 I'm trying to get all of my wintery photos edited before we get too much closer to summer. While I am looking forward to warm weather, and all the fun it brings, I'm already missing the dark, moody skies of winter.
"Winter is a glorious spectacle of glittering fractals complete with a soundscape and atmosphere entirely its own." -Anders Swanson
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 It was an interesting winter. Tahoe got a massive snow storm early on, relatively little after that, until an unusually large and late storm in April brought feet of snow again. I had already put my snow gear away and was mentally preparing for warmer weather when the April storm hit. Thankfully I was able to get a couple extra days of snowboarding in, and managed to snap some fun winter photos along the way.
"We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives." -Garry Zukhav  I was driving to Tahoe to snowboard when I passed this incredible scene. The snow was softly falling on this beautiful lake as the sun was trying to blast it's way through the clouds. And although I was in a hurry to get to the slopes to enjoy the freshest runs, this was absolutely worth stopping for. And I'd do it again every single time.
"Silently, like thoughts that come and go, the snowflakes fall, each one a gem." -William Hamilton Gibson  Just when it felt like we were going to have an early summer here in California, a random storm dumped a bunch of rain in the valleys and a bunch of snow on the mountains. I'm not complaining - we need all the moisture we can get. And I am always grateful for a cloudy and colorful sky.
"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky." -Rabindranath Tagore  I've shared before that I'd like to eventually turn this photography passion into a relatively, if not completely, full-time venture. I have visions of traveling the world, capturing it's immense beauty and sharing it with all of you. And somehow making money at it; that's the tricky part. Up until now I've focused on creating greeting cards and drink coasters, which I still have, but in order to broaden my offerings, I recently loaded a ton of print options to my website as well. I have multiple other product ideas in mind, but for now I'm really excited about expanding more into prints and love the idea of my photos enhancing parts of your home. So, if you love my photography, and have some walls that need decorating, I'd be absolutely honored if you stopped by my website to take a look at the options. I think you'll recognize some old favorites, plenty of my new ones, including this never before seen photo of the magical Multnomah Falls in Oregon. As always, I'm immensely grateful for your support, and I can't wait to hear what you think of the site. Cheers!
"You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love." -Jim Carrey  Unfortunately, I'm not sure any photo, by any photographer, would give complete justice to this scene I saw in real life. But I promise, I tried. It was just after an intense hike to the top of one of my favorite local trails; I came over the ridgeline and this gorgeous foggy canyon scene sprawled before me. The sun was just starting to break through, illuminating the front and back of the canyon while the dramatic shadowy section gently separated them in the center. All the while, the fog softly dusted the mountain tops above. Yet another beautiful display of nature that I'm grateful to have witnessed.
"Actually, it’s nature itself that creates the most beautiful pictures, I’m only choosing the perspective." -Katja Michael  I'm sure I'm not the only one noticing that, here in California, the vibrant green color we got from the big December storm is slowly fading into more yellows and browns. This recent warm weather seems to be accelerating the process. Although, while I most prefer the season change from summer to fall, I can still appreciate a nice mixed array of springtime color as well. Especially if it makes a nice photograph.
"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own." -Charles Dickens  There's an area not too far from my house that is absolutely beautiful, but for whatever reason I just don't visit often. Thankfully a friend introduced me to this incredible hiking trail, which was stunning enough from ground level, but as my drone climbed high into the air, everything changed.
"One moment the world is as it is. The next, it is something entirely different. Something it has never been before." -Anne Rice  I'm not sure if this happens to everyone, but my brain tends to create metaphors from things I see in nature. This tree trunk, for example. It's gnarly, and knobby, and not what I would consider to be an ideal foundation, but that didn't prevent it from growing tall and strong and taking up a commanding position on top of the hill. My brain: "even though there may be flaws in the foundation, that doesn't mean you can't build something really impressive on top of it."
"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach of us more than we can ever learn from books." -John Lubbock  The weather has been gorgeous here in Northern California lately, but the intense sunlight is actually not ideal for photography; low-light is much more preferred. For that reason I haven't been shooting a ton lately. But yesterday was cool and cloudy and lovely, so I went on a hike to see what I'd find. I did discover some really beautiful landscapes, but this reflection scene is the one that excited me most.
"If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph." -Ansel Adams  Joshua Tree is one of the most special places I've ever been. There have only been a few places that I've visited in my life that, as soon as I arrived, I already knew, with intense clarity, that I didn't want to leave. There's a profound energy throughout this beautiful park, and I cannot wait to go back.
"The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature." -Joseph Campbell  The peacefulness of morning has always called to me. Even though it can be hard to leave a nice warm bed, the feeling of the crisp air, the songs of the morning birds, and the reflections off the still waters make it completely worth it to me. I do believe that the most special things in life come at a cost. It just depends on whether you're willing to pay it.
"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day." -Henry David Thoreau  From an artistic standpoint, I've become quite a fan of fog. It makes a relatively ordinary photograph much more interesting and creates the natural effects that some photographers spend hours creating artificially. And to make it even more special, fog doesn't typically stay around long, which makes me appreciate it's presence even more. A quick little blessing that eventually fades away, returning only god knows when.
"In nature, everything has a job. The job of the fog is to beautify further the existing beauties!" -Mehmet Murat Ildan  I'm still in a phase of photography where I'm exploring new techniques, both while actually taking photos and also while editing photos that I've already taken. Can't say I've found my exact "style" yet, but I'm really enjoying testing, learning and growing along the way. In fact, as I reassess my current career, it's become so clear to me that this is what I want to be doing. Because of that, I've decided to purposefully dive much deeper into the art of photography; to become the best I can be at it. I'll also be studying more about the business side; to ideally learn how to make a living doing this thing I love so much. I'm in the process of redesigning my website, creating new products, and shifting those products from Etsy to my website. I'm feeling really positive about the future and, as always, appreciate your love and support that's gotten me this far. I hope to repay that support with years and years of unforgettable photographs.
