PixelatedImage Blog

This is one of those long “cram as much into one post as possible” posts. The last month’s been sparse around here with all my travel, so now’s my time to play catch-up.

ITALY WITHIN THE FRAME

The iWTF trips were amazing and as Jeffrey Chapman and I get ready for next year’s offerings I’m already getting homesick for the places we called home during our time there. I enjoy all my workshops but these ones were special; might have had something to do with the spectacular scenery, and seemingly unending food and wine that was simply incredible. Loved it. It was a new thing for me, shooting in Europe for the first time in years and finding my rhythm, especially where photographing people was concerned. But your vision adapts to new places and new constraints, and I came home with images I’m proud of. Most of my images there were experimental and I’ve found that looking at all my work that way frees me to take more risks and be less safe. Anyways, amazing time there. If you click on the image above it’ll take you to a slideshow of the work I shot there. This is a rough edit and the post-production was done in a hurry on the road, but here’s a first look. Click HERE or on the image above.

By the way, there are still spots on the Kathmandu Within The Frame workshop in Nepal this fall. Click HERE for more information.

WHAT NOW?

Weirdly, I am now home for a stretch. I’ve got brief trips to San Francisco, New York City, and Maui planned for one thing or another, but until I take off for Lumen Dei India in September, I’m around for almost three months. During that time I’m wrapping up one project, beginning another, and working on releasing a few more Craft & Vision books to you. Then it’s Lumen Dei India in September, Kathmandu Within The Frame in October, and I think a personal trip to Antarctica in December before starting it all over again for 2011. Phew. I just exhausted myself typing that.

CRAFT & VISION RELEASES

I’m excited to tell you the Craft & Vision team is about to release a few more eBooks – including the second volume of Andrew S. Gibson’s The Magic of Black & White (which I’ll talk about later this week when it’s released), and the first three in a new series called The Print & The Process, which allows the photographs to take center stage, accompanied by a discussion of the creation of those images. I’ve got two coming out but the one I am most excited about is called CHASING REFLECTIONS by Eli Reinholdtsen. Her work is simply amazing and has inspired me in a way I haven’t been in a while. Makes me love photography all over again. Andrew’s book gets released this Thursday, May 27th. We’ve been working hard to keep up with the technology and have decided to change the layouts to a native landscape format so they read easier on both laptops and iPads. Have an iPad? Get the GoodReader app and these eBooks look fantastic!

AND FINALLY…

I just made the last tweaks on Vision & Voice (oh man, do I hope they’re the final ones!) and I’m happy to tell you that at this point it’s early for the deadline which means it’ll go to press on time and release on time. I had a heck of a time with this one. I’m no technical writer and there were days when the Artist and the Geek struggle was heavily in favour of the Geek and the Artist was begging for mercy. The fact that we got it done at all without me spending my advance on whisky is a miracle. But, it’s almost done, I’m still sober, and I’m thrilled with how it looks. It’ll be out in July and with that the vision trilogy will be complete. Until I do the fourth book which I’m embarrassed to tell you I’ve just begun. I know, I said I was taking a break….

LAST WORD.

One of the things that most surprised me in Italy was how taking a more experimental approach and spending such concentrated time with other photographers rejuvenated my vision and my passion for this craft. If it’s been a while since you felt that perhaps you’ll find your muse in a surprising place; stop taking this so seriously, comparing yourself to others, and expecting certain images. Let go, let it be a little more playful or experimental, grab a 50mm lens and go shoot something just for fun. We take things far too seriously sometimes.

Phew, that was a long one. Check out the Italy photographs, I’ll be back in a couple days with a few more things from the backlog in my brain, and the release of Andrew Gibson’s The Magic of Black & White – Part Two, Craft. Have a great weekend. And if you’re in the Commonwealth, a happy Victoria Day Weekend to ya.

The monastery at Lamayuru catching the days last rays. Ladakh, 2009

There are a couple spots left – 2 each, I think – in both my tour in Tibet and the overland trip in Kashmir and Ladakh. I would love to see these spots filled with one of my readers, so if you’ve been thinking about it, these newly opened spots won’t last long.

Tibet, July 20-30, 2010
The trip to Tibet will be absolutely exhilerating. There is more information here, but the highlights are these: we’ll be partnering with some friends in Tibet and working closely with the Tibetans to see and participate in things well off the beaten path. From where we are staying there are over 60 monasteries from all for sects of Tibetan Buddhism in a 50 square mile radius. Of all of Tibet, this area has the highest percentage of actual Tibetans living there – thus also containing the best preserved culture as well. We’ll be in a nomad trading town, so nomads come in almost every day, and we’ll also be in one of the largest pilgrimage sites in all of Tibet – The Jana Mani. The Jana Mani has anywhere from 200 to 1,000 pilgrims circling it at any given time.  This is a chance to see real, and disappearing, Tibetan Culture. We’ll be at spectacular horse festival as the climax of the trip, and will not be in Lhasa – Lhasa has close to 30,000 ( yes, thirty thousand!) local and foreign tourists arriving daily in the summer. We’ll get off the path and share an exciting adventure together. This will be a small group, as small as 6-8 participants, so you’ll have more time with me that want. Seriously, you’ll be sick of me by the end.

