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I'm the guest photographer on the Landscape podcast F-Stop Collaborate and Listen this week

Give it a listen!

This week on the podcast I was joined by Michael Torkildsen - a landscape photographer who has been living on the road since right before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with his eyes on becoming a full-time photographer. 

Michael has had to pivot quite a bit since he launched into his full-time career and has recently been putting in the hard work of writing a self-published book on composition. Michael and I chat about his book project, and focus a lot of our time on discussing the challenges of composition in landscape and nature photography. We also discuss:

  • Stories from working in his mother's 1-hour photo shop,

  • His journey into full-time photography through COVID-19,

  • Photographing icons and its application in composition,

  • Rules of composition and how to use them (or not),

  • Our thoughts on Instagram,

  • And a lot more!

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Butterflies at the Tropical House

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Butterflies at the Tropical House

Took a visit to Seattle's Tropical Butterfly House this past weekend. It's a warm, tropical environment where butterflies are active 365 days a year. They import hundreds of colorful butterflies from South & Central America, Africa and Asia. 

I've always been fascinated with butterflies since I was a little kid. In grade school we raised a caterpillar that morphed into a butterfly and released it into the wild, aka Houston Texas!

Anartia amathea aka the Scarlet Peacock

Not only is how they metamorph from a squishy worm-like thing with feet magical, but how they fly through the air makes me feel as if I'm in a mythical world. 

There are hundreds of butterflies in the 4000 ft room. They have plenty to feed on from flowers to fruits. 

Heliconius hecale aka the Tiger Longwing

Possibly the Heliconius melpomene aka the Large Postman

Everywhere you look you can see different species right before your eyes. 

Anartia amathea aka the Scarlet Peacock

And his buddy. 

Before you exit, you get checked by "security" to make sure you don't have any hitchhikers trying to catch a free ride out of the enclosed environment.  You make one final self check in the full length mirror before you head out.

In the final image you can see how the composition can radically change by changing your point of view.

This is the beauty that surrounds you in the Tropical Butterfly House. 

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An Adventure Among Friends - Ruby Beach

An Adventure Among Friends - Ruby Beach

The beauty of the PNW is within a day's trip from anywhere and in any direction. At 11:30am on a Sunday morning, I got a call from some photographer friends, Jenny Grand, Rob and Tina Arnold. They had an itching to go to the coast for sunset pictures. From Seattle to Ruby Beach, it's only a 3 hour and 15 minute drive so of course I'm game. But I had to get on the road ASAP since the sun would be setting at 4:55 pm.

 

Most of my gear is always ready to go. Just need to snag batteries off the wall and I'm ready to shoot. 

We met in Olympia and headed west together, catching up on Christmas and discussing future photography adventures. 

The sky was pretty clear with a few high clouds, good ingredients for a nice sunset. But the weather does weird things here on the edge of the continent. You never know what you are going to get as it can all change in the last 15 minutes leading up to sunset. As we got closer, more and more clouds gathered on the horizon. 

We arrived at about 4:10 and began to gear up, rubber boots, rain jackets, water proof pants, warm layers, gloves, and of course cameras. 

The trail is super short and leads right to the water. Downed pine trees line the shore. Beyond that are a few small sea stacks and off to the right is one mammoth one. 

The cloud situation was starting to turn against us. There looked to be a dense marine layer right at the horizon that could blot out the sun and kill the color we where hoping for. But you can never tell until the sun reaches it. 

On the beach we had to cross a small stream. The rubber boots keep our feet dry, but if the tide comes in, we could be stuck on the other side. We will have to keep an eye on that so I stuck a couple sticks in the ground to mark the tide. 

I pulled out my camera and started looking for interesting shots. This one tree really drew my attention. It had fallen from the cliff above and laid smashed against the bluff in an interesting way. 

This was an exciting subject because as I walked around it, it changed in so many ways. In this shot, I put on my wide angle lens. It makes objects closer to you big and objects further way very small. These rocks are only a few inches across, but the tree in the background is huge, at least 4 feet in width. 

Done with the tree I turned my attention to the setting sun. You can see that there is little color in the sky. In this shot, fellow photographer Jenny Grand is getting some some snaps in. 

It was a night to work on fundamentals and practice techniques I've learned. This photo violates a fundamental rule, which I won't bore you with, but in this case it works. 

As the light started to fade, I went in search of a simpler scene, less colors so less complexity. I would have preferred a smaller rock, but you work with what you have.

This is the beauty that surrounds you at Ruby Beach. 

Thanks Rob for being our Logistics and Operations Chief! 

Thanks Rob for being our Logistics and Operations Chief! 

Best of 2016

Best of 2016

As 2016 wraps up, I'm reviewing my favorite images from this past year. I  must say, I can't cull it down to just 10!

Before I present those, let me give you a few fascinating statistics.

In 2016 I...
- Shot over 7940 pictures
- My favorite fstop was f16 with 1241 photos. A sure sign I'm a landscape photographer!
- My most used lens was the Sony 16-35 f4 with 2129 images shot. 
- A majority of my shots were at 16mm, capturing those grand landscapes at 1022 shutter clicks.

Thank you for putting up with my photo geekness.

Now for the good stuff.

My top 13 photos of 2016

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Mid Summer's Night Milky Way

I have been fascinated with Mount Saint Helen's since it blew in 1980, I was 8. We were living in Houston TX and there was a thin layer of ash on our van. 

She was the first place I visited in the PNW. Since moving here I've climbed her three times, but tonight I was going to shoot her... with the Milky Way as the background. I gathered a few like minded friends and headed out. 

Part of the process of making the shot is finding where the Milky Way lines up with the volcano. We were greeted with an amazing sunset as we walked down the trail on the opposite side. 

We stopped from time to time to check our progress. Once we found where the Milky Way lined up, we set up camp. 

You can barely see the Milky Way here, a few clouds, and light pollution from Portland. 

Below is one from that spot. 

The Milky Way started to drift so we set off to have a little fun. 

And

As 3:00 a.m. approached we started to get a little tired. Sunrise during the summer in the PNW starts really early, and I wanted to shots from that soft morning light so we headed back to the cars for some rest.

We were too tired to set up tents so we crashed in our vehicles. 

The next morning most every one got up early in order to scout good sunrise locations. Expect me. I was really tired. I opened one eye and could see that it would be a cloudless morning, not idea for sunrise shots. So I rolled over and slept a few more minutes. 

Finally, I willed myself up and made it to Mt Saint Helen's observatory, which was only a 100 years a way. I didn't have much time to scout a good composition, but I did see an interesting log and set up around that. 

There was a nice red hue on the Volcano as first light hit the rim. Watch this video to see what it was like there. 

I did manage to pull off an epic sunrise shot for how little time I invested in scouting. I'd say I was truly lucky to pull it off. 

Here it is below. 

Mt Saint Helens, sunrise

Soon after the light became harsh and that ended our photography trip. It was definitely a good trip.

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