Greetings from Lake Pehoe, Patagonia

Hello everyone,  I have been in Patagonia for several days now.  One day at Perito Moreno Glacier in Calafate, Argentina and the rest of the time in Chile.  Today we arrived at Lago Pehoe.  Jack Dykinga, David Muench and the rest of us have managed to photograph a lot, since the weather has been mild for Patagonia.  I am attaching a few photographs from the trip thus far, it will give you a feel for what we have seen thus far.

I have arrived in Patagonia

I am posting this from Punta Arenas, Chile (capital of Patagonia according to them).  I have now spent about 48 hours traveling and about 5 hours sleeping, and I have talked individually with both David Muench and Jack Dykinga for a few hours each already, enjoying it all.  We are going to try and photograph penguins tomorrow (since the weather is rainy and overcast).  In an upcoming post I hope to put up the first pictures from this trip.  Now it is time to sleep.

The Marin Mountains

I love to wander the back roads around Mt. Tamalpais in wintertime.  The air is fresh with the scent of redwoods and waterfalls are everywhere.  It is difficult to get a good picture of these waterfalls in the 2nd growth forests, but I finally got one that I like last month.  I will put it on the website during my next major update.  Here is the preview.

Website Update

I updated my website this week with eight new photographs. Seven of them were added to "Recent Work" and one was added to the "Marin" portfolio.  Some of the "Recent Work" photos were moved to the "Marin" and "California" portfolios. A few photographs were retired from the website.

I am constantly judging whether a photograph should be shown to the public or not. Out of the roughly 600 to 700 photographs I keep each year (after editing down a few thousand pictures), I end up showing about maybe 15 or 20 of them to the public online.  I gauge the reactions of others and myself to see whether they are worth making into actual prints for sale.  Many of my best-selling prints were first printed because someone ordered them from the "Recent Work" section of my website, not because I decided to print them.

About half the pictures I keep are of family and friends, and many more are of vacations or types of photography that I don't generally try to sell (such as people shots). So I usually have about 150 photos each year that I call my "art work". Therefore, I show about 10% of what I consider my best "art photos" to the public and I only end up printing about half of those (6 to 10) prints each year. Sometimes I go back and change my mind about a picture and decide that it is worth showing and printing, which I just did with "Point Reyes Light" which was just added to the Marin portfolio, but often I never show most of my work except to a few friends maybe now and then.

I thought I'd show a few "rejects" via this blog to see if anyone thinks I should be showing more of my work on the website. Attached to this post are 3 recent "rejects", let me know if you think any of them should be added to the website, if you have an opinion.

Winter Shadows

Sonoma Winter Day

End of the Day

Here I go...

I am beginning 2009 with my own blog.  My intent is to describe the creative paths I may be following at any given time, but I also hope to hear what you think about the resulting images.

In addition to doing shows and teaching classes, I create new images.  I will mostly talk about image making.

I will be taking a 3 week trip to Patagonia in April.  I will not only get to assist two great landscape photographers, but I will also be able to practice Spanish (my 3rd language) in addition to seeing the southern night sky for the first time.  It will also give me extensive first-hand experience in a workshop setting with two masters of landscape photography.  This will serve me well as I continue to teach my workshops in California's wine country.  You can learn more about these workshops on my website.