RANDY HARRIS PHOTOGRAPHY

Adobe Announces Lightroom 3.5 Release Candidate

2011-08-24T08:06:00.000-07:00

Adobe announced today that the Photoshop Lightroom 3.5 release candidate is now available. This update includes many new camera and lens profiles.

Photoshop Lightroom, the popular photo editing software for advanced amateur and professional photographers, gives users the tools to create, manage, and showcase their images.

According to Adobe, a release candidate "indicates that that this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing before it is distributed automatically to all of our customers."

Lightroom 3.5 includes support for twelve new cameras, twenty-six new lenses, and fixes twenty software issues. If you use a Mac, Lightroom 3.5 can be installed alongside earlier versions of Lightroom 3; on a PC, however, by default, Lightroom 3.5 will remove or overwrite your existing Lightroom 3 installation.

To get started using Lightroom 3.5 or for more information, visit the Adobe Labs website.

Tips for Taking Photos from Inside an Airplane

2011-04-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

I found this interesting article that provides tips on taking photos from inside an airplane.

Click Here for Link

Print Your Friends Facebook Photos

2010-07-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

I just read about this potentially troublesome feature Walmart, Target and other online printing outfits are adding where you can print your friends Facebook photos. I assume this will not be allowed if there is enough objection to it, so let them know what you think. I found this video describing a way to block the feature:

For more information visit A.J. Wood's site

Camera Raw 6.1 is Here.

2010-06-11T03:59:00.001-07:00

Camera Raw 6.1 is Here.

Earlier in the week Adobe released the latest version of Camera Raw (version 6.1) for Photoshop CS5 users. It’s been on Adobe labs for a while, kind of marinating in testing mode, but now it’s fully baked and ready for downloading (you can use the built-in updater inside Photoshop CS5—go under the Help menu and choose Updates), or go to Adobe’s Website and download it here (Mac | Windows )

Leopard photo in Condé Nast Traveller magazine

2010-02-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

Just found out one of my leopard photos was used in a Condé Nast Traveller magazine article about the private game reserve Londolozi located in South Africa.

Click to read the article about Londolozi Private Game Reserve

Please Help The People Of Haiti

2010-01-18T00:57:00.000-08:00

This is a great, quick way to make a real difference today. Click the link below for all the details, but they need our help in such a big way, and the Red Cross are the people to bring that help, but they can’t do it without us.

Direct Link

Adorama annouces iPhone Photo Contest

2010-01-18T00:55:00.000-08:00

Adorama just launched a contest for photos taken with your iPhone, and the prizes are just incredible. They are giving away:

**The Grand Prize winner gets a $1,000 Adorama Gift Card
**Ten second place winners win a Wacom Bamboo tablet
**15 Third-place winners will receive a Canon wireless printer
**Thirty fourth place winners get a $100 Adorama Gift Card
**And 25 Fifth Place winners get a $50 Apple App Store Gift Card
**The winners are chosen by a panel of celebrity judges

Here’s the link with more details, and how to enter. Congrats to crew at Adorama for coming up with such a way cool contest! Now go enter, now!!!

Great source of camera and photography tips

2010-01-18T00:47:00.001-08:00

Last year I was watching Scott Kelby's Nikon D-Town TV series which highlighted useful tips and suggestions for Nikon shooters. They covered a range of topics as well many of the Nikon camera models. After a successful first season they just launched season two and decided to open up the format to a wide range of subjects, no longer a Nikon only show.

Here is the link to KelbyTV.com/DtownTV (the first season)

Here is the link to the 1st episode of season two, D-Town TV

David duChemin Releases another Great $5 Ebook

2010-01-07T23:17:00.000-08:00

Hey readers author David duChemin has released another eBook.

Now available is ‘Chasing the Look: 10 Ways To Improve The Aesthetics of Your Photographs’.
It’s available now on in David’s Bookstore (it’s the top one) for his regularly insanely cheap price of $5!

The title of ‘10 Ways To Improve The Aesthetics of Your Photographs’ pretty much sums up what the ebook is about but David describes what it sets out to achieve like this:

“CHASING THE LOOK is about making intentional choices about the use of our gear and the settings on our cameras based on their affect on the aesthetic of the image. It begins to answer the question we all ask at some point while looking at the images of others – “How come my photographs don’t look like that?””

It’s 48 pages long, contains some great imagery to help illustrate what David’s talking about and is written in an easy to engage with and understand style.

Grab your PDF downloadable copy of CHASING THE LOOK at David duChemin’s Bookstore (if you’ve not got his other books already they’re well worth the look too).

iPhone Photos

2010-01-01T03:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I get tired of carrying around my big digital SLR with several lenses to capture images. Lately, I've decided to just use my iPhone 3G camera to take interesting photos. Since I carry the phone with me at all times (even while jogging) I keep an open eye out for things to shoot.

I ususally do minor editing to the iPhone photo with several iPhone applications.

The Best Camera Application

Photoshop iPhone Application

Paris

Amsterdam

New StylePack from PhotoDex

2009-11-02T11:59:00.001-08:00

I was one of three photographers asked to help put together a demo for ProShow's new StylePack Volume 3! HD. Follow the link to see the cool software and images.

Click to see the show, http://www.photodex.com/gallery/view&yt=2449

Just Published My First Travel Photo Book

2009-10-23T01:00:00.000-07:00

I'm very proud that I just published my first travel photo book, A Photo Tour In Paris.

