Morning under the St John's bridge

Portland, Oregon, October 2020.

Light under the bridge

Portland, October 2020.

Portland in 4 images

Portland, Oregon, October 2020.

Under St John's Bridge

Portland, Oregon, September 2020.

The seagull and the bridge

Portland, Oregon, October 2020.

Downtown Portland at sunrise

Portland, October 2020.

One of my favorite places, at sunrise.

Images only you can make

After traveling across the country for the last 3 months, and seeing some of the most beautiful landscapes the US has to offer, one could think my photography would suffer by being back in Indiana.

Actually, it's quite the opposite! I'm very excited to be back, as I believe that the images we make in "ordinary" places can be more rewarding and, in many cases, better than the ones made in exotic spots. At least, they are very unique.

As opposed to a national park, photography here is hard. Images aren't obvious, you have to hunt them, and that can take a lot of effort and time. That's what makes them so rewarding, when we finally find them.

In this video, I try to prove this point by showing you some of the images I've made over the years near "home", wherever that was at the time. I'm lucky to have called home very different and beautiful places, all of them with their distinctives landscapes and beauty.

I hope this inspires you to get out wherever you might be at the moment, wherever you might live, and capture that that makes the place unique. What looks ordinary and boring for you can be new and exciting for someone else.

Where the Pacific meets the Cascades, and other recent videos

Still catching up after my road trip. I never shared the video I made in Northern Washington here, and that’d be a mistake. Washington is probably my favorite state (sorry, Oregon), and the coast and mountains north of Seattle are my favorite part of it. Beauty everywhere.

But there are some other recent videos I never got to share here:

• Full Moon over Crater Lake, I couldn’t miss it. I drove over 7 hours to be at Crater Lake in time to witness a breath-taking moonrise.

• She left me! No more excuses… My apologies for the clickbait-y title. But it’s true, Rachel had to go home for work, so I’m alone on the road. This just became a 100% photography trip.

• A landscape is never done. I revisit some of my favorite spots in the Oregon Coast and I try to convince you why you should revisit landscapes. They are never “done”, and there’s always something new to find and capture.

• Where’s the Bronica? I get asked about the Bronica very often.

• How to do photography in bad weather (and why you should). Don’t let rain and snow stop you from getting out there, they are the very things that can make your next great image happen. A few tips about how I shoot in bad weather.

• Some street photography in Portland. Rachel and I go on a walk on the streets of beautiful Portland with our cameras (Fuji X100T and Sony A7Rii) and try to make the best of a lovely fall evening.

• Best thing you can do for your photography right now. It’s very simple, and yet very easy to forget. So easy that I have to keep reminding myself of the key to photography: just get out.

• Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) in the woods of Portland. A very useful technique to make minimal and simple images in busy places. Useful even if we don’t like the results, as it will get us started and might be the spark we need to get inspired.

That’s quite a few videos, I guess I’ve been busy lately. And there are many more coming soon. I’ll be sharing them here, but don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel. It really does help.

One night alone in Mt Hood

I visited, hiked and photographed Mt Hood more times than I can count during the 6 years I lived in Portland. It’s a place where I’d go in search of peace and calm. Seeing that magnificent mountain helps to put things in perspective, how small we and our problems are.

But I’d never spent the night up there. I guess that having a comfortable bed just one hour away didn’t make it sound very attractive. I took it for granted, as I prioritized farther away locations.

This time, though, I wanted to fix that. I wanted to do the Timberline Trail over 4 days and 3 nights, but the amount of downed trees on the trail from a recent windstorm made that option almost impossible. I still wanted to spend a night up there, so I hiked as far as I could in one day, set up camp, and enjoyed the views.

It was perfect: there was no wind, it wasn’t too cold, clear skies, an almost full moon, and the whole place for myself.

Bad and good days in Portland

Another video I’d forgotten to share here. I had an absolutely great time in Portland, as usual, but a few things happened on one of those days, making it not as good. I was happy with the images I got, though!

It doesn’t matter which way you go

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?", asked Alice.
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to", said the cat.
"I don't much care where---", said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go", said the cat.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

I've been in Portland for almost 3 weeks now, but my time here is coming to an end. I was looking forward to being back in this beautiful city where I lived 6 years of my life. There were so many places I wanted to visit and photograph. I did go to some of them, but every day has been a struggle.

Back at the beginning of this trip, when I was in Colorado and Utah, I had fewer options. Not because of a lack of places, but because I did not know about them. The day the snowstorm hit Fort Collins, I just got in the car and drove. Somewhere. Anywhere. Everything was new to me, I had zero expectations. I made some images and it felt good.

Here in Portland, I know where the roads go. I have expectations. Choosing one option is very hard. I feel overwhelmed by the many options and the very little time!

Last night, I spent a good couple of hours thinking about what to do today, where to go, what to photograph. I couldn't make a decision, and the result is that I didn't go anywhere. And here I am, regreting it and writing this post instead of being outside taking photos.

