The Mother Road

As a young boy growing up in Alaska, I played in my grandparents broken down 1968 Ford Mustang. The doors didn't open (or at least I preferred the windows), the tires were flat and the grass that never seemed to get trimmed had secured the car's somewhat permanent spot in the yard. During the summer months, the sun would warm the aged leather interior and I would climb in, push a bunch of buttons and was off cruising any road my imagination could muster! I'm now in California and during one road trip down a stretch of the Mother Road, Route 66, I came upon this scene. The leather smelt familiar --even the thinness of the wheel and not least of all, the freedom of the open road.

Book 'em Dan-o! (Ok, that's lame, but I couldn't think of anything else!)

Got my hands on an advanced copy of a book I shot back in January for acclaimed fitness guru Sean Foy. Over three days the author, two models, makeup artist, art director, photo editor and I came together to produce imagery that would normally have been a week's shoot! And for once, I wasn't the only one getting a workout! I used to wake up the day after shooting wondering why I was so sore. Eventually I realized, photographing is fantastic exercise! Thanks to Workman Publishing, the layout looks great and the end product is very user friendly.

Fly me to the Moon

My uncle is the president of the Air and Space Museum in San Diego, so I was hired to shoot Race to the Moon, the museum's tribute to NASA, recognizing the 40th anniversary of the first moon walk. Had the honor of meeting a dozen or so astronauts ranging from Apollo 7 to Apollo 16 as well as the new director of NASA, Charles Bolden. Held topside on the USS Midway under a full moon last weekend, it truly was an enchanted evening.

The Marine band parting, presenting the astronauts lined up behind the fireworks.

Fish eye view including the USS Midway, downtown San Diego, Coronado bridge and the bay.

This was another events fireworks going off behind us. By the way, I've had a couple people email regarding what settings or equipment I use to get some of my shots, and I don't mind those questions at all. I don't put much tech. info. in my posts because I know it would bore most people, but if you ever have a question, feel free to comment or email me!

Zed work

Had a great shoot last week with Leilani, updating her portfolio. Thanks to Dehx who did a fantastic job with hair and makeup!

Our last shot we did just for fun! Loosely based on the Stuff Magazine cover with the doberman's. In our take however, we replaced the doberman's with ferocious puggle's (I have no idea how to spell puggle). If you're male, you'd be forgiven if you didn't even notice!

'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.