Make It Human.
I don’t imagine there’s much point, this far down the line, in another rant about how photography has become a technocracy, a place where the artifice means more than the art. But is anyone else feeling that all this technical perfection is leaving too little room for the humanity we long for? People don’t resonate with perfection, because life isn’t …
Desperate Intention
I told her I had a few things left on my bucket list. She told me my life was a bucket list. I pulled my pen from my pocket, scribbled that down in my dog-eared little notebook. It seemed clever at the time. Like that one time when a friend told me she thought of me as Indiana Jones with …
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. …