“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey

If the day goes as planned, there is a little window of time…quiet time…..just before the guests arrive. After the band has sound checked, the wait staff has finished laying the flatware, the lighting is focused (thanks to my HyLite Team), and the florist has left the building, the creation for the night is ready to be photographed. Its like a playground for the camera photographer! My only regret is that I didn’t capture a few “before” or “without the event lighting” shots. (I really need to remember to so that!)

Still amazes me what is created in such a short amount of time for one night!

More from this event and many more soon!

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

I remember listening to a podcast from Rick Steve’s about the history of this area along the Thames and some of the artifacts that were along the banks of this historic river. Having traveled to London a few times before, I can honestly say that I had never even though about getting this close to the water. Funny how its hard to even think about water running through such a large city as being…..well…actually….WATER. I mean, unless you are Kramer from Seinfeld, would you ever think about going for a swim in the East River? Nuff said……

So he (Rick Steves) talked a little bit about how, mixed among the many pieces of brick, were smoking pipes….from the 1800′s! On the flight across the pond, it was one of the few things that I guess I lodged back into the “If I ever happen to be there” file part of the brain. After a semi dangerous leap down off of the seawall, and after the Nikon was set up on the sticks to capture a few frames, I looked around and was reminded of his story. Hmmm, maybe this is where he was talking about. Amazing, after looking around for only about 5 minutes, I scored 3 or 4 of these little pipes. Kind of like these little ceramic things….bizaarre. How they could be there from over 100 years ago amazes me actually. Then again, they could have been crack pipes from last week. I like to think not though. I left them there for the next brave photographer to find….

(man, was THAT a dumb story…true, but so boring…..)

Anyway, enjoy the image. I used a little “oil paint” effect on the foreground and a few other areas just in case you were wondering about the “swirly look!” I kinda like it!

One more thing. I notice that my friend Jim Nix had just posted a shot of this bridge today on Instagram. Check out his site here for more cool HDR and travel images!

As always, more on ALL of this later…

“Creating art is a habit, one that we practice daily or hourly until we get good at it … Art isn’t about the rush of victory that comes from being picked. Nor does it involve compliance. Art in the post-industrial age is a lifelong habit, a stepwise process that incrementally allows us to create more art.” – Seth Godin

This one has been hanging out in the “ready to blog file” for several months now. It wasn’t until I decided to convert it to black and white instead of the color tinted infrared that I felt like sharing it though. I like this version much better! It was taken at what I remember to be the highest area of land in Florida…which is something like, oh…. I don’t know, 3 feet above sea level?

In the center of the state, The Bak Tower overlooks the well manicured gardens that were fun to explore sans the hot Florida afternoon heat. These high contrast lighting scenes are always a challange for landscape photography, but pefect for infrared captures….when the sunlight turns the leaves and foliage a surreal and bright white.

A couple of years ago, I decided to convert one of my DSLR’s……the evergrowing collection I might add….into an infrared camera. A great idea if you are looking at a way to expand your vision and journey in this creative world of capturing the light. The great folks at LifePixel have a few options for this conversion. Check out their site here as well as these other amazing artists works to give you an idea of what can be done after this conversion. Like anyting, there are a few techniques you have to learn and refine, but thats of course all part of the art

I’ll post a video or 2 later here on the blog if you are interested in the process!

Let me know.

Have an awesome weekend everyone!

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

The best time to head out and capture the light is of course when everyone else is sleeping. As I have never been a huge morning fan, (I tend to wear out those snooze buttons!) I was pretty happy that this seen was waiting for me…..just a few steps from my pillow. Lots to explore here at the Hyatt Kauai. An amazing beach was just steps behind me as I took this one early morning.

Click click…..all right, where’s the coffee!

All righty, its time to get back to the blog here!

Been a while….sorry….but I once again hope to get a bit current with ya. I’ve got a bucket load of images in the hopper (not really sure what that means actually) that I want to share with you.

As you might know by now, I seem to divide alot of my time either providing light over here, or capturing light with the goal of sharing it here.

Since I started this blog a couple of years ago, a few other places have sprung up to share the art and craft. Seems like I am kind of watering down my time spent among all these places. Do you feel the same need to do so? Do you focus your sharing strategy on one more that another? What are your favorite photo sharing sites to hang out at?

For me, I find myself posting on my Facebook stream and Instagram feed a little more frequently out of sheer laziness of should I say ease of posting.

Funny how all this evolves right? Well, not really funny per say, but you know what I mean.

By the way, have you checked out the new Flickr user interface yet? Here is a quick screen grab of how my new page looks over there. Having been the first place I started sharing images when I started this blog out, it seems like I have quite a pile of “art” over there. Over 1400 images and counting. The new UI displays the images pretty well and really brings the look into web 3.0 …. or at the very least, 2013….

 The new Flickr look!

I guess, while I am at it, here is the Instagram and Facebook layouts as well. I tend to be a little bit more random on Instagram and of course, share a little more iphone imagery….

Instagram as viewed on the desktop

A page from my many Facebook albums.

So many places to share your art. Feel free to share links to yours in the comments below!

Stay tuned for more as the summer frees up my time a bit. Lots of new projects in the works. There are so many ways to paint with light, and I am exploring a few of those a little deeper. I hope and plan to share a little more here on the blog as I dive into a few new directions in this creative journey!

More on all of that later

“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion.” – Eckhart Tolle

The sky is getting a little interesting around here again….or perhaps I am finally getting a little chance to see it and capture it! As you might know, I have experimented with the art before and shared it here on the blog. There are many ways to create these clips and I am just barely scratching the surface on what is possible. From the D800, the iPhone (what captured the still below), the GoPros, and many other small video recorders out there, the possibilities are getting pretty exciting!

Here is a little piece I created the other day and posted on my youtube channel from the results of a quick edit of clips from 4 different cameras capturing the South FLorida sky. I am pretty lucky to have a space that has a nice covered patio/balcony to set up and play from time to time, so I am sure I will be sharing a few more of these soon.

Link to the video

And here is a quick one I posted about the D800 and its built in time-lapse ability. For me, one of the main reasons I decided to pick this up last year.

Link to the video

I chat a little bit about the cameras and my process below. As always, I appreciate the feedback!

 Link to the audio

As you can see from the video below, the possibilities for creating amazing art with time-lapse these days are within the reach of the average photographer and enthousient out there. Never has there been a more exciting time to dream, create, and share your art with the world.

Enjoy that!

A much deeper dive will happen soon on the process’s I use to create these, but until then…it’s time to keep playing!

Also, here are a few links from a few things I was chatting about on the audio recording. A couple are affiliate links, but most are just really cool links to possible tools to take your time-lapse creations to the next level!

Show Notes

The Nikon D800 with built in time-lapse model

The Nikon D5100

LRtimelapse - Software for eliminating flickr

Dynamic Perception - Rail system for movements

Emotimo – Camera pan and tilt control