woods magical, at least to me. Here's one of a medium-sized painted turtle I... Continue Reading →
Back to your regularly scheduled program. More nature stuff. I am a bit bummed at the moment because I came upon a very active great blue heron rookery the other day and my old 300mm lens isn't up to the task. Most of my old legacy glass is still very good when paired with a... Continue Reading →
Just a quick post of some more unusual shots I've taken lately. No, I haven't abandoned my hyper-literal, documentary style, but I had some fun and thought I'd share. It's sometimes VERY hard for me to see in abstract. My brain's not wired that way, but I sometimes go out of my head.
So I’ve been taking a lot of pictures lately. Every week for the past couple of years pretty much. Lately I’ve seen an improvement in my work and it’s gratifying. Not that I’m trying to toot my own horn or anything so arrogant, it’s just something I’ve noticed. Pretty much at the same time I’ve... Continue Reading →
I can't help myself. I'm a nature and outdoors photographer. That means I shoot a lot of wildflowers. Yeah, it's a cliche, but sometimes they are just so lovely I can't pass them by. This year I'm trying to capture the quality of light as well as the flowers themselves and so far it's been... Continue Reading →
I have a love/hate relationship with spring. In the love category we have the fact that when a breeze hits your face it doesn't feel like it will freeze off. Also the twittery, fluttery birds all excited to be making more birds. Tree frogs. And the lovely green of the pale leaves as the trees... Continue Reading →
Often when I post photos of moving water looking all smooth, silky or smoky I get comments asking how I achieve that result. So I decided to write this post using my latest batch of images to illustrate things (and give you a couple of Lightroom tips in the bargain). Don't say I never gave... Continue Reading →
You'd think I'd have my hands full with just this blog, but no. Not me. I also write for two others and I thought I'd let you guys know about them. The first is the blog section on Photography.ca. The most recent article is Bokeh Baby! It's the third one I've written and there will... Continue Reading →
If you've been following this blog for a while, you probably noted my love of abandoned things and the woods. Well lately I've been able to combine them in a really excellent way - mill ruins! I went walking in some nature trails in Hampstead the other day and found three old mill sites in... Continue Reading →
I have a cold. And when I have a cold I get cranky. Inspired by a silly blog post about the 10 things someone hates about photography (and it was a stretch...color management? really? You hate color management? You need a life, buddy.) I decided to do 10 things I love about photography. It feeds... Continue Reading →
Let the microscapes begin! Not the most beautiful or delicate of wildflowers, but one of the first to appear. I went wandering in one of the many nature preserves in Andover, Massachusetts the other day and one section of the swamp was covered with skunk cabbage. I read that they can come up so early... Continue Reading →
A follow up to the last post, I went out back to the carpet of whitlow grass again and found it buzzing with tiny mining bees (1.5 cm or 5/8 in). The sun being strong, but slightly diffused by clouds I went back in for the camera. So glad I did - Isn't she sweet?... Continue Reading →
Remember that scene in The Jerk when Martin ran all over yelling "The new phonebook's here! The new phonebook's here" ? Well I felt like doing that about spring today. This is what tells me it's arrived - It's whitlow grass and there's a big patch of it in my backyard. They're the very first... Continue Reading →
The nice thing about shooting my local area is that I can have do-overs. My friend and fellow photographer Jeff and I have had conversations about this and although I stress over choking on vacation shoots, I don't worry so much about local stuff. I'm not going to steal Jeff's thunder with this post since... Continue Reading →
Finally we've decided on where we're going on vacation in May. We've booked the airline flights and have a general idea of where we'll go when we land. Unfortunately it's only one week, but we've had great vacations before with only a week. So, where are we off to? Eastern Sierras! Mono Lake! Mountains...desert...wide open... Continue Reading →
