Chile - Into the Atacama and beyond

Tomorrow is the beginning of the Chile trip. We will be mainly visiting the north and spending most of the next two months in the Atacama desert. I will be shooting still and video. We will be using a DJI Phantom 3 drone which I am very excited about and expect to get some incredible imagery and video of this, the driest desert on earth. The geological features of this area are very 'otherworldly' and I am looking forward to stretching out my creativity and continue in the vein of 'psychological landscape' that is the genre that my imagery is moving to in the last year. The active landscape here includes geysers, hot springs, salt lakes, vicunyas, ruins and impossible austerity. Beside the moonscapes here will be pleasure of working with Ulrike Arnold the Earth artist and documenting her work as well. This trip I expect to be a cauldron of productivity and I expect to produce some of my best work yet. I will document this trip here so please join me on this incredible journey. The goal is to produce a book and gallery exhibits. We will also be shooting footage to be included in a documentary on Ulrike to be produced next year.

Fall Colors - Boulder Mountain, Utah

This is an image I captured while walking along a trail on Boulder Mountain, Utah. I used a 135 mm lens to compress the depth of field. I love the symmetry, color and abstraction in this image!

An example of (bad) timing

Here are two images from a recent trip to the South Mule Canyon Ruins of Southern Utah. This is a site that is best photographed in the early/mid morning hours. I arrived at about 2 pm to find the famous 'House on Fire' ruin in partial sun. This creates a high dynamic contrast sitation that is undesireable. The second image is at the same time but in a total shade area to show the difference of both impact and even tonalities. Today's lesson: Timing is Everything!

Albuqurque, New Mexico

This is an image captured recently in Albuqurque. I was fascinated by the organic shapes and the 'window' to the sky here. This is a composite with the sky inserted from another image and then sepia toned. Like.

Metate Arch

This an image capture from a trip this last Fall to Southern Utah. This is Metate Arch in The Grand Staircase of the Escalante, one of the most remote and beautiful areas of the state.

To The Center

This is an image from the Bentonite Hills near Capitol Reef National Park in Southern Utah.

This is an incredible area of texture and color and unlimited image opportunities. I was here an an overcast day which made the colors incredibly saturated. I would like to return to this area with a nude model to place as a juxtaposition to this landscape.

Sea of Dreams

I have always been a 'straight' image maker when it comes to photography. I subscribe to the precepts of the f64 group of Edward Weston, Ansel Adams etc. Although the natural world can be as abstract as one can imagine, the advent of the digital age has enabled these types of dreamscapes to be easily created. I imagined this composite (or something similar) when I captured the image of the ocean with 'sea smoke'. The unearthly charachter of the ocean waves with steam coming off of it began the wheels turning. It has been 4 years from the capture of the first image to the assembly of this composite. How does it make you feel? What kind of emotions does it evoke for you?

This is a composite image that I had been envisioning for some time. The ocean is from Acadia National Park, Maine. The Clouds are from a Utah image. The moon is also from an image taken on the full moon in northern Maine.