Redwoods and Oregon Once Again

After our trip to Montana and Glacier National Park, where it was often too sunny (quite a complaint, I know) for optimal photography in the area, I decided that a return visit to Redwood State and National Park where I had great photographic success last summer, would be ideal. I had fog every single day there and it would be perfect. Naturally, I started checking the weather forecasts for the area a few weeks before my trip and I realized that I was going to get skunked again—It was going to be bright and sunny every day. Hardly any clouds or fog expected! Great, just what I didn’t need…well, I decided quickly that I would just have to make the best of it.

There is basically only one place to stay in Redwood NP and one restaurant to eat in, which is very discouraging to most people, so the park, even in summer, is not very crowded. That fact makes it fairly free in the park to do what you want and drive around easily, always a major issue in the more crowded national parks. I quickly decided that if fog was not going to show up very much, if at all, I would go into the park very early and come back later in the evening, much as I did at Rocky Mountain NP a year ago. In both cases, the sun would be behind the hills and mountains at those times, so I could do some serious work. This approach worked reasonably well, though I would have really liked that fog, which made for beautiful photos a year ago. I did have some fog ultimately on two days for brief periods and hit a few outstanding ones during those periods. I also made some great starbursts through the trees that I liked quite a bit, though staring at the sun to make these photos work was not the greatest idea. in any event, I wound up with a fairly good collection of images that I liked a lot, even with the weather gods conspiring against me.

One sort of sad note: on my last day out west, I was leaving the park when I saw a man photographing with a tripod along the side of the Del Norte Redwoods, always a sign of a serious photographer. I quickly realized that the fog in this area was perfect and what I had originally hoped for when I planned this trip. I jumped out of my car and started photographing. It wasn’t too log before we struck up a conversation and kept talking as we worked. He was very pleasant and knowledgable, making some good suggestions about images to try. But then he decided that it was about over for the fog and he decided to leave. I urged him to stay a bit longer as you never know when the fog might roll back in and with the sun coming up, it might be quite interesting in a little while. My urging was to no avail, and he packed up his camera and drove away. Not five minutes later, the fog reappeared with the sun blasting some of the best light rays I have ever seen through the Redwoods as seen below. Within the next 10 minutes, I had a collection of about a dozen cars that also pulled over to the side of the road to snap this incredible scene. But my friend was nowhere to be found, even though he had told me that those conditions were exactly what he wanted. I felt truly bad for him, though he’ll never know what he missed unless he one day finds this online.

Sun Rays and Tree, Del Norte Redwoods, California 2019

A Week in Montana

Elaine and I on a last minute whim decided to visit Glacier National Park in Montana. It was one of the few large parks remaining that we had not gone to before and we decided it would be a nice break to get out of the Florida heat, which has been ferocious so far this summer. I fear that it does not bode well for the hurricane season when it is so hot so early in the summer months. We made plans to stay in Whitefish, a small town about 25 miles from Glacier. We had no idea what to expect, but were shocked when we arrived there to find a quite modern town with many good contemporary restaurants and several nice hotels. There were some local trails that we enjoyed walking in the morning before we set out for the park, which we found was a bit of an annoying drive, since the 25 miles to the park gets you to an area that is not especially interesting visually. It is then another 10 miles or so before the park really begins to show its true colors. It turned out to be a truly beautiful place, ideal for hiking (we saw no bear activity, but we were cautious), and a site for many spectacular images. We lucked out in that the Going-to-the-Sun Road opened two days before we arrived. That road, bombed with snow during the winter, takes about 3 months to clear out, a real challenge each year for the Park service. But they opened it up just in time and the drive over Logan Pass was spectacular to say the least. The west side of the park was far more interesting than the east, but there was beauty everywhere. By entering the park late, as we did each day, we also found that traffic thinned out a good deal and it became far easier to park wherever we wanted. Returning home from MIssoula, our flights challenged us a bit, with several delays built in, but we finally arrived to veg out the next couple days. I think that this is one park where staying in the lodge is almost mandatory because of distance, though the food in town was certainly much better than what we would probably have eaten in the park. All in all, a very enjoyable week in Montana with a few nice images.

Mountain View Near Logan Pass, Glacier NP, Montana 2019

Pushing On

After my truncated trip to Bryce Canyon, I spent a few weeks simply recuperating and regaining my strength. While staying at home, it did give me a chance to continue editing my photos, both from Bryce as well as from Antarctica. The Antarctica trip was a huge success for me. I cant think of another trip in which I had a success rate on my photos that was this high. Normally, maybe 5% of the photos that I take ever make their way into a printed image. This trip, however, has a yield rate perhaps three times as high, with many of the photos being some of the most striking that I have ever taken. In fact, I continue to go back into my files and find more images that I like even now. It has been a learning experience for me to keep recognizing what I was trying to do there, while pulling out many new images.

I keep thinking that I need to put this work into some type of book format, perhaps pairing with the Arctic trip from 2016, comparing the images from both the top and the bottom of the world. I think that I could come up with a very nice monograph along these lines, with an attached pdf that people would be interested in. Perhaps over the next few months I can get that together with an appropriate commentary.

