Happy Holidays 2010

The cards are out and we're heading toward that holiday home stretch! Many of you will be receiving a card in the mail, but I didn't want to leave anyone out. Thanks for sharing your experiences, both here and via email, and for checking in with my photographic meanderings throughout the year. I appreciate you all and wish the best for you and yours this holiday season!

Pause for God's station identification

Some photographers have an aversion to sunset pictures. I should clarify, not pictures of something AT sunset, but rather straight-up pictures of sunsets. I imagine the rationale may be they are fairly commonplace and overdone or potentially the novelty has simply worn off for them. After 26 years in Alaska, I don't believe the lure of warm sand at my feet and one of nature's best shows will ever get old for me! My wife and I try to catch it as often as we can and every once in awhile, I bring my camera. Oftentimes, it's perfection in an imperfect world. The crisp lines, unreal colors and seamless gradation in tones are elements any camera would be jealous of. For me, the beauty of creation and in particular sunsets, are a glimpse of the reality beyond the present and future one in which we live. God's fingerprints are all over, but like many caught in the rat race, a daily reminder is precisely what I need.

Itchin' and scratchin' to get backpackin'

It's safe to say my hobby is landscape photography. Much of my downtime is spent on Google Earth, Google image searches and mapquest. My friend and I had our own harrowing experience a year and a half ago in Coyote Buttes detailed here,http://masterworkimage.blogspot.com/2009/07/wave.html, but we went on a whim, hadn't researched much and only had two hours there before dark. Turns out there are actually two buttes, North and South, adding more to an already overwhelming experience of natural beauty. During winter, freezing temperatures apparently deter visitors = ) and the BLM website actually has available permits (albeit attained via lottery) on their website in the near future. Admittedly, a permit may make the visit a bit less adventuresome, but it would be legal.

For perspective on the bowl image above, I'm leaning against the far wall toward the center in the image below.

Below is a snapshot of the surrounding terrain.

Progression

I've had a couple shoots lately photographing speakers for Pioneer Pro DJ that I'm not allowed to post, so here's a bit of filler.

I'm often asked if the image below is photoshopped, so I thought I'd post the succession of images in which it was created, untouched in post. By seeing the original, you can see exactly what was done in photoshop to create the final.

My family and I spotted two eagle's off the side of the road just outside of Portage Glacier near Anchorage Alaska. I grabbed my camera and slowly started wading through 3-5 feet of snow (don't know how deep it was because I couldn't feel the ground!) towards the birds, shooting as I went because you never know which photo will be your last, once they decide to fly away. The only lens I had with me was a 24-70 so I knew I needed to get pretty close to get anything worthwhile. To my surprise, I got really close before one of them flew away and I was able to get even closer before the other began to get antsy. At that point, I set my focus, turned off auto focus, and waiting to pan with her as she flew away.

This is the only opportunity I've had to photograph an eagle and I most certainly know I got lucky with her placement between the trees along with a full wing spread. Speaking frankly however, I couldn't tell you how many times I've done everything I could to botch up an image or shoot and God has provided 'luck' at that precise moment my technical and/or artistic abilities failed, just to help me along my way. I really should be writing them down! It is now.....absolutely.....way beyond coincidence!

11/5/10

R & R

My wife and I recently stole away for our first cruise experience. We had a great time on the boat and visiting Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada. From a photographer's perspective, my only complaint is that we had to be back on board when I'd usually be preparing for the golden hour. Lesson learned though--it's vacation! It's so hard for me to put the camera down though!

San Diego Magazine-November 2010

Last week I finished another project for San Diego Magazine. A feature and cover entitled 'Made in San Diego,' highlighting several companies headquartered out of San Diego county. 11 shoots in as many days! Always a pleasure to work with, the magazine's great about pushing the artistic envelope. Our challenge was to break away from the typical CEO portrait and create imagery that is a little more eye catching and fun. Be sure to check out the entire issue on news stands later this month! Special thanks to Alyssa for the opportunity and input, as well as Laurie, Erin and Adam!

On the right, co-owners of Matuse, producers of high end wetsuits and all around cool guys.

On the left, co-owners of Prana, which produces yoga apparel and accessories. Interestingly, this image was only dodged and burned in post. After getting the shots we thought we'd use while it rained outside, the storm broke and we caught about a minute of spectacular light on those rocks before it disappeared behind a building. We don't get rainbows often in SD and the image proved too good to resist.

On the right, the CEO of Stone Brewery in Escondido, CA. was kind enough to put up with me photographing him four different times within the same image! Assembled all together later in photoshop.

Oftentimes, you don't get much time to photograph busy CEO's. To break these images up, we infused a bit of movement. A couple racks of guitars in a longer exposure of co-founders Bob Taylor and Kurt Listug of Taylor guitars and a bottle in the portrait of Optimer pharmaceutical's CEO, Pedro Lichtinger.

On the left, Northrop Grumman's CEO in front of their unmanned Global Hawk. On the right, the CEO of ViaSat Inc. Mr. Dankberg was photographed separately and the building, shot at night, and star trails added later in post.

I was a bit nervous to ask the CEO of WD40 to get down on his knees for a photo shoot! Luckily, he was one of the nicest guys one would have the pleasure to meet. Here he demonstrates the many uses of their product.

On the right, the CEO and facility director of Callaway Golf.

Kashi prides themselves on the fact that their company is very much a group effort of everyone involved. Photographed here are everyone they could round up for a shoot!

