The Painted Desert

The Grand Canyon, aptly named, is a revelation of hundreds of millions of years' worth of history. It's incredible to see and consider. Besides the geologic grandeur, the sun's setting painted a continuously variegating pallet of colors right in front of me this evening. 100,000,000 years of change before my eyes, and 10,000 Maniacs in my mind.

Nikon D7100, 70-200mm f.2.8 VRII lens @ 70mm, f/8, 5 seconds, ISO 400. Photographed at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA.

New Family

This little family was so much fun to make pictures with. She's due in February.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro Lens, f/9, 1/200s, ISO 200.

Yellow Lightning

In case you've been living under a rock, Tesla makes electric cars...very nice electric cars. I'm not a car guy, but if I were, I'd be a Tesla guy. They are comfortable, and very spacious. They've broken ground in so many things. I'm really a big fan...maybe I am a car guy....

I recently met Sean, a manger at the Tesla store in Washington Square Mall, and made a picture of one of his cars during the Scott Kelby World Wide Photowalk. 

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @170mm, f/8, 1/640s, ISO 800.

Shortly thereafter, Sean introduced me to Scott, a Tesla owner who also runs AutoTopia.com, where his team applies protective wraps to all kinds of cars. Well, I heard he was wrapping his Tesla, and one thing led to another. These are some of the photographs we made this morning, with my pal Chris helping, too.

By the way, these are computer desktop sized, too.

Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.4 lens, f/8, 1/5s, ISO 100.

A Horse With No Name

Jesse and I were heading across Utah to Delta to make pictures for USU a couple of months ago; it was a lot like this video. Jesse remembered a friend telling him about a ruins that was pretty cool and nearby. We found the old mineral kilns west of Santaquin right at sunset and had a good time hiking around them and exploring the graffiti. This was a favorite. 

Nikon D800, 14-24mm /2.8 lens @ 24mm, f/4, 1/100s, ISO 200.

Velvia

Autumn is traditionally seen as the end of the growing season, time for harvest, pumpkins, falling leaves, turning over fields, and readying for winter. But not in Lake Oswego! Nope, around here we prefer to let the Fall colors become vibrant and warm, red and orange and yellow, and then sprout new growth right next to the discards of Summer. I love it.

This one is sized for desktop wallpaper...click to make it large, then right click to copy.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/8, 1/4s, ISO 100.

Velvia is a film that has traditionally been favored by landscape and nature photographers for it's vibrant greens and blues and saturated colors. You can just tell images that were made using it, and it's a classic. I have a process that also produces rich colors in my digital darkroom. Unfortunately, there're no songs about Velvia, so you're stuck with Kodachrome again, and that's not too bad.

Pacific City

I hate to do it to the locals, but the world must know: Pacific City, Oregon is incredible. The beach is simply a wonderful place with incredible surf (point break characteristics?), and the most splendid tide pools on the planet, plus luscious dunes and caves and enormous rocks. 

I spent an afternoon there last week, and I can't wait to go back. I got to go make pictures for a wonderful family from Idaho, and everywhere I turned there was a great image waiting.

Highly recommended and totally worth whatever drive it takes to get you there.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 Macro VR lens, f/4, 1/1600s, ISO 100. Pacific City, Oregon's beach is stunning, and Lake Oswego is just a two hour drive away.

Midnight Motorcycle

I was visiting in Logan, UT a few weeks ago when my friend Bob called and asked for some tips for shooting a motorcycle. He was at the Fairgrounds, and I was nearby so I headed over to see if I could help. Bob's classmate was visiting from Chicago and had ridden this gem across country, including a stop in Oregon (which I missed). 

Well, here's what we ended up with. Not bad for the fairgrounds at midnight. One of my favorite things was our bucket brigade from the canal to get the street nice and shiny.

Nikon D600, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @85mm, f/8, 1/90s, ISO 800. 

We used one SB-700 speedlight in a 24" softbox and moved it around the bike making pictures with the light on various parts of the bike. Then we combined them together right there in the fairgrounds using this method I wrote about for Photofocus.com. We ended up using seventeen pictures to make this image.