I attended a wonderful- and rather unique-  family event last night in downtown Denver. It was held in the iconic Clock Tower building and stretched over the four top floors in the building. Each floor had its own food offerings, plus dancing on one floor and a spectacular panoramic view of the Denver skyline from a parapet that wound around the 20th floor.
Shortly after we arrived, my sister-in-law, Ruth, took out her iPhone and snapped this lovely image of the clock, from the inside of the building’s 18th floor. I …

I took this image two days ago while on the south side of Maui. The sun was fading fast and I ran out of my car, clamped my camera to the tripod and shot almost directly into the sun (the sun is a few degrees to the left). I held my hand to the side of the camera to avoid flare. The image you see here is straight out of the camera, with no post-processing, converted to a jpg for posting here on my blog.
What appealed to me was the …

I’m here at PhotoPlus 2012 with Bob Boyer, my assistant, and so far we’re enjoying the immersion in all things photographic. The Javits Center in mid-town Manhattan is gigantic and it is currently filled with tens of thousands of photo enthusiasts from all over the country, weaving their way through the overwhelming maze of exhibitors.
Today I spent most of my time talking with people who visited the Intelicoat Technologies, Inc. booth. I was one of the guest artists for their Museo Fine Art papers exhibit on the main floor of …

This morning my Maine photo workshop group that I teach for Nikonians woke up to torrential rains. So our morning field trip was cancelled and instead we had a wonderful 3-hour discussion session, covering lots of photographic concepts.
Personally, I love these jam sessions, with no preconceived agenda. Instead, having lived with each other for 36 hours already, shooting all around spectacular Mt. Desert Island, questions have arisen, new types of equipment seen, new techniques observed. So the morning was spent sharing with each other terrific photo tips and suggestions.
I particularly …

My photo buddy Richard Hartmier is at it again. Take a look at the shots he nailed last night in the Yukon, where he lives. Amazing! Stunning!
Hats off to you, Richard!
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It’s not often that a latest-greatest camera comes out and I feel like I have to have it. In fact, I was perfectly happy with my Nikon D700, which I’ve had since it debuted. It is a great camera; well built, easy to use, and it produces spectacular images. It is flexible and has allowed me to execute my vision, even under challenging environmental conditions. Besides, I also shoot a medium format Hasselblad H4D-50, so I had pixels if I needed them.
 
When the Nikon D800 was announced I was, quite …

(Part of a series on Finland)
One of the activities I looked forward to the most while in Finland was a two-day dog-sledding adventure, taking off from the Harriniva Holiday Centre, about 45 minutes out of Kittela. In turn, Kittela is a 90-minute plane ride from Helsinki, so it’s a fair bit of effort to get to this region, located well inside the Arctic Circle.
Harraniva
Harraniva is a multi-purpose, multi-season resort run by the grandchildren of the family that founded it in 1973. As such, it boasts a true home-style atmosphere. At …

During my stay here in Finland, the weather has been, shall I say, uncooperative… photographically, that is. The skiers are in heaven, since a lot of snow has fallen. However, for me the weather has been mostly overcast and snowy, limiting my photographic possibilities.
I’ve only had two days of decent or partially decent weather, but oh, were they grand! One evening the skies put on a show-of-shows. Right before dinner, starting at around 5:30 PM, a colleague and I rushed outside as the Aurora Borealis began to form. Here is …

I figure this is something you do once, just to get it out of your system. If you think about coming back again, I’ll recommend my step-son, who is a terrific psychoanalyst.
Here’s the concept. You get to sleep in an unheated building carved from pure ice and resurrected every year anew, so that in no way is the hotel the same every year. You sleep on a bed made of ice. Simple, eh? Think sleeping in your freezer. And I’ll bet you thought travel journalism is all fun and games.
The …

One man’s sorrow is another man’s joy, or so the saying goes (I assume it applies equally to women). And so it is in the Yukon Territory, where oil, gas and precious metal interests have discovered that the Canadian province may hold vast, untapped resources. That’s good news for the economy and perhaps bad news for the environment. We’ll soon see.
In winter I usually review some of my past year’s work and, lo and behold!, I found some images that I had forgotten about. Without taking a stand on Yukon’s …