DP'd (Again).

So this is pretty neat! You may have seen me post this photo of Sentinel Rock in Yosemite before, but I got served a bit of awesome sauce today because of it! It was just picked to be critiqued for another popular photography podcast. Check it, it's the Digital Photo Experience hosted by ridiculously respected photographers Rick Sammon and Juan Pons, and they talk about the image at the 56:22 mark. That's the third image on three podcasts in the past few weeks, including a different image on this same podcast a few weeks back for one of my oak trees. People seem to be digging some of this stuff, now, hot dammit how do I turn this into something tangible!? Get me outta this shack!

Anywho…in case you're bored and at work, here's the podcast link: http://dpexperience.com/2013/06/03/dpe-podcast-06-01-13-all-questions-from-you/

While you can skip to the critique, I recommend listening to the full thing, and subscribing to these guys, especially if you're a photographer. They provide valuable insight and tips and information and ideas and inspiration in every episode. A good listen while you're in the lightroom.

God Likes Jerky.

So this is a short and sweet one, but every now and then it's nice to see things like this…I suppose it's a bit of a validation that perhaps, finally, I'm on the right track. To have two of my images used on a billboard and a label is pretty satisfying encouragement to keep going with this thing. It's a damn good feeling to know that others are appreciating what you do.

Anyway, so I know a few weeks back I brought up that the two beef jerky companies reached out to use some of my images for various purposes…the local gluten-free jerky company, Topanga's Finest Jerky, and then there was Oh Oberto. Well, worked out a deal with Topanga's Finest and here's a version of the label below. Crazy stuff!

And the billboard…that was interesting…it's in Scotland of all places, surrounding a town of about 40,000. Yeah, I know…it's for a church…but still, it's pretty neat to see one of my images on a  BILLBOARD.

Ok then...

[Update: 01.22.14: Topanga's Finest Beef Jerky is now available, and the label has been finalized! Click here for more madness!]

Scott Kelby, The Metro, and The Ranch.

So was a pretty good last few days. Did the whole Scott Kelby's "Shoot Like A Pro" workshop/seminar here in Los Angeles on Friday, and I've got two thoughts:

One, he's the MAN! I learn more from a one day session with him than I can on my own in months. He simplifies things so much to the point where you start asking yourself, why the hell did I ever think that was complicated to begin with? I had a great experience at his Photoshop seminar last Winter, was hoping for the same with this one, and I got it.

Two, WHY DIDN'T THE METRO RAIL EXIST WHEN I LIVED IN LOS ANGELES!???? Damn…parked my car in Culver City, made it down to the Convention Center in 20 minutes on the train, and just as easy on the way out. No traffic, no rush hour, no gas, no driving, no cell phone ticket, no 20 dollar parking, no hassle. Frickin' insane. Right in my stomping grounds…L.A. almost felt like a (gasp!) real city!

Anyhow, after spending 8 hours in the workshop and trying to absorb as much as I could, I figured I'd try out some of the new techniques the next day. Had an opportunity to grab a Nikon 18-200 for SUPER cheap from someone in San Diego that didn't know what they were doing, so had my cousin pick it up, who lives down there, and figured I'd make the journey down on Saturday to pick it up, hang with the family a bit, and play with the new bugger. Love it!!!! And as if that wasn't enough, my cousin's husband is a working professional photographer, so he was able to provide me with many inspirational and valuable tips as well.

So here's a bit of what happened around the cousin's Lakeside property using a mix of Scott Kelby techniques/ideas and my cousin's husband's wisdom, all rolled up into one neat new remove-everything-else-from-my-camera-bag lens, the Nikon 18-200 VR.

From 'Up There' to 'Out There'

Sometimes you just have to do it. The head won't stop and you need to get outside of it to regain your sanity. Last Friday was one of those days. So like most times, a good personal photo session was in order. I hopped in my car, and drove up the coast, out of Los Angeles, through Santa Barbara, over the hills, and into the Santa Ynez Valley.

Oaks, rolling hills, vineyards, and more oaks, rolling hills, and vineyards. One of my favorite spots on the planet.

