Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 50mm f/1.4, 1/125 sec at f/4.0, ISO 800 (both images)

This is the view from the window of my condo. I have an entire wall that is almost completely covered with windows (minus a few feet of drywall at the bottom) so it was pretty easy to spot the gorgeous golden clouds as the sun was rising. I had my camera nearby so I grabbed a few photos, then put my camera down and made coffee.

When I peeked outside five minutes later and noticed that all the color in the clouds was gone. It took only five minutes for the gorgeous, beautiful light to be replaced by boring normal-ness. If you’ve ever photographed landscapes or portraits outdoors you already understand that there is literally just a few minutes of this type of gorgeous light in any given day, the kind of light that glows orange and red and is so soft you would stand in it for hours if you could.

And don’t you just love all of the parallels with light & photography … and life? I titled this “cleverly” to mimic the phrase “life is short” because, well, it is. Why not rush outside with your camera when you see something beautiful to hold on to it for as long as you can? Why not get up at 4:00 am to head out to a gorgeous mountain and capture the sun as it rises?

We should do things every day that are filled with meaning, spend time with people we love and do things just because they feel good … because life is short. We should want to hold on to them as long as possible, really live for each moment … and not pass up on opportunities because we were too lazy, tired or scared. We should take more risks, find balance and be adventurous … the great moments in life pass by as quickly as the golden light of the morning sun, so don’t let them pass by without your camera (… or your heart … but they are kinda one in the same if you ask me). :)

Fuji x100 (panorama mode), 1/110 sec at f/5.6, ISO 800

A little over a week ago I moved into my new place in Seattle. And if you haven’t noticed, things have been pretty quiet here on the blog … an out-of-state move plus a heavier-than-usual stream of work would be the culprit. I might still be sitting in a home full of unopened boxes, but I anticipate my productivity level will skyrocket and I’ll start tackling some writing projects I’ve had in my mind, and also photo-shoots that are still sitting on my hard-drive which desperately need to make their way to my stock portfolio.

This journey has been exciting, bittersweet and chaotic … yet definitely worth it. I’m excited to get my space set up so that I can start cooking and photographing food once again, and maybe get enough work done on the computer so I can run around and so some shooting in the area before the sun hibernates for the winter. This has definitely been an adventure, and something tells me my journey to “what’s next?” is nowhere close to being finished. :)

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5L II lens, 0.3 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Last night I said goodbye to my friends, shed a few tears and spent my last night in Utah. This morning I was on the road at 7 am to start a new chapter in life … and 850 miles later I’m just a few miles away from my new home in Seattle. It’s been a bittersweet journey, but one that I think has (so far) been extremely rewarding and uplifting. I’m definitely going to miss my friends dearly, but know that I’ll see them again in the future. :)

To me, life is about risk, change and going against the grain. This move is a big leap into the unknown for me … and sometimes you just have to jump right in to test the water. Thankfully I have my trusty sidekick, Fuji, to keep me company. :)

In celebration of my book being released and on the shelves, I’m going to be giving away four copies!

Here’s what you need to know to enter (with more specific rules below):

Create a food photograph that follows the theme “Sweet” between now and the cut-off date/time of the contest, and then post a link with a story/description about the photo in the comments below. It’s not a “photo” contest, but more of a story-telling contest … but you do need to create a photo in order to have a valid entry. I’ll be selecting one random winner here, and one random winner over on a similar contest on Google+, and then will choose two more winners (my favorite photos/stories) from each site. You can enter both contests on both sites, but can only enter once per site (blog & Google+). Image quality is not as important as creativity, so be sure to keep that in mind. :)

Also, if you don’t yet have a Google+ account, now’s a good time to start! I have some invites to give away (click here) if you need one.

Here are the rules:

1. The theme for the giveaway on this blog is “Sweet”.
2. The photo needs to be new … in other words, it needs to be photographed and uploaded any time between the date/time of this blog post and the cut-off time (listed below).
3. Only one entry on each site per person is allowed. (Click here to access the contest on Google+)
4. Upload the image to the photo hosting site of your choice (Flickr, G+, your blog, etc.). Then, post a link to your photo along with a description/story about the photograph in the comments below.
5. Two books will be given away randomly (one here, one on G+), and two additional books will be given away which I will personally select (one here, one on G+). For the winners I select, creativity is key … image quality is not nearly as important as the story behind the food.
6. The cut-off time for posting your entry for this giveaway is Saturday, September 3rd at 11:59 PM MST.

Good luck!

BTW, the giveaway is open to anyone from any country. :)

These are my nieces and nephews … and are arguably the cutest darn kids ever. :)

When was the last time you said “if only…” or “after (something cool happens) everything will be better…”? Maybe it’s buying a shiny new toy, or going on a trip, moving to a new home, getting married, having kids, or finding a new job. The list of things you are waiting for can go on … and on.

When we do this, we are trying to live in the future. The problem is that there’s always something around the corner to capture your interest and make you believe that life will be better “after”. My life, right now (and in the next four months) is already hectic, busy and exhausting. There’s a part of me that can’t wait until December when I can finally relax, but I know that there will be something around the corner (who knows what) to make me want that month to finally pass so I can take a break from it all.