For more information on the Tibet tour, click HERE. For photographs of the area we’ll be in, check THIS out.

Kashmir/Ladakh – Sept 12-25, 2010
The trip to Kashmir is also a once in a lifetime kind of thing, in part because traveling with both Matt Brandon and I is something no one should have to do more than once. It’s a great deal of fun and we travel in a small group of 8-9 participants. Matt and I have done tours in both Kashmir and Ladakh now, but never one that spanned both regions and the diversity of geography and culture, from verdant valleys and lakes of Kashmir, and the heavily muslim culture there, to the high altitude deserts of Ladakh and the prevalant Buddhist culure, it’ll be a trip you’ll never forget. Trekking into Lidderwat to spend time with the transhumant Gujjars was a highlight not only of my first trip to Kashmir, but of my life.

For more information on the Kashmir/Ladakh Trip, click HERE. For photographs, head to my PORTFOLIO and look at either the Ladakh or Kashmir galleries.

This July I’m heading to Tibet for the first time and I’ll be exploring the Tibetan plateau with 9 others. You could be one of them.

It’s a small group, as it always is with Lumen Dei tours. We’ll be spending our time among nomads in some of the more remote reaches of the plateau, and our time will be culminating with a large nomad horse festival. I’ve been asked to lead this group as the instructor so will be with you nearly 24/7 for this trip. It’ll be an adventure and while I hate to play favourites I think this is the tour I am most excited about this year, if only because Tibet has been on my bucket list for so long it’s starting to seem like one of those mythical places you read a lot about but doesn’t actually exist.

More information can be found on the site HERE. The tour is from July 20-30, (though the graphic above says 19th to 31st because those are arrival and departure dates)  Cost is USD$4800 from Xining. This one is going to go fast. If the dates don’t work or you prefer to do a similar tour with someone better looking than I am, Matt Brandon will be doing a similar tour, though without the horse festival, from June 18th to July 01st. Info on Matt’s tour can be found HERE.

This is the only remaining tour I am leading for 2010 that is not sold out. If you’ve got an itch to do this once-in-a-lifetime journey and think traveling with me wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world,  then act quick. Can’t wait to see who’s traveling with me for this one. Lumen Dei tours are an unique photographic learning experience; join us!

Lumen Dei was founded by Matt Brandon and I, and still reflects our passion, vision, and ethics, but is now run separately in order to grow with the demand. If you have specific questions about the tour please feel free to ask but I’m in Africa until the middle of February and wouldn’t be able to do more than guess at the answer anyways. I no longer deal with logistics in any way. I focus on what I love and what I am good at – teaching. The other guys do a much better job at the other stuff. My only regret in all this is that I don’t get to travel with Matt, which ought to keep the sarcasm levels down, but now I’ll have no one to snuggle with on those cold Himalayan nights Ahem. All that to say, please direct questions through the Lumen-Dei site and be patient, you’re dealing with very capable people that might be spending a few nights with the nomads and it might take a couple days to get a reply. They’ll take excellent care of you, though.

First, today is the official release day for VisionMongers. I got my copy on Friday and it looks great. Kudos to the fine folks at Peachpit who make my stuff look like a million bucks. Because when it leaves my harddrives it looks like a chaotic pile of words and disorganized images. Am I excited? You betcha! This is a book that’s going to be really helpful to a lot of people and there’s nothing else like it out there right now. Folks who ordered from Peachpit should be getting them asap. Let me know if you’ve got yours?

Stumbled across this on Twitter – it’s called Flickroom and between the goodness of Adobe Air and the interface that finally (FINALLY!) relegates Flickr a little more to the background, this should make Flickr a much less aesthetically abusive experience. I use CoolIris to view Flickr images, this will make it easier to post images to Flickr without me wanting to put my eyes out with a hot fork. Check it out HERE.

The details for Lumen Dei 2010 have just been released. Lumen Dei’s logistics and marketing have been taken over completely by Frontier Treks and Tours, leaving Matt Brandon and I more time to do what we love – shooting and teaching. Details are on a new Lumen Dei site HERE . Don’t go to the old one I haven’t updated it. Remember, it’s first come, first served, and there are only 8 spaces. Last year it sold out in 3 days and my more recent tours have sold out even faster, so if you want in, don’t spend much time hesitating. The rough details are these – the tour runs from September 12 to 25, and we’ll not being going only to Ladakh or only to Kashmir – but a week in each with an overland journey between the two. Should be a blast and I’m already looking forward to next September! More info HERE.

