Sky on fire…

 

Sometimes, as photographers, you just gotta indulge in a moment of passion. I say that because once in a while, there is nothing more succulent than pure, natural color. We humans are drawn to it like moths to a flame. Last night’s fleeting pre-dusk sky was a masterful stroke by Mother Nature, comprising every succulent color from indigo to gold in her palette. You could not help but step outside and, well, just stare… After a moment or two of silently drinking this scene in, I grabbed the first camera I saw and pointed it heavenward. For once, no post-processing was required. Nature, got this one exactly right. Hope you enjoy…

Solar power…

As we find ourselves on the cusp of winter’s edge, it’s nice to harken back just a few months and remember the powerful warmth of summer’s magnificent sun. This fiery image, taken while cruising along the southeastern tip of Mexico, was truly a beauty to behold. Feel free to conjure it up anytime the chill of the season upon us takes its toll! Hope you enjoy…

Sky on fire…

 

Sometimes color just rules the day. This evening sky, taken from my Phoenix hotel room window overlooking some of the local flora and fauna at the base of Camelback Mountain, was just too compelling not to shoot. These colors became more muted, then unexpectedly reburst in one final blaze of glory before fading into final twilight.

 

Days end…

Be prepared…

 

The image above is a happy accident. It was not the image I went out to photography last evening, but it’s the one I came home with. And while I am fairly pleased with the result, it falls in the category that we as photographers cannot seem to drill into our own heads: Be prepared.

Here is what happened. Driving home from running errands yesterday evening, I saw the cloud formations to the east looking particularly dramatic. The sun was setting, its rays slowly melting from golden to fuchsia, the clouds were gaining structure and contrast in a way that simply guaranteed I’d have an award-winning shot without breaking a sweat. That attitude should have been my first clue. Ahem. So confident was I about my intention and subject, I quickly stopped by my house and in the blink of an eye, grabbed my tripod and camera–already armed with the perfect wide-angle zoom for my landscape, and within 5 minutes was in position and on location. Didn’t

Only… wait. One problem. The sun died… right in front of my eyes. The cloud formation, which should by all rights should have exploded with color, simply…. fizzled.  The cloud went dark. And there I sat looking at a dark blue cloud on a quickly darkening sky. Hmm…. Any light, anywhere??? Oh, yes… of course… the light BEHIND me was spectacular and the local radio tower was perfectly framed in color. Except, I was standing there with a wide-angle lens and the beautiful tower was far, far away. I tried framing, reframing and finally had to settle for an image I knew I would have to severely crop later. The result is what you see above. OK, so maybe somehow, someway, I made lemons out of lemonade (you all can be the judge) but once again, I had to humbly admit that I let my excitement over getting “the shot” get in the way of my clear thinking about what I should have come prepared for. Yes, a longer telephoto should have been in my bag (I didn’t even grab a bag!) so that if the shot I thought I was going to get didn’t pan out, I might have had some  options.

I tell this story because 1) I think it’s important to constantly remind oneself that the road to becoming a great photographer is fraught with humbling lessons and 2) the joy of the chase is actually the true joy of photography. If you end up with an award-winning image, it’s icing on the cake. Just keep enjoying the journey. Til next time…

Come sail away…

 

The light was fading… I was intent on watching this beautiful Caribbean sunset loftily sink beneath the horizon when this perfect little vessel sailed into view, its white sails reflecting the last vestiges of light that bounced off the darkening seas. I love the play of light and dark in this image–the dusky clouds and brilliant sun, and the way the sails almost glow with a life of their own in a comparatively vast landscape. Hope you enjoy…

Behind the lens…

 

I don’t often (try never) feature myself in my photos, but I had a unique opportunity for a quick self-portrait this week during my stay in Phoenix. I’ll be posting some of my more ambitious shots in the days ahead, but just for fun, I thought I’d show you what’s behind the lens as well. I had a wonderful vantage of the gorgeous Phoenix sunset from my hotel patio, and was shooting from all angles, when I noticed my own image displayed right behind me.  A couple of adjustments, and voila: Portrait of the Photographer. More to come from the valley of the sun later this week…Enjoy!

