The Calm
(please click to view on black // canon 5d mark ii, canon 17-40 f4 l, b+w ND 10-stop, 19mm, f/22, iso 100, 124sec // buy print) I’m dedicating this photo to my buddy Chris DeAngelis, who let me borrow his 10-stop B+W filter and made all of this possible. He loaned it to me a few times at Bombay Beach, while Rick Young loaned me his over on the west side of the Salton Sea. Thank you guys. Yes, I’m getting my own. Soon. Normally if you are by water and pull out a 10-stop, you are hoping to pull [...]
The Edge of the World
(click to view on black // canon 5d mark ii, canon 17-40 f/4 l, 17mm, iso 100, f/16, 0.6 sec // buy print) This past Friday and Saturday I was part of a whirlwind trip that took me through Joshua Tree National Park and ended at the shores of the mysterious and disturbing Salton Sea. My good friend Heath O’Free was visiting Palm Springs from Canada, and had invited me to meet up with him on Friday. Also along for the journey was some other buddies…Rick Young and Chris Frailey from Phoenix, and Chris DeAngelis and Doug Wise from California. [...]
Old Man Sunset
(Click to watch the storm as God intended…larger, with a dark border) Scenes like these are the reason why I love chasing and photographing the monsoons here in Arizona. This was the day before the big haboob arrived in Phoenix. As you can see, dust storms in this state are a normal occurrence during the summer (just nothing so bad as the July 5th one). I was headed south from Phoenix and saw a big wall of dust headed our way, along with a pretty epic looking stormcell. On radar, it was actually headed perfectly towards town. So I had [...]
The sunset before the haboob
So last week when I was asked about the big haboob timelapse, I usually started off with saying “I was in the backyard doing another timelapse…” This is that one. I had been out stormchasing 4-5 nights already and was pretty beat. I figured I’d stay home that night and let the storms come to me, perhaps shoot some lightning from my balcony or the parking garage down the street. When I saw the clouds building out west, I thought to myself “Hey, I can just do a timelapse and then hang out inside, relaxing, watching TV, whatever.” Of course, [...]
The Dark Tower
(click the image to view full size for your resolution, or if you have a humongous monitor, see it larger!) Ah yes…rain in Phoenix. It’s always awesome. I can be completely “blah” about photography for whatever reason…long days at work, tiredness, blue skies, no motivation, you name it. But rain arrives, stormy skies ensue and suddenly nothing can stop me from getting out and exploring the world. If you’ve followed me for long, you may have seen a shot or two of Chase Tower in downtown Phoenix. I didn’t go down there last night with the intention of shooting it [...]
A Kansas sunset
(Click on the image for a larger-than-normal view…also makes the wheat field a bit more visible) There was something special about this sunset. I don’t know what it was, but when I was crouching down in front of this wheat field, I was in awe. Here I was, in western Kansas, in a place I’d never been before, in the middle of nowhere, not a sound but chirping birds, not a car to be seen…witnessing something beautiful. The irony is that this was our last gasp for a storm on Wednesday before it was time for me to go. My [...]
Hanging sunset
(click…to…see…larger…and…stuff) Sometimes there are clouds and sometimes there are CLOUDS. This doesn’t even compare to the monster storm clouds I’d love to be photographing in the midwest right now, but as far as sunsets go in Arizona, this was one of my favorites. You may remember a few shots already taken on this day: The “Seventh Heaven” reflection and the one of Chase Field called “Fever Pitch“. With my wife and daughter looking on in the chilly, windy weather, I was running around like a psycho trying to capture the clouds anyway I could. Not exactly my favorite composition in [...]
A short little time-lapse
(Watch it in 720p for the best viewing) I’ve never done a time-lapse before and so of course I had to start from the beginning. I have a little control I bought recently that allows not only for manual exposures in Bulb M ode, but also has batteries to do interval, shutter speed and timed exposures. Ever since I got it I’ve been wanting to check out how to do a time-lapse with it and what it might look like. This is the first attempt and I realize now it’s tough to do something like this when you are shooting [...]
Vera
(Vera wouldn’t mind if you clicked on the image to see it bigger) My reliable, two-door, sporty, 1999 Toyota Solara is now a thing of the past. It served its purpose, but in reality…there were only so many dirt roads it could get me down. And with the upcoming monsoon season just over three months away…it was time to make a change. Enter Vera, my “new” 1994 4Runner with over 190,000 miles on it. And the thing is beautiful. Yes…I had some work done on it after I bought it, but the guys that looked at it said the thing [...]
Mike is a Phoenix Wedding Photographer based in Arizona and can be contacted via all the normal methods and then some.