Golden Gate

Week 1

Golden Gate

January 3, 2010

I started out 2010's 52 Photos with an image of the San Francisco skyline as shot from Bernal Hill on the south side of the city. I thought it would be fun to again start off the year with a San Francisco scene, and so I give you... the Golden Gate Bridge. Also shot at night, this image was taken from a few steps off of the pathway that runs between Fort Point and up to the bridge itself.

I love the glow that the bridge gets just after sunset, the purplish-blue sky and the Marin Headlands silhouetted in the background. It's a beautiful sight. I can see why this vantage point has been used to photograph the bridge so often, it truly is breathtaking, an iconic image to say the least.

As I review this and many other images I made in San Francisco last week, I can't help but feel a sense of satisfaction at my growth as a photographer over the last year. Please don't misunderstand me, I am under no delusion that I don't have exponentially more to learn than I have learned thus far. I do, however feel good about the few things I have learned, grateful to those that have taken time to teach me, and excited for what this next year will hold for dgP. 

Enjoy this image, and the many more to come this year! I hope to keep you eagerly following along and engaged each week, and enthusiastically sharing with your friends and family the images and topics you encounter here.

Here's to a great start to 2011!

image taken with Canon 5DMII, 24-70 2.8L lens, 49 seconds @f22, ISO 100

Learning

Week 33

 

Learning

August 18, 2010

This past week I had the opportunity to attend a workshop put on by Mike Larson.  Mike is a wedding and lifestyle photographer, international speaker, and overall a super nice guy, and I feel privileged to have spent a couple days learning from him. The image above was one of many taken as the workshop participants all took turns directing the models, applying some of the things we were taught that day. While I can't take credit for direction on this shot, I loved the lighting and motion in the image all the same and so thought I'd share it with you.

One of the things I liked most about the workshop was the focused approach Mike brought. He spent time giving us some useful tools and knowledge from his years in the business, but didn't overload us with an unmanageable amount of information, just for information's sake. Could he have been more broad in what he covered with us? Probably. Would that have made the workshop better? Well, I'd argue no, not for his target audience, which was photographers in the first few years of their business. Mike stressed a few key ideas (as much if not more based in character than strategy) throughout his time with us, and gave us tools to accomplish the ideas he proposed.

I think we all too often go through life with an information-hungry attitude and forget to focus. We skim the surface of the ocean of information and experiences available to us and forget to dive into something with depth and intention. As a result, we look back over years of living with memories of pop-culture, 24-hour news network shows, and social network updates. I'd encourage you to explore ways to go deep into something that interests you and serves others. It could be intellectual, athletic, spiritual or otherwise, but I think the memories you create doing so will be much richer and provide a greater satisfaction with the journey you are taking.

image taken with Canon 5D, MII, 24-105 4L lens, 1/160 @ f4, ISO 100