"You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at the picture for a second and think of it all your life." -Joan Miro  Life has so many ways of distracting me that I often find it difficult to be completely present in any given moment. This may come as no surprise to you, but I feel most centered when I'm outdoors. There's a simplicity and dependability to nature that I love. A calm, quiet, stillness that helps keep me present, and provides me moments to think and to reflect.
"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks." -John Muir  There was one night on my Oregon trip that will forever stand out as a highlight for me. You've already seen other photos from this night; it was when I had the pleasure of visiting Haystack Rock for the sunset. This beach was basically an amusement park for photographers. Everywhere I looked was a new interesting angle, or a water reflection shot, sand texture for the foreground, pretty sunset for the background. It was practically impossible to take a bad photo. This is one of my favorites from that night, which I'm excited to finally share with you.
"Photography is the art of making memories tangible." -Destin Sparks  Last time I shared a photo of the white deer it was fun for me to see how many of you had never seen, nor heard of, these beautiful animals. That's one aspect of photography that I've always loved; it allows me to share with others something they might not otherwise be able to see on their own. And I take a lot of pride in that.
"I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them." -Diane Arbus  This is all that's left of the Peter Iredale; a once 275 foot-long sailing vessel from Liverpool, England that ran aground in Oregon during a storm in 1906. In spirit of the new year, and using the shipwreck as a metaphor, it felt appropriate to remind people that the past is in the past. We can remember it, we can learn from it, but to continue to live in it is doing a disservice to our present and our future. We have all made mistakes, we have all been caught in nasty storms, we have all run our proverbial ships ashore. But that doesn't mean you should avoid sailing completely. It means you should salvage the best parts from the wreckage, leave behind what doesn't serve you, and learn to do all of it better the next time around.
"Holding on is believing that there’s a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future." -Daphne Rose Kingma  This is the last photo I'll be sharing in 2021. It's a bit more abstract than my usual style, but I liked it and wanted to share. This time of year, expectedly, is a time in which I enjoy looking back on the past 12 months; to give gratitude for my blessings and to reflect on the lessons learned. I have so much to be grateful for and am thankful for everything the world has taught me, and continues to teach me (often the hard way). Being a human is a never-ending project, but I do strive to become at least a little bit better every day; in health, wealth, wisdom and generosity. I encourage you to do the same. Time is flying by so fast I can barely believe it, and I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll continue to do so. I sincerely hope that you're finding immense blessings in your life as well, and if you're not, I challenge you to search for them. I guarantee that the more you look for blessings, the more blessings you will find.
"What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year." -Vern McLellan  I realize that I haven't been sharing a whole lot of wildlife lately, but I don't want you to think that I'm no longer interested in it. I admit that I have been focusing more on landscape photography lately in order to improve my photo editing skills, but wildlife will always be a love of mine. Here is an extremely handsome hawk that I spotted recently while hiking in Sonoma. I had seen it earlier in the hike and accidentally scared it off. Fortunately I saw where it landed off in the distance and was able to very slowly approach again to get a redemption photo.
"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience." -Ralph Waldo Emerson  I've been going back through my Oregon photos to finally edit and share all of the ones I haven't gotten around to yet. The amount of photographs I took was immense and the thought of the hours, days and likely weeks necessary to fully edit them was daunting, admittedly. But, like any journey, you'll never get anywhere if you don't get started, so I'm back at it, one photo at a time.
"The only impossible journey is the one you never begin." -Tony Robbins  If you've spent any time up in the Willits/Ukiah area, you've most likely heard about "the white deer." They were apparently brought to the region in the late 1940's when Charles Howard purchased a small herd from his friend, William Randolph Hearst (of Hearst Castle fame). The white deer are local legends. In fact, as a kid my bus route passed by where the white deer were most often seen, and every time the bus entered the area I would press my face to the glass in hopes of seeing them. It always felt like a good omen when I did. However, since taking up photography as an adult I have yet to even see them, let alone photograph them, until now.
"Photography is the art of frozen time… the ability to store emotion and feelings within a frame." -Meshack Otieno  If you've never been to wine country in autumn, you're missing something special. Previously green vineyards start turning orange, red and yellow; a last celebration of color before the vines go dormant for winter.
"Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale." -Lauren Destefano  Autumn is by far my favorite time of year. For weather, for color, for sunsets and for photography. For me, there's no other season in which so many things simply feel RIGHT. And for whatever reason, this season always puts me into a space of gratitude. Perhaps it's the proximity to Thanksgiving, or the near completion of another year, but either way I find myself reflecting on the countless blessings in my life. And that, in and of itself, is something I'm hugely grateful for.
Wishing you a very Happy Thanksgiving! "Notice that autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature." -Friedrich Nietzsche  I woke up early hoping to encounter either a foggy morning or a beautiful sunrise. I find that both add a little extra beauty to whatever the landscape has to offer naturally. I started by walking around the lake, completely unaware that there was a big layer of fog on the other side of the hill. It wasn't until I sent my drone into the air that I saw what was waiting for me off in the distance. I wanted to photograph either a sunrise or some fog. As you can see, I ended up getting both.
"In nature, everything has a job. The job of the fog is to beautify further the existing beauties!" -Mehmet Murat Ildan |
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