Try New Tools – Fani Cortes


In my Death Valley digital photography workshop, Fani Cortes shot with a DSLR modified to make infrared images. She’d go to specific locations and make specific images that would highlight the strengths of this effect. On occasion, she made full-spectrum images that looked identical to her infrared images. The tool gave her a new way of seeing and her images a new look.
How would your photography benefit from exploring non-standard tools?
Which tools would benefit you most?
Read more in my creativity lessons.
Find out more about my Death Valley digital photography workshop.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.
 

When Two Images Are Better Than One – Tom Barry


In my Death Valley digital photography workshop, Tom Barry tried something new. He began shooting images to present side-by-side in diptychs. This formal device gave his images a smart new cinematic quality. This planned experiment opened up a whole new way of thinking and looking for him. Now he’s got new experiments to try – combinations with more than two images. He’s not sure just how far he can or should take it and still be successful. He’s got a mystery on his hands – and this excites him! How will it work out? Only more images will tell.
How could you use two or more images in combination?
What planned experiments would help you most?

Read more in my creativity lessons.
Find out more about my Death Valley digital photography workshop.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.
 

Following Up On Break Throughs – Danielle Vick


In my Death Valley digital photography workshop, Danielle Vick made a break through in her composition skills and found a whole new way of looking. Instead of looking for the next new thing, she stayed focused, went back and repeated her success, went deeper with it, and made this new way of seeing a habit, not just a one time stroke of luck. Her productivity soared. She created a small body of work of related images the following morning. She found a new confidence in her vision and her craft.
Which of your successes would it benefit you to repeat?
Read more in my creativity lessons.
Find out more about my Death Valley digital photography workshop.
Learn more in my digital photography workshops.

My Top 12 Images Of 2010

Reflection XLII

Reflection XLVII

Reflection XXXIX

Reflection XXV

Reflection XXV

 
Reflection XLV

Reflection XLV

Reflection XXVI

Reflection XXVI

Correspondence - Nocturne - LI

Correspondence – Nocturne – LI

Correspondence XLV - Nocturne

Correspondence XLV – Nocturne

Correspondence XXXXVI - Nocturne

Correspondence XXXXVI – Nocturne

Correspondence XXXV - Nocturne

Correspondence XXXV – Nocturne

Correspondence - Nocturne LII

Correspondence – Nocturne LII

Condensation CX - Prelude

Condensation CX – Prelude

This is a selection of my top 12 images of all time. This selection doesn’t reflect sales, publication, or activities on the web. It simply reflects my opinion. Click on the titles to find out more about each image.
Geography
Antarctica, California, Iceland, South America, Utah.
Process
I practiced my typical 80% composite and 20% straight. Can you tell which is which? I hope it’s not obvious and that during this guessing game you begin to look more closely at looking.
Concepts
Light reveals and interacts with surfaces, which both reveal and conceal, sometimes doing both simultaneously. What the viewer sees depends as much on the context (physical location and moment in time) as his or her mental state (education, emotion, intent, awareness).
Magnificent Moment
The time I spent exploring the Great Salt Lake in Utah, several years before these images were completed, was a particularly intense time emotionally for me, some of I hope is reflected in these images and some of which I hope remains personal. The magnificent moment was inside.

View more of my Annual Top 12 Selections here.

View more images in my ebooks here.

View my full Works here.

View my Series videos here.

View new images in my newsletter Collectors Alert.

Images From Death Valley Workshop

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Here are some first pass image selects from my recent Death Valley workshop. They won’t all make the cut, so this may be the only time anyone will ever see some of them. I’m really excited about the material I collected for composites.
We had such great locations, weather, and participants that I scheduled my Death Valley February 18-21, 2011 workshop today.
Find out more about locations in the Death Valley map we’re building right now.
Check out alumni Harry Sandler’s blog posts from the workshop.

Photography's My Favorite Form of Exercise

deathvalley_badwater_walk
Photographing. It’s my favorite form of exercise. You walk, climb, squat, bend, reach, stretch and more – much more. You lose track of time and how far you’ve gone. You just keep going. You always want to go farther. It’s exhilarating! At the end of it all, you feel great and you return with something to show for it. I recommend it to everyone.
This image shows me walking across Badwater during my recent Death Valley workshop.

Oriens I


“Oriens represents a new line of inquiry for me. Take the most compelling passages of changing light throughout an extended duration of time and weave them into a single composition … Neither method, resynchronization or recontextualization, yields a classically objective document. But the results of either application may yield artifacts that are truer to our experience of events. In one respect these represent the events more faithfully — they encompass the passage of time.”
Read the rest of this Statement here.