Twenty-one years ago I took my first plunge into international travel. A two-week trip exploring England and the rest of the UK helped galvanize my love of exploring the wide world we live in. That trip also marked the first time I ever used a digital camera. It boasted a three-megapixel sensor and could store a whopping 256 MB of photos! Little did I know at the time how much that small device would change how I approached photography. As […]
Something is enchanting about the desert in the winter. It’s one of my favorite times to visit and explore the more arid parts of the US. Most people associate the desert with severe heat and lack of water, but winter can bring the opposite extremes, especially in higher elevations. Those intense opposites also helped carve and shape this region and its unique look. “Red Rock in Blue Light” was one of the highlights of my most recent exploration of Southern […]
Like most photographers, I love the transition seasons of autumn and spring, even if they are shorter here than in most parts of the US. That said, I feel like it makes finding beautiful seasonal scenes in Southern California all that more satisfying. In some years you can even see trees with new “spring” leaves before all the leaves from the previous fall have finished dropping. “Surface Tension” was derived from an exploration of a nearly dry creekbed littered with […]
Anyone who has followed me for a while knows I have a soft spot for bristlecone trees. They make for such fascinating subjects. In fall 2023 I wanted to introduce them to Kim on our trip up through the Eastern Sierra Nevada. So we did a quick little early morning hike where I discovered this beautiful tree. I have probably walked past this tree 10-15 times before, but for whatever reason it caught my attention this trip in the autumnal […]
Living in Southern California, I feel like I am always late to experience autumn and all the beautiful colors it brings. To remedy this, the Eastern Sierra Nevada has been a favorite fall destination for me. Last year I was so excited to show Kim and the girls some of my favorite fall locations. Our first morning I took them to one of my favorite canyons and the aspens were gorgeous, just starting to turn color. “Aspens in Morning Reflected […]
Living in Southern California, we are blessed to have a variety of mountains within an hour’s drive away. They may not be as striking as their cousins to the north, the Sierra Nevada, but they have unique charms. I fondly remember day hikes, backpacks, and many other adventures on those local peaks. Additionally, for me, mornings like when I took “Winter Sunrise on Mount Baldy” are a good reminder that there are some wild and natural places near the urban […]
A serendipitous discovery wandering the beach after my original weekend photo trip was washed away by Hurricane Hillary in 2023. Lo and behold I found this patch of busted up tidal rock! This motif is a little rock patch at one of my favorite locations. The colors are what first drew me to this little patch, but the line patterns in the busted-up rocks keep me fixated on this particular composition. Visiting my local coastal rock formations has been a […]
An alternate title could have been “Springtime on the Planet Vulcan”. For those unfamiliar with Vasquez Rocks, you have more than likely seen it you just never knew the location’s name. Most likely you’ll recognize it from the countless movies, television shows, commercials, and music videos it has appeared in. Its location inside the Thirty-Mile Zone created by Hollywood labor unions to determine per diem rates made it a popular set for shows like Star Trek and many Westerns. Personally, […]
This past winter I was invited on a trip to the desert where we had a serendipitous moment. The sandstone in the area was adorned with a whitish-blue coating—like someone had brushed on blue sidewalk chalk throughout the region. The striking, at times subtle, contrasts of the blues paired with the red rock were incredible to behold in person and a pure joy to explore visually with my camera. In that moment I knew it would be impossible for one […]
This is on the shortlist of one of my favorite images this year. A scene I stumbled across as we were scouting for a good place to watch the Perseid meteor shower that evening. As we explored the area I looked up to the hills and saw this lone Joshua Tree standing in front of a massive looming monsoonal thundercloud. It was such a striking moment. I knew as I captured it, I wanted to process it in black & […]