Also, I’ve entered it into a travel book contest. Besides from being extremely proud of the images and work presented I’d like to win the contest. Unfortunately, the first round of competition is a popularity contest. The top 15 books with the most votes will move on to the next level and be judged by a panel of photography experts.

I’m asking that you follow the link http://www.blurb.com/photo-book-contest/view_book/912596 take a look (you can review the entire book via full screen) and vote for my book if you feel it worthy of your vote.

I’m thanking you in advance and I hope you like the book.

Cheers,

Nikon Announces New D3s

2009-10-18T07:14:00.001-07:00

Nikon just announced a follow up camera to the D3 model that was released in 2007, the D3s.

The Nikon D3s is a flagship follow-up to the Nikon D3. The D3s features a 12.1-megapixel sensor (as did the Nikon D3) but extends sensitivity up to ISO 102,400 and adds HD video capture in 720p resolution at 24 fps.

Nikon D3s Key Specs
12.1-megapixels
ISO 200-12800 (expandable up to ISO 102,400 equivalent)
9 fps (11 fps in DX mode)
720p HD video recording at 24fps
Buffer increased to 48 RAW images
Improved contrast-detect AF
In-camera RAW image processing
Same 51-point AF, 3D Matrix Metering and dual CF slots

Interesting Links with more information:

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/nikon-d3s-takes-light-sensitivity-higher/

http://nikonusa.com/Find-Your-Nikon/Product/Digital-SLR/25466/D3S.html

Classic View from Place de la Concorde

2009-10-18T07:10:00.001-07:00

One of the fountains at Place de la Concorde makes a perfect foreground to a iconic landmark.

Eiffel Tower and Vendor Artwork

2009-10-17T01:55:00.001-07:00

While out on a Photo Tour I spotted this display of artwork hoping to catch the eye and admiration of the tourists visiting the Trocadéro area.

Photographing Paris Fashion Week - R-T-W

2009-09-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

Yestderday, I spent time photographing several fashion shows being held in Paris for Paris Fashion Week Ready-To-Wear Spring Summer 2010. I was able cover the Tim Van Steenbergen and Devastee runway shows.

See Images of Tim Van Steenbergen fashion show.

See Images Devastee fashion show.

Microsoft launches visual search on Bing

2009-09-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Microsoft launches a new innovation for their Bing search engine at the Tech50 event. The visual search which is now in Beta will allow users to find anthing from movies to products like cars and bags. The Microsoft Blog has a number of examples of how this will work. Here’s a brief quote from the blog:

We have taken this to heart with Bing’s new Visual Search feature announced today as a beta at TechCrunch50. Visual Search is a new way to formulate and refine your search queries through imagery, particularly for sets of results that tend to be more structured. We call these data groupings galleries. Simply go to www.bing.com/visualsearch and install Silverlight if you don’t have it already. What you’ll see is an amazing new visual search experience. Visual Search allows you to quickly scroll through the galleries or do a one-click refinement using the quick tabs on the left, which are specifically relevant to the type of results you are browsing through.

Free Report: Google Analytics for Photographers

2009-09-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

Photographers who market themselves online can take advantage of a bunch of free tools to learn how people use their Web sites. Web traffic isn't everything, but knowing how people use your site can be valuable in making marketing decisions.

To that end, PhotoShelter, an online services company for photographers, has just released a free PDF report about how photographers can make the most of Google Analytics. The report is free in exchange for giving PhotoShelter your e-mail address. You can get access to the report here.

Paris Photography Workshops now available

2009-09-07T05:36:00.001-07:00

This first year of conducting photo tours around Paris has been quite successful. I've done close to 40 private photography tours and have met the nicest people from around the world. One of the things I found common among all the photographers was that they wanted to learn more about photography. Whether they were fairly new to photography and used a point and shoot or shot with a nice digital SLR, they all wanted more information than what we could cover during our three hours of walking around Paris.

This has led me to the next step in my photography career by creating and offering photography workshops in Paris. Starting in November 2009 I'll be conducting photography work shops in Paris.

The three workshops will be Beginning Digital Photography, Using Flash Photography-Taking the mystery out of flash photography and Taking your photography to the next level.

To view the details about these one and four day photography workshops, visit us at Paris Workshops.com

Another dull day in Paris

2009-08-18T23:16:00.001-07:00

Paris can be so much fun compared to other cities around the globe. I suppose because of its size and beauty, it attracts all kinds of people, business, cultures and movie scenes.

For the last several days, from our fifth floor apartment windows, we've watched our neighborhood be transformed into a movie set. Where parking spaces used to have cars, orange cones with plastic tape have become the norm. Security guards have policed the neighborhood 24x7 making sure no one parked in marked spaces or walked away with photographic gear that appeared on the scene.

Flyers posted throughout the neighborhood stated that shooting would begin this afternoon and continue through end of day Wednesday. We had no idea what movie was being shot. Yesterday, before they completely cordoned off several blocks, I took the dogs for a walk and noticed the movie crew had constructed a fake cafe, fake flower store, fake book store, and a fake produce market.

Today was the day filming was to begin and sure enough by 7:00am huge trucks started replacing the orange cones. By 9:30, filming had begun. I set up my camera, tripod and big lenses, opened up the double floor to ceiling windows and waited for the action to begin. After taking a few shots of the crew getting things just perfect, the doorbell rang and two very large and tall men in suits told me in French and in broken English that I couldn't take photos. I’m not sure how they got into our secure building. They said that Leonardo DiCaprio was not allowing outside filming. Because I didn't want to cause a scene and because I wasn't sure of the legal ramifications I said, sure no problem I'll take down my camera.