Portfolio work

Had a great shoot for Caroline, www.carolineamiguet.com, last week. Apparently summer was just late here this year and we were able to have fun shooting at night, enjoying the warmer weather. Thanks to Kimberly Carlson, www.kacartistry.com, for amazing hair and makeup work!

Quick trip to Atascadero

With stops at Morro Bay, Cayucos, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara on the way back. Beautiful drive, great food and wine, there's a lot to be said about the general pace of things up there.

Live music portfolio

This blog has been an efficient way of displaying portfolios or images I don't have room for on my main site. My live music port. would fall under that category. Working for high profile music companies has allowed me close access to many musicians. I thoroughly enjoy creating portraits of talented artists, whether they be actors, models or musicians, in their element. The creative fusion always yields something special.

Free print contest

I did this last year, masterworkimage.blogspot.com/2009/06/fun-with-blogs.html, and again submitted images for the 'Best of Nature' show this year. Out of 2000 plus entrees, 70 were selected to be displayed in the Natural History Museum at Balboa Park, San Diego. I submitted the following ten images and one of them was chosen. As I did last year, I'll send an 8x10 or 8x12 print to whomever guesses the correct one. My buddy Toby Coughron won last year and posted about it here, tobycphoto.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-got-mail.html.

For those near SD, the show runs 11/13/10 through 1/30/11, was spectacular last year and should be well worth a visit again this year.

1 (left), 2 (right)

3 (l), 4 (r)
5 (l), 6 (r)
7 (l), 8 (r)
9 (l), 10 (r)

Land of Gigantic Trees-Sequoia NP

We made our way to Sequoia NP for 4th of July weekend. Yea, that's about how far behind I am on posts! We've been to Redwood NP so I think I underestimated how impressed I'd be. Not quite as tall, but massive in diameter! Once considered the largest organism on earth, they've now found underground moss that may be larger as well as the banyan trees in HI that appear to be separate, but are all connected. Nevertheless, General Sherman as well as many others are something to experience. And it was by far the best smelling NP I've been to, haha! On a hot summer day, it's simply exquisite!

View looking West toward the San Joaquin Valley and Lucy the pug sun bathing...or meditating, not sure.

The deepest gorge in the U.S., King's Canyon, reflecting off King's river at the bottom. We saw plenty of bears, luckily most during the day. I startled one (actually that went both ways) one night on my way to the restroom. 20 feet is WAY too close to be to a running bear! If it was so inclined, I could've been a snack in seconds, but fortunately, they are more scared of us than we are of them. I think.

Grizzly falls and a timed exposure of about an hour 15 or so, directly above our campsite. The red in the trees is from our campfire.

Lucy 'helping' us pack. Mosquito spray, beef jerky and the latest camping fashions at a local store, what more could you want?! Ritz crackers? We got those too! The traffic was actually on the way up. LA's got keep up the rep, you know?

Scientist portraits

I was asked to make portraits of Nutrilite scientists involved in their expert speaker program. Among the many hats a photographer wears, this time I got to play set designer as well, as we didn't have a lab to work with. I picked up everything except the beakers at Lowes along with some additional rigging to secure it all in place at Samy's Camera. Thanks to Kimberly Carlson, www.kacartistry.com, for hair and makeup and Johnny from Rouge Artists for styling.

Guild guitar ad

The flurry that was the last seven weeks for me is drawing to a close. Can not BELIEVE how fast this summer's going! Many posts to catch up on, so to get started, here is a Guild ad we shot yesterday.

The perfect husband

'Sure honey, I'd love to go shopping with you!' Here's an outtake from the Tahoe trip, it really doesn't require explanation!

My apologies for the lag in posts, been busy, but that's a good thing.

Air and Space Museum

We shot promotional material for the Air and Space Museum San Diego last weekend, advertising it's facilities as a wedding venue. Here are a couple fun shots.

Very cute miniature person

This is sort of embarrassing, but I recently calibrated my monitor for the first time---ever. Turns out my monitor was very warm toned and bright, which would make everything I produced look somewhat unsaturated and dark, everywhere except on my screen. Hopefully, from now on the images you see will look more the way they were intended to be viewed. For those who haven't done it, I highly recommend calibration. This, in conjunction with the correct color profiles for image output, makes a world of difference!

Lake Tahoe-Part two

From Mono Lake we continued on to Lake Tahoe. Tahoe is a photographic gem, deserving at least a full year to document the full spectrum of seasons and moods the lake can take on. We unfortunately, had two days, two sunsets, not nearly enough. The beautiful weather made shooting comfortable, but left ours skies a bit subjectless. We'll just have to go back!

Portrait of Lucy the pug copyright Jeremey Tripp

Lake Tahoe-Part one

My wife, two of our best friends and Lucy the pug got away for a long weekend to Lake Tahoe. We hit Mono Lake right at sunset on the way up. Fortunately for the patiently waiting girls, it WAS right at sunset, because Jeremey and I could have been there for hours otherwise. As with many things within the photographic realm, a seemingly unattractive lake to those passing by on the 395 becomes very interesting upon closer inspection. Especially at sunset, it has a majestic presence with a dash of creepy coolness, not unlike the Salton Sea.

The cloud image is one-click art, (under expose the image by a stop or so depending on how much white's in the frame, then auto levels did the rest in photoshop) but we don't get many cool clouds in San Diego, so when I see them I'm like a magpie attracted to something shiny. It makes driving very interesting.