Tag: Photography

2012 Animals of Alaska Calendar

2012 Animals of Alaska Calendar

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While visiting Seward, Alaska last month, I was pleasantly surprised to see my brown bear in lupine image on the cover of the 2012 Animals of Alaska calendar. The calendar was put together by Accent Alaska, which is one of the stock agencies that represents my photography. This image has never been one of my favorites, however, I have licensed it several times for many thousands of dollars. One of the things that clients tell me that they like about this image is that the bear does not look scary surrounded by the beautiful lupine. I took this image while visiting Lituya Bay on the outer coast of Glacier Bay National Park in 2009. You can read my original blog post here.

Steller Sea Lion 18

Steller Sea Lion 18

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As I have been recently editing all of my older trips, I keep finding surprising gems like this image from my last scuba diving trip to Hornby Island, BC in January 2009. If you are a diver you absolutely need to plan a trip to dive with the Steller sea lions at Hornby Island. They are incredibly curious and playful underwater. Many people who are familiar with my work might recall that another one of my Steller sea lion images was awarded 2nd Place in the Underwater category in the 2010 ICPA. Anyway, here is another cute sea lion admiring its reflection on the front of my dome port. I created this image using my Canon 5D and 17-40mm f4 lens in my old Ikelite 5D housing with 8″ dome port and using dual DS160 strobes. It is a single exposure which was mostly processed in Aperture 3.0. Photoshop CS5 was used for some minor adjustments and to clone out particles floating in the water.

Guadalupe Great White Shark 21

Guadalupe Great White Shark 21

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Over the last few weeks, I have been diligently working on processing images from the trips that I have never edited in the last 4 years. I am never home long enough to catch up, plus I really dislike processing images. I have probably gone through at least 50,000 images and deleted many of them, but I have also discovered many fantastic images that have been lurking on my hard-drives. At the time, I remember being disappointed in some of these trips, but I am glad that time has allowed me to realize the potential of what I did photograph. Also, my image processing skills have greatly improved over what I was capable of a few years ago.

For example, consider this dramatic image of a great white shark that I photographed at Isla Guadalupe off the coast of Baja, Mexico in September 2008. This is a fine image, but at the time all that I remembered was feeling disgruntled that I never got the head-on, jaws open picture that every shark photographer dreams of. I also was not very good at processing blue underwater images at that point, so I could not see the possibilities of this image through the overpowering blue of the RAW file. The fish that surrounded the shark cage also “ruined” my picture, but now they do not bother me nearly as much as they did at the time. I have been fortunate to have photographed great white sharks twice in my lifetime. This image has gotten me thinking again about doing some more shark diving trips in the near future. I created this image using my Canon 5D and 17-40mm f4 lens in my old Ikelite 5DmkII housing with 8″ dome port. It is a single exposure which was mostly processed using Aperture 3.0. I also removed much of the cyan cast and cloned out particles floating in the water using Photoshop CS5.

2011 Pacific Life Annual Report Cover

2011 Pacific Life Annual Report Cover

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This past winter I was contacted by Pacific Life Insurance Company to submit images for their annual report. Guess what? One of my images was selected for the cover! This image is the only breaching humpback whale photo that I have from Hawaii and has never been one of my favorites, however, it just sold for a reasonable amount of money. The lesson here is that no matter how I might feel about a particular image, it can have more value than any of my favorite images. When I was in Alaska last month, I saw an amazing full body breach by an adult humpback whale, but of course I was still too far away to photograph it. After a lot of excited screaming of many expletives, I had a very interesting discussion with my crew. They asked me how many breaches I have seen? I guessed somewhere between 300 and 500 breaches in the last 10 years, but only 20-30 of them were photographable. That is a ratio of at best of 1 photographable breach for every 30 breaches I observe. It also means that I have spent a lot of time on the water around whales, which happen to be my favorite subject to photograph. I created this image with my Canon 5D and 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens. This image is a single-exposure which required a minimal amount of processing using Aperture 2 and Photoshop CS4. You can enjoy more photos of whales in multiple galleries on the rest of my site.

Kenai Orcas Blow 1

Kenai Orcas Blow 1

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This is my favorite image from my May trip to Seward, Alaska to photograph orcas. I experienced a lot of terrible weather, but through my perseverance, I was eventually rewarded with 4 glorious days of sunshine, calm seas, and orcas. I saw about 50 different animals in the various pods of resident and transient orcas over those 4 days near Cape Aialik. As this orca swam along the dark, shaded shore, I anticipated its backlit blow when it came to the surface to breath, so I positioned my boat in the bright daylight and waited for the orca to swim past. Right on cue, the orca surfaced and I photographed the explosive pattern of the moisture in the air as it exhaled. I also like the contrast in this image of the bright blow against the dark shore with the bright green water. I created this image with a Canon 1DmkIV that I rented from LensRental.com and my 70-200mm f2.8 IS II lens. This image is a single-exposure which required a minimal amount of processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5.

Kenai Orcas 1

Kenai Orcas 1

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Dang, has it really been 2 months since my last blog post? After our big house move this spring, I’ve been making it a priority to edit all of the trips that I never seem to have time to edit. That has been going really well, so now I am going to begin sharing my new images.