Gina did some quick research on the Internet and found out that Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page (from Juno) and Marion Cotillard (Oscar winner from La Vie en Rose) are starring in the film being shot this week in Paris. The movie "Inception" directed by "Dark Knight's" Christopher Nolan began shooting in London last month.

The set has hundreds of people all around performing their various duties: lighting, sound, catering, setting up movie camera tracks, finishing touches on the set, etc, etc. It seems much of the time people are just standing around waiting for something to happen. It looks rather boring.

We've spent the day glancing out the window to see if anything new has happened. We've watched them film about a half dozen takes of Ellen and Leo talking over coffee (after the third take it got boring to watch). This afternoon I thought something was going to happen as they nearly cleared the set and had the crew standing many yards away. As I was watching Ellen and Leo sit back down for coffee, the cafe exploded. A nearby car and motor scooter went flying in the air with debris falling all over the set.

It's about 6pm and outside below our window, a crowd of onlookers have gathered including the paparazzi with their cameras and big 500mm lenses.

Here are a few photos I was able to capture.

Le Tour de France in Paris

2009-07-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, the final stage of the Tour de France rolled into Paris. Because we live in Paris and love photography, I knew I had to venture down to the course to find a good vantage point from which to photograph the riders. The time schedule on the official website indicated the riders would not arrive in Paris until approximately 4:30 pm. Given big crowds of several hundred thousand people were expected to line the streets of the course, I headed to the Place de la Concorde at 10:30 am to stake out a good spot. I assumed arriving over six hours early would allow me to explore and select the perfect location. When I came out of the Metro, I was greeted by thousands with the same idea: arrive early and stake your claim.

Not knowing the exact course route, I figured I'd try to get an elevated position and view from the Jardin des Tuileries looking out to the middle of the Place de la Concorde (the Champs Elysees had too many barricades and trees lining the course to get unobstructed views.) I spotted another serious photographer (I knew he was serious because he was packing a five foot ladder and I had my three foot step ladder bungee corded to my camera roller bag) and asked, "Parlez vous Anglais?" He responded, "No". I pointed to the barricades out in the Place de la Concorde and asked using hand gestures and broken French where the riders would pass. Dinis, a photographer from Portugal, motioned for me to follow him and off we went to the Quai des Tuileries which had an elevated, unobstructed view of the riders as they rode from west to east. We figured this was as good a spot as any and spread out our gear to mark our turf.

I went off to find three lawn chairs: one for me, one for Dinis, and one for Gina who would be joining us later in the afternoon. From my backpack I pulled out a book and baguette and relaxed.

Another photographer, Sasha, an American now living in Sweden, joined our little group and we now chatted to kill time. Around 3:30 pm, Gina finally showed up after an eventful Metro ride (many of the Metro stations were now closed if they were too close to the route). Finally, at around 4:42 the riders arrived in Paris to finish the last 50km by circling the route several times.

From our spot, the riders would pass us six times before the final stage was complete. We all figured we would have plenty of opportunities to capture a few good frames. Gina picked up my second camera and she too fired away. Below are a few of the images we captured.

Looking east on the Quai des Tuileries

Looking west on the Quai des Tuileries with Grand Palais in background.

Alberto Contador, in yellow jersey, the tour's winner.

Thor Hushovd of Norway, in green jersey, the tour's best sprinter.

Samuel Dumoulin from France, Team Cofidis Le Credit En Ligne (COF)

Fabian Wegmann from Germany, Team Milram

Alberto Contador singled out.

Left to Right:
Alexandre Pichot, France, Team BBOX Bouygues Telecom
Jussi Veikkanen, Finland, Team Francaise Des Jeux
Carlos Barredo, Spain, Team Quick Step

Interesting Lines

2009-07-22T01:27:00.001-07:00

Interesting vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines with a great textured wall.

Fireworks Photography

2009-07-15T09:07:00.001-07:00

Last night I walked down the street to the Avenue de Saxe in Paris to photograph the fireworks show over the Eiffel Tower. This was my first attempt to shoot fireworks, but I've researched it enough on the Internet to feel I could capture some good images.

First, I was totally surprised by the number of people outside our apartment at 10:45pm. When I arrived at the the Avenue de Saxe it was impossible to find a good spot to set up my tripod because of the large number of people already there.

I found a relatively good spot with an almost straight on view of the Tower. I set up the tripod, attached the Nikon D300 with a cable release cord. I set the camera to manual mode, set my ISO to 200, f/stop to f/8.0 and shutter speed to Bulb. I would guess with each exposure regarding the length of time I needed to keep the shutter open.

It wasn't totally dark around 11:00pm so I tested several shots and only needed about a one second exposure to capture the Tower and not have it overexposed.

Once the fireworks started I just keep firing the cable release and holding the button down for about a second. I could see instantly on the LCD screen if I needed a bit longer or shorter exposure. I learned quickly it really depended on what the fireworks were doing. If there were lots of fireworks going off and the sky was filled with light, I didn't need a full second.

I kept firing as the sky exploded with multiple colors of light. It wasn't hard to capture the big bursts. Once the big burst started to grow, I hit the cable release and held it down for about a second, viewed the LCD and liked what I saw.

The sky behind the Eiffel Tower was very dramatic so I decided to add it to the composition rather than go in tight with a longer lens. After about 20 minutes and 268 images later, I packed up and walked the one block back home.

