A Monday Motivational Kick In The Yahoo by Wasim of Nazareth - July 7, 2014

July 07, 2014 in Journeys, Tips

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“If you’re not lost, you’re not much of an explorer” -John Perry Barlow

Monday’s suck. Yes. It’s never easy to get back into the swing of things after a weekend, especially a long holiday weekend, so I figured I’d try to do a little thing to hopefully ease the transition a bit. While the rest of each week's posts will focus on tips, tricks, and journeys, every Monday I’ll be posting a motivational post - an image with a quote, mantra, saying, tao - to try to focus on and remember throughout the week. Easily digestable - quick - bite-sized stuffs and things.

Admittedly I’m selfishly doing this for a personal kick in the arse at the opening of each week, but figured perhaps you all can get something from it as well!

So, From me to you, Here’s the first Monday Kick In The Yahoo!

6 Travel Photography Lessons Learned On My Recent Trip To The Pacific Northwest

July 01, 2014 in Journeys, Tips

So as many of you know, I embarked on a nature and travel photography trip this past Spring to the Pacific Northwest, and I’ve shared all those pictures here and all my social outlets. This so happened to be my first photo trip in which I left the DSLR behind and employed mirrorless cameras exclusively, namely, the Samsung NX30. While this post will forgo all the reasons behind that (click here if you want to see those posts of that journey), now that the dust has settled and some time has passed, I’ve been able to reflect a bit on the incredible experience, which has proven to be a personal milestone in many ways in my photographic journey. So I figured I’d take this opportunity to share with you a few of the lessons I learned on that trip:

A Few More Summer Solstice Gifts From The Hills - A Phone And A Desktop Background

June 26, 2014 in Journeys

Here are a couple more images from the Summer Solstice sunset in the Santa Monica Mountains last weekend. Perfect for your mobile phone, tablets, and desktop computer wallpaper. Figured I'd throw 'em your way! Just right-click on the image, and choose 'Save Link As' for the 2400px version.

Happy Summer 2014 everyone!

A Santa Monica Mountains Summer Solstice Sun Sets

June 22, 2014 in Journeys

Sunset Photography_Wasim Muklashy Photography

Just wanted to share a couple of images of this year's Summer Solstice sunset from the Santa Monica Mountains and wish everyone (in the Northern Hemisphere...) a happy wonderful Summer 2014. Thank you all so much for joining me on this online photographic journey over the past 18 months. I am forever grateful. To learn how to get shots like these, check out my post How To Photograph Sunsets, Silhouettes And Starbursts For Your Summer Snaps!

For more of my madness: Instagram: @wasimofnazareth Twitter: @wasimofnazareth Google+: www.Google.com/+WasimMuklashy Facebook: www.Facebook.com/WasimOfNazareth

Help Me Help Malnourished Children In Guatemala! I Just Launched My Indiegogo Campaign

June 17, 2014 in Journeys

Some of you might remember a Kickstarter campaign I launched a few years ago to visit organic farms on different continents around the world to document and share their methods through interactive publications.

One Step At A Time - Forging Ahead In My Photographic Journey

June 10, 2014 in Journeys, Tips

So if you’ve logged on lately, you might have noticed, but I wanted to wait until everything was ported over from one to the other before introducing my new website. I've been working hard the past several weeks getting this sucker in shape and I think it’s ready! You’ll notice that the homepage no longer begins with my portfolio, but rather with the blogroll, so that way you’ll see the latest, and freshest content whenever you log on. Additionally, I’ve created two categories for the blog posts. One, 'Journeys,’ will continue to focus on my personal photographic journeys and adventures that you've grown used to, the other, ‘Lessons' will focus on tips and tricks and lessons learned through my photographic (hopefully) growth.

Thank Apple’s OS X Yosemite Announcement For This Collection Of Desktop & iPhone WallPapers

June 04, 2014 in Journeys

In honor of Apple’s latest operating system announcement, OS X Yosemite (which, if you know me, that word alone gets me excited) I figured I’d rehash some of my images from my Yosemite adventures last year. In case you don’t want to (or can’t) wait until the fall for the official release, after the 'read more' break below, you'll find a few of my favorites optimized for your desktop backgrounds, and below those are the iPhone-optimized versions. To save them, just right click and choose ‘Save Link As...’

