Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

Ansel Adams

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

February 20th would be Ansel Adams 109th Birthday (If I did my math right :) )

He was a pioneering photographer who brought the beauty of the American West to city folks who would never have imagined such beauty existed.

In honor of him I ask all of you that like taking photos to study his photos and take your own versions or studies of his work and share them here in his spirit.

Here is a link to his wikipedia information.

Here is a link to a google search for his images.

His work is a study of light and darkness and the contrast is not limited to the lighting, but also frequently the subject matter.

If you have software to convert and process in black and white great. If not you can email me (pm me for email address) your photos and I can process them how I think he might have and post them here for you.

Here are a few to get us started:

Ansel drove the highways and bi-ways of our great land, frequently shooting from his old wagon. Recently I took a trip with a friend of mine who just lost his wife to cancer. He’s older and not up to hiking around much so we just drove around a looked for things to take pictures of from the road. These are my favorites.

Mono Lake Fog - Ansel Adams Homage

Mono Lake Fog

Mono Lake Fog - Ansel Adams Homage

Mono Lake socked in by Fog

Big Pine, CA - Ansel Adams Homage

Big Pine California

Snow covered mountains in Death Valley National Park - Ansel Adams Homage

Snow covered mountains in Death Valley National Park

Clouds in Death Valley National Park - Ansel Adams Homage

Clouds in Death Valley National Park

Dappled Hillside in Death Valley National Park - Ansel Adams Homage

Dappled Hillside in Death Valley National Park

If you have a gallery of photos that are inspired by Ansel, post a link to it in the comments. I have moderated comments turned on because of spam, so it might take a day or two to show up.

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I started dreaming again!

Monday, October 18th, 2010

I love my dreams. I really do. Even the scary ones where I wake up running or chasing and out of breath.

Contrary to expert opinion, I dream in full color. All the time. And I always have…Despite being an adult male. Mostly I dream in deep blues and greens and blue greens. I also like reds and stay away from browns.

But lately, maybe the last few weeks, I haven’t been dreaming at all. Maybe it’s the stress, or the hectic travel schedule and busy wedding season but for whatever reason. Nothing.

I didn’t even notice I was not dreaming until I woke up this morning fresh out of a beautiful dream with deep, brilliant blues and very soft light. I don’t remember what was going on in the dream, but oh! The color.

The deep blue color reminded me of the sky in this Christmas eve wedding photo that I took at Murietta’s Well in Livermore, CA a few years ago.
Murrietta's well wedding photography

I also love bright verdant greens. Like this macro picture of some grass that I took after a rainstorm.

I think I spend a lot of my time with photography trying to re-create the color palette of my dreams.

What colors you dream about?

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Watch out for the Squirrels!

Friday, October 8th, 2010
Alameda Wedding Photography

Buster and Murphy watching the squirrels. Note the tongue on Buster.

We have two dogs.  Buster and Murphy.

Buster is a little half-pint SOB who is really obsessed with squirrels.  If there is even a hint of a squirrel anywhere he’ll run around like a tasmanian devil and bark at the tree tops.

Murphy is a big, dumb looking yellow lab who loves food more than buster loves squirrels.  Because of this I always assumed she was a little slow.  Until yesterday.

You have to understand, Murphy gulps her food down in two seconds flat.  Buster seems to delight in eating his one stinking kibble at a time.  All the while, Murphy watches him with a hint of drool dripping off her chin.  And he just eats slower and slower.

Yesterday I fed them and Buster was taking his sweet time and Murphy was watching, drool dripping on the brick patio and then suddenly, she had a brain flash.  She ran over to the tree and started barking up at the branches.

Buster, thinking there was a squirrel immediately stopped eating and ran over to the tree to try and catch a glimpse of the Broadway Bigfoot.  He was circling around the tree, barking at the branches, frantically looking for a squirrel that, alas, wasn’t there.

Meanwhile, Murphy, satisfied that he was distracted sauntered over to his unfinished food and ate the rest of it for him.

Not just a big dumb yellow lab, our Murphy.

But it raises the question:  What are your squirrels and what gets you sufficiently worked up to allow others to steal your food?

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What it’s all about.

Friday, October 1st, 2010

Yesterday I had planned to import all my old blog posts and get this blog up and running for today, my planned go-live date.  Instead I was at doctor’s offices and then the ER all day, hoping and praying that the pain that doubled my wife over was nothing serious.  When they chose to admit her for further care, I was faced with the true reality of love and marriage.  I love her.  She is everything to me.  The prospect of losing her is too much to bear.

That is what marriage is about.  Combining our lives, combining our families.  Standing up together and saying “This is US!” to the world.

When I photograph weddings, I bring that perspective.  It’s not ‘just’ a wedding to me.  Ever.  It’s the beginning of something great, something completely unpredictable and something that two people will build together that is different from all the other things other couples have built together.  The inside jokes, the references to shared experiences, the tender moments, the joy of childbirth, the pain and desperation of serious illness and even death.  It all is born of that one act we call a wedding.

And I love it. And I love documenting it. Interpreting it. Remembering it.

While I was reviewing photos from past weddings to share on this site, I remembered fondly every couple, every mother of the bride, every shy flower girl and ring bearer, every photo that I took.  Several times I was moved to the brink of tears by the emotion in the photos.  Some forced me to laugh out loud. Still others just brought me back to the reverence that I feel for the beauty and emotion of two people committing to each other.  Committing their lives together.

So I want to thank you. All of you.  Those who have brought me into your lives, whether we’ve met yet or not.  I am grateful to do what I do for the people I do it for.

So maybe tomorrow or the next day, or the day after that I will be able to get some more pictures posted and bring in old blog posts.  Maybe next week I will get my photographer learning articles up.  Maybe I’ll clean up everything so that it’s more polished in a few days.

In the meantime, I will be with my wife.

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