Horses

I definitely have a small obsession with photographing horses.  Every time I see them I think about pulling off the side of the road for a shot.

With Poise

I think I’ve had this shot in mind for quite some time.  Majestic looking horse or other animal with mountains rising off in the distance behind.  Here’s a little trick for you.  When you want to condense the background, or make something distant seem more prominent in your image, instead of getting up close to your subject matter and shooting with a wide angle, stay far away from your subject and shoot with a telephoto lens.   You can see below the dramatic effects this can have, ensuring that the mountains that are far off in the distance remain a prominent part of the image.

I can definitely see myself making it back to the Holi Festival in the future.  Maybe I’ll shoot for seeing the original in India…

This little pooch was having a good time at the festival.

Another throw, with such a great backdrop.

I’m fairly certain that this child threw color on me as I walked by, you can see the guilty little smirk.

Running the octo-copter, outfitted with a camera.

Who are you pointing that GoPro at?

Streaks of color for one of the last throws of the trip.

Here’s to getting older and to feeling younger. Here’s to adventures found and to opportunities seized. Here’s to finding your passion and to following your dreams. May your journey be filled with great friends and cheap wine. Let the past be behind you, and while you look forward, don’t ever forget to enjoy where you are right now. And last, but not least, if you’re ever unsure, just ask yourself ‘why not?’

I can’t believe it was three years ago today that I found myself atop Machu Picchu. Little did I know at the time how that ‘little trip’ would change me. But, here we are, and here we’ll be till we’re somewhere else.

I thought today, in honor of my birthday, I would post a copy of what I posted three years ago on this very same day.

Quarter of a century huh??? Well that seems like quite a lot, but I think that there is quite a bit left to do, so I´m trying to stay out of the habbit of getting in a hurry.  Life is quick, so why rush things?

Today has been quite a day.  Actually the last two days have been go go go.  Yesterday morning I hoped on a our bus, and visited the Sacred Valley of the Incas, the Pisac ruins and Ollantaytambo ruins.  They were both quite amazing, with feats that would be amazing by todays standards of construction.  Then because of all the rain damage, the Ollantaytambo railway has been temporarily shut down, so we took a bus to another station, got the train, and arrived in Aguas Calientes around 9:30 last night.

This morning started with a one hour, 300 meter vertical climb to the gates at Machu Picchu; leaving at 4:30 a.m.  Was it worth it to see the sunrise over the mountains?  Yep.

So I think I´ve figured out the amount of vertical travel today. 1400 meters, or right around 4600 ft. We (Nick and Nicki from London) climbed Waynapicchu, then back down to the ruins, then Nick and I climbed Machu Picchu mountain. Both produced some amazing views of the ruins.  Then of course back down to the bottom, and back into town.  All in all, 4:30 am start, returning to the city around 6:00 pm.  But what an amazing place to be on my birthday.

 Sunrise, 5:30am, on my way up to Machu Picchu

New friends, Nick and Nicki (from London), whom I spent most of the day with.  We´re on our way up Waynapicchu in this picture (300 meters above MP), and some random lady was handing out these awesome paper visors.   Nick is a photographer, also, so Nicki had double the waiting for us to finish shooting.  Only 400 people are allowed to climb Waynapicchu each day, and what amazing views it gave of the ruins.

After getting a tip from my tour guide, I had my heart set on climbing Machu Picchu Mountian, the big one that most people don´t climb.  On the day we were there, only about 40 other people that came to MP even attempted this one. The small looking mountain you can see close to the ruins was Waynapicchu, which we had climbed earlier.

 Back down from MP mountain, with the sun setting in the west, it´s been a good day.

Last picture of the day, as we´re getting asked to leave the ruins because they are closing.  Nick and I needed to show where we had climbed.  Yep, the big one, waaaaay up there, around 500 meters above where we are standing in this photo.

A Life of Travel

I read this the other day, and thought it was worthy of sharing.

“A life of travel is a good thing to have. But once you start off on it, there’s no looking back. What traveling does do to you is work its way inside of you, changing you completely as it finds a seat deep within you. It’s a parasite with a greedily voracious appetite. That bastard is hungry. Once the travel bug bites, you’re afflicted for life. Once the wanderlust hits, your feet never stop being restless.”