It was a bit cathartic in the sense that I've spent a lot of time up in that area, and therefore I have many memories from that area, and many of them are a bit hard to deal with…so figured perhaps I'll try to replace those ones with newer ones…and it worked. Helped remind me why photography has become such an important and essential piece of my life's puzzle. No matter what's going on 'up there,' it's that viewfinder that helps you remember and appreciate what's 'out there'…

I won't say much here, I'll just sort of let some of the photos (hopefully) do the talking.

Jerky!?

OK, doesn't get too much more bizarre than this bit of serendipity…so within a period of 12 hours yesterday, I was contacted by two separate, completely independent of each other, beef jerky companies, to use one of my images for various purposes. What the hell are the chances!? Beef jerky!? One was a local small independent company making gluten-free beef jerky that's looking to use one of my Topanga Canyon images for their label, which I could NOT be more excited about, and the other is actually one of the larger corporations and they're doing some sort of sweepstakes with the National Park Service, so I'm pretty excited about that one as well. Now comes the (UN) fun part of negotiating some sort of terms with them…the business end of it all. One has already offered to purchase it, so that's easy and good, the other, well, the other…is gonna take some fishing. We'll see how it goes…

Anyhow, these are the images they're interested in…one you've seen before if you've been here, the other you haven't, but hopefully, soon, you'll see it at your local grocer…

Nevertheless, it's a huge milestone for me to have others independently contact me for my images. A bit of re-affirmation and validation that seems to come when you need it most…just another little kick the arse telling you to 'keep going…'

Ok then…enjoooyy…

looks can be deceiving

Ok...so this is not my usual forte, but when this shows up in your yard, how can you not snap a few (hundred). Enjoy the slideshow...don't say I didn't warn you...

DP Experience

So I'm kind of hyped. The new episode of one of my favorite photography podcasts was released today, and every week they choose a few photo posts from their Google Plus community and talk about and critique the photos. This week, they chose one of mine, the second time that's happened, and I couldn't be happier about which one…it's the oak tree from the earlier post about Malibu Creek State Park and the borer that's threatening California's oaks. Any attention I can bring to that I'm happy about…it would be an incredible tragedy if we lose those iconic oaks. Anyhow, check out the podcast, it's called Digital Photo Experience (http://dpexperience.com) and it's hosted by two extremely well-respected names in the photography industry, Rick Sammon and Juan Pons. If you download it, I highly recommend listening to it all, it's the April 1 episode, but if you just want to skip to the photo critiques, they start with mine at the 1:02:45 mark.

Pines to Palms

So spent Easter with the family. Was really nice. We don't get together all that often, and decided this time we'd take a day trip and just kinda cruise around. Headed to Idyllwild up in the Anza Borega Mountains (I think…), had some coffee and beef jerky (don't ask…my love for the stuff got revived in Yosemite earlier in the month), then headed through the mountain range along the Pines to Palms Highway just south of Mount San Jacinto. After a crazy Jurassic landscape drive through mad boulders and twisty madness along the Pines to Palms Highway , it threw us out into Palm Desert, where we continued into Palm Springs and ended up at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.

We got to the ticket center and all of us were deciding whether or not it was worth the 21 bucks each to ride the thing. We've never even heard of it, but apparently it's been around since 1963, some crazy rich guy's dream and he made it happen. I figured if we were to look back on this day in 10 years, this would probably be the thing that we'd remember, so when I said that, everyone agreed. Let's do this thing. A rotating aerial tram that climbs up about 6000 feet in less than ten minutes up through the craggy rocky prometheus looking mountain to the peak of San Jacinto Mountain, overlooking the entire Coachella and Palm Springs Valley from the peak of a snowy mountain top. Had dinner, watched the sunset, snapped a couple of photos, including the one you see in this post, and headed back down. Easter with the family was a success. And discovering this aerial tram thing was a heck of a bonus. Well worth it and will definitely be back.

