Vote for Your Favorite Yosemite Picture
Posted on October 23, 2013 3 Comments
Vote for your favorite Yosemite picture and/or leave a comment below. Click on an image to enlarge it.
As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts and impressions. Tell me what you like. What you’d like to see more of. What you’d like to see less of. What you wouldn’t change.
Maybe a photo moves you, or it reminds you of some distant memory, or it inspires you to take a trip. Let me know.
All thoughts are good thoughts. All comments are welcome. Read More
Photo Guide: Great Sand Dunes National Park
Posted on October 14, 2013 9 Comments
Standing at the foot of the Great Sand Dunes, cool sand sifts through my toes as I adjust my tripod and focus my camera on the lengthening shadows and deepening contours of the dunes. The sun is warm on my face. A playful breeze whispers through my hair. From my vantage point near the sunbaked Medano creek bed people look like ants traversing the 750 foot tall dunes. Laughter echoes across the great expanse as kids of all ages slide down the silky slopes.
Great Sand Dunes National Park
Nikon D200, 70-200mm lens, 1/400 sec at f/10
3 Easy Tips for Getting Your Images Indexed by Search Engines
Posted on September 30, 2013 10 Comments
One of the most important goals of being on the Internet is: getting found.
Getting found it relatively easy when you write a lot of content, like the kind that is found in a blog, because search engines can easily index the written content, pick out the keywords, and determine how to rank the blog post in search results. Actually, it’s a little more complicated than that, but I’m going to keep things simple for this post.
However, as a photographer, most of your content is typically image files. To build your Internet reach and credibility you want your images to show up in relevant search results. The challenge is that search engines can’t “see” images; they can only read text. So, you have to tell them what the image is about. There are three easy ways to do that. Read More
10 Tips for Discovering Your Blogging Mojo
Posted on September 24, 2013 4 Comments
I am a big believer that it is important for photographers to blog, and to do it well.
Your customers will live vicariously through you while reading your blog. They will share your adventures. They will get to know you and they will begin to identify with you. They will feel what you felt when you focused your lens and you pressed the shutter button.
When they buy your services or they buy your prints they will be buying a piece of you and your experiences. Each piece of art will have a richer, deeper story behind it than just the image alone because it will hold the story of you. Read More
Vote for Your Favorite Rendition of “Ice Lake” Photo
Posted on September 16, 2013 13 Comments
Good photography does more than capture a moment. It evokes an emotion; it speaks to your soul.
One of the cool things about photography is that there are literally an infinite number of ways that a single photo can be rendered to not only maximize the emotional response, but to also evoke different emotional responses.
Before I begin working with a photo I often start by thinking about the emotion I want to convey. Then, I settle into that emotion until I can clearly feel it in my gut. As I work with the photo I periodically check to see if what I am seeing matches the feeling in my gut. When they match I know I am done. Read More
Wanda’s Ride
Posted on September 9, 2013 1 Comment
On June 28, 2013, Wanda Roche’s life changed in an instant. Having just biked to the top of the 12,126-foot summit of Cottonwood Pass on Day 5 of the Bicycle Tour of Colorado, Wanda celebrated with friends and began the descent down the Eastern side.
Image courtesy: Wanda’s Ride
Photo Guide: Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Posted on September 3, 2013 17 Comments
Guided by my headlamp, my gear on my back and my brain in a fog, I scramble over rocks to the edge of the nearly vertical black craggy wall of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. To my pleasant surprise I have the entire photo site to myself. From my rocky perch I hear the roar of the river 2,250 feet below. Birds soar overhead as I setup my tripod, mount my camera, and experiment with different compositions. Once I’m satisfied with my setup I sit back in the early November chill and watch as the morning light unfolds, snapping off shots every few minutes. First pink and purple dance across the sky. The morning climaxes as the first rays of sun strike Painted Wall and it ignites with fire.
Waking from La Paz
Posted on August 25, 2013 4 Comments
My eyelids are heavy. Weighted shut. I should check the time. My apartment is silent other than the whisper of heat moving through the ducts. Beckham, my cat, is a solid mass pressed against my side.
As if grounded to the bottom of the ocean, I coax my body over and lazily lift an eyelid. It’s seven o’clock. It’s the latest that I’ve slept since leaving Colorado five days ago. I let out a sigh acknowledging that I’m home and in my warm bed with Beckham. I’m back from Oz. My travels are behind me. Then, hesitation creeps in as I ponder which is the real world and which is the dream. Read More
Digital Darkroom: Creating the Decay Recipe
Posted on August 18, 2013 Leave a Comment
In my Decay photo series, I tried to capture the sinking hopeless weight I get in the pit of my stomach sometimes that is simultaneously alluring and revolting. My compositions emphasized bone chilling blues and ominous dark shadows. I stressed glaring harsh light and rough abrasive textures. Follow these steps to create the same effects in your photos.
Before and after the decay recipe is applied
Focal Point 