Light, Space & Time
My newest book is just about to be released, and there are a couple of ways to get it, including getting one of only 1,000 signed special editions and even picking it up in person if you’re near San Francisco. But give me a moment to talk about the book itself. Despite the wildlife photographs that illustrate the book, Light, …
Show Me Less to Show Me More
As a photographer who learned his craft before autofocus became a truly reliable technology, my earliest challenge was focusing the lens. Those who picked up photography after the cameras could focus faster than we would ever be able to do ourselves won’t know the frustration of that particular learning curve. But focusing the lens was never so hard as learning …
Keep At It. Wonder Awaits.
It was 39 years ago on a summer day much like today when I picked up a 35mm Voigtländer rangefinder camera at a neighbour’s garage sale. That whim would change my life, drain my bank account many times over the decades that followed, and make me a different human being than I might have been if I’d bought the tennis racquet instead. …
Stronger Photographs With Just One Decision
Watch the short video above, or keep reading if you prefer the written word. I think a lot photographers put all their creative eggs in too few baskets. They look to the work they do with the camera as job one, which it is. But it’s not the only job. It’s the sexy job, for sure. But it’s insufficient. Some …
3 Ways To Give Your Images Their Best Chance
Watch the 7-minute video above, or keep reading if you prefer the written word. In my last video I resumed a conversation I’ve been dying to come back to. Specifically: Why do photographers get so intimidated by the edit and the “now what?” that comes once we put the camera down? And are we missing important creative opportunities? For years, …
A Better Edit Makes Better Photographs
Take a few minutes to watch the video above or, if you’re more of a written word person, keep reading. When I came home from Kenya last year, I had a hard drive filled to busting with 30,000 images. I’d been photographing for 30 days, so that’s a daily average of 1,000 photographs which, it turns out, is really easy …
Grizzlies of the Khutzeymateen
Ten years ago, I got off a de Havilland Beaver, the quintessential bush plane of the Canadian north, and stepped into the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary for the first time—and it was love at first sight. The long inlet not far from the border with Alaska is flanked by mountains and cliffs, all covered in evergreens draped with flowing moss, and …
Artists & Explorers
This one is a longer one, but I think it’s worth it. Put the coffee on, find a place to settle in. And then scroll to the bottom to see some images from my recent wolf expedition A month ago, I found myself in a tuxedo, eating ants and mealworms (but not the scorpions, grubs, or tarantulas also on offer) …
The Best Photography Advice I Ever Got
As far as photographic advice goes, this one is a favourite: don’t shoot what it looks like; shoot what it feels like. It sounds like something I would say, doesn’t it? It’s not my original quote, but it is very poetic. I don’t even remember when I first heard it, but it sure struck a chord. I had found my …
The Problem with Mood
I do a little moonlighting for a small computer and imaging company that rhymes with Snapple. They are under the mistaken impression that my nearly 40 years behind the camera means I know what I’m talking about. Still, I like the challenge. One of my first tasks as their Creative Storytelling Specialist (yeah, I don’t know what that means, either) …