PixelatedImage Blog

Hello from Roatan, in the Bay Islands of Honduras. I’m limiting my movements to snorkeling and reading in the hammock and foraging for nuts and berries at the bar, so if this is all you hear from me this week, that’s why. Please don’t send search and rescue, I like it here. Yesterday I left Oaxaca far earlier than I’d have liked to. Here’s the stuff I scraped off the inside wall of my heart while I reflected on this trip.

Last year I traveled back to Kathmandu, a place in which i feel very much at home. Despite this ease-of-being in that visually rich place, I wrestled with finding anything remotely close to a vision of the place. I wrote about it publicly here on the blog and was flogged by at least one reader who felt my angst was exhausting. Generally that kind of feedback discourages me, can even flatten me for a day while i regain my perspective, but in this case it’s given me something to laugh about for over a year. Man, if my angst exhausts you, you should try being me. I need a nap just writing about it.

I don’t do angst. I do hope. But I understand, too well sometimes, what it feels like to be an artist. If you pick up a camera in order to simply play with large lenses, make perfect exposures, or gather material for your latest cookie-cutter over-texturized HDR photographs and this week’s Flickr love-fest, then I understand why you might find my honesty about my own life as an aspiring artist a little wearying. But I hope to one day be a visual poet whose work echoes more clearly the voice in his mind and heart. And that journey isn’t easy.

In the six months since my fall in Italy I’ve had high moments. My photography is not among them. I’ve now been back in the field, walking through the world with tentative steps, in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Mexico. What I had hoped would be journeys of renewal have been anything but. I’ve had long days of pain, fallen over gravestones during the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, had my cane stuck in the mud of Laotian rice-paddies. Mostly I’ve just laughed, because I get a little stronger every day. What shows no evidence of strengthening is my nerve. I’m slow. I can’t move the way I once did. I can’t squat or kneel on one knee without looking like a slapstick performer and falling over. I can’t get where I want to be to make the photograph, or easily carry the gear I need to make it.

But if this sounds like a building storm of pity, it’s not. It’s simply the recognition of a new reality. A reality, like yours, that is full of constraints. But while art flourishes in constraints, it does not do so easily. I am slowing down. I am back in school. And like many of my own students, having a melt-down on the first day of a workshop, I’ve come back to that place where nothing – nothing – comes easily. What has this new reality given me? Time. It has slowed me down. It has forced my hand to the making of the photographs I truly want to make, and while I’m still failing in those efforts, I’m learning.

I was in Oaxaca last week for the Day of the Dead. I don’t think I emerged with a single photograph of the festival. Instead i made some still-lifes, and a few portraits. I shot less than 500 frames, almost none of them even close to my hopes. In the past, I might have judged this a failure, but in the face of feeling like I might not be able to do this anymore, like my best work is behind me, or that I just won’t make the same photographs again, these few portraits are new, faltering steps back towards my art. And I’m right: I won’t make the same kinds of photographs. They’ll be different, because I am. And as long as they’re honest, I’m hoping they’re also going to be stronger. Slowing down isn’t a bad thing. Less so-called “keepers” isn’t a bad thing. Honest photographs matter. Hard-drives full of images don’t.

My friend Fernando. (I can hear the drums…)

Everyone I know rides the ups and downs of creative life, beaten around by our circumstances, our failures, the latest work of that photographer whose talent we secretly envy. Sometimes it’s just the disparity between what we see in our mind’s eye and what we’re capable of creating with the camera in our hands. I don’t know a single so-called pro whose work I respect that finds this always easy. Rewarding? Profoundly so. Difficult? Also so. Your work will be judged on what it is, not what it isn’t. It will resonate beautifully with people who don’t know how hard it was for you to make it, and even more for the few who do.

Huge thanks to the amazing people and new friends who shared last weeks adventure in Oaxaca with me.

Manfrotto School of Xcellence, Monday Oct. 24, 2011. 2pm – 3pm PDT
More information on the Manfrotto site HERE

On Tuesday morning I jump in the Jeep and drive down to Syracuse, NY to join Jeffrey Chapman for some spectacular Cambodian/Thai food before we jump an early morning flight on Wednesday to Oaxaco, Mexico for our Oaxaca Within The Frame, Day of the Dead Adventure. Very excited.

