Death Valley 2011

We have made many trips to Death Valley and each time I find it a fascinating place to explore and photograph. I like going back in my files and find new images to work on that I previous overlooked. Certainly the process in Photoshop has improved greatly since I made this image. This is another sleepless night for me so I decided to work in my modern day darkroom (photoshop) to help clear my mind of events of the previous day. I enjoy the quiet time in the middle of the night. The quietness takes me back to my darkroom days where I spent thousands of hours standing alone in the dark to make my images. The work of the darkroom process is a difficult one but renders the most satisfaction for me personally when doing photographing printing. This image was made shortly after sunrise out on the Dunes. Death Valley is a special place to visit and you might consider making the trip yourself one day

Uncertainty

We all experience it at some point in our lives. Here I am the night before I take off for another road trip of photography and primitive tent camp in the Plains states of America and Canada. It is an area that I have avoided traveling to and photographing my entire life. So I ask myself why at the age of 75 do I want to go to a barren land and sleep on the ground in an area that is void of scenic value? In the process of trying to answer my question, I realize that my soul feels barren and my desire to create has vanished from my being. Is it due to my age knowing that I can now "see the end”, or is it that I am out of touch with what creative photography means to me in the world of AI. I am uncertain of that answer as I write this. Have I lost hope in my pursuit of my passion? No! But has technology and the means to create a meaningful image shifted so far that I am no longer relevant to the current trend? I am beginning to thinks so. I suppose it is a natural progession of an aging person that has dedicated their life to a dream and vision that suddenly fades without them being aware it. I will make my trip feeling in an exhausted state, and hope the stark barren landscape can offer me something in return. To find a place of balance in life, you need to experience the extremes.

Tower Studio

Off the coast of Newfoundland is the island of Fogo. It has long been a fishing community and that is the main livelihood of the island for centuries. In the past few decades the fishing industry has been on the decline because of over fishing, but in the past couple of years it is showing signs renewed growth with the fishing regulations that were put in place to bring back the fish population. If you visit the island there are some interesting artist studios to visit with working arts. This one is called Tower Studio and is an oddly shaped building positioned in coastal landscape. I find doing an architectural study of these various odd shaped buildings gives me a new insight in how an abstract structure can be a place of quiet and peacefulness due to their unconventional design. We usually think of things in architecture as form over function. That concept is clearly apparent with this structure of making a creative space for artist to work . The building in itself it an expression of art.

While traveling in Canada last summer around the North side of Lake Superior. I found some interesting hikes that took me along some streams flowing down off the nearby mountains. It was a cool and rainy month of August and the waterfalls were full of energy. On my hike I noticed from a distance a rock that appeared to look like a profile of a face on the side of wall. I stopped and took out my rectangle viewing card that I always carry with me, and determined I would need a 400 mm lens to get the subject framed correctly. I found a good spot for my tripod and a comfortable big rock to sit on, and took my time just enjoying the rushing sound of the water and the solitude of the location. The rock figure looks like an Indian Chief or an old fur trapper that lived in the area centuries ago. As I was sitting there after making my photograph a young boy and his Mother saw me and wondered what I was photographing. I pointed out the face I saw on the rock wall and I could tell they didn't see it. So I let them look at the view finder of my camera and they were both astonished that they would have missed this scene on their hike. It is always gratifying to come upon the unexpected when our hiking and having my camera gear with me.

When disaster strikes in the digital world

Lou Rovo Center for Brain Health

                                                          Florida Polytechnic University

 I recently started to do some architectural photography.  Finding an interesting build can be a challenge and then hoping for the right light when on location is always a concern. I made the first image last September in Las Vegas. It was located on a busy street with lots of traffic nearby. The building had trees and other vegetation planted around the structure.  The second image of Florida Polytechnic University I made this week.  In contrast it was a very quiet campus with classes out of session for the summer. The Florida summer clouds made for a nice backdrop.  Now for the heartbreak.  I was working on my photography a couple of days ago when one of our daily violent summer thunderstorms came rolling in.  I usually run to the computer and shut down all my devices and unplug from the UPS backups.  The next morning I fired up my computer and my couple of external hard drives only to find several folder completely gone from my external hard drives and other images gone from within folders that remained. These two images are just a couple that no longer exist.  I have searched and for days and there is nothing to find.  How this can happen is unknown to me.  I try to backup as much as possible but for some reason all the digital devils struck and took away some of my best images I have worked so hard on.  It is a mystery and the lost is devastating because now I only have a few jpeg images to haunt me of what I had.  

The Melting Building

Architectural photography is something I have never done a lot of.  I mostly have concentrated on landscapes and abstract subjects for most of work.  Recently I was in Las Vegas and visited the arts district. That is where I came upon a wonderful abstract building,  The Lou Ruvo Center for brain health designed by architect Frank Gehry,  and is often referred to as The melting building.  It has to be one of the most artist designed buildings I have seen.  Certainly it is a one of a kind and the abstract quality makes an interested building to photograph.  I always try to show a presence of light in my final image and it all starts with analyzing the light in the field before making the exposure.  Once I have an image with the proper light and composition then the real work starts to produce an image worthy of representing this wonderful structure.  It can take me days of working on a single image to get the desire look I am after.  Sometimes I am rewarded with an image I feel represents the inspriation I felt when in the field with my camera. 