And I think I may have had a bit of a photographic breakthrough on this one…while we were driving through that valley, it was some of the most beautiful landscape I've seen in Southern California…like a time machine into old ranches and half lit trees and mountain tops and crazy cloud formations…usually, I'd be pulling over every half mile snapping away like a madman, and still filled with anxiety that I'm not getting anything. But not this time. The folks even said, if I wanted to stop at any point, let them know, but something inside of me was telling me that I didn't need to snap everything I saw, sometimes I'm allowed to just sit back and enjoy and appreciate it. This time, I just wanted to appreciate it the same way the rest of my family was appreciating it.

The other thing was, I like to think it's my confidence building as a photographer, but I figured that no matter where I ended up, I'd find something that I can make a photograph out of. I didn't have to think about the shots I was 'missing,' and was more focused on being in the moment…and then when I had an opportunity, I can think about the shots that I was getting. Sometimes it's just nice to just be. This was one of those times.

Anyway, in the midst of this post is the crazy Pines to Palms Highway road, and at the top and bottom of this post were the views from the top.

Beware The Borer!

So after all that, they didn't even remember to have us present our projects...but that didn't stop me from moving with it. Not because I felt I needed to prove anything but because I truly want to do what I can to help out the park system. Budget woes are apparent all over, but that's driving the passion of the volunteers, myself included, to make sure people are aware of the parks and these public spaces. They're frickin' insanely beautiful and they've basically saved my sanity and I know that anyone that shows up will feel the same. It just does that. So I created a Google Plus page for the Malibu Creek State Park Docent program, started posting to it, and plan on getting it going. So if anyone's reading this and is on Google Plus, add us to your circles. If you're not on Google Plus, well, you should be…just sayin'.

Also began the process of making some prints of some of those shots that I posted in the gallery on that Google Plus page that I can present at the visitor center on the park grounds to help bring up to date some of the shots hanging in there now.

While you ought consider yourselves warned…there are plenty more Yosemite shots coming, in the spirit of the first week of spring, I'll break from those for my Spring 2013 shot. Solstice Canyon, California. There's a reason it's an oak tree…and that reason comes from something disheartening that I learned last weekend at the interpretation…apparently, not only are the budget woes getting worse for the park system, but now there's a non-native pest that is threatening to literally take out all of California's oak trees, and it's no joke. The Polyphagous Shot Hole Borer. This thing has already started attacking trees around California, including an iconic oak at the Huntington Library Gardens grounds, and is causing sequestration of a lot of these infected trees.

Anyway, ok, enough of the hippie me for now. Hope you enjoy the shot…

Working Better Under Pressure - A Malibu Creek State Park Docent Story

It's strange how my life has turned into a series of photo taking and processing. Sure, not getting paid for all of it, so can't really call myself a true professional, but all of my income is coming from this stuff, which is actually kind of…eh…neat. For the first time in my life, I'm actually feeling like I'm doing something I'm supposed to be doing. 36 hot damn years old and now I'm figuring this out?

Anyway, woke up with the intention of spending all day today working on editing the Megan Racing videos and processing those photographs so I can get a paycheck before rent-time creeps up in a hurry, but remembered that my docent project is due tomorrow at the final interpretation I'm required to go to as a new Malibu Creek State Park docent.

Yeah, started the process over a year ago as a means of staying outdoors and being involved in the California Park system after my attempts at becoming a park ranger two years ago were thwarted by…well…a story we'll get into at a later date, but as part of my requirement, I was supposed to create a project for myself to help better the park and docent program and I had a year to create it and am supposed to present it tomorrow at the Spring Interpretation.

Well, I tasked myself with the project of taking new fresh photos that we can present in the Visitor Center and creating a Google Plus page to help bring the docent system into the internet age to help attract a fresh crop of park-goers and outdoor enthusiasts. Unfortunately, it wasn't until I woke up this morning that I remembered this was due tomorrow. I spent an hour trying to convince myself that it wasn't, even though I knew it was, and so replaced my train of thought from trying to think of excuses, to getting at it.

Luckily, I have spent a lot of time in the park over the past year photographing all over, so I had the files, just had to get through them and process the better of the bunch, so that's what happened today. Got it all together, even got a Google Plus page started (add us to your circles: gplus.to/mcspdocents), and am now uploading the photos to an iPad to present when my turn comes up tomorrow. So after having a full year to get this done, culled it all together in a day. Another example of how I work better under pressure I suppose.

