The last month, well spent in the Eastern Sierra. Hiked, did some trail running with gear, dove in freezing alpine lakes (how this fish ended up on our plate), soaked in hot springs. For the past 3 years I've struggled with a knee injury that has kept me from running at all, and up until the past year, kept me from any serious hiking. I have been very grateful for it as it humbled me to no end. I have broken many bones, but this is the first time my body failed without a direct connection to my own stupidity. The recovery has required vast amounts of patience and understanding and it made my appreciation for my health and connection to nature so much more pronounced. Averaged 11+ miles / 1800ft + elevation gain each hike between 9-12k ft in the John Muir Wilderness, Tolumne and 20 Lakes Basin w/ @eleanor______ann and @droidicle .
Aerial shots over the Southwest. @mnemonic.dvc and I flew into Denver to buy a truck and camper, and over the next 6 days we ended up driving through many of the same places I took shots of. Shooting telephoto through the window of a plane results in some weird refractions and blurred sections but I really liked the soft film quality to it.
Side note, I will be launching a site for my photography soon, probably before the Fourth. I’m still not sure about selling prints all the time but may do a particular release here and there. Part of me wants to use them for a show, but mostly I’d prefer my friends to buy them and know they’re hanging in their homes.
Transforming the often bland, late modernist architecture found in most Tokyo neighborhoods into a claustrophobic Otani-inspired surrealist scene.
Multiple exposure collage of various architectural forms + Ohashi Junction sign. Shot in Ikejiri and Aodaba at 135-200mm.
LONE PINE, BIG PINE, CA. FEB 20-21, 2024
Second dump of photos from the same set.
I do not use presets when editing my shots. Not out of snobbery, but simply because I feel like you can get too comfortable clicking a button and transforming 50 selects at once and being ok with the results. By doing them manually, I force myself to pay a little more attention to how I was shooting, what the lighting was, and if I fucked up somehow.
When I do my “darkroom” edits, I will always adjust things in a sequence and take account of how the photo looks before going to the next adjustment. Starting with Contrast, I will push that up 30-50% before adjusting shadow and highlight to even things out a bit. After that I will adjust color slightly. I nearly always push for warmer temperature with a slight magenta tint, and then saturate and lighten my blues a bit to balance the warmth out. Depending on the shot this can simultaneously make the photo more moody or more bright and crisp, and so at that point I will feel out what the scene is conveying and re-adjust the exposure to take advantage of the story more. The sets tend to land within a similar range of aesthetic, but there is always going to be a noticeable difference between them that I think is dynamic.
Ultimately I always arrive at a place that feels close to positive slide film. There was always something I found appealing to color positive that I could never put my finger on. Heavy colors, contrast, fine grain, and a small sense of intangible “glow” that is hard to find on digital.
SWIPE SLOWLY TO VIEW >> JOSHUA TREE, LONE PINE, WHITE MOUNTAINS FEB 20-21, 2024
I've long held landscape photography as a meditative practice, something that I resisted any urge to engage with commercially. While I have shot many photoshoots over the years, they were always in the pursuit of sales, and I never felt compelled towards it as a career, so I my relationship with shooting has been complicated.
From 2012-2015 I spent alot of time on the road around the southwest, sleeping in my truck, climbing, stalking trains, talking to greybeards in random bars, and posting photos of my travels on instagram as a sort of diary process. As most people do, it was a way for me to make my life seem more interesting, romantic and adventurous.
It was around this time that I started to recognize my distaste for being the center of attention and subject of stories while the world played a supporting role. Increasingly, I wanted to translate the awe, wonder and spiritual foundation that the earth provided me, into images for other people to experience.
I worked on my technical skills to shoot in ways that the old timers I met on the trail did. Setting up in the same spots hours early to beat out other shooters, tripod set up, waiting for the perfect golden hour light, ND filters, f2.8 aperture, 24mm lens, long exposure, etc.
While I learned to hone a craft, I recognized that, while I was able to capture a beautiful scene, it felt impersonal and sterile. In contrast, friends’ point and shoot photos from parties felt more alive than what I had been doing. They captured fleeting moments taken from a personal perspective. They emerged from a relationship that did not require preparation, just connection.
The usual subjects -Half Dome, Zion, Sequoia, Sedona- are worthy captures even from the iconic spots, but when I looked at the images I took they lacked the magic I feel when sitting alone watching the weather paint shadow over the land. The moments I most treasured were impermanent, transitory, and intimate. Having felt frustrated and stuck, I sold my camera and quit shooting for years.
CON'T IN COMMENTS
