Canon 1DS Mk III, 1/50 sec @f/8, ISO 200, 153mm

“I do not invent the picture, on the contrary, I find it already there in nature; I just have to free it” – Vincent Van Gogh

River Docks, Hudson River

Canon 1DS Mk III, 24mm, 25sec @ f/11, ISO 100

I processed this image entirely in Lightroom 4, and I’m really loving the new tonal controls and soft-proffing. I’m working on a video tutorial of my workflow, and some of the features I like best about this new version- look for it early next week. If you use Lightroom, this update is well worth it.

This photograph is also the “Print of the Month” – read more about it here and watch a short video on the making of a matted print.

Winter View, Hudson Valley

Canon 1DS Mk III, 19mm, 1/8 sec, f/14, ISO 200

Winter has been rather mild this year with little of no snow fall until now – finally! With 4-6″ on the ground, I headed out for a long and very cold hike yesterday up to this spot overlooking Cold Spring, with West Point Military Academy further south along the Hudson. I managed to capture just this single image after struggling to find an interesting foreground and eliminating trees and branches that would have been distractions in the composition. I used a  single 2 stop graduated filter to darken the sky and let the highlights in the foreground snow really help lead the eye into the composition.

With ambient temperatures around 4°, it’s tough to manage the controls on the camera and keep my fingers warm, so I use Manzella convertible gloves which make it easy to use my fingers when I need to, but also keep them warm. I have a very difficult time with cold fingers, so I always keep chemical hand warmers in my pockets for that extra burst of heat.

I love visiting this spot during in different seasons and conditions, you never know what you’re going to get, and it challenges me to find new ways to photograph the same view. Thanks for reading!

Cloud Light, Hudson River

“A heart in love with beauty never grows old” – Turkish proverb

Trail Fog, Hudson Valley

“He who is contented is rich.” – Lao Tzu

Trees in Silence, Hudson Valley

“In a world filled with metrics and bestseller lists, it’s easy to decide that everyone is your competitor and easier still to worry about your rank. Worry all you want, but if it gets in the way of your art or starts changing your mission, it’s probably a mistake.” – Seth Godin

This great quote captures much of what I have struggled with over the years, and how I think about the whole issue of comparisons these days. Competition is rampant in landscape and nature photography – it seems there are always contests to enter, and endless ways to compare ourselves to the “competition”.

Just visit any art fair (or worse participate in one) to experience this first hand. The endless “I can do that” or “is my work good enough” really misses the point of it all. If you have something to say, then it should measure up against what you have said in the past. If it’s not making an impact, then it’s time to improve your vocabulary, or practice your story telling. Comparing our images to others doesn’t take into consideration many important variables like skill, dedication, practice, and most crucial personal experience.

If you allow your  perceptions of where you stand in the overall “rank” of photography to guide your creativity, then you’ll never develop your own vision. Is there a shortage of photography in the world today? Not by any stretch of the imagination – in fact we are over saturated with imagery. I would argue that what is in short supply are original voices willing to tell their stories about what inspires them.

Don’t worry about competition, worry about whether you are getting any real responses to your work – often that comes when you forget about what everyone else is doing.