DSLR? What DSLR? Oh How Quickly We Forget - A Mirrorless Camera Pacific Northwest Photo Trip - The Epilogue

May 28, 2014 in Journeys

So this is just a quick wrap-up post to the Pacific Northwest Photo Trip series. As you all know by now, I have been fortunate enough to be chosen as one of 50 Samsung Imageloggers, essentially, a brand ambassador for Samsung’s line of mirrorless camera systems. And as you know by now, this is the first trip in which I battled with myself beforehand on whether or not to bring the DSLR I’m so used to and that has been the crux of my work for several years. And, well, I was pushed by my peers to challenge myself…so I did.

From The Majesty Of Mother Nature To The Glory Of The Human Soul - A Mirrorless Camera Pacific Northwest Photo Trip - Part 6

May 25, 2014 in Journeys

Today is the day that the first part of this trip ends and the second part begins, and it switches gears a bit. While the connection to Mother Earth has been the primary focus for the past 7 days, the next several days focus on the connection to the beauty of the human emotion. If you follow me on Google+ or Facebook, you might recall a post about a month or so ago about a close friend - one of the strongest, purest, most beautiful warrior souls I’ve ever known was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She rushed into surgery soon thereafter and she began chemotherapy the very week we were up in Pacific Northwest. Seeing as how she was with her family just across the state in Spokane, Washington to begin her battle with the ‘big evil,' I jumped on the opportunity to take the 7-hour Amtrak journey from Portland to spend a few days with her

Pole Position On The Pacific Coast Highway.

May 21, 2014 in Journeys

So this one is not a big story or intricate post, just a quick and simple one with an image I thought was pretty neat. A friend and fellow photographer was over this weekend and we figured to take a little drive through the hills above Pacific Coast Highway in the late afternoon to see what we might find. I've lived in and explored these mountains for half a decade, yet, somehow, have never run across this vantage point. This is overlooking a small portion of PCH just south of Point Dume State Beach, California. We got there just in time for dusk and managed to snap a few images. The above image is a 30 second exposures taken on my now trusty Samsung NX30. I likey. I hope you likey. Bye.

Holy Cow PTTOW Was A Big WOW - An Innovation Summit

May 14, 2014 in Journeys

Last week I had the insane privilege of being house photographer (aka fly-on-the-wall-with-a-camera) for the innovation focused PTTOW Summit at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. PTTOW stands for “Plan To Take On the World,” and considering the people and ideas that were presented…seems like it’s not just our world they’re talking about - everything from keynote speaker Singularity University’s Peter Diamandis declaring that they’re almost ready to intercept and mine asteroids, which got a heck of a gasp and reaction from the crowd who were sure they heard him wrong until they asked him to repeat it, to Kweku Mandela, Nelson Mandela’s grandson, who gave a riveting and emotional account of his grandfather’s legacy and what the family is doing to make sure that legacy lives on (yeah...I teared up...), to Vice Magazine’s Eddy Moretti talking about how Vice’s rebel media message has managed to infiltrate the mainstream dialogue on what’s going on the world before showing off some of the innovative media group’s latest projects. Anyhow, click past the break for a gallery of some of my favorite images and moments from the week’s festivities.

Flanked By Firs And Braving The Bridge – A Mirrorless Camera Pacific Northwest Photo Trip – Part 5

May 13, 2014 in Journeys

For the final couple of days, we returned to some of the same general areas we were at the first couple of days. This time it was raining fairly heavily and didn’t let up, so we took this opportunity to actually capture scenes with the pitter patter of the rain hitting the leaves of the trees on it’s way down, the drops dancing on the miniature tide pools and ponds surrounding the river. After a few hours playing around on the riverbank bordering Lucia Falls, we decided to head across that bridge you saw in the second post in this series near Moulton Falls, and we got on the other side of the river, which ended up just being another magical playground of various floras and faunas flanked by a grove of douglas firs.

