S6 photo

Finished

2011-06-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

It's a crazy feeling when something that has been a major part of your life for a long time is finished. It's natural to look back and think through everything that has happened. The last 4 years of my life have been great and I can't even begin to explain how much has gone on that has been related to photography.

I have a vivid memory of shooting my first rule of thirds assignment and realizing that what I was doing wasn't quite like anything else. I was doing something for a purpose and to accomplish a goal that someone else had set out but at the same time I had complete control to interpret and fulfill the need. Complete control and interpretation for a set task in an otherwise strict and standardized high school environment? It was eye opening to me and from that day in freshman year, photography took a grasp on the creative side of my mind.

It slowly opened up a completely new aspect of my life and without finding that and learning about it I have no idea where I'd be right now. Over the 4 years I found that I'm not an artist. I couldn't create something if blank canvas was set in front of me. Rather than creation from scratch I feel that I combine and interpret different things to create. Obviously this doesn't apply to most photos but I feel it does when I know the single image I want to capture when going out to shoot. With the general idea the elements begin to fill in and the creation comes from combining and displaying the elements in a way to enable the original idea to be apparent.

I'm excited to see what the future holds and I can't wait to head to Vancouver in a few months.

Here are the images from my final project in my last high school photography class:

For a little more information about each image you can go here and type in the password: twitch.

Water

2011-05-31T23:43:00.001-07:00

Water, it can take and ordinary scene and make it extraordinary. I saw this photo and decided that this week's post needed to focus around water. A lot of images and some are fairly similar to others but these are by far my favorite four from a great Memorial Day weekend:

And here's the rest:

Split Toning, Gradient Work, and a LensBaby

2011-05-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

"Its good to get out and practice... I envy good gradient work on landscapes (http://www.wieslawpoltorak.com/-/wieslawpoltorak/) and I realized the only way to get better is to go out and practice. When I went shooting I wasn't focused on getting good images, I was focusing on gaining more experience in a few areas."

That was my original write up when I posted these photos. I hadn't even thought about really looking at them, I just wanted to get them up. As I said I was shooting for practice not to get good images so I didn't think anything of it. But today I happened to stumble back upon these and I realized that I really like them. I printed up a 5"x20" of the third image and I can't stop staring at it, it's different from what I'm used to and I'm really feeling it. It's amazing seeing the difference from a downsized internet image to a quality print, I like them both but the print draws me in much deeper.

I think the difference was my mind frame when I was shooting these, it's insane that a slight change in purpose can drastically change the way I was shooting. I feel like I've opened up some new doors and I'm excited to get out and shoot with some different mind frames, it'll be interesting to see the results.

Mega Post

2011-05-14T21:18:00.000-07:00

Buckle your seat belts folks, a lot of photos are coming your way.

I spent the weekend at a mini family reunion in Long Beach. It was great to see the fam and it was really nice to finally slow down for a few days. I didn't really have a purpose, just cruised around with the camera and spent a lot of time in the ocean. It was really nice to just hang out and not have any intentions when shooting, basically taking photos of anything that looks cool. I haven't done that in awhile and it was great to get back to the roots.

I also spent a lot of time surfing. I really like to surf and usually I don't have the opportunity to so I was all over it and ended spending most of my time in the water. The conditions weren't great but I had nothing to complain about, I had a blast. Photo cred goes to my mom on this one:

One of the days the boys headed over to a car show. I'd never been to one before so I tagged along with the camera and snagged a few shots. It was crazy to see the variety of cars there from all different years, amazing how much work people had put into these to restore them to mint condition.

Also in this post are a few images from 2 days of assignment shooting at school. I wasn't sure about it at first but it turned out to be a good challenge making quality images happen in a short period of time and a confined area.

As you can see... a ton of photos from all different places. Here are my five favorites from the week:

The helicopter shot always brings this video to mind http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-ImCpNqbJw. I'm not a huge fan of the song but the start of the video is pretty dang cool.

Here's the mass, my top five are also in here:

(I saw a lot of cars at the car show but the above photo still has my two favorite vehicles)

(not only is his car awesome, he also wins the prize for best sideburns)

Nadda

2011-05-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

Mothers Day, a great time to appreciate everything that my mom has done for me. To celebrate Mothers Day we went on a family hike up to Mineral Ridge. I brought my camera bag along with the intention of shooting a few eagles from the top. As my luck with photos has been recently I got to the top and learned that Sundays seem to be a no fly day for eagles and on top of that the light wasn't very good.

No worries though, it was a pretty casual hike and a great time to spend in the outdoors with the family. I snapped a few photos on the way up and that's what you'll be viewing in this blog post. Nothing special at all as I was planning on posting some eagle shots, but now you'll be able to see a little point and shoot action from a short hike.

I actually like the first image quite a bit, something you don't see everyday. As for the rest I view them as just a documentation of the hike:

I've been looking around the interwebs recently just trying to get some fresh ideas and I stumbled upon a blog that I really like. It's a collection of other peoples work and I really like that because every post is different and every post is quality. Check it out http://spellsjewellery.blogspot.com/. There is a small amount of nudity so if that offends I wouldn't click the link.

Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lose

2011-05-01T21:28:00.000-07:00

A wise man once told me that in life you'll win some and you'll lose some. Its accurate.

It looked like I was going to win big one afternoon this week. The conditions were right for a landscape of the Coeur d' Alene/Hayden area that I've been thinking of for awhile. I was looking for a layer of clouds that was dense but had space enough between each cloud that some light was coming through. All in all I was looking for an image with a lot of contrast thats focus was as much on the clouds as it was on the landscape.

Usually these type of clouds don't last too long, if they're starting to break like this they usually end up clearing out or coming back together. I hustled up Canfield as quick as I could and on the last push to the top I was greeted by a few inches of snow. At this point I realized running shoes and shorts weren't a good choice. I was beat, frustrated at running with a backpack, and starting to get cold. I realized I couldn't turn around after coming so far so I ended up trudging through the snow.

At the top I looked around and the clouds were right. For what I wanted in the image I had to do some work with my nd grad filter to get definition in the clouds and the landscape. This isn't a quick process, you can't just put it on and shoot. The exposure on the top and bottom half of the frame is different and you have to line up the horizon line of the filter with the scene in front of you (not difficult if your shooting in the plains but a little tricky if you have mountains on the horizon).

Long story short, I busted off some quick test shots, got everything dialed as quick as I could and by the time I was almost set the clouds closed up and the light went to crap. Like the man said, you win some you lose some, looks like I'm gonna be running up Canfield the next time the clouds are right, I'll know to be more prepared next time.

Here's a few test shots while I was getting my filter situation dialed:

Brooks was in the frame, I didn't care because I was just getting set up... my mistake

I was a little bummed but I got some good exercise and was hanging out with my dog on top of a mountain, not too bad. I found a dry spot and waited for a little while to see if the clouds would open back up, while I waited I decided to make a snowman:

Turns out my snowman photo was my favorite of the entire afternoon, funny how things work out. Days like this give me a lot of respect for adventure photographers like Patrick Orton.

I wasn't going to leave with nothing so I ended up snapping a few off of my dog Brooks and a hawk that happened to swing by for a second:

The Beast

2011-04-24T22:49:00.000-07:00

I had a photo assignment to document an area so the people of the future can see what Coeur d' Alene was like back in the day. It makes sense, especially when you look back and see old photos Coeur d' Alene. It's good to have photos for historical reasons.

Thinking into it deeper I realized that what we are doing now is a lot different than someone shooting for historical documentation 80s ago. We cherish those photos because there are very few of them, it was hundreds of times more difficult to make a photo 80 years ago and therefore the quantities are limited. 80s years from now people looking back aren't going to feel the same way. Why? Information overload. Unless something catastrophic happens and every bit of information is lost, these people will not value the photos because of the sheer quantity. Everyone and their uncle has a camera and every single inch of downtown has been documented more than once.

I did my part in taking the photos and getting them where they needed to go but, I really don't like them so hopefully someone may happen to get some worth out of them in the future. Until then here is a great photograph that I got of the sewage plant while I was documenting the prairie:

Considering I planned this as my post of the week I was a little lost of what to shoot until I came across this bit of inspiration and decided that I needed to take photos of a beast, this is what I came up with:

Turns out it isn't much of a beast at all, it's the family cat, Picabo. It's hard to be fierce with a name like Picabo. Here's a few more shots of "The Beast" and other random photos from the past week:

And finally, Rob Cubbin hard at an epic flight spot in Whistler:

Walk the Line

2011-04-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

I took last week to scout. I decided what images I wanted, where they needed to be, who needed to be in them, and when I needed to shoot them. I went to the locations and got all of the above figured out. It's a long list but I feel like I've got some good ideas in the works.

Weather was good enough, light was right, and I had the right model so I went out to tee off the first spot.

Underlying basis of all the photos: I didn't want anything that showed that the photos were modern (logos, cars buildings, clothing, etc.). I was shooting for somewhere around the early 60s, specifically the Johnny Cash era.

I had two images in mind and they turned out almost to the t how I wanted them to, here's the first:

The inspiration from this photo comes directly from the musician Bob Dylan and the movie Walk the Line. After listening to Bob Dylan's music I had this feeling that there was so much behind it yet I really didn't know anything about him as a person. I watched the movie Walk the Line and the scene where Johnny Cash meets the young Bob Dylan in the woods was the one that got me. Whether it really happened or not, the feeling I got from that scene by seeing the soon to be discovered Bob Dylan in the woods alone with his guitar left a lasting impression that comes to mind anytime I hear a Bob Dylan song. My goal was to create that lonesome, backwoods, young musician feel in a photo and that is how the image above came about.

A much different image but a few similarities:

It's amazing to me how much a piece of media, whether it be a song, movie, etc. can bring me to a different time. My goal was to show how something as simple as a song could rebirth the past. The building itself being run down has a past and the subject by playing the song is giving a glimpse into the past of that location. If your confused look in the windows.

I'm extremely happy with this shoot and I can't wait to get out to the next location and create the specific images I've been thinking of.