I spent so much time thinking about which road to take, that I forgot that I don't really care where I go as long as I'm going somewhere. I just want to make images. Literally a walk around the neighborhood would've been better. Instead, I got stuck at the intersection, contemplating my options.

Wake up and get out, I wrote 3 years ago. That's still the most important lesson I've learned about photography. The key to make great images is to put yourself out there. It doesn't matter where. As long as you are somewhere.

The mountains were calling

Hello from Arco, Italy,

Sadly, we had to leave Austria one week earlier than anticipated due to bad weather. Snow and ice prevented me from doing many of the things I wanted to do there, but it was those same conditions that gifted me with a magical day that made me miss the mountains.

I lived in Portland, OR, for 5 years. While the city might not get snow every winter (we got one big snowstorm in all of those years), the mountains around it are covered in white powder for several months a year. It's easy to find snow even during the summer, if you hike high enough. I absolutely loved it.

I find snow fascinating. I grew up in a place that barely gets any: flurries are scarce, seeing the snow stick on the ground is a once-in-a-lifetime-event. The nearby mountains do get snow but it's short-lived as the warmer temperatures melt it away rather quickly.

Innsbruck got pummeled with snow last Wednesday. The locals might have found it annoying for their commutes, but it was a gift for me: unable to reach the snowy mountains, they came to me.

Placed among giants, it was easy for me to reach high altitudes by simply walking from our place near downtown Innsbruck. I walked in the snow for hours, going as high on the mountain as I could. I knew it wasn't going to last (it's still November, after all) and I wanted to take it all in.

When I left the city behind and reached the forest, it was like being back in the mountains of Oregon. I was once again walking into magical scenes from a fairy tale.

I loved my time in Innsbruck, definitely on top of my list of places to go back to. Next time, hopefully, better prepared for the winter.

Image of the Month, September 2019: "Saint John's"

Saint John's is the new Image of the Month for the month of September. If The Nest took a little bit of patience and waiting, this one was definitely one the hardest images I've ever made.

This is a 10-minute long exposure under pouring rain and next to hundreds of cars and trucks stuck in rush hour. The conditions were perfect, though, I had been waiting for a day like this for months. When I finally got the chance to create the image I had envisioned, I wasn't going to pass on it.

I'm glad I didn't. This is still one of my favorite images, the first print I've ever sold and now, part of the Image of the Month collection.

Take advantage of the promotional price for the first 30 days, it will never be this cheap again!

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two sizes

Remember: there are two sizes to choose from, 6x6 and 8x8 (inches). In both cases, the matt and frame are 12x12 (this means a bigger margin for the 6x6 print).

shipping included

Shipping is free to the US. International shipping is a flat rate of $14.95.

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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.

The Nest is available for purchase here.

Images from Portland, Oregon

It was great to be back in beautiful Portland, Oregon. We met with old friends, we ate some of our favorite foods in town, and visited some places we love. It was a wonderful time.

Everything comes to an end, though. We've left the city behind and we are getting ready to spend a couple weeks in California.

I wanted to share some of the moments from these last few days in Portland.

Home is where you have your morning coffee

This is going to be my couch for the next few weeks, here in Portland, Oregon.

I've lost count of how many different couches I've had during the last year and a half. How many places where I've had my morning coffee. How many homes.

Tomorrow, I might not be here. Today, this is home.

Life update: road trip across the Southwest is over, back "home"

Hello from Vancouver, Washington.

I'm back in the PNW and it feels amazing. This place was home for more than 5 years, it was here where I fell in love with nature and photography, and I couldn't be more excited about getting to spend the next few weeks in this very special place.

This means that the road trip across the Southwest is over, though. These are some of the numbers:

• 23 days on the road
• more than 4,000 miles
• 7 states
• 4 hotel, 3 AirBnBs, 1 car
• ~2,500 photos
• dozens of hours of footage

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You never know how things will turn out when you are on the road for so long. We had everything booked ahead of time which could mean that a problem with one of the hotels or AirBnBs, or even worse, a mechanical issue with the car, could ruin the whole trip. A chain reaction of sorts.

Luckily, everything was near perfect and I couldn't ask for more. I had an amazing time and I believe I made some of my best images on this trip.

Now it's time to rest for a few days before starting to photograph the amazing places of the PNW. I will be using this time to reflect on the work produced in the last few weeks, and of course to share it. Not only images and videos but also some thoughts I've had and lessons learned in the field.

Late Spring US Road Trip

It's been almost a year since I left the US, so I'm really excited to announce my upcoming late spring trip to America. These are the locations I will be visiting and the dates (might change slightly):

Apr 11-12              Los Angeles, CA
Apr 13-19             Phoenix, AZ
Apr 22-26           Santa Fe, NM
Apr 29-May 3     Salt Lake City, UT
May 6-25            Portland, OR
Jun 4-7                Nevada City, CA

In addition to these, I will also be visiting and spending some time in San Francisco, Chicago, Indiana, and a first for me, New York. No firm dates for these just yet.

I'm very excited about this trip, the photos I will make, and hopefully the people I will meet. If you happen to be at any of these locations during these dates and you want to shoot with me, let me know!