Category Archives: Essays

Loose Ends and Random Thoughts

“Haunted By Waters” Spruce Flats Falls, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

The image above was taken in April of this year in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee. This is an excellent example of what I try to teach my students when photographing waterfalls: We are not taking a portrait here. We are creating a landscape image with a waterfall as one of the elements. Walking up on the rocks and filling the frame with the waterfall would have been an easy thing to do but the end result would have been boring and banal. This composition includes the waterfall as a crucial element – as well as the primary focal point – but the image has an elegant visual design that goes beyond being just a portrait or documentary photo. Primarily, the flow of the stream and the placement of the rocks below the falls gets the eye moving back and forth through the frame giving it a dynamic quality that a static portrait would lack.

“Haunted by Waters” is a new addition to my Smoky Mountains Galley and depending on the conditions, is a location we will be visiting on the Smoky Mountains Autumn Workshop in October.

WORKSHOPS

Speaking of workshops, there are two new workshops listed for the first quarter of 2014. For the 4th straight year, Ian Plant and I are leading another tour to Patagonia on March 10 – 19.

For the very first time, I am offering a Winter in Yellowstone photo tour and workshop in February that will combine the very best winter landscapes with wildlife photography. Jackson Hole professional wildlife photographer, Jared Lloyd will be my partner on this trip.

I’m sorry to announce that Arches and Canyonlands, Utah in November is now full, as is Acadia in October. Joe Rossbach and I still have a few openings for the Tetons in September so let me know if any of you have questions about this trip.

Photographer Christina Donadi has written a detailed review of my Smokies workshop from this past spring. Check out the rest of her blog for more excellent photography!

TRUE MODESTY

Last week I was listed as one of the top 100 travel photographers in the world for 2013 by ChiliSauce, a travel blog in the United Kingdom.  When I made the announcement on Facebook and Twitter, as a courtesy to the the owner of the blog, I made the announcement with a controversial preface: the words, “For whatever it’s worth…..” This was met by more than a few emails and private messages by annoyed fans and followers. Most began with a mocking, “For whatever it’s worth….” and eventually got around to making the point that I was not being grateful or gracious about the “honor.” For whatever it’s worth, you’re acting like an ass.

Look, this is not merely false modesty on my part. I do appreciate being listed with at least 99 other very accomplished photographers. But the list is just one person’s opinion and there are some very conspicuous names missing as well as some people I’ve never even heard of. So that’s what it is, one person’s opinion and that’s about what it’s worth. Sorry to offend.

So now I’m off to Africa for two weeks. I’ll try my best to post some crappy phone images here as well as a report or two on how I’m doing. Be sure to Subscribe to Earth and Light to keep up with my  latest travels realtime.

May 13, 2013 | 3 Comments
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Incredible Iceland in Pop Photo

“Behind the Falls” Southern Iceland’s Seljalandsfoss on a bright, sunny evening.

I have a new article published in the May issue of Popular Photography magazine entitled Incredible Iceland. That’s their title, not mine. My preferred Warming up to Iceland was a bit too cute for them, I suppose. Anyway, the article begins on page 50 with the above image as the opening spread. The colors in the magazine are printed rather dark and dull, so enjoy this version before you read the printed word.

“Behind the Falls” at Seljalandsfoss was created during last year’s Epic Iceland tour and it was my favorite take from this location. I experimented with different shutter speeds, as I usually do, and this one – 1/250 of a second – projected the look and feel for which I was aiming. I really like the cascading water effect rather than the smooth, silky look of a longer exposure for this image. I’m often asked about “rules” concerning exposure times when handling moving water. No, there are no rules but I do have a few guidelines.

First, and this is strictly personal, I prefer to keep some detail and texture to the water. Long exposures that turn moving water into featureless white blobs smeared across the image frame do absolutely nothing for me. I want to keep the water’s texture and detail while still creating the illusion of motion.

Second, the heavier the water, the shorter the shutter speed. This goes back to what I just said above. It’s much more difficult to retain that texture and detail with heavy, fast whitewater than lighter water flows.

Third, since I am almost always much more interested in how the image will make people feel rather than how it will look, I want to ask myself how the choice of shutter speed will affect its emotional impact on the viewers. My own experience and emotional reaction to the scene will dictate that choice. For example, large waterfalls that move heavy volumes of water project power and rage and I want that emotional trigger embedded in the image so that viewers can feel that power, rage, or fury too, even if they can’t feel the ground vibrate or hear the cascade’s thunderous roar. A faster shutter speed seems to express the heaviness of the water and by extension, its power as well. Conversely, slower shutter speeds express lightness, grace, and fragility. Waterfalls and cascades with gentle water flows or elegant, stair-stepping design characteristics project an air of fragility and grace. That’s how I want those images to feel to my audience.

