News
Buffalo, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
December 17, 2011
For the first time in decades, herds of wild buffalo might be fostered and protected in areas outside Yellowstone National Park.
Buffalo from America's oldest National Park habitually migrate outside the park boundaries every winter in search of food. This concerns cattle ranchers as buffalo sometimes carry the disease brucellosis, a bacterial infection that can cause spontaneous abortions in cattle. For years, wildlife officials have carried out systemic slaughter of migrating buffalo to protect livestock. But now there's a plan in the works that may save the only remaining wild gene pool of buffalo in the world.
Film: Vermont Morgan Horse
November 10, 2011
Here is my latest film project, a short documentary on the University of Vermont's Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge, Vermont. Special thanks go out to Steve Davis and Nicole Grainger for their help with this project, and to musician Nate Gusakov for providing the soundtrack.
Enjoy, and I'd love to hear your feedback.
Elk skeleton on the banks of the Madison River, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
October 20, 2011
Elk in Yellowstone National Park are dwindling. According to an aerial survey completed in December 2010, elk within the park dropped 24% from the previous year and have fallen 70% since 1995, the year when wolves were reintroduced to the park. Wolf and grizzly predation, combined with hunting and an ongoing drought that began in 2000, have reduced the elk population from 16,791 in 1995 to 4,635 in 2010.
Image of the Week: Winter Sun, Middlebury, Vermont
September 07, 2011
I'm usually a glass-half-empty kind of person, so you can imagine that New England winters really take the wind out of my sails. Short days. Gray skies. Several feet of old, dirty snow on the ground. Skin-stinging temperatures. Of course to the optimist within me, winter means something else entirely. Winter sports. Warm fires. Several feet of new, beautiful snow on the ground. Brisk days. The pessimist side usually wins, and I spend a lot of time cruising the travel websites looking for destinations in southerly latitudes once the snow begins to fall.
Film: Bartlett Falls, Bristol, Vermont
August 10, 2011
Here's the "World Premiere" of my first film, a short vignette on Bartlett Falls in Bristol, Vermont.
More "One-Light Setup": Mike Kennard at the new Lake Champlain Bridge
August 09, 2011
Recently, I shot a portrait assignment for a German engineering magazine of construction supervisor Mike Kennard on site at the new Champlain Bridge. More often than not, these portrait assignments are under enormous time pressure. You're out on an industrial site where the phrase "Time is Money" really means something -- every minute counts.
Tiffany, Middlebury, Vermont
July 16, 2011
Here's another example of the beautiful rendering of the Agfa Solinar lens that I use with my 4x5 Crown Graphic. The Agfa's coverage falloff provides a subtle darkening and a wonderful blurring of the image as you approach the corners -- the result is a pleasing vignette effect that comes without post-processing. It's an effect you can see on the ground glass before you trip the shutter.
Image of the Week: Nora, Plattsburgh, New York
June 15, 2011
I'm a big fan of the one-light setup. It's lightweight, fast, and extremely versatile with the right touch. I can pack a big Photek Softlighter II 60" umbrella, a compact Manfrotto lightstand, and an umbrella mount into a small quiver-sized shoulder bag. That, coupled with a hotshoe flash that I carry in my camera bag, I can produce studio-quality light just about anywhere.
Carrizo Badlands Sunset, Anza-Borrego State Park, California
May 31, 2011
When you call something "The Badlands", it conjures visions of an inhospitable wasteland, a desert dune sea littered with the bleached bones of hapless animals, devoid of water, scrubbed by dry winds, and baked under an unforgiving sun. It's the rare traveler that looks at that name on a map and thinks, "The Badlands -- sounds nice."
FRESH: New Work by VCP Photographers, June 3rd - 26th, 2011
May 31, 2011
Starting June 3rd and running through June 26th, the Vermont Center for Photography in Brattleboro, Vermont will be showing FRESH: New Work by VCP Photographers, an eclectic selection of recent photographic work from VCP members. There will be an opening reception on the evening of June 3rd during the Brattleboro Gallery Walk.
