Great Blue in a single-wing stretch … reflected in Elliott Bay like an ink blot.
Favorite Images
I’ve done a “best of” selection at the end of previous years … but this year I’m opting for a favorites list. I didn’t realize there would be a disparity between the photos I consider my best technically versus those I hold close to my heart. There appears to be only a loose correlation between…
Living in Your Own Private Cryosphere
Albedo is the reflectivity of the earth’s surface. Ice, white and bright, has a high albedo, reflecting back the sun on itself, whereas water draws the solar radiation deep into its hues. Water is always in flux, mutable — liquid, vaporous, frozen — evaporating, condensing and expanding. This fluidity of form and purpose fuels life…
Going All Micro Four Thirds on Wildlife
Update – November 1, 2016: I get many emails and comments related to this post — from people interested in micro four thirds (m43) and mirrorless cameras as a wildlife format. I’ve been shooting with Olympus m43 gear exclusively now for three years and plan to update my impressions before the end of the year. In…
Taking a Break to Mend a Chip in My Heart …
I’ve been absent from this space more than I’ve been here, my heart consumed with care for our four-legged kid. We’ve been nursing our beloved girl, Jackie, through an acute form of leukemia — and she lost her battle yesterday, bundled in a fleece, huddled in our arms. To say that we are heartsick is…
The Extended Art of Goose Stipple
After the Snow Geese stippled our little Honda with their version of a Pollack drip painting, I waited a while before heading to the car wash, thinking it would be a waste of resources when the rain would just wipe the body clean within a day or two. But, faithful to Northwestern climate patterns, the…
Post Processing, Realism + Conceptualism: A Postscript
Long-billed Curlew photographed at sunset, on the dunes at Morro Strand State Beach in California. These thoughts are an extension of the discussion that began under my piece on post-processing. Thanks to my blogging friends who shared their methodologies and perspectives, initiating some thought-provoking explorations of realism in photography. I heard a lecture recently where…
How Much Post-Processing Do You Do?
A friend linked to this story in her Facebook feed today: Why do Photo Contest Winners Look Like Movie Posters? Post-processing is obviously not a new topic … and it’s one that’s been evolving alongside digital photography and darkroom skills. This particular piece questions the lighting on the winning image in the World Press contest,…
Studies in Ghost Geese
The first time I witnessed a blast of Snow Geese I described it this way: The sound of flocking snow geese is sometimes described as a “cacophony,” a “symphony,” a “storm” — a “baying of hounds,” a “noise blizzard.” The sound, in fact, varies. There’s a comfortable warbling of goose grumbles and calls as the…
Draped in Kelp, Below by 8000 Feet
“Under the brine you won’t notice the dark Can stone and steel and horses heels Ever explain the way you feel? From Scapa Flow to Rotherhithe, I felt the lapping of an ebbing tide Oh the heavy water how it enfolds The salt, the spray, the gorgeous undertow Always, always, always the sea Brilliantine mortality.”…
