I’m really slow processing the photos from that night, because I’m still bitter about that evening.

The evening at Garrapata Beach at Big Sur was going fine. Beautiful light, no wind, big waves (it was the day before the Mavericks competition took place), no one but me and a few teenagers at the beach. What could go wrong, right?

Oh, as always, many things. I left my camera bag where I thought it was safe, where the sand looked dry, almost all the way at the end of the beach by the cliffs. As I was busy shooting away, I noticed that one big wave seemed to kept going longer than all the others. But it was too late. It went straight through my opened camera bag, soaking everything inside and actually killing my laptop that was still running for whatever reason (don’t you hate it when PC laptops doesn’t properly shut down?). The IT guys at my work found sand and salt on the inside disk of the hard drive. I think that wave killed both the hard drive and the laptop shell.

We must respect the ocean.

Nikon D300
24mm, f/16, 1/20 s, ISO100
Lee ND Grad 0.6 + 0.9

It’s that time of the year again, and I have some tips for you if you’re a part time photographer wanting to minimize your taxes..

I’m glad to say I filed my taxes last weekend. It took me several days to put everything together, but it’s good to be done and start worrying about another year. As a reminder, here are couple of articles I wrote last year that may help you with your taxes for 2009 and maybe even 2010 if you plan ahead. I updated those articles recently, and I hope you find them useful. Again, feel free to leave a comment to these articles if you have a tax question, of send me an email and I’ll be happy to help.

Tax Tips for Part-Time Photographers

Sales Tax Tips For Photographers in California

Some shots get you really into the scene, like this one.

Last Sunday was another cloudy post-stormy day here in Northern California, and I met up with Jim Patterson and Kendra back at Garrapata Beach. This time around it was a negative tide, so many layers of sand were gone, revealing all kinds of big rocks and boulders that are typically covered by the sand. In fact, the beach was almost impossible to recognize.

Towards the end of the day I ended up close to these sweet looking rocks that the waves keep beating up on. I love the trails that the waves created, and I wanted to capture the blue colors of that evening, as day turned into night. I dropped by shoes, rolled up my jeans up and stood there for 10-15 minutes watching and shooting these waves. How did end? See that big boy in the background? It got to me, as I was focusing my attention on the foreground, and I end up getting immersed to my chest in the water. Luckily, I grabbed the camera, but my ankle still have bruised from all the rolling rocks that the wave brought with it. Needless to say, I was done with that frame.

Nikon D300
20mm, f/14, 0.6 sec, ISO400
ND Grad 0.9

We’re in the middle of winter storms here in SF Bay Area.

Last week as the day was coming to an end, there was a short break right around the sunset time. I quickly grabbed my gear and headed out of the door to the nearby park that our house is close to. The color was there, but not spectacular, since there were too many low clouds. So I decided the scene is better suited for B&W. Standing there in this weather I couldn’t help but enjoy the fresh air that these storms bring. Next few weeks will also be the best time for landscape photography around here, as storms tend to clear the air and bring high clouds.

The nature is mean out there right now, but that’s expected for January. Please drive safely.

Nikon D300
1/20 sec, f/16, 24mm, 100 ISO
ND Grad 0.9 (3-stop)

While downloading the latest podcasts from Brooks Jensen, the publisher of my favorite photography related magazine Lenswork, I discovered that he recently started new photography related blogs, thus jumping in with both feet into the world of blogging. Up to this point Brooks produced free podcasts on creativity  and on photography as an art medium (which I consider to be the best in that area of photography), and there are 600+ of them now. However, that must not be enough, and it appears he’s been rather regular poster on his new blogs.

I’m a big fan of all things Lenswork. I like the quality of the magazine they produce, I love that they make fine art photography available at normal people prices, and I loved their podcasts, because they really force me to think about photography as something that is more than just snapping pretty pictures. I really have no idea how Brooks does it all at the same time (although he did address that question recently), but he does it well, and with deep passion for the world of photography.