Paris - Haute Couture Fashion Shows

2009-07-13T09:16:00.001-07:00

Now that the fashion shows have been completed I can upload some of the images from the various shows.

Below are a few of the images from three shows I covered.

Chanel Show

Chanel Show

Zuhair Murad Show

Zuhair Murad Show
Stephane Rolland Show

Paris Fashion Week - Haute Couture 2009-2010

2009-07-06T15:24:00.000-07:00

The fashion designers are back showing off their Haute Couture 2009-2010 collections. I spent a busy day traveling between events, competing for prime standing real estate on the photographers podiums, and capturing images of amazing women and the finest clothes I have ever seen. It was a busy day, but a very fun and rewarding experience.

Because I'm working for a magazine from NYC, www.DossierJournal.com I can't post any photos on this blog until after the shows. But once they post some images online, I'll post the link to the images on the blog.

Today I saw the Stephane Rolland and Christophe Josse fashion shows. Now I have over 1500 images to go through and edit and upload to Dossier Journal.

On Tuesday I get to do it all over again with more designers.

Cheers,

Randy

Statue of Liberty in Paris

2009-07-04T10:14:00.001-07:00

Happy Fouth of July

In appreciation for the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, Americans living in Paris erected a small replica, about 35 feet high, of the Statue of Liberty. It is mounted next to the Pont de Grenelle, a bridge crossing the Seine, 1.5 km South of the Eiffel Tower.

Photo shoot with Delaney and friends

2009-07-01T00:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of photographing my 13 year old daughter, Delaney and two of her friends, Pamela and Lea. One of the benfits of Delaney attending an International school in Paris is that many of her friends are from distant parts of the world. She has made friends who come from Mexico, Spain, Italy, Korea, France and the United States.

The flip side to attending an International school is that many families are here for only a year or two before moving on or moving back home. In this case, Delaney's friend, Pamela, will be moving away with her family in a few weeks.

We arranged a photo shoot so the girls would have a few photos to share and look back on. Below are a few images from the shoot. I think they had a good time.

Adobe releases Photoshop Lightroom, Camera Raw updates

2009-06-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom 2.4 as well as v5.4 of the Camera Raw plug-in for Photoshop CS4.

The updates are available here.

Camera Painting

2009-06-21T03:41:00.000-07:00

In an effort to be creative with my camera and push myself outside the box of perfectly focused photographs, I recently started playing with motion to produce interesting images. This gives me an additional option while out shooting. I don’t have to wait to find interesting subject to shoot, I create them.

The technique is quite simple. I set the camera to either manual or aperture mode. I want to make sure my shutter speed is between 1 to 6 seconds. I find an interesting subject; almost anything will work with camera painting although I like colorful things.

I fire the shutter and move the camera during the 1 to 6 second exposure. Sometimes I rotate the camera in a circular motion, other times I just move it horizontally or mix it up and do a little of everything.

You never know what you’re going to get. Each shot is an experiment. Because I shoot digital I can instantly see the result and determine if I like the result or if I need to change my method of motion. Plus, I can play and shoot as many images as I want and it doesn’t cost me anything.

So next time you’re out with your camera, play around and try it. You might come up with some very pleasing results.

Below are a few images I took this weekend while walking around Paris.

The store front of an umbrella store. (before)

(after)

Tables of an outdoor cafe.

Posters pasted up on a cement wall.

Posters pasted up on a cement wall. (version 2)

Hollywood movie poster.

President Obama in Paris

2009-06-14T03:04:00.001-07:00

President Barack Obama is well liked in Paris. Posters and signs of him can be found mounted on walls, murals, and even in art galleries.

Walking through the Saint Germain des Pres area, I spotted this remarkable painting in the front window of an art gallery.

Incredible Shadow Art Created From Junk

2009-06-12T11:39:00.001-07:00

I saw this link on Twitter today and thought it was interesting enough to post it here as well.

Incredible Shadow Art Created From Junk

Create your own tilt-shift photos

2009-06-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

I found a great website that will create tilt-shift sytle photos. Tilt-shift miniature style photos are pictures of real-life scenes that are manipulated to look like model photographs.

Now you can easily transform your existing digital camera photos into tilt-shift style miniatures using Tiltshiftmaker.com.

Here's one example I created with the free software.

The sad part of Paris

2009-06-09T06:36:00.001-07:00

Like scenes right out of Slumdog Millionaire, we see beggars frequently all through out Paris. Some sit silent and motionless on the hard ground waiting for compassionate strangers to drop a few tokens into their well worn cups. Most simply stare at the ground without a hint of emotion.

Their presence makes me wonder what they’re thinking or if they feel pain. Where did they come from, are they there on their own or do they work for someone? Are they lonely, do they hate life? All I know is that it’s sad.

The Making of a Street Art Mural

2009-06-07T05:21:00.000-07:00

In the heart of the Belleville area of Paris, a community of street artists thrive and regularly display their imagination by creating “street art” work with cans of spray paint. In most cities, as well as in Paris, painting on walls (graffiti) is illegal, but there are several walls in Belleville where painting is legal.

I’ve been visiting this area for about six weeks and each time I visit I’m rewarded with the most imaginative and creative work on display. Last Friday I visited and found for the first time, several artists in the beginning stages of creating their latest piece of work. I decided to hang out and record the progress of one of the artists, Skio.

Fortunately, the corner café had chairs and tables running down the side of the alley so I pulled up a chair, ordered a Stella and watched these guys work.

