Airplane
(click to view on black // canon 5d mark ii, tamron 17-35mm 2.8, 30mm, iso 100, f/4 // buy print) You may know about my love for reflection photos like this one. What you may not know is that I’m kind of specific about when I shoot them. Like, if someone empties their swimming pool and it floods the street…I don’t rush outside with camera gear in hand. That just doesn’t get me going at all. But what does motivate me are storms. Of course right? And when it comes to reflections…I like the puddles of water leftover after a [...]
The city in the water
(click to view on black // canon 5d mark ii, tamron 17-35mm 2.8, 17mm, f/5.0, iso 100 // buy print) There are two very different storm seasons in Phoenix. In the summer, it’s all monsoons and thunderstorms. The rest of the year, it’s just random winter-ish storms that roll through. The summers bring lightning, the winters bring rain. So in the summers, I go outside of the Phoenix area to chase the weather. In the winters, I head downtown. One thing I really ended up finding amazingly fun and rewarding was pointing my camera downwards at these giant puddles of [...]
Lay down your burdens
(please click to view this nasty ol’ couch on black) (title from the Battlestar Galactica soundtrack) When I’m stormchasing, I can get very tunnel-visioned. I have a goal of where I want to get to and sometimes I’m unable to relax and just enjoy the stuff I see along the way. Of course, that usually depends on the situation, because other times I can be completely mellow and just go where the wind takes me. This shot was from Labor Day and I believe my buddy Ken is the one who pulled the vehicle over. I was too busy being [...]
Lower Grand Falls
(Click to view larger with a nice, dark background) This will likely be the last image from this past April’s annual trip to Grand Falls, Arizona. I’ve held onto it long enough, figured it was time to just post the thing. I’m sure some of you photogs who post daily photos can relate to hoarding some of your favorites for a rainy day. If you follow my work at all, then you know about Grand Falls in the northern portions of this state located on Navajo land. It only flows from snow melt or flash floods due to massive monsoon [...]
Back to the Future
(please click the image so it fills your screen in the event you might have smaller monitor like I do. Also a dark border looks nice with it) Twice this year I’ve been able to do some stormy sunset reflection shots downtown and I have to say, I absolutely LOVE this kind of photography. But first off, this is Movie Title Wednesday and we’re going with Back to the Future this week! I remember seeing Back to the Future for the first time as a kid at my aunt’s house. God bless her for renting it that night. My brother [...]
Red Dawn
(click to view larger on a black border…just looks better) A break from all the lightning and storms…time for Movie Title Wednesday! One of those movies that I just have to watch if I see it on the TV on a Saturday afternoon is Red Dawn. Granted, I haven’t seen it on the TV much recently and probably have watched it through only a handful of times (the last time being a very long time ago), but it’s still such a fun movie. World War II, Russians attack, Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson…hiding out in the woods, a resistance, [...]
A final visit to the seventh floor
(click to see the big puddle in a lightbox) This evening of February 20th, 2011 was pretty awesome. Those that have followed me for awhile may remember some of the other shots (here and here) from the top of this downtown Phoenix parking garage right next to Chase Field. Seven stories. An absolutely amazing sunset with the most gorgeous clouds you ever saw. And a previous rain left puddles everywhere. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love clouds and sunsets like this. They are incredibly rare. This will likely be the last image I post from [...]
OneQuestion: Brian Matiash
I’m so sad, the first week of OneQuestion is at its conclusion! But what a way to finish. Last, but definitely not least…well, maybe kind of least, or more in the middle, or whatever, my good friend Brian Matiash (who knows I kid, it’s our thing) was kind of enough to drop this friggin’ awesome road shot on us today and answer the question I posed to everyone. Brian is an amazing guy, an amazing photographer and I owe him a lot for where I am right now. And before we get to Brian’s answer, I just want to thank [...]
OneQuestion: Scott Ackerman
Next up in my OneQuestion guest blog series is Scott Ackerman, my stormchasing buddy from Kansas. You knew I had to include a weather guy, I mean, come on! I love his work, I’ve seen some great strides in his processing and composition in recent months and I’ve been blown away by the images he’s taken. I mean, look at this giant thunderstorm in the photo above (click on it to enjoy the visual with a nice, dark border), with gorgeous light on the anvil and lightning exploding on the horizon. LOVE IT. And without further ado…ScottyAck. What do you [...]
OneQuestion: Michael Murphy
(This begins the first ever OneQuestion series of guest blog posts by photographers I asked to participate. I want to thank all five of them that you’ll meet this week for helping me out and letting me take a breather from all the blogging and such. But mostly I want them to know how much I appreciate the awesome answers and the depths at which they talk about how much they love what they do.) First up is Michael Murphy, a photographer from London who creates some stunning images that I’m constantly blown-away by. He’s one of those “urban explorers” [...]
Mike is a Phoenix Wedding Photographer based in Arizona and can be contacted via all the normal methods and then some.