I’ve had another question about why I don’t generally give money to people of whom I make photographs when I travel. In fact someone pointed me to a forum last week where they were discussing this, speculating that I must be stingy. First, it’s a principle not a rule, and there are always, always exceptions. But I think it’s important we remember this – spending time with people and creating photographs as a result of those exchanges is a beautiful, human thing. Reducing it to a financial transaction is not only impossible for every situation, but it will create a climate in which these exchanges become nearly impossible. To be clear, if I spend any amount of real time with someone I’m happy to be as generous as I can possibly be. At times this means money. I’m not a photojournalist, my MO is different. But I’d rather purchase a gift, leave images, or buy something from their stall if they’re merchants. But everyone needs to settle this for themselves. If your initial impulse is to withhold, ask yourself why – and if it’s for lack of generosity, it might be time to change that. If your first reaction is to shell out a dollar, ask yourself if there aren’t better – and more generous – ways to give back. Sometimes it is money, sometimes it’s not. For me, it usually isn’t. But that doesn’t for a moment exclude a reciprocal, generous, exchange – allowing photography to be an act of giving as much – or more than – an act of taking. You make these decisions with both your head and your heart. But merely giving a buck when the hand goes out is probably not the best solution. Of course not everyone will agree with me, I’m ok with that. But I do think we all need to raise the bar on this.

Lastly, there’s a new website coming for my ebooks – it’ll make it much easier for you to browse the books, take a look at coming books, and see which authors are coming out with new books. It’s been rebranded and I’m really excited about it, but most of all I’m excited about the coming books from people like Dave Delnea, Kevin Clark, and Gavin Gough – all photographers I look up to and learn from (and for that reason they are also in VisionMongers, alongside Zack Arias, Joe McNally, Chase Jarvis, and others). There’s good things coming, folks. And the emphasis will still be on vision and education, not buying more gear. And we have no plans to make them any more than $5 each. I’ll update you as soon as I can. For now, I’m taking a break from writing the ebooks, allowing me to work on the next print book, and allowing you to catch up on your own reading. But I have plans. Oh, do I have plans…

See you tomorrow.

I call this one, “She’s a Babe, I’m an Idiot.” So does she.

Yesterday my wife and I marked 6 years of marriage and so today we’re off to British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast for 3 days of hanging out sans internet. Can’t wait. So while I’m doing that, here’s some details – a few recaps, a few new items.

1. On Wednesday Scott Kelby’s Guest Blog spot was by Tyler Stableford. Tyler’s post was moving, and worth a read. And refreshingly free of gear talk. More why, less how, and heart to spare. You can find Tyler on Scott’s Blog HERE.

2. Scott Bourne asked me to host the most recent edition of PhotoFocus, so if you’ve got an hour to kill listen to Scott and I yapping, you can click HERE for Episode #20 of Photofocus.

3. I’m excited to tell you that the dates and details for Lumen Dei 2010 are soon-coming. We’ve got the basics nailed down, so put Sept. 12-25, 2010 on the calendar and wait for more details. As always, there will be room for about 8 people, and spots will go fast. Last year we sold out in less than 3 days.Details will be announced here and on Matt Brandon’s blog as soon as they’re available.

4. Jack Hollingsworth has a poll going to see “which published Photography Author would you like to spend intimate, workshop weekend with at the seaside cottage/studio of @photojack” So go put in a vote, even if it’s not for me. I think this kind of thing would be amazing. But don’t let the whole “intimate weekend” thing mislead you. There will be neither candles nor any slipping into something more comfortable. Unless y’all vote for Joe McNally instead, and then all bets are off.

5. At the beginning of the week I announced the BIG FAT BUSINESS CARD GIVEAWAY THING, be sure to enter. I’ll be drawing the winner at the end of the month.

6. Ralph Clevenger’s new book Photographing Nature is now out. The Fed Ex guy came with mine yesterday which really ticked me off because I thought it might be the first copy of VisionMongers and it wasn’t. Neverthless, hardly Ralph’s fault. Like anything put out by Peachpit Press it’s a thing of beatuy and I’m looking forward to tucking into in preparation for my safari workshop in Kenya this January. And it’s the same size as Within The Frame, and VisionMongers, and Chris Orwig’s Visual Poetry, so they’ll all look great on your shelf together.

7. This article appeared in the Deseret News (Utah) on October 29th and is worth a read. I want to have all the sympathy in the world for the gal losing her gear, but leaving all your gear in the car is just plain stupid. Not that I haven’t done it (and had it stolen, for that matter) but still… It’s a good reminder to be vigilant and insured and for the love of Alfred Eisenstadt don’t leave ALL your harddrives in the car. Backup your stuff. Do it now. Now back it up again and put one of those backups somewhere safe, and preferably not on your own property.

