I've been a bit quiet on the Blog and social media of late, but I've got a great excuse. On February 20th (Ansel Adams' Birthday) Stacey and I had our first child. A strong, healthy boy named Pike Gilman Henry. We have been spending countless hours since just marveling at his existence. We can't wait to show him how amazing the world is. For now here's a few photos...
PC: Stacey (aka Mom)
At Lago Torre, Argentina.
I am often asked what camera gear I carry on my adventures. The answer really depends on where I'm going and what I'm looking to accomplish. If I'm shooting candid travel scenes in a crowded urban area, I'm going to take a different setup than I'd pack for an expedition or a commercial location shoot. Here is a description of what I regularly carry for travel photography and why.
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What filters should I be using? It's one of the most frequent questions I hear from new photographers and students. For today's modern digital photographer I've got great news. You don't need nearly as many as we did in the age of film.
When I shot film I carried an array of filters: polarizers, UV protective, neutral density, graduated neutral density, warming and cooling. Now with the amazing dynamic-range and color flexibility of RAW digital files I only carry the first three. Let's look at each type of filter I currently carry: polarizers, UV filters, and neutral density.
The first filter I ever purchased was a circular polarizer and I haven't been without one since. They allow me to...
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As photographers we constantly make creative decisions involving time and movement. We use long exposures to accentuate motion over time. We freeze time with fast exposures to capture the power of athletes in motion. Creating time-lapse video is another really fun way to visually dramatize time. It allows us to dabble in a new realm and capture the world of movement that we see around us in new and exciting ways.
Frequently students ask me if their digital cameras are capable of producing high-definition time-lapse and the answer is an emphatic yes. Film and video are simply a series of still frames played at 24 or 30 frames per second. Each frame of high definition 1080p video is only seven megapixels in size. Not only that, to keep file sizes small, digital video recording is so highly compressed that the ability to post process it is highly compromised. That means that a time-lapse created from a 14-megapixel still camera’s RAW images will be many times more editable than, as well as twice the resolution of, traditional video filmed in high definition.
Before we delve any deeper I want to demystify the term frames-per-second (“FPS”) as it applies to video playback...
Read MoreI've had the good fortune to participate in some epic photographic adventures in 2015. Here's a quick slideshow of some of my favorite moments of the past year.
Happy New Year everyone!
Mount Hood on a January Dawn.
San Diego Sunset Cliffs just after sunset. Waves coming over the rocks look like mist in long exposure.
At the cliffs of San Diego
Ultra-hi-res Pano Merger
Ultra-Hi-Res Pano
An ultra-hi-resolution, 270-degree panoramic merger of the crater rim at first light.
A couple enters the Blue Mosque in Isanbul at sunset.
Stacey just after we learned of our pregnancy.
One of my favorite places I've stayed.
Volcanic smoke rises from Stromboli's crater as the sun sets over the sea.
Stromboli throws lava bombs and fire into the night sky above the sea below just after sunset.
Dawn rises over Atrani on the Amalfi Coast of Italy as chairs await beachgoers.
The sun sets as a star beside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France.
French Island Monastary refelcts in tidepool after sunset with blue clouds.
Last summer's fires covered the Northwest in intense smoke.
Steve canoes on the cobalt Waldo Lake.
Ultra-hi-res Pano Merger for a client in the Alvord.
Torres del Paine, Chile
There’s nothing like seeing a massive glacier calving close up.
Argentina
Argentina
I climbed up to these falls below Fitz Roy early one morning and was completely blown away. I'm used to scenic waterfalls in the Pacific Northwest, but this?
How lucky is this horse?
Andy at the crater rim of Mount St. Helens
View in HD: The depth and enlargeability of an ultra-hi-rez panoramic-merger.
Panoramic Mergers. I stumbled across the technique a decade ago when I was wishing for a wider angle lens for my medium format film camera.
On an amazingly calm Patagonian morning last month this scene could have been easily captured with a single frame with my Nikon D810, but by instead making a panoramic-merger from 8 images I created this highly-enlargeable, 80-megapixel image. Have I mentioned that I love this stuff?
Check out this gallery of select panoramic mergers. You can view this image full screen there.
We had an amazing star show as we slept at Lago Torre in Argentina. Even more rare -- calm water in these wind ravaged mountains. It was a rare opportunity and I left both my Nikons (D810 and D750) running as we tucked into our tent that night. Watching this video makes me long to get back there.