In the meantime, trips to Glacier National Park and Africa are on the horizon. Here is another unusual photo from Antarctica that I am very fond of. I love the abstract aspect of it.

Abstract Ice Cave, Antarctica 2019

Bryce Canyon--Good Start, Horrible Ending

Having great success with my recent excursion to Antarctica, my desire to photograph reached a high level and I felt compelled to pursue my photo work even further. After a few days of thought, I decided that two areas that I had not visited much were some of the beautiful areas around Las Vegas, namely Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire State Park, and Bryce Canyon. This seemed to be a very doable trip for about a week, so I went ahead and booked it.

The trip started well. Conditions at both Red Rock and Valley of Fire were as fine as I might have hoped for, perhaps a bit more sun than I would have wanted, but one can’t complain too much about good weather! Valley of Fire, in particular, is an extraordinary place, and if it were a bit larger in size, it might qualify to be a national park with its unique variety of rock formations that are all extremely interesting and photographic. I think that I barely scratched the surface there on tis trip and it is definitely a place to return to and visit again. I then proceeded to Bryce Canyon, where the weather conditions at both sunrise and sunset were perfect. A bit chilly in the mornings, it nonetheless warmed up quickly and could not have been better, but with one downfall. Much of the park was closed because of snowfall earlier in the year, but several of the major viewpoints were still open and with the residual snow, were more beautiful and spectacular than ever. So the first three days there, my camera seemed to be firing away nonstop. I then decided that for an afternoon hike to go to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, where the canyons always seemed to be perfect for hiking. I found a perfect hike, Bighorn Canyon, which went up a canyon wash, ending in some slot canyons. What more could one ask for? Well, I made several beginner mistakes. One, because I was out in Bryce early, I got a somewhat late start on the hike. By the time I went out, it was pretty sunny and there was both no shade at all in this canyon and the wash was very sandy, making each footstep that much more difficult. Finally, I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have to my GPS, so I stupidly got lost and wound up walking much further than I should have under less than ideal circumstances. As a result, I overdid it and knocked myself out. I really felt it that night, but hoped that a good night sleep would be all that was necessary. What I had not counted on, however, was either the food poisoning or the virus that hit me mid-morning the next day! I could keep nothing down and then could later hold nothing in. I became so dehydrated that I needed to haul myself to the local ER, 20 miles away, to get 2 liters of IV fluids, the only time that this has ever happened to me. The ER staff were terrific and did a great job, but all of this pretty much ended my photography for this trip as lifting a camera was no longer a consideration.

So I managed to get some rest after being rehydrated and planned to head back to Las Vegas to fly home the next day. What I did not count on was the blizzard that appeared or the winds of 30-40 mph that I had to drive through a good part of the way back to Vegas. But I finally made it and looked forward to getting home the next day. I checked my flight early in the AM, listed as On Time. When I get to the airport, however, the flight is cancelled! Fortunately, thanks to two great desk attendants at American Airlines, they managed to rebook me and covered all possible bases to get me home the same day. I am very grateful to them.

So this trip was a real plus/minus. Several great days, a bunch of lousy ones, but some photos that I am very pleased with.

Bryce Canyon Sunrise With Snow

Rock Forms, Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada

Antarctica

If there were a single place on the globe that I have wanted to visit now for some time, it was Antarctica. For some unknown reason, the concept of sailing among unbelievable icebergs had an intrinsic appeal to me that frequently popped into my mind. Why this appeal was there, as much as I try to understand it, the reasons escape me. Perhaps in some way, the idea of photographing the monumental carvings of Mother Nature herself had some undefined draw for me, or perhaps it was just an idealistic hope of finding perfect beauty in ice that pulled me to this region of the world. I will never know, but over a year ago, I took the plunge and signed up for a workshop with John Paul Caponigro and Seth Resnick to visit the continent. In the week or so before I left, I found myself in a mix of excitement and anxiety, not fully knowing what to expect. It was also a very long, tedious trip, flying from Miami to Santiago, Chile, then on to Punta Arenas, Chile, and lastly to the Antarctica Peninsula. About 14 hours of flying with several hours of layovers. Now that I am back home, all I can say is that the trip was well worth it and one that I am very sorry is now over.

After my recent other long trip to New Zealand, I returned overwhelmed by the beauty of that country, but dismayed at my inability to successfully capture that beauty. Now, with the recent senseless murders that occurred this past week in Christchurch, I am even more disappointed in my photographic failure there. Few images had the impact that I would have liked to have seen, and it was certainly no fault of New Zealand’s that I did so badly there. Antarctica, however, was another story. It seemed as if there were endless numbers of images dancing before me non-stop. While we photographed about 6-8 hours each day, that never seemed to be enough. There were always more images to be captured, more wondrous things to observe and capture. I loved every minute of it, and could think of no place that I would rather visit again sometime soon. We had incredible weather, one gorgeous day after another, wildlife beyond imagination (penguins, seals, whales, birds), and the greatest parade of icebergs of all time. The icebergs came in any shape and size that one could envision, carved beyond the limits of imagination by the wind, the water, the elements, and time itself. Antarctica was truly magical in the sense that it was impossible to believe that we were still on this Earth. There is simply noting like it. Even our trip to the Arctic two years ago, while amazing, did not come close to having the impact that Antarctica had on me. I will never forget it, and I am simply so glad that I got this chance to experience the seventh continent as I did. As I have gotten older, and my abilities slowly dwindle, I know that this trip was something that I did at just the right time in my life, and I am deeply grateful that I had that opportunity.

