Seoul Searching

Alright, that's a lame title, and I'm almost sorry about it...but I just couldn't resist. I happened on these pictures I made in Seoul a few years ago, and I don't think I ever shared them here. Seoul was a pretty incredible place. Having lived for two years in Taiwan, and one year near Beijing, I found Seoul to be the perfect mix of the two. It had all the modern amenities and open minds of Taiwan, with the great weather, atmosphere, and tasty foods like I found in China. I highly recommend visiting and spending more than the few days I had while working. Definitely check out the old palace while you're there, which is where I made all these.

Tetons in the Morning

I'm co-authoring a book on using Lightroom's Develop module to finish photographs, and it's a much bigger endeavor than I ever imagined. It's amazing how hard it is to make time to write! There are so many other things that one could do instead...like write blog posts...

This is an image I may or may not include in the book. I made it last summer when my family had a reunion in South East Idaho, just a stone's throw from the Tetons. I awoke very early, prodded my Mom and Dad out of bed, and we headed up the road to the Park. It was a terrific morning, and I think we got back in time for breakfast.

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @28mm, f/16, 1/60s, ISO 400.

Happy New Year!

Gosh, it's been a great year, and 2014 is really looking up, as well. If you're reading this, thanks for sticking with me. It's not that I've quit writing, it's just that I've been writing so much for Photofocus.com. Follow this link to see what I've been doing over there.

In other news, I got to make some pretty cool picture in Michigan the other day. I met up with my friend Bryan, who I met on the Photofocus page on Facebook, and we went shooting on the streets of Grand Rapids before work one morning.

While in Grand Rapids, I also got a minute with Breck to make a fun portrait.

Lastly, after shooting with Breck I was walking down the hall of the hotel and saw a horse and carriage pull up outside in the blizzard. When I got to the elevator, a couple jumped in, and told me they had just gotten engaged! I suggested we make a quick portrait, and they obliged. Congrats, guys!

I hope things are going well for you all, and I hope you get out and make some pictures with family and friends before the holidays are over.

#800: "They Say That Love is Forever..."

Nikon D7100, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 14mm, f/16, 3 exposure HDR, ISO 400, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2. I'm in Delta, Utah; doesn't Portland have graffiti somewhere?

This is my 800th blog post. Thanks for viewing. I love to show these pictures off, and I'm glad that you all have supported me for the last four years. I was privileged to have some time shooting with Jesse Walker this evening as we trekked to Delta, Utah, and we made this stop at the old TinTic reduction mill near Goshen. I think spray paint may be all that's holding this place together, and it's a wonderful notebook of poetry and pictures and tasteless tagging. Kinda makes me wanna put my hand to the can and see what I could turn out. I'll probably never do it, though. With my luck, the time I try it is the one time the sheriff would drive by; that and my Grandma Sim always says, "Fool's names, like fool's faces, always appear in public places," and that's pretty much turned me off from graffiti. Sigh.

Greener Grass

You know that the grass is always greener on the other of the fence, right? "If only I could go to Yellowstone, then I could make some great pictures! Or the Grand Canyon! Oh, and Europe would really free me to create..."

Well, those places are wonderful, and I could doubtless find some wonderful (if commonplace) pictures. But I find that when I get out locally and really try to find inspiration on my side of the fence, those are the times that I find pictures that are not so commonplace and much more valuable to me. 

For this picture my family and a friend headed to the beach to beat the heat in Lake Oswego...little did we know that there was no heat at the coast. The air was 60, and the water was 50 (my elbows were numb, but I gotta take advantage!) and there was mist and clouds and beach fires adding a little something more to the atmosphere. All day long I couldn't take my eyes off of this tree at Indian Beach in Ecola State Park (which is one of the most beautiful places in the USA). It seemed like one standing on it's own and not suffering for it.

Nikon D7100, 50mm f/1.4 lens, f/8, 1/250s, ISO 400, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. From Lake Oswego, it's only an hour or so to Ecola State Park.