Ocotillo Shadow on Abandoned Cabin, Anza-Borrego Desert, California, silver gelatin print
May 19, 2011
There's nothing like sunrise in the desert. The air is cool, breezy, and the smoldering predawn light lends the landscape a radiant glow. It's the warm spark that precedes the midday furnace of the desert. I love getting out for walks in the mornings, because there's a quality of light that occurs nowhere else but the dry barrens of the American West.
Pictory Features "UVM Mallory" in "Local Legends" Showcase
May 18, 2011
Pictory, in a joint project with NPR, has published 'UVM Mallory' from Vermont Morgan Horse in their latest documentary showcase titled Local Legends.
Learn more about Vermont Morgan Horse and download the monograph eBook.
Image of the Week: South Fork Cascade Creek and 'The Wall', Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
April 26, 2011
"The best camera is the one you have with you."
- Borrowed and paraphrased from Chase Jarvis, Joe McNally, and many others
On the same trip that I photographed Sunset and Moonrise at Table Mountain (you know, the trip where I accidentally packed a 50 instead of a 35mm lens?) I came across this scene at one of the best campsites I've ever stayed in. It was on the South Fork of Cascade Creek on our descent from Avalanche Divide in Grand Teton National Park, and the morning was one of those crisp, cool, clear summer dawns that make you realize why you go to so much trouble to get to remote wilderness areas.
Utah Juniper, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, Palladium Print
March 26, 2011
Little breakthroughs can mean a lot, and sometimes those breakthoughs come by reading the manual.
Image of the Week: Nicole Grainger riding Oxford, Middlebury, Vermont (Palladium Print)
February 08, 2011
I often find myself shooting in edgy light, in conditions so dim that I'm beyond the range of safely handholding the camera to get a sharp image. Today's digital cameras with their fantastic high ISO capabilities have really opened up these dim scenes for us -- it's like being able to shoot in the dark. But what if you're using film, and are restricted to old-fashioned film speeds like 400, or Ansel forbid, 100?
Image of the Week: December Snow I, Middlebury, Vermont
February 02, 2011
"Besides, interesting things happen along borders — transitions — not in the middle where everything is the same."
- Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash
Image of the Week: Bedroom, Homer Noble Farm, Ripton, Vermont
January 23, 2011
You don't need expensive gear to make great images, just a simple camera, your eyes, and your mind.
Image of the Week: Deer Skull, Citronelle, Alabama, Palladium Print
January 19, 2011
In the past few weeks, I've received several questions about my digital negative and palladium printing process, so this week I'm going to briefly discuss my methods.
Happy Holidays 2010 Special Print Offer: Hostas II
December 05, 2010
Through December 31st, 2010, I'm offering Hostas II, Middlebury, Vermont from the In Vermont portfolio, for the special price of $125, plus shipping. The 7"x7 3/4;" gelatin silver image is printed on 11"x14" paper and split toned in sepia and selenium.
Boulders in swiftly moving stream, Weybridge, Vermont
November 01, 2010
Look behind you. Reading that first sentence, regular visitors of my "Image of the Week" pages will probably expect me to say something along the lines of how you should look behind you to find alternative compositions. That sometimes, the best image might be at your backside, quietly licking its chops while you busy yourself with the first thing that caught your eye in the scene.
Sunset and Moonrise at Table Mountain, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
October 11, 2010
On a recent trip to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, I made a bone-headed mistake when I was packing my gear. The ambitious trip plan included a non-trivial amount of elevation gain and loss, so I mercilessly pruned my gear selection. To that end, I decided to go photographically minimalist: one camera, one lens. I figured not only would I save on weight, but it would be a fantastic exercise in simplicity. Good photographers can make an image with any old gear, right?
Exhibitions: In Vermont, Selected Images: October 2nd - 31st, 2010
September 28, 2010
Starting October 2nd and running through October 31st, Carol's Hungry Mind Cafe in Middlebury, Vermont will be showing a selection of ten photographs from my portfolio In Vermont. There will be a reception on October 8th starting at 5:00pm to coincide with the Middlebury Art Walk.
Exhibitions: Free Range, Edgewater Gallery Sept 13 - Nov 12
September 28, 2010
Edgewater Gallery in Middlebury is featuring some of my Morgan Horse work in their group show Free Range, running from September 13th - November 12th, 2010.
