Continuing to make refinements to both the IBPY web site and this blog… changed some fonts, added some images in the latest gallery album, “Faces and Places, Ecuador 07”. Feel free to provide feed back, as always. I think the technical issues and various links are now resolved and I will start working on some more interesting material for posting. Thanks for your patience.
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Iceland! The island country tamed by the Vikings and formed by thousands of years of volcanic activity. Mesmerizing, beautiful, and often stark scenery. Friendly and hard working people. We had a great time and captured some striking imagery. Please visit Iceland! to see the highlights of a great photo trek.
This travelogue shows highlights of a thousand mile, eight day motorcycle adventure undertaken by Paul and Dave Yarnall in the heart of the Colorado mountains. Please visit Paul & Dave do the Colorado Backcountry Discovery Route.
A couple of friends and I took a short motorcycle ride to a local motocross track in Palmyra. With the chance that there might be a few photo ops, I took my gear. Wow! These guys spend more time in the air than on the ground... or so it seems. Here are a few shots from the day.
Beaches, lighthouses, full moons, animals, mountains, and old motorcycles... this is an eclectic collection of images from several weeks of traveling in the south early this spring.
Highlights of an intense four day self guided dual sport motorcycle adventure exploring the less traveled byways of Ecuador along with other travel sights of this land of great diversity. Click here to visit Ecuador 2012
Join me here on a great adventure exploring the Continental Divide from Montana to New Mexico by motorcycle! Continental Divide Ride 2012
Exploring Ireland by sea only seems natural. After all, it is a small island nation surrounded by water... and lots of it! From shipboard I got to see Ireland in a way not possible stuck on land, but since we went ashore by zodiac every day, I got the best of both worlds! Please visit Ireland by Sea to sample some of the mystery and charm of Ireland.
New York to California, then east to Florida before making it home six weeks and 8000 miles later! The Best of the West starts with St. Louis at the Gateway Arch and highlights places and things where opportunity, light, and camera came together. Some of these images are documentary and a few are my art. They are all images that were fun to create and I enjoy looking at. I hope you enjoy them too. Let me know. Go to Best of the West.
My recent day and a half trip to New York City was, first and foremost, a mini get away for my wife, Susie, and her twin sister Joannie. I needed to travel light and not let photography overwhelm our (their) fun, but my 5DMKII and trusty 24-105 lens went along and helped freeze moments in time that we will continue to enjoy in New York, New York.
Every photo mission with Peter Ryan is always memorable and I always bring home some great images. Peter researches endlessly before he ever boards a plane, so there is never any question we will see and shoot remarkable places and things. This trip focused on places in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, hence, a Four State Affair.
Full Moons and Other Stuff features a number of night photography efforts this past Summer within a few miles of my house, and some eclectic images of "old stuff" from nearby in the Southern Tier.
Thank God it wasn't Halloween! The only ghostly figure observed in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery during the night photography workshop I attended was the Headless Horseman! In spite of torrential rain and howling winds, I still managed to put into practice the tricks of the trade passed on to us by Lance Keimig, our workshop leader. My night shots, (and a few in daylight), are in this fun gallery.
Our trip west and back this winter was hectic, had an itinerary that was known only days or hours ahead, and granted me precious few moments to really concentrate on photography. In spite of the constant movement, we did get to see some interesting places, both well known and ordinary.
This collection highlights some of the memorable places along the way of our Winter Trek 2010
It is easy not to see what is so familiar to us. While shooting a race in Watkins Glen NY I managed a few hours at the famous Watkins Glen gorge. It is less than an hour from home but I had only been there once before many years ago. While the light was not ideal that day, I came away with a few images that show the potential of the place. I must return.
Likewise, an informal photo tour with friends into nearby Rochester revealed a great deal more than I expected and I have been in and around the city for thirty five plus years!