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April 25, 2013 | 4 Comments
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The Water’s Edge

“Water’s Edge” Porters Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

I’ve just returned home after spending twelve days in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Springtime in the Smokies is an annual rite of seasonal passage for me. The new season really hasn’t arrived until I’ve made my annual pilgrimage to these ancient mountains to watch the leaf buds break open and the many thousands of wildflowers bloom right before my very eyes. The Smoky Mountains I left behind was a very different place than what welcomed me a dozen days earlier.

During those twelve days, I led two workshop groups (one review of the experience you can read here) and led two private trips as well. During the private trips in particular I really tried to push the proverbial envelope in order to get new and unique images of a place I have photographed…..well, I can say honestly, many hundreds of times. In the process, I got soaked, muddy, frozen, and went tumbling down a 15-foot cliff onto some rocks without breaking any bones. A few bruises, cuts, and scrapes never hurt anyone and besides, I didn’t have my camera gear on me at the time. I had a filter in my hand, which I did not drop nor break, I am proud to report.

For the image above my client and friend, Lance Warley and I stood thigh-deep in the rushing water during a cold rain as each of us took turns shooting the scene while the other held an umbrella to keep the lenses dry. Lance, being the smarter photographer, wore waders while I experienced the full force of the icy water’s stinging wrath (when I said the water was “thigh deep” I might have been on the conservative side of the truth). During the fun and mayhem, one of my wading shoes became wedged between two rocks, dislodged from my foot, and floated downstream.

To help get out of the water, we each unknowingly grabbed a hairy poison ivy vine to help ourselves back up on the bank. After realizing the composition of the useful handhold, we washed our hands thoroughly after finding easier access to the water further downstream. There, miraculously, was my missing wading shoe sitting atop a midstream boulder – as if it was patiently waiting on me to arrive. All in a day’s work.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my Smoky Mountains Online Gallery. Or you might also be interested in attending my Smoky Mountains Autumn Workshop this October. Or you can simply Subscribe to Earth and Light for more entertaining posts like this one.

April 23, 2013 | 8 Comments
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The Spine of Time

The title, The Spine of Time is borrowed from a book by Harry Middleton, On the Spine of Time, which chronicled Harry’s journeys through the Smoky Mountains as a young fly fisherman. It was a very influential piece of work in both its writing style and its infusing in me a desire to explore the Smoky Mountains as both a hiker and angler. The words from chapters such as Bagpipes on Hazel Creek, Mountain Stones, and Deep Creek Time are still with me today when I visit the Smokies on my frequent photography trips, even though it’s been well over ten years since I’ve read the book. It’s still in print today and in my opinion, no better word picture of the Smokies has ever been written. The image above is dedicated to the late author, because as I was creating this photograph the title immediate sprang to mind.

Today I am making the 3-hour drive to the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and will be spending the next 10 days there. Before leaving, I uploaded a new gallery to my website which showcases some of my favorite Smoky Mountain images.

Smoky Mountains Collection

I hope to add to this collection upon my return.

I’ve also updated the Earth and Light Collection as well, so please take a look when you get the chance. I hope to soon add to this collection as well if I can ever find the time.

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April 11, 2013 | 3 Comments
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Spring Ahead

Warm sun, green grass, new life, love, and spring. Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. Canon EOS 5D MarkII, Canon 100-400mm @ 400mm, 1/400 second @ f/5.6, ISO 200

“The spring always came finally but it was frightening that it had nearly failed.” Ernest Hemingway in A Moveable Feast

As I write this, it’s March 14 at 8:52 am and  27 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 Celsius) is measured on the thermometer just outside the window of my office. In this lovely part of South Carolina in which I live, it’s usually much warmer by this date. Although the first day of spring is still a week away, at this latitude the passing of the vernal equinox is a mere formality. I can usually feel the warm breath of spring by late February. Not this year. I’m still waiting.

And it appears I will have to wait some more. On Saturday I leave for the Patagonian regions of southern Argentina and Chile. So as the sun passes over the equator next week, the hemisphere of the Earth on which I will set foot will be tilting away from the sun’s warmth once again and the days will be getting shorter. My acute case of spring fever will be protracted.

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March 14, 2013 | 1 Comment
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