Iceberg With Arch, Antarctica 2019

New Zealand

It has been quite a while since I last posted on my blog, primarily troubled by my seeming lack of good photography during a three week trip to New Zealand in October. New Zealand itself was spectacularly beautiful. The only foreign countries that I have visited to date that seem to possess as much amazing landscape this ripe for photos are Iceland, England, Canada, and Scotland. My time in each of those locations resulted in numerous images that I found very pleasing upon my return home. Even while out shooting each day in those travels, I knew that I was making some fine photos that I would be quite pleased with. For some reason, however, that did not seem to happen in New Zealand for a variety of reasons. Often, my timing was totally off, since my wife and I would not be at a good location during the right time of day, or the landscape lacked any sort of attractive light that would help bring an image to life. Sometimes we stayed at places where the only opportunity to get something to eat would occur during sunrise or sunset, eliminating those times of day from photo sessions. Lastly, I occasionally did not have my Nikons with me at an opportune moment, and I was reduced to capturing a shot with my iPhone, certainly not the end of the world, but less than ideal. I found myself very frustrated at the circumstances, which seemed to be almost unavoidable if my wife and I were to enjoy ourselves and not starve to death, given that we did travel to some remote areas of the South Island. While I did have a number of respectable posts for Instagram and 500 px, my prints of any significance feel like they are lacking. I guess that not every trip can produce real winners, and I have been fortunate that recent travels have produced some of my best work to date. perhaps it is that fact, namely the recent successes, that make this trip feel so sparse in comparison. And so the blog has languished, buried in my own feelings of dissatisfaction with myself. Also, when this kind of trip happens, it makes me question my own photographic abilities, or lack thereof. At this point, all that I can hope for is a better experience on my next major venture—a trip to Antarctica.

Clearing Storm, Mt. Cook National Park, New Zealand 2018

Cleaved Boulder, Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand 2018

Down Time and Supercharging

I have been photographing almost ceaselessly this year. Travels to Death Valley, the Utah National Parks, Washington State and Vancouver Island, California (twice) have been extraordinarily fruitful in building my portfolio, even though my office is beginning to be overrun with prints. With a trip to New Zealand upcoming next weekend, I have put my cameras down for a brief respite, which I think will serve me well. All this practice at making photographs has clearly improved my visualization of scenes, and I don’t feel that pausing for a brief respite will have any adverse effect on that. One or two images and it will all come right back. What I feel will be supercharged, however, is the desire to make fine photographs. Wanting to make a great picture is 90% of the challenge in fine art photography. As is often stated, you have to be in it to win it, and if the desire is simply not there, you will not be in it at all. So I have been concentrating more on my cycling and physical conditioning, while simply getting ready to travel. While I am not looking forward to the lengthy nature of the trip, it should be fine and the three weeks we have allocated to travel around the South Island should make for a marvelous experience. In fact, I find myself getting more and more psyched up each day that I leave my cameras in my camera bag. I’m hoping for some first-rate new images to add to my portfolio. For now, I’ll just post another of my redwood collection that turned out to be one of the best series that I have done to date.

Landscape Photography in Troubling Times

While I derive great pleasure from making photographs, I have to question the relevance of landscape photography in a time when there seems to be so much wrong with this country and the world. Somehow, this country elected an individual who seems to have very limited intelligence, no appreciation of art or literature, and believes that he knows better than anyone else, no matter what area of endeavor under discussion. I have not felt so absolutely uncomfortable since the days of the Vietnam War, when it was difficult to figure out why so many of my friends were dying in a land far away for seemingly no reason at all. We heard endlessly about the domino theory and how all of Southeast Asia would fall if we did not defend South Vietnam from Ho Chi MIn. Well, thousands died, we lost the war, and what happened was that Vietnam is now a major tourist destination. Looking back, I can only feel fortunate that my draft number was not called, and immensely saddened when I think of my high school and college classmates who lost their lives for absolutely no reason at all. Now, we are in a similarly insane time, and while there is no draft any more, it feels as if the floor is constantly shifting beneath my feet as one man’s insanity wrecks havoc on much of society. So how do I justify making landscape photographs when all around me so many terrible things are happening? In fact, the whole concept of a democratic society is being challenged.

