David’s Blog
Tidepool update
I have just gotten back from my workshop in Tofino, BC., and I have sad ecological news. The tide pools that I have raved about, that I look forward to seeing and photographing so much are basically decimated. I saw none of the giant, colorful sea stars that the Pacific coast is so famous for and very little of the coexisting critters- eel grass, anemones,...
Lessons From a Fridge
Skimming the cream, skimming the cream, photographers are always skimming the cream. But are they happiest photographing only cliches at the peak times of year? Cream is wonderful stuff but too much of it will kill you. It will rot your creativity as well. While it is true that a cliché is someone else’s best seller there are many pictures to be made once...
The Joys of Delusion
As I write this I am sitting in my favorite leather chair in my favorite living room in my favorite house in my favorite state of slight inebriation. While all that is certainly more fascinating to me then it is to you I am also at this very moment watching the TV program American Idol. (Gasp!) Now what is a fine cultured sophisticated person like myself...
It’s All Timing
Picture this for me and then file it in the “Glamorous Life of a Professional Photographer” file. Right now, I am flying back from Colorado where I was intending to photograph wildflowers and enjoy the Rockies but where I instead lost 7 pounds in 6 days due to a dreadful stomach flu. But the hideousness of that experience is nothing compared to the one I...
Chasing Vermont Landscapes
It’s July, I’m home in Vermont and I am desperate for landscapes. This seems a bit silly, after all, how desperate can a fella be for a landscape shot. All you have to do is go out and find a big attractive lump -mountain, barn, lighthouse – in the background and then find a big attractive lump – flowers, stream, rock – in the foreground, jam them all...
Writing
One of the most persistent questions I have been asked over my career is how to get published. My persistent answer has been- write. This is why. Magazines publish most of their photos as part of articles. While a photo essay used to be a fairly common magazine piece, photo essays (images without words) are increasingly uncommon to increasingly unheard...
One Third of the Way to Nowhere!
Arrggghhh! It has happened again! I have read once more for the ten thousandth time it seems that the proper place to focus for a hyperfocal landscape is one third of the way into the picture! Oh really!?! Let's us all think about this for a moment. A hyperfocal landscape is a composition that goes from very close to very far and it is all in focus....
Teach a Workshop!
So I have been thinking about why professional photographers offer photography workshops. Beyond the obvious- “it pays” (some of the time) – there must be some other more powerful reasons. As this is my thirtieth year of teaching workshops I also wonder why I have been doing it for so long, what keeps me going? Teaching workshops is not a walk in the park...
A Bit of News
The Ten Rules to Ruining an Image
I had spotted him at the Crooked River overlook, a fellow photographer chasing a sunset. He had caught my eye as he cranked through shots, not at all paying attention to what he was doing. He was weathered and bent like an old oak snag and his face, a crush of wrinkles, showed only a faint smile. But he was a gentle man and when he spoke, his words were...
Crank Flaw
I was out taking pictures in my old sugar woods when I looked up and saw a man walking toward me. He was about my age but worn and walking absentmindedly as if he didn’t have a clue where he was going. It was pretty clear he was a fellow photographer. There was something else though that told me he was a photographer. Perhaps it was his bewildered gaze. Or...