The legendary Cerro Torre in argentinian Patagonia
El Chalten, Argentina is the jumping off point for two of Patagonia's biggest and most famous mountains: Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre. A quaint little adventure town, El Chalten has more backpacker hostels than houses, only a few paved streets and no less than 4 outdoor gear shops and 2 microbreweries. Think Mos Eisley from Star Wars; this is a jumping off point for adventurers and climbers from all over the world. It's my kind of place.
As Stacey and I arrived, our rented VW van (a.k.a. Home) conveniently broke down. There's really no place I'd rather be stuck for a few days. The weather forecast was for a night of calm before the next storm rolled in, so we packed up the tent and stove and headed up the nine kilometer trail to Lago Torre at the base of Cerro Torre.
Any concern about Stacey being six months pregnant dissolved as we started the trek. What a trooper! It was a blast climbing alongside waterfalls, under high alpine forest with fresh spring leaves, through a burned section of woods and finally into the high alpine ice and snow below Cerro Torre.
If the surrounding peaks look like Patagonia's teeth, Cerro Torre is the fang. Standing at it's base you have no doubt why mountaineers believed it unclimbable for so long. The sheer granite walls rise thousands of feet only to be capped by a crazy ice mushroom formed from the relentless southern winds. One thing is for sure: it is spectacularly beautiful.
We had an incredible time. The mountain gave us a rare calm night up there. The lake reflected, the stars put on a show, clouds came in the morning, we met a Magelanic Woodpecker in the woods and got out right before the next storm rolled in. Perfect.
Dawn lights Cerro Torre at Lago Torre
Cerro Torre relfects at dawn with new ice on Lago Torre.
At the edge of Lago Torre
Ultra-Hi-Resolution Panoramic Merger of Lago Torre.
An enigmatic mountain
One of my favorite places I've ever sat.
No easy way up.
I was glad I had my camera close when we stumbled upon this male Magelanic Woodpecker.
Looking back that night... We timed our trip perfectly.
Cerro Torre at dusk
My Pack was loaded for Timelapse and Stills
Stacey carried more precious cargo
Spring leaves in the Patagonian trees
Stacey's First sight of Cerro Torre
Cerro Torre reflected in Lago Torre
Lago Torre
Stars over Cerro Torre
Dawn lights Cerro Torre at Lago Torre
Cerro Torre relfects at dawn with new ice on Lago Torre.
At the edge of Lago Torre
Ultra-Hi-Resolution Panoramic Merger of Lago Torre.
An enigmatic mountain
One of my favorite places I've ever sat.
No easy way up.
I was glad I had my camera close when we stumbled upon this male Magelanic Woodpecker.
Looking back that night... We timed our trip perfectly.
I've seen a lot of gorgeous mountains, but Torres Del Paine? It's something special... (self portrait @ dawn)
This first week here has been absolutely incredible. We flew into Punta Arenas with John & Yva, got our TDI VW vans, built makeshift mattress platforms out of plywood and plastic soda crates. To test the system out we hopped a ferry and road tripped south to see a new King Penguin colony on Tierra Del Fuego before heading north through Puerto Natales to the mind bending mountains, lakes and skies of Torres Del Paine (Pine-nee) National Park. We are in some very wild country here. Data is limited and I'll have few opportunities to write and upload. I'm putting a slideshow of a few favorite moments below and will try to do more of the same as access allows.
This is an incredible adventure in the early spring of these southern wilds. It's often cold and extremely windy. Sometimes it's tough to get out of the van at 5:30 for sunrise. But the hot coffee Stacey brews for me when I return is so amazing; it's those little things that I love most in life... Stacey is enjoying this trip to the hilt. We're a couple of days from the 3rd trimester and she's the worlds greatest trooper. Maybe a little slower than normal on the hikes (or a lot slower), but a total rockstar with nary a complaint despite sleeping in crazy mountains with sub-polar-freezing winds roaring outside our dusty uninsulated van.
I have nearly 200GB of panoramics and photos to edit just from this first week. We plan to move slowly northeast from Chile into Argentina to see the legendary mountains of Cerro Fitzroy, Cerro Torre and the towns and glaciers around them. Then we'll likely head back to Torres Del Paine to see baby Guanacos as they are born before heading home in 3 weeks.
Did I ever mention that I love this stuff...???