Well, the truth is that it is extremely difficult to state that my images are essential for any reason at all. If I did not make my photographs, I’m not sure that they would be missed at all. But I do hope that they accomplish a few things. First, they serve to remind us of the gift that we have been given by being placed on this beautiful earth. If the artist can somehow reveal that beauty, even to a limited number of individuals, they might be reminded of how everyone’s stewardship of the land is so critically important. Ignoring the earth’s needs and failing to preserve it for future generations seems to be a terrible potential catastrophe from which we could never fully recover. Secondly, the production of an artistic vision might hopefully inspire others to take up the challenge and produce their own art, whether it be landscape or otherwise. Art is something that serves us all in so many ways. I would suggest that art is one of the highest callings of mankind, as it provides a view of life that elevates us and incites us to think about our world in unique and novel ways. In fact, all one needs to do is look at the dollar value placed on art to see how concretely it is valued, above and beyond the seemingly incalculable value of art in nourishing us emotionally and spiritually. Few endeavors are as valuable as creativity, whether in art, photography, literature, music, sculpture, or any of the other avenues that people pursue. Even athletics, when performed at the highest levels, can be profoundly artistic and meaningful in ways that go well beyond scoring runs or making points. There are many other victories to be found in sports artistry that go beyond the goal of winning a championship. Lastly, from an individual perspective, the artist is often unable to stop making art, no matter what is occurring in the surrounding world. This endless drive to produce art comes from deep within one’s being. If one were to stop, it would create a vacuum that is profoundly difficult to fill at the most basic personal levels, since you would, in essence, be asking that individual to stop attempting to stop trying to reveal his or her insights into the complicated world in which we live. Throughout history, even in the most oppressive of regimes, artists have continued to make their art in terribly difficult circumstances. The work of many of these artists has gone on to live long after they have passed, and has served to make us all aware of both their suffering as well as their incredible vision of the world in which they lived.

So art continues to have great value, even in the worst of times. We must not lose sight of that, no matter how problematic society may be from time to time. In the end, if people survive, art will survive as well and will continue to yield incredible benefits for all.

Light Through the Redwood Forest Fog, Del Norte Redwood State/National Park, California

Weather and Forest Photography

Photography literally means "light writing," and a better definition of the importance of light in producing images cannot be found. The quality and nature of the light in which one photographs makes a world of difference in the way a photographic image appears. Nothing could be more demonstrative of this concept than the pictures that I made during my recent trip to Redwoods National Park. Redwoods is different than most national parks, in that it is really a collection of three state parks in California, Prairie Creek, Del Norte, and Jedediah Smith, which are jointly managed by the California State Park System and the National Park Service. There is not much in the way of hotels or restaurants in the region, and what is there is on the rudimentary side, but the landscape and the redwood forests are astonishingly beautiful. Having been a bit south of the area in Mendocino recently, I knew that the summer weather was likely to be perfect for landscape photography, since fog along the coast seems to be present during a good part of many of the summer days. So I decided to go to Redwoods and see what might unfold for me.

The days turned out to be filled with fog and a little bit of light, perfect conditions for forest photography. In fact, for me, it seemed at times to be a fantasy land, in which I could find photos almost endlessly, from early morning until late evening. The only thing that stopped me from taking pictures was my own energy level, as I seemed to get exhausted at times from repeatedly setting up my tripod and making hundreds of exposures each day. Unlike bright, sunny days, which produce far too much contrast and blotchy light in a forest setting, dense fog simplifies pictures, blurs out the confusing, often tangled background of a photo, allowing you to highlight specific aspects of a scene that in harsher light would not be much of a photograph at all. I live for days like these, which are filled with so much atmosphere that they become imbued with overtones and feelings that strike a chord deep within anyone who views them. A fog-drenched forest is elemental at some very instinctive level that almost everyone responds to, and it makes life very much easier for the photographer who wants to produce images that resonate with the viewer. Being out in the forest, hiking along empty, foggy paths early in the day, was an especially great pleasure for me. It seemed as if I could spend an endless amount of time there if the weather conditions remained like that (they don't, unfortunately) forever. People often laugh when I tell them I want overcast, or foggy, weather on a photo trip, since nearly everyone "normal" hopes for bright sunny days. Not this photographer. Give me a foggy, overcast day any time, and I am ecstatic. This trip turned out to have many such days and the picture-making could not have been better!

Plus and Minus Feelings About My Photographs

It seems as if every time that I go somewhere with the clear intention of taking new photographs, a particular sequence occurs that is virtually identical from trip to trip. At first, I am a bit nervous about finding anything worthwhile. Perhaps this will finally be the photographic expedition that I completely lose it and cannot find a single landscape worthy of making a picture. Then I always find something that catches my interest and I start to make photographs, often large numbers of photographs, as I get excited by the various things that I'm seeing. My excitement continues to mount and I become certain that the images that I am making are the finest ever. My imagination runs wild and I become certain that if a gallery were to see these pictures, they would simply start throwing money at my feet. I am the master photographer, Ansel Adams couldn't hold a candle to my shoes. Finally, that evening I start to download my memory cards to my computer and closely look at the "incredible" pictures that I have been taking. One glance tells me that I have been totally delusional all day, that my photos are barely a step above total garbage, and I have been completely wasting my time, especially thinking that I might have any talent whatsoever. I am literally crushed and want to go home, or better still, crawl into a cave somewhere and never come out. This sense of ennui continues for days, though I keep taking pictures, why I don't know, since I am a horrible joke of a photographer. Finally, my trip ends and I go home, download everything onto my main computer, and start to make some prints. Mmmm, that picture isn't really so bad after all. And I kind of like the next one even more. Yes, the following one is truly awful, but the one after that holds up kind of well, now that I recall what I was trying to do with it. It seems as if I finally reach some type of equilibrium with my art, and I come away feeling that there is at least a little bit of hope for me as a photographer after all. So when can I take my next trip, as I'm sure I will do even better?

