journal
I got a new lens, the Sony 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS. This APS-C lens has a reach of 525mm in full-frame equivalent and I couldn't be more excited about that: I'd never had a lens that could reach this far! In this video, I give you my first impressions from the highest peak in the province of Lugo, the Mustallar at almost 2,000 meters or 6,500 feet.
For the last 2+ years, we've been living nomadically across several countries. Before that, I'd moved from Spain to the US where I lived for 5+ years. All these travels have changed me and my art in very profound ways -and it could change you, as well. Let's see how.
Read MoreFog is my favorite element to shoot in: many of my images have been made in foggy conditions. These are 5 things I look for when I run into fog.
Read MoreI don’t remember who said it, or the exact quote, but it went something like this: an image isn’t an image until it becomes a print, or that the print is the final step for an image.
This used to be the case a few decades ago, when the only way to create and see an image was in the darkroom in the form of a print.
But is it still true today? With all the ways that today’s technology offers to share our art?
I don’t believe this is longer the case. I don’t think the print is the (only) final step of an image today.
Don’t get me wrong, printing your images is awesome and something that every photographer should do (I myself print some of them) -but we don’t have to print an image for it to be considered art.
Most of my images aren’t going to be printed, ever. They’ll live as digital art here on my website, on Instagram or on YouTube. I don’t think less of them: they are still my work, my art, and they fulfill their purpose as such.
I feel very lucky to live in this day and age when I can use film cameras from decades ago and print my images in the darkroom, and use a completely digital workflow from beginning to end.
I've alway loved technology. I've been playing with computers since I can remember, but it wasn't until the arrival of the Internet that things got serious.
I made my first website back in 1998, when I was 16. Design and technology wise, it was pretty bad. But there was something special about it: I was reaching people from all over the world.
I used to print out the analytics with the visits, I loved to see the entries showing visitors from places as far as Australia or Japan.
Today, we take this for granted, but life would be very, very different without the internet.
I am a full-time photographer thanks to technology and the internet. Had I been born in the 50s, I'd still have my day job. Photography wasn't as affordable back then either, so even if I were lucky enough to have picked up a camera, I wouldn't be shooting as much as I do today.
Today's technology gives us incredibly powerful tools to create and express ourselves, and many options to share that art. I believe this is the golden age of photography: there's a lot of noise but people are creating amazing images nowadays, much better than they used to be, and they are more accessible than ever.
We tend to romanticize the past and we forget that photographers like Ansel Adams lived on the edge of technology, using the latest cameras and film stocks, trying to perfect the medium, always experimenting with new techniques. He didn't idealize photographers or technologies from the XIX century, he strived to improve them.
As a photographer and artist, I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to live in this day and age: my 16-year-old past self would not believe what I'm able to do today from the palm of my hand from anywhere in the world.
The fact that you are reading this, from wherever you are, is proof that technology is pure magic. Embrace it and use it to your advantage.
Cascade is the new Image of the Month for the month of January, 2020.
This is one of my earliest images -one of my favorites as well-, made in the beautiful North Cascades National Park on a very rainy and dark day. It was well after sunset when I saw this waterfall at full power. One of those moments when nature shows its power and you can't help it but to feel really small.
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 is free to the US. International shipping is a flat rate of $14.95.
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.
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.
Last week I went on an adventure that I won't be forgetting any time soon. I walked 130 miles in 6 days, fighting not only my body and mind but also the elements: 3 big storms hit the region and I got plenty of rain, wind, snow and ice.
I wanted to document this journey and the moview "El Camino" is the result. Definitely my most ambitious (and longest) movie to date.
If you are thinking about doing El Camino in winter, don't miss my post How to do El Camino de Santiago in winter.
It feels like it was yesterday when I left for my fall trip. Back in Spain and still not entirely unpacked, it's time to grab my bags and hit the road yet again. This time, though, it's going to be a little bit different.
During the next 7 days I will be hiking between 15 and 18 miles a day, facing pouring rain and maybe even snow, as I follow the famous pilgrimage route to Santiago.
I'd never thought about doing the camino, and even less in winter, but something about it feels just right.
See you out there.
It's my secret: I've been shooting 35mm for a few weeks, using a crappy plastic chinese camera. It was a fun but frustrating experience.