Throw in a few more images taken within 30 minutes of the house and you have Upstate NY 2010
This gallery is about the fun side of our South Africa Photo Safari trek. There are more animal shots, but the theme of this large gallery is the story of our adventure. There are 109 (!) "snapshots", landscapes, and images that show where we were and some of the unforgettable experiences we had. This gallery is to share the fun with a little less emphasis on my best photography. Here is South Africa 2010, the Inside Story.
It seemed like I had barely downloaded my images from the Newfoundland Revisited adventure, and cleaned and organized my gear, when Pete Ryan called to suggest I accompany him to Death Valley, California. The mission was to seek out the hidden secrets from Death Valley's heyday of gold and silver mining from a century and more ago. This famous and popular national park is all but deserted in the weeks just before Christmas. No endless caravans of slogging RVs and no hoards of tourists to clutter a photographer's viewfinder. Pete is persuasive; I had to go.
I came away with great respect for the Ford Escape 4X4 that I navigated through desert trails and mountain tracks as we pushed into old mining camps that few get to see. Here are the highlights of Death Valley 2009.
Winter is lurking and I find myself back in Newfoundland exploring out of the way destinations with friend and pro shooter Pete Ryan. We search for, and find, the site of a horrific crash of a USAF B36 bomber from half a century ago. We stalk bull moose warily protecting their cows and we visit a long lost fishing village slowly being reclaimed by the unstoppable forces of nature. Another great adventure. From thousands of "clicks", here are a few to tell the story, Newfoundland Revisited.
This gallery contains the thirty-five images that I exhibited at my first solo show hosted by the Wood Library, Canandaigua, NY during the month of September. They are ordered in ranking by the votes they received during the show. Unfortunately I can not easily include the "What's the Story?" text that I displayed with each image.
This little collection of images highlights a summer of shooting relatively close to home. A visit to Letchworth Park for the Flint Knappers annual gathering was a visit to elements of the past as was a day at the Genesee Country Museum. Several trips to our great New York treasure, the Adirondacks, brought several exciting opportunities, including my first star trail image. I was the 'odd one' at a gathering of wet plate photographers and I attempted to recreate the unique effects of cyanotype photography. Go here for these and more.
The Historical Air Group in Geneseo, NY hosts an air show each summer. This years' theme was Naval Aviation and I was again fortunate to get an opportunity for air to air shots. It's a very busy few minutes of shooting since fuel is now so expensive. The big single engine fighters use 90 gallons an hour each!
There was plenty to shoot on the ground, too. Check 'em out.
I took advantage of an unplanned opportunity to witness a re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg, held on some of the same fields that witnessed such unimaginable carnage 146 years ago just outside historic Gettysburg, Pa. With a little effort to exclude anything contemporary from the cameras view it was easy to be transported back in time.
These shots are from here and there... Lake Ontario, downtown Rochester, NY, the Adirondacks, off the beaten path in the fields of Pennsylvania farms. Odds and ends. Quite a few of them are HDR... high dynamic range, composite images. Some will be obvious, others not so much. See what you think.
Two separate visits to local zoos resulted in this little gallery I call Captured. We share something like 99% of our DNA with the primates. They may not be our 'equals' but I increasingly find it difficult to justify the kind of imprisonment these creatures are forced to endure. For most visitors they are merely oddities and spectacles.... no different than a circus. There has to be a better way.
Late February is winter even in South Carolina. No snow drifts, of course, but most things were only hinting at springtime and so the foilage was certainly subdued compared to the full growth of summer. The upside though was that the crowds were absent and I didn't have to worry about "waddlers" cruising through my compositions.
Magnolia Plantation is a well cared for and preserved ante bellum plantation, rich in history and adorned with amazing gardens and trails through Spanish moss laden trees with all sorts of wildlife. We could have spent days here. A spring visit would be a photographer's paradise!
One of the goals of the Florida Trek was to do some paddling and walking in some of Florida's well known parks and rivers. It is amazing to drift along, sometimes at a surprising pace, in water as clear as bath water just emerged from springs producing millions of gallons of water a day. I was focused more on enjoying the 'ride' rather than the photography, so this collection is mostly just showing the fun we had and some of the beautiful and intimate river and trail scenery. Check out Florida Snapshots.