My solution to the stress? I’m desperately trying to be present right now.

As I write this I’m putting all of my energy into the words, trying to form my thoughts into a palpable blog post that is easy to understand. I’m doing my best to not get distracted by Twitter, Google+ and email (and mostly failing at that attempt). So, I (just now) turned on Think (a really great app that helps you focus on one computer task at a time), closed all of the other tabs in my browser and continued to write this post.

You see, all we have is now. Literally right now. Have you ever been talking to someone and they weren’t paying attention because they were thinking about tomorrow, or the next few hours, or maybe even dwelling on what happend yesterday? Have you ever been that person? (I think we all have.) Have you ever lost (or almost lost) someone you loved dearly and tried to remember the last thing you said to them? If you feel something, and it’s important to you, don’t hold it in. If something crosses your path that could be life-changing, what would happen if you weren’t looking?

As much as we may try, we can’t live in the future. If the next four months fly by for me and I don’t embrace each moment, then the amazing experiences I’m about to go through will have been for naught. My moment is right now, not next month or next year. I don’t want my life to fly by, I want to enjoy it. I want to listen deeply when my friends and I are having a conversation. I want to give my full attention to my nieces and nephews when they’re showing me something that they consider to be extremely cool. I want to focus on my photography, writing and work without getting distracted. I want to live with clarity.

Next year, next month or even next week may never happen. You just never know. Now is all we ever have, so why not consciously live in each tiny moment? They might be painful moments, but we can’t live without pain. Difficult moments make us stronger, and they also make the not-so-difficult moments feel like a cool breeze on a hot day. Living in this moment right now makes me feel very little (or no) stress about the days to come, and more importantly it makes me present and available to those I love.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon TS-E  24mm f/3.5L II lens, 0.8 sec at f/11, ISO 100
“Pink Sky Purple Fields” 

A few weeks ago I was visiting family, and I had a nice conversation with my dad about work. I mentioned some of the accomplishments and opportunties over the past few years and said something about being “lucky”. And with that, my dad replied “It takes a lot of hard work to get lucky”. (Don’t dads say the smartest things?)

He is so, so right. When I reflect on the past few years and what I’ve done, while it might feel like luck it was a combination of a lot of little things that got me where I am today. Heck, I’ll be 32 in a few months and I’ve already written three books for Peachpit, an eBook with Craft&Vision … and I hope to add more to that list down the road. I make enough money with my photography alone to fully support myself, pay taxes, insurance, save for retirement and even have a little leftover for fun and travel. It feels like luck, but I’ve worked very hard to get here.

My path is unique to what many others will accomplish (or even want), and looking back it was a combination of a lot of things that have led to my success, and my goal is to keep doing these things (and more) to hopefully bring in more opportunities and adventures. The funny thing is that I did none of these things with an agenda. I wrote blog posts about my photography, shared Photoshop tips of mine that I’ve discovered and mastered and posted behind-the-scenes images of some of my photo-shoots … all because I just wanted to share what I know with others. I didn’t know who was watching, or if anyone even cared … I did these things because I enjoyed doing them. I didn’t realize that my efforts would result in jobs, and books, and amazing friendships.

While there’s no formula to success (despite what many self-help books will lead you to believe), there are some essentials that have helped me grow and become not only successful, but a better person and photographer. Here are a few that I truly believe in:

Embrace change, conquer fear & take risks. Everyone’s life is different, but there is always room for risk and adventure on many different levels. For me, I went from photography being “extra” money while I was married to going through a divorce and having to fully support myself with my work. There was a lot of fear involved with that unexpected and immediate change in my life, but it didn’t stop me. It was that event that was the catalyst in my career in photography. I went from a “normal” life to an uncomfortable one, a life where I had to be fully independent and in control, and it has made me a better person, and a better artist because of it. In six weeks I’ll be packing up and moving to Seattle, where I know no one and have no idea what to expect. It’s a huge risk I’m taking—both financially and creatively—that I hope will open new doors for me and help me see things differently.

Accept critique and contempt. To be able to get past the struggles we all face as creative people, we sometimes need to have a thick skin … but not so thick that nothing gets through. My main source of income is from microstock photography, a business model that some people disagree with (it could be that it’s just an easy target … but that’s an entirely different blog post altogether). :) It’s not easy when you get hate-comments from people who just don’t like what you do. I mean, it’s not like I’m conning widows out of their life savings to buy a photograph. But people can be mean, opinionated and vocal … I’ve learned to just let it happen and continue making my living doing what I love.

This also goes with having your work critiqued. I’m not talking about the random anonymous comment that says something extremely nice, or extremely mean about one of your photographs. True critiqe, from someone you respect and admire, is worth its weight in gold. It can be painful—and trust me, I’ve been there—but it is an invaluable learning experience that I think everyone should experience regularly.

