Recently, I got asked something I hadn't been asked in a long time:
"what happens if instead of buying a print from you, someone downloads a photo from your website and prints it?"
My answer was: "I don't care". This is why.
Read MoreCamera and Lens: Bronica SQ-Ai, Zenzanon PS 80mm f/2.8
Film stock: Ilford HP5+
Exposure: 800
Developer: Ilfotec HC
This image is part of America Untitled.
The Grand Canyon is a breathtaking place, but I found it hard to photograph. I got just one image on my first morning there, and I wasn't sure I was going to make any on this second day.
Then, we visited the Desert View Watchtower and I started to see a lot of images from there.
I was composing one of this view of the Grand Canyon, and the mirror that reflected part of it, when a bird flew by. I quickly pressed the shutter withouth knowing for sure if it'd be in the photo, or if it'd be blurry or not.
It came out perfectly, and it adds that extra element to this image.
A lot of photographers struggle with their photography. Many are afraid of sharing their work, as a tour guide in Antelope Canyon, Arizona, told me. I realized that in a different way, I was afraid too. What can we do about it?
Read MoreThe first thing I bought after purchasing my Bronica SQ-Ai (even before the film!) was a threaded cable release. For a photographer who loves long exposure photography, it's a must-have.
If you have used them in the past, you might know they can be a bit of pain: they are always getting lost, and they seem to break easier than an egg.
After a few disappointing purchases and following some wise advice, I finally got one that I love.
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I love playing around with different photographic techniques and camera gear to create stuff.
Cameras like the Holga, pinhole cameras or techniques like long exposures are fascinating to me. As I've mentioned before, they open a door to a world that you can imagine, and with a little bit of luck, capture with your camera.
Read More79-second long exposure
I love long exposure photography. This technique allows me to distort reality, to depart from it, to create something new that doesn't necessarily exist, to find my own voice and offer a unique vision of the world.
I realize this might sound a bit crazy, or at the very least, like I'm exaggerating. Truth is, I'm constantly seeking scenes I can capture on a long exposure.
This is the first chapter of a new series about Long Exposure Photography. A new post will be published every Wednesday.
Read MoreLast month, I released the first image of the series "Image of the month": The Last of Winter.
August is already here, and with a new month comes a new Image of the Month: A new beginning.
This image is a tribute not only to Multnomah Falls but to all the Columbia River Gorge, badly devastated last year by the Eagle Creek Fire.
I spent countless days hiking and photographing the Gorge. It's a very special place to me, and to many more people.
When I returned to Oregon in February of this year, I found most places (those that weren't destroyed) still closed due to the fire. Multnomah Falls was one of them.
It was a beautiful gray, rainy day. I love this weather, so does this place.
Even here, in a place that was forgiven by the fire, you could see quite a few burnt and dead trees. All this destruction hadn't made it less beautiful and magical, though.
There are few things more fascinating than the sight of the fog swallowing the forest, the feeling of the rain falling while looking at a beautiful waterfall like this one, or breathing air so fresh that your lungs can only rejoice.
I made this image in these conditions. It is a very special image of a very special place, one I miss so much and can't wait to visit again.
It was a moment when the Gorge was being born again. After death, comes new life. It's a new beginning.
Do you want it on your wall? A new beginning is available for purchase starting today, at a reduced price only during this month of August.
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.
Camera and Lens: Sony a6500 + 16-70mm f/4 Carl Zeiss
Others: 15-stop ND Filter
Settings: ISO 100, f/10, 63 seconds
Even though this place has become so popular that it's partially closed now, and some spots are not accessible, it's still one of the most beautiful places you can find along the Galicia Coast.
If you go there, make sure to visit the place both during low and high tide, since it's a completely different scenery. You can't really do any exploring on the beach when the tide is high, but you can witness and enjoy nature working on these rocks.
And of course, you can make images like this one. A simple long exposure of one of those amazing rock formations that you can find there.
A bit more than a year and a half ago, I had no idea what it meant to push or pull film. When I started shooting film, I experimented a little bit with Ilford HP5+. I really loved the way HP5+ looked when shot (and developed) at ASA 800 and 1600. I absolutely loved the grain and contrast!
In the end, I settled on 800. Here’s why.
Read MoreLong exposures are usually unpredictable, that's why I usually take more than one (and than two) for each composition. This image is the one I liked the most of a series I made of a group of seagulls on this beach.
Carrying a second tripod for vlogging (or to document your work) can be -literally- a pain.
For the longest time, I used a Gorilla Pod, but I hated it because most of the time I’d have to place it on the ground. I wanted an extremely light, and yet tall, tripod to bring along with me and record myself in the field.
I think I’ve found it.
Read MoreOne backpack and one suitcase: that's all I had when I moved from the US to Europe. All my stuff had to fit in two bags, and after a careful selection of what I really needed, everything else had to stay behind.
