Anyone who knows me from my writing or has attended one of my photography workshops, knows that I am a bit of a fanatic when it comes to using a tripod. In fact, I would rather have a good tripod than a good camera. A tripod is one of the few toys you can purchase that will instantly make your photography better. Assuming of course that you actually remember to bring it with you.
Which, of course, brings me to my story of a mountain biking trip to Fruita I recently went on with my wife, Carin, last month. We were only planning on doing a little mountain biking and heading back to Breckenridge, but an afternoon storm caused us to cut our plans short. Rather than just give up and leave, we took a drive in to Colorado National Monument hoping to get some photos of the sun setting just as the storm was clearing. I always have my camera bag in my car, but couldn’t find my tripod. I tore the car apart before remembering that I left it in the studio. So here I was, the king of tripod advocacy, without my tripod. To make matters worse, the weather and light came together for some incredible views.
I realized the only way to get a decent photo was going to be to place the camera directly on the ground, but if I do that, I need to make sure there was an interesting subject in the foreground. After a little searching I came across a depression in the sandstone that had filled with water from the afternoon rain. Using my hat, and some nearby stones, I was able to prop the camera up in front of the puddle to compose the shot. I also used the mirror lock up and self timer in order to minimize vibration. The image below was the result.
I love the mountains and the outdoors, but my favorite thing about travelling (aside from eating exotic foods) is getting a chance to meet with people from different cultures around the world. Before leaving for Asia, I had planned on photographing landscapes, mountains, rivers, and ancient monasteries. However, after a few days of travelling through Tibet, I was really drawn to the people there.
Pilgrims circling a prayer wheel along the Barkhor in Lhasa, Tibet
A woman sitting in front of the Dalai Lama’s Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet
A local monk and children from Sakya, Tibet are looking at photos I printed of them.
Children stopping at a store on the way home from school in Dhulikhel, Nepal
A woman sits in a doorway in Banepa, Nepal
Me with two young monks I spent an afternoon with in Sakya, Tibet.
During the spring of 2009, I travelled to Tibet and Nepal to work on a documentary portrait project. For six weeks I photographed people living in the Himalayas. While I mostly worked on portraits, I also went about photographing people in their day to day lives.
This 10 minute slideshow, available in HD, is a small sample of the images I made while travelling over the roof of the world.
I just returned from a recent trip to California. I went with some of my college climbing partners and spent about two weeks photographing places like Lake Tahoe, Death Valley, the Eastern Sierra Nevada, and Yosemite National Park. Toss in some hiking and rock climbing and we had a great time. Below are some of my images from the trip.