Here's a few others that were either warming up, testing lighting, or getting comfortable:

I put a lot of effort into this shoot, thats why this post is counting for 2 weeks. The first week I scouted a few zones that I thought might work and did a lot of thinking as to how to shoot it. Then the next week I made my decisions and went and shot. Here are a few location test shots from the week before:

I took some inspiration from this video http://vimeo.com/22279106. It's definitely a little different but I love the vintage feel of it.

The Tunnel

2011-04-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

Long story short: Tahoe got pounded, the sun came out, temperatures climbed into the 50s.

This left a small window to get things done. After a long sunny day we found ourselves with the light leaving and a long journey ahead to reach the vehicles. We had been out for a long time and everyone was not looking forward to the trudge back. These are the situations when decision making can become hazy.

A quarter of the way back we stumbled upon a small hole in the snow that went fairly deep. It was difficult to see where the bottom was, but a local that we were with remembered that there was a tunnel through the mountain that started right around where we were standing, the entrance just had happened to be buried for quite some time due to all the snowfall. Without much hesitation, he drops into hole, we hear him fall/slide a ways and hear a thud as he hits the bottom.

"I can see light at the end. Hop down here, it'll drop us on the other side of the mountain and cut off most of the hike." Those were his words. Sketchy? Quite a bit, but considering the distance it would supposedly save and the condition of my legs at the time it was a fairly easy decision.

I didn't realize what we had gotten ourselves into until I had jumped in the hole and realized that once your in the tunnel from that end, chances are you won't be getting out unless it is through the other side, which was a speck of light a ways in the distance.

After hiking in the dark under the mountain for awhile we approached the end of the tunnel and saw something blocking the exit. From a distance it looked fine because the light was shining through it, but once we were close enough it was easy to see that a massive wall of ice was standing between us and where we needed to be. Luckily it had been warm that day and a hole had melted in the ice small enough to fit a body through, huge relief knowing we could exit the tunnel.

What started as a hasty decision based off tired legs almost led to a sketchy situation but all ended up producing my favorite image of the trip:

Larger

I'm back home now and finally got some time on my hands, really looking forward to getting back into shooting some fashion and focusing most of my spring on building that portofolio. Lettin the landscapes rest for a little and picking up something different, should be a good change.

I've also been job shadowing Trevin Spencer at BHW1 Advertising, their website here. It's awesome to see how the industry works, there's so much behind every aspect of it from idea creation to working with the production companies that I really had no idea about. On top of that we get to just head out on photo missions, which is awesome.

Here's a few from a photo mission with Trevin and Ashlyn and some images from Tahoe:

Up to the Nipples

2011-03-20T23:52:00.001-07:00

Chest deep... I've heard it said before, but never believed it. In my mind chest deep snow was near impossible, especially living in the northwest. I'm not talking about an accumulative amount of snow somewhere near chest height, I'm talking about enough extremely light snow that in every turn you sink near shoulder level.

After the past week in Tahoe I am a believer. It hasn't stopped snowing since I've been here. By far the most snow I've seen in my entire life, anywhere from 1-3 feet a day. Squaw Valley has reported over 150 inches of fresh snow in the last 7 days. It's absolute madness and aside from the climbing avalanche danger that is keeping us out of some areas the madness of the weather has brought nothing but enjoyment.

Screen shot from some recent video (video cred Corey "Dirtbag" Schneider, his work here):

The sun did break for a little bit and I happened to be driving around the lake, it's an amazing area and I'm really excited for the next week.

A few images from the last week:

Calgary

2011-03-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

To say the least, the Calgary trip was full of wild adventures. I experienced a meth bust at the always classy Super 8 Motel, witnessed a dislocated rib, almost got my car "torched" on false accusations of drug possession, helped a friend cradle a thought to be broken neck, and most importantly got my years share of poutine.

Five of us went on the trip, here is the family photo:

We went to try and conquer Godzilla (cell phone picture):

It turns out that Godzilla conquered us (don't worry he turned out being 100% okay):

We did end up hitting a lot of other fun rails and all in all it was a great trip. To get more of an update on the riding head on over to http://northlandgang.blogspot.com/.

In the past I've spent a lot of the winter in Canada, this year was different and Calgary was my first time in Canada this season. I really like Canada so it was great to be back, especially to shoot in the Rockies. They're such immense mountains and I honestly have nothing else to compare them to.

I have a lot of images so I'll let them explain the rest:

(Photo Cred Jake Nelson)

Adapting

2011-03-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

I feel like other than having a general understanding of camera operation and an eye for good composition a photographer's most important tool is their ability to adapt. In most situations you're never going to have want you want/need. Right now I can think of at least 10 things photo related that I would like to purchase but I don't have the funds. If by luck you happen to own every piece of photo equipment you want, it's not likely that you'll be able to physically transport everything that you might need to the location. If these two haven't gotten you and if your not a strictly indoor photographer then this one will: the weather can't be controlled and a fair amount of the time is spent wishing the light was a little bit different.

So with all this being said it's extremely important to be able stop wishing for what you don't have and work with the situation and equipment that's at hand. Why this came to mind? The other night I had some major lighting issues, I had 4 strobes with me to light a feature that in my mind definitely needed all 4 lights. It was a 3 block bomb drop and with the way the blocks were placed I had a feeling that weird shadows were going to be an issue. Turns out due to various problems 3 lights were out of commission by the time we were ready to shoot and I was left with a single speedlite and a lightstand. If it was a portrait I could make this work, even a smaller urban feature and it would work, but for this I was pretty sure it wasn't and I was feeling that it was about time to give up. I couldn't leave without a try so I did something I thought may work and with a little tweaking and some precise speedlite aiming it worked. If you would like to learn some more about action sports photography head on over to http://ascartel.com/ they have some great articles about off camera lighting.

One speedlite and a lightstand and we ended up coming out with something much better than expected:

Heading to Calgary this week and Tahoe after that so things are gonna be busy. Until then here are a few from the road:

Switcharoo

2011-02-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

At least 7 changes between these 2 photos, some are easy to find some aren't.

Through a Window

2011-02-21T20:59:00.000-08:00

It seems like so much of life is spent looking through a window. Most spend it looking out from an office window or classroom. Others spend their time looking through an automobile or airplane windshield. A good number of people have to look through their glasses or contacts. The lucky ones spend their time looking through a pair of sunglasses or goggles.

The point is that we all spend a lot of time looking through something that separates our eyes from whatever happens to be outside. Everyone gets used to it but, no matter what your looking through it alters the image you are seeing. We learn to work with it, but its always important to remember that there's a whole lot out there that your not seeing.

This thought came about when I was traveling and trying to shoot through a plane window. I could only see bits and pieces below but from that I knew of the potential of the area. I was trying to imagine what it would have been like if I could hang off the plane wing and shoot directly down to get a full, unobstructed view. Obviously I couldn't do that so I worked with the window and tried to document the best I could of the surroundings. I did and it worked okay but I couldn't stop thinking about how much this window was restricting my ability to show what was really out there.

When it comes down to it were always looking through this "window" and it's best to remember that there's a lot out there that were not seeing. In my view the only way to progress is to constantly try to get past the window of view and if it doesn't work, well at least you learned a little something and you'll be ready for the next time. Hopefully someday I'll be able to take a camera sky diving haha.

Here's a few images from through a window:

Anyways I came home to some good snow and blue skies which set up for a few good adventures:

Jordan loving himself a mid day snack

Sled Neckin'

Cocollala lake (Could be a future gallery piece, I'm really liking it)

Next week...

And finally I was doing some photo archiving and came along this gem, gotta love family vacations:

On the Road

2011-02-06T22:14:00.000-08:00

Back in the swing of things and back on the road again. It's been awhile since I've traveled and as any longtime blog followers know, I'm usually on the road quite a bit during the winter months. It's hard to be home when we're not getting any snow and other areas are getting dumped, but no worries, I'll be traveling for the next few weeks.

I looked back into some of my older travel blog posts and it brought back a lot of memories from many different travels. This made me think, I like the photos because they remind me of good times but does that make them a good photograph? To me... sure it does, but without knowing the travels and not being the one behind the lens is it still a good photograph? People always say things like "try to step into someone else's shoes" or "look at it from a different perspective" but honestly whenever you view anything, whether it be a situation or an image, you're always going to look at it and compare or relate it to something in your life. This comparison or relation is the structure of your opinion on whatever you are viewing.

Take this situation for instance: two people view the same image of a dog. One person had some childhood issues with dogs, while the other had the same type of dog as a childhood pet. The first person is gonna have a negative view of the image while the second person is going to remember his/her childhood dog and have a positive view on the photo. This is a very basic example but you can see how previous experiences change a person's viewpoint.

With this in mind I look back at images I've taken and try to view them as a stranger would without any of my memories. It's impossible, every time I look at that photo it brings me back to the time I shot it and anything associated with it or that time of my life.

Recently I've been trying to find the line between sentimental value and real value in an image. Turns out it isn't much of a line at all, it's just a big gray area. Finding the balance is what I'm always striving for, but when do you know the balance? Well... when everyone including yourself loves the image. I'm not sure if it's possible but it's definitely a good thing to work towards.

That being said, here's my group of images for the week. I like them because I feel like I did my best at turning a whole lot of nothing into something presentable. I did everything I could to make miles and miles of not much into something interesting. The question is, is it interesting enough to post?

Ice Adventures

2011-01-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

First off I'd like to say happy 100th post to the blog. I never thought it'd get this far. The blog started as a school project but has turned out to be much more. I've updated weekly for the past 2 and half years(only one substantial break). I can't be more happy that I did because looking back it has really kept me on my toes from week to week and forced me to get out and shoot something at least once a week. Here's to another hundred posts but then again... who's counting?

Anyways, I had been planning to shoot this spot for awhile. I drive by it every time I go to the mountain and I've almost stopped a handful of times but for some reason never did, until today. Things turned out a lot different than I expected. Vast, open, and simple were the words that came to mind when I would drive by. This is what drew me in, almost a desert type feel. It turned out open and simple and that was about it, nothing more, nothing less. Simple is nice, but in this case things were just too simple.

