The High Desert is calling; it wants me back.

It has been an interesting and challenging few months. Delays caused my house remodel to drag on longer than I expected. My business is feeling some effects of the limping economy. I am learning many new technologies, and have jumped full-force into SEO analysis as well. I am learning new studio lighting techniques. I am learning to multitask more than ever. The final piece (for the moment) of the four-month remodel was having the carpet installed yesterday! I will finally get to move in upstairs, have a bedroom, and set up the office.

For the last four months I have lived in about 400 square feet of the house, sleeping on a mattress in the living room, next to my "office"; a shanty-town of a studio which consists of two computers on the dining room table surrounded by ever-increasing stacks of paperwork, computer accessories, printers, scanners, headphones, and hard drives . I feel like it is consuming me. This all changes today! Nice new bright carpet now adorns the base of my new office. Ample space, and a beautiful view out the window make a perfect new beginning.

Just in time for spring. I am emerging from a long winter's hibernation, and have really missed being outside, hiking and shooting. With the critical parts of the remodel complete, I can get back outside with my gear and soak it all in. My body seeks to awaken. My mind and spirit long to breathe and reconnect. The buds are on the trees. I need to embrace every day, and keep things moving. I miss nature photography. With my new dwelling now habitable, I can get a bit of the balance back. The balance that feeds me.

I am starting off the season spending another week in the desert around Moab again at the end of April. For a few of the days of the journey, I will be attending the Moab Photography Symposium. If you are attending this event, please contact me and I will look forward to meeting you there! It will be an amazing few days with an impressive line-up of photographers and artists.

Here's a few photos from last year's personal Utah expedition (unrelated to the Symposium), that have been gathering binary dust up until now…

Holeman Spring Canyon in a Sandstorm

Scattered clouds over White Rim Canyon

Strata and Erosion

A Warning to be taken very seriously on this road: "Soft Shoulder"

The Difference between Night and Day

Over the last couple years,
I have occasionally been asked why I don't shoot more colorful subjects, like wildflowers, green meadows, and colorful mountain scenes. I've never really known what to say, as, truth be told, I just never
felt I was that good at it.

When I really became fixated with photography, my first instinct was to take pictures of the moon, the stars, the twilight glow; the Mysterious and the Fantastic. Night and low-light photography naturally became my muse. To me, night photography is the equivalent of a painter starting out with a blank canvas, and slowly applying layers upon layers of color with his/her brush. Similarly with night photography, you start with a pitch black frame, and slowly allow light in the camera over long periods, or force light in by painting objects with a spotlight. It seems much more controlled by virtue than shooting in daylight hours and being at the mercy of current sunlight and atmospheric conditions. Night photography does come with it's own set of unique challenges though, including camera noise, difficulty in getting the lens focused on my subject in the dark, and uneven light painting. Other external challenges with night photography include encounters with wildlife, encounters with (not-so) domestic farm dogs, wind, and a myriad of other predicaments that you might imagine wandering around in the wilderness at night may present.

During my photography journeys, I find myself sleeping for four hours around mid-night, waking up and shooting pre-sunrise and sunrise, and then sleeping another four hours at mid-day, to go out and shoot again at sunset and after the fall of night. More than once I've absent-mindedly greeted people with "Good Morning!" at 6:00 in the evening.

The photo of the old tree above, "Protection", is a 30-second exposure taken at about 4:00 am in the Utah desert a couple weeks ago, before the first glow of sunrise.

On to more important topics…

Today is Mother's Day. We owe a debt of gratitude to our Mothers for bringing us into the world, nurturing us, teaching us, consoling us, healing us, and loving us. I recently read on a blog a statement that rings so true:

"God could not be everywhere, and
therefore he made mothers."

In honor of Mother's Day, (and also in response to those who wondered if I'm truly nocturnal and envision me frantically clamoring through shadows to return to my coffin at the first hint of dawn), I give you this gallery:








"Unique Flora"; in celebration of the vibrant color and
the miracle of life that Mother Nature provides.

Enjoy, and to all the Mothers of the world,
wishing you a most heartfelt

Happy Mother's Day!

Timelapse video of thunderstorm over Denver

Now for something completely different! I've always thought storms were pretty exciting, and when the skies went black over Denver on Monday at about 6:30 in the evening, I grabbed my SLR and tripod and set it up against my back window, and took a shot every few moments. I didn't really time the intervals between shutter clicks, just guessed at anywhere from 15 - 45 seconds. If there were interesting clouds I took more shots.

170 frames played back at 10fps...

Click here to launch the video....
The quality is not great, but there it is. In the middle part of it, when it is raining, streets flooded within about 10 minutes. It was gone as quick as it came, though...

Seems kind of silly doing this with a still camera; maybe someday I'll buy a nice DV cam.

Kind of a fun experiment...