Active Mind, Creative Spirit
Adventure Reflection
“Stoopid photographers!” I yelled to no one, because there was no one there to hear. In reviewing my adventures, I find the most fun, exhilarating, and rewarding ones have one thing in common: I find myself saying, often in a stupor from cold, or…
In Search of the Larch
We were supposed to backpack to The Enchantment Lakes area, having jumped through all the hoops to secure a set of coveted passes for the restricted, fragile, high alpine region. This was the weekend we wanted because the change of season brings a very…
How Photographers Hike
Went on a hike to see pretty things and get a little exercise. But it was a photographer’s hike, which means doing it during hours that don’t make sense to most people. And the people it does make sense to are either mountain climbers…
Following Ansel’s Path
Way back in 1989, I had to declare a major in college. I toyed with an architecture major, but the prof for the prerequisite: History of Cities was horrific and scared me from that path. I considered math (very briefly) before settling on Fine…
The One That Got Away
My last post lamented a bunch of photos I’d lost due to file corruption. This is another. It would have been submitted to Nat Geo if I’d been able to retrieve the RAW file. As it is, it’s a JPEG only and unsubmitable (they…
Just a Skeleton
The other day I got all psyched up to enter the annual Nat Geo photo contest. In case you’ve never done that, it takes a lot of small print reading, a lot of picking through files, and a lot of nerve. If you ever…
Digital Surprise
I have a confession to make. I never finished going through my 4000 photos and 250 videos from my Nepal trip in 2013. Part of the reason was because when I first went though them after I got home, my first batch (out of…
Impressionable Everyday Photos
How would your impression of a faraway place be different if you saw photos of everyday life there instead of the stories that the photographers and journalists want you to see? Think about that for a minute. You have all sorts of impressions of…
Failure=Salvation
This weekend I attended a photography conference in Seattle, called Collaborators for Cause. One of the keynote speakers was Aaron Huey. He’s a cultural photographer and activist and he blew me away for several reasons. Most of it was specific to the way he connected…
Hometown History
While it also has the monikers City of Lakes and The Mini Apple, a name I never knew while I lived there was Mill City. Only once I went back to visit and became a tourist in my hometown did I realize how much…
Photographer’s Climb
“You see that saddle over there? That’s where we’re going.” Note the knob on the left (mostly un-named on trail maps) and the peak on the right (Mt Ruth, 7115 feet elevation) as well as the tiny tuft of trees you can see in the middle….
Camp Exercises
The first family camp of the season is always an exercise in what we forgot. This year our long weekend on Orcas Island had a few extra quirks, namely that we brought a boat. We have a new canoe-kayak hybrid beast because my family…
Tulips
It’s not international travel, but the Skagit Valley is home to the largest tulip growers in the US, so every spring, after the snow geese and bald eagles have flown to nesting grounds, the valley is covered in thousands of acres of stunning blooms….
Bali Rice Fields
Photos from an exotic vacation tend to be a smattering of all sorts of photography, from documenting the family trip, to unusual landscapes, to capturing the essence of a culture. Here is one of my favorites from the middle category – unusual landscapes. Maybe…
Postcards from Nepal
Just some visual reminders of a place I love. Click a photo to see slide show. Boy at the motorbike fix-it shop Protector god at Boudhanath temple, Kathmandu Prayer wheels with golden light, at Swayambunath temple, Kathmandu Instant good karma to…
Solo in The City – A Photo Tour
Saturday morning the trade show didn’t start until 11 am, so I got up at 5 and hoofed it down to the south end of the island for a little sunrise photo shoot. It was far from ordinary. Here’s some of what I found….
The Allure of Wildlife Photography
Once I committed to a fine art photography degree in college, I took an interest in animal photography. I spent hours in front of the Siberian Tiger exhibit at my local zoo, waiting for the four of them to do something interesting. Everything was…
Another Kind of Homecoming
When I was sixteen, my brother and I flew to NYC and stayed with my grandmother for a week. She did a really good job of showing us New York. We saw Radio City, Central Park, Madison Sq. Gardens, Empire State, NYSE (where I…
What’s in an Image of History
This weekend was the Kenmore Camera Expo at the Lynnwood Convention Center. One of my stand-by events that I’ve attended since inception in about 2007. The keynote was particularly interesting this year. A White House photographer since LBJ and Nixon, he had full, unrestricted…
A Day In Photos – Montana Outpost
One day while exploring in Glacier National Park, en route to this place, where we relaxed into the last full day in this landscape, and let the beauty of the place wash over us, we passed out of the park on a dirt road….
Study in Imagery
The serene image of a monk praying delights me. The Tibetan Buddhist monks of Nepal could take the interest of my camera for an entire year, I am certain. The colors and folds of their robes, the bright light on their shaven heads could…
Pacific Morning
A standard Northwest blanket of fluffy coastal clouds holds back the early morning sun. Mist in the distance obscures the horizon. I’ve peeled off my outer layers and am plodding through dry sand toward the receding surf. Ocean mornings always beckon me to go…
American Firsts
This weekend the outdoor industry had a local public event. My magazine was there and I gave a talk about Nepal on day two of the expo. It’s mostly business, but I love my industry and the people in it, so it’s also an…
Updates
I am due to post photos on this site. It is after all a photo site. Really, I take photos sometimes! And I even get them put on this site occasionally, too. Stay tuned. It’s coming.
A Thousand Words
Larger version of the photo here I have studied many of my photos over and over. This is one. It tells a million stories just in itself. For me anyway. I’ll try to encapsulate a few of them here. Visually this appeals…
One That Got Away
Not all the stories that I brought home made it into the book. Some were just not complete enough or interesting enough to put in. Some were interesting, like this one, but really didn’t fit in any specific place without disrupting the overall story flow. Others…
Six Thousand and a Sieve
Besides the writing itself, I have about 6000 photos in my arsenal to add imagery to the book. The hardest part isn’t what to include, it’s what not to include. There comes a point when the description that appears in the reader’s head is…