Really really simple... foreground, texture, horizon, sky:

I started looking closer trying to find something to make things interesting, and then I saw these cross-country ski tracks. Why they aren't straight on a completely open frozen body of water? I couldn't tell you

My pup came along for the adventure and while I was trying to figure things out she was lurking:

I had myself, my dog, and a walking stick I found, so I made the best of it with some use of the self timer:

And finally my favorite, completely different from what I had in mind before but that's just how things go:

If your in need of some excitement head on over to http://partytimers.blogspot.com/.

Thanks to all the viewers. Have a good week.

-Essex

Back to the Basics

2011-01-17T21:37:00.000-08:00

When I got the call about a new street spot to shoot I was expecting the norm, a nice down rail, wall ride/pole tap, or a close out, but things were much different with this "street spot". This one was difficult to shoot to say the least. The main section was a rocky retaining wall that had been excaveted out of the side of a hill. There was a layer of chain link fence over the wall to keep large boulders from falling out. I showed up and had no idea how it was going to work until the master of the madness, Corey Schneider, pointed to the pole jam teetering atop the metal covered rock face. His plan was to ride up the pole jam, air into the top of the wall, and proceed to ride down the chain link fencing until he reached the transition(not so much) at the bottom of the face.

After I had a safety meeting with myself(mental checklist of route to the nearest hospital in case things went wrong), I faced the challenge of how I was going to shoot this beast of the feature. When it comes down to it this feature is big and no matter how you shoot it the rider is going to be small in the frame. With that in mind I approached it with the vision of printing this big, somewhere around the 20x30 size. The difficult part of the lighting is not hitting the rider correctly, it's hitting the rider correctly while lighting the entire rest of the frame, which in this case was a large area. In this situation the photographer can do one of two things, throw the kitchen sink at it and get a speedlite in every nook and cranny or stay basic and use a minimal number of flashes in the essential places. Option A is usually the easier, sure it takes a little longer to setup but manipulating the light is quicker and easier once flashes are in place. I was short on batteries so option A was ruled out and it looked I was going to have to keep things simple and rely on a few fundamental aspects of flash photography.

Primary light:

This is the main light on the rider. You always start with this flash and work your exposure and other flashes according to this one. In this case I'm using a Alien Bees B800 forward to my far left about 10 feet high pointing directly at the rider. The flash is at full power with a 8.5" high out put reflector that increases the power by 50%. This flash is setting the basis by hitting the rider and with the quick flash duration of the B800 at full power, freezing the action, the most important part of the shot. Some light spills to the wall from this flash but not much, the fill flash is what is needed to light the wall.

Rim/separation light:

Although the primary light is set first and everything else is built around it, in this instance equally important is the rim light. The rim light is a huge part of this photo because it separates the rider from the very cluttered background but most importantly it outlines the pole jam so the viewer can see where the rider is coming from. Without a rim light this photo would not work. I'm using a B800 placed directly behind the pole jam at full power with a 7" standard output reflector.

Fill light:

At that point the difficult part was done, all I had to do was light the wall/face of rocks. I used a Canon 430EX forward, to my left and close to the wall at full power. This lit the rock face from the side creating a small gridded shadow and making the chain link over the rocks apparent.

A close up showing what each flash was doing:

The final image(click in, its meant to be viewed big):

Props to Corey for putting down and turning a construction site into a playground. If you want to check out some not so simple artificial action sports lighting head over to http://www.erikseo.com/5.0/index.php.

Urban, a Self Edit, and some Filters

2011-01-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a great last 2 weeks, I had the oppurtunity to shoot a ton and most importantly I was finally able to walk and the leg is healing up good.

On top of shooting I've been trying to get better at editing video so I got together all of my ski footage from the spring, summer, and fall and put together a self edit. I'm skiing so I didn't shoot any of the video(except for the point of view) but I did all the editing and I feel like it came together nicely:

Essex Prescott Spring/Summer/Fall 2010 from Essex Prescott on Vimeo.

Urban, it's been way too long since I've shot urban. It's been way too long since I've shot even snowboarding. Shooting snow definitely brought me back to when I first picked up a camera. I got my first rebel 4 years ago for one purpose, to shoot action sports. I told myself I would never shoot anything like landscapes or people, funny how things change. Anyways it was great to get out there. Shooting urban is all about your flashwork and thats probably my favorite technical aspect of photography, using artificial sources to light a scene exactly how you want it. On top of that no two urban spots are the same and you can get fairly creative with the compositions so all and all it's a really good thing.

Here's a few images from 2 different spots the week before Christmas:

(Thanks to Mike Miller for clicking this one off, it was a bit of a danger zone for a broken leg):

I've also been trying to step up my landscape game and change it up so I've been doing some shooting with neutral density graduated filters. All I have to say is that if you shoot landscapes these are a must, it's a little difficult to get used to and learn when they're good to use but when things workout... wow. It's completely changed the way I go about shooting just because of the ability to shoot into the sun with definition in the sky and the foreground. I had been trying to do this somewhat in post production but it doesn't come close to using these filters.

An afternoon with the nd grad filters:

And finally if you get the chance check out what Nimbus is doing. It's accompanied with some great photos too: http://www.newschoolers.com/ns/content/readnews/id/3629/

A Closer Look

2010-12-19T22:48:00.000-08:00

Shooting on crutches is tough, doable yes but tough. I never realized how physically demanding shooting can be. It sounds like a joke buts it's the truth and I didn't realize it until this past 3 weeks.

I finally got outside and tried to see if I could make anything happen, it was really interesting. The difference isn't that I couldn't get somewhere, people can say different but its possible to get a lot of places on crutches, the problem was how long it took to get there. When I'm shooting landscapes and say I see a ridge that looks like it may have a good perspective it's not a big deal to run up there and check it out. If it works great but if it doesn't, no big deal to run back. Today I found myself at fewer locations but I explored those spots a lot more than usual. Definitely gives you a closer look at the smaller things, things that are usually only components of the greater image.

Good experience? For sure, so good to get outside with the camera. Any worthy photos? Not so much but thats okay, its just a blog. I spent a little more time than usual editing too, some different looks, some a little crazier than others but all somewhat different edits from the norm.

A few photos from a crippled adventure on the prairie:

If you have some time on your hands head over to lensrental.com and check out the articles section. They have some really good in depth articles on topics like how autofocus really works and why some copies of lenses are sharp and some aren't.

Restructuring

2010-12-12T18:03:00.000-08:00

Time, I got a whole lot of it on my hands right now and I'm a little bummed because I'm not quite in the condition to shoot yet. I can get around a little bit in the studio but outside isn't an option. So instead of shooting I'm able to get a lot of much needed behind the scenes S6 Photo things done. My cataloguing/back up routine is pretty good but I'm getting the chance go through and make sure that everything is perfect and a little easier to find through the use of keywords and such. People don't realize how important it is to correctly back up all your work to multiple places on and off site until they lose something. It's happened to me, luckily it wasn't everything, but I was never able to get those images back. I could go in depth into my backup routine but there is a thorough explanation of a really good routine here.

Another major task during my downtime is rebuilding/restructuring the portfolio site, s6photo.com. I plan on changing it up and getting some fresh images on there, this is where you come in. What are your favorite images on the site? Your least favorites? Any images from the blog that aren't on the site that come to mind? This would help me out immensely so if you have a second either drop me a comment with what you think, send me an email to info@s6photo.com , or just post a link to a photo that you like/dislike. The staple images like Lucky, the moon over the mountain, the Chilean graffiti, and a few others will for sure stay up but the rest can either stay or be replaced depending on what you have to say.

I've been looking at some more shows/galleries to apply to recently, hopefully they'll pan out and it'll be a busy 2011 for S6 Photo.

The blog has been a little bland recently because I haven't been able to shoot so for some fun here is a little edit I scrapped together with the crash footage from the week of Thanksgiving:

IF YOUR EASILY OFFENDED BY LANGUAGE DO NOT WATCH THIS

Thanksgiving Crash Edit from Essex Prescott on Vimeo.

I had to try and pick up the camera so here's a few images from the studio:

Corey before smacking his face on the wall:

After

And finally I stumbled upon this video. The shots are insane, I would love to somehow get into this type of filming.

Have a good week.

-Essex

Printing

2010-11-29T21:33:00.000-08:00

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, hmmmmm well, winter started off great. Baker was awesome and then right when I got home the cities started getting snow. Last season we didn't have the opportunity to hit street rails so when this snow came we jumped on it. After a short rail trip to Moscow and Lewiston I came back home for Thanksgiving and got a little sledding with the family in. Then skied Schweitzer for opening day, then I got the call to go to Pullman for more street rails. I was pumped because we've been getting some shots on urban features and I was finally starting to get into the swing of things. I went to Pullman and thats when things stopped.

As quickly as the season started it stopped. I'm broken and I'm pretty bummed about it, not sure yet how long I'll be broken but its not looking good.

That being said I'm going to be having massive amounts of time to challenge myself creatively and spend some time really focusing on other aspects of photography.

To start this journey off I'm going to talk a little bit about an area of photography that is often overlooked: printing.

People can tell you differently but seeing and image on a monitor and seeing a tangible print form of an image are completely different. For the fine art side of S6 Photo this is great but for the portraiture side of S6 Photo it can be a huge hassle. I'm printing with a Pro 9000 Mark II right now and after much trial and error I can guarantee you that if your running a small portraiture business that gets a sufficient amount of business it is never worth the hassle and your time to do your printing yourself. Find a reputable website( I use bayphoto.com) get used to their roes system, have them color correct for you, and have them drop ship it directly to your client. From my experience nothing is easier and the results are almost always perfect, and if there not you ship them straight back and they'll print them again, free of charge.

Portraits are simple, ship them out every time. Fine art, specifically landscapes, is a completely different story. The impact you can get from a large printed landscape image is drastic. So much detail that was overlooked on the monitor can be really prominent in a large print. I rarely ever print a landscape smaller than a 12x18, if you go any smaller its almost the same as if you would have shown the client the image straight from your camera's LCD, its just not gonna have the impact. In my opinion the impact is what sells.