It's funny how different my trips with my wife are compared to those that I take alone. Elaine doesn't like to leave Florida in the beautiful months from mid-October to the end of May, but she hates the heat and humidity from June through October (most especially when a hurricane rolls through). So we travel together during the summer and my photo opportunities are constricted by meal times and making sure that she has a good place to sleep and especially to dine, as she is a stickler for healthy, nourishing food. But finding breakfast tends to kill sunrise pictures and dinner limits the sunset hours, so it forces me to be a bit more creative about getting my photos. When I am by myself, food is never an issue, always more of an afterthought, as I chase the light all day. Either way, photography, in spite of the anxieties that I expressed above, is always a joy for me.

Early Morning, Foggy Redwood Forest, Caspar, California July 2018

Summer "Burnout" - Life in Florida

One of the most difficult periods of time for me to make photographs is the summer. In Florida, where I live, it is so hot and humid that being outside for even an hour is a truly taxing, draining experience. It is simply so uncomfortable that concentrating on finding an interesting image is nearly impossible, since all you really feel like doing is getting back to air conditioning. While my wife and i try to escape the heat as much as we can, personal and family responsibilities often prevent us from spending most of the summer away from home. As a result, image-making suffers, and it produces a feeling of ennui and a near complete lack of enthusiasm for photography. It is frustrating to say the least.

About the only approaches that seem to bring me out of my "Florida burnout" are the following: 1) going to galleries or museums and looking at the wonderful art work on the walls; 2) examining photographic books by some of the masters and regaining my inspiration from seeing what they have accomplished; and 3) probably most importantly and somewhat surprisingly, going back and inspecting some of my own work produced during the past year. I often find myself quite surprised by past photos in this respect. Images that I thought were okay, but nothing special, now look much better to me. I often find myself wondering why I wasn't more taken with a photo that I printed a few months back, when I simply made the best picture that I could, but then shoved it into a box or drawer, kind of forgetting about it over time. The photographs upon renewed viewing kind of jump out at me, vying for my attention, and reminding me why I made the image in the first place and why I should get out there and make some more, with the hope that the new ones may even be better! The recent images almost seem to shock me into action and start me thinking about where I should go while the heat (and sometimes hurricanes) in Florida are unbearable and unrelenting. It is a wonderful exercise that almost always gets rid of my photo-depression and starts me on the path for the coming year.

Glacial Runoff, Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington 2018

Distant Travel or Local Photography--Which Works Best?

For many years, it seemed as if the only time that I could take meaningful images was when I left home and spent a week or so fully dedicated to photography. In my years as a practicing physician, I often felt as if I needed to clear my head of medicine and the problems of my patients before I could "focus" on image-making. After a while, however, I realized that this approach was far too limiting. Because I rarely could spend more than 3-4 weeks a year away from home, I began to search for something to photograph in my local area that could potentially be important to me as a way of expressing myself. This search began in the late 1980's in Philadelphia, when I began making my first serious graffiti photographs. The streets and walls of many areas of Philadelphia at the time were littered with graffiti, and the schoolyards especially were a never-ending source of this material. I feel that I did some very fine work then, which has continued to this day with my Wynwood, Miami, images. Finding a source of material so close to home was a crucial aspect of my photography, without which, I may have lost interest entirely, since my travel was so limited. Many of these abstract photographs remain some of my favorites, and my newer pictures build successfully upon that earlier work.

Having a photographic image source nearby was wonderful, but my landscape photography didn't benefit much from this approach. While I did do some local landscape work, my heart was often not in it for reasons that I still don't understand, though I do recall one Fall (1994), when I was taking landscape photos nearly every weekend for many weeks. That Fall was exceptionally spectacular, and the slides that I made that year confirm the unusual nature of the color change that literally lit up the region. But it was problematic to find other scenes to photograph, most likely because I just didn't look and work hard enough. The area around Philadelphia was and is certainly attractive and potentially ripe for photography, but my vision at the time was too immature.