Here are the new blogs -

Lenswork Technology Blog – all things technology. That’s an interesting topic, since Lenswork historically focused on everything else about photography but the technology.

“Ask Brooks” Blog – this is a place where Brooks answers various emails and questions from Lenswork readers.

Visions of the Heart Blog – further thoughts on imaged recently published in Lenswork.

Check these out when you get a minute.

It’s one of the busiest times of the year for me in my non-photography related endeavors, but I’ll try to share something at least once a week to keep my mind sane and somewhat guilt-free. Why is it that January is the most popular time to break the new year’s resolution?

In case you missed it, I wanted to let you know that one of my favorite landscape photographers Don Smith recently published another ebook, Refined Vision, 50 Lessons Designed to Improve Your Digital Landscape Photography, this time it’s available both in PDF and print version via Blurb. I wrote earlier about Don’s book on Big Sur, and this time he published a book that has slightly different content and contains his advice to those who love shooting landscape photography.

Here is what I loved about the book.

First, I’ve read many books on landscape photography in an effort to educate myself. They are typically targeted towards beginners, and cover such topics as why one should be shooting with a tripod, how to get a good exposure, and how to handle color. Usually, you read one, you’ve read them all. Don’s book goes a step further and includes various topics typically not covered in this book, such as how to measure perspective, how to space elements, how to choose foreground or how to get the best shots at night (his chapter on shooting moonbows is worth the price you’ll pay for the book alone). Don also spends some time sharing how his creative thoughts work in the field, as well as his workflow from shooting to print.

Second, the book provides a good balance of text and photos. It is 161 pages long, and includes a great collection of outstanding landscape images. On top of that however, the pages of the book are full of good text, and the advice that Don typically shares with his student during his workshops. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of text, because this is where in my mind the book is the most valuable.

Third, Don designed a book in a way that each lessons builds off each other. This is a logical way to present them and makes the flow of his vision easy to follow and easy to read.

To read more about the book or purchase your copy, please visit Don’s site.

The auction for one of my prints that I wrote about earlier is over, and I’m happy to report that the print was sold to Dylin from Madison, WI (who goes by Dylin Holden on Flickr), who donated his winning bid, $200, to a great charity organization Shelter Box, that has three separate operational centers in and around Haiti to help distribute assistance to the estimated one million people left homeless by the devastating 12 January earthquake.

The devastation from the earthquake is beyond what I can imagine, as is the pain of those who lost their loved ones and their property in this terrible disaster. Right now the relief efforts are challenged by the crime of looting, and robbery, to say nothing about the lack of basic supplies, so the disaster is far from being over. Reading the reports, this all reminds me of the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. To see some of the terrifying photos from the disaster, click here.

Thanks to all those who bid in the auction and especial thanks goes to Dylin who won the bid, for his generosity in this great cause. While we can’t all go to Haiti and help those in need, we can at least donate funds and other things to those who can.

To see other photos that are still being auctioned as part of the similar effort, click here.

I’m auctioning a 16×20 print of this photo I took at Pebble Beach back in 2007 to help the relief efforts for Haiti earthquake with all the proceeds donated to charity of your choice. The bidding began, and will end at 11.59pm on Sunday, January 17th.

For details, click here.

The year barely started, and I’m already slacking on one of my resolutions. Human nature, I suppose.

Thanks to all those who contributed to my “Best of 2009″ post and shared their thoughts on which shot they liked the best. Now that I got 2009 behind me, it’s time to look into 2010, and set some specific photography-related goals and decide where I want to be a year from now. I’ve got a bunch, and I don’t want to share all of them, but I’ll share a few main ones. It’ll be good to look back at these goals at the end of the year and see how much has been accomplished. Here are few of the things I’d like to accomplish this year, in a random order.