Tomorrow (Monday ,Oct 24, 2011), I’ll be on the air at 2pm PDT / 5pm EDT for the Manfrotto School of Xcellence (don’t get me started on alternate spellings. Just plain goofy.) giving a free one-hour webinar presentation about Building Better Photographs. The presentation is largely based on the principles of the newest book, Photographically Speaking, though in a much distilled form. I’d love you to join us. These presentations are always fun (read: fraught with tech issues) and I’ll be glad to have some friends in the audience. Join us! (Follow the link at the top to the Manfrotto site)

Manfrotto School of Xcellence, Monday Nov. 21, 2011. 2pm – 3pm PDT
More information on the Manfrotto site HERE

Next month, same time, I’ll be doing another one called Confessions of a So-Called Pro. Here’s the blurb: When professional photographer and best-selling author David duChemin left a 12-year career in comedy to pursue his first creative love, photography, he tried very hard to be the “professional” he thought he was meant to be. What he discovered along the way was that being a productive photographer that loved his craft had nothing to do with getting paid. More than that, he learned many lessons about the craft of photography that apply to everyone, from so-called amateur to so-called pro. Join David in a candid discussion about the journey of photography.

I’d love you to join us for that too. Between now and then I’ll be in Oaxaca shooting the Day of the Dead, and on Roatan, Honduras, doing nothing at all. The last trip I went really light, this time I’m taking a Nikon D3s, Sigma 20/1.8, Nikon 24mm PC-E, and Sigma 85/1.4. 4 batteries, no charger. 2 x 64 GB SanDisk cards. Gitzo Ocean Traveler tripod, and a couple Singh Ray filters. It’s a fraction of what I once carried but already it feels like I’m packing for an expedition! I’ll carry it all on my back in a Think Thank Photo Airport Acceleration, until I get there, when I’ll pop my working gear into a Think Tank Retro 30. Wow, that was a lot of gear talk in one paragraph. Let’s move on.

Lastly, Photographically Speaking is now shipping and I’m getting really beautiful early comments and reactions. Thank you again for the support! I think this one is the strongest of the so-called vision trilogy. If you haven’t got one yet, you can do so on Amazon.com HERE or Barnes & Nobles HERE. If you’ve already got yours and don’t mind leaving a quick review on Amazon, I’d be grateful.

Will try to check in from Oaxaca and Roatan and send postcards! See you when I get back!

Last week I got a call from FedEx in Vancouver. They tried to deliver the first copies of Photographically Speaking to an address I’ve not lived in for 9 months. Sigh. Getting the first copies of a new book – I mean literally the first two copies off the press – is a thrill and I’m a little sad I’m not there to get them. But it means – and this is the point – the book is out and within days now some of you should be getting first copies!! I can’t wait for you to have it in your hands, though there’s a good chance now that some of you will see it before I do, which seems a little unfair.

If you get the book, I wonder if you’d do me a favor and share. I’ve got three ideas how you can do that.

1. Share with me.
Would you let me know you got it? I’d love to see its progress as deliveries happen. It’s a thrill to see people around the world pick up something you’ve worked so hard on.

2. Share with the World!
If you enjoy the book, would you help me out by telling the world? If you have a blog or use Facebook or Twitter would you point people to the book on Amazon? Would you consider writing an enthusiastic, but helpful and honest, review and posting it on Amazon? These reviews are so helpful and they help offset the occasional rants and weird personal attacks. No need to write a novel, or undue praise, just a short comment and honest rating would be great. Thanks in advance. While you’re at it, feel free to do that for any of the other books you’ve read, by me or any other author – it’s a small thing but it means a great deal to us.

3. Share with your Community.
If you’ve got a few extra shekels, would you consider donating a copy to your local library? There are a lot of students that would benefit from this book but library budgets get tighter and tighter every year. I’d love to know people can read my books and never pay a penny to do so.

