The Palouse
July 14th, 2010
The Palouse, located in southeastern Washington and extending into Idaho and Oregon, looks like the waves of an ocean frozen in time. In fact, the area was formed by waves of volcanic basalt followed by massive floods and then the gradual accumulation of ash and soil blown in from elsewhere – a process that took millions of years.
Today the Palouse is a pastoral setting that is often compared to Tuscany. The rolling hills are covered primarily in wheat that contributes to the velvety look of the hills.
Last weekend we visited the Palouse for the first time with some photographer friends. Here are a few of the images from that trip.
Tags: Pacific Northwest, Palouse
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Skagit Valley in April
April 15th, 2010
About an hour north of Seattle the Skagit Valley is home to the largest grower of bulb flowers in the United States. Every April the fields explode with color and the roadsides explode with tourists.
We go early – to avoid the crowds and to get the best light. Last year I tried to get a different perspective by shooting up with a wide-angle lens. Thought it was pretty good until several months later when I arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam and saw its clone everywhere. Turns out I had produced a cliché.
This year was hazy and overcast so I decided to try some really tight shots. Focus on individual flowers. Very abstract.
But my favorite shot of the trip was the one I took last of an old barn. This one feels like a dreamscape to me with the post in the foreground in sharp focus while the rest is just a blur.
Tags: Skagit Valley, Tulips
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Shadowland: Reflections on eBooks
April 5th, 2010
Prompted by Apple’s release of the ipad I have spent a lot of time lately thinking about the future of ebooks – in general, and for me personally. There is no question in my mind that ebooks will be part of the future, specifically of my future. But for now something is holding me back.
On the plus side I love the idea of being able to travel with dozens, even hundreds, of books in a lightweight, compact package. After all, you never know what you may want to read at any given moment.
On the negative side, current ebook policies ignore the social context in which reading takes place. You may read in solitude but reading is a decidedly social act. When we read a provocative book we want to discuss it. When we discover a new author we want to share his or her books with family and friends. Currently the ability to share ebooks is limited — with limitations that vary by the reader you choose to purchase.
In addition, you never really buy the book – just the right to read the book. An important technicality that generated waves of outrage last year when Amazon famously erased purchased copies of George Orwell’s “1984” from Kindle devices. A fine irony.
Speaking of ironies, the craziness in digital book policies takes place while social networking sites of all stripes are exploding. So it gets easier to tweet about trivia and harder to share substantive ideas.
So what’s a reader to do? This reader at least has decided to wait and hope for some sanity. My money will go to ebook producers who recognize the important social context of books and reading and let me continue to share my books with family and friends.
Tags: ebooks
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Iconic Places: Cannon Beach
April 1st, 2010
You know the problem. You go to a beautiful, often photographed place, and start shooting. It’s fun. Your images look just like every image you’ve ever seen of the place. That part is frustrating. Question is: how do you make an iconic place your own? We recently spent several days at Cannon Beach in Oregon. The first image below is pretty straightforward. The weather was blustery – pretty typical for this time of year.
So I decided to try a couple of different things. Another day, better weather, lots of color with a strong foreground component.
Finally I decided to try fiddling with an image after the fact to make it look like it might have been shot years ago.
Same beach, same weekend, three different ways of feeling about it. Which do you think works best?
Tags: Cannon Beach, Pacific Northwest
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At the Edge of the World
January 1st, 2010
Another Kauai image. Don’t know for sure what it is about this that feels compelling to me. Would welcome any comments you may have.
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Reflections
December 28th, 2009
Another image from the same pre-sunrise walk.
This one was taken a bit later, but still before sunrise.
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The Magic of Kauai
December 24th, 2009
The island of Kauai has always had an almost spiritual power for me. The challenge of photographing this spectacularly beautiful island is to find a way to move beyond the obvious, and much photographed, beauty. My goal is to find a way to evoke a feeling of wonder from those who view my photographs.
On our most recent trip I managed to get several unexpected shots. Like so much of life, showing up is the first requirement. On the first morning of our month-long stay Bob and I woke before dawn, saw from the clock that it was 6:30 (sunrise was at 7:10), fell into our clothes, grabbed our cameras, and headed for the door. Once outside we realized that it was really very dark. Way too dark to be so close to sunrise.
We looked at each other and said, what time is it? Turns out that the clock was an hour off. Instead of 6:30 it was 5:30 – well, 5:45 by then. Instead of going back inside we decided to do our customary walk backwards, starting out on sidewalks instead of lava. Uneven lava in the dark seemed like a bad idea.
As we rounded the corner to head for the ocean this is what we saw:
Before sunrise and just before the new moon. We would never have thought to plan it.
Tags: Kauai, mgmason photography
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In Praise of Printing
November 18th, 2009
Yes, yes, I know it’s been awhile. I have been immersed in a new project – fine art printing. The adventure started last year when I took a workshop with Mac Holbert, co-founder of Nash Editions (yes, that Graham Nash). Nash Editions may be the single best digital fine art print shop in the world. But whether it is or is not the absolute best, Mac knows more about digital fine art printing than I even imagined possible and I learned a huge amount about how to use lightroom and photoshop to take a good photograph and make it the best print it can be.
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