The bottom line is that if you are ever on the receiving end of contempt, mean comments, controversy, or just basic, solid critique that you don’t want to hear, do not get hung up on it. It’s human nature to focus on the bad and ignore the good, but sometimes seeing that “bad” side of things can be a good thing. I can’t stress this enough: if you only hear good things about you and your creative efforts then you will never grow. Listen to, embrace, and accept the bad … and then walk away from it. Learn from critique, but don’t let it drag you down and stifle your efforts. Some things you can never change, like someone just not liking what you do, but other things can be used as a valuable learning experience.

Be yourself. I believe that this is essential to going down any path that would be considered “successful” in today’s world. People appreciate “real” people, people who aren’t just a robot filling in the blanks with what they think people want to see, hear or read. Create work that inspires you, that shares your vision and comes from your heart. And, once you do, your efforts won’t seem so strenuous … it’s so darn easy to just be yourself! With photography or any kind of art or creative effort, when you create what you love and are truly passionate about then you will never, ever be wrong.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 14mm f/2.8L II lens, 1/400 sec at f/6.3, ISO 400

This is another one of my favorites from the Provo Hot Air Balloon festival. I was standing next to the balloon just as it was taking off, and got the man giving a quick wave to the crowd below. I think my next venture will be actually taking a ride in a hot air balloon … it would be a neat way to get some aerial shots of a city! :)

I’m sure that by now many of you have heard the buzz about Google+. The way I sum up Google+ is that it has Facebook’s way of posting and commenting, with Twitter’s “you don’t have to be mutual friends” awesomeness. It also allows you to group people into “Circles” so that you can only post to specific groups of people. I pretty much just post all of my stuff to everyone, since the only group I would post separately to would be my “family” circle (and so far none of them have accepted their invites … sigh).

You may have also heard some of the distaste about Google’s TOS (Terms of Service), which is summed up pretty well by Scott Bourne over at his blogs Photofocus and GoingPro. Scott has a valid point—there are some concerns about content (my main concern being photography) if it’s posted to Google+, since they are claiming a royalty free license to your content if you post it on the site. My “I’m not a lawyer but this is probably still solid” solution? I’ll continue to post my photos on my blog, 500px.com and on Flickr and then share the link (not the actual photos) on Google+. I doubt that Google could lay any claims to linked content, especially since that consists of the entire Internet and anyone can post a link to anything.

Aside from the TOS, in the few weeks it’s been open to the public Google+ has shown the potential to be a really beneficial social network to use in addition to Twitter and Facebook (the two I use the most). Right now I don’t see it replacing anything for me, since most of my friends and family are on Facebook and they are all unlikely to transition over to G+. I also find Twitter so useful on its own that you won’t see me quieting down over there, either. As a digital photographer who tries to stay active in both the photography and tech world I use social networks a lot (mostly Twitter) and I think that Google+ has potential to be a good way to network and meet new people.

My favorite feature (so far) is the Hangouts. It’s basically just video chat that will accomodate up to 10 people at a time, but is unique to many of the existing social networks. I’ve already met some cool people and made some connections … I’ll probably be having (and joining) hangouts regularly just to chat with other G+ users and photographers over time. There are some features I wish they would add, like reserving spots for specific users (especially the host) and ways to customize some of the settings (especially the sounds), and it would be great if I could do a screen-cast to share my desktop and also allow an “audience” if I wanted to allow people to just watch the hangout if it’s already full. But overall it’s still a really neat feature.

If you don’t have a Google+ account and want to try it out, Trey Ratcliff has a “pay it forward” thing on his Facebook page. Just watch for a post offering invites and add your gmail/email address (more info here on his blog). And once you get there, look me up! :)\

Update: I created a quick “Basics of Google+” video … click here to view it on YouTube!

Fuji x100, 1/75 sec at f/2.8, ISO 800

This is my little two-year-old niece, Ashlyn. After doing some shopping with my sister and sister-in-law she fell asleep in the car so I was able to get some in-focus photos with my Fuji x100 (kids have a difficult time holding still, which is tough to capture even with a fast SLR!).

BTW, if you’re curious about the x100, Zack Arias has a great blog post about it (here’s a link). I have to say that I agree with nearly every assessment he makes about this camera, except for the part about shooting in JPEG  (I keep mine in RAW 100% of the time … you can fit a LOT on a 16GB card and I doubt I’ll ever fill it up). I plan on adding another review about it on my blog once I’ve had a bit more time with it … if you want to see some of my initial thoughts on it when I first got it a few months back then click here to read that post.

Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 14mm f/2.8L II lens, 1/40 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100

This morning I did something I’d been wanting to do ever since I moved here—I went to the hot-air balloon festival in Provo, Utah. And, thanks to my new 14mm lens I was able to get some pretty cool photos that would have been difficult with any of my existing lenses (like the above image) … it was a very last-minute trip and a perfect opportunity to take it on a test-run. I tend to photograph a lot of tight, close-in shallow DOF photos and I’m really excited to have a crazy wide lens added to my photography arsenal.

In a few hours I’ll be getting on a plane to go visit family over the holiday weekend, but getting up at 4:30 AM after about two hours of sleep was totally worth the morning photography trip, especially since I only have a few months left here in Utah. This photo is, so far, one of my favorites … I have a feeling this will be printed and hanging on one of my walls in the near future.

Have a great weekend, everyone!