Now for the geek speak.

This image is a much wider field of view than you could possibly get in a single frame with a DSLR and a 50mm lens, and that's on purpose. I know that my 50mm is wide enough to get everything in, but it's the perfect lens for landscape work because it's clear and sharp and has no distortion. In order to maximize these things, I shot this as a panorama-like image.

First, I found an exposure that let me have a little detail in the clouds and nice enough detail in the dark areas, too, and set those settings in manual mode. I chose f/8 for an aperture because I wanted to make sure that I had all the important things in focus, and f/8 on 50mm focussed that far away lets practically the whole world fall within the depth of field. So I focussed on the top of the tree (with the clouds as a backdrop I was sure it was focussed on the main tree and not something else) and switched to manual focus so it wouldn't change. Ideally, I'd have the camera on a tripod, but I was going light and fast and handheld, so I used a higher ISO to allow a fast shutter speed to freeze my shake.

I then turned the camera vertical and shot three frames along the bottom of the scene, overlapping 25%, then shot three more in a row for the middle, overlapping 25%, and one more row on top. In Lightroom I made adjustments to white balance and contrast to the center image, as well as color toning, then applied those same settings to all the other images in the grid (one click with the sync button). Then I selected all the images, and chose to merge them to a panorama in Photoshop. I made sure to click the vignette control option and pressed go. A few minutes later, after PS worked its magic, I had the composite. I hit save and cropped it in Lightroom, then opened it in Nik Silver Efex for the black and white conversion. Back in Lightroom I used my special Grape Dreamcicle toning for the slight bit of color you see. (let me know and I'll share the recipe). 

Today I just got a Gigapan Epic Pro, and it makes this sort of picture automatically and I can't wait to try it!

I sure enjoyed making it. It came out just as I envisioned while being pounded by the frigid surf.

Are you sick of Waterfalls...?

...'Cause I'm not. Having lived in Deserts for most of my adult life, waterfalls are a fresh view that I won't soon tire of. I visited Yosemite as a kid, and falls there were impressive. Taiwan held the largest I have ever seen. Now that I live in this wonderfully lush land, I'm really enjoying discovering all kinds of waterfalls and the challenge of photographing them.

These happen to be on Mill Creek right outside the town of Prospect on the Crater Lake Highway. I've shot these before, but never shared that image online; it's my masterpiece to date, and I'm really proud of it. I may be a little scared that if I throw it out here it will under appreciated. "I'm just not sure I can take that kind of rejection."

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @16mm, f/8, 9 frame HDR, ISO 100, Nik/Google HDR Efex Pro2.

Creating this image was tricky. Last time I photographed it, I stood on the top of the cliff opposite right in the center of the frame. That was at the end of a road, and a pretty simple approach. This time I walked down a trail to access the creek, but it put me too low. See, the river falls about 100 feet in a very shoot distance right here, and it took me a long time scrambling over basalt boulders polished to glass by the stream and scaling the biggest manzanita trees I've ever seen to find a spot where I could photograph the tumble of water and the bridge without driftwood sticking straight up into the image or a boulder obstructing the view. This with my tripod and shoulder bag and my dress clothes on. Pretty fun, I must say. 

I tried hard to remember the scene as I experienced it. I don't want to visit these places and only make pictures. I want to be there, be present while I'm there, and then share an image with you that helps bring you into that instant as well. 

I used High Dynamic Range technics to create this one so that I could have both blue sky and bright sun on the bridge as well as running toffee water and detail in the shadows. HDR lets me show you the whole scene as I saw it. Less the raucous roar of the tumble, like a passing train and an airplane and a hurricane five feet away. 

Deserts

In the last two months I have been shooting in five different deserts around the American West. It's incredible how diverse and unique each place has been. It put me in mind of the first great desert I ever Photographed. In Dubai.