Cheez Whizzed In Stumptown - A Mirrorless Camera Pacific Northwest Photo Trip - Part 4

May 06, 2014 in Journeys

So we decided that day 4 was going to be our "takin’ it ‘easy for all them sinners” day (extra points if you get that reference…). After charging it pretty hard the past 3 days from sunup to well past sundown, we were understandable a bit groggy this morning so decided to sort of ease ourselves into the day and let the day play out on its own, especially since we had already got more footage than we expected in the can. We decided to play it close to home and started off by heading into the Forest Hills Park that spoons the city of Portland from the west side.

Guided By The Youth (And All The Purty Colors) - A Mirrorless Camera Pacific Northwest Photo Trip - Part 3

May 02, 2014 in Journeys

The second complete day of this thing was a bit of a lesson in just going with the flow and seeing where it takes you, even if it means thwarting your original vision and plans, especially when conditions that are beyond your control dictate those decisions.

Going Green. And Greener. And Greenest. – A Mirrorless Camera Pacific Northwest Photo Trip – Part 2

April 29, 2014 in Journeys

So this was the first full day of this thing, and the weather forecast told us it was going to be 100% chance of rain. Not exactly what we wanted to hear, but, well, that part of things we can’t control. We headed out to our first location anyway to see what would happen, and the fact that it was hailing and there was ice induced accidents on the side of the road were not encouraging signs. However, once we turned off the main highway onto Lucia Falls Road towards Moulton Falls, our first destination, divine intervention stepped in and it started to clear up. Literally, the clouds parted, and the sun began to shine.

Photofocus Does It Again - Notch Up Another Point For The Samsung NX300

April 25, 2014 in Journeys

I'm absolutely humbled to have my second Featured Image on the Photofocus homepage. This is crazy. Thanks to Melissa Niu, Scott Bourne, Richard Harrington and the entire Photofocus team for this ridiculous honor.

To DSLR Or Not To DSLR? That Is The Question - A Mirrorless Camera Pacific Northwest Photo Trip - Part 1

April 23, 2014 in Journeys

So when he called and said he needed a ‘wingman’ for a video and photography project, I was already in. When he said he’d pay me, I lost my frickin’ mind…literally…the gig I’ve been dreaming about for…well…ever. Yes. Done. Let’s go. Can’t talk too much about the project just yet, but essentially, the man behind bringing the world’s best magicians to the forefront, Murphy’s Magic’s Director of New Product Development Jason Brumbalow, who I also worked with at VectorMount for GoPro, was recruiting me to go help and guide him through making a series of nature videos and photographs in the Pacific Northwest for a personal project. I was humbled and I was immediately in.

An Afternoon Admiring Ansel Adams At The J. Paul Getty Museum

April 02, 2014 in Journeys

So for those of you not in my Google+ orbit, I wanted to share a set of images made last week when I went to check out the Ansel Adams exhibit at the The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California. While we were prohibited from taking pictures in the exhibit itself for very valid reasons, I highly recommend checking it out if you're around...standing in front of a perfect silver gelatin print of "Winter Sunrise" almost brought me to my knees.

Let The Topanga Gradient Take Over Your iPhone!

March 27, 2014 in Journeys

Every now and again I throw out an image I feel fits well as a background for the iPhone, and now is one of those agains. Here's an image I captured last week on the Samsung NX30 as the sun was dropping behind this Santa Monica Mountains ridgeline overlooking Topanga Canyon, California.

I Ditched The DSLR And, Wait For It, Didn't Miss It! What Have You Done To Me Samsung!?

March 18, 2014 in Journeys

So this weekend marked a milestone in my photographic adventures - I went fully 100% mirrorless. As a participant in Samsung's Imagelogger program, I've been playing with their NX300 for the past several months and I must admit, I was extremely surprised and pleased with the quality of images it was producing. However, while I used the NX300 to produce most of my personal images, I had always brought it alongside my normal DSLR kit that I was using for jobs. However, things may have just shifted.