After size next in importance is your printing medium. This is where you can really get creative. If I'm printing on paper for landscapes I almost always use a metallic or a pearl paper. You lose a little bit of tone range when printing to metallic paper but the effects are worth it. One thing to note is try to stay away from printing on metallic paper if there are people in the image. Paper is the standard and in my opinion the most effective way of printing landscapes in the sense of clarity, colors, and tone depth but for some specific images, mainly my staple panoramics, I have them printed directly to sheets of aluminum. The wow factor to these is amazing, it gives the piece an extreme gloss that is completely even throughout the entire image, very comparable to as if your were looking at a sheet of glass. No frame is needed for these pieces and the biggest selling point other than the wow factor is that they're different from the rest. There are a few downfalls: I don't have the means to print these on my own and there expensive to print to say the least, also you lose tone range, sharpness, and every once in awhile the metal will arrive bent. Metal prints aren't for everything but for select pieces I wouldn't choose any other way.

For the paper route framing is also another big and expensive hurdle. My standard for the moment is a 1 inch matte black frame with a 3 inch double matte black on top of white. Its simple, works good for basically every photo, and most importantly doesn't take away from the image. Some call me crazy but I never use glass, I have it if the client wants it but I never use it for the display. Unless your using museum quality glass ($$$$$$) all glass will do is take away from the effects of the metallic paper that you printed on. Get to know a framer, bring your work in and see what they think (in my experience they have a viable, creative viewpoint), buy the materials from them, have them show you how to frame one of them, then finally rent some bench time and finish the rest on your own.

Hopefully this has helped you out and if you happen to have any more questions just drop me an email: info@s6photo.com

Can't do a photoblog without a picture, here's an example of a landscape that prints to metal really well:

Opening Weekend

2010-11-21T20:39:00.000-08:00

Winter is here.

I headed to Mt.Baker with a few friends over the past weekend for their opening day. One thing about Baker is that, at least for me, it never disappoints. Such a great time and it was a perfect way to start the winter.

Earlier last week I started doing a project for a photo competition for Sports Creel. They're packed right now and they wanted me to get in there when there ready room was full to the brim. The biggest challenge when shooting something like this is turning the massive number of whatever it is, in this case skis, into some orderly so your eye doesn't get distracted. It's difficult because you have to keep the image concise and not confusing but you still have to correctly document the immense number of skis.

Here's an image that I think is lit well and properly executes what I talked about above, definitely a little different than the usual posts but I think its nice every once in awhile to show some different aspects.

We snow camped over the weekend so I got a chance to do a little landscape work. I'm trying to use trees to break images into different pieces and I can't figure out if I like it or not. Anyways here's a few from Baker:

Lucky

2010-11-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

Day by day Lucky slowly gets older and older.

I've grown up with this dog and she's the closest thing to a sibling that I've ever had. When we were younger kids would be out in their front yards playing with their brothers and sisters while I was out there having just as much fun with Lucky. Not only was she a companion but also a guardian, to this day she's protective of me and I can still remember the days when she would walk me to the school bus in the morning. Those days were long ago and Lucky isn't quite the pup she used to be. Her hearings shot and she can't see much of anything but every once in awhile she'll have one of those days that I find myself questioning how old she really is.

Today was one of those days and I couldn't help but take the opportunity to document one of Lucky's better days in her later years. She's always been one of my go to subjects to try new things out with but as of the last few years I've shot with her less due to her aging. Today brought back some great memories and made me once again realize how big a part of my life this dog has been.

One of my all time favorite images (summer 09):

On top of being and extremely photogenic dog I get that feeling that when I'm shooting she has an idea of whats going on. It doesn't change the way she acts but every now and again I catch a single pose that is so different from the rest, and I only happen to see it when the camera is out. I have no other word to describe it but majestic. She's a smart dog, she's knows whats going, and she somehow ends up perfect for the given situation.

Here's to a few more years for the best dog on the planet:

Montana Adventures

2010-11-07T22:43:00.000-08:00

"I just love the big sky"

Precisely the reason Montana is a great place for landscape shooting.

We took a quick weekend journey to play around in the snow. I very much needed a little trip, I haven't left the area since August. This trip definitely signified the start of a winter full of travel, hopefully enough snow will be on the ground this next weekend somewhere in the Pacific Northwest (please be Baker).

I wasn't planning on shooting landscapes this week, I've mainly been preparing for my next project. After I learned that I have access to a darkroom I've been in a scramble trying to get my hands on some old medium format equipment. If all turns out right I may have my hands on a Hasselblad setup by the end of week. Although I wasn't planning on shooting landscapes I had some opportunities I couldn't pass up and I'm pretty happy with the results. As of last week I really like putting a word or a phrase to describe why I like a landscape image so here you go:

Clouds Filtering

Ridgeline

Leading Trail

Textures

Awkward Composition

I'm really looking forward to shooting some medium format and hopefully it'll get me out of landscape mode.

Here's a few others from the trip:

Stoked on his new T2i

"The Claw"

Snow before Halloween... What?

2010-10-31T22:49:00.000-07:00

I can't remember the last time there's been enough snow to ski before Halloween in this area. I'm not talking about hitting some rails or dinkin around on a backyard setup, I was actually able to get some good turns in this past weekend and it isn't even December.

(C shoot, not quite enough snow yet but its close)

With all this snow in such a short time and so early it has drastically changed the landscapes in the area, it's just what I needed to get me back out there shooting my favorite aspect of photography, landscapes. With landscapes there's no people to deal with and you can't change your subject. It's not like portraiture or action sports... when shooting a landscape no matter what I say or how hard I try I can't turn down the suns power, move a large body of water or change the position of a cloud.

I feel that with landscapes your technical understanding of light is extremely important because you have to be able to work with what you got. Working with the light is huge but just as important is finding the composition of the photo. Its not always difficult to get a composition that works, but unless your watching a volcano explode or something of that nature your composition needs to be able to show the landscape in a way that the will make someone want to view/buy that image. I feel like experience is a big factor with composition, every time I go out to shoot landscapes I learn something new about how to use fog, how different clouds filter light, how and when ridge lines or outcroppings catch light, etc.

This week has been devoted to landscapes and I have lots of images but first off here's my 3 favorites:

When viewing landscapes images there's usually a whole lot more in the frame than there would be in another type of photography, so when your looking at a landscape image its good to pay closer attention to detail. That being said I'll give two words that are why I chose these three. #1 ridgeline light #2 natural pastel #contrast clouds.

And here's the rest:

The Day of Night

2010-10-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

per·i·gee

–noun Astronomy .

the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, esp. the moon, or of anartificial satellite at which it is nearest to the earth.

The moon never ceases to amaze me. Sometimes its just a sliver, sometimes its not even there, and sometimes its full and casts an amazing amount of light. The best nights are when you can look up and see blue in the sky because the moon is so bright. I love shooting on nights like those, the light is so different from anything you see day to day but at the same time the principles of it are still the same.

The best night of shooting I've ever had was January 29, 2010. It was the perigee of 2010 and the moon was ridiculously bright. Call me crazy but I was squinting it was so bright out. I wasn't prepared at all for that night but I'll be ready for the perigee in 2011. If you've noticed the past few nights the moon has been fairly bright so I've been practicing up. A moonlight landscape series is my goal.

The hardest part of shooting moonlight is color, yes you can just go to black and white but thats not really the point. I've been trying everything I can think of but no matter what I do they just aren't looking right. I'm starting to believe thats its just the way things look under moonlight and I'm just not adjusted to seeing colors that way.

My favorite recent moonlight image:

I could go off about why it's my favorite but instead if you like it drop me a comment with why.

Here's a few practice images so you can see what the moonlight can do(these are shot long after the sun has set):

Here's some color to brighten up you day:

And finally let these images change your day. They opened my eyes up to some new views on landscapes .

Analyzing Action: A Closer Look at Wakeskating

2010-10-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

Action sports can be ridiculously hard to shoot. You have to keep some main guidelines in play while still being creative enough to get something that didn't pop straight out of the cookie cutter. This is tough enough to do in the snow or on land but when it comes to water and shooting wake sports its a whole new world because you can't simply get up and move. I could really go into depth about why its difficult but I don't want to bore you so I'll just get to wakeskating.

Wakeskating is good because, from a photographers standpoint, you have a whole lot more options to shoot, you don't need a loaded down boat, cable park, or a super gnarly rail to get anything good. All you need is a jet ski and a little creativity and you can get some out of the ordinary shots. I usually don't analyze images on the blog but today we're going to look at some wakeskate shots and find out why one is better than the other.

First off, the barge acid drop:

So looking at the basics first everything looks good. You can see where he started, where he's going, and what trick he's doing. It meets the three most important guidelines so lets take a look at the rest of the photo. The composition... it works but it's definitely not interesting and it doesn't truly show the size of the feature. He's also too lost in the trees and the background is fairly cluttered. Bottom line is that the eye doesn't flow to the rider very well and it doesn't do the feature justice. Trash it, time to move onto a different angle.

Quite a bit different and in my mind a whole lot better. You know where he started, you have a pretty good idea where he's going(he wouldn't be jumping to concrete), and the trick is shown. The composition is much better, way less clutter and the eye moves to the rider almost immediately. The colors are good, the clouds add some depth to the sky, and the boxy type shapes frame the rider into the upper right. Most importantly its not your average wakeskate shot so I'm pretty happy with this photo. If I could have changed anything I would have moved left and shot a hair later so his arm would have been out of his face.

Next we have some strobed night wakeskating shots. I like the lighting in both but neither of them stands out more than the other to me so I'll give the good and the bad on both and let you be the judge of which is best.
Good action, difficult trick, and on point lighting. Thats that good, but thats all thats good with this one. I tend to loose myself in the darkness around him and because of that and the angle from above it gets me a little confused. I can't see his face which is also another big draw back about shooting this angle. It is different but it could be done a lot better.

Less action, similar lighting but better composition. I don't get as confused when I look at this photo, its really easy to see where he's going and where he's been plus the wake in the upper left hand corner lets you know he's getting towed on some type of water craft and that this isn't a winch shot. The downfall is that the action is lacking and once again you can't see his face.

There's the break down on a few wakeskate shots and here's a few more action shots that you can think about yourself:

Stevens Peak

2010-10-08T23:51:00.000-07:00

It's so good to be back out in the mountains again. I love going to these areas we ski at during the winter in the off season just to see how different it is without snow. This time in the fall is very good for exploring, its getting colder, it rains quite a bit, there aren't many people around, and there always seems to be a layer of fog that lingers. These are some of my favorite days of the offseason.

