The Studio is Slowly Getting Organized

Doing an annual Open Studio with lots of foot traffic forces me to clean my studio once a year (whether it needs it or not). It also forces me to get organized in areas that I often let drift. For instance, I have two beautiful posters that were published by Editions Limited back in January, but I have not yet sold them directly to the public myself. As part of my Open Studio, I am making the preparations to display and sell these posters, and I must say, they do look nice. They are available for $40 each, here is what they look like:

I'm getting ready to do an Open Studio

Every year I participate in Sonoma County's Art Trails Open Studios. This will be my 10th year of participation in this program. I have been in the same studio all that time. This forces me to thoroughly organize and clean up my studio once a year (whether it needs it or not). To find out more about Art Trails, visit http://sonomacountyarttrails.org.

To see me in person to talk about art, photography, or which picture you just need to know more about, visit me on the weekend of October 11th or 18th. It is always a fun time.

A new show at Riverfront Art Gallery

I have made thousands of fine art photographs over the decades, and to make them easily retrievable I use keywords. This way, I can call up every landscape photograph, portrait, or still-life I have shot, or even every picture taken with a particular camera. As time goes on, I add additional keywords to make finding particular photographs easy to do.

I am one of the featured artists in the current show at the Riverfront Art Gallery, and my show is entitled "A Walk in the Park". It is all about our local, state and national parks in California. I am a great fan of parks. I have been a member of the California State Parks Foundation for many years. Recently, I keyworded my photos as to whether they were taken in a state, national or local park. This way I could find a photo to submit to the foundation for other members to enjoy, or perhaps be in their calendar. I was surprised by what I found.

Over 30% of the fine art photographs I have taken of the California landscape have been taken inside a park. I shoot a lot of wine country images, so this was a bit of a shock to me. Since 2014 is the 150th anniversary of the Yosemite Grant establishing the California State Park System, and the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, I thought I would celebrate our various California parks with an exhibition.

By the way, the California State Parks Foundation revamped their website in August. The photograph they put across the top of their home page is one of my photographs. That photograph is in this show.

An Article about my Gallery

Being a fine art photographer is my day job, but part of that job is running a gallery. I have been doing this for the past 7 years. This weekend an article was written about the gallery that explains its history and purpose pretty well. You can see the article at http://www.positivelypetaluma.com/2014/08/31/petalumas-riverfront-art-gallery-celebrates-their-7-year-anniversary/

Working with Limitations

Sometimes you can't bring your fancy camera gear, sometimes the lighting is horrible, sometimes you are not allowed to freely move about, sometimes you are far away from your subject, sometimes you are busy enjoying the moment and can't concentrate solely on photography.

At times like that, just work with what you have and use your creativity within the limits that are imposed upon you. Here are some handheld shots taken with a pocket camera, taken under difficult lighting conditions, while enjoying a concert. It's not about the gear, although it helps.

What to photograph...

One thing about being an artist. You are always staring at the "blank page". As a landscape photographer, Fall is my favorite season. In the Fall, it seems like there is a picture behind every corner, but in the Summer it is a little more tricky.

In California, we have a parched landscape in Summer (made worse by our current drought). My task is to be inspired by the beauty that is still there and to capture it in an image. Not ever easy, even under the best of circumstances. On the other hand, there is always water near the coast, giving me an alternative subject. Here is a picture I took at the beginning of Summer. I hope you enjoy it.

My Photos Pop Up in Unexpected Places

I am a member of the California State Parks Foundation that helps support California's state parks. As a member, today I received an email regarding the redesign of their website. In looking at the email, the homepage photo seemed really familiar.

It turns out one of my photographs is featured prominently at the top of their new homepage. In looking at their blog, they used another photograph of mine in their latest blog post about California State Park's 150th anniversary. I've only ever submitted two pictures to their library. It's enough to go to one's head. I am attaching the two photos here. You can see their website at: http://www.calparks.org

Coincidentally, I'll be doing a featured show at my gallery next month called "A Walk in the Park", it is all about California's local, state and national parks.

The Petaluma Project

I usually work by photographing what I see in the spur of the moment.  If I think it is worthy to make a photograph of something I see, I make the photograph then and there.  I rarely light a subject, or pose a subject, or have a rigidly pre-defined vision of what I want to do.

In order to shake things up, I am going to do a pre-defined photographic project: photographing Petaluma "Landmarks".  To mix it up further, some of the photographs may be in B&W or Sepia and not just in color.  Now I just have to determine what are the landmarks that are unique to Petaluma, and when is the best time of day or year to photograph them.

If you have an idea about what constitutes a Petaluma Landmark, let me know.  In a few months, I should have several of the photographs done, and at some point I may display them in my gallery in downtown Petaluma.  In the meantime, here is an example of the type of photographs I intend to make.

It is definitely summer.

The temperature has been getting quite high in the North Bay recently. I love when the hills turn golden here in Northern California, truly the mark of summertime. Here is a photo I made earlier this month that captures a little of the spirit of summer around here.

Summertime, and the livin' is not always easy...

These are the longest days of the year. On winter nights, I often reflect that if it was summer, the sun would still be out! It can get difficult to find compelling landscape subjects in the summer here in California. Usually, there is not a cloud in the sky, which makes color photography a little more challenging for much of the day. Luckily, I am near the coast, and we can get some drama from the fog that often rolls in during the late afternoon, as can be seen in the attached photograph of Bolinas Ridge. I have entered this photograph in the Marin County Fair this week. I wonder how it will fare in this highly competitive competition venue? I'll let you know if it wins any ribbons.

Summer is about to begin...

A landscape photographer lives by the seasons, and when they change, a bunch of new opportunities present themselves that haven't been available for nearly a year. Sometimes the seasons "aren't normal", which causes a lot of problems (like this past winter), but this summer seems to be getting off to a good start. Summer is a good time to try "Blue Hour" photos, shooting at this time of day seems especially effective near the coast, as seen is this accompanying photograph. I can't wait to see what this new season brings...

Let's get it started in here...

I thought I would shake some of the cobwebs off this blog of mine by making a new post. I am in the rare situation of having edited all my photos (no backlog), so I am starting to utilize some of my social media accounts to let people know what's up, or to see some recent photographs. I have accounts on Flickr, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, 500px, and Viewbug to name a few, not to mention my Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram accounts. Feel free to search me out on those platforms to see what's new. When I started photographing in college, I could only share images by printing them or showing them in a slide viewer. My how times have changed.