If you are a Save The Bay supporter, be sure to flip to July to check out my image of a juvenile green heron when your 2016 calendar arrives in the mail. Save The Bay is a San Francisco Bay Area non-profit dedicated to the preservation of the SF Bay. If you’re not a supporter, the calendar is yours free with a gift of donation. Its a worthwhile cause – I’m just saying!
I was fortunate enough to have an image selected for the cover of the upcoming issue of Bay Nature magazine. I shot this turkey vulture in soft diffused morning light out at Pescadero State Beach. Once I saw him, I dropped to my knees in the sand and slowly started making my way toward him, every few feet stopping to get a safety shot. Finally I was close enough to frame him in a portrait, and was able to get several head poses. It turned out that he was in no hurry to leave, so after I got the shots I wanted, I crept away from him so as not to disturb him.
While not the prettiest bird, when caught in the right light, you can bring out their feather detail as seen here. In bright sunlight, their dark feathers are usually rendered to an inky black, so it was nice to see some of the lightness of the feathers come through in this kind of light.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, grab a copy. It is a great magazine and will introduce you to new places around the bay.
Hot on the heels of my recent Outdoor Photographer cover comes a new textbook featuring a photo I took a couple of years ago in Lassen National Park. The textbook is geared toward educators interested in child development.
This shot features a trail built into the side of a cinder cone, located in the northeast corner of the park. The hike to the top is very cool, offering views of Mt. Lassen in the distance, and even a second trail descending into the crater of the volcanic peak.
Outdoor Photographer’s annual landscape special has just come out, with a cover shot front and center by yours truly. It was great to see my shot featured on the cover of this premier national photography magazine, on what is traditionally their best selling issue of the year. To have my photo appear along side those from masters such as Frans Lanting and James Kay is an honor.
I took this shot of the Mesquite Dunes just before sunset in the spring of 2012. I was drawn to this composition by the intensity of the sand patterns. Since they were the real story in this shot, I emphasized the foreground to allow the pattern to take up about 5/6 of the frame. However, I wanted to give it some context, so instead of creating a sand wave abstract, I included the horizon line with the dunes and mountains beyond.