Stevens Peak is one of the highest peaks in the area and in my opinion one of the better ones to ski. It is pretty tight coming in and you can't get a sled through so it's all skinning which is a little bit of a trek but well worth it if the snow conditions are good. The peak has an east and a west basin. The west basin is the ideal side to ski on but because of that it is not the best side to climb. The peak is actually accessed from the east basin which is a mellower route in with some pretty cool other features like two high mountain lakes and a waterfall.

Back to the archives for this one, Stevens Peak west basin two springs ago:

When going up to ski, the lakes are usually overlooked in the rush to get to the top so today the goal was to take the scenic route to get to the lakes and see what they really were all about. I was blown away by the beauty of the entire area in such dreary weather. I love shooting landscapes that involve fog simply because fog can add so much depth to a landscape. Fog is always moving so if you stay patient, chances are it will move somewhere favorable to your mind's eye.

Here's the images from a rainy fall hike up to Stevens Lake:

Polaroid Portrait Project

2010-09-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

Why has the polaroid vanished into the past?

To this day companies brag about how simple or easy to use their cameras are, but they have yet to come close(and I believe they never will) to the original polaroid one step.

Everything thats anything these days involves so much. Batteries, memory cards, cameras, computers and printers. Even if your shooting film, camera, film, darkroom/darkroom supplies.

After weeks of straight shooting portraits all it took me to step back was one picture from my polaroid that I didn't even take. I finally realized how sick of things like Lightroom, Livebooks, and anything else that has to do with digital photography, I guess anything that has to do with photography at all. Don't get me wrong at the same time I thrive from it and couldn't live without these things but every once in awhile you need to keep things simple and what is more simple than see the picture, take the picture, have it in you hand... Nothing beats a Polaroid.

The Polaroid Project has started.

Portraits of all Shapes and Sizes

2010-09-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

Busiest summer of my life, no question. It really never slowed down, thats okay though because I got a ton of business related things done and on top of that had quite a bit of fun. S6 Photo has grown more in the last month and a half that it has in its entire existence.

Art on the Green was amazing, finally a chance to show some of the favorites to a broader audience. I had a blast and couldn't believe how well received it was. My only hope was that a least a few people would be able to appreciate the images. I watched hundreds of people come through my tent over the 3 days and it was pretty cool to see those people come in and really look. Over the past 3 years I've put so much time into shooting the things that move me, seeing those handful of people look at the same photo and be impacted in a similar way brought it around full circle. It was good, I'm definitely planning on do a few bigger shows like Art on Green next summer.

On the complete opposite side of things its senior portrait season... mixed emotions. I like doing them because its fun to keep them different and capture unique images that fit different peoples' personalities but at the same time it seems like they all come at once and I feel like I've been shackled to either my camera or a my computer for the past 3 weeks. I'm pretty happy with the results, everyones pictures show them well and I feel like they're all pretty different.

Here's a few from the last couple weeks that stand out to me (these are a little dark but I like em):

Big time portfolio updates coming soon, s6photo.com is becoming somewhat out of date. Thanks for reading.

-Essex

Boat Fire

2010-06-29T11:54:00.000-07:00

I've been slacking, no posts in awhile. It's not that I haven't been shooting its just that I haven't focused on anything particular to shoot and I've been hoping I'll be in the right place at the right time to get something amazing. In my mind I was thinking that it would somehow be a landscape photo but to my surprise it came in the form of boat fire.

We came into the marina to dock the boat and get some gas when we saw smoke coming out of a docked boat. Not a good thing to see especially when the boat is right next to the gas dock. Soon enough the boat erupted in flames. The owner ended up jumping in the water and swimming the boat out of the marina, good thing he did. If he wouldn't have gotten the boat out of the marina the fireboat wouldn't have been able to put out the fire and chances are the 30 gallons of gas he just put in the boat would have exploded, things could have gone really bad. Moral of the story is always use your blower when starting a boat.

For these photos my photojournalistic side kicked in and I think I did a fairly good job of documenting the situation. I sent them out to the Spokesman to get published but it turns out the story didn't run in the paper. This situation kept me on my toes and once again reinforced that you should never go anywhere without a camera.

Here's the images:

It's summer and I've just been having fun and not really doing anything super productive and I think that plays through with the rest of the photos, its a different look and its nice to see but I'm feeling its time to get back down to business.

Images of the week:

Walking on Water

2010-06-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

Finally arrived back home for an extended period time. Since the last blog I've been on the road quite a bit and its been just plain fun, we've been all over the place and had a lot of different, good skiing which is an awesome way to end the season. Some pow in Whistler, sunny park riding at Hood, and a rainy Cricket Jam in Portland.

Through all this travel I've gotten a lot of different material to shoot and it has been working out really good. I'm loving the new shots and you'll be seeing some updates and maybe even some new portfolios on S6photo.com in the near future.

But for now its time for the story behind the shot.

I like this photo quite a bit. There isn't much of anything to distract the eye from the subject. All it is is a person, their shadow, and a fairly blank, undescript background. The horizon doesn't really lead you into anything else and the background doesn't show where the area is or could be. Nothing special, but I'm happy it isn't anything special because the viewer can now easily see the illusion of walking on the water without being distracted. This is why I like it, all there is is a man walking on water. The hardest thing for me in a photo is to simplify it down to one idea and I feel I've done a fairly good job with this image.

Now that you know what I think it's time to hear about the interesting things like how he's walking on water.

We found this zone on the way to Whistler, its outside of Vancouver a few miles off the highway. We were originally looking for a beech so we could check the ocean out but after some backroads exploring we found this marsh area and decided to see where it went, which ended up being the spot of the photo and arguably one of the most different oceanside places I have ever seen.

It changed from marsh to sand which looked like it rolled into the ocean. The water was completely still which I thought was a little weird, so I checked it and was surprised to see that the water wasn't more than an inch deep for a long ways out. We walked as far as we could and I snapped this photo of Rob, he appears to be walking on water but he's really just standing on sand that has a very shallow layer of water on it. Its always nice when something like a detour to the ocean can turn into a great photo opportunity.

This zone has potential. Next time I'm in the area I plan on lugging some strobes out there and arriving a little before sunrise, if it turns out looking something like what I'm seeing in my head I should leave with a new portfolio photo.

Recently people have been interested in the photos that I think are crap. Because of this, for the photos of the week I'm mixing what I think are some good images with some I'm not sure about. Its interesting to hear what people have to say so leave a comment. No ones opinion is wrong and I'll read and try to apply all the comments.

Images of the week:

And on a lighter note, here's the portrait of the week:

2010-05-17T22:08:00.001-07:00

Is there such thing as a perfect photo?... no. You see a picture and you think its perfect, sure there's bound to be other people that think the same way as you but at the same time theres people that think the exact opposite. It all comes down to the lookers perspective and every single one is different.

A photographers worst enemy is specializing. We get into a pattern and settle into the comfort of shooting the same thing the same way time after time. The people with a compatible perspective will still like your photos but you wont be gaining any new viewers and those old ones are sure to fizzle out due to the monotony.

Every now and again I find myself falling into one of those ruts and the truth is its a fairly comfortable spot. Then I realize that I'm getting absolutely nothing done and I have to find something new. Its pretty much throwing stuff at a wall and seeing what sticks. Stepping out of the comfort zone and shooting anything and everything you can.

This time around fashion stuck. Shooting fashion is awesome. I always thought of it as basically a section of portraiture but its definitely not. Soo different and at least in my mind quite a bit more technical. It seems to be the opposite of shooting landscapes and thats what I did all winter so I think its a healthy change. We'll see where it goes but I'm having fun and building a solid portfolio so things seem to be working out all right.

Here's a few from the last week:

The rest of the images of the week:

Precise

2010-04-28T18:45:00.000-07:00

As one season rolls into the next I decided to take a look back and revaluate portfolios and see where I want to direct my photography.

Everything needs work. No question about it. Anyone who has ever picked up a camera knows that no matter what you shoot your going to want to get something better. I feel really good about a few of my landscape photos but other than those few unique shots I feel I can improve on everything.

Action sports and portraits. Two aspects of my photography that I really plan on focusing on. Action wise there isn't too much to be shooting right now(no worries though I'm heading to Mammoth on Sunday) so I've directed my attention to portraits.

Looking on my portfolio I feel that the older portraits are great, but now I'm kind of searching for something different than I was when I shot those portraits. I really want to get closer to the exact image I see in my head. Instead of leaving a shoot with a group of photos that convey the subjects personality well and are technically solid I want to leave with that single image that is "perfect", or in other words as close as possible to the image that I had in my head.

One of the major parts of this is getting the lighting precise. The pose needs to be just as precise as the lighting and the background needs to be on point with and compliment the lighting and the pose. I've been searching for the word to describe this kind of shooting and the only area I think it fits is "fashion". I don't feel that its the right word to describe it but its the closest I could get.

A few recent attempts:

On another note I finally got a sled, I've been looking for awhile and it was the time. I've been trying to get out as much as possible and its amazing how much freedom a sled gives you, 2 and a half hours of skinning is 20 minutes on a sled, I can't even wait to see what next season brings. Anyways, getting quite a few shots while I'm out there but I'll save most of those for another week.

3 Weeks in 5 Photos

2010-04-13T17:44:00.000-07:00

The space between each blog post keeps getting longer and I apologize to to the readers out there but I've been extremely busy. Not much time for a write up but things should be slowing down soon. Here's a few recent images:

Simple

2010-03-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've gotten a super good action sports shot, and awhile as in since the end of summer. Since last winter I've really been limiting myself how I go about shooting snowboarding/skiing. If I'm gonna shoot I want the product to be something different, not the standard, not even a fantastic version of the standard. I mean seriously, how many different ways can you shoot the Schweitzer jumps? Anyone can take a camera into the park and shoot the same jump over the lake angle. Yeah you can maybe bust out the strobes and shoot at sunset but even if you do that aren't you just emulating one of the strobed sunset shots on a mega booter that we see so often in the magazines?