All finished.

June 3, 2009 Photo Tour

2009-06-03T03:25:00.001-07:00

Hosted Bobby from Houston, TX yesterday on a seven hour guided tour of Paris. Some of the areas we covered were Belleville, Marais, The Louvre, Palace Vendome, Palais Royal, Tuileries, Place de la Concorde, Pont Alexander III. Some of the photos from the tour.

Photodex.com new software StylePack Vol 2

2009-05-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

Very recently I was one of a few selected photographers to help develop a demo promoting Photodex.com’s new ProShow StylePack Vol 2 software program. The demo can be seen on Photodex’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=84384744372 or on their website http://www.photodex.com/products/styles/v2_promo.html

Inside St-Gervais-et-St-Protais Church

2009-05-26T13:20:00.001-07:00

This church is one of oldest of Paris. Its existence at this place is mentioned as early as the 4th century. Dedicated to Gervasius and Protasius, the church was formerly the seat of the powerful brotherhood of wine merchants.

Sketching from Pont des Arts

2009-05-22T08:53:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, while on a Photo Tours In Paris tour with Greg from Atlanta, we crossed Pont Des Arts and watched for awhile an artist sketching Pont Neuf in the distance.

Free Nikon Software for tethering camera to computer

2009-05-20T01:51:00.001-07:00

I found a great free software program to tether my Nikon D300 to my computer. This allows you to shoot an image and see it on the computer within seconds.

Nikon makes a program called Camera Control Pro 2, but it retails for $160.

The program is available at http://tinyurl.com/orp237

and it seems to work with most Nikon models.

I downloaded the program and within a few minutes had image appearing on my laptop.

Classic European Look

2009-05-17T04:07:00.001-07:00

While having a glass of wine at an outdoor café that bordered a small open public square I had the opportunity to watch and photograph many people as they passed by or stopped and rested on several of the park benches.

This older gentleman with the hat, scarf, cane, old rugged coat and scruffy beard was a great subject.

Wedding at The American Church in Paris

2009-05-15T00:18:00.001-07:00

Next week I'm photographing a wedding at The American Church of Paris so I stopped by yesterday to check it out, get familiar with the setting, see what kind of light was available, think up ideas for photographs, check with the pastor to see if flash photography was allowed in the church, etc.

When I was shown into the beautiful sanctuary of stained glass windows a bride and groom were having their pictures taken by a photographer and his assistant.

I quietly looked around and took a few photographs myself. I don't think I was a distraction to them. I'm looking forward to next week.

Ethiopia Road Trip

2009-05-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

While reading some of the blogs I check out each day it's amazing how distracted I become because one blog mentions this site and that site mentions another site and before you know it, I've gone to six other sites I had no idea ever existed over the course of two hours.

Just the other day I went through several blogs/websites and was directed to JoeyL.com's blog and found some interesting stuff. There was great photography as well as terrific video.

The video I've listed below really struck a cord with me. I liked it for several reasons. First, it showed two young guys, I think in their early 20's, on a remote road trip in Ethiopia sharing the experience together (I love road trips). Second, I liked the story behind the video, I think they captured and edited it very well and third, it showed a youthful passion for photography, people, adventure and camaraderie. Sometimes their youth comes out, but I also like that.

Like the old saying goes, I wish I knew then what I know now. It would have been great to know what you wanted to do with such passion when you were 24.

Enjoy, it's 16 minutes long, but worth it.

Joey L in Ethiopia from Joey L on Vimeo.

National Geographic talks about photography

2009-05-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

Saw this video presentation David Griffin, director of photography for National Geographic, gave to an audience as he goes through some very powerful photographs.

I thought I'd share as I enjoyed the presentation very much.

Pete Souza - Recording History - A CBS Profile

2009-05-06T01:46:00.000-07:00

Below is a nice piece on Pete and the work he is doing documenting history in the making.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Photo Business Cards

2009-04-29T06:37:00.001-07:00

I recently found a great source for photography business cards. Before I found this website, I used to design my card in Photoshop, save the file as a .psd so I could edit it later (contact info change, change out photo, etc), convert to .jpg and burn the file to a CD, take the CD to Kinko’s and have them run a batch for me. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do, but it worked. See example.

Because of our move to Paris, I needed new business cards with updated contact information. I also decided since I’m doing much more than landscape and wildlife I thought it was time to change out the Brown Bear on the old card.

I found the website, Zazzle which allowed me to find a business card design I liked (I found one I liked, but tweaked it to fit my needs), changed the contact info, uploaded a new photo, saved it, ordered them and about 10 later they arrived in Paris. Very easy.

It was so easy I designed one for my Photo Tours In Paris business.

Since I wasn’t positive I wanted a photo on my regular business card I designed another card without a photo.

Any comments or opinions?

Photographic opportunites at Notre Dame

2009-04-29T03:43:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to Notre Dame to climb the 387 stairs to the top of the South Tower to photograph the view and specifically the legendary gargoyles. I arrived at the tour entrance at 9:00, an hour before the 10:00 opening time. The lines get long, fast.

However, on this particular day a sign outside the door read “Today we open at 11:00”. I decided to wait it out and pass the time photographing inside the cathedral as photography is permitted inside as long as no flash in used.

The cathedral is massive in size and the ornate sculptures, stained glass windows, high ceilings, chandeliers, and unique light make for interesting photographic subjects. I could have spent much longer than an hour inside, but I wanted to get back to the tour line at 10:00.