Anyhow, will also get prints of some of them made so we can present them in the Visitor Center. That'll be my next part of the project. Hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks so they'll be there for Spring and Summer park attendees. So with that, above is one of the photos, as is one here below (this one actually got mentioned on This Week In Photo podcast, which I was gloating about a few weeks back). And here's a full gallery: http://goo.gl/uE2wi

Ok then.

at the end of the tunnel.

So started a new gig this week. It's just a part-time thing, and I've only been there 3 days, but I must admit, it's kinda nice to be doing something robotic that I know how to do and an competent in. I'm the new photo editor for a boutique-home rental website, so basically editing and sizing photos of rich people houses around the world. Does nothing for my extreme wanderlust other than add locations to the list, but perhaps it's getting me closer to that goal of making a career of traveling and making photos and telling stories. Who knows.

Cool crew, cool location in the hills of Topanga, the hours and everything about it are extremely flexible, the bosses are avid travelers and artists and have made a life and career of it, and from what I can tell so far, super cool and down to earth, so can't complain.

I can also get a vibe that the bossman knows I have more to me than just being a robot-drone at a computer, so it should be interesting to see how he decides he can utilize me and where and how tightly I can fit in. But not going to get ahead of myself. Just keep stepping on each stone that's put in front of me and see where the path leads me I suppose.

Ok then, today was a light one. But I'm tired. But not to worry, won't leave you without another image. This one, as you have probably already guessed, is from this month's winter trip to Yosemite as well. My closeup take of tunnel view.

More Than Just A Pretty Picture?

One of my best friends, who shoots a completely different style than me, mostly street photography with human subjects, asked me a few days ago…what do I see when I look at one of my pictures? Is it just a pretty picture? Or is it more? I knew what i wanted to say, but had to think about it for a little while before figuring out how to say it. I had to think mostly about what I was trying to capture. Then it just started coming out...

What I'm trying to capture is what seems to be pushed in the background more and more and more as technology begins to take over our lives in a singularity-esque fashion. While most people are so narcissistically involved in themselves and their cell phones and their tablets and their computers and their feeds and posts and status updates and whatnot, they're increasingly becoming less and less aware of theirs surroundings and those things that are outside of their little bubbles…just outside of their little bubbles. We are forgetting more and more those things that are bigger than us, those that are more magnificent than any blog post or new app or making sure everyone knows what they're having for lunch.

My intentions with my subjects and photography are to try to do what I can to counter-balance that to the best of my abilities. What I'm trying to do is bring attention to those very things that we're paying less and less attention to, and those things that have been here long before us, and will be here long after we're gone.

The natural world.

I'm trying to document nature and life in its magnificent glory to the best of my abilities and hope that maybe, one person that sees it, will be inspired enough to unplug for just a little bit and look around them. see and feel and experience these things that we so take for granted. all these things that are more incredible and more amazing and more vital to our lives and our well-being and our survival as a species than any tablet or feed or pair of glasses we can ever find ourselves engrossed in. none of that stuff…NONE of it…matters in the least. but all the stuff around us that we selectively ignore…that stuff does. that is the basis of our existence. that is the source of our happiness and our relief. and that is what i'm trying to bring attention to.

So with that, here's another one from last week's snowy trip to Yosemite. The peak of El Capitan peeking through the clouds. The grandeur of that chunk of granite is so ridiculously awe-inspiring that it has galvanized scores of ridiculously strong-willed people folk to climb the bloody thing with nothing but their bare hands. It's like that.

The First One from Yosemite Winter Trip 2013.

Winter Yosemite by iPhone.

So this one surprised me a bit. Didn't expect to get one of my favorite shots of the trip on my iPhone, but it worked. Right about this time that I realized this trip was going to produce some magical images. And to think, almost didn't come. Once we heard it was going to snow, we almost cancelled, until a fellow G+ photographer convinced me I'd be crazy NOT to go. That this was the perfect time to do everything we had to do to get into the Valley. He was right. Anyhow, this one…processed and posted within minutes of being taken…in the midst of a snow storm, in the foggy hills high above Lower Yosemite Falls.