Among the stuff that didn't make it with me was all my darkroom equipment. But after 3 months of shooting almost exclusively digital, I was missing my Bronica so much that last week I finally pulled the trigger and bought everything I need to develop film at home... again.
This is a list of all the stuff I bought. You can use it as a checklist if you are building your own darkroom, although you might find you need more -or fewer- items than these.
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It's been more than a year since I started uploading videos regularly to my landscape photography YouTube channel about all my trips.
One of the things I've learned in the process is that documenting -and sharing- your work actually helps you improve quite a lot. Showing what I do and how I do it, along with some of the thought process behind it has pushed me to be better.
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I hadn't been using the lightning SD card reader for my iPhone much lately. Importing photos used to be a pain and a long process.
It looks like this is about to change, for the better. I've been running the iOS 12 beta for a few weeks now (mainly because it groups notifications like Android does), and I wanted to import a couple photos I had on my camera (I'm in the middle of a trip and I don't have my computer with me).
The new screen caught me by surprise. Not only is it much nicer, but the photos load much, much faster and selecting them by date is straightforward.
A very welcome improvement. I might use it more often in the field now, if only for an extra copy of my images (remember to back everything up before it's too late!).
Yesterday at lunch, I overheard a conversation happening next to me.
Someone was sharing their opinion that the difference between a good basketball player and an outstanding one was -usually- the much better attitude of the latter. They don't give up, they try again. When they get hit, they get up and play harder than before.
That made me think about going the extra mile in photography.
I believe that putting a camera in the hands of a person doesn't make them a photographer. But it's not because of a lack of skills or experience. It's all about the attitude.
A photographer should go where others don't. They should do what others don't. They should arrive before everyone else, and leave after the last person is gone. A photographer should capture what others can't.
And after the work is done in the field, they should be willing to work on the much longer process that begins for some of those images.
In photography, there are no rules set in stone. I do think, though, that hard work, an open mind and perseverance will make anyone go that extra mile.
These are the two videos of my trip to Foz, in northern Galicia. I visited a few beautiful spots, but I had to mention of course the Playa de las Catedrales, one of the most beautiful places in the province of Lugo.
A few days ago, I talked about the importante of shooting a scene over and over. This is really important when the scene is constantly changing.
This was the case when I saw the fog rolling in over the town of Porto do Son, A Coruna. I shot a lot of long exposures and regular shots, because there was no one in the world able to predict what that fog was going to do next.
Indeed, only one of the shots actually turned out as I wanted it to, hiding the town but still showing the building next to the shore. The other shots are either hiding too much or not enough.
I had to stay there for more than half an hour, but I got the image I was after. And I'm very, very happy with it. Probably my favorite image of this month so far.
Have you ever gone out to shoot some photographs just to get home with none? Is it hard to feel inspired? You are not alone, this used to happen to me as well. I think I have a little trick to fix this little problem, if not all the time, most of it.
For the last two weeks, and for the first time in my life, I've been running a few kilometers every other morning. I never liked running, but doing it early and mere minutes after waking up makes it so much worse.
I don't just jump out of bed and start running though: I walk for at least 10-15 minutes before I speed up. It's my way to warm up and get my body (and mind!) ready for what's coming next.
I believe the same principle can help a photographer to get started.
Taking the first photo will get you started and your creativity flowing.
It's all about gaining momentum and put yourself "in the zone". This is true for many aspects of our lives: it's hard to start, but it gets easier over time. Why wouldn't it be the same for photography?
When I go on a photography trip, I usually take snapshots of the place before starting to look for compositions. I do it to document the trip, but also to help me get started and focus on what I'm about to do.
My YouTube videos are another example of something I do (among many other reasons) because it actually helps my creativity. I'm constantly thinking about the place and what's different, or beautiful about it.
Next time you go out to make some images, just take a few random photos. You could even do it at home, before hitting the street. The subject doesn't matter. It could be your keys, your shoes, yourself, on the mirror. The car parked next to your home. The clouds. Or the lack of them. It doesn't really matter.
While this little trick doesn't work all the time (there are days where we are just not in the mood to create, and that's fine), I found it has helped me quite a bit.
Working on the post Shoot the scene, and then shoot it again, and again, I found out how to create contact sheets in Photoshop CC, and I wanted to share this "discovery" with you.
Contact Sheets are a very useful way to look at and share our work. They are the best way to show the thought process behind an image, the steps the photographer took to get to that composition.
To create one, we need to have our images in one folder. Open Photoshop and select File -> Automate -> Contact Sheet II.
This is on a Mac, but it should be pretty similar if not exactly the same on Windows.
The dialog that shows up will offer us quite a few options to customize our contact sheet. Select the folder where your images are, and then play with the number of rows and columns, the spacing between them, and to show or not the name.
It might take a while to process all the photos, but at the end you should have something like this:
To make it look like a traditional contact sheet, you can paint the background black and use a red brush to indicate which photos you selected from the set.
Hope this helped!
I firmly believe that the fewer shots we go back home with, the better. That being said, there are situations where no shots should be spared.
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