Image of the Week: Moonrise and Abandoned Trailers, Anza-Borrego Desert, California
June 25, 2010
I was channeling the spirits of St. Ansel and St. Edward the day I photographed this scene in the Anza-Borrego desert. After walking around these two abandoned Airstream-like trailers looking for a composition, I noticed the waxing moon rising in the east. I couldn't resist making an image with it in the frame.
Image of the Week: UVM Mallory, Morgan Horse Farm, Weybridge, Vermont, Palladium Print
May 26, 2010
Due to newly discovered time constraints over the last nine months, I haven't produced much in the way of new work.
Between sharing childcare duties with my wife and a heavy load of commercial assignments this spring, I've been swamped. So, instead of producing new personal work, I've been at work in the darkroom reimagining existing work as new pieces.
Image of the Week: Abandoned Cabin, Anza-Borrego Desert, California
March 29, 2010
It's about this time of the year that I start thinking warmer thoughts and about sunnier climes, and when that happens, my mind drifts to the desert.
Melissa and Parker, Columbia, South Carolina
March 08, 2010
You can work really hard engineering lighting setups, backgrounds, props, posing methods, hair, and makeup to get an image like this. Or, you can just always be ready with your camera when all of those variables just happen to converge by chance on the ideal scene.
Old Stone Row in Winter, Middlebury, Vermont
February 11, 2010
The most striking thing about this scene is the one thing this photo can't convey: the quiet.
Image of the Week: Worth Mountain Ski Lift, Middlebury Snow Bowl
February 02, 2010
I've written before on the merits of always having a camera in hand, of always being ready for the unexpected photographic moment. But that doesn't always mean you need to lug around a backpack full of DSLR gear -- sometimes a Point & Shoot camera will do.
January, 2010 Special Print Offer: December Snow I, Middlebury, Vermont
January 01, 2010
I photographed this scene just a short time ago, in the waning days of 2009, during the first big snowfall of the season. It was one of those days when the flakes were blowing in sideways, and the temperature was just right to make it stick to the trees. I expended two rolls of 120 film on this and a few other compositions, and then retreated to the warmth of my wood stove heated house.
Holiday 2009 Special Print Offer: UVM Mallory, Morgan Horse Farm, Weybridge, Vermont
December 14, 2009
From now through December 31st, 2009, I'm offering one of my favorite images of the year, UVM Mallory from the Vermont Morgan Horse portfolio, for the special price of $100, plus shipping.
Image of the Week: Farmer and Pilot Ed Peet, Cornwall, Vermont
November 22, 2009
Lately, I'm carrying my Hasselblad everywhere I go, even on jobs where I wouldn't realistically use it. I prefer it for people portraits, and you never know when or where you'll meet an interesting character.
Image of the Week: Birches, Middlebury, Vermont
October 21, 2009
We've already lost a great number of the "Old Guard" photographic products and companies to the inexorable march of digital, but when Polaroid announced two years ago that it was ceasing production of its legendary instant photography films, photographers around the world let out a collective gasp. Polaroid, a company with a photographic brand name as ubiquitous as Kleenex and as legendary as Levi's, suddenly stopped making the product that made it famous, and upon which thousands of artists, scientists, and consumers depended for their imaging needs. The demand dried up, sales dropped. Poof. Gone.
Exhibitions: Vermont Morgan Horse: Oct 2nd - Nov 12th, 2009
September 15, 2009
The National Museum of the Morgan Horse in Shelburne, Vermont will be showing a selection of twenty images from my portfolio of the University of Vermont's Morgan Horse Farm. There will be a reception on November 6th from 5:00-7:00PM.
Image of the Week: Mountain Palm Springs, Anza-Borrego Desert, California
August 29, 2009
This was a difficult scene to capture.
Early morning light can be tough, especially in the desert. The exposure range from deep shadows to sunlit highlights can be extreme, enough to overwhelm the ability of most digital and film cameras to attractively record the scene. Using a large format camera and black-and-white negative film, the standard approach is "expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights". In other words, you "pull your film" by overexposing it in the field and underdeveloping it in the darkroom. The resulting negative has lower contrast and greater shadow detail with controlled highlights. Then it's simply a matter of spending some time in the wet darkroom to extract a print that matches your vision of the scene, and that's often easier said than done.
