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.

Sunset in Colorado National Monument

Related posts:

1. Look to the Desert (From Summit Daily News, May 16, 2007)
2. Rose Taguchi Wedding
3. Faces of the Himalaya Show January 9th, 2009 at Altitude Gallery.

In spite of living in relative poverty, the people of Tibet were friendly and open.  They had a sense of humor about life that I was immediately inspired to photograph. The same held true for the people of Nepal.  And although I was there for a relatively short time, I ended up returning home with hundreds of portraits of the people of the Himalayas.

Returning with all of these images made me feel like I had took something of value from the Himalayas without having given much back. While I was there I had the opportunity to visit a school for the blind built by Braille without Borders. It was amazing how little money it took to put a person through the school in Tibet. Equally amazing was just how much it could change a person’s life there. In a country like Tibet, a disabled person has few opportunities outside of begging.

My doctor here in Breckenridge had often told me about a clinic he had helped to build in the Langtang region of Nepal while he was there.  And although I didn’t have time to travel there myself, I decided to donate the purchase price of the portraits I created to help benefit the school and the clinic he had built through Doctors to the World.  The show, Faces of the Himalaya, has travelled to other galleries before finding its way back to Altitude Gallery this January, 2010.  The sale of just a single print can put a student through the school for several months.

Event Information:

For more information, visit www.altitudegallery.com

Related posts:

1. Faces of the Himalaya
2. Living the Dream and Remembering to Work
3. Tripod Trepidations

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.

Related posts:

1. Faces of the Himalaya Show January 9th, 2009 at Altitude Gallery.
2. Living the Dream and Remembering to Work
3. My favorite wedding

Death Valley National Park.  I used a wide angle lens to accent the shapes in the salt flat, and a tripod in order to maximize depth of field.

 I made this image of my buddy Rob climbing in the Buttermilks just outside of Bishop, California.

Rob spotting Kevin while climbing in the Buttermilks.

Rob climbing at sunrise.

Rob just finishing a climb before sunrise.

Rob carrying my crashpad across a stream.

Kevin finishing a bouldering problem.  I needed to climb the boulder first, and then have someone throw me my camera.

Dusk at Mono Lake near Lee Vining, California.  The mist was created by using a slow shutter (several seconds) and a tripod.  The strange formations are called tufas.  They are created when the water level drops to reveal the hardened material around springs.

Sunrise on the Sierra Nevada with Mono Lake in the foreground.  A graduated neutral density filter was used in order to balance the exposure on the mountains and the exposure on the tufa.

More sun on the tufas.

We climbed Half Dome in Yosemite National Park in the dark in order to be on top for sunrise.  This is a self portrait I made using a tripod.

Kevin reaching the top of the cables on Half Dome a few minutes before sunrise.

The glove pile below the cables on Half Dome.  Leather gloves are provided to protect your hands while climbing the steap cables.

Rob climbing the cables up Half Dome as the sun is rising behind him.

A hiker on the Mist Trail in Yosemite National Park.  Waterfalls like these are formed any time you have the sun to your back and water droplets in the air.  I used a polarizer to add contrast.

The moon over Tenaya Peak and Lake in Yosemite National Park.

Rob climbing on Lover’s Leap in Lake Tahoe while Karen belays him from below.  In order to photograph climbers, I have to climb the route ahead of them with my parter and then anchor myself to the wall.

Rob climbing Lover’s Leap.

Karen climbing with Lake Tahoe in the background.  For this, I actually rapelled down a fixed line next to this route and hung in my harness.

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