I like to go on short trips in and around my home in New Jersey. This past Father’s Day, I decided to head down the Jersey Shore for the weekend even though the weather forecast was calling for afternoon thunderstorms and showers. What a great call! My wife and I spent most of the day basking in the sun and enjoying the Spring Lake beach area. After several hours of relaxing on the beach, I decided to take a walk …
Explaining why LB Neutral Polarizer is almost always a good filter!
This is my part of the natural world, and I can feast on all the natural beauty around me for years to come. But there have been many more decisions I have made to assure success as an outdoor photographer — including the decision to use Singh-Ray filters. I’d like to talk a bit about the one filter that, as a landscape photographer, is almost always on my lens. That filter is the Singh-Ray LB Neutral Polarizer. Many photographers only …
Going to Olympic National Park and braving the threat of vampires, werewolves and heavy rainfall
From the time I started taking landscape images, there’s been something mysteriously drawing me to Olympic National Park, but it wasn’t the vampires and werewolves described in the Twilight books. The rugged Washington coastline with its craggy sea stacks and rough seas looked like just the place to make dramatic images. The only issue was the weather. When author Stephenie Meyer wrote the Twilight books, she picked the part of the lower 48 states with the highest annual rainfall. She …
Trip to Iceland proved to be a rich and inspiring experience
I have taken photo trips in Europe and the Mediterranean, but the biggest step yet has been my recent trip to Iceland. That had been a “dream” destination for a long time. The dream came true in June 2012. My goal for this trip was to explore the south coast, a part of the highlands and, if possible, the west peninsula. I had ten days there and the program was dependent on the weather. It turned out we were lucky …
Discussing what I’ve learned from previous trips
As I prepare for my fourth trip to Iceland — the third time I will be serving as a guide for other photographers — I’ve given a lot of thought to what I’ve learned to this point. I can also draw upon my previous experience leading workshops to almost every corner of this country. I’ve spent some time considering how I might improve on the way I shot these locations before, and how I’ll guide the other photographers to do …
Photographing Oregon’s Bandon Beach in Black and White with Gold-N-Blue Polarizer
What an incredible landscape; the sea stacks are of course the highlight, but I had a 7-foot high tide to contend with and… you guessed it… plenty of clouds. Two of the most popular sea stacks on the beach are known as ‘Wizard’s Hat’ and ‘Face Rock’ seen in the image above. Beaches can be beautiful places to sunbathe, but they can also be visually mundane. Bandon’s unusual sea stacks provide plenty of visual interest and story for a landscape …
Discovering Singh-Ray ND Grads and the ColorCombo
I mainly wanted to feature the most well-known springs, lakes and forests — recording their changes in the different seasons. Since I was living in Southern Oklahoma at that time, I did several trips to the park during different times of the day. Finally, the chosen images were published in a twenty-six-page portfolio in the March/April 2013 edition of Oklahoma Today. In order to follow the specific guidelines from the editor, I needed to be sure to make all my adjustments in the …
Timing a spontaneous visit to the South Carolina Lowcountry perfectly
I just can’t work without my LB Warming Polarizer. For example, during my January photo trip to the ‘Boneyard Beach’ area in South Carolina’aLowcountry, my filters were essential to capturing the fantastic light. Most of my photo trips involve extensive planning and several days to adequately document the area, but this was a more spontaneous adventure. I just decided to take a gamble based on an optimistic weather report and favorable tide information. I drove about 5 hours through the …
Using the Singh-Ray ColorCombo with ND Grads to control the complete picture
When I realized I’m living in one of the world’s most scenic areas. I am now striving to promote nature conservation through my outdoor photography, and I am also discovering the benefits of using Singh-Ray filters for optimum results when shooting landscapes. I first discovered the importance of using Singh-Ray Graduated ND filters (ND Grads) to produce landscape images with just the right balance between nature’s bright skies and shadowy foregrounds. More recently, I’ve discovered that my Singh-Ray LB ColorCombo is equally …
Capturing the alpine drama with two Singh-Ray filters
During that time I’ve gone through more than a few cameras and lenses, transitioned from film to digital, and mastered the digital darkroom. Through it all my vision has been the common thread driven by my passion for the natural landscape — and during that time, Singh-Ray Filters have played a significant role in helping me translate and preserve my unique view of the outdoor world. For example, the image above, which was made in Dusy Basin, Kings Canyon National …