Life update from Phoenix, Arizona

Hello from sunny and very hot Phoenix, Arizona!

I've been in the US for more than a week now and it feels good to be back. Especially in the Southwest where the landscapes take your breath away every single time.

Before getting here I got the chance to spend a few days in Madrid, Spain and Los Angeles, California. I didn't do much photography in those cities as we tried to do more "touristic activities" for once.

I did make some images here in Arizona. I visited Saguaro National Park, near Tucson, as well as the Superstition Wilderness, east of Scottsdale. I hiked to the top of Camelback Mountain and spent an evening in the desert photographing the moonrise.

Time flies, though, and we are getting ready to leave tomorrow as we move into New Mexico. NM is a state I didn't get to photograph during my last road trip in the Southwest, and I really look forward to it.

I'll keep you updated on our travels. I also post photos on my Twitter, I upload stories daily to my Instagram account, and of course I will be publishing videos about this trip on YouTube.

Plane landing near LAX

Santa Monica

Downtown Los Angeles

Plane landing in LAX

Moonset in Phoenix

Madrid

Flying above the Southwest

Saguaro National Park, Arizona

Saguaro in the Superstition Mountains Wilderness

Superstition Mountains Wilderness

Saguaro cactus at sunset

Can you tell I like Saguaros? Me photographing one in Saguaro National Park

Yet another one in Saguaro National Park

Heard Museum, Phoenix

Timelapse from last night. pic.twitter.com/aqpi8l5NeZ

— adrian (@aows) April 19, 2019

Is consistency in our work important?

Consistency:

consistent behavior or treatment

In photography, being consistent means creating images that look similar. Maybe we shot them with the same camera and lens, maybe we made them look that way in post-processing.

Let's talk about consistency, when we should be consistent and when it's ok to switch things.

I am a big believer in telling stories through a collection of images, be it in a zine, book or exhibition. Let's call it a project: a vision we have, a message we want to deliver, something we want to tell.

Generally speaking, I want to make all the images in a project look very similar, to have the same aesthetic. Otherwise, it might confuse the viewers.

Think of a book: all the words, letters and sentences are the same color and size. Only titles are different to make them stand out, to mark an end and a beginning. All the pages follow the same layout as well. It'd be too distracting otherwise.

There are a few things we want to keep constant or very similar: if an image is monochrome or color, the amount of grain, the contrast, the aspect ratio.

We can emphasize the importance of an image making it bigger, spanning through two pages, for example, or even changing the aspect ratio just for that one.

Different projects might require completely different approaches, though. I believe it is ok to not be consistent between projects: one could be in color, shot with a phone; the next one could be in monochrome using a medium format camera.

If we pick up a different book, we don't mind to see another font being used, more or less margins, a different size altogether. As long as it's kept consistent through the whole book.

I try to apply the same principle to my photography: to be consistent in a project, treating all the images the same way, so they form that body of work where none of its components is more or less important but just another piece of the puzzle.

That's what consistency offers: being able to create a cohesive collection of images that tell a story.

Are photo books a good investment?

In this video, I wonder about the value on buying photo books. Taking into consideration that we can look at images from our favorite photographers online, at any time and from anywhere, are books still a good investment?

I don't mean a financial investment, by the way. I mean an investment on our photography, to improve our vision and to get inspired.

Also in this video, I venture on the streets of Lisbon looking for a photo book. It'd be the first of my new collection. The chosen one: "Genesis", by Sebastião Salgado.

Photographing Buddha in Portugal

Image of the Month, April 2019: "Arcachon Bay"

Arcachon Bay is a beautiful place in SW France, in the region of Aquitaine. A few months ago, I got to spend a few days in the area and ended up making a few images.

This one is my favorite. These sticks are markers for the oyster beds, where fishermen go during low tide to get the ones that are ready.

"Arcachon Bay" is the first digital image offered as part of the "Image of the Month" collection, also a first for an image of mine made in Europe after months of shooting at this side of the ocean.

You can watch the video of how I made it here.

artist contract

A new image will be released every month and offered at a reduced price during that time. After 30 days, it will be sold at full price. They will never be on sale at any time in the future, the rate during the first month will be the lowest, ever.

want to know more?

You can find more information about how I create my images and all the details about pricing on The Art and Craft behind my prints.

"Arcachon Bay" is available for purchase here.

The most beautiful beach in Portugal: Ursa Beach

The coast of Portugal never disappoints.

A weekend in Lisbon with my new video camera: Sony RX100VA

In my quest to minimize and downsize my camera gear, I decided to look for a replacement to my beloved but bulky Sony a6500 + Sigma 16mm f/1.4 combo.

