'Best of' San Diego Magazine photo contest

San Diego Magazine has a popular feature once a year where the 'Best of,' everything from restaurants to doctors, are chosen and highlighted by the magazine. I entered their photo competition and out of the two finalists chosen for each of four categories, 'First Things First' was chosen for the portrait category and 'Oceanside Pier' for the nature category. At the Best of San Diego party this past Friday, 'First Things First' was announced the Best of the Best winner! I'm doubly humbled in that, there were many great images to choose from and the prize is the opportunity to shoot an upcoming feature for the magazine! Thanks, so much, San Diego Magazine for the honor and the great opportunity!

'First Things First'

'Oceanside Pier'

Moody blues, oranges and greens

Trying to find anything quickly in my archives never happens! While looking for another image, I came across these, a few that didn't make the portfolio but are interesting nonetheless.

The main grocery mart in Cannon Beach makes THE BEST fried burritos at their deli! If I had my choice of restaurants in Oregon, I would go there. My wife would tell you that that says a lot about me, and I do believe she's right.

Seal Rock, Central Oregon coast shortly after sunset. Of all the great times to be there, this is one of the best. When everyone else is gone and communion with nature is uninterrupted.

Taken well after sunset, exposure on this was running about six minutes. The light in the middle was produced by a couple at the end of the beach with a flashlight.

Quick thought on Photoshop

The subject of Photoshop and its implications is one that’s close to my heart. I have a twelve-year-old sister who, along with men and women of every age, are inundated by images of perfection from magazines, movie posters, the internet to advertising that is continually finding new ways of popping up everywhere we look. Photoshop is the darkroom of today, but unlike the traditional darkroom, digital manipulation is limitless. To those that desire it, the path to physical perfection now has a viable virtual shortcut, in the realm of imagery. I use Photoshop, every professional (that shoots digitally) does. The defining factor is to what degree and where each artist draws his or her line. When I was in school I remember watching a video of Ansel Adams’ master printers cutting negatives with surgical precision to create composites. The techniques have changed, but the pursuit of perfection and the morality of what you do, remains the same.

I won’t write a dissertation, but the issue has far reaching socio and psychological ramifications. Suffice to say, I make sure that everyone, but especially the women, in my life know that 99% of the images portraying physical beauty nowadays, are not real.

On the scale of Photoshop extremes, the image below is very minor, but it will illustrate the point.

The key light in the image did not catch the eye on the left, so that was recreated. Minor skin flaws were removed, lipstick color toned down and overall color temperature adjusted.

Click the image above for a closer look at alterations. Dove made a fantastic video compilation on an entire 'beauty' shoot that's worth watching and passing on. It can be viewed here, www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U.

Zion remix

Had the pleasure of visiting Zion National Park again recently. The park is gorgeous, an absolute photographic wonderland and this trip did nothing but deepen my fondness for it. Again accompanied by my buddy Jeremey, we had two days of fun in the 100+ degree sun! I think my Alaskan bones are finally beginning to thaw out!

Big horned sheep, amazingly powerful and agile and just as curious of me as I of them.

The arrow sign is just begging for a caption! I think Jeremey said it should be titled 'One Way.' Anyway, it's nice to see a sign that gets to the point!

Ok, the two funny portraits had to go together to save space, but I wouldn't suggest actually giving horses beer. In my experience, they're crazy enough.

'The narrows' in Zion is widely considered the best hike in America and I can see why, it's breathtaking! Because of recent rain, it got pretty deep in some spots and I'm sure people got a kick out of watching me and Jeremey try and keep our cameras dry!

Noticed the sign on the way out. It's nice they put it up, we kept wondering why we didn't see many people in the water!

The Wave

My best bud and fellow photographer Jeremey Tripp and I always seem to get ourselves into ridiculous situations on our photo safaris. Photographing in the wild certainly has its dangers and we’re beginning to amass quite a collection of stories that so far, we’re both able to laugh about now. Over the 4^th of July weekend, we decided to photograph ‘The Wave,’ inside Vermillion National Park. Calling it a park however is deceiving, for me, that congers a feeling of innocuousness. The wave is in the middle of nowhere, AZ accessed by a 12-mile dirt road that starts in Utah off route 89, then a trail-less hour and a half hike through and around mountains. Normal people would have a topographical map provided by the state upon obtaining a required permit. How could I say this inconspicuously…we didn’t have a map? 20 people are allowed into the wave per day worldwide and most of the permits are snapped up online months in advance. So, we had to hike over a mountain on the south end to avoid seeing anyone. When the sun started to set, we decided to leave the way you’re supposed to enter (knowing the way we came in was impossible in the dark), except we had no idea where that was. We did have a GPS and knew exactly where our truck was, but unfortunately the GPS could not tell us how to circumnavigate the huge ravine separating us. We hiked and bouldered lost in the dark for 3 1/2 hrs, out of water and with the warnings in the parking lot to ‘beware of rattlesnakes and mountain lions’ securely etched in our minds. We armed ourselves with camera flashes for defense against mountain lions and resigned ourselves to the fact that, if bit by a snake, we were pretty much up a creek. Entirely our own fault I realize, and at some point I think God just shook His head and decided to bail out a couple boneheads—again! A couple highlights:

