“Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day.” That’s a saying I learned on the playground many years ago. Unfortunately, just saying it doesn’t make it so. There are times when I’m out on a photo trip and it rains. What to do? Pack up and go home, wait for the rain to stop, or pull out the camera protection and keep working? If I’ve traveled a long way to photograph interesting plants I usually just tough it out and keep working. Here’s how I keep my equipment (mostly) dry so I don’t end up with an expensive repair bill. Continue Reading »
Western Serviceberry, also known as Saskatoon (Amelanchier alnifolia), is a widespread shrub or small tree that’s found in almost every county in the Pacific Northwest. It blooms in April and early May, depending on elevation and temperature. As I write this on April 29 it’s in bloom right now on both sides of the mountains in Washington and Oregon. Continue Reading »
I love the freedom, flexibility, and creativity that comes from hand holding my camera, especially my pocket camera. There’s something liberating about being able to point it anywhere I choose and quickly change compositions, clicking off multiple variations in a short time span. Yet most of my photography is done with my camera firmly clamped onto my trusty tripod. Why? Continue Reading »
Among the first small trees or large shrubs to bloom in western Washington, Oregon, northern California, and British Columbia are the hazelnuts, Corylus avellana (common filbert or European hazelnut) and Corylus cornuta (beaked hazelnut). To the untrained eye these two can be difficult to distinguish. Continue Reading »
Spring is in the air. Easter, Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day are just around the corner.
To celebrate, this month’s special is for children’s portraits in our Fairhaven studio. You’ll jump for joy at this special deal, and your kids get to jump for the camera, too.
This is a great opportunity to get a fresh portrait of the children you cherish. It will be a portrait so much better than the “school portrait” you may have gotten last fall. Continue Reading »
I’m pleased to have been invited back to teach pocket camera photography classes again in 2012 at the Burke Museum, North Cascades Institute, and The Siskiyou Field Institute. I’ve also just added a new class at Whatcom Community College in Bellingham, too. Continue Reading »
Free Portrait Sessions in February
Nights are still long and the days gray. But my Fairhaven studio is nice and warm, with flattering lights and a variety of backgrounds. I’m ready to play with some new photography ideas this month and have a special offer for a few people who are also in a playful mood.
During the month of February I’m offering a few free “Play Date” sessions in the studio. I want to try out some new lighting techniques, experiment with posing, play with new multi-image and digital processing techniques I just learned, and create some new studio samples I can use in my marketing throughout the rest of the year. Continue Reading »
One of the joys of a winter garden in the Pacific Northwest is fragrant shrubs. We planted a Viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ in our front garden many years ago. This vase-shaped shrub begins blooming for us around the first of December and carries through until March.
‘Dawn’ was selected as one of the Great Plant Picks both for its fragrant pink tubular blossoms during the winter and for its bronzy foliage in autumn. It’s hardy in USDA zones 5 to 9, grows best in full sun, and is somewhat drought tolerant. In our Bellingham garden it gets a moderate soaking, along with everything else in the same bed, once every three weeks during the dry months of July-September. Continue Reading »
As a photographer you want to control where the folks viewing your images look. A strong focal point, or center of attention, in your photos will almost always make them more powerful and more interesting. We’ve all made pictures, shown them to a friend, and gotten the “what the heck were you taking a picture of?” response. Most of those should go in the trash can. They should have been tossed before you even showed them to anyone.
Where you put your main subject in the frame is most important. If you’ve been around photography or art for any period of time you’ve likely heard of the “rule of thirds” or the “golden mean.” That’s a technique for positioning the main subject at one of the power points within the frame. I’ll write about that in more detail another month.
This month I’d like you to think about using differences in brightness, color, or sharpness to direct attention within the frame. Continue Reading »
Sometimes the boring stuff we face as digital photographers is really important. Backing up all of our master photo files is one of those “must do” tasks. Backups take time. Backups aren’t fun. Backups can save our a**.
I touched on backups over a year ago in my Digital Condoms post. It’s time to return to the subject. Like the previous post, this one is motivated by a friend’s hard drive crash catastrophe. Continue Reading »
