The First Love

I like both of these pictures for various reasons, but couldn't decide which one to post here. Please feel free to post your opinion here or email me.

The story behind the title and pictures: In the days before I first picked up a camera, I was a musician. I primarily played the alto sax, and for a short time, tenor sax also. In 4th grade, my school district required that all 4th graders play the recorder for a weekly music class. I loved it so much that in 5th grade, I started playing the clarinet. I never liked how wimpy it sounded, so in 6th grade I played the alto saxophone in my jr. high school band. I ended up playing all the way through Intermediate School, High School marching band, concert band, and jazz band; took lessons with 2AZZ1 saxophonist Craig Durst; and played three years with the Cal Poly Pomona Jazz Band and Jazz Combo. I also wrote and arranged a few tunes for the Jazz Combo.

When I quit the college jazz program during my senior year due to over-sized ego (equally sizable mid-section to match) and condescending nature of our director, I started writing and recording my own style of music for myself. I even played tenor sax on a theme song for an indie movie that was to show at a film festival. Music was my life and passion. All the frustrations and emotions I had were channeled through my horn. (Verbally expressing myself has never been comfortable for me though I'm working on it.) I felt that I was near the top of my game by that point and probably could have gone onto being a professional studio musician after graduation but a strange thing happened. I bought a digital camera.

Previously I had shot some 35mm print film to document some trips and vacations but they were all snapshots. Once I got the digital, I was interested in learning how to take good pictures. Once I read a number of books, I decided to give slide film a try and learn to shoot the right way. Due to the high cost of slide film and processing, I took great care in making the best pictures I could and as a result my photography improved. All the while, music was still the main thing in my life.

By then I had just started attending the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. My roommate Brandon and I shared an apartment in the Nob Hill area, coincidentally we both played saxophone. He also played world-class piano in contrast with my hackneyed guitar skills. I kept playing and recording music through the year until I moved out to an apartment near Pacifica. As exhilarating as living in downtown San Francisco was, the urban lifestyle was not for me. The downfall to moving was that I could no longer record music in my apartment. Living near the beach was a lifelong dream of mine so I didn't twice about that. The urge to play remained for a while, but gradually it faded and today several years later I realize that the passion is gone for the most part. I can still play for a few minutes at a time, but my "chops" start to fade after that. It took 13 years worth of playing to build up the muscle control to play at a professional level, and a few years to lose it. Some days I still have the fire in my belly, but sooner or later we all have to face reality. Music was my first love, but photography is my soulmate.

Info on the pictures: The song, "Soul Serenade" was first recorded by the late, great R&B Saxophonist King Curtis aka. Curtis Ousley, then later recorded by David Sanborn. Sanborn was my biggest influence as a sax player. One of his influences was King Curtis. King Curtis was tragically murdered in the early 1970's outside of his apartment in New York City. A long version of "Soul Serenade" was played by his band at his funeral.

In his relatively short life, Curtis recorded with everyone in his era from Ray Charles to Aretha Franklin. Turn on any oldies station and the sax player you hear on most of the songs was probably King Curtis.

The saxophone is my Yamaha alto saxophone. I don't remember which model it is, but it's certainly the best sax I've ever played. (I've owned and tried some terrible ones as well). I've been obsessed with keeping the horn clean since the day I bought it. Now if only I could keep my hiking boots and pants that clean after a day of shooting...

Icon of the Colorado Rockies: The Maroon Bells

Over two weeks ago I spent several days in Aspen, Colorado. My only plans were to photograph the much-photographed, Maroon Bells and that is just what I did. I made five trips up to Maroon Lake from the town of Aspen and it was an adventure each time.



I had just arrived in Aspen on November 3rd from Boulder, Colorado and went straight up to Maroon Lake after eating lunch. It was icy and cold up there but the main thing was that I wasn't acclimated to the high altitude. I was breathing heavy from just walking around the lakeshore and sloshing through the snow trying not to slip on icy patches. After an hour and a half I had a big headache from the altitude so I decided to go back to my car and sleep for two hours til sunset. On the way back to the car, a woman presumably several years older than myself (not bad looking either) struck up a conversation with me asking me if I'd seen any birds. I wasn't there to do any birding so I didn't have any insightful info for her. It was her first time up there too. It goes to show that any place special enough is worthwhile to visit no matter the weather.

After sleeping for an hour and a half in my car, I felt nauteous and was a mental thought away from opening my door and throwing up in the parking lot but I managed to pull it together then decided to drive down the mountain back to town since I didn't think I was in any condition to shoot photos. Somehow as I made it down to the forest entrance, I felt better so I decided to turn around and head back to Maroon Lake. I didn't travel all those miles just to wuss out so I ended up shooting photos til it was dark outside.



The next morning I woke up at an ungodly hour to drive back up to the lake before sunrise. It was snowing lightly in Aspen but as I went further up Maroon Creek Road the snow was heavier and the clouds got thicker to a point where I coudln't see anything anymore since it was still pitch black outside and the road was getting thick with icy powder. I got scared and stopped 3/4 of the way up to shoot road photos and aspen trees. I saw an even crazier photographer, whom I saw later at sunset, in a 4WD pass me and go all the way. That night, we were the last two people to be up at the Maroon Bells. I left before he did and ate dinner downtown. As I was getting back into my car, I realized he was parked next to me and was going to dinner himself. Such a random occurence since I had parked several blocks away from the restaurant.

During my last day in Aspen, the photographer and I were the only two people at Maroon Lake to shoot the sunrise in 24 degree windy conditions. I asked him what if he saw anything the previous morning in that snowstorm. His response, "All I saw was clouds." "That's what I thought, I saw you driving up in that storm but I was too scared to go all the way."

I'll go to certain lengths to get my photos but it's not worth risking my life for pictures.