If you don’t have a few extra shekels, but you know a student or struggling photographer that could use a copy and can’t afford one, would you please leave a comment below and tell me about them? You can use first names only, or change names to protect the innocent, I just want to pass along some love. I’m going to ask Peachpit, my publisher, to send 20 copies to photographers that simply can’t afford them. We’ll select them, and then send the copy to you to deliver in person. Cool?

Where Within The Frame was sometimes perceived as just a book about travel photography, Photographically Speaking is for everyone. It addresses the most fundamental stuff of our craft – photographs themselves. It talks about the language of photographs and how an understanding of the visual language can make our images stronger. My hope is that you find this book important enough to you to share with others.

You can find Photographically Speaking on Amazon.com HERE, and if you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a brief intro video to the book HERE. Anyways, book’s almost here. Thanks, as always for your support.

Almost a year ago I bought a 1993 Land Rover Defender named Jessie. To say we had a rocky start is an understatement. There were days I was torn between loving that Defender and wanting to drive her into the ocean. Things took a while to smooth out for Jessie and I, but I bribed her with a new transmission, and at the end of February 2011, I packed up my Vancouver condo, sold most of my possessions, and packed what remained into the Defender and began what was to be a one-year nomadic life as I traveled around North America.

And then I fell off the wall in Pisa, and took 4 months to get Jessie back from Atlanta where I left her to fly to Italy. In all the chaos of recovery I needed to register and license Jessie in Ontario, my temporary home while I recovered. That registration required a safety certification which I learned Jessie would never pass. Not even close. Extensive corrosion in the frame forced me to take her off the road. There’s a good chance repairs are not an option, leaving me two choices – replace the frame (in other words, re-build her completely), or sell her to someone with more time and resources to do a restoration. I’m still mulling it over, but the end is the same: if I want to resume my nomadic life – and I do – then Jessie and I need to say good-bye. If you want to say “I told you so,” get in line. In the meantime, I’m unrepentant – Jessie and I had a great time while it lasted.

So, enter Emily. Emily’s a 2011 Jeep Wrangler. And in February, when I get back from Ethiopia and Kenya, I’ll finally (finally!!) pack my gear up and resume my journey. This time I’m taking much more time to see, and photograph, the American west, spending as much of 2012 as I can. If I move back to Vancouver it’ll be late Autumn 2012, but the nomadic life suits me very well, so we’ll play it by ear. Until then I’m living lighter and lighter as the days go by – a desire of mine made easier by the fact that there’s just a lot less room in the back of the Jeep than the Land Rover. This return to simplicity, something I once embraced much more easily, has made more room in my life and my heart & mind for the most important things. The last year has been the most profound gift.

I’m still choking on the need to take Jessie off the road, but as much as I love the Land Rover, it is the journey and the adventure I love most. So yes, the Jeep is sexy and new, and she’s comfortable and fast. But character is earned, not purchased, so she just needs some adventures and some miles under her wheels before I enjoy her nearly as much as I did Jessie.  I spent this past weekend enjoying the fall colors on the snowmobile trails at my family’s cottage on the south edge of Algonquin Park, and I think Emily and I are going to get along just fine.

Can’t wait to pack my cameras and tripods into the back and get back to the journey. We’ll head south along the eastern seaboard fairly quickly (give me a break, it’ll be February and I’ll be camping!) and after a week or so in the Florida Keys, I’ll head west. I plan to spend as much time as I can, slowly, in places like Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, etc. And I’ll be at the Overland Expo in Arizona for the middle of May. If there are any overlanders among my readers, I’d love to see you there and buy you a drink.

3 Boats, 1000 Buddhas. Photographed at the cave of 1000 Buddhas on the Mekong River in Laos. And I’m posting this from Bangkok. So it’s not really so much a postcard from Cambodia. That’s the next photograph.

 

Banteay Srei, Cambodia, Photo by Eve Hannah

Sitting in the departure lounge in Siem Reap, it’s hard to believe this trip is over. In some ways it’s one of the longest, slowest trips I’ve ever made, everything taking much more care and thought than it’s ever taken before. But yesterday marked 5 months since my accident and I celebrated this morning by dancing in the rain, soaked to the bone, at a small temple called Banteay Srei on the outskirts of the Angkor complex.