Nikon D300, 50mm f/1.8, 1/40 s at f/1.8, ISO 500, WB Auto

Nikon D300, 50mm f/1.8, 1/50 s at f/1.8, ISO 1000, WB Auto

Nikon D300, 50mm f/1.8, 1/80 s at f/1.8, ISO 800, WB Auto

I went back to the tour entrance at 10:00 and was the first person in line. I pulled out a book and started to read. A line of over 100 people quickly formed behind me by 10:20.

After climbing an unknown number of well worn stairs I arrived at the Chimera gallery. All along this narrow walkway you can see the many different gargoyle creatures. Figuring the gargoyles would be shaded or at least many stops below the bright view of Paris I took along a Nikon SB-800 flash to throw some fill light into the gargoyles to pick up some detail in the stone creatures.

I shoot with the Nikon D300 which allows wireless flash through their Creative Lighting System (CLS). I put the camera in manual mode; spot metered off the bright skyline, got my reading, but decided I wanted the clouds to look a bit more dramatic so I underexposed the sky by about a full stop. I then used the in camera flash commander to control my flash. I set the flash to ¼ power to start knowing I only wanted to pick up some detail. It was hard to see how the gargoyles were being lit because the bright daylight was making it difficult to see my LCD. I figured I’d take lots of photos with different flash powers to be on the safe side.

Nikon D300, 18mm-35mm, 1/2000 s at f/10.0, ISO 400, WB Auto, Nikon SB-800 Flash

Nikon D300, 18mm-35mm, 1/1600 s at f/10.0, ISO 400, WB Auto, Nikon SB-800 Flash

Nikon D300, 18mm-35mm, 1/320 s at f/14.0, ISO 400, WB Auto, Nikon SB-800 Flash

Nikon D300, 18mm-35mm, 1/1600 s at f/9.0, ISO 400, WB Auto, Nikon SB-800 Flash

Nikon D300, 18mm-35mm, 1/2500 s at f/5.6, ISO 400, WB Auto,

Panoramic Image made with four images, Merged with Photoshop CS4, Photomerge

After spending about an hour and a half photographing the gargoyles and the views I decided it was time to head down. Once I started down the skinny spiral staircase, I started viewing the images and was very happy with the results.

Mona Lisa at the Louvre

2009-04-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

This posting isn't a great image of the Mona Lisa, but says a lot about the popularity of the famous portrait. Recently, I visited the Louvre and upon entering the room where the painting is displayed, I was surprised to see the large crowd gathered around the glass enclosed portrait. I wasn't interested in fighting the crowd. I found it more interesting to photograph the people vying for a closer look.

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. The work is owned by the Government of France and is on the wall in the Louvre in Paris, France with the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose expression is often described as enigmatic. The ambiguity of the sitter's expression, the monumentality of the half-figure composition, and the subtle modeling of forms and atmospheric illusionism were novel qualities that have contributed to the painting's continuing fascination. Few other works of art have been subject to as much scrutiny, study, mythologizing, and parody. (provided by Wikipedia)

Inside the Paris Opera House

2009-04-20T15:53:00.000-07:00

Gina's sister, Lisa is in town and the three of us went downtown to see some of the sites and wander into the many fashion stores. The ladies decided to go into the mega store, Galleries Lafayette while I decided to stay outside and wander around the area.

Not too far away I found the Paris Opera house and decided to go in and take a few photos.

The Paris Opera House is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. It contains levels beyond levels of cellars, fountains, chandeliers and even its own ghost! The history of this performance hall is dark and interesting, and spans from architecture to literature and music.

The cause for this new opera house actually stemmed from Napoleon III. When he was arriving to the premiere of a new singer with his wife, the royal procession was bombed by a group of dissenters. Over eighty people were killed, prompting Napoleon III to ask for an opera house with a covered side entrance where royalty could enter discreetly. When plans finally were made for the design of the opera house, over 200 entries were informally submitted, and 171 were chosen to be viewed. Charles Garnier received the commission after some deliberation. He was an unknown architect, but a stunning design and several court allies hand a hand in his success.

The House seats two thousand and has seventeen stories, taking up three acres of land. Seven of these are below the ground, and two contain pieces of the famous lake later depicted in Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. Work on this structure began in 1861 and ended fifteen years later. It cost over forty-seven million francs.

Nikon Announces New D-5000 DSLR with HD Video

2009-04-14T01:28:00.000-07:00

Today Nikon announced a new entry-level DSLR—the Nikon D-5000 (shown above; photos courtesy of Nikon), which includes the ability to shoot HD video (like the D90), but it also includes a new swivel Vari-angle screen on the back, along with “Subject Tracking autofocus which automatically locks onto a moving subject.” Plus, according to Nikon, “The D5000’s D-Movie Mode allows users the exciting ability to record HD movie clips (1280 x 720) at a cinematic 24 frames per second with sound.”

Although the big buzz will be about the video features (your video writes to an SD card), the camera itself is no slouch, at 12.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, 11-point auto focus, 19-scene modes, built-in self cleaning function, ISO up to 6400 (no word yet on noise levels), 4 fps continous shooting, blah, blah, blah—-you can read all tech nuts and bolts over at Nikon’s site (here’s the link). By the way, it lists for just $729 (body only), and it’s expected to ship in late April.