A few days ago, I purchased a Sony RX100VA. Interestingly, this is full circle for me since the Sony RX100II was the camera that got me started in photography, and the one I used for video for many years.

I spent this past weekend in Lisbon, where I had the chance to test the new camera. This video shows some footage and images from this beautiful portuguese city, and I also talk about the good and bad things about the Sony RX100VA.

What would your favorite photographer do?

I embrace the struggle to find images. Photography isn't easy and actually, the harder it gets the more rewarding it becomes. I love the journey.

That being said, there are a few things I like to do to try to find some inspiration before giving up.

One of them is to think about other photographers and what they would do if they were to photograph what I'm attempting to capture. I try to visualize them next to me, and look at what they do -and hey, sometimes they just leave!-.

I also think about their work from similar locations, "can I make something like that around here?".

I love to explore locations that photographers I admire have visited in the past, and place myself at the spots where they made their images. Being able to see what they saw is priceless and can teach you a lot about photography.

Next time you are struggling finding images, try to think about what your favorite photographer would do if they were in your position.

Update from Portugal

I'm still alive! Not only that but also in the middle of a trip to Portugal, one of my favorite countries. Currently near Porto, I will be hitting Lisbon and Sintra in the next few days.

This is going to be a very short trip, a sort of preparation for the 4 months we will be spending in the US starting very soon!

Expect some videos and images from Portugal in the next few days.

Aperture in crop sensors

There seems to be a lot of confusion when it comes to crop sensors and their equivalence to full-frame sensors.

Let's take the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for Sony APS-C cameras as an example. The crop factor in these cameras is 1.5, which we can use to get the equivalent focal length of that lens: 30mm x 1.5 = 45mm.

The problem comes when we do the same with the aperture. Often, reviewers will apply the crop factor and say that a f/1.4 lens will behave as a f/2.1 lens on a full-frame sensor would. People get really offended because they think manufacturers are misleading the consumers with those numbers.

While that equivalence is true for the depth of field (smaller sensors have more depth of field, thus less bokeh), it is not true when it comes to light gathering.

A f/1.4 lens will gather the same amount of light (per inch) no matter the size of the sensor behind it.

In other words, you could share your exposure values of 1/50sec, f/1.4, ISO 100 with a smartphone shooter and someone using a large format camera. You all will get the same exposure.

Image of the Month, March 2019: "Morning Mist"

Morning Mist is the Image of the Month for March.

I made this image on a beautiful and chilly summer morning at Trillium Lake, in the Mt Hood National Forest.

This is one of my favorite spots near Portland, and I'd drive over there many times before heading to work. It was a peaceful and unforgettable way to start my mornings (even though the drive was more than 2 hours round-trip).

This image is part of my work and current exhibition America Untitled.

artist contract

A new image will be released every month and offered at a reduced price during that time. After 30 days, it will be sold at full price. They will never be on sale at any time in the future, the rate during the first month will be the lowest, ever.

want to know more?

You can find more information about how I create my images and all the details about pricing on The Art and Craft behind my prints.

"Morning Mist" is available for purchase here.

This image wasn't supposed to work

I made this image during a walk yesterday evening. I had passed by this field dozens of times before, but something caught my eye this time.

This image isn't supposed to work: there's no clear subject, no anchor, no leading lines. And still, there's something about it that I love.

It might be the emptiness of the field, or maybe the blackness of the pine trees. Perhaps the two bright cottonwoods on the very left edge of the frame.

Whatever it is, I think this image has many of the elements I seek with my photography. Many times, that means following your instinct and forgetting about everyone else's rules.

The best content I've ever watched on YouTube: "The Atlantic Selects"

Very, very rarely you will see me recommending content from YouTube like this.

However, some of the movies that The Atlantic is putting out in their series The Atlantic Selects are brilliant pieces of filmmaking and storytelling. I think they are the best content I've ever watched on YouTube.

These are two of my favorites, but I really encourage you to take a look at the other videos of this series. You won't be disappointed.

Don't aim for perfection

A few days ago and while working on my YouTube channel, I came across some of the first videos I made.

They are just horrible.

I was partly aware of this when I published them, but at the time I was doing my best.

Today, I have better gear and I know more about video than I did back then. Most of this improvement happened because I started uploading videos and realized what was working and what could be improved.

If I had aimed for perfection I would have never published any video, post or image, ever.

We need to finish. A finisher gets better and better every time they put something out there. Only through practice can we improve.

I hope to come back to my current videos in a few years and see that, once again, they look horrible. That could only mean that my filmmaking skills improved.