1. Reorganize and redesign my portfolio web-site. I was going to finally select a new web-site platform and create an online portfolio, but just a couple of days ago I learned that Zenfolio, the service I use to sell my prints, has undergone a major upgrade, and I think now has all I need to get the job done.
2. Build portfolio in three areas – landscape/nature, architecture and abstract. I am going to stay more focused on these subjects this year, as year develops and my goal is to have 20 images in each section that I am happy with. Last year I’ve shot all kinds of types of photography. This year I’ll specialize more.
3. Complete a photo essay. I’d like to complete a photo project that will be good enough for a photos essay consisting of 10-15 images. I have several ideas in mind what that will be.
4. Write a new blog post every week. I think writing about photography is a good way to improve. Photography as a medium is hard topic to write about, but my goal would be to write a substantive post once a week.
5. Grow my photography business. I’d like to shoot more assignments, I’d like to sell more prints, I’d like to have larger presence online and I’d like to be profitable this year.

All these goals have a long list of to-do items as I brainstorm, but as I write the ideas down, it makes me look forward to the upcoming year and where I’ll take my photography.

Before I outline some of the goals I have for my photography for 2010, I thought I’d share with you some of my favorite images from 2009. As I share these, you can see what kind of things I found myself photographing during this past year.

It’s been an interesting year for me. In terms of subject matter, I photographed just about everything there is to photograph – landscapes, seascape, portraits, street, urban, architecture, night photography, sports, macro, street and even firedancers. A lot of it came as a result of attending photowalks and meetups that tend to focus on different things, but overall I wanted to spend some time exploring various styles of photography to see which direction I want to go next. It was almost a self-discovery for me, and in the process, I’ve learned a lot, both about photography and myself. With that, let’s go ahead and jump in to cover some of my favorite pictures from the last year. They’ll be presented in the order I took them.

1. Rising Storm and the Tree

For some reason I was home early from work that day, and seeing some powerful clouds outside, I rushed to the hills behind my house to see if I can catch some clouds. We don’t get storms very often in this area of California, but I managed to catch one just on time.

2. The Alien Shore – in Memory of Dennis Cyncor-McMillan

The sad background behind this image is that I took this photo on the night Dennis Cyncor-McMillan, a local high school student, drowned at the nearby beach while partying with some friends late at night. This photo represented his last sunset. His family was in contact with me since the accident, and they’ve used this image during Dennis’ memorial service. This was perhaps the most meaningful image.

3. Arriving in the Motherland

I wanted to take this photo for years now. We finally made the track back to Moscow where I introduced our son Maksim to his extended family and to his Motherland. He had a blast hanging out at the Red Square.

4. Loneliness of Leadership

Not only did I get to see Michael Phelps swim live this last year, I was also lucky to photograph him and get this image of him, all alone, as usual, ahead of everyone else in this race.

5. Alpen glow on Mount Timpanogos

While visiting in Utah, I got up early for sunrise one morning to be treated with beautiful mountain light on Mt Timpanogos of Wasatch Range. Standing there all alone, I left one with nature as time seemed to disappear.

6. Links into the Past

Sometimes fog can present some of the best photographic opportunities. Wanting to catch a new view of these remains of Davenport Pier, I hiked down there in this bad weather and with the help of the long exposure captured the mood of that cold August morning.

7. Nimitz Street

Mare Island is one of the more favorite locations of mine where I photographed all of last year. An old shipyard played one of the key roles in World War II and walking there at night I kept trying to imagine what a different place that have been 65 years ago.

8. Her First Smile

I will of course remember year 2009 mostly for new addition to our growing family, our daughter Nadya, who was born back in October. Of all the hundreds of photos I have taken of her, this one is my favorite. She’s truly an angel.

9. Feeling Dizzy

Last year I’ve shot a lot of architecture, and this is something I’d like to continue doing. This image is a nice reminder of why I love Embarcadero Center in San Francisco.

10. Changing Light Over Garrapata Beach

My last nature shoot of the year took place at the Garrapata Beach at Big Sur, where I witnessed perhaps the most dramatic light I have seen in that part of California.

Bonus Photo – Jordan and Jen

In May I had the honor to be a photographer at my friends’ wedding out in North Carolina. Beautiful location and a beautiful couple.

I’d love to hear what are some of your favorite images of mine – from this group or those that I’ve shared elsewhere.