In recent years, however, especially since retiring from medicine, I have been able to locate landscape photos nearby nearly every day. Part of this change has come about because of the advent of digital imaging. The instantaneous feedback and the ability to immediately edit photographs has literally opened up a new world for me. In the film era, the time differential between taking a photograph and seeing the finished product felt too long, especially if it was color slide film that needed to be sent away for developing. Now, whether I am using my Nikon dSLRs, or my iPhone, feedback is immediate and provides a superb stimulus to keep me working towards better and more meaningful images. I always have some type of camera with me now at all times, usually my iPhone, the quality of which has become extraordinary. Its flexibility also allows me to make pictures that I would have never even considered in the past. It is one of the greatest photographic tools ever invented. But the instant feedback seems to have been the ultimate spark that lit the fire for local work, and I now make many photos within a few miles of home, sometimes during walks around the neighborhood. So while I still love to travel the world to make photos, I must admit that some of the most satisfying pictures that I make these days are taken very close to home, as seen in this sunrise photo of an Anhinga drying its feathers after a feeding dive for fish.

Anhinga Sunrise, Parkland, Florida 2018

What People "Like"

Not too many years ago, the only way that a photograph could be presented was as a finished image. The photographer saw something that he or she felt was worth photographing, they took a picture on some type of film, ultimately the film was developed, and finally, an image was printed. If the image was not printed, it usually existed only as a negative, unless the image was made on transparency slide film, which would show the photograph, but in a very reduced size, difficult to see. So until a print was made, there wasn't much to show anyone. The primary goal for the fine art photographer then was not only a print, but a larger scale print that could be displayed, ideally in a gallery setting, or reproduced in a book or magazine. Because galleries were so limited in number, however, there were not many fine art photographers and very talented people had few places to display their work. Only the best of the best could hope for a gallery show or be highlighted in one of the few photo magazines that existed. The photo book was so expensive to produce that publishers would only undertake this kind of effort with a major artist. Other than these pathways, the best you could hope for was to show your pictures to family and friends, praying that they would not run in the other direction when you came at them with a handful of prints or a slide carousel tray ready to go.

Times changed, however, with the advent of digital imaging. Initially, people started sharing their digital images by e-mail or text message to friends, but once social media, especially Facebook and Instagram, appeared on the scene, a whole series of new opportunities presented themselves that literally anyone capable of taking a digital image could now take advantage of. It became possible to show your photograph instantly around the world to not only friends and family, but to strangers whom you had never met. Unlike relatives and friends, who always told you your work was fantastic, strangers could be far more objective about what they were seeing and give you a more honest opinion, typically through clicking on a "like" button or symbol. In theory, this concept sounds ideal: you can show your work to potentially hundreds or thousands of people and see immediately if they appreciated your efforts or not. But some serious issues soon became apparent. Since now anyone could be a self-designated "photographer," photography proliferated rapidly on the Internet to the point where the barrage of images confronting an individual each day was overwhelming. When thousands of pictures cross your path daily, it becomes very problematic to give any single image more than a cursory glance, so to capture someone's eye, photos need to be splashy and dramatic. Few things are more dramatic and colorful than sunrises and sunsets, or night photos of the milky way, so variations of these themes virtually exploded, and instead of an image revealing a story or emotion that might only be appreciated when one views an image for more than a few seconds, the images that blasted light into your eyes became the primary goal for many photographers on the Internet. If one examines the work of some of the greatest  photographers from the last century, such as Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Eliot Porter, Paul Caponigro (who still produces beautiful work), and Wynn Bullock, to name but a few of the great landscape photographers, even their strongest images reveal a level of subtlety and thoughtfulness that much current imagery seems to lack. Rarely did these people take a photo directly into the sun, preferring to reveal what the sun produced when it struck the landscape, in other words, they recorded the light upon the land. In part, they were hampered by the fact that their tools were often not capable of handling some of the brightness of sunrises and sunsets, and astrophotography was literally out of the question, but even if they could do this kind of work, it seems that they preferred to reveal something else in their imagery, a type of emotional content quite different from the Internet photographer of today.

That is not to say that modern photography is bad, or doesn't meet some higher standard, it is just different because the exigencies of the way images are now produced, viewed, and appreciated dictate a different approach. As a result, some truly wonderful images go "unliked," since they fail to capture people's attention in the second or two in which someone scrolls by the photo. I would therefore suggest that more attention be paid to all images, splashy and quiet, in the hope that more of the current situation that affects humankind is revealed to the viewer. We now have the greatest tools ever in history for making images. It would be a shame if we failed to recognize the extraordinary talents of those individuals whose work speaks to us at a quieter level.

