Get Outside! (After You Read This.)

Chasing Waterfalls

You know what one of the keys to landscape photography success is?  Going outside.  Because that’s where the landscapes live.

There are so many variables outside though!  (And bugs.  And bears.)

I am 100% an advocate of working smarter, not harder and the Interwebs is a great source of information.  Every outing requires, minimally, some research about the weather, sunrise/set times, possible tide schedules (location dependent…duh) and if it’s a night shoot, the moon phase.  Those things are the easy part though.

For me, the hard part is always figuring out where to go.  Despite my art brain, I try very hard to be organized about my image releases, making sure I mix up subject matter and environmental conditions.  Often, my location decisions are loosely based around 4 factors: how much adventure I am looking for on any particular day, how much time and money it will cost me to explore, what I feel like shooting and what I haven’t shot in a while.  I used to spend hours scouring 500px, Instagram, etc for new locations…then more time on the Googles trying to get good information about the location’s accessibility.

Then I discovered The Outbound.  It’s like <insert favorite joyful, gift-opening holiday here>.  It had everything I needed in one spot.  I was so impressed, in fact, that I reached out to them and became an Outbound Explorer myself.  (Which makes this post extremely biased.  Give the site a shot anyway though.  If you like adventure, you’ll like The Outbound.) 🙂

If you’re already an Outbound regular, find me!  If you want to talk about local spots to explore, also find me.  If you want to give me a winning lotto ticket, definitely please find me!

Hot Wheels

So I was wandering around Toronto this past weekend, and made a pretty spectacular find.  If you know me, you know I love taking photos of bikes.  I’m a peace loving, planet hugging hippie at heart, and it makes me smile to see people buring calories to get around town.  It never occurred to me, though, that just as some people need “personalized license plates” to find their car in a busy parking lot, some people need personalized bikes to find their ride on a busy…ummm…parking fence? =)

Hot (Pink) Wheels – Toronto, ON, CA

This particular bike photo was processed with HDR, and then with an additional layer of one of the original images blended in luminocity to help bring out a little detail in the tree bark and bricks. (That tip was from my friend David, who happens to be an iphoneographer extraordinaire!)

I generally find at least one bike where ever I go, and have the beginnings of a pretty good collection.  I figure, if all else fails and I can’t find inspiration anywhere else, I still have the bike.

Here are a few others from previous trips. =)

Wrong Way Bike – New Orleans, LA

Bike, B & W film – Provincetown, MA

Bikes and Shadows

When I woke up today, my feet hurt.  My back was stiff. I was tired. And it was totally worth it.

I had a lot of fun in NYC with Will of www.wheretowillie.com – great photographer, full of information and more importantly, great company for a day in the city.  If you don’t know of his work, I highly recommend it.  He is great at HDR, and he goes the extra miles to get some unique shots.  He wasn’t joking when he told me that no things like fences were merely suggestions!

Will, Super Sized Egyptian Guys, and me!

We didn’t get to see everything we had hoped for.  The Buddhist Temple I wanted to see in order to create an image for my Quotography project (for those of you participating, you have until next Sunday at midnight to submit your images!) was closed.  Per Will’s suggestion, we even tried sneaking in through a back hallway…no luck!

We also missed the 9/11 Memorial by…mmm…about 30 seconds.

However, what we did see was nice and more importantly, I’m inspired to go back. Hopefully, next time, I’ll remember my tripod. (D’oh!)  Yesssss…I said it… I had an I’m-not-really-supposed-to-be-having-these-yet-senior-moment.  So, low light images were tough.  But shadow bike images were oh-so-right!

Shadow Bike

Projects!

Oh How Far We've Come!

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” ~Ansel Adams

At some point in every creative person’s life, you hit a dry spell.  You want to be imaginative, and fun and innovative with your art.  Truly, you want to!  But you can’t.  You can’t focus, you can’t think, you can’t…well…create.

At one point in my photo-history, I hit just such a dry spell.  My solution was projects.  Mini-series, if you will.

Currently, I have several long-standing projects which I add to as I either come across an appropriate image-to-be, or when I’m in need of inspiration.  I’ve started a series on Bikes, Diners, Chucks (aka Converse Shoes), Old Cameras and of course, Quotography.  The above photo is part of both of the last two series!

Do you set challenges for yourself?  Do you find it helps gets the creative juices flowing?  If you haven’t tried, do you want to? =)