Big sky country…

 

There is nothing more dramatic, more magical, than a winter sky. It’s truly the season of the “big sky” and if you are photographer and you don’t get out and shoot from December to February, you are truly missing one of nature’s most wondrous achievements. The problem for me in the winter is that am generally working til dark, and I usually glance up and out my window right about the time the “big show” begins… only to realize that by the time I grab a camera, fit a lens, jump in the car, and stash my tripod, the magic will have passed. There is more leeway to make this all come together after work in the summer, but unfortunately, the skies just don’t seem to have the same magnificence in July. This image was taken a couple of evenings ago at a park just across the street from where I live. I was prepared to come away with nothing, or next to nothing, but I forced myself to go through the motions and see if I’d get lucky, somehow. While the spot I was shooting from was far from ideal–no sweeping vistas here–once I saw what was happening in the cosmos, I just sat down and shot. I tried about a dozen different angles and hoped for the best. In the end, I think I captured a bit of the majesty I enjoyed in person, which in truth, is always my personal photographic objective. So while the sun may be warmer in June, I’ll always be able to look back and appreciate this gorgeous mid-winter sunset. Hope you enjoy…

How less can be more…

 

Sometimes as photographers, we are caught up in the pixel race… the charge to fill every available micro-pixel with information so our pictures have that WOW effect, as if maximizing pixel data somehow relates to photographic  quality. But creatively speaking… sometimes less is more. In this shot, taken at the Pacific Coast near Malibu, I took a break from shooting the gorgeous rocky blue coastline to turn and see the sun just peaking over the hillside before sunset. Ordinarily, shooting directly into the sun is a no-no…. with crazy lens flare and volatile metering making a quality exposure near impossible. However,  in previsualizing this shot, I realized it  had the makings of a nice silhouette. I snapped off a few frames, and later, with a bit of post processing, was rewarded with this final shot. Am bothered by the vast amount of negative space? Not really… in fact, all the black just help train the eye straight up to the top of the peak, where the bright rays shooting through the trees capture that fleeting penultimate moment, just before the sun disappears for the day. Hope you enjoy…

Winter’s WOW factor…

 

Autumn seems to be all about color. Once those green tones of summer begin to evolve into shades of orange, red, rust, and yellow, photographers (me included) leap to our feet, run about madly and try to soak up the color like a sponge–often shooting hue, instead of true composition. You can’t help it, and I am as guilty as the rest. But then December kicks in, and those remaining leaves are dull brown, the skies often turn blustery or gray, and we are left wondering where it all went.

Luckily, the onset of winter brings another dazzling subject–those dusky winter skies. I am no meteorologist, but I assume the tilt of the earth’s axis as we enter the winter solstice gives the sun’s rays that searing ability to blaze through the clouds and offer some of the most gorgeous, breathtaking sunsets of the year. No matter what the scientific reason, I am literally gasping for breath every time a scene like the one above explodes on the landscape, making even an ordinary setting like my backyard look like a scene-stealing broadway star. Now, that’s WOW factor! Hope you enjoy…

Peace in the valley…

 

There is a Canadian photographer whose posts I read religiously. He is not a name that people will know by the best-selling books he’s authored, or the classes he teaches, or by the covers of Nat Geo he’s  graced. But there is a soulfulness to his work and a sense of inner poetry that draws me in every time one of his posts hits my inbox. In this day and age, with hundreds of emails, tweets, posts, etc that bombard me every day, the fact that his work makes me stop what I am doing and thoughtfully enjoy it for 5- 10 minutes, really says something. In fact, if I could do that for anyone else, with either my words or photography, that would be a rare honor, indeed. The reason I am mentioning this is because one of the tenets of this photographers’ work is to learn to find art and beauty around you, wherever you are… rather than feeling like you have to travel somewhere far away — to the “beautiful places.” I agree 100%–there is artful, miraculous beauty all around us.

Case in point. I went out last Friday night to shoot a dazzling sunset. It was a crisp early fall evening, clear, but with just enough clouds that I was hopeful they would make a dramatic evening sky composition. I had scouted several areas earlier that day and had settled on one overlook spot I felt had potential. So I got there at the proverbial hour, set up the tripod and shot, shot, shot. I captured some OK scenes, but all in all, nothing spectacular. Just when I thought perhaps I had exhausted my possibilities, I decided to walk just a little further, look beyond another patch of trees, and try one more lookout point. Lo and behold… I realized I had “the shot” in front of me. The light gleaming off this spire, as an anchor to the dazzling fire sky truly made the image work.

Later, once I began editing my collection from the evening, I realized that this was indeed the shot I had been after when I had set out. It’s a wonderful feeling, to look at an image and feel as if you’ve been given a gift. No one else has to love it… I don’t necessarily shoot for “likes” and “thumbs up” — this is just for me, and that passion–combined with execution–makes me feel like a real photographer. Peace, in the valley, indeed. Hope you enjoy…