Angkor was amazing, but it stirs in me the usual regrets and longings. Unable to climb a steep and muddy hill on the first evening here I sat with a cold can of Angkor beer, watching the tourists, and thinking how much I just wanted to photograph this magical place in great light, without the tourists and the touts they (we) attract, and that I was probably 100 years too late. It’s hard to get to upset about the tourists, without also considering my own complicity. I’m part of these crowds, and I kind of wish I would go away so I could enjoy the place alone. In the end I may be one of the few photographers who has always longed to photograph Angkor and left without taking more than a couple scouting shots and deciding I was happier just wandering the ancient ruins slowly or watching monkeys jump out of trees into the flooded puddles below.

After 2 weeks with the Fuji x100, I’ve decided that traveling this light is bliss, and it’s a luxury I may seldom have. The camera itself is beautiful, well made, and small. It turns on quickly enough, but focuses like most compacts (slowly) and suffers from just enough shutter lag to make it occasionally annoying, and sometimes closer to useless. I still put the battery in the wrong way at least half the time, which is odd because it shouldn’t take much to make a battery compartment that takes a battery only one way, nor to make a battery that lasts a little longer. And I hate the weird gymnastics I need to do to change a focus point. But for all the quirks it’s a great little camera and I like using it, and the photographs it makes, better than any compact camera I’ve ever used.  I’ll keep in in the Jeep and it’ll be my go-to camera for traveling, but I can’t wait to get back to using a dSLR.

And now I’m off to Kho Samet for a week to sleep in, eat pad thai, swim in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand, and do all the stretching and strengthening I neglected over the last 2 weeks. When I get home the new book will be nearly out, and I’ve an ailing Land Rover to tend to and Thanksgiving to enjoy with family before getting ready for Mexico and Honduras. See you soon.

A quick hello from Laos. We’re on the banks of the Mekong River, and in a couple hours begin a 2-day journey downriver towards Luang Prabang. Yesterday was a long drive through misty jungles and impossibly green rice paddies, around frequent landslides and small towns, with a stop for spicy kao soi for lunch.

As with so many of the Within The Frame adventures, I am surrounded by amazing people that have become new friends, and our times together are filled with laughter. I’m grateful for them and their patience. This is the first travel I’ve done since the accident and I feel slow, graceless, and clumbsy. On the first day we wandered around a village and I went exploring in a rice paddy, my fold-up cane sticking in the mud with every step and unfolding. I emerged muddy and wet and a little sore from the effort, but deliriously happy – it was the moment I’d been working towards for 4 months as I healed.

I’m traveling light this time. Lighter than I’ve ever done. My only gear is a Gitzo Ocean Traveler Tripod, my 11″ MacBook Air, and my Fuji x100. I’ll review the camera later, if the mood strikes. But traveling light is amazing. My camera is always with me, always light, always unobtrusive. I never feel weighed down or ask myself, Should I bring the camera? I’m shooting less, to be sure, and this will never replace the DSLR, which I sometimes miss, but for this trip, it’s perfect. For a week in Paris or NYC, it would be amazing.

There’s more to write and more to tell, but I need to get up and shower and find my people. I move a little slower than I thought I would in the mornings, so the extra time is needed. Next stop is Luang Prabang, then to Angkor in Cambodia. After that I’m taking a week of personal time in Thailand to sit on a beach and eat pad Thai. My physiotherapist says it’ll be good for me, so I’m calling it medicinal beach-time before I come home and start dealing with the Jessie saga, which I’ll update you on then too. Thanks to all who sent emails and cheered from the sidelines as I left for this. I won’t lie to you, I was a little nervous. Thank you.

Two years ago I wrote and published my first eBook. One book turned into two, two became four, and soon there were other authors and this thing we called Craft & Vision. We’ve now got 30 eBooks in our library and while I’m still kind of shaking my head at the whole thing, and we’re celebrating two great years, we’re not sitting still. The times? They are a changing.