Canyonlands and Colorado River from Deadhorse Point, Utah, 2018

Styles of Photographing

Working through my many photos from my last trip West, I am struck by how my assessment of an image at the time that I am taking the photograph to the time that I make a print changes so much. Repeatedly finding this to be the case makes me question my skills as a landscape photographer. When I watch the increasingly numerous YouTube photographers search for the "perfect composition," I realize that I could never stake an entire day on finding that one photo, then waiting hours until the lighting is just right, and, finally, snapping the shutter and knowing that what I have captured is ideal. So many times the scenes that excite me turn out to be complete failures when I process them in Photoshop and I ultimately look at them. These disappointments occur far too often to ignore, leading me to question my photographic "eye." On the other hand, a number of photos that I take as almost afterthoughts because "I am there," often turn out to be the best ones of the trip. I therefore find myself taking numerous photos and sorting them out on the computer at a later time, which is the way that seems best for me to function out in the field. Without question, there are times that I know that a photograph is a home run right at the time that I trip the shutter, but those moments are rare. I suppose that if I did take only those photos, it would not be very different from the YouTube photographers, but I would then have lost an awful lot of good photos, which is, in fact, what I think happens to the people who wait unbelievable hours for the "decisive moment." In the background of their videos, I often see scenes that I think are perfect, but they completely ignore them and move on to their perfect spot. I guess either method is fine if it works for the individual photographer, but I think that I miss less and ultimately enjoy myself more. I believe that it was Ansel Adams who said, while you're waiting in one spot for everything to be perfect, you're missing something fine somewhere else. I couldn't agree more.

Capitol Reef National Park, Utah

I just returned from a pretty amazing trip in which I managed to hit 4 National Parks and a national Monument in a single trip of 10 days. Clearly, that is far too little time to allocate to explore even a single park in depth, but it just happened to work out this way and it turned out to be a great deal of fun. My main goal was seeing Capitol Reef NP, a place that I had not visited much compared to the other southern Utah parks, but the proximity of Capitol Reef to Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Bryce National Park made it easy to spend a day or two visiting those parks as well, and on my return to Salt Lake City, stopping at Arches and Canyonlands near Moab was pretty simple to do. All in all, the weather was very cooperative and I came away with a pack of interesting new photos, several of which seem to rank quite high up on my scale of keepers for my portfolio and web site. Two other brief stops at Utah State Parks, Factory Butte and Goblin Valley, completed this whirlwind travel to the Beehive State.

One of my favorite photos was the attached one of Factory Butte, which I had not planned to stop at, but a very cloudy grey morning started to give way to dissipating clouds and a burst of hazy sunlight, and Factory Butte lit up like a beacon. The sky was very interesting, though little color, but overall, the scene was a special one that I like very much. It is always great to add a special photo that is completely unexpected. I had photographed here many years ago, but came away with a picture that was only mildly inspiring, nothing all that special. Oddly, I completely missed the terrific colors in this area, since my original was a black and white photo, as that was all I was doing in those days. The landscape colors, however, this time around were what makes the photo stand out, especially with the enhanced sky above. This was a real favorite from this trip, though there were quite a few that I liked and I am still going through all the batch to see what the real highlights are. Also, I finally got out to Cathedral Valley, which I had wanted to go to for many years, and it did not fail to impress. All in all, a great trip.

Factory Butte, Utah

Nearly Two Months

It has been nearly two months since I updated my blog, for a variety of reasons, none of which are terribly good ones. Laziness is perhaps my best excuse, although I have been photographing so much and producing a lot of new work, so that it is hard to point a finger at myself and say that I am lazy. Perhaps I am lazy at writing, for that I have to plead guilty. In any event, the fruits of my efforts are now visible in my site update today with a host of new images that can be found under the New Work section of the web site. 

My travels took me to a variety of places, most notably Death Valley and Zion National Parks. I have found that January travel is a wonderful to experience the National Parks, with a striking absence of the typical Summer crowds. Both Death Valley and Zion were relatively empty, and I could go almost anywhere and pretty much have the landscape to myself. It has become one of my favorite times to travel in this country, and I will certainly continue to do so for the next few years. Upcoming is a trip back to Utah and a park that I have only briefly explored in the past, Capitol Reef. It is a beautiful area that I have very few photographs from, most of which are black and white from my large format days, which are now looking quite dated.

In looking through a number of my books of black and white photos from some of the greatest masters, it has struck me how limiting that form of photography was and how much photography has changed since the introduction of digital photography. So many aspects of photography that now seem simple were absolutely impossible back then, so that the imagery one sees in these older books often falls flat. Also, the quality of the imagery, at least in my mind, has improved dramatically in many ways, not only technically, but expressively. The technological improvement heralded by digital photography has truly enabled photographers to express themselves in ways that were not conceivable in the film days. One can only wonder what the future holds in this respect. The one issue, however, that digital does raise is preservation. Because of the fleeting nature of digital storage and the constantly changing way that we do store these pictures, it seems essential that prints be made so that there is always a hard copy available to be shared. Without the print, a digital image may not be available a few years down the line, especially if its creator is no longer around to move it along the constantly evolving storage pathway. This will remain an important consideration for some time to come.

Where Does the Time Go?

Another year is rapidly winding its way down, and the swift passage of time continues to astonish and frighten. Nearly a year ago, my wife and I decided that we would like to take all our children, their spouses, and our seven grandchildren on a cruise over the holidays this year. That was back in March and it seemed so far in the future, but now that future has arrived and we set sail in just a few days. Before I know it, the trip will be over and even if we have the best time ever, it will leave a lingering sense that time is passing me by and that other lives, those of my children and grandchildren especially, must now take the natural course and move to the forefront. It remains remarkable how swiftly life passes; one minute you are young, energetic, embarking upon your  career and growing your family, but before you know it, it has become their turn and all you can do is step back and hopefully admire how well you have done with them. In the case of my children, I think that we have done well indeed. I could not hope for a more wonderful, loving, closer group than we have.