If you go to Dubai, you've got to go dune bashing. You get taxied out to the desert, and join in a herd of off road vehicles to cruise up and down the gigantic dunes. It's pretty fun! We pulled up to a highpoint right at sunset, and I jumped out of the car and ran to the top of the nearest dune to find a trackless section of desert to shoot. Running up those dunes is like one step forward, three steps back. At the time, I had never made any HDR images, but I was shooting lots bracketed exposures thinking I might use them sometime. I'm glad that I did.

Nikon D7000, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, f/10, three frame HDR, ISO 400.

Nikon D7000, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, f/10, three frame HDR, ISO 400.

Multnomah Falls

My wife and I had dinner at Outback Steakhouse last night; our first time there, and my second time inside in my life. The first time I was 15 years old, and an Outback had just opened right next door to Old Chicago in Colorado Springs, where I had just been hired as dishwasher; my first official job. One morning, the head prep chef asked me to go next door to the Outback and borrow their baking stretcher. I ran out the down and down the hill and inquired of the hostess if I could talk to someone from the kitchen. A chef came out, I asked to borrow their baking stretcher, and he said he'd be right back. About 15 minutes later, two guys came out of the kitchen laboring under a heavy box and placed it in my arms. It was heavy! They said to be careful not to drop it, and sent me back up the hill. I lumbered into the kitchen and set the box on the floor, heaving in deep breathes. The chef came over, giggling, and the rest of the staff gathered, too. He bent over the box, cracked it open and bust out laughing. He grabbed three other guys and they put it on the scale, tipping it to 80lbs! Finally, he opened the box for the rest of the staff to see, showing off the box full of garden gravel I had just 'borrowed' from the Outback.

That's got nothing to do with this picture. Mel Torrie was visiting this week, and we got out to shoot the last three sets of pictures you see here together. Be sure to check out his incredible work at the Summerfest in Logan in a few weeks. In the meantime, the only thing I'm lumbering around with is my tripod. Click on the image to view the whole layout.

Multnomah Falls, Portland Oregon. Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.4 D lens, f/11, 1/10s, ISO 100, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

Glacier Lilies

One of the most beautiful places in Cache Valley is the Deep Canyon Trailhead in Mendon. Portraits there always turn out well for me, and there's always a new surprise every time I go. Last week we did senior portraits there and were pleased to find a dell full of Glacier Lilies. I recommend heading over there and enjoying a short walk up the trailhead to the dell to view the lovelies. 

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 Micro VR lens, f/3.5, 1/125s, ISO 100.

St. Johns

Now that I live in the Portland area, I can satisfy my need to go to this bridge anytime I want! Oh, Frabjous day, Caloo, Callay!

Nikon D800, 50mm f/1.4 D lens, f/11, 5 frame HDR, ISO 400, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2.

I love the 50mm f/1.4 D lens because it's old. It's two generations old, and it has some vestiges of the film days built in. It has a depth of field scale that says if I set the focus here, and use f/11, then the image will be in focus. The picture in my viewfinder looks out of focus, but the finished image always looks great. I love that ability, and it's especially useful at nighttime. 

Desert's Dessert

Firstly, you drive through beautiful country--I-70 to US 191 is amazing--gorging your eyes on red rock and canyons and clear skies.

Then you take 191 south to Moab and get a taste of what lies in the parks surrounding you on all sides. The strangeness of shapes in rock rising hundreds of feet all around, and the easy pace of people visiting for fun and residents who have the right idea of living is contagious, as well.

But, greedily looking for more, you continue south on 191 to the Needles in Canyonlands National Park and realize that you've never seen anything so incredible as the vastness and wonderfulness of being alone until now. You hike from the campground and scamper on rocks leading you higher and higher until you find a ridge to watch the sunset, which seems to never end.

Finally, having made your way down from the ridges and petrified dunes, the majesty of the universe spills over your whole world and reminds you how tiny your part is, and how sweet it is to be a part of the whole. A gracious finish to delicious desert day.

