If you happen to live in the Cle Elum area of Washington State then this post is probably old news. Otherwise…you can now see my work on the cover of the 2011/2012 Cle Elum Phone Directory! Here is a photo of the cover that I shot with my phone:

I am actually thrilled that this is the cover for Cle Elum. I really fell in love with that area when I got a chance to spend some time out there. Landscape photographers are used to seeing amazing scenes all the time. Us city folk don’t get the exotic locations quite as often. I was seriously inspired on this day and this shot was my favorite from a whole slew of work I created while out there. It just really captured everything I remember about Cle Elum. Oh, and the air was the cleanest I have ever found in my life! I really noticed a difference when I got back to DC.

So, thank you Cle Elum! I love you all! I look forward to my return!

As many of you know…the East Coast was absolutely buried in record level snow this year. Being snowed in for over a week sounds wonderful…until day two or three. Then you want out!

Being more of a …”warm weather” person…I normally do not enjoy the snow much after a couple days. I was really inspired this time to go out and brave the cold and create all these magnificent images of record snowfall. My first idea of getting to downtown D.C. for some panoramas of the monuments completely buried didn’t happen. My car is too low and the metro rails had stopped service to above ground stations. I would be risking getting stuck in a situation that could be “potentially unpleasant” as the blizzard got worse.

My second idea of going to some spots I know of locally that are quite scenic also didn’t pan out. I tried. Hiking through the forest only worked until I reached a point where the snow drifts were above my chest. I could use my tripod at eye level without extending any of the legs. It was amazing! Unfortunately not having skis or snowshoes meant I could no longer proceed to my desired locations.

Dump the forest idea…lets try a very special spot that I used to photograph in infrared. It’s by a lake… I figured it has to be frozen over, it will look awesome with the sun setting! Fast forward to the lake…denied. The snow is once again so deep I cannot even walk. It was like being behind a wall.

So…tired of being inside, now tired of being outside, tired of snow, cold, wet…its getting dark…sigh. I think i’de rather just enjoy Darwin Wiggett’s work and share it with everyone else. This guy definitely has the snow figured out! Check out some of these amazing winter landscapes!
The Canadian Rockies : Winter
His landscapes look so stunning and inspiring…it doesn’t even look cold!!!! I almost want to be there! I guess it goes to show the power of an image!

Anyways, I have a few photos to share with you. What’s a blog post without something to look at right?

Signs that life still exists…a path that has footprints.

…The camera was just about chest level…

I had to settle for this vantage point…I couldn’t make it through the five foot high snow to get to the lake. Where are the snowshoes when you need them…

You decide the caption for this one…”Why bother… ” or “No more shoveling…please!!!!”

What’s the best camera in the world? The one that is with you of course! Even if you have all the hot new Canon bodies and sharpest lenses in your backpack…you can’t create an image if it appears before you. The moment is gone. You haven’t even unzipped the bag fully. It’s so easy to miss the moment.

Lately cell phones have been getting pretty capable at capturing images. They are even putting out images larger than my first digital camera! (some early fuji finepix camera I think…maybe a megapixel or two…) Samsung has even decided to take the next step. Looks more like camera with a phone built in to me… I know its not late-breaking any more, but photographer Chase Jarvis lately put out an awesome app for iphones along with a book and website/community. The Best Camera… It’s definitely worth checking out if you have ever doubted your phone as a way to create images.

I captured the image above with an EnV Touch. No fun apps…but at least I have exposure compensation! (It also handles panoramas and parallax decently to my surprise.) The landscape was captured out of a car window. My camera was in a bag by my feet. I would have never been able to get it out in time. Lately I have found myself really seeing the world differently again. I feel somewhat liberated from equipment again just knowing that if I am in the moment, I can act as long as even my phone is with me. Go make images. Capture the world and show us who we are. If you have a phone…you have an image!

Now if only my phone could trigger Pocket Wizards…

The new lenses tilt and rotate separately from the shift and rotation function, a very welcomed update! Why am I so excited? Because I have been using Mamiya lenses mounted on shift-adapters on my Canon 5Ds. A medium format lens has a much greater image circle and works just fine as a shift lens on a 35mm camera. There is hardly any light falloff even at 12mm shifts. I think the widest rectilinear MF lens I have found so far is the Mamiya 35mm f/3.5 Sekor C. (See why I’m excited for this new 17mm!!)

I look forward to adding the new 24mm TS to my lineup. I prefer that to the 17 at the moment strictly for the 82mm filter thread. The 17 does not look like it will accept any form of frontal filter.

A lot of people seem to think Tilt-Shift lenses are a gimmick and used only as novelty by a few bored photographers. This is hardly the case. Camera movements are still king when it comes to image control. Many areas of commercial photography utilize movements extensively. There are several solutions for getting movements on a digital camera. The exotic stuff from Cambo and SINAR are great, but expensive and very specialized. (Especially if you want to play in the medium format digital range!) These are not always practical solutions. Who really wants to lug a 4×5 with a MF back and a laptop around unless completely necessary?

Another major benefit to using a TS lens is seamless panoramas without the need for specialty tripod equipment. Aside from the basic center-left-shift-right-shift 2:1 panorama, you can also do “super-resolution” panos.

Take a center image. Shift the lens all the way to one end. Take another shot, then rotate the lens 15 to 30 degrees at a time and fire off another shot. Continue this until you get all the way around. I get about 12 shots or so. Using Photoshop, PTGUI, or another panorama stitcher, combine the images. There will be no parallax errors since the camera’s nodal point has not moved at all. In fact, the camera hasn’t moved period! You will end up with one massive image!

Example:
My Canon 5DmkII
Single image file dimensions: 5616 x 3744 pixels or 18.72 x 12.48 inches @ 300 dpi
Fully shifted file dimensions: 8776 x 5851 pixels or 29.25 x 19.5 inches @ 300 dpi

5DmkII Image: approx. 21mp (Colored inside box)
5DmkII Shifted Pano: approx 51mp (Entire image)

So on just the 5DmkII alone, you can print almost a 40 x 60 inch print @ around 150 dpi WITHOUT needing to up-res the file. Can you imagine the new Phase One P65+ with this technique?!?!?! By my same calculations using the numbers on the PhaseOne site, that gives you a 135mp image with a 90 x 67 inch print at @ 150 dpi. Not owning a PhaseOne system, I cannot vouch for these numbers, however I am more than willing to donate my time and drive space to conduct the tests should a system be made available!!!

Then again…do we need 135mp images when we resize for the web most of the time? When most images are limited by the paper they are printed on, does that level of quality really make a difference if we aren’t printing at those massive sizes?

Being a panoramic photographer, a lot of my work is making 9:1 images…I guess i’m partial to these large scales!

What a great time to be in photography!

Redondo Beach

It was fascinating, people would hang out on the pier fishing all day every day! There was never a quiet time on the pier. I guess nobody works in Redondo! This one gentleman was the only one having any luck. Not only was he catching fish, but the fish were larger than his children! (seen hiding behind the fish!)

The Fish

The Fisherman

One Day The Fish Will Come

Sunset On The Pier

Goodnight Redondo

Torrence Blvd: On My Way To The Pier

Redondo Beach