The cruise presents photographic issues for me, namely should I bring a big camera with me or not? Given the circumstances, the likelihood of accomplishing anything significant seems small, so I think that the iPhone camera will have to do. I truly enjoy photographing with the iPhone. The quality of the images, and my skill with the phone, have progressed so much this year that I am often amazed at what this camera phone can actually capture (see below). It is always difficult, however, to leave my Nikon D850 home, as I love that camera, too. But I already have time in California and Utah scheduled for January, which will be intense, so a more casual approach to photography here may be just what I need on this trip. 

Jamaican Pointsettia, West Palm Beach, Florida

Return to Florida

After several weeks of traveling around (often waking up not sure of where I was), I returned to Florida, just as the cold weather was beginning to overtake the Northeast. I always have mixed feelings about coming back to Florida, since the beauty of the Fall in the Northeast is unparalleled. This year seemed to produce a special number of wonderful images that were very satisfying to me, but as with all good things, the Fall did come to an end, with little more than a trickle of brown leaves remaining on the trees, and a host of fallen leaves populating the ground. It did stay pleasantly warm longer than expected, but then some cold evenings blew into town and I began to remember how pleasant Winter was in Florida and I started looking forward to getting back.

Although the photography in the Northeast really resonated with me this Fall, I have increasingly begun to appreciate the beauty of the landscape in Florida, and I've set myself a goal to make more photos this year down here in the Sunshine State. Some of my favorite locations for taking photos are actually quite close to home. Surprisingly, since nature appreciation is not a high priority for many Floridians, Broward County has seen fit to designate a number of "natural" areas within close driving distance. These areas usually have a paved path through them to walk on, but they are otherwise pretty much left to grow and develop as they would in the wild, or the days before so much of this region started to become overdeveloped and overbuilt. While much of the landscape in these natural areas is a simple combination of pine trees, cypress trees, palm trees, palmettos, and the like, the relationships between the plants when left wild is often beautiful and fascinating. One of my favorite ways of passing a few hours is to wander among these areas with my iPhone and explore. With the new iPhone X, which has a superb camera, making images is great fun and very rewarding. I'm glad to be back here for now, though I suspect that my wanderlust will take over soon and some trips to other parts of the country will claim my attention.

Next week is Art Week in Miami, with Art Basel claiming much of the attention, though the peripheral art fairs are also quite outstanding. I'm looking forward to visiting some of the exhibitions and seeing some world class art.

Palm Tree, Boca Raton, Florida

New York, Late Fall 2017

After returning from my trip to Maine, I found myself feeling still eager to do more photography. We flew up to New York to see our grandchildren and do some babysitting for our children, but I still managed to get away during a few of the days with my camera to do some serious work. When we first arrived, there was still some fading glory in the color of the trees, and the area in which our children live is very close to some beautiful spots: Bear Mountain State Park and Harriman State Park in the southeastern section of New York State. Both parks are marvelous at any time of the year, but the Fall is especially beautiful as the leaves go through their parade of color change. While perhaps not as vibrant as the colors that fill Maine during this time of the year, they are nonetheless still striking and highly photogenic. There are also a few lookouts that allow you to gaze down upon the Hudson River, and it is easy to see why this spot is so popular with tourists in the region. Looking up the river, the beauty is unmatched and a wonderful subject for photos. So I was able to spend several days out in nature with my camera, much to my delight. It also allowed me to come away with some nice new work for my portfolio.

The Hudson River and Bear Mountain Bridge, New York

Maine, Fall 2017

It is now about a week since I returned from Maine, and my photos from this trip could not have fulfilled my goals much better. They seemed to do a superb job of capturing the Fall color change this year, which appeared and then disappeared extremely quickly. When I first arrived in Portland, I was sure that I had come too early; by the end of the trip, I knew that I had fortunately timed the trip exactly right. Had I come a few days earlier or arrived a bit later, it would have been fine, I suppose, and I would probably not have known the difference, but it was superb as it was. People that I ran into from Maine, however, were somewhat disappointed in the Fall this year. Not only was it shorter than last year, but the intensity of color change was somewhat less. That's a tough thing to judge, especially when you don't live there. I think it is probably more of a gestalt feeling that a resident has, because there were unquestionably terrific patches of color brilliance that were absolutely breathtaking. In fact, sometimes after taking a photograph and putting the camera away, I would just sit or stand there for awhile admiring what Mother Nature had wrought. It was often breathtakingly beautiful to the point of tears. The sweetness of the entire experience carried the sound of glorious violin music that simply stirred the soul, a sensation that, for that moment in that space and time, all was right in the world (though that is hardly the case these days). At least, it felt that way for just a brief moment, producing a marvelous memory that will stay for years to come.