After a scouting trip last week I have made the executive decision to switch the upcoming Abstract Astoria workshop location to beautiful Port Townsend on the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula. It offers just as much or more photo opportunities and I am particularly smitten with the bunkers at Fort Worden State Park, the waterfront, and the wonderful restaurants. Join me there right after the election! We’ll all need a bit of a respite!
Of course, we are keeping our workshops to safe and small groups. Only a few spots are left – sign up today!
If you’d like a little more insight into what I’m looking for when on the hunt for intriguing abstract shots, check out last night’s episode of Tequila Time, where I discuss one of the major themes I teach in this and other workshops, as well as my Pathways to Creativity streaming series – expanding your visual vocabulary! Check it out!
I took a day trip last week to Mt. Rainier, and found some black bears ambling about beneath our local 14,500 foot stratovolcano. Enjoy the gallery and have a fantastic weekend!
I started off the month of October by leading a small workshop on the Olympic Peninsula for a handful of intrepid photographers who were ready to be safely out and about. Much of what appears to be fog in the photos is more than likely smoke still heading up north from the many devastating fires in California.
I’m so fortunate to live in such a varied and beautiful location where so many lessons can be taught in one place – from the varied lighting conditions on beaches versus the shadowed canopies of trees along their edge, majestic old-growth trees, and waterfalls to practice longer exposures.
Never be afraid to alter the location around you, as in the shot with the stacked rocks. It’s still possible to stage a scene while staying true to the natural wonders of the location, and in some ways enhance it while getting comfortable with the creative process!
In the photo below, the stacked rocks are not just an attempt to manufacture a subject, or add an interesting foreground element to capture the eye. While both of these things are happening, it’s really the smoothness of the rocks that informs the viewer about the location – the timeless rounded edges that speak of centuries of erosion. it so happens their rounded shape makes them easy to balance and stack.
Tomorrow is Migratory Bird Day! With projects like Migrations and the upcoming wild, I’ve no shortage of photos to celebrate these stalwart world travelers. Enjoy the image gallery!
On the subject of ‘world travelers’, tomorrow morning Parimal and myself will be live at 10 AM on Earth Is Our Witness to talk with “The Big Cat People” Angela and Jonathan Scott to hear the awesome tales that come of over four decades of experience photographing the lions of Africa.
Enjoy the images and we hope to see you live tomorrow morning!
Happy Workshop Wednesday! It’s been nice to get out in the field for some local scaled-back-for-safety workshops. Like everyone else, we are both highly concerned about COVID and extremely interested in finding safe ways to continue to move forward. Our number-one priority is the safety of both our group, our staff, and the local businesses we hope to bring some much-needed business to.
To that end, we are offering limited participants a chance to join me for a new approach to what is my most popular workshop, taking place in Abstract Astoria. If you’ve joined me here before you know a bit of what you’re in for – but don’t hesitate to join again! We will be exploring new locations, and keeping our group smaller for safety purposes means we will have more time for intense critique and portfolio review sessions, which are truly my favorite aspects of all my workshops.
The goal of this workshop is to change the way you see, drawing on your imagination to create works of art with your camera that no one else might ever capture. I did a deep-dive on the Astoria workshop last night on Tequila Time. Give it a watch for a better explanation of the workshop goals, with examples. When you’re ready, hit the sign up page – this workshop will fill quickly!
As mentioned on Tequila Time, here is a gallery of photos from my recent trip to Yellowstone. It was quite crowded, but I did manage to get some shots I’m very happy with!
As always, if you missed any live broadcasts of tequila time we’ve done our best to archive them all on both Facebook and Instagram – check out the TT page to catch the ones you missed! This week we will have to shuffle things around a bit, so Tequila Time will once again be on Tuesday, this time beginning at 7:30 PM. I realize that ends up being late for some of you, but my time is a bit crunched this week between a couple of Pacific Northwest Workshops. Hope to see you there!
If you joined us for Tequila Time (yep – on a Tuesday! This may happen more often as I get back to traveling for workshops and book projects, so stay tuned!) I shared some photos from Bandon, Oregon and our workshop there. Here are more images from that workshop, and I’ll see you next week!
Much like last night’s episode of Earth is Our Witness, Tequila Time will be happening at a special time this week – LIVE tonight at 5:30! Parimal won’t be able to host this time around, but for those of you who know her or have spoken to her on the phone when calling the office my assistant Libby will be on hand to help me run the show, along with still-States-bound Gavriel. We will miss Parimal’s hosting acumen but I’ve got some photos to show from our recent Bandon workshop to share. The smoke in the atmosphere made for some interesting images. That being said, I hope everyone and their property is safe and sound from these terrible fires. Join us live on Facebook and Instagram!
As much as I can, I’ll try to keep the live stream times consistent but the important thing is that we all get the time together, regardless of when it happens – so I’ll keep you in the loop and hope you can join me – and if you can’t you can always check out my Instagram TV, Facebook Videos, and of course the Tequila Time page on my website to view past episodes!
If you missed it last evening, Parimal and myself had a great interview with The Animal Kingdom photographer Randal Ford – check out Randal’s work on the Earth Is Our Witness instagram page and if you missed the episode, view it on Facebook and YouTube!
Wishing everyone here on the West Coast safety for themselves and their property as fire rage – my thoughts are with anyone who’s dealing with evacuations, poor atmosphere and both. As if we didn’t have enough on our plates for 2020!
I’m down in Bandon, Oregon this week teaching a workshop but I also thought it would be nice to look back on 15 years of September images. This is a great time of year to shoot the fall color here on the west coast! I’ve also taken quite a few trips over the years to Africa and more – enjoy!
Happy Friday! Apologies for a light week on the blog, but a lot has been going on – I talked about upcoming workshops last night on Tequila Time. It goes without saying, but I will say it anyways – safety first! We take the pandemic seriously, and with an appropriate measured preparations and precautions. As we start traveling again with the hopes of a vaccine on the horizon, I’m taking every precaution to keep myself and our participants safe. We come with masks and hand sanitizer for all participants, and both Gavriel and myself are COVID tested and ready to get out there!
If you’re local to the Pacific Northwest or plan to be in the area soon, We have a few spaces left in upcoming workshops, including one space remaining to join us on the Oregon coast in Bandon next week! The Mt. Rainier Fall Color workshop has sold out – but now is a great time to sign up for next year with early bird pricing.
Above is a photo gallery from the Olympic Peninsula, home to Lake Quinault and setting for an upcoming workshop at the end of the month. Some of these images you might recognize from last evening’s Tequila Time. A couple spaces remain – don’t miss out if you’re aching to get out and shoot!
If you missed it, catch up on last night’s interview with legendary surf photographer Ted Grambeau on Earth Is Our Witness either on Facebook or YouTube. As usual, the EIOW Instagram page has images of all our featured photographers. Come for the fantastic photographs, but stay for the humor and immersive stories our guests have to share!
Last but not least, we have ANOTHER Earth Is Our Witness happening tomorrow at 10 AM PST – this time with Manoocher Deghati. Manoocher has been photographing world events for over four decades including the Iranian revolution in his home country, from which he has been living in exile since 1985 when he was forbidden to leave his home with his camera. There are sure to be some fascinating stories here!
