Passing Through Joshua Tree

 I love road trips.  My Dodge Sprinter van, with a built in bed for two, and expansive storage room, makes it incredibly easy to just pick up and go.  We loaded up our car with rock climbing and ski gear,  then made our way to Las Vegas to spend the Winter holidays with friends.   A quick detour to Joshua Tree proved to be rewarding.  Unlike other times of the year,  such as Thanksgiving, when the cooler weather draws out rock climbers in droves to battle over available campsites and climbing routes, Joshua Tree was surprisingly empty on the days leading up to Christmas.  The warm weather, brilliant sunshine, empty campsites, and lack of crowds, made for a pleasant experience, and we were reluctant to move on after only one day and night in this desert paradise.

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The Makeover

My dog Belay (top photos) turns 11 next week and I worry quite a bit that 2011 might be her last year.  Her dog breed, the Bouvier de Flanders has a life expectancy of 9-12 years.  To her disadvantage, she is large for a typical female Bouvier, weighing in at 100 pounds.  Her arthritis is already limiting her mobility and the simplest task of jumping into the car or walking down stairs is an increasing ordeal.  It's morbid of me to already be thinking of her death, but I'm making a conscientious effort to ensure that whatever remaining time she has with us is filled with lots of love, treats, and adventure.   I specifically got Butters (bottom photos) last year because I heard that getting a puppy may have the potential to stretch an older dog's lifespan.  I fear, however, that Butters' spastic exuberance may be driving Belay bonkers.

Lately I've been photographing Belay as much as possible because I want to make sure I capture her personality, her expressions, her joys, and everything I will miss about her when she's gone.  The most memorable thing about Belay is her nasty beard and hair. The only time you could really cuddle with her is when she's freshly groomed.  The same applies to Butters.  The transformation they undergo after they've been bathed and cut is quite dramatic and I wanted to make sure I documented this aspect of their life.

I took these photos before I took them to the "dog spa" and immediately after.  They don't seem too pleased with their makeover.  I'm sensing a "_uck you, mom" look in their eyes.  So much for unconditional love and adoration!

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Yosemite Fog

Although I’ve spent the past 12 years rockclimbing in Yosemite Valley, I’ve never bothered to photograph this picturesque place until a few days ago.  Ansel Adams, in a way, had ruined Yosemite for me.  I never felt compelled to capture a place that had already been so well documented by Adams and a gazillion other landscape photographers.  And truth be told, I never thought I could bring Yosemite any justice after seeing Adam’s classic work.

So what changed my mind about photographing Yosemite?  Boredom and the lack of desire to participate in a threesome.  No, silly, I’m not talking about a menage a trois.  I’m back to the topic of rockclimbing.  There’s a time and place for a threesome, but not when you are trad climbing.  Having three people in a traditional climbing party is slow and inefficient, and with the brief amount of daylight these days, I opted out, and allowed my husband and his friend to get more climbing in for themselves.  Yes, I know, I’m a very kind and thoughtful wife. 

So for the first time ever in Yosemite Valley, I got to spend the weekend hiking and exploring, rather than be strapped into a rope and harness.  The weather was surprisingly gorgeous; t-shirt weather in fact, if you happened to be in the sun.  The warm air, and snow-covered ground created an interesting fog layer, and I loved the way it hovered around the trees.  Naturally, this became my photo theme.  Who needs yet another photo of Half Dome and the Nose on El Capitan anyway? 

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Character Study

I like to pick up strangers.  Sometimes I’ll walk into a room, usually a cafe, and my eyes would fall on someone, and I’ll get fixated.  I tend to believe it’s their energy I’m drawn to.....their quiet confidence.

Then I’ll spend the next 10 minutes mustering the nerve to go talk to that person.  As I introduce myself, I study their face, their eyes, the tiniest shift in their body, and then somehow I see beyond their physical presence.  I get excited because there’s something intriguing there, and I want to see more, and know more.

Then I pop the question, “Would you allow me to do a character study of you?”

A character study allows me to do more than merely capture a person’s face.  It enables me to dig deeply into one’s personality and gain insight into the essential nature of the person.  Their movements, their expressions, all reveal an unspoken story.

Aaron, my subject in these photos, is amazing.  He laid his emotions bare before the camera, and I was rewarded not only with these photos, but also with stories of his incredible life of fortitude.  But most importantly, we both walked away from this photo shoot with a genuine friendship.

Normally I edit my portraits down to 1-4 images, but I think it’s important in a character study to show a series of images to examine the process of unveiling....a process in which the subject (Aaron) grapples with the question of personal identity and gradually sheds his external layers to find the core of his being.

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A Woman's Gift

I love portraiture.  The challenge of creating a great portrait both thrills and scares me.  Portraits are one of the most difficult things for me to shoot because I have to figure out how to get people to open up and trust me.  It’s an intimate experience, and I often stress about it because a portrait shoot is like going on a blind date.  You reveal pieces of yourself, and your subject shares with you about himself/herself.  At the end of the date, you pretty much know whether or not you hit it off and built a meaningful relationship.  Well, in a photoshoot, it’s sorta the same thing.  If I take a great photo, I pretty much know the person likes me, and we have a connection there.  But there’s always the fear that I won’t be able to get the right expression and vibe from my subject, then I’ll start worrying about why the person won’t open up to me.  And like the blind date, I’ll start asking myself, “What’s wrong with me and why doesn’t this person like me?”  Crazy, I know.  Good thing that rarely happens. 

Anyway, enough rambling.  I shot these lovely photos of Mary at six months.  I wanted to push my creative boundaries and experiment with maternity shots that have a different look and feel from what other photographers were doing.  I wanted to create a classic, painterly image that embodies the ethereal beauty, innocence, power,  and spiritual nature of women.  I am pleased with the results. 

An instructor once told me that a portrait is a gift.....given from the subject to the photographer.  Thank you Mary for your gift of trust.

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Another Look at Bishop (part 2)

I normally don't photograph trees, but I somehow found myself tree obsessed in Bishop.  Perhaps this stems from the fact that I don't experience Autumn in San Francisco.  I never purposefully set out to capture tree reflections... it was just something I stumbled across as I was trying to prevent my dog Butters (whose name is actually Buttermilks, named after the bouldering area in Bishop) from jumping into the water canal.  As I was screaming at my dog to get out of the frigid water, I was fortunate enough to find that the afternoon light was casting beautiful reflections.  I took a few shots and decided I liked the impressionist feel of the photos....which is totally NOT my style. I struggled in terms of post-processing and couldn't decide how I wanted to color and tone the images.  Eventually I decided to hit a few Lightroom preset buttons and will perhaps revisit these photos at a later point in the future if I ever decide to do a series on tree reflections.  Consider these rough drafts.

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Another Look at Bishop (part 1)

Bishop is my favorite place in the Eastern Sierras, and I go there to boulder in the Buttermilks and the Happy's several times a year.  Since a lot of my friends are climbers,  I get inundated with climbing photos.  I am guilty of taking quite a few bouldering shots myself.   It gets wearisome at times to see photos of the Iron Man traverse, and the Peabody boulders over and over again on Facebook.  During this Thanksgiving trip, I wanted to connect to Bishop differently, and instead of spending the majority of my time climbing, I went out exploring with my dogs instead.  I needed to challenge myself to see things I've overlooked and take images that other people weren't taking.

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