Image of the Week: Bullseye, Citronelle, Alabama
July 08, 2009
Location lighting is a well-skinned cat. Monolights, power packs and heads, hotlights, small shoemount strobes...there are many choices. When I need to travel light, I get away with a bag full of SB-25 and SB-26 strobes and enough PocketWizards to fire them for lighting situations where I don't have AC outlets available and can't haul a Pelican case full of studio strobes. After a couple minutes of setup attaching cables and checking exposure with a handheld light meter, I'm ready to roll.
Image of the Week: Lunging UVM Orlando
June 22, 2009
This week, I want to use this space to thank everyone who helped make Vermont Morgan Horse a reality.
Vermont Morgan Horse: June 1st-26th, 2009
May 29, 2009
The Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury, Vermont will be showing a selection of ten images from my work at the Morgan Horse Farm in Weybridge, Vermont. There will be a reception on June 12th from 5:30-7:00PM to kick off the first Middlebury Art Walk.
» View the Vermont Morgan Horse Portfolio
Now Online: Middlebury College Commencement
May 26, 2009
I've posted a small selection of images from Middlebury College's Commencement ceremony held on May 24th, 2009. Family, friends, alums, and parents may browse the selection and order photographic prints in a variety of sizes at prices significantly reduced from my normal fine art print rates. Print processing and shipping is handled by EZ Prints.
New website, new features, big stuff going on here
May 21, 2009
Some of you may have noticed that a long time has passed since the last Image of the Week. I've got a good excuse. During the last month, I've migrated my image archive to Photoshelter and launched a new, streamlined website tightly integrated with the new functionality.
Image of the Week: Barns IV, Middlebury, VT
March 19, 2009
I often revisit subjects. Sometimes I'm dissatisfied with earlier attempts to photograph a location; I see my mistakes and my inner perfectionist is eager to go back and try again. Like the old cliché goes: if you're satisfied with your work, then you're not working hard enough.
Image of the Week: Fallen Tree in the Creek
March 02, 2009
We often go out shooting with a preconceived photograph in mind. We know the subject and conditions we want, it's just a matter of setting the camera in the right place and waiting for the sun and weather to create the light and atmosphere we seek.
Image of the Week: Blacksmith Lee Beckwith
February 23, 2009
When you're shooting on location, the location is your studio, an overcast sky is your softbox, and whatever structure you can find is your background.
Image of the Week: Snow Angel
February 04, 2009
It's dang cold up here in Vermont. The other morning, I woke up to a thermometer that registered -17F (-27C). The snow keeps piling up, the salt is building up on my car and the front step, and deadly daggers of ice plummet from the rooftops everywhere you walk.
Image of the Week: Slack Line, Middlebury, Vermont
January 06, 2009
You don't always need to include the face to create a successful portrait.
In fact, other elements can be way more revealing about a person than their eyes, nose, and mouth in different situations.
Image of the Week: Coffee Splash
December 22, 2008
A lot of people have asked me how I got this shot.
This image is actually the result of three separate exposures: one for the coffee cup, another for the column of pouring coffee, and a final capture for the splash. Getting one capture in-camera of this same scene would have taken many, many more hours, several gallons of coffee, and a box full of branded cups. As it is, I was able to shoot the entire thing in just a couple of hours using the only printed cup I had and a single pot of coffee.
Image of the Week: Barns III, Middlebury, Vermont
December 14, 2008
Previsualization.
As an image maker, knowing your tools and anticipating the capabilities and output of those tools is critical to your success. Photography comes with a lot of variables -- exposure, lens choice, raw file processing, film development, post processing -- and you've got to have a mental grip on all of them if you want to consistently create outstanding photographs.
Image of the Week: Beulah in the Carrizo Badlands, Anza-Borrego Desert, California
December 04, 2008
Kids, don't try this at home. Adults, it's probably not a good idea for you, either.
Go to your uncle's house and do it.
Especially if that uncle has a beautiful 1957 Willy's Jeep named Beulah that he (foolishly) lets you drive through the Southern California desert while looking through the viewfinder of a camera.
Image of the Week: Chapel of the Transfiguration
November 02, 2008
Sometimes I feel like a professional tourist.
