photography by wasim.

Tag: rock

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.

June 4, 2013
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! (more…)

May 30, 2013
Twice In One Week!?? Yosemite You Gone Done Spoiled Me!!

a slice of yosemite layer cake. Yosemite National Park, California. Wasim Muklashy Photography

TWICE IN ONE WEEK! This is crazy exciting for me on the inside…so earlier in the week one of my favorite photography podcasts picked one of my images to critique. That was my oak tree image that I was using to bring attention to the non-native borer that is threatening to rid california of all of its oaks. It was featured on the April 1 episode of the Digital Photo Experience podcast and that blew my mind.

Well, earlier today, I was sitting here editing photos for work, listening to another of my favorite photography podcasts, this one is the April 5 episode of Frederick Van Johnson’s ‘This Week In Photo,’ and all of a sudden, at about the 51:04 mark, I hear my name (butchered, but they gave it a good effort) when they announce their first ever photo critique on the show. They picked my image ‘a slice of yosemite layer cake,’ and they dug it. They had professional photographer guests Jeffrey Totaro & “Fro Knows Photo” Jared Polin all give their thoughts, and it was all positive. Frederick went so far as to say that he could see the image printed large and framed on a wall with a nice light. I mean, I can’t think of a higher compliment.

I know it may sound like I’m boasting or whatever, but I’m not. I’m just genuinely hyped. Please understand, this is the first time in my life that I’m doing something that I actually feel I’m supposed to be doing. Like everything I’ve done before has been leading me to that thing that just feels right and it’s starting to come together that way, and at age (almost) 36, that’s pretty damn exciting for me. While the next steps once, very recently, felt ridiculously daunting, they’re all of a sudden starting to feel exciting and encouraging instead.

It’s always been an ultimate goal to help people that need it and be able to lend my skills to try to help make things even a little bit better than they are for those in unfortunate situations and regions and areas in life, and I feel that I’m getting closer to a point where that can become a reality. Using the skills I’ve honed over the past 15 years – video, writing, publishing, and photography – and somehow bringing it all together into something that actually makes some sort of a difference. I don’t know exactly where and what this is going to lead me, but for the first time in perhaps, well, ever, I feel like at least a path, albeit a rocky one, is being laid out in front of me. So long as I don’t think about it too much and just keep paying attention to doing what I feel is right in the moment – right now – perhaps, perhaps, the rest will sort itself out.

There I go thinking about it too much again. Ah hell.

April 6, 2013
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. (more…)

April 1, 2013
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. (more…)

March 23, 2013
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… (more…)

March 17, 2013
a slice of yosemite layer cake.

a slice of yosemite layer cake. Yosemite National Park, California. Wasim Muklashy Photography

So I just got ‘fired’ from my job. Long story, but it is what it is. I truly hope the best for the company, I wholeheartedly believe in the product and plan to work with them on a freelance basis for sure. But I suppose I lost a bit of enthusiasm over the past few months. Probably has a lot to do with my personal situation. Not good financially, coming off a long and arduous year of a rocky relationship that ended in epicly hurtful fashion, live alone in the hills so don’t really have much interaction with humanity these days. But something about getting fired was ok with me. Granted I haven’t been fired from a gig since Trader Joes in high school, but still, I was okay with it.

Not sure what I’m going to do, so some would say I’m crazy. I had a job where I was getting paid while working from home on what was supposed to be photography with close to no oversight at all. Yeah, sounds crazy, but for some reason I’m slight relieved. Felt I was getting dragged into a certain energy that I was around before and didn’t want to go back down that route…an energy where most of what is important is lost in the capitalistic non-stop no-end pace that only leads to ulcers, heart attacks and cancer. Have seen it too many times, don’t want to end up there, and I know there are more important things in life and I’d rather be around the energy that will nurture that. And right now, the only energy nurturing that side of me are the photos and the processing.

It’s truly a blessing when you’re doing something that actually feels right and you get to a point where you can start to discern what feels right and what doesn’t for yourself…you can actually pay attention to your gut and not pass it off. This Yosemite trip was a blessing and I can truly say that I haven’t felt as ‘in the zone’ as I have the past few days in the moments I’ve had a chance to sit and play with and process some of these images. The feedback from G+ and FB and 500px are just fueling my fire and it feels good to care about something like this again. And the fact that some of my images were accepted into Dreamstime.com stock photo site were just another little boost of confidence. Then that mention of one of my images on This Week In Photo podcast was a high for sure. And the fact that Megan Racing was happy with my work and will be hiring me for more photos is a boost. Hell, I look back and it’s actually been a damn good month for me in the photography regards. If I didn’t write all this down, I’m not sure I would have recognized that there’s some momentum behind some of what I’m doing.

I actually feel better now than I did before beginning this post.

Ahh…the power of the blog.

Anyhow, here’s one from the Yosemite trip that made me feel good while processing today. ‘a slice of yosemite layer cake.’

March 11, 2013