Thankful….And Excited!

Being a photographer is possibly one of the greatest jobs ever created. There are parts of it, however, that are double-edged and one of them is just how much travel can be involved. 

Last year we were on the road for over 10 months and while I absolutely love traveling, I also love my wife and boys.  When the opportunity to have them come out to California for a few days after one shoot ended and another began I was thrilled. 

One of the (many) great things about having kids is that you get to do things that as an adult you might not ever do again and get to see through those fresh eyes. Having the chance to expose them to the amazing things I get to see while traveling makes me thankful for all of the opportunities that this career has offered me over the years and for what I now get to offer to my boys and ever patient and saintly wife.

San Francisco, Muir Woods, Yosemite & Big Sur. Even I woke up excited every morning! Just the beginning of many more adventures and wonders.

Three rainy days - Logging in British Columbia

My background is definitely as a documentary photographer and most of my commercial work still has that natural, of-the-moment feeling. It's always great when a client calls and asks you to shoot something that you'd always wanted to anyway...and gives you total creative freedom. It's what every photographer dreams of. 

Most of our work comes through agencies but because of some mutual contacts, the head of a tree-falling company (basically lumberjacks) in British Columbia got in touch directly. With the input of just capturing what I thought looked best, we were allowed three days to fly in and document what we saw, capturing the beauty of the place and the character of his crew. Despite the constant rain and crazy float plane pilot it was a gift to be able to get in to some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Literally 100's of millions of acres of wild forest. 

My initial thoughts were about horrible clear-cutting and what that's done to forests but British Columbia has extremely strict foresting guidelines and any land that's ever harvested has a team that comes in straight afterwards to replant the entire area back to its original state. Logging in BC is the #2 industry (behind tourism) and the province and the country would collapse without it. I learned so much from the crews there and about how they sort of consider themselves farmers, in a way, with the trees as their crops with the harvesting and replanting. It's an extremely dangerous job, the most dangerous in North America (yes, even more so than Deadliest Catch/Offshore Fishing), but they wouldn't even consider another way of life...

 To see more imagery from this project click here

Three rainy days - Logging in British Columbia

My background is definitely as a documentary photographer and most of my commercial work still has that natural, of-the-moment feeling. It's always great when a client calls and asks you to shoot something that you'd always wanted to anyway...and gives you total creative freedom. It's what every photographer dreams of. 

Most of our work comes through agencies but because of some mutual contacts, the head of a tree-falling company (basically lumberjacks) in British Columbia got in touch directly. With the input of just capturing what I thought looked best, we were allowed three days to fly in and document what we saw, capturing the beauty of the place and the character of his crew. Despite the constant rain and crazy float plane pilot it was a gift to be able to get in to some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. Literally 100's of millions of acres of wild forest. 

My initial thoughts were about horrible clear-cutting and what that's done to forests but British Columbia has extremely strict foresting guidelines and any land that's ever harvested has a team that comes in straight afterwards to replant the entire area back to its original state. Logging in BC is the #2 industry (behind tourism) and the province and the country would collapse without it. I learned so much from the crews there and about how they sort of consider themselves farmers, in a way, with the trees as their crops with the harvesting and replanting. It's an extremely dangerous job, the most dangerous in North America (yes, even more so than Deadliest Catch/Offshore Fishing), but they wouldn't even consider another way of life...

To see more imagery from this project click here.

Personal Work: 101

So...I have this friend Libby, one of the best designers I know and a truly amazing lady. Pretty much everything she touches turns to visual gold, so, when she said there was a time window when some awesome neighbor teens would be around, I carved some time out and made the run north. We only had an hour or so between rain storms but, a truck, some water, and some totally awesome kids...and Libby, and that's all the fun and magic ingredients I need. I keep trying to fit in the personal shooting whenever possible, it's often hard, but I'm never disappointed and it always reminds me why I started taking pictures in the first place.    P.W. 101.

 

Trying to make great use of TIME...

Needing to be up in Vancouver for a shoot a month or so ago and having a down day before we began our client project, my assistant and I figured we should try to get in a little bit of personal shooting while we could. 

I think every photographer, or any creative person, wants to do as much personal work as they can, but when you're busy with the projects that keep everything running and also trying to make time for family - so you still have one to come home to - sometimes makes it a little difficult. 

What I've learned over the years is that when we're traveling and can make a little bit of extra time happen, that's when the iron is hot and I gotta get at it. The images below are from a few hours we were able to spend at a ship repair drydock on the outskirts of the city. 

I always love shooting real people in their real environments whenever possible, it's like giving a child candy...