Today we’re announcing the launch of the Craft & Vision Community, a subscription-based membership to a year of great photographic education and inspiration.

One of our big questions has been: How can we add even more value to what we do? The first thing we realized is that C&V is not about eBooks. It’s about educating and inspiring. eBooks are just the way we’ve done that until now. And we’ll keep doing it that way; we don’t want anyone’s current experience to change just because we’ve added this. So if all you want to do is keep buying exceptional eBooks for $5 each, you can keep doing that. But we think we can do more. We think we can be engaged on a deeper level. The Craft & Vision Community was created for just that.

C&V PODCAST!

The first thing we wanted to add was a monthly podcast. If you ever saw my old Within The Frame podcast, you’ll have some sense of what I want to do with this, except it’ll be audio only. It’ll be hosted by the inimitable Matt Brandon, and me, and each month we’ll do a great show that includes an image critique chosen from among images our readers submit, and there will be guest spots with other C&V authors, and discussions about issues relevant to becoming stronger photographers. It will also be refreshingly free of talk about the latest DSLR or tripod composite material. We will not talk about hyperfocal distances, and it’s likely we’ll mis-pronounce the word “bokeh” if we ever use it.  The C&V Podcast is about photography, not camera-collecting or pixel-peeping. This will be a monthly audio podcast and it’ll be accessed exclusively from the blog.

The Craft & Vision BLOG.

The second thing we wanted was a blog, a place for you to get, or listen to, the podcast, fill in the gaps between the eBooks, read articles by Craft & Vision authors, and plumb the depths of issues relevant to anyone that loves this craft. The blog will be the heart of our community, and a place where you can interact with topics and let us know where you’re at, what you’re learning, and what you’d like to learn. Both the podcast and the blog will be available exclusively to members of the community.

12 GREAT eBOOKS.

We want to give you as much value as we can through this membership. So we put our brains together and here’s what we came up with. In addition to exclusive access to the blog and podcast, which alone is a pretty great benefit, you’ll also get 12 great Craft & Vision Books a year delivered to your inbox automatically. We’ve been working hard to bring you a great line-up, including titles from me. It’s going to be a great year!

MONTHLY GIVEAWAYS & MORE.

You’re automatically entered just by being part of this community, and the first one’s a doozey. If you join in September you’ll have a chance to win a gorgeous Gitzo GT 0531 carbon fibre tripod, worth almost $500 from our friends at B&H Photo in New York.

In addition to all that you’ll have full-time 20% discounts on the full Craft&Vision library, so all books will always be $4/ea, and you’ll get one free eBook of your choice from the library.

We were going to insert some slick copy about how this is a $150 value etc., but you know that from the start we’ve avoided anything slick.  Value’s a tricky thing and only you can tell us what a year of great photography education and inspiration is worth. But we’re hoping you think this is a pretty great value. So, how much? That’s what you want to know right? Access to all this is only USD$99/year, or $10/mo. But if you sign up before the end of the month, you can join for only USD$89.00 for the year, and you’ll get in on the first giveaway – a gorgeous Gitzo carbon fiber tripod. We’d love to have you be a part of this. We remain rabid fans of the amateur because we do this for the love of it too, and we’re committed to making this an inspiring year of photographic education. No gimmicks. No lusting after pricey gear. Just great photographs.

Hi folks. The more rabid among you have already noticed that this September is the first month I’ve missed a wallpaper in, well, I think it’s the first time. Sorry. So much going on, my head is swimming. But read to the end, it’ll be waiting for you.

I was released from The Rehabilitation Centre in Ottawa on Friday morning. I walked out after 4 weeks of beatings, grateful beyond words for the progress and for the support of everyone that reads this blog, or follows my social media streams. Thank you again. I’m not out of the woods just yet. My feet hurt all the time, walking takes a lot of effort, and it’s just going to be a while for my body to re-adjust. Even then I’m told I’ll never get even close to normal range of movement on my right ankle, so I’ll be looking for a way to accomodate that and not limp. Still, so grateful! You’ve been so patient with me over the past 4 months as this blog’s been co-opted by news of the accident and recovery. We probably lost a couple of you when I started writing about bed-pans and enemas. Y’all can come back now. We’re moving forward now.