There is so much to see and do in Paris

2009-04-14T00:07:00.000-07:00

Paris is such a wonderful city in that it offers events and activities for everyone. If you're vacationing there just isn't enough time to take everything in. Even living here our to-do list remains long. While out walking the city during one of my Photo Tours I came across this sign pointing to many wonderful places.

Under the arches of the Paris Opera

2009-04-09T02:32:00.001-07:00

The Palais Garnier, also known as the Opéra de Paris or Opéra Garnier, but more commonly as the Paris Opéra, is a 2,200-seat opera house on the Place de l'Opéra in Paris, France. A grand landmark designed by Charles Garnier in the Neo-Baroque style, it is regarded as one of the architectural masterpieces of its time.

The building is located in the IXe arrondissement and is served by the metro station Opéra.

Photo Tours In Paris- The Movie

2009-04-03T05:07:00.001-07:00

Please take a look at the latest version of the photo montage of PhotoToursInParis.com

Video software by Animoto

Royalty-free music by PremiumBeat.com

Sky high view of Paris

2009-03-25T00:14:00.001-07:00

View of Paris from the observation deck of the Montparnasse Building. My first attempt using HDR software from PhotoMatrix. Not perfect, but kind of cool.

Notre Dame Silhouette

2009-03-21T02:18:00.001-07:00

I went down to Notre Dame to climb the 387 stairs to the top of the towers. I arrived early, about 9:15am to get in line and waited for the entrance to open at 10:00am. I was the third person in line, pulled out a book about Paris and read for awhile.

As it approached 10:00am, a person approached the entrance, unlocked the padlock to the door and then told the lady in front of me in French that the Notre Dame workers were on strike for the day. The Tower tour would not be open for the day.

I went out to the front of the cathedral with all the other hundreds of tourists and took photos of the ancient building. One unique composition I came up with was to shoot the gargoyles as a silhouette.

Paris Fashion Week Fall 2009 R-T-W

2009-03-17T03:22:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a fun week I had during Paris Fashion Week. I was asked by DossierJournal.com to cover the many designer fashion shows around Paris. They were late in finding me and couldn't provide photo credentials that would allow me inside the runway shows. They proposed I photograph the models, clothes, designers and people in the industry outside the venues.

I Googled the event, found the show schedules and planned my day. Not knowing what to expect outside each venue, I packed a lot of photo gear and off I went.

My first show was Balmain held at the Palace Vendome, home to The Ritz Hotel Paris. Outside the entrance was a swarm of photographers, professionals and tourist alike. Not knowing who was who or who I should be snapping photos of, I shot most of the people. Every now and then you knew a VIP had arrived as the pack of paparazzi rushed to get their cover image.

I quickly picked up the flow of the shows, I would photograph people as they entered the event and about 20 minutes later photograph them as they left the event. This would be my modus operandi for the week.

After Balmain, I walked by the Musee du Louvre, across the River Seine to the Les Beaux-Arts de Paris for the Rick Owens show. I saw a sign posted: Photographers/TV and behind it was a line of people with all types of cameras. I got in line with both cameras hanging from my shoulders, looked like I knew what I was doing and when they started letting us in, I walked right by the security guards (this was just a fluke, as I tried this at the next several events and was turned away as they checked my name against a very formal invitation list).

Once inside, I quickly set out to find a spot to sit/squat/stand on the photographer's bleacher, located directing at the end of the runway (you've seen the photos where the model is walking directly into the camera). Since I was last in line there wasn't much room left. I moved a big metal camera case and squeezed myself into a little spot just off center. Not thinking I would ever get into a show, I didn't bring my monopod for the low light shooting scenario. I just bumped up the ISO and opened up my 70-200mm to f/2.8 and hoped for the best. I did manage to get some shots I was pretty happy with.

That night while showing my wife, Gina the images she was getting excited as she kept seeing people she knew in the industry and couldn't believe I photographed them. I decided I needed to be more knowledgeable so I went to Style.com and viewed the images from last year's events and started committing to memory the faces to the captions.

The next day in the Tuileries was the Christian Dior show. This was a pretty good spot for photographers because it was wide open and you could see the attendees arriving, giving me amble photo opportunities.

From Dior I went back to the Palace Vendome to capture the Vivienne Westwood show. Once again I tried to get in, but was turned away. I was now one for three. I was able to secure a spot along a large window that looked into the show. Those of us, the wanna-be's would have limited visibility into the show. I was able to get a few photo of a couple of models through the dirty glass if they stood still long enough between the heads of the people sitting inside. The highlight of this show was model/actress/celebrity Pamela Anderson was strutting her stuff down the runway.

What was truly amazing was the chaos and frenzy that was created when Pamela left the show. I bet there were 50 photographers trying to get her photograph, me included. However, I felt I was about to be trampled so I bailed out of the moving ball of photographers and bodyguards.

The rest of the week went by very quickly as I usually photographed two shows daily, uploaded the images to my computer, edited and uploaded them to DossierJournal for their review and website posting.

I plan to work with DossierJournal and obtain the necessary credentials to get into future fashion shows in Paris or maybe even Milan or London.

Photo Shoot at the Musee du Louvre

2009-02-21T12:54:00.001-08:00

Below are image I took the other night while visiting the Musee du Louvre. I found a really cool software program that will pull images from another site and display them on a website or Blog. I wanted to share the photos and see if the technology really worked. I hope you enjoy.