Click for a grander view.

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 VR lens @ 15mm, f/4, 15 seconds, ISO 3200.

I've been enjoying working with a wonderful client and team of image makers in the desert all week. It's rough to have to come back...guess I'll be excited to head out again to the Uintah Basin on Monday: one of Utah's best kept secrets!

Phoenix: Mythunderstood

A Phoenix is a bird which is supposed to have burst into flame and then rise again from its own ashes. Many people think this is a story about rebirth; but after my recent visit to Phoenix, AZ, I'm thinking the poor bird is just making the best with the hand it's dealt. Stick with me and I'll explain.

I spent all day with three other talented Photogs, Matt Suess, Nick Pappagallo, and Scott Wyden Kivowitz. We meant to start early, but we stayed out late with the PAC the night before and sunrise came and went before we knew it. Shooting at sunrise is great because the low sun casts sideways shadows on everything and it's much more interesting and reveals the true form of objects and landscapes.

Still, our first stop yielded some fun pictures. The Superstition Mountain Museum is the site of many classic western films and tv shows (including "Charro" with Elvis Presley), and I met a classic Westerner on site.  L. volunteers at the site, teaching people about the history of the region and the studios. He thinks it's a real kick that he's from Alberta and he's come down here to teach American history. He's got that look of a salty cowboy...

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 23mm, f/2.8, 1/500s, ISO 250.

...but he was actually quite friendly. He was a gem, letting me make several portraits with him.

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 23mm, f/2.8, 1/1000s, ISO 250.

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @14mm, f.8, 9frame HDR, ISO 100, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2.

After the Museum, we continued into the hills, searching for a great picture. We talked as we drove and enjoyed the morning. We reached Tortilla Flats (no, not that "Tortilla Flat") and were amazed to find a stream flowing after the recent snows (it is a bonafide desert, after all).

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 20mm, 5 frame HDR, ISO 100, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2.

By now it was lunch time, so we ate at the saloon, which, interestingly, is wallpapered entirely in dollar bills, and it's a big place (the food, however, was nothing to blog about).

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 14mm, 5 frame HDR, ISO 100, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2.

As we talked I learned that +Matt Suess's full time endeavors in photography take him all over the region making pictures and peddling at the various arts faires. His work is really stunning and I think you'll enjoy viewing it--keep an eye out for him at the Logan Summerfest this year, as well.

Many of you know that I'm a snob about light in my pictures. I often won't even take pictures if I think the light isn't good enough, and in my portraiture I go to great lengths to make sure it is good enough. (for instance there was one time when my assistants and I climbed and scampered all over the canopy of a huge tree to hang a ginormous diffuser so that the light on my subjects' faces would be even and soft...took us an hour and a half).

So, I assumed that Matt spends a lot of time researching when the best time of day to make a picture at a place is, and plans to be in the right place places at the right time. His answer really gave me some things to think about, though, and made me a little wiser, too. 

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 28mm, f/11, 1/160s, ISO 100, Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.

See, Matt was a photojournalist on the East Coast for a lot of years. That means the everyday when he walked out the door his responsibility was to come back with a picture that was important no matter what. He had to make a useable, salable image every time for every assignment. He could never say, "Sorry, boss, but the light was poor." So, when goes out shooting for his artwork, he has the same idea in mind: he always makes a good picture. The really great ones are fewer, but he always makes a good one.

That got me thinking about my own work, and even life in general: always make the most of what you're given, and no excuses. Lemonade from lemons. Turn that frown upside down. Burst into flames and make the best of the situation; might as well rise up and go at it again. Thus, I'm made more pictures and concentrated on what I could control--light was out of my hands, but composition and fellowship were still mine to make the most of.

It was a good trip.

Oregon Trail

Isn't it amazing? You can start your day in the desert and finish it off in the rain forest. A twelve hour drive will take you from Logan Utah to Portland Oregon. That's what I call the Oregon Trail.