8. Finally, if you missed it. I’m always grateful for you as a community and I’ve created a collection of wallpapers for the iPhone I’d like you to have. You can find all the details on Wednesday’s post HERE.

Have a great weekend. Go shoot something you love. Unless you’re with someone you love as I will be, then it might just be best to put the camera down for a spell. See you on Monday.

Well, we landed in Delhi about 2 hours ago and now that we’re settled in day rooms at the hotel I can send the postcard from Ladakh that I’ve been meaning to send. I shot this at sunset in the Nubra Valley. We got spent 2 days in Hunder after driving over the highest motorable road in the world, some of us on Royal Enfield motorcycles. That’s me below on my buddy Russ’ Thunderbird at 18,500ft. It was spectactular!

The trip was so enjoyable. We’re a pretty organic tour and we limit our numbers to 8 participants; as such we operate more like a family and it’s tough to say goodbye. We saw some incredible scenery, spent time in some great monasteries, shot thousands of images, and ate some incredible food.

Special thanks to the participants that joined us, and to Ami Vitale, a lovely, vibrant photographer with no end of talent. Ami is a world class photographer and she was brave (crazy?) enough to throw in her lot with us as a special guest teacher. We had such a great time together. Also, she has a weird thing with jumping.

I’ll be showing more of my images over the coming weeks, including a desktop wallpaper for October, but the bulk of them will get stored in the secret archives and get used for the next book(s). Speaking of books, the next eBook – “TEN MORE” – will get announced in the next 12 hours of so (update: it’s now up and info is HERE).

Off to Frankfurt in 12 hours, then to Calgary, then to Vancouver, then home. Oh man, I can’t wait to get home!

9pm, New Delhi. The Lumen Dei team is madly packing right now. We’re on a 4am bus to the airport to get the early flight to Ladakh. We spent our today in Nizamuddin Darga, then to Old Delhi for lunch at El Jawahar near Jamma Masjid, and then a couple hours in the chaos of Old Delhi before returning to the hotel to download images, work on them, talk about them, and have a cold beer and great meal together. Tomorrow to the cool and altitude of Leh. There won’t be a hint of internet and if there is I won’t be on it, so we’ll see you in 12 days. Cheers!

PS – Having a great time, wish you were here, etc.

Hello from Delhi. First day of the Lumen Dei Tour and already up to our necks in new experiences and already being prodded further steps down the road of our photographic journeys. Our team is fantastic – wonderful photographers, all of them, and all with a great sense of humour. We spent the morning around Jamma Masjid in Old Delhi, then the afternoon at Nizamuddin. Tomorrow we’ll do it in reverse to take advantage of different light.

I learned something today about the way I see light. It seems I look at problems to be solved, whereas a photographer like Ami Vitale looks at opportunities. The image above is a great example. I first saw the scene (left)  and thought the light was too bright, the dynamic range too high, and dismissed the scene entirely. Then I watched Ami shoot, and instead she used the “problem” to her advantage, exposed for the hand and allowed the rest to go to dramatic shadow. My way of seeing was problem based, hers was opportunity based. I saw “here’s why this light stinks,” and she saw “here’s why this light is amazing.” So then I shot the one above, but it’s a poor imitation of a better shot I saw Ami take.

Anyways, it’s a journey and each time I learn something new I get closer to expressing myself better. Man I love teaching

Tomorrow another day in Delhi, then off to Ladakh. If I post between now and then, consider it a bonus. Otherwise, see you when I get back from Ladakh.

Hello from Delhi. Writing this close to 5am and in a couple hours the 3rd Lumen Dei Tour begins. Yesterday the four of us – Matt Brandon (below), Gavin Gough, Ami Vitale, and I, hung out around Delhi scouted a couple places, and between frames laughed our asses off. Had a great time and can’t wait to unleash Ami (above) on this team. She’s not only a brilliant photographer and truly lovely human being, she’s a riot and I’m officially adopting her as my twin sister. Several of the team arrived early and did some shooting around Delhi yesterday as well – Jon McCormack’s blog has some initial images HERE.

Will try to post something tomorrow morning, but don’t count on it, it’s about to get crazy busy. Namaste! Khuda Hafez!

Here’s the August wallpapers in both 2560×1600 and 1280×853, shot in Ladakh on last year’s Lumen Dei tour. I’m posting it now because in just over a month 8 very lucky folks plus Matt Brandon and I, will be traveling to Ladakh with Ami Vitale. I can’t wait. There’s something magical about the land in Ladakh and while I normally lean heavily to photographing people, it’s hard not to get sucked in by the way the heavens and the earth connect so physically in this place.

Click the image above to get the small wallpaper, and HERE to get the large one.