The Butterfly Rainforest was an unplanned visit on our Florida Trek that was great fun, educational, and provided for great photography. Located at the The University of Florida Cultural Plaza, in the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, Florida, it is just minutes off of I-75.
A macro lens or a medium telephoto and extension tube were the best choices to be sure. Balancing good depth of field and high shutter speeds meant pushing ISO to the maximum I could tolerate from a noise point of view. These butterflies were pretty tolerant of all the lenses pointed at them, but they never stayed in one place too long!
Even Susie, my wife who had done some game census work in Africa during her stint in the Peace Corps, readily admitted we were seeing many of the Busch Gardens residents very up close and personal compared to searching and viewing at a distance in the savannas of Africa.
With a little care when composing shots to keep the background clear of incriminating evidence to the contrary, you could almost imagine yourself on safari. Check out Busch Safari.
My dad was a motorcycle rider all of his life and the love of two wheels, the wind, the sounds... well, all of his children inherited that love. My brother, Dave, takes that passion to the edge as a dedicated amateur track racer.
Serendipity had him racing at the Jennings Motorsports Track in north Florida on our last weekend in Florida, and we could not head back to the frozen north without watching him in his glory. There is something truly intoxicating about the roar of a big Ducati twin coming out of the turns at ferocious speeds.
This past fall I had the pleasure of leading a workshop for area teachers who are faculty advisers for their high school yearbook committees. The goal was to review the basics of exposure and composure using the beautiful surroundings at the Letchworth Gorge in Letchworth State Park for subject material. After a morning of shooting we used Adobe LightRoom to look at how to streamline workflows, saving time and energy.Everyone had a good time, learned a few things, and I managed to get a few shots of a very popular photo site.
This summer I gave my long suffering back a break so I could indulge in photography and another old love, canoeing, by getting a super lightweight solo canoe.During the summer months a loose knit group of fellow canoeists meets at the lower end of Canadice Lake on Thursday evenings for sharing the common love of one the Finger Lakes region's smaller jewels.
Not only did these quiet evenings serve up peace and calm, but some wonderful photo ops, as you shall see.
My wife and I fell in love with Newfoundland during our first trip to Newfoundland in the fall of 2007 when we explored the Avalon region by car. This year we had a last minute opportunity to join Adventure Canada, (once again), for their Circumnavigation of Newfoundland cruise.
This cruise, on the converted Russian research vessel Akademik Ioffe, departed St. Johns harbor and headed north following the eastern shore. We stopped at remote fishing villages and deserted beaches. Newfoundlanders have a rich history of hard work and perseverance and a culture steeped in song and hospitality.
This trip will be remembered with many colorful images of vast seascapes, landscapes and Newfoundlanders.
I accompanied my friend Sandy Morris of Safari Party Adventures this summer on a wonderful photo tour of Ecuador. We guided an enthusiastic group of aspiring photographers to some of Ecuador's most scenic and colorful attractions. I assumed that my responsibilities supporting the group would limit my personal shooting, but I think instead I captured some of my best of Ecuador to date. Lots of memorable Faces and Places on this trip.
The 1941 Historic Aircraft Group Museum in Geneseo, NY is just a 30 minute drive from home and it offers an amazing airshow every summer of classic and military aircraft. This year I went with a press pass from my local paper, the Daily Messenger, and a pro shooter friend, Peter Ryan.
Peter's superior credentials, (National Geographic Online), got him an airpass.... alas, mine did not. But Peter cajoled an opportunity for me to get some air shots. What a great experience that was! I hope you enjoy these images of aviation, old and new.
In June 2008 we headed off to Maine with the goal of hunting puffins. They were "sitting ducks" (er, puffins!!) as we hid in blinds on Machias Seal Island in the Bay of Fundy where they return after years at sea maturing to breed. The air is filled with puffins coming and going as they work constantly to feed their young and avoid the thieve'n gulls. Our hunt was successful.... lots of great shots in the Puffins, Puffins, and Bits of Maine gallery.
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