I think this is called a "blog."

10-24-2007

Recently I was fortunate enough to spend some time in Guadalupe National Park.  Although high winds and freezing temperatures cut my visit short, I was able to capture a nice sunrise from the Tejas Trail above the Dog Canyon campground.   

7-21-2007

During the drought of 2005-2006 here in Texas, I personally knew of some ranchers who were buying hay from as far away as Kansas just to keep their livestock fed.  Nothing was growing anywhere due to the lack of rain and a lot of what was left was being ravaged by wildfire...

How things have changed.  Record rains in our area have meant bumper crops of hay.  This was taken at sunrise around Bulcher, Texas.

7-5-2007

      OK, so this is not exactly my primary line of work and some of what's presented here probably doesn't deserve to be shown.  Nevertheless, this section is something that I've been prodded into doing by the handful of people who have suffered through endless slideshows and albums of my nature photography (primarily my kids and family).  In all honesty, this is still a passion of mine, one that began many years ago; one that all too often takes a backseat to actually earning a living doing portraits.  After 15 years in the portrait / wedding business, one would think that golf or some other outdoor activity would have more appeal to me than getting up in the pre-dawn hours and slogging down some dark trail to a pre-determined location, trying to capture whatever God happens to serve up that day.  To me, nature and landscape photography offers boundless opportunities to get away from the daily grind of running a business, one that just happens to revolve around an art-form that I dearly love.

     As often as possible, I like to re-charge by letting someone else control what I see in front of my camera.  Rather than creating and controlling the light that bounces off of my subject and strikes my CMOS sensor, I can simply react to the changing scene as it happens.  Sometimes I arrive with a well-though-out plan and a vision of what I'd like to take home.  More often, though, I show up with an open mind, a blank canvas so to speak, and just see what happens.  The later approach seems more enjoyable and, while I don't always leave with a wall-hanger, God always provides some sort of reward for my efforts. In the end, it's always worth it.

A word about equipment…

     Photographers are always asked what equipment they use, prefer, recommend, etc.  Let me state first that I am not an equipment junkie, a gear-head, or a techno-geek.  While I do visit a few online forums just to stay abreast of what's available, I choose my equipment based on what works best for me.  Cameras are simply tools, tools that require a certain degree of basic photography skills to operate. Several times over the years, I've heard someone exclaim "Wow, your photos are fantastic!  You must have a really good camera."   Thanks, buddy.  Care to stomp on my heart now that you've torn it out?   While there's nothing wrong with dropping a thousand bucks for a good quality SLR (film or digital), in the end, your skill in using the tools you own will determine the final image quality.  Before you take the plunge, a good question to ask yourself is "Am I being limited by the camera / lens combo I'm currently using?"  Would a Digital SLR with higher ISO or mirror-lockup for example, improve my photos?  Could I have nailed this shot if I had been using that 2.8 telephoto instead of making my mortgage payment?  Basic photography skills apply to film cameras as well as digital, and Photoshop will only go so far to correct a poorly exposed, poorly composed or blurry image.  If you're just starting out, invest in a good basic photography book or take a class or workshop to make sure you’re able to squeeze all the capability you can out of that fancy SLR.  That said, here's what's currently being hauled around in my equipment bag (including my equipment bag).

Canon EOS 1D Mark II n

Canon EOS 20 D (for backup)

Canon 100-400 L IS

Canon 70-200 2.8 L IS

Canon 28-70 2.8 L

Canon 17-40 L

Canon 85 1.2 L

Canon 580 EX Flash (2 of 'em)

Better Beamer Flash extender

Canon remote release

Singh-Ray Galen Rowell ND Filters,

Singh-Ray Daryl Benson Reverse Grad ND Filters

Singh-Ray Vari-ND Filter

Circular polarizer and an IR filter which I haven't quite mastered yet

Lots of batteries and several Sandisk CF cards

All packed neatly into a Lowe-Pro TrekkerII AW backpack

My current tripod is a Gitzo 1325 Carbon Fiber with a  BH-55 Pro ballhead from Really Right Stuff plus a Wimberley Sidekick for flight shots.

 

       What I hope this gallery becomes eventually is something more than a place to show off a bunch of pretty pictures.  Every photo that will eventually land in this gallery has a story behind it as well as some technical information which may prove useful to someone else.  Where possible, I've tried to include GPS data that will at least get you to the same area where the photo was taken.  In some cases, the location is obvious.

A word about light…

Standing on the side of the road at high noon in July, pointing a disposable camera at some distant mountain range and hoping the photos “turn out.” That’s how a lot of people approach landscape photography. Just a quick record of where you’ve been, a grab shot out the window of a moving vehicle. While these types of hastily obtained photos have a place in your family scrapbook, they’re not likely to earn a spot on the living room wall. There are several things that could be improved upon in the above scenario, but the one that would make the most difference is the one the photographer has the least amount of control over. I’m talking about the middle-of-the-day sunshine that (unless softened by consistently heavy cloud cover) will cause dark muddy shadows or blown out highlights, regardless of your chosen medium, be it film or digital. Sometimes, your most valuable piece of equipment can be a cheap alarm clock. Nothing compares, in my opinion to the soft, predawn light that happens on all but the most overcast of mornings. While comparable results can be achieved at sunset, personally I prefer the pastel hues that precede the dawn. Of course, most scenes will require the use of either a graduated neutral density filter or some heavy duty Photoshop heroics to properly render both sky and landscape. I cannot stress enough the importance of light to what any photographer is trying to achieve. Poor lighting will render all that fancy equipment useless and usually means the difference between scrapbook, scrapheap or living room wall.

Note: Kip Garner’s wife does, in fact allow him to hang the occasional trophy on the living room wall.