Everywhere I go, I'm laden with cameras. I can't go out the front door without hauling a camera bag. Every time I board a plane, I've got at least two carry-ons stuffed to the gills with an assortment of camera bodies, lenses, and film. I'm in and out of airports, small planes, big planes, buses, vans, and subway trains dragging a metric ton of gear on wheels and shoulders, all so I can show up at a remote location and shoot something that has been shot a zillion times before.
Anza-Borrego Desert Show
October 15, 2008
From October 15th through December 14th, I'll be showing a small selection of images from my Anza-Borrego portfolio at Carol's Hungry Mind Cafe in Middlebury, Vermont. The nine images on display feature examples of my large format film and digital work from California's largest state park.
Image of the Week: Cross-Country Runner
September 25, 2008
This week's shot is of Alexandra Krieg, a cross-country runner at Middlebury College.
I had been assigned to photograph Alexandra as part of a story profiling the school's running program. The editors wanted an action shot (preferably with a motion blur) featuring some beautiful Vermont outdoor scenery. I scouted a few trail locations nearby and settled on a grassy meadow with a huge willow tree.
Image of the Week: Horse Bath
September 02, 2008
This week's image is from the University of Vermont's Morgan Horse Farm, a National Historic Site where the Morgan bloodline has been maintained for a century. I'm shooting a portfolio on the farm and will publish the entire set on this site once it is complete.
Image of the Week: Whitney, Citronelle, Alabama
August 25, 2008
Many of you may be familiar with the principle of Occam's Razor, a philosophical and scientific axiom that is best summarized as, "The simplest solution is usually the best." The principle espouses an economy of ideas to explain the unknown, encouraging one to whittle away the useless, the irrelevant, and the needlessly complex.
It's a great way to think about photographic composition.
Image of the Week: The North Window from Turret Arch
August 15, 2008
See them while they last.
On August 4th, 2008, a big piece of rock in Arches National Park demonstrated the cumulative effects of gravity, water, wind, and time. Wall Arch, one of the most accessible and well-known natural arch formations in the park, collapsed unseen and unheard.
Image of the Week: Jeff
August 05, 2008
Spend a little extra time on easy shoots to build your portfolio.
This week's image was the result of tacking a little extra time onto a headshot session. These shoots are a walk-in-the-park for photographers, but the usual imagery isn't fantastic portfolio material.
Image of the Week: Hostas II, Middlebury, Vermont
June 24, 2008
Be there.
There's an old photographic adage that goes something like "ƒ/8 and be there." In short: technical considerations are secondary; capturing the moment is all that matters, and you can't capture it if you're not out shooting.
Image of the Week: Hikers in Coyote Gulch I, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah
May 02, 2008
How ready are you?
Honestly, if you turn a corner and suddenly find yourself staring at three elephants standing on their heads in beautiful light, are you prepared to photograph the scene? Is your camera accessible, or is it buried deep in your backpack? Do you even know where it is?
Image of the Week: Ocotillo Shadow, Abandoned Cabin
April 23, 2008
Do a little Photoshop in-camera.
Adobe Photoshop's "Lens Distortion" filter makes it very easy to correct common distortion and perspective effects caused by extreme wide-angle lenses or acute camera-to-subject angles. One of the most common corrections a photographer may perform is to counter the "keystone" effect that occurs when one places the camera low and shoots up at an oblique angle to the subject, causing vertical lines to converge in the top of the photo. Most of the time, this effect goes unnoticed. But when you shoot subjects that have obvious vertical lines that show profound keystoning, it's time to take action.
Image of the Week: Moonlit Palms, Anza-Borrego State Park, California
April 10, 2008
Today's digital cameras have come a long way.
I love photographing the night sky; so much so that for the past few years, as I've made the transition from film to digital, I've kept an all-manual, 35mm or medium format camera in my bag capable of the long exposure times necessary to capture the low light levels of the starry sky, or moonlit landscape. The mechanical shutters require no batteries to operate and can be held open for hours and hours.
Green Coffee
March 06, 2008
Or, "Traveling Fast and Light in Central America: Four Days, Two Countries, and One Camera Bag." Hit the link below to learn about my recent assignment in Mexico and Guatemala, and to view a gallery of selected images.
Image of the Week: Park Avenue
February 26, 2008
Don't throw it away.