This is one of my favorite photos from my May trip to Alaska when I went up to use my boat for the first time this summer out of Seward. My goal was to spend the better part of 3 weeks trying to photo orcas. The weather had other plans for me, but during my 16 days of trying, I eventually experienced 4 nice days, and fortunately on those days I found lots of orcas. My dream image was to photograph a breaching orca in nice light with the snow covered mountains in the background. While I did see over a dozen breaches, I was unsuccessful photographing a breach. However, I did create many images of orcas with nice light and beautiful scenery like this one, so it was not a total waste of time. This pod was photographed at 11pm near Cape Aialik. I created this image with a Canon 1DmkIV that I rented from LensRental.com and my 70-200mm f2.8 IS II lens. This image is a single-exposure which required a minimal amount of processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5, plus I applied a graduated neutral density filter in processing using Nik Color Efex Pro 4 that Laurie Rubin at Nik Software was kind enough to let me start playing around with.

Mauna Kea Snow Sunset 4

Mauna Kea Snow Sunset 4

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I finally had the opportunity to photograph snow on the summit of Mauna Kea during my February visit to the Big Island of Hawaii. After over a decade of trying, it was nice to finally be able to experience being at the beach in the morning and then driving up to the snowy summit in the afternoon. I’ve visited the summit during previous trips. It is a straightforward drive, but getting out of the car and walking around at 13,796′ above sea level is the real challenge. From the highest drivable point, it is only a few hundred yards and slightly up hill to the true summit. I put on every piece of clothing that I brought to Hawaii, including, thankfully, my winter hat and set out from the parking lot about an hour before sunset. Each step in the snow was a challenge, but after a short time I was on the summit. I was immediately drawn to this wind sculpted ridge slightly south along the summit ridge, especially since it did not appear to have any footprints. Once I settled into place with my tripod, I waited for the golden light less than an hour later. I got cold, especially my hands. I noticed the sunlight was causing some glare spots on my image, so I held my hand on the side of the lens to block the direct light. It’s amazing how quickly the sun sets at the equator. I created this image with my Canon 5DmkII, Carl Zeiss 28mm f2 ZE lens, and 3-stop Soft Graduated Neutral Density filter. This image is a single-exposure which required a minimal amount of processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5.

Honokohau Sea Turtle Sunset 1

Honokohau Sea Turtle Sunset 1

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My favorite location to photograph sea turtles is at the Kaloko Honokohau National Historic Park on the Big Island of Hawaii. After a long day boating with my friends, I photographed this small sea turtle resting on the lava shoreline north of the small boat harbor at sunset. I was lucky that the sky lit up like this, because the vog and clouds often block the magic light at the end of the day in Kona. My friend and fellow photographer Stuart Westmorland was using a flash next to me, which fortunately added a bit of fill light to the otherwise backlit turtle. I normally dislike flash, but in this case the fill-light is perfectly balanced with the ambient light. I might have to buy myself a flash. I created this image with my Canon 5DmkII, Carl Zeiss 35mm f2 ZE lens, and 3-stop Reverse Graduated Neutral Density filter. This image is a single-exposure which required a minimal amount of processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5.

Kua Bay Shorebreak 1

Kua Bay Shorebreak 1

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While I was in Hawaii in February, I spent more time photographing shore break waves. It’s a lot of fun waiting for a big set to come in and amazing how fast 3-4 hours goes by. I’ve photographed in much more extreme environments, but never in a place where I get pummeled by my subject. This is my favorite tube from my efforts to date. I love the tube slamming shut and the light coming through the wave on to the shallow sandy bottom. My biggest limitation at this point (other than not living in Hawaii!) is that my camera only shoots 4fps. If I shoot video at 30fps and slow the action down, I can see all the images that I am not getting. In order to continue my wave photography ambitions, I am considering purchasing the new Canon 1DX which shoots at 12fps. I created this image with my Canon 5DmkII and 14mm f2.8 lens inside my Aquatech 5DmkII housing with a Aquatech 8″ dome port. This image is a single-exposure which required a minimal amount of processing using Aperture 3 and Photoshop CS5.

Outdoor Photographer April 2012 Discover Digital Quick Tips Article

Outdoor Photographer April 2012 Discover Digital Quick Tips Article

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I am excited to share that my “Discover Digital Quick Tips” article is published in the April 2012 issue of Outdoor Photographer! OP’s Editor gave me this opportunity after telling me that he always considers my images to be among the most authentic and beautiful that he regularly sees. In my article, I offer my advice on what my top processing techniques are and how photographers can use them to make their own images look spectacular. Please let me know if you enjoyed reading it and feel free to add your own suggestions in the comments below.

In other news, my regular readers, friends, fans, etc will probably have noted that I have not been online much in the last 2 months. I spent a wonderful, though, not super productive 3 weeks in Hawaii in February. I was barely home for a week before I flew down to Arizona to give 3 presentations about my Alaska photography at the Tucson, Paradise Valley, and Tempe REIs. (I will be at the San Diego, Portland, and Anchorage REIs in the coming month.) Last week, I moved my family into our gorgeous new house just south of Leschi. It is breathtaking to look out my windows anytime and see Lake Washington, the Cascades, and Mount Rainier. This week, I am finally settling into my new office which has its own separate entrance, new cork floors, furniture, and gallery track lighting. I have some large acrylic face-mounts being made by West Coast Imagining that will adorn my walls for when clients visit. Summer is also coming just around the corner. I have multiple trips planned to Alaska, plus my first trip to Tonga. This fall, I will also be joining a small sailboat expedition to South Georgia Island for 4 weeks. As you can see, I have a lot of exciting things going on and many new images to be created.