I don't know if my mind frame is helping or hurting me, I do know that I haven't been shooting action sports and I've been shooting way too many landscapes just trying to get something that I haven't seen before. Coming into this weekend I realized that I've been waiting too long for the perfect situation to present itself. Then I saw the cannon box and I said to myself its been to long and its time to make something happen.

So I grabbed everything I had(minus a broken battery pack, thanks to Joe Obrien for helping me deal with extension cords and batteries all evening) and decided it was time to take it back to the basics and create the simplest image I could:

Lighting isn't tech, trick isn't tech, and there isn't any clutter, and I love it! Almost exactly the image I had in my mind. All it is is the feature and an absolutely textbook method, end of story.

I'm excited to shoot again and it feels awesome, keep checking back, the next few weeks should bring something new.

Patience

2010-02-28T09:08:00.000-08:00

I tell people all the time that patience is by far the most important thing to have when shooting landscapes. So many times I have gone somewhere to get an image, waited there for awhile, and after a few hours decided to pack up because I wasn't getting anything. It's usually when I'm packing up about to leave that everything completely changes. Call it coincidence, fate, or whatever you want but at least a third of my favorite landscape images were captured when I was minutes away from giving up on a shot and leaving the location.

Lately I feel like I've gotten a little better at checking the weather and planning the shot so that once I get out there I spend less time waiting. It has created a false sense that I don't really need the patience anymore, but I was soo wrong.

I've had an image of a sunset looking out from the backside of Schweitzer in my head for awhile and last Thursday it looked like a good time to make it a reality. Weather was good and I headed up to the Yolida Bowl area to wait for the sunset and hopefully get the shot.

I was greeted with some very thick fog and about 50 feet of visibility, not the best conditions for landscapes photos. Hoping that the fog would burn off, I waited, and waited, and after 2 hours nothing changed. Hopes of the shot were almost gone, I thought that the sun had already set, and I started to pack up. As I was packing up I realized that I didn't have anything planned for later so what better thing to do than spend some extra time out on the mountain?

Sure enough I decided to stay and about 20 minutes later the fog left and wow... I got what I was planning and much, much more. Within such a short period of time I went from seeing thick fog to some of the deepest reds I have ever seen in a sunset before. To this day it was one of the most unique sunsets I have ever witnessed. Just goes to show once again how important patience is.

Like the story behind the images? Or less words more photos?

Other images of the week:

Reinvent

2010-02-15T17:41:00.000-08:00

The period of time for showcasing my work is over, its been a fantastic month and I can't think of it going any better. Lots of photos sold, I met quite a few people and that I would have never meet otherwise, but most importantly I got to showcase the best of S6 Photo from 2009.

It is time to start over. Reinvent, recreate.

The next period of showcasing is far away(Art on the Green), in the time until then the goal is to capture a group of images that illustrate the new experiences and surroundings.

I can look back on the last group of images and see the variety and uniqueness of each image and relate that to a certain experience of the last year. The images for the year weren't planned from the beginning, they were created by my mindframe at the time and the enviroment, the surroundings or experiences of the time influenced the idea and soon enough it resulted in a image.

Planning what images will make it into the next collection is impossible, so instead of planning the images I plan to put myself in places/situations that could create great things. Some times it works, sometimes it doesn't but you'll never get anything good if you don't take the risk. The East Coast, Canadian Rockies, Oregon Coast, California, they're all on the agenda.

Time to sit back, see what happens, and hopefully come out with a group of images that are as strong as the last.

Images of the week:

Big flock of birds... had to post this one:

Finally...

2010-02-02T16:51:00.000-08:00

So for all of you out there that haven't had the chance yet, if you get some time mozy on over to s6photo.com, I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Having this website is really helping with business, it gives me a place to send people to see a big variety of some of my better work that will always be there. Now people can really see more than one side to S6 Photo, not just the shots that happen to be on the blog the week that they visit.

With that being said I've been thinking for awhile what I'm going to do with the blog and after not posting for a little while I've come to a conclusion. The blog is not going to be the place where you go to see my best work, if you want to see the best of S6 Photo go to the site, and believe me when I do get some images that I am really liking they will go up on the site. I promise you that the site will frequently change as I get more images that I believe portray my best work. The blog is going to be the place where you can see all of the new, different, progressive stuff that happens to be coming out of the camera. It'll be the images that I'm not too sure about, maybe you'll really like some because there different or maybe you'll hate some because there different. The beauty of it is that if you do think that I failed you can go on over to s6photo.com and see some really good work.

Be looking for some other forms of media on the blog that I really like whether it be video, music, writing etc. I think that posting other peoples' work is vital because I get a lot out of looking at it and chances are that you can too. One thing won't change and that is the shots of the week, the concept will still be the same and that is you'll be able to see where I've been and what I've been shooting.

Drop me a comment on what you think, this blog is a place open to anyone, I use it to show people what I'm doing and see what they think about it. Don't be scared, drop me some comments. Also I really want to hear what people are thinking about s6photo.com so don't be afraid to post a comment about that either.

So for the media of the week here's Will Start's 2009 Cinematography Reel:

Will Start 2009 Cinematography Reel from Will Start on Vimeo.

This video really stands out to me because you could take still frames from here and they would be really good photos because of the way he composes his shots. I try to watch a lot of different videos and some filmers tend to focus more on the action and not the composition of the entire shot, Will does a good job with his composition and thats why he gets media of the week.

Travel has been pretty crazy recently. I got back from Park City had a little time at home then headed to Mammoth for a week, came back home for a day and now I'm on the road to Jackson Hole. Lots of travel and a lot of shooting. Weather was a little bit tough for photos in Mammoth so I ended up spending quite a bit of time shooting at night, something I usually don't do. It turned out that when I was down there it was the time in 2010 when the moon was closest to the earth. It was some crazy light because the moon was super bright so I was trying to get some moonlit landscapes. The landscapes didn't turn out due to some low clouds but I got some other images from that night that turned out.

Shots of the last few weeks:

Thanks for reading.

-Essex

A Quick Break

2010-01-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it but I'm pretty sure this is the longest I have gone without updating the blog in an entire year! To all the readers out there I'm sorry, but I have been super busy doing other S6 Photo related things.

First off, the gallery at Java is up. If your in CDA swing by and check it out, Java is in downtown Coeur d' Alene on Sherman right next to San Francisco Sourdough and Pita Pit. I am super pleased with the way it turned out and the shots that I ended up using, I feel that the gallery really shows all aspects of the art side of my photography. So if your in the area check it out, its the only place where you can see the very best of my photography(lots of shots that don't get on the blog).

Here's a quick preview of one of the walls:

Before the gallery was up all I was working on was getting ready for that and shooting as much on the 7D as I could before I had to return it. So now that the gallery is up I have an immense amount of editing to get done. A lot of the editing is photos which I can get through pretty quickly but I also have a ton of video from the 7D and the GoPro that needs to get pieced together into an edit. After spending hours on editing video and only getting a little bit of an edit done I have a new found appreciation for people like Will Start who frequently put out amazing videos, these guys put a ton of time into their work and I think few people actually realize it.

S6 Photo as a business is going through some pretty big change as well. I know I've said it before but, the real S6photo.com is only a hours of work away from being done, expect it up by the end of the week. On top of the website I also had some new business cards made up that I'm pretty stoked on, if you see me around town just say hi and I can get you one.

All in all I've been super busy, but here's a few shots from the past few days (much more to come soon):

Thanks for reading, and if you or someone you knows needs some art on their walls check Java, all my prints are limited edition and they are reasonably priced,

Christmas Surprises

2009-12-25T22:25:00.000-08:00

The holiday season came around and I decided it was the perfect time to treat myself to something I've been wanting to do, I rented a Canon 7D.

8 frames per second still shooting, full HD video, and a totally redesigned autofocus system, there isn't quite anything more that I would want except a full frame sensor. Anyways, this camera has blown me away in every aspect(the new autofocus system is way better) but in particular I am completely amazed by the video capabilities. I have been tinkering with the video for 2 days now and I am amazed at some of the footage I've been getting. I need some time to get the editing all dialed but by next week I should have up a pretty good landscape/timelapse/nature footage edit. Sounds a little weird but trust me... it will be good.

So I've been in this video mode for the last few days and today rolls around and I end up with one of the best presents I could have asked for, a GoPro Helmet Cam.

Heres a few tester shots from today:

GoPro Tester Footy from Essex Prescott on Vimeo.

The GoPro is amazing. I got some park shots from today too and they turned out pretty good. My big mistake wasn't having having the mount tight enough. I'm just waiting for the day to take this baby out when we get a lot of snow.

Trying to keep it short, maybe more people will read this way, but if not, it really isn't a big deal.

Shots of the week (quite a diverse bunch of photos this week):

The Docks

2009-12-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

It dumped, we tried to shoot urban rails, it rained, and then the snow was gone. Pretty much the summary of the last 3 days.

I got back from Jackson on Monday night and to my surprise I was greeted by a nice layer of snow in town. When we get snow in town it usually doesn't last to long so you have to take advantage of it.

We planned on shooting a different spot... one that has been on my mind for a long time, but that didn't work out so we ended up here:

Definitely visiting this spot again, I really like the set up. We only ended up hitting it for a little while so I tried to keep the lighting simple(its simple but I think it turned out pretty solid). I'm so excited to shoot this again because I have some really different ideas for lighting. Mark my words, I'll have a banger from this spot by the end of the season.

In most spots I can light it pretty good with 2 strobes, it's simple lighting but it works. I could easily use upwards of 4 four flashes on this setup, I gotta get all the equipment rounded up somehow but next time we visit this spot I'm bringing everything I can get... including the kitchen sink.

Anyways, our session got cut short:

We're lucky... Chuck ended up being okay but our session was over.

I'm a little bummed we didn't get any good action shots but next time it snows this will be one of the first spots we'll shoot, right after another one I have in my mind.

I did manage to get some lifestyles though, pretty pumped on the lighting on these:

And finally, here's your landscape of the week:

Everything with S6 Photo is coming along, big things are dropping in January. Thanks for viewing the images, and for those of you who actually read the writing, I appreciate it.