I'm an incorrigible packrat. I collect cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, and styrofoam peanuts to re-use for shipping. I've got dozens of old 35mm film canisters that I use to sort screws, nails, and other minute tool items. I've got more camera bags than cameras, much to my wife's disdain, and have no plans to reduce their burgeoning numbers. If anything, I might buy more.
Most importantly, I never throw away old film or delete digital image files unless I'm 100% confident they're a complete loss.
Image of the Week: Ashton and Whitney
January 07, 2008
If photographing adults is difficult, then shooting kids is nearly impossible.
Image of the Week: Steven
December 17, 2007
Window light: it works
every
time
Why use natural window light? Because it looks good, and I'm lazy. I could spend a lot of time setting up strobes, softboxes, scrims, and reflectors trying to replicate natural window light. But why go to all of that trouble when I can simply put the subject near a window and fire away?
Image of the Week: Halladay Road III
December 10, 2007
I used to keep a mental checklist of interesting locations I'd come across while driving. I had to abandon it in favor of a physical notebook once the mental one grew too large and locations started falling through the cracks. These bookmarked locations are places that possess dynamic interplays of line and form, but simply lacked the dramatic light I wanted to make the scene come alive. The notebook helps me to remember to return to these places when the light is right.
This scene, however, didn't need a notebook entry.
Image of the Week: Fall Colors, Middlebury College
November 05, 2007
This is one of those images that shouldn't have happened.
One day, during the last gasp of vibrant fall color in Vermont, I was strolling around Middlebury College looking for some general campus scenics. I had just shot a few sheets at the main library, but I was dissatisfied with the light. It was late in the day, but not late enough to create that magic glow that accompanies sunset and twilight. So, I packed up my gear and resigned to hunker down in the local coffee shop and work on my email backlog until the light improved.
That's when I saw this striking combination of complementary colors.
IOTW: Maple Tree, Middlebury, Vermont
October 14, 2007
I spend a lot of time thinking about ways to make my photographs say something different, something new. In the competitive world of photography, you have to make your pictures stand apart from others to get noticed, or you won't get the jobs. The catch is that many sacrifice the design of their image -- the layout, the graphic line, the form, the beauty -- on the altar of "pushing the envelope" or challenging the viewer's expectations.
But sometimes, you just have to work the cliche.
Image of the Week: Jesse Hamner at Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone NP
September 24, 2007
Don't let bad weather keep you indoors.
After five days of hiking the Bechler River Valley in southwestern Yellowstone with two of my backpacking buddies, I found myself sipping a cold beer and listening to live piano music at the Yellowstone Lodge near Old Faithful. A thunderstorm raged outside, and the lodge was a welcome shelter for us to wait out the deluge.
Image of the Week: Aon Center from Millenium Park, Chicago
September 17, 2007
Do you always carry your camera? I mean, every time you go out the front door, do you have some sort of camera rig with you? DSLR? Point-and-Shoot? Holga? 120 Folder? 35mm? Anything?
Yeah, me neither.
Image of the Week: Mountain Biking I
September 10, 2007
What do you do when you can't plunk down a tripod before your subject to get the shot? Use a little magic.
Image of the Week: Boulders II
September 03, 2007
It's all about perspective.
You're out hiking, you come around a bend, and all of sudden you see a marvelous confluence of light, texture, and form before you. You quickly whip out your digital camera, slap it on a tripod, and hastily crank out several frames of the scene, knowing that the light can't possibly last much longer. Satisfied with your capture, you stow your gear and continue down the trail, ready for the next found image.
Or do you?
Image of the Week: Hosta Leaves
August 27, 2007
The best stuff is right under our noses...but we don't always notice it. You get used to your house, your yard, your driveway, your town and you no longer see those things graphically. Read on for more about shooting close to home.
Image of the Week: Joe
August 20, 2007
Take your time. Be flexible. Keep it simple.
That really sums up this week's image. It's a portrait of Joe, a student in the Russian Language School at Middlebury College, Vermont.
Image of the Week: The Pour
August 05, 2007
This week's image is more about the technique than the subject. Read on to learn more about "The Pour".
Image of the Week: Skylar
July 08, 2007
This week's image is of Skylar, and was made using a toy camera. Read on to learn more about how I made this image.