A Nice Place to Set Up Camp

Cruising around the countryside of Romania with a great friend from my time spent in Alabama left me wanting more.  We had pulled off the side of the road, a very inconspicuous place, the kind you might only pull over for if you knew what was down the hill thru the trees.  A short walk down to the waters edge opened up to a beautiful lake with a group of folks who were camping on the opposite side.  That seemed like a pretty nice place to get away to.  Maybe next time, that will be me in one of those tents.

 Alaska

Planning

Playing by the Water

As the night fades to dusk, a few kids were playing soccer in the wet sand on the beach.  I had to re-position a bit to get the colors of the sunset behind them, but luckily I don’t think they were ready to finish playing any time too soon.   Although I generally enjoy having photos without people, sometimes throwing in a human element can really add a nice touch to a shot.   So, my question, is it still ‘street photography’ if it’s on a beach?

Roadtrippers

If you’re a regular follower of the blog, you’ll know how much of a fan I am of the ole road trip.  Friday I had the privelage of guest blogging on the popular ‘Roadtrippers’ website, which if you haven’t used yet it’s worth a look.  The post can be seen here:

https://roadtrippers.com/blog/the-holi-festival-part-1?mode=blogs

As the Night Fades

Late in to the evening, hanging out again with Casey McCallister, Michael Bonocore, and Toby Harriman, I noticed that the stars were out high above the beautiful city of San Francisco.  Well, being quote a fan of astrophotography, I switched lenses to my ultra-wide, and decided to try some long exposure star shooting.  If you’re looking to get started taking photos of stars, check out my tutorial HERE.

I think anyone would tell you that San Francisco is a great place to photograph, with all it’s different vantage points and interesting architecture and landscapes. But, as Toby put in his post earlier (which motivated me to finish up this shot), this is definitely one of the best views.  Toby was doing some awesome timelapse shooting in the bottom left of the frame, and next time I go back I’m going to have to steal his location

Rise and Shine

The more I force myself to rise for sunrise, the more pleasantly surprised I am. It’s being able to see the landscape come to life around you, that moment when the colors turn and the sky comes to life.

On the Edge of Daybreak – Colorado National Monument

After rising early at the rest stop in Grand Junction, we quickly made our way toward the Colorado National Monument to find some scenes for sunrise. There was a storm moving in, and the sun coming over the Rockies lit up the rain on the valley. Waiting for that perfect moment when the sun crests the horizon for a little sunburst just topped it off.

I did have one mishap, not checking my messages before going to bed. A friend, Jacob, had invited us to stay the night at their place in GJ, and I’ll admit a bed would have been a little more pleasant than the bed of an SUV, but I may have been a little more tempted to sleep thru sunrise, which in this case would have been a tragedy.

California

California has officially made it in to my ‘most frequent’ used categories on my website.  I wonder if that’s a sign, either that I go too often, or that it’s just such a beautiful place to photograph…

When Morning Calls ~ San Francisco, California

On this fine (albeit brisk) morning, I met Casey McCallister of http://caseymacphoto.com/ for a sunrise shoot at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, walking up Conzleman Rd towards Hawk hill. We would have had Michael Bonocore of http://www.mb-photography-sf.com/ join us, but he was too busy sleeping in from a hard afternoon spent at the Giants game. Karl the Fog monster never showed up, actually we didn’t have much in the way of clouds at all, but having an unobstructed view of the city wasn’t bad either. And I’ll be the first to admit I’m a sucker for sunburts.

Next Video

I’m already working on the next trip-lapse video from New Orleans, then Utah is on the to-do list.

All Around Cusco

With a few friends running around Cusco this week with The Giving Lens, I was remembering how beautiful of a city it was, and pulled out this gem, a full 360 degree panoramic at the Ovalo de Pachacuteq. You can just see, in the bottom center of the photo, the shadow of the statue that I had climbed for this scenic view.

Another fun thing to think about, the sun in the upper right of the photo is casting that shadow  I’ll be uploading the full size image to Smugmug just as soon as I get my laptop back from the Doctor…