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 14mm, f.8, five frame HDR, ISO 100, Nik HDR Efex Pro 2.

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 20mm, f/8, 9 frame HDR, ISO 100.

Nearly Death Valley

I drove with my buddy Jared Burns to Las Vegas this week...from Portland. It was a long drive, and totally worthwhile. More to come, but I wanted to share this one before I go back to bed to try and catch up on the 23 hours of driving...

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 28mm, f/11, 1/160s, ISO 100, Nik Color Efex Pro 4.

Ski Time

Here in Utah, we've finally been getting some snow, and I'm sure the Ski industry is glad of it. I made this picture while photowalking with Darryl Dobson in Park City last fall before the first snows pushed the leaves off the trees. Don't forget to click to click to view these images full size.

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @ 300mm, f/11, 1/320s, ISO 800.

Mama, Don't Take My Kodachrome Away

Yeah, it's that song. I made this picture with my pal Darryl Dobson in September in Park City. It's quite a popular spot to make pictures...but it was the first time I'd photographed it myself. And the colors were coming so nicely. 

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f3.5-5.6 VR lens @50mm, f/11, 1/15s, ISO 320.

In fact, that whole week was pretty incredible. As I was driving to and from Vernal to work on those portraits below, I stopped several times to make pictures. That's a huge advantage of riding a scooter across the country--no windshield to shoot through, and it's easy to turn around and make a picture.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/4, 1/1250s, ISO 100.

Nikon D800, 105mm f/2.8 VR Micro lens, f/9, 1/400s, ISO 100.

See, my family was having a little reunion in Park City. That's when my nephews and I made one of my favorite portraits of 2012:

Nikon D800, 105mm f.2,8 VR Micro lens, f/3, 1/200s, ISO 2000.

Garden of the Gods

This park is one of my favorite places on Earth. Whenever I visit Colorado Springs I try to come here to make pictures. I'm still trying to make something worthy of William Henry Jackson who photographed here as well as most the Mountain West.

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 24mm, f/11, 1/30s, ISO 100. Nik Silver Efex Pro2.

Punch Bowl

My pal Megan suggested we all hike to Punch Bowl Falls in the Columbia River Gorge last week. Obviously, Jenn and I thought this was a great idea, and we had a lovely time hiking and making pictures. I made a bunch of panoramas of the falls and the surrounds, and I'll share them here...when I get them put together! There's a lot of work to be done after that shutter button is activated, and it's fun; it just takes time. You know that saying, "Tempus fugit (time flies)"? Well, there should be one about time going by like water over a falls...

Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens @28mm, f/16, 1/100s, ISO 100, Nik HDR Efex Pro.

The Road Already Travelled

In Frost's famous poem, the speaker chooses which fork to take as a road diverges in the forest. He/she weighs the advantages of both, and ends up choosing one and finds that the choosing is the most important thing, not which road was taken. I notice that there's no mention of turning around to look back down the road from which he/she came--no thought of going back. That's significant, too.

If one did look back, it might look like this.

I made this image at Perpetua Point on the Oregon Coast yesterday. The fog was fickle, playing in and out and teasing my light meter mercilessly. Nonetheless, I like the feel of this image, and I think it looks like everything I like about the Coast: small roads winding through the hills, fog dodging in and out, and the ever intense greenyness filling my vision. I was fortunate enough to walk both branches of this fork without the choosing: it's a turn around atop the hill.

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens @ 24mm, f/5.6, 1/80s, ISO 100.

Monsoon

One of the things I really miss about living in Colorado Springs is the incredible thunderstorms in the summer afternoons. The power and the colors and the movement are so intriguing. I was so happy to have just such a storm happen last night while visiting my parents. There will be more to come, including some images made at Garden of the Gods with the lightning striking.

I love that I can share photographs of this stuff with you!

Nikon D800, 14-24mm f/2.8 lens, f/7.1, 15s, ISO 320, frame capture from time lapse movie mode.