Photogaboutit

Our little guy Levon entered this world on December 12, 2013. It's been an adventure already and we can't wait for more. It's great having a kid as a full time prop. Enjoy the photos. More to come! Less than two weeks old and already a cover boy! "Oh my God, I'm breathing air. Wow!" "Man, this Paul Simon rocks!" He shoots, he scores!! Screw Teddy Bears, I know what I really want. "Enough pics of me already, now it's your turn to smile." The fresh bun is out of the oven.  Asleep in Papik's arms. Cheaper than babysitters. Feet are so cute. Still at the hospital in his little swaddle. His first nap outside his mom's belly. "Wow, this is so cool!"

Update: Yes, I know that's not Bela. But it's my favorite pic of the set. Richie Stearns. So, I had been looking forward to the Bela Fleck Banjo Summit for a while, and it did not disappoint. We went to the Paramount Theater in Rutland, an hour away, and saw some of the best music ever. The format was great too, because the musicians and the styles of music changed almost every song, so it never got dull. Richie Stearns has a really interesting voice. When I saw him last, it was at another banjo summit at the Egg in Albany, NY. He sang a song about the twin towers and going into Iraq, that left an imprint. He plays clawhammer, but puts it through effects pedals and makes some crazy good noise. Bela Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn. She has a great voice and can sing in many styles, and Bela, well, if you've seen him before, you know. On this stage stood about half of the most famous banjo players ever. Bela Fleck is a pure genius, and I think most would ...

...but I promise to do better. Really! 1. A bun in the oven. 'nuff said. Thanks Julia for doing all the hard work! Julia's tummy is growing... ...and so is our family! 2. I've been working my butt off on the waterfalls book for Falcon Guides. Monday was my last day of fieldwork and now I'm knee deep in driving directions, hiking directions, mapping, photo processing and hike descriptions. I've been to 113 waterfalls all over New England, and most were hiked in the last three months. Well, I've seen some beautiful places, that's for sure! Bailey Falls, VT Bash Bish Falls, MA 3. I started graduate school. I've decided to get a masters degree from the MALS program at Dartmouth. And since I've never wanted a graduate degree, and I don't need one for my profession, I figured I'd focus on what I love, which is long distance hiking. I'll follow this up with a more detailed description of the program and what I hope to ...

It's nice to discover a cool waterfall, or series of small cascades and nice swim holes, only a half mile out of the way on the trip back home from work. A locals' favorite, I haven't been here since I was a student, a long long time ago. Playing with an ultrawide lens has been a liberating experience. I'm just glad I didn't liberate my camera down the falls. By using a three stop neutral density filter, I was able to keep my aperture at f/11, maintaining a massive depth of field but eliminating the effect of diffraction when using even smaller apertures. A benefit of low water flow is the ability to get shots that would otherwise be too dangerous. The parking is just off True's Brook Road, 0.8 miles from the junction with NH route 12A just south of the "strip." Water is pretty low right now, but it's still very beautiful and the pools are warm and deep enough for a solid dip in just the right spot. Low water also allows me to explore the r...

...Did I mention waterfalls? As I continue on my race to visit, photograph, map and write about one hundred waterfalls across New England, I'm continually challenged to think of creative ways to capture these simple wonders of nature in unique ways...and to do so quickly, because there are always more waterfalls to visit. Emerson falls, just below a dam in Saint Johnsbury, VT shows you don't need to be out in the wilderness to capture the beautiful movement of water. The shutter speed of 1/5 of a second blurs the water enough to create smooth lines, yet is of short enough duration to maintain the feeling of movement with little lines of spray clearly distinguishable. As I'm visiting most of these waterfalls alone, I look for any opportunity to capture people in my waterfall photos. Usually that involves a quick shutter speed. Luckily here I was able to do a long exposure on the tripod, and the fisherman remained still enough to remain sharp. Wadsworth Big Falls, Mi...

Best party ever. Intense athletic endeavors. Tenth annual. Tomorrow. Actually today. Saturday. If you're around Windsor, come on by! We always do video promos. What can I say, this year has been extremely lacking in non-productive creative endeavors masquerading as a video teasers to a killer sporting event, due to...getting old, busy and lame. Nonetheless, at the eleventh hour, Eli-kon and Jev-pain manage to put together a hot new single. BO X. BE WARNED!! The lyrics in this song are specifically implicitly non-explicit. PG-14.

Although there is a long fence precluding nice views to what appears to be a dramatic gorge deep within a forest, the views you can get make it worth the trip if you're nearby. We were in a bit of rush, but you can get to the stream at the bottom of the fence and walk back up the stream bed in low water. That is where the second photo was shot...just before I slipped on my already sprained ankle, dunked my body (and phone, luckily no damage) and saved the camera from going in. All in a day's work. Although getting down to the gorge is difficult due to a safety fence, you can still get some nice shots through the foliage from a safe vantage point. Above the gorge, there is no fence and you can climb on the rocks if the water is low. Below the gorge the path beyond the fence meets the stream. I was able to climb up the stream a bit to get this shot. The main part of the gorge is much steeper, and I wasn't feeling very confident after having just dunked after re-...

So I'm busily spending every last minute working on a book for Falcon Guides about waterfalls in New England. I need to visit, map, write about and photograph 100 waterfalls throughout New England. Today I visited four more, one of which is Beaver Brook Falls in Keene, NH. It's just three quarters of a mile up an old closed road, paved but experiencing the effects of nature's quick work. Anyways, the falls, although nice, are really nothing to write home about. However, I noticed these incredible spots of light on the water shining through the canopy, leaving a cool top and lighting up the red-brown tannin-rich water. On top of that, the large white bubbles emanated from the base of the falls. Ten to twenty second exposures revealed a bubble outline with streaks as they slowly migrated downstream. It actually seems as if these are creatures swimming upstream. I used a three stop neutral density filter to enable especially long exposures. Anyways, I went there...

As I'm finishing up this hiking book, I'm thinking about what made the hikes enjoyable for me. Inevitably, my photography instincts were hard to suppress, even when hiking with just a point and shoot, and invariably the favorite hikes were during the late evening hours as I treasured being in cool places when during the golden hour and the post-sunset dusk. The photos from the hike up Stowe Pinnacle in April was one of my favorites. I grabbed my trusty Sony RX100 and raced up the mountain less than an hour before sunset. I stayed on top taking photos until I needed my headlamp to get back down. No problem, and well worth it. Even April can be beautiful in the right light!