Style

 We all develop our own style in photography if we stay with it long enough.  We first start out trying to mimic other photographers whose work we admire. There is nothing wrong with this but at some point we need stop trying to reproduce another photographers work and create our own look.  It starts with an awareness of things that we are drawn to and putting together a body of work that represents our emotional response to what we see. There is nothing mystical or magical about the process.  It is simple seeing and putting your inner person into play. We all have jobs and commitments we have to deal with everyday, But deep within all of us is a hidden person that can create and present something that has meaning to us. The source of this creativity ebbs and flows with intensity and sometimes is not present at all.  It is not that is is not there, but because we have stopped seeing and listening to the things inside of us and take on other duties of the day,  Somedays I walk though the day and look for nothing. My eyes are shut because of negative news and other outside forces that occupy my mind.  Then for no particular reason I wake up and find everything has the potential of creating an interesting image and my mind is flooded with wonderful ideas.  I guess this is a normal and healthy way that the creative minds works.  The down times are frustrating but are periods of rest before a rush of new creative energy comes flooding in. Often my moods follow the same path as my creative and non creative periods.  The above image was made in Mexico of some banners hanging in a small church, 

What makes a good photograph?

 Photography is a medium that offers many choices in how we want to use it.  What makes a good photograph?  It really depends on how you use photography.  For most people it is to record family events and create a history of cherished memories.  The ability to freeze a moment in time is unique to photography.  When I look back at old photographs of past family members, I can appreciate the true power of photography when use to record important people and events in our lives.  Photography also can provide a way to express a desire within us to create and explore the environment we live in.  This is the expressive side of photography that can make us stop and think when viewing an image that inspires us.  These types of images help us to connect to an object or scene in a way we couldn't have otherwise.  The stillness of photography lets us view and examine the object with great detail and emotion.  We all quit seeing as we grow.  We develop a learned recognition of things so we really never have to look at it in detail again. Such as looking at a tree or a chair.  Once we have imprinted our minds at a young age to recognize a tree we only need to glance at a tree a know what it is.  In a sense we stop really seeing and rely more on our sense of recognition. The gift photography can provide a way to persevere the cherished memories of our lives and to awaken our true sense of seeing.  So the good photographs are ones that impacts you the most. 

It is hard to take your own advice

I have been writing in this blog for a number of years. It has never received much attention as initially desired.  I question why I take the time to write things down and post it with one of my photographic images. Possibly I am writing to myself to express the things stirring in my life or to resovle some current issue. At the start I was hoping to inspire other creative people to engage in a dialog about things of mutual interest.  Sadly few comments were ever received but that has never been a real concern for me.  Occasionally I will read a few of my older post to look back on my creative ambitions and my thoughts at the time.  I find myself taking my own advice which is sometimes hard to do. We all have a weakness with staying committed to a purpose. If you write your thoughts down and revisit them years later you can determine how committed you were to your beliefs at the time. Taking your own advice can be hard. 

I made this image yesterday while out in the swamps here in Florida. I love the cypress tree and it's intriguing root system. I often find myself resting under the shade of the trees during the mid day heat.  The song of the Mockingbird over my head and the cry of the osprey circling high above is the music in nature. 

The Grottos

I traveled through Colorado last fall and stopped by an area that I had photographed at thirty years ago.  It is just off of the continental divide when going over Independence Pass.  The Grottos trail with the ice caves are located in the White River National Forest.  I am always amazed when I return to an area that I had previously photographed, and realize how different it really looks as to what I remembered it to be.  On my first trip many years ago I hiked down into this area with a heavy large format camera and a sturdy tripod.  This time I was equipped with a lighter digital camera and tripod, but found the climb out much more strenuous than on the first visit.  The area around the ice caves has some great hiking trails that take you to some wonderful waterfalls.  When I first visited this location in 1990 there no people in the area when I was photographing.  On this trip I couldn't find a place to park and decided to come back at a later time to have more quiet space to hike around and relive some old memories of a special place.

https://liveandlethike.com/2015/09/12/grottos-trail-white-river-national-forest-co/

2019

If I had an image to describe the year 2019, this would be it.  It may have not been the worst year I have experienced in my lifetime but it certainly came close.  We all experience struggles in our lives and it is how we cope with them that determines if we can overcome them.  Health issues complicate our lives and takes patience to deal with.  They can zap us of our desire to do our routine things and dampens our enthusiasm and ability to dream.   Despite dealing with these issues I managed to still get out and explore some new locations and meet some nice people along the way.  The hardest thing this past year has been staying organized with my photography.  I have always had a clear vision of my goals and what direction I wanted to take with my photography.  I have created some wonderful images  this past year but somehow few of them have given me the satisfaction I desire.  I decided to give up all social media because it has a negative effect on my creative abilities.  I found that I spent time thinking about what others thought of my work more than usual.  As with all new years we make promises to ourselves how we are going improve things over the previous year.  That is all well and good but little of your energy should be spent there.  The most effective thing a person can do is be honest with themselves and deal with the essential things in life and let the good things come freely and on their own. 

The SS Charcot

I recently traveled to Newfoundland and found it to be a fascinating place to photograph.  The weather was constantly changing and the wind never stopped blowing.  It was a challenge to photograph in these conditions but the unsettled weather created a moodiness to the land and sea.  I came across the old wreckage on my first day of travel.  As I was photographing and elder man appeared and told me the story about the boat.  It was an old whaling ship called the SS Charcot.  It ran around when it lost it's mooring in a storm back in the early 70's.  It was a fairly quiet evening when I made this image and this old hulk had an eerie feeling about it.