Wolf Shirts, New Photos, and a Short Film

2009-12-10T09:39:00.000-08:00

S6 Photo is going through a big revamp at the moment... I'm pretty stoked about it. The real website has been in the works for awhile now and it's almost time to get it on line, hopefully by the end of December it'll be up and running. New business card are in the making and I'm in the process of getting a ton of work printed.

A picture in print and the picture on the computer never seem to be exactly the same. I've really been wanting to see what some work would look like in print and I'm also getting ready for the Java showing in January so I took what I thought were some of my best shots from 2009 and printed all of them as 4x6s. Being able to take all these prints of what I think are my best shots and set them down next to each other is pretty cool. It's not often that you get to see all of your best shots at once, it made me realize that I've been shooting a ton in this last year and I have a small group of photos that I really like.

Some work of mine I don't like, a lot of it is pretty standard, but there are some images that really stand out.

Of the over 30,000 pictures from the last 10 months there are about 50 shots that I'm really stoked on and are by far my best work. These are the shots that I think showcase me the best as a photographer. Most of them haven't been on the blog(especially the really good ones) so when January comes around if you have a sec swing down to Java to check out the showing, it should be pretty good.

I was going to try and get some writing in here as I do usually but I found this the other day:Wolf Shirt Review. Check it out... it is some really creative writing about a wolf t shirt... really funny stuff.

Shots of the Week:

And finally here's a video that I'm really liking. Super simple but it gets the point across. Plus its filmed on a DSLR:

Winter's Coming - Whistler, November 7th 09 - 60fps 7d from Dan Carr on Vimeo.

Different Paths

2009-11-30T17:17:00.000-08:00

As a photographer I am always looking at everything around me searching for some type of creativity, beauty, or inspiration. To make it anywhere you have to always be looking at others' work. I have a few photoblogs that I follow that continually have some really really good work on them. Every time I look at one these blogs I learn something, most of the time it won't be relevant but every once in a while I come by a really important piece of info that I end up using over and over again. Recently I've seen videos popping up more often on these photoblogs.

Nowadays photo and video are coming closer and closer together. With all the new digital SLRs coming out that shoot full 1080p HD video it is giving photographers a chance to put their creativity into a new aspect of media, video. I slowly started to see short video clips up on a few blogs that photographers had made using this new generation of cameras. I wasn't a big fan of most of them but a few of the videos really stood out to me. The ones that stood out were simple... mostly just nature, but the way that the photographer transferred his style from the still image format into that of a video was amazing. To me it wasn't a video at all, it was just an extension of his photographic abilities, he was transferring his style into a new format that brought across the same point to the viewer. He did it in a completely different way, the endpoint was the same but the path to that endpoint was refreshing and one that was much less less traveled.

After I saw this short clip I started to look at video in a different way. Video has always been another art form that I appreciate but it never really influenced me just because it seemed so different.

Most videos to me are just videos but I'm starting to recognize a few that really show style... a style that I can connect to photography in one way or another. These videos are the ones that truly inspire me because I can relate them to my own work and I can understand the style that the videographer is trying to get across.

The videographers in the ski industry are constantly producing amazing work. The styles of shooting and editing for film are so different from one another. Some produce incredibly artistic pieces or work that effortlessly connect all of the audio and visual parts into one flowing finished piece that portrays a distinct style.

This is(in my opinion) one of those videos:

Here's the shots of the week:

Silence

2009-11-20T21:41:00.000-08:00

I leave tomorrow morning for Canada from Sandpoint so I decided to head up to Sandpoint this afternoon and hopefully get a few turns in before the traveling began.

I had been looking forward to getting back out in the mountains alone. It wasn't backcountry by any means but it was really nice to get out there in the mountains and hike for some turns. Definitely a really mellow little trip so I was planning on bringing a lot of the camera equipment and be to the top by sunset so I could capture a few images.

My season is about to get crazy, Canada then Jackson then Mammoth before Christmas, so I really wanted to just get up there to clear my head before all of the craziness started. To me there's nothing like being up in the mountains with nothing but my skis and my dog... its also nice to have the camera to capture the moment but it is definitely not a necessity.

Turns out that the weather didn't cooperate for my sunset. Kinda a bummer from the photo side of things but I definitely was able to get up there and clear my head. Even though the sun didn't set I was able to sit up there with Brooks, my dog, and watch as the day slowly closed and darkness started to creep its way in.

Everything changes when the light leaves, it's hard to notice when surrounded by the town but up there things are interesting. As usual I'm at a lost for words to describe this but this time I feel that the photos don't really portray it that well either.

I feel that silence is too negative of a word to describe when the light leaves but nothing else comes to mind. The weather calmed, the wind stopped, and things seemed to just pause. It was complete silence. Not the akward, tense silence most of us are used to, it was a calming silence, the kind of silence you can only experience when your somewhere like the mountains.

Next time your away from the usual craziness of life and you have a chance to be alone somewhere outside of the town take the opportunity to really experience what happens after the sun sets and before complete darkness sets in. Just sit there and listen.

I was so focused in on what was happening all around me I lost track of the time and I ended up skiing down in almost total darkness, that was another whole new experience in itself. I've skied the same area many, many times in the daylight so it wasn't too big of a deal getting down with very little light but it was still something I've never done.

Usually I don't bring up equipment but I just got a new pack from F-Stop gear and I was completely amazed at how well it worked. It had all of the essentials my other backcountry packs had but it was also able to take my entire camera block(body, 2 speedlites, 70-200, 16-35, 50, and a fisheye) and a tripod but on top of that it skied amazing! Definitely skied just as well as a backcountry pack I use when I'm not taking any photo gear. Good stuff, check them out http://www.fstopgear.com/.

And finally here are a few from a roller disco party that went down this week:

Refreshed

2009-11-09T22:22:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what traveling can do for you. At any chance I can I travel just because of the unknown involved and the chance to see a new area and broaden your horizons. I hadn't traveled anywhere significant in the past 2 months until this last weekend, it was just what I needed.

The plains throughout Montana are an amazing site, its standard for locals but to someone like me something new and as vast as the plains is an awing vision. It's so different from what we know in the area we live but at the same time its only a few hours away. Getting out of your element, even if it is only for a few days, can do great things.

This view of these plains put a refreshing perspective on my photos from the weekend and I feel that once again I have changed it up. Change is good, as I wrote and posted last week I noticed that things were getting dry, so I consider this change a blessing. Thank goodness I decided to make the trip over.

A few of the better images from the trip:

3 states, 2 rail jams, and 1 movie premier, thats what this last weekend was all about. I had my camera the entire time and was happy I did because opportunities came about at any given time. It was craziness traveling around that much but the truth is it is just a small taste of what the rest of the winter has to offer. I'm anxious to see what comes my way this winter but one thing is for sure... there is going to be quite a bit of traveling involved.

Baker and Meadows open this week and after all these rail jams I've made the commitment I'm going to ski somewhere by Saturday. Until then here are a few more shots from the last couple days:

The Tease

2009-11-04T22:06:00.000-08:00

The first snow is always an important time of year. It's usually unexpected and when it does come it seems to put everyone in a fairly good mood. Just to be able to see white flakes fall from the sky for the first time in months is an awing experience.

This first snow really only has one purpose, to tease. It snowed last week and now the weather is quite the opposite. I've finally realized that the snow isn't what everyone gets their hype from, the hype comes from the reality that winter is truly coming.

When this first snow hit I was outside, I closed my eyes and got lost in thought for a few moments, and before I knew it I was in the cold, white paradise of winter. All the human senses can tell when it is snowing and as humans we 100% relate the snow to winter. These senses completely fooled me, I actually believed for a second that I was in the dead of winter. A slight nip from the cold and the soft touch of a flake on the cheek coupled with the thought of the winter to come drifted me further into the dream. Then I opened my eyes and realized that the first snow had once again fooled me just as it does at about this time every year.

Before I knew, it had came and gone but in that short time it served its purpose well by leaving me wondering when it would decide to visit again.

I've been shooting a ton in this last week and I feel that I've been getting some different shots that I'm liking quite a bit. I'm trying to keep those to myself until the gallery at Java but heres a few of the shots that won't make the cut from the things I've been shooting in the last week:

Reminiscence

2009-10-26T21:57:00.000-07:00

Wow... its all I can say. I looked back and finally realized I've been bloggin for over a year. If you have a sec take a look back to some of the older posts.

Its amazing how far this blog has brought me, I look back to the old posts and realize how long its been and how far I have come in that period time. I've learned so much just from trying to get a post up here once a week.

"The only constant is change". When I first saw this saying I thought it was lame, but now I realize how much it means. Its the truth, take a look back and you will see. Take light painting for instance, I am so over it now but there was a period of about a month a while back when that was one of the only things I was shooting, and I was super stoked on it.

Looking through the old posts was like reading a story to me. I was really into it and excited to see what was next and then it just stopped at last weeks post. It just stopped and then I realized I was living the story, and the future is going to be just as different as the past. Sure I have come a long way but I'll be the first to tell you that the story has just begun... I have a lot to learn and a ton more mistakes to make.

In a year I'll look back on these recent posts and wonder why in the world I was doing what I was doing. Its just another chapter in the story that'll be just as different as the next. Hopefully these chapters can all fit together and at this time next year I can look back and realize how far I've come. I have no idea where I'm going at the moment but I'll just have to wait another year to see.

The images of the week:

The Fog

2009-10-14T20:37:00.000-07:00

I love fall... its the one season that carries hints of every other season within, yet it still remains unique. Fall can carry most any type of weather, one day can be in the 70s and another can be snowing, the possibilities are endless. When the warm days come they bring with them fulfilling memories of summer and when the cold visits us it brews the anticipation of the coming winter. The clash of these different types of weather always leaves me anticipating as to what will come next.

Fog: a cloudlike mass or layer of minute water droplets or ice crystals near the surface of the earth, appreciably reducing visibility.

Today brought about quite indecisive weather, it seemed to be a mixture. I woke up to rain, went to school in overcast, left school in rain, and then at about 3 it got crazy. I won't sit here and BS about how the this all happened, the best way I can describe it is that many very different weather forces met above CDA.