I got Jessie back from NY a week ago and I love having her back. We’ve been driving around getting some wind through the open windows and miles under the tires. I think she’s been smiling as much as I have. Sadly, I’ll be taking her off the road for about a year. She’s a great truck, but there are some issues preventing her from passing a rigorous safety certification. So it’s a good chance to bring her back to former glory and I’m hoping my Dad and I can do that over the next year: fix her little issues, give her a new carbon-grey paint-job, and then forge a new plan. Until then I plan to resume my travels, and at this point it looks like I’ll be spending much of 2012 in the American west in a sand-coloured 4-door 2011 Jeep JK named Emily. I’ll keep you posted.

The big news, and you may be reading this after the official launch announcement, is that we’re launching the Craft & Vision Community: a subscription-based way to experience Craft & Vision. We’ll be launching really soon. Might even be later today. The idea is simple – it’s a year of great photographic education and inspiration for a one-time price of $89 (that’s the launch special, regular price will be $99). For that you get 12 great new eBooks – and our line-up is getting better all the time – along with exclusive access to a monthly podcast, the C&V Blog, full-time discounts, one free eBook from the store, and you’re automatically entered for a great monthly giveaway. How great? This month it’s a $500 Gitzo carbon fibre tripod. I’m excited about this – it’s a chance to more fuly engage with the great community already building up around the Craft & Vision eBooks. And for those that don’t want to join, your experience doesn’t change. Same great eBooks, same great prices. More info to come.

I head to Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand on Wednesday. It’s my first trip since the accident and I’m going into it with a mix of sheer excitement and nervous trepidation.I’m joining Jeffrey Chapman there for Laos & Angkor Within The Frame Photographic Adventure. Psyched.

Photographically Speaking is almost at the printers, wrapping another year of work on something I’ve enjoyed making and am so proud to put my name on. It’ll easily be released, I’m told, by mid-October. Until then, as promised – and neglected – here’s a wallpaper for the month. I’m still hung up on twilight.

Glenorchy, New Zealand, 2010. Click the image to access the larger 1900×1200 file.

Photographically Speaking is nearing the final stages of being an actual honest-to-goodness book. It’s been on Amazon and other online retailers for pre-orders for a while now. But now it’s almost done layouts and then it’s off to the printers. I made a video to talk about the book itself and why I wrote it. That video is linked above. Hit the graphic above and it should open in a new browser. The video will probably see another edit before it goes to the rest of the world but as with everything I do, I try to give you as close to a sneak peak as I can.  I’m really excited about this book. I hope you’ll join me in anticipating its release in October. You can find more information on the product page at Amazon.com. If everything had gone to plan this spring the book would be in your hands in a couple weeks, now it looks like mid-October but I believe it’ll be well worth the wait. Thanks for your patience.

You can also watch the video on Vimeo HERE if you prefer. I’m working on posting to YouTube but so far it just mangles the video.

This morning Jeffrey Chapman has pulled the veil off the Italy 2012 Within The Frame Adventures. We’re doing two weeks – one in Liguria, one in Venice. These one-week adventures sell out very quickly, some within hours, so if you’ve been waiting, get your name in the hat fast with Jeffrey. The Italy trips are a highlight of my year, and while we’re not returning to Tuscany this year because she tried to kill me last year, I’m really looking forward to this; traveling with a small group who share a similar passion is an amazing experience to make photographs of an amazing place, eat and drink some amazing food and wine, and share teaching times that will take you deeper into your craft.

You can read Jeffrey’s post about these trips HERE. Get complete details and register with Jeffrey, but let me know if you’re coming! This year’s adventures will fill up even faster as people around the world vie for a spot to see me leap off a wall, fall out of a gondola or choke on my trofie al pesto. You just never know. I like to keep people guessing. (If you have no idea what that comment was all about, read Jeffrey’s blog post or just ignore it. Keep calm, nothing to see here.)

The Liguria trip is April 28 to May 5, 2012 – More details HERE

The Venice Trip is May 5 to May 12, 2012 – More details HERE