Tend the Fire
Most of us have a fire in the belly, a passion or desire that burns brightest in us. It’s the heat and energy from this fire that moves us forward, gives momentum to our projects, and authenticity to our voice. It’s one of those things, sometimes the thing that makes us feel alive. Only you know what this thing is, and …
Time Taken
When I encourage younger photographers to take their time it’s because we tend to be obsessed with doing things faster and too often the speed with which we do things subverts our mindfulness and creativity. It also sabotages the chance for relationships, which won’t hurt you if you’re shooting air shows, but when you’re making portraits, those relationships are everything. …
Visualize Spots
This is a bit of a quickie, but I only just learned it myself. It’s two tips in one. If you don’t already know, there’s a way to visualize the dust spots on your image when using the Spot Removal Tool in Lightroom. Not surprisingly, it’s called Visualize Spots and you can click the little box in the lower left …
Forget Practice
Boat under Snow. Hokkaido, Japan. 2015. Yesterday I linked my social media accounts out to an old blog post – Toward Mastery. One of the replies I got was refreshingly honest: I’ve hit a brick wall, and no amount of practicing is working. Twitter isn’t the kind of place to reply meaningfully to that kind of candor, so if you’ll …
Northern Kenya: A Case Study
Two weeks ago I returned from assignment work in northern Kenya. You’ve seen some of the work already. It’s by far my favourite work, done for my favourite organization – the Boma Project. In fact I like them so much that after my first assignment with them I became a donor, and committed to making my services part of that …
Hungry?
“When your hands are full of thorns but you can’t quit groping for the rose…” ~Bruce Cockburn. I feel myself getting hungry. Or perhaps I’m always hungry but only now recognizing that gnawing feeling for what it is. I get that way when I come out of a time of gorging myself creatively, as I have recently in Kenya. I …
Q+A: Fuji X on Assignment
You’d be amazed how many emails and comments I get that begin with the words, “I know you don’t like gear questions, but…” So to be clear, I don’t mind gear questions at all. I just don’t know why people think I’m the best person to answer them. I like gear. Hell, I LOVE some of my gear. But I …
Kenya: Tech on the Road
There were two pieces of tech, cameras aside (and I’ll talk about them in a separate post), that made my work in Kenya last month possible: one was the Goal Zero Sherpa 100, the other was the DeLorme InReach, a satellite communicator. Power has been an issue on past trips, and this time I picked up an option that will …
Northern Kenya, Pt. 1
The black road leading towards the dust-shrouded sun is warming, Flanked by a thousand citizens walking to work, to school, to anywhere but here. Nairobi wakes to birds and dogs and the honking horns of every car and bus That soon will choke these roads. And we, today, head-fogged and time-lost from half a world away, Are heading north, half-drunk …
To Africa with the Fuji X-T1
My conversion to, and love affair with, smaller cameras is about as complete as it can be now. If the social media I’m reading is to be believed, it’s complete for many others as well. Photographers seem to be jettisoning their heavy DSLR gear in favour of smaller mirror-less cameras, and while I doubted I’d be doing so as quickly, …