Fill Your Canvas
My mother and I on safari this January. Photographs by Cynthia Haynes. On Friday I re-posted Life is Short. The comments and the emails I’ve had since that original post have lit me on fire in a way I can’t describe, reminding me how deeply we can live when we get intentional about it. It also reminds me of the …
Life Is Short – A Re-Post
Several years ago this post (below) was deeply significant to me. It was an act of nailing my colours to the mast, and not long after I posted it, I began a trip that would change my life forever – selling most of what I owned, putting the rest into a tired Land Rover Defender, and setting off to live …
Diving in Zanzibar
After two weeks in Zanzibar at the end of what’ll be almost 6 weeks in East Africa, we’re packing up to head home. From beginning to end it’s been the trip of dreams. My time in Lalibela, Ethiopia, was like traveling back in time. Safari with Cynthia and my mother was a trip of a lifetime and it’ll take me …
In the Zone
In my last posts I talked about my reactions to working with both my Fuji XE-1 and Leica M, and I mentioned zone focusing. For those for whom the idea of zone focusing is new I wanted to explain it a little. It’s an old technique but it’s simple and reliable. My biggest concern with Leica, and the Fuji when …
New LR Develop Presets Released
This Adobe Lightroom Develop preset package includes 42 of Nicole S. Young’s most-used presets and a 16-page PDF manual, which includes installation instructions and complete before/after catalog of photographs of each preset to give you a sense of what to expect. Presets are extremely helpful in making one’s workflow more efficient. They also give us new ideas about expression, and, …
The Mirrorless Post
Fuji XE-1, 1/10 @ 2.8, ISO 6400, handheld. I’m convinced. After a week in Lalibela, Ethiopia, and a safari in Kenya, I’m ready to leave my heavy pro DSLR gear at home more often. I went to Ethiopia with a Fuji XE-1 and a Leica M (240), both with a small kit of lenses (18-55 and 55-200 for the Fuji, …
Towards Mastery. Again.
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a desktop wallpaper, I’m hoping this makes up for the absence. Enjoy! Photographed this morning on the Maasai Mara, Kenya. In a few days, or so, I’ll publish some thoughts about my mirror-less experiment in Africa. This is the preamble: none of it will make you a better photographer. Collect all the gear …
Postcards from the Maasai Mara
A quick hello from the Maasai Mara and one of the most relaxing trips I’ve taken in a long while. Free from the pressure I feel when lugging around my large lenses and pro-bodies, I’ve photographed wide, chased the light when it’s there, and otherwise let the moments come while introducing my mother to this place I love so much. …
Postcards from Lalibela
A week ago a group of us landed in Lalibela, Ethiopia about the same time as thousands of orthodox pilgrims were arriving from all over the country. We spent the last week in this high dusty town, walking among the centuries-old churches, all carved from the red rock on which this town sits, and waiting for orthodox Christmas. Unique in …
2013 Retrospective
Kenya, January 2013. It’s the nature of time to go too quickly. Maybe that’s one of the reasons photography works so well for me: in making time one of our raw materials we pay more attention to it, honouring it down to thousandths of a second, more present, more perceptive. I wish paying more attention slowed it down somewhat, and …