Within The Frame, 2nd Edition
Since 2009, Within The Frame has surpassed all kinds of expectations, among them my own. What started as a book about the passionate (and compassionate) photography of people, places, and culture, became a book that was just as much about vision. It led to other books, workshops, and connections with people that have since become collaborators and best friends. Now …
Cameras Don’t Make Photographs.
The recent outrage over Steve McCurry’s penchant for tweaking his photographs with Photoshop is just one in a long series of opportunities for photographers to get their panties in a twist over how photography should or should not be done. This morning, I’ve about as much desire to enter the fray as I have to pour this mug of coffee …
Giant Mantas of Socorro
I boarded the Nautilus Belle Ami, with a couple dozen other divers on World Oceans Day. Together we spent the next 36 hours sailing from the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, bound for the Revillagigeda archipelago, a small collection of islands and rocky pinnacles a couple hundred miles south. The experience of the last 12 days was, in significant …
Vision Is Better, Episodes 46-49
Join me for Episode 49, wherein I discuss the Fuji Instax Printer and the value of giving prints back to subjects. It’s been a while since I’ve updated you on the episodes, so for those of you that never get around to watching the show on YouTube, here are some links: Episode 49, The One About the Pocket Printer Episode …
The Khutzeymateen in Black and White
I’m just now back from another spectacular four days near the British Columbia / Alaska border, in the Khutzeymateen Inlet. Four too-short days with grizzlies I’ve been photographing now for 4 years. Spring came early this year and the estuary was unusually green and lush, full of life. Unlike last year Air Canada this year saw fit to put …
Is It Good?
By now there’s a good chance you’ve heard about the 4 young men from High On Life, a British Columbian clothing company, that have been wheeling their way around the USA in a bright blue bus, and, as it turns out, wreaking some havoc on the National Parks in the name of self-promotion and fun. Their latest escapade, and the …
F/ The Rules
Several years ago, we were enjoying a lively dinner in Oaxaca, Mexico during the Day of the Dead festivals, a small group of us together on a workshop, when the table across from us got up, all of them photographers, all of them hung heavily with gear. They fumbled with their stuff, excited to get out to make photographs in …
Try It In Black & White
Episode 45 of Vision Is Better encourages you to look at your work, even if you have no intention of printing it this way, in Black & White. We can learn a lot about the strengths, and the weaknesses, of our work when we look at it critically without the seductive pull of colour. (RSS and email viewers, I’m sorry …
Death Valley Migration
Nikon D3s. 1.0s @ f/4.5. ISO 200. 24mm (24mm Tilt-Shift) – Readers of this article on RSS or email can view the image here. It’s not easy getting to the Racetrack Playa in California’s Death Valley. I arrived after a couple bone-jarring hours in my Land Rover Defender, just in time to do some scouting, set up camp, and grab …
The Power of Failure
I wrote this just before what I’ve come to call “The Italian Incident” 5 years ago, just after writing a different article, Choose Your Risk, which you can read here. It remains true, if not truer now than ever to me. After beginning the discussion on risk, my brain started churning through some of the responses and push-back left in …