After I arrived home the following week, it took me some adjustment to get back into domestic life as all I could keep thinking about was Colorado. I think I found my future home. I loved being able to walk everywhere in Aspen and Boulder. It was during the off-season and it was pleasant to not have to deal with hordes of tourists. It's not often I shoot iconic locations, but the Maroon Bells is a place that I fell in love with the first second I saw it despite suffering from altitude sickness.

P.S. I don't understand all the people who go thru the trouble of driving up to the Maroon Lake parking lot to only stop their car for a minute or two then drive off. Apparently they didn't realize they could see a beautiful lake with a perfect reflection of the Maroon Bells if they had gotten out of their car and walked past the outhouse.

Putting Your Own Twist on Familiar Icons Part 2: Trophy Hunt #1, “Batman”

This posting further builds upon the conceptual pre-visualization photography topic of the previous post. Most professional-quality pictures are a result of pre-visualization, meaning that once you start to see in your mind how a photo will look as a finished product before pressing the shutter then your photography starts to improve. That is the main difference between a mediocre photographer and one who is considered to be talented at the craft. Anybody can take good pictures, it’s a matter of putting more thought behind your photos before shooting. Technique can only get you so far though.

In the scenic photography technique books they will all go over the same material essentially such as equipment, rule of thirds compositional technique, exposure, wide angle big foreground and small background, aperture, etc… That’s all fine if you want pretty, but formulaic postcard photos. To get to the next step in photography, it’s about YOUR vision. It’s possible to shoot iconic locations and still put your own stamp on the photo. By showing you this example shown in the rough drawing here, and in my previous post, these are real world, albeit challenging examples of how to apply pre-visualization to your photography. Pardon the poor drawing as this is a hypothetical photo that I will tell you how to shoot.



Me, the Photographer: Okay so I am in New York City for the first time to do travel photography as a photo-junkie tourist. I’m wandering around taking in all the familiar sites: Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Wall Street, Statue of Liberty. It’s midday so I’m not carrying my tripod and basically taking snapshots. I won’t remember any of these shots I took by the end of the trip but it’s still fun. As the end of the day approaches, the light gets warmer, the clouds above start glowing, full moon is out and the skyscraper canyons of Manhattan gets increasingly in deeper shade with only the tallest buildings catching the warm sunlight. I finally have my tripod handy.

It is 7:15 p.m. and judging from the conditions, I estimate that the full moon will rise above the Empire State Building at 7:30 p.m., as the sun is at the horizon. I am currently two blocks away from the Empire State Building so I get over there as soon as possible. As I’m walking over there, I see a cloud being lit from underneath by a god beam from the setting sun so I get the idea to position the cloud so it looks like it’s shining from behind the Empire State Building and have it connect with the full moon, then pray that a bird or bat flies in front of the moon as all the elements come together. With my polarizer, the cloud and moon is contrasted against a dark blue sky. In order to get the moon big enough in the frame, I need a telephoto lens. Probably somewhere in the range of 200 – 400 mm. Battling the moving elements and setting sunlight by constantly moving positions on the sidewalk and re-adjusting my composition, a bat flies out of a sewer and starts to fly in front of the full moon. My camera has already been preset for manual focus and I’m shooting away at 5 frames per second knowing that my once in a lifetime shot could be happening before my eyes. My heart is pounding and I’m profusely sweating my ass off due to the adrenaline rush of such a scene. Nobody on the street knows what I’m doing which is fine because I’m oblivious to them anyway while this is going on. Two seconds later it is all said and done. I check on my digital SLR’s LCD screen and find out that my pre-visualized image was a success. YES!!!

Back at home: We’re looking at all the thousands of stock photos that are available of the Empire State Building. Most of them are all the same, well you know, looks like stock. Being the starving-stay-true-to-your-art type of photographers that we are, anything that looks like stock means that it is average and un-imaginative. We realize that the “Batman” image that we shot is something special so we market that image to poster companies, fine art galleries, magazines, our own ego, etc… The money starts to come in and people start taking notice. Some critics take notice and then bash us for photoshopping the elements together because it looks too good to be true. But you know the truth behind the photo and what it took to get it. You feel fulfilled and take a hiatus from photography knowing that the time off will allow you to replenish your creative juices until you can come up with a better idea that what you had just done in New York.

That my friends, is outdoor photography.

P.S.: I have never been to New York City but I know what trophy photo I will be hunting for if and whenever I go there. If you can pull this photo off, then I will tip my hat to you in awe forever and you can co-write this blog with me.

Putting Your Own Twist on Familiar Icons

The drawing above shows a scene at Arches National Park, Utah that I experienced a week ago while driving in search for a sunrise photo location. I had several ideas for locations that I thought might fit the type of light I was hoping to achieve in my photos, but couldn't decide until I saw this scene drawn above. Then the idea popped into my head that I could "balance" the full moon on top of Balanced Rock. I didn't know if I could pull it off, but I figured it was worth taking a chance since I figured the world probably wasn't going to miss another generic pleasant sunrise image of an southwestern desert icon if I had settled for a scene that was given to me such as the one above. I wanted something more conceptual. Unique interaction between light and landscape is something lacking from most pictures so I wanted to go beyond that and make an image of my own imagination.

I proceeded to pull into the Balanced Rock parking lot while it was still dark outside, then walked until I found a location where I could position the moon to be balanced on top of Balanced Rock at first light alpenglow. It wasn't easy as the moon was setting rapidly so I had to keep re-adjusting positions as the light was changing. I managed to take numerous variations with different lighting but this one most closely resembles what I saw in my mind while driving into the park.



Check back for future posts on other "conceptual" ideas I want to share and ways to achieve them. I'll give you a hint, the next one will involve Batman and travel photography.