It was a rain, sun, cloud, fog mixture. They didn't all just mix, they seemed to each occupy a different spot of the weather pattern. I'm lost for words on how to describe it... hopefully the images can portray better than my words.

Fog is mystery to me. It can look so good through the viewfinder of a camera, but I can never get the same image of the fog I saw into a photograph. Today seems to be my first time ever portraying the fog in the way I saw it.

The Fog:

I'm also really loving this deer shot from the afternoon:

Pirate Day

2009-10-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

Coincidence, do you believe in it?

After I decided in my last post that I was going to chill out on the portraiture and action and start focusing on more what I wanted to shoot, a very coincidental thing happened. The next morning I got an email saying I get to use Java's walls to portray my images for the month of January. These photos can be of absolutely whatever I am feeling and let me tell you what... I super stoked.

I submitted some work to Java in July and I hadn't heard anything back so I was getting a little worried, but as soon as I decided that I was gonna start focusing my photography elsewhere it all gets worked out.

On a lighter note, today was Pirate day, one of my favorite days of the year. I can try to be a pirate as much as I want to but it will never compare to my good friend Corey, he looks like a pirate almost everyday. So I just give up and leave it to him except for one day of the year, Pirate day.

Yes this is going to be a post all about Corey, and thats only because it is Pirate day.

Many words have been used to describe Corey: gypsy, bum, pirate, thief. I try to use only one and that is friend. Corey is a good friend because I am always trying to shoot in new, different, and exciting ways and he is always down to have pictures taken. In the process of trying these crazy ideas we end up getting some pretty legit stuff that just ends up sitting on the hard drive.

Corey is patient because he lets me take all these pictures and 95% of them end out like crap because the idea doesn't work. But when we get it dialed, they turn out banger, and it turns out being a lot of fun doing it. All the following shots are testers(lighting, background, composition, new equipment, etc.) that turned out good.

The Underground Corey Collection:

Lost

2009-09-27T21:46:00.000-07:00

Lost:

having gone astray or missed the way; bewildered as to place, direction, etc.

At this point in my photography I'm feeling lost. I've realized in the last month or so I've been way to worried about getting business with portraits or getting banger shots to try and submit to magazines that I've kinda lost what I really like to do.

I just completed my move back into town and in the process I had to pack my hard drives up and take them with me. While packing I took some time to look back through all the shots from the summer, it was an experience in itself to relive the summer through the images that I have taken.

Then I went and looked at some of my recent work and I saw a lot of different things. I won't lie... I like my recent work and I feel I have done my best every time I have gone out to shoot but my heart really hasn't been in it. It's okay to have these kinds of pictures but all of mine have been like this.

After Hunter's accident I shot for one reason: to express myself. I look back at the images from that time frame and I've realized that they truly are my favorites. In that time I could use a picture to clearly relate my feeling to a broader audience without trying.

I can't do that right now. I have drastically strayed and as of right now I'm going to forget about all of this other stuff with photography and work back to where I was at when I shot the following images.

These are my favorites. They bring me back to a place in my mind that would have been forgotten if not for them. Each brings me a distinct feeling.

Enjoy:

Summer Sesh

2009-09-16T22:37:00.000-07:00

Summer Sesh... these two words just plain get people stoked. Yes it is an inrun ramp to turf to a PVC rail to a grass landing but it's still skiing and everyone was pretty dang stoked on it. Just take Pete for instance... could you be more stoked than this?:

Definitely not, now this wasn't one of those times I was too worried about getting the shot, I was just there to document and participate in the spectacular event. Let me tell you what... It was a bundle of fun to say the least but when it came to shredding the PVC things got hectic. Just check Burian's face in this shot to see the concentration:
You name it and it went down: K feds, ray feds, 2 on pretzel out. To say the least, things were getting crazy.

As you can see skiing wasn't the only thing that went down:

Enjoy it while you can folks because most of my readers know I don't make posts like this too often.

-Essex

Powell

2009-09-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

The first week of school is over and my head is spinning... it wasn't tough it's just soo different from what summer has entailed. My schedule's good and my teachers are chill buts it still school and school is... well... school.

Going to lake Powell was the perfect thing to end off this first week. It's truly amazing down there, the only way to describe it is the Grand Canyon filled with water. The vastness of the lake and the surroundings lingers over everything, our 75ft houseboat looked tiny when it was on the lake.

I was trying to shoot as much as possible and let me tell you what... we got it done. My equipment's getting to the point where everything thats not expensive is starting to break(flash cables, hot shoes, pc cords, modeling lamps, cybersyncs, and my biggest problem as of recent has been umbrellas) so down there I got some experience in ghetto rigging flash equipment to get results. One of my Cybersync receivers was out of commission so I had to do alot of playing around with the optical slave capabilities of the Alien Bees to figure out that in direct sunlight the other flash has to be directly behind the strobe within about 20 ft. For what I was doing this was definitely not gonna work out so I ended up using a remote speedlite as the trigger flash to trigger one of the Alien Bees while the other was on a cybersync. It worked and I was stoked... end of story.

Some of my favorite wake shots of the season came out of this trip and I mainly think it's because I was shooting from different places. I spent a lot more time on shore or in a tube than I did in a chase boat these last few days and it worked out well.

A few of the better ones:

Portraiture and a Little Wake

2009-09-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Senior portraits: I love doing them, they're fun for everyone, we will definitely get the results you desire, and last but not least... they're inexpensive.

I don't charge by the hour or how many outfits you wear or the studio time. We go out there and use as many locations, outfits, and as much time as we need to capture unique images that portray you the way you want to been seen. I don't use the cookie cutter poses or standard locations. Give me a call if your interested, 208-661-8465. Here's some samples from this last week:

Okay... that's enough for the advertising. Its been a good week to say the least, I've been shooting a ton of senior portraits and I am extremely happy with the results, we had one of the best early morning wake Chase boat sessions yesterday, and... I finally got my strobes dialed to work with wake! Soo stoked that the strobes are working for wake, I feel like I've just opened up a whole new world with a ton of possibilities. The conditions have to be pretty dang specific to work but thats okay, it just takes a little patience. Super stoked on the lighting on this one:

I've been trying to pack in as much lately as possible, you gotta live up the summer while its still here. The weather today is a bit of a bummer but its finally giving me some time to get behind the computer and get some editing done.

A few more wake shots:

The Other Art Gallery

2009-08-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

To say the least this summer has been hectic. If someone had told me everything that has gone down this summer back in May I would have slapped them in the face and told them to get real.

I was expecting the summer the same way it has always be, but life has changed in more ways than one.

As the doors to this unforgettable summer close and the gate to the rest of my life opens, I'm having serious troubles looking into the future and seeing what's going to happen. Decisions have to be made and I can't just float along with whatever seems to happen.

Thats life though... life is the unknown and the truth is it wouldn't be any fun without it. Change is good and I need to embrace it.

Enough of this ranting...

I experienced one of the coolest places in my life while in Chile, it was the culmination of different things: art, nature, and crime.

This place was a tide pool that a bridge had been built over. When I think tide pool I think natural and clean but this place was not the norm.

The underside of a bridge is a place for graffiti artists to thrive. In this scene these artists had to deal with nature and create there art when the tides were right, while still having to deal with the authorities and the risk of getting caught. Under all these circumstances, they created the coolest graffiti I had ever seen. This graffiti wasn't the normal crap you see in the states, it truly was art, and the funny part was I couldn't picture any place better for this art than exactly where it was, under a bridge that crossed a tide pool.

Whoever created this wasn't looking for recognition... it was difficult to reach this place and the truth is... why would anybody want to? I happened to be lucky enough to stumble upon this "art gallery" at the perfect time where the tide was low enough to get under the bridge and I was only able to stay there and shoot for 10 minutes, then the tide came back in.

By far one of my favorite experiences.

Disorientation

2009-08-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

Disorientation:

Loss of one's sense of direction, position, or relationship with one's surroundings

After thousands of miles and many direction changes I really don't know where I'm at. Missed flights, overweight bags, and airline food has added to the mix and now all I can do is follow these little sheets of paper that the spanish speaking people in the sketchy Chilean airport gave me.

I'm finally finishing up the 9 hour layover that I got to experience in the Atlanta airport due to a missed flight(I got stuck in customs, FYI it's a lot harder to enter the US than it is to leave). There is a good side to the whole situation, I've finally had the time to start editing the images from this trip and wow... I don't like to say this too often but there are some bangers. The culture in Chile is quite different and the images portray it very well.

Right now I'm at the point of deciding which images are going to be used for what so by the end of this week I'll have the blog worthy shots up and as for the other ones... well lets hope you'll see them somewhere else.

While I was down there I did a whole lot hip shooting. Early in the trip I learned the hard way that the locals weren't too stoked on pictures of themselves or their work. Here's candid shots of some locals:

Santiago

2009-08-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

I'll start off by saying how lucky I am to have been born, raised, and am now living in the United States. We all take it for granted how fortunate we are to be able to call ourselves "Americans".

Chile is another so called "1st world country", I have no idea how they can put the U.S. and

Chile in the same category. Its a rude awakening that has opened my eyes to the reality of the rest of the world. It's difficult to put into words so here's the images:

This is Santiago, the largest city in Chile

Something just came up and I have to leave the computer so expect more images soon, I'm four days into this trip and already have more amazing shots than I know what to do with.

Pretty Good

2009-07-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

Pretty good. Thats the phrase.

Life has been busy recently. Hayden Wake just started absolutely going off last week, we've been getting up really early to chase boat shoot and learn new tricks on some smooth water(learning tricks and chase boat shooting usually don't work to well together), and last night I made it back from a long but fun day and half at Butter Stomp. On Thursday I leave for a while to a foreign place... it should be quite the adventure.

Anyways... I've shot enough wake in the last 2 weeks to suffice and entire summer of shooting. It's been so busy I haven't really been able to review the images until now and let me tell you what... we got some bangers and I'm pretty excited about it. I'm trying to keep the bangers on lock down until I can find something of value to use them for so until then here's what didn't make the cut:

Right now I'm just having fun shooting whatever comes my way and I think its working out... pretty good. Here's one from about 5 minutes ago.

Enjoy: