Piedras Blancas Beach, CA

Piedras Blancas. There is a section of beach where elephant seals congregate to mate, feed, lounge, etc. Early in the year you can go and see the pups. These pups are a few months old and many of their mothers have already left to eat. When the pups get hungry enough they will venture to the ocean and learn to swim and catch fish in the shallows. Then, as per their instincts, they will swim off and continue the cycles of life.

Getty Villa

The Getty Villa. Check it out.
I was able to go there in March for the first time. It is really nice. Lovely architecture, gardens, fountains, art, history. Here are a few snaps I liked from the adventure:

California Museum of Photography (CMP)

Well,
Some exciting news!
The documentary I did on Kurt Weston was shown as part of an exhibit at CMP last weekend. The exhibit looked amazing! It was pretty cool being a part of the gallery and having some work on display! Here are a few photos from the evening:

Some of Kurt's work at the entrance


Kurt's main display
Me looking at my video.
Logan watching my video on the right.The entrance to the gallery.

A fun evening all around!

#14

Somehow over the last 20 days I have become 7 days behind in this whole blog updating deal. My bad. It has been an interesting process. Reflecting on how I thought this would go and how it actually happened has been good. I had hoped that I would have time every single day to sit down and type something that could be more than a surface level inspection of the past three years. However, find the inspiration to do that has been hard. Some days stuff seems to flow, other days I could barely open the blog to add something and still other days I missed out completely. Often I found myself to busy or completely forgetting to post. Everything I want to do requires some form of sacrifice. Some more than others. Compared to having a family, career, obligations, a partner, blogging (which one of these doesn't belong here?) does not carry much weight. Blogging, in the scheme of things, is fairly insignificant, but if it helps me to connect with people, I'm all for it. People are what matter.

I hope this finds my friends and family well! I have had amazing news over the last few weeks of babies being born, wedding plans (not my own, I'd let you know), friendships, all sorts of things.

For now, fairwell!
Take luck!

#12

Children.

"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944), 'The Little Prince', 1943

#11

Sunset over the ocean! Definitely something everyone should experience in their lifetime. The Channel Islands create a beautiful scape along the horizon. This is another one from my first session at Brooks. The sun is an amazing thing. A sunset where the sun sets solely beyond the horizon is nice, but when there is something else to reflect and distort the light its beauty multiplies. Clouds, water, distant mountains, faces of friends, wet beaches, life.

New Camera!!

Chris, thank you so much!
I received this little guy on thursday. An amazing addition to the crew.

Those are regular sized coins, in case you were wondering.

Here are a few pics from the Leica.

Neighbors back yard.
Desk lamp
Ocean

Joy. :)

#10

So I'm a bit behind...
Here are a two I took last night.



People.
I will always remember people.
The intrinsic value of each human being regardless.
We each reflect something so great: compassion, inspiration, encouragement, joy, sadness, empathy, hope, love.
The experience of one person affecting another in a positive way.
I can remember so many moments with friends, family, strangers, when I was affected, encouraged, inspired.
I implore each of you to take a moment for the people in your life, to affect.
Happy Valentines, tomorrow.

"Be the change you want to see in the world" - Mahatma Gandi

Reflection #3

Knowing when to just go with the flow and when to take a stand is a difficult line to walk. Usually, we have 20/20 hindsight. Those were my first thoughts when I saw these images together.


Both of these images are from the Nature class with Ralph Clevenger. Thank you Ralph for new insight into the art of Nature photography! It was an invaluable class. Rock Creek near Toms Place, California. It is easy to stick together when the water is smooth.



This is from Rock Creek Lake. The solidarity of the rock is what captured my eye. The peace of the lake at sunrise, the clarity and simplicity. So many things in life are at one time or another constant, comfortable, still, peaceful. There is definitely beauty in some chaos but the still quiet moments seem to be more and more rare to find. Taking time to be. Breathe.
In many of the trips I've taken I have been extremely fortunate to be able to find that time. A time to set my camera down and pick up a rock to skip. To sit peacefully beside flowing water, or a soft breeze, to wake up with the sun rising proudly over the White Mountains or setting peacefully behind the towers that make up the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Reflection #1 (in no particular order)

So it is now officially February. I graduate in 29 days. A bit of a strange thought. I have been a student for as long as I can remember and in 1 month I will be entering a whole new phase of life! It is super super exciting and yet at the same time I live in a very nice bubble. School is familiar, I know the cycles and what is expected. I know when I get stressed, when I push myself, how to stay inspired, who to turn to when I get overwhelmed. I know where all the campuses are, I know what I'm doing here, I know that what I'm learning has been building up to a ceremony that doesn't last long and yet will be one of the single greatest accomplishments of my still young life. I would love to hear any advise or words of wisdom anyone cares to share!

Over the next month I'm going to try and put up at least one image of reflections, more so literally, however they symbolize the thoughts going through my head of what I have learned during the last three years. Some of the images I took at school, some while vacationing, some while walking though downtown's, some before dawn on mountain tops or alpine lakes. I'll give a snippet for each one.

Starting of is the Santa Ynez River in Santa Barbara, California. I took this my first session at Brooks in 2005, so long ago. I forgot about this image for about 2.5 years. I kind of stumbled over it in the ole' archives. I'm glad I did.



'And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of.'
-William Shakespeare

Joshua Tree

Stars

Click Image for Larger View

Stuff

Santa Barbara

Form

Right Turn

Green Leaves

112

And now for something completely different:

Google search results:
"taylor swift" - 15,300,000
"taylor adam swift" - 403 (getting up there!)
"taylor alison swift" - 31,000
"taylor swift beating up a velociraptor" - 0
"taylor adam swift more popular than taylor alison swift" - 0 (still working on that one)
"taylor swift blog" - 3,880,000
"taylor adam swift blog" - 1,060,000 (interesting, of course all those hits aren't mine...)
"yes" - 838,000,000
"no" - 8,010,000,000
"how to lose weight" - 2,470,000
"how to gain weight" - 282,000
"i care" - 14,000,000
"i don't care" - 29,100,000
"i can't" - 298,000,000
"i cant" - 357,000,000
"i can" - 702,000,000 (yes!)
"i will" - 446,000,000 (alright)

So basically these numbers are how many sites have a specific word or phrase. Here are some pics. :)
Lake Tahoe

Eastern Seirra Range
Joshua Tree
"My best work is often almost unconscious and occurs ahead of my ability to understand it." -Sam Abell

Brooks NPPA

http://www.brooksnppa.org/

Check out the Week 4 folder!

Last Week

Happy Thanksgiving!!
Slightly belated but I was having too much fun to post anything. So here are a few pics from the last week or so! Enjoy!!

We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news...

Ok, so lately I've been playing catch-up with recent adventures and what not. I finally made it to September, the day before October, and now I must jump ahead. I'm sitting here in the Looney Bean Coffee Shop in Bishop, Ca. I have been here in Bishop since Thursday, Oct 2 climbing and taking pictures. I can't wait until I catch up to show you these photos. So here are a few that I am totally stoked on:

Goleta Slough

I am currently in a Nature Photography class and on the first day of class we had some images due from a few local spots around Santa Barbara. Here are a few from from the Goleta Slough near UCSB.

Sailing with Tom

On August 22 I got to go sailing with a friend of a friend, Tom, out on the Ventura Harbor. I can't remember ever being on a real sail boat before this, so again a first. I think if August were to have a theme it would be: Never Before. I have been able to do things I have never done and see places I have never been! It has been truly amazing! Here are some pics from sailing...




"Continual failure is a road to success - if you have the strength to go on." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lake Tahoe, Ca

On August 14-17 I drove my friend Breezy, who has a broken leg, to her hometown of Lake Tahoe so she could shoot a wedding. I have never been there so it was very cool to see some new spots and some amazing light! The mountain air breathes so well compared to this low level stuff. Here are some pics from the adventure...








"Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift." - Albert Einstein

Mt Whitney - A bit late...

I was in the Eastern Sierra Mountains from June 25-29 hiking and taking time to breathe. I highly recommend it. Not only going to the Sierra but also taking time to breathe. It is so refreshing to simply be and breathe and take in all that is around. So often I am rushing from here to there or sitting for hours in front of a monitor. Looking back on this adventure I am caught up in how good it was. Hiking up mountains, jumping in glacier lakes, breathing in the fresh mountain (thin) air, peace, epic mountainscapes that have stood the test of time.
I learned that these mountains are still growing. With each earthquake on the eastern side it force them a little bit higher, however, wind and rain and ice are maintaining a consistent height.For more pictures from my trip click here.

"Photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me." - Sam Abell

Sequoia National Park

The first weekend in August I was in Sequoia National Park with some friends. It was such a fun trip, lots of good conversation and I had not yet been to Sequoia so I was getting to see some new stuff! It was also cool because Sequoia is on the west side of the Sierra's and just a few weeks earlier I had been on the east side climbing Mt Whitney.


"Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and the skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man." - Edward Steichen

Whew!

It has been a while since my last post. I finished another class at Brooks. It feels so good to be on break, even it if is only for a week. I have been very busy exploring and adventuring across the western US, mainly California, Utah, and Arizona. Over the next several days I'll be updating the blog and sharing the adventures with you all. I hope you enjoy!

Here are a few from the sunset here in Ventura at the end of July:

Some Recent Photos

Hot air balloons are cool, but I imagine riding in one on a clear day. Maybe that's just me...
Fire
More Fire
A warm cup o tea. mmm
Last fire, I'm a guy, what can I say. I like fire.

"I tried to keep both arts alive, but the camera won. I found that while the camera does not express the soul, perhaps a photograph can!"
Ansel Adams

Local Landscapes

Here are a few shots from last week when I was out at sunrise looking for fun light. I enjoy these because they are local. Photography can be so fun sometimes! I particularly like this bottom one here. Maybe my mood, maybe the warm light, I don't know, I just like it.



"A mad, keen photographer needs to get out into the world and work and make mistakes."
Sam Abell

July 4th

Randomness from the 4th of July. It was a good time, enjoy.








I know, I know. A bit late, but at least I got around to it.



"If a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up." - Richard Avedon

Yes!

I am so excited! Thank you Jennifer for your help! I love having the blog linked directly to my website, so stoked!