-Don’t ever take a Bureau of Land Management road in Arizona, no matter how good a shortcut it looks like unless you too would like $779 of damage to the underside of your vehicle!

-The wind would pick up intermittently and one gust blew over Jeremey’s tripod and cracked his $6,000 camera down the middle.

-Jeremey slipped while bouldering and fell on a cactus.

-Total time of strenuous hiking without water, 5 1/2 hours. Yes, bring more water than you think you need to the desert!

-We didn’t see a single soul the entire time! A wondrous place and absolute shooting paradise!

Team effort

Like I've said before, I love working with other talented creatives, the union always yields something special! In this case Kimberly, makeup and hair (and reflector holding ninja), BK, wardrobe stylist (who's like 6' 7'' and can hold gobos higher than anyone else!) and Ashley from Aqua Models who is really, really ridiculously good-looking (insert blue steel here). Also thank you to the Brady's for the fantastic venue! Great job everyone!

I'm absolutely loving the new camera and all 21 mmp! Click the above image for a closer look at detail. Until I win the lottery and can afford a $40,000 medium format, it will have to do!

I utilized my Profoto strobes for many of these images. It was nice having that power, I could retain detail in the sky and we were blessed with some interesting clouds--not always a given in the summer in Southern California.

Redford revisited

If ever you get the chance to photograph Robert Redford in his 40's, you should jump on it and so it was with Gary, who's a spitting image of the man! One good lookin' dude--uncanny really. My Grandma really likes these photos!

$174 for a piece of glass?!!

My buddy and fellow photographer Toby Caughron was the only one who correctly guessed #8, the image chosen for the show.  Toby's a fantastic photographer and his website can be viewed at  www.tobycphoto.com.

The final stage in the creation of an image is very fulfilling.  To see a moment in time that you alone captured, finally framed is the culmination of a long journey.  But it's EXPENSIVE! Darker images are particularly difficult to see if there's any glare off of the glass. The show required acrylic so my options ultimately ended at Optium, the only non-glare acrylic that doesn't unacceptably blur the image, at $174 for a 24'' by 30'' piece.  I won't even start with the frame.  Suffice to say, I'm in the wrong business.  After I stopped the hemorrhaging of my wallet, I assembled the image and upon turning it in was informed that my piece was the last to be delivered.  Considering this was a group of artists, makes that even MORE impressive! Procrastinators UNITE!........tomorrow.

If you're interested in the show, it's on display from July 29th until Sept. 13th at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, San Diego.  Southern California is a hot bed for many super talented nature photographers so I'm sure it'll be impressive.  

ISO 100, f8, 17 minute exposure in almost total darkness.  I tried to focus during a couple strikes, but that didn't work.  In the end I just went to infinity, backed it up a bit and I think I said a prayer.

Footlong! Who ordered the footlong?!

A friend of ours wanted some portraits of her dog.  When I heard Buffy was a dachshund, I knew exactly where I wanted to go!

I had this idea in mind during the shoot so we shot for it, clipped Buffy out, removed her owners hand from underneath her and then found a map I liked for the background.  It wasn't until I had it printed I noticed the map said 'Parsot of Bark Shire' at the top.  It was easy enough to swap the name to make it Buffy of Bark Shire!

The 'hotdog man' peeking over the top of the menu makes this photo! 

Fun with blogs

The Ordover gallery recently had a call for entries; those chosen would be displayed in the 'Best of Nature' show in the Natural History Museum at Balboa Park, San Diego.  They received 2000 plus images and chose 70 for the show.  I submitted the ten images below and had one of them chosen.  If you'd like to guess the one you think it was, feel free to post your choice as a comment or email me.  I think you need a google or blogger account to comment, but that’s easy enough to get.  I'll send the winner an 8x10 or 8x12 print of their choice.  If there's more than one correct guess, I’ll employ highly scientific methods to randomly select one, or maybe just close my eyes and point.  I'll announce the winner in two weeks.

1 (top), 2 (bottom)

3 (t), 4 (b)

5 (l), 6 (r)

7 (t), 8 (b)

9 (t), 10 (b)