This is by far the craziest and the most dangerous photo I have ever taken in my life. Brandon is sitting on the edge of the Dead Horse Point in Moab, Utah, and if he was to fall, he was to fly about 2,000 feet down. I often get asked how we took this. It was really simple. We were hanging out at this place, and Brandon said to me, “hey, let’s do this”, and then sat down on this little edge while I fired away. He then asked me to take a turn, and I had to pass. Why? I already had the shot I liked. He also told me his high school buddy once did a hand stand on that ledge. I guess there are crazier possibilities.

This photo was featured on KSL’s 10 o’clock news on April 5th, 2007. Here is the video. This photo is also featured as a cover photo for Utah national parks in Welcome to Utah guide for 2009 that you may find in SLC airport or most hotels in Utah.

Sometimes it takes luck to come up with something worth saving.

Waimea Canyon (“the Grand Canyon of the Pacific”, as Mark Twain called it) is on the Kauai island, the oldest of all islands of Hawaii. However, this angle is not the one you usually see, as we pulled over on the side of the road and I took this from a “window” created by the trees rather than taking the usual tourist shot from the popular overlook. I took a few shots, and as I was walking away, other people who pulled over said “hey – look at that rainbow.” This got my attention, and as I turned around, I saw this huge rainbow show up all across the canyon that was at least a mile long. It only lasted for about 2 minutes, but the sight was a lot more memorable.

PS – Just got back from vacation. I will finish the portfolio shots today (.. at last!), and will resume regular blog posts.

One day I’ll be laying on my deathbed, looking back at my life. When I’ll think of 2008, this will probably be an image that will first come back to my memory. I think I enjoyed watching Maks grow more than anything else that’s happened to us that year. This was the first time I saw him stop, and just gaze at this beautiful Santa Cruz sunset. I don’t think kids appreciate nature as much as we adults too, but this was a moment of amazement to him – perhaps first time he’s discovered the event we call ‘sunset.’ When I saw this image on the back LCD of my camera, I knew right away this was going to be my favorite image from 2008.

“He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.”
Henry David Thoreau

While driving around in Napa Valley, I kept looking for this very scene – a farm with an easy access and rows of grape trees extending into the horizon. Finally, as we took a turn, I saw this spot, just as I visualized it. We immediately turned around and I had to take this picture.

I like this scene because it speaks of order. There are all kinds of patterns in this image – how trees extend in to the distance, how they are parallel to the road, the curve of the road, the angle of shadows, etc. I also liked what I saw in the skies and the color that presented itself.

I have no chance of taking this kind of image of Maks again. First, his feet no longer look this cute. Second, no chance he’s laying awake like this in a lit room. Third, no chance he’s laying at all while I have my camera in my hands. So to you young parents out there I say – use the first six month if your toddler’s life and immobility that comes with it to your full advantage.

To get a shot like this, I laid him on a white towel, I set the lens to wide open (f/1.8), and used a fill flash, shot through white umbrella at 1/4 power to camera’s left to balance the natural light coming through the window on his right and to get rid of the tree shadows from the window.

So far, this image has been my best seller with the stock agencies, with several hundred sales. Got to pay for the diapers somehow.

I debated for a while whether I should include this one or not as part of my portfolio, since it’s pretty much just a family shot, but I thought I would anyway, as this shot is one of a kind in my collection.

Those of us who are parents can appreciate how hard it is to catch an infant (Maks was still just 6 months in this shot) at the top of his smile, looking directly at the camera. In fact, it’s almost impossible. I took several thousands of photos of Maks since he was born 20 months ago, but this is the only one I have where he is smiling with his whole face while directly interacting with the camera. I’ve taken thousands of shots of other toddlers as well for our friends and family, and still, no luck to catch an expression like this.

Many will look at the picture, and think – it’s just a family snapshot that should remain in a photo album. To them I say, go out and try to take a shot like this of a kid that age before you say it’s a piece of cake job.

The way our brain works is that we remember the extremes. When I think of Maks, I think of him laughing his head off, or smiling. Just like he does in this picture, and perhaps this still image is how I will remember his childhood.

Here is a more traditional view of the the James ‘Sunny Jim’ Rolph Bridge, aka the Bay Bridge, taken on Embarcadero walkway right before sun appeared. It was a good place to start a day.

After trying shots at longer exposures when water is smooth and shorter exposures when waves are frozen in time, I decided to settle on a version of the image that’s in between, as this best captured how I felt about the mood that presented itself on that cold December morning.

One of the ways to get images you normally would not get is sometimes just to turn around. I remembered that advise from Jay Maisel that I read not long ago on Scott Kelby’s blog, and this is exactly what I had to do to capture this image.

I was taking a picture of the Provo Temple, but then I decided to turn around and I was immediately attracted to how the setting sun enveloped the Nativity scene in front of this pool and how steam coming from the water was providing additional contrast.

Sometimes additional shots are just one turn or one step away from us.

The storms that you see in high altitudes in the desert are unlike any other.

I was visiting Provo, Utah (elevation 4,551ft) on a business trip when I took this image. This was taken at Utah Lake very near the same spot where Plate 1 image was taken, except looking in the opposite direction. I saw that the big storm was on its way, and I wanted to take few images before it arrived. In the distance were flashing lightnings, but I didn’t want to lose texture in the sky and in the water with longer exposure when trying to capture it, so I had to try my luck and keep pressing the shutter with hope that maybe I’ll get lucky and capture a lightning. It took 200 shots, but I did catch a lightning with this 1/20 of a second exposure.

As I headed home, the storm finally arrived, and it rained all through the night. It’s been almost two years since then, but I have not encountered a storm as powerful and as good looking as was this one.