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One day, a woman and her friend walked into my gallery to look at some images. My wife chatted with them during their visit and learned that they were truck drivers from Texas. They saw a lot of country in their travels but always from the road, at 65 mph and at the wheel of a semi-truck while a...
Last holiday season, we took a quick trip up to the La Sal Mountains. Because this was designated as a “family” trip I took only my trusty Canon S95 point and shoot camera to ensure that photography didn’t accidentally take a front seat to the great Christmas tree expedition of...
Standing out among the ever-increasing number of photographers is becoming increasingly difficult. However, doing so is still possible. The purpose of this essay is to give you ideas about how.
In order to stand out we have to do things that other photographers are not doing. In other words ou...
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I’m a professional photographer and I have a confession to make: I use my iPhone camera more often than my 5D Mark II. It’s true! My iPhone is with me about 100% of the time, the 5DII not so much. It just isn’t practical to lug around a bulky, three pound camera everywhere I go...
In the digital age, just about everyone has a camera. Thanks to social media, everyone knows it, and we are constantly bombarded with images from thirteen year olds with iPhones, retirees with 1D Mark IVs, and budding amateurs and pros alike, some who are constant sources of inspiration and othe...
It is my fourth morning waking up in the desert. Red dirt fills my pores, and has combined with sweat to form a sort of “desert varnish” over most of my body—a strangely welcome feeling that instantly evokes memories of summer on the Colorado Plateau during my youth. I climb out of...
“Have fun! Take lots of pictures!”
“Yeah, sure.” And I was out the door.
I’m lucky in that I have a lot of adventures. Freedom of spirit is a lifestyle choice I made subconciously some years ago, and one I continue to reaffirm every so often, when my restless na...
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Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Gloria’s eBook, Natural Design: Image Design for Nature Photographers.
What is the key to making your nature photographs unique—to rising above today’s oceans of spectacular nature photographs? How do you get noticed i...
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In my early teens, I decided I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer. I really had very little idea of what that entailed, but it sounded to me the way it does to most people: exotic, romantic, and filled with adventure. Now that I’ve grown up a bit, I have a slightly better idea...
My Early Morning Pass got me into the botanical garden hours before it officially opened to the public. The daylily garden, running adjacent to a narrow pathway, was at its peak. With no swarming throngs of curious onlookers to deal with, I practically had the whole place to myself. The winds we...
Image critiques are an important and essential element of photography and, as such, deserve a considerable amount of attention. Critiques can be especially significant for beginning photographers, providing many valuable lessons and learning points to aid in their growth.
Since critiques are s...
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It was still dark out, as far as I could tell, and I had no idea in which direction we were traveling or what roads we were on. I sat in silence, listening to the conversations around me. In the front passenger row of the van, University of California Santa Cruz graduate student Abe Borker was c...
The famous Robert Frost poem, “The Road Not Taken,” ends with a few lines that are easily seen as inspiration for the outdoor photographer:
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
But what of the...
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Generally speaking, nature photographers aren’t known for traveling light. We’ve got tripods, ballheads, lenses, cameras, filters, flashes and reflectors, not to mention backpacks, headlamps, tents, sleeping bags and the myriad items required to hike into the backcountry. If you spen...
While assisting at a photo workshop in Arches National Park, the leader called it quits when warm sunset light failed to materialize. We all packed up our camera gear and loaded into cars for the trek back to Moab. No sooner had we hit the main park road than a faint wash of color started spread...