A few months ago, I decided to start calling myself an artist, instead of a photographer. After all, I create art. Or I try to.
Artists aren't trying to represent what I see in an accurate and truthfully way. We try to express ourselves.
Instead of capturing nature with proper exposure and focus so it resembles as much as possible the original, we try to use it to express an idea or emotion, to add our own character.
This approach to photography is less about what's in front of the lens, and more about who's behind it.
In order to make an image able to convey our message from a realistic representation, often times we have no choice but to edit, in software or the darkroom, our negatives, RAW files, whatever it is, so creation can happen.
Many dismiss this as unethical or unnecessary. I say, this is how art is done.
Contrast is one of the most important elements in photography. I'm not talking -only- about the slider in your photo editor to manipulate the tones of the image.
Contrast means difference. Creating difference between your subject and everything else, you are able to tell a story.
This can be achieved using the differences in color and luminance, but also using shapes, textures and more.
While we seek contrast between the subject and the rest of the photo, we want to minimize it within those elements - thus increasing it between them. One of my favorite techniques to achieve this is long exposure photography: smoothing out water, for example, we remove contrast from it hence increasing that contrast between the water and our subject.
I show you some examples of this and other techniques in this video:
White Badlands is the new Image of the Month for the month of December.
I made this image in the remote Badlands National Park, South Dakota, in the middle of a blizzard that brought almost a foot of snow to the park and closed all the roads around. I was probably the only visitor that day, surely the only one in that white and empty campground.
I spent most of the time in the car, waiting for a chance to get out and make some images. Eventually, I was able to get out for just a few minutes, face the freezing temperatures and do some photography. It was so worth it.
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 is free to the US. International shipping is a flat rate of $14.95.
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.
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.
I got to spend a few hours in Switzerland and tried to make the most of them. I hike to Monte San Giorgio where I get the best view of the trip, but I'm unable to create any images from up there.
I used to believe that I should make every shot count, that I should have a higher ratio of keepers when I get back from a shooting.
Farther in my photography journey, I see now how I was limiting myself. Limitations can be good for creativity, but this one was just holding me back.
I realize now that this a process that involves many steps, every one of them as important as the previous one. I used to think all that mattered was the moment I pressed the shutter, everything had to happen then and there. Boy, was I wrong.
Today, I shoot a lot. I probably take 150 to 200 photos a day when I’m traveling, sometimes even more. Very, very few are good enough to make it through my process.
This change in mindset has made me a better and more aware photographer: if I’m waiting for the perfect moment to get my camera out and shoot, I tend to become distracted and disengage from the environment; if I’m constantly shooting, I’m focused, I’m working, I’m in the zone, if you will. This is why I take the first photo early on.
Yes, going through hundreds of photos to select just a few takes time and effort. But it’s supposed to! It’s not something I want to avoid anymore, but embrace.
Space
During these past few weeks, I spent quite some time staring at the mountains in the distance. They fascinate me. At night, I'd look up and see the shadows of those giants, just a few miles away. I'd imagine how cold it was up there, how windy, how deathly.
Not only we live in the only planet capable of hosting us, but it is within a very thin section of Earth that we live in: barely 3 miles from sea level to the highest settlement.
Time
If you were to spin a roulette of time, with numbers from the beginning of the Universe until its end, what are the chances that the ball would fall on your lifetime? Beyond impossible.
Existence
What about our own existence? If our parents had sex a mere seconds earlier or later, we wouldn't be here. The odds of our parents to exist and meet were even lower. It keeps getting less and less likely the higher you go.
We live in an impossible part of the Universe, at an impossible time, and we are the product of an impossible chain of events.
Today is impossible and yet, it's happening.
PS: I'm working on a project about these issues and I think a lot about it.
A short movie with some clips and images from our time in Verona, Venice and Trento.
I went to Venice yesterday. Even though I visited as a tourist and spent little time making images, I still brought my cameras and tripod with me. Just in case.
I also used my phone, of course.
Every time I use both systems for "image making" (not just snaps), I see how camera companies are losing to the increasingly more powerful smartphones. And I can't believe they aren't reacting.
The megapixel race has ended a while ago. Sensors are getting better and better, but it doesn't matter that much anymore. They are good enough, they have been for a while. Today, and in the foreseeable future, is the software that makes the difference.
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