(it may take a few moments for the images to load)

Randy Harris Photography is featured

2009-02-16T21:45:00.001-08:00

Randy Harris Photography is currently featured at PhotoIdentities.com

Montmartre and art are inseparable

2009-02-15T23:04:00.001-08:00

The steep butte of Montmartre has been associated with artists for 200 years. Today street painters thrive on a lively tourist trade, as travelers flock to this picturesque district, which in places still preserves the atmosphere of prewar Paris.

Artistic feel to the Eiffel Tower

2009-02-14T10:18:00.001-08:00

It was getting dark, I didn't have a tripod so I took advantage of the fact I was only getting blurry images. I set the camera to manual focus mode and put the Eiffel Tower slightly out of focus. I played around with different exposures I liked and this is what I came up with.

Wonderful foutain near Luxembourg Gardens

2009-02-11T00:23:00.001-08:00

During the day I saw this wonderful fountain, Fontaine des Quatre - Parties du Monde, and shot it with my Nikon D300 and the 50mm 1.8 (the only lenses I was carrying) and decided to come back later that evening with a tripod and shoot it at night.

New Website Design

2009-02-03T04:09:00.000-08:00

I recently updated my website, www.RandyHarrisPhoto.com with a new design using Flash.

I think it looks simple, loads quickly and most importantly shows off the important stuff, the photographs.

I hope you enjoy the site. If you have any suggestions or it needs an edit I missed, please leave your comments.

Thanks for stopping by.

Randy

Photo of the Day

2009-01-23T03:57:00.000-08:00

Here is an example of taking a boring image with gray sky and turning into something else. Like it or not, it's completely different from the original.

Before:

After:

The second image was converted in Photoshop CS4 into black and white and then using NIK's Color Effect Pro 3.0 Film Grain plug-in I added more grain to the image to make it appear older. Lastly, I used a FotoFrame Pro 3.1 to add the frame and texture to the photo.

Photos of the Day

2009-01-21T01:13:00.000-08:00

Today I ventured out, while Delaney was at school and Gina flew to Madrid for a meeting, to start photographing the many wonderful scenes Paris has to offer. I picked the area around the Trocadero figuring there would be photo ops with the Tower Eiffel in the background. Below are a few I came up with.

Nikon D300, ISO 400, f/2.8, 1/800, WB Auto
Lens 70-200mm f/2.8, with Monopod

Nikon D300, ISO 400, f/4.5, 1/250, WB Auto
Lens 70-200mm f/2.8, with Monopod

Nikon D300, ISO 400, f/4.5, 1/1000, WB Auto
Lens 70-200mm f/2.8, with Monopod

Photo of the Day

2009-01-20T13:03:00.001-08:00

This image of the Tower Eiffel was taken around noon and under bad lighting conditions. The sun was shining brightly on my left. I thought I'd try and take advantage of the lighting conditions and let the sun glare enter the frame (bottom left area). I liked the color image, but thought I could do more with the image. In photoshop I converted it into a black and white and then selectively blurred parts of the image.

Nikon D300, ISO 400, f/ 4.0, 1/5000, WB Auto

Photos of the Day

2009-01-05T00:48:00.000-08:00

First shots taken after arriving at our new home in Paris, France.

This shot was taken one block from our new apartment in Paris.
D2X, 100ISO, f/8.0, 5 seconds, Auto WB

Taken New Year's Eve just before midnight on the Pont de l'Alma

D300, 200 ISO, f/8.0, 7 seconds, Auto WB

Photo of the Day

2008-12-04T21:35:00.000-08:00

Homeless man shaving dry, using an old plastic razor.

Frankfurt, Germany

August, 2008

First Attempt Using Umbrella's and Speedlights

2008-12-02T07:40:00.001-08:00

After watching Nikon’s new A Hands-on Guide to Creative Lighting DVD and David Hobby’s Strobist Lighting Seminar DVD I set up my first photo shoot. I was able to find two willing participates to sit and listen to me talk to myself as I walked through the process of adjusting my aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to get me lighting ratio’s correct. One of the many things I learned from both DVD’s is that Shutter Speed controls the ambient light and Aperture controls the amount of flash hitting the sensor. With this in mind I set up my umbrellas and three Nikon SB-800’s and had some fun. Here are a couple of shots from the shoot.

Great Blog and Website Resources

2008-12-01T22:08:00.000-08:00

Some of the things I love about photography and the Internet is that there is so much to learn and there are so many great resource sites available. During my 10 years of photography work I've explored many different types of photography and found I enjoy all of them. Sometimes I feel I hold back on pursuing jobs or expanding my photography due to lack of confidence and knowledge. I'd hate to take a paying job and not live up to my clients expectations. However, over the past year, I've found a great number of blogs and websites that have been both inspirational and educational. My hat goes off to these artists for freely sharing their expertise and valuable time.

Below are a list of blogs and websites I read and find extremely useful. Some post new entries every day so I try to check them out daily.

General Photography

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/

http://www.moosenewsblog.com/

http://blogs.photopreneur.com/

http://www.interviewsbycrashtaylor.com/

http://www.laforetvisuals.com/blog/

http://www.scottkelby.com/

http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/

http://www.daveblackphotography.com/workshop/index.htm

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/

Sports

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/bestseatinthehouse/

http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_index.html

http://www.daveblackphotography.com/workshop/index.htm

Lighting

http://strobist.blogspot.com/

http://www.zarias.com/

http://www.daveblackphotography.com/workshop/index.htm

http://www.studiolighting.net/

Photoshop

http://www.scottkelby.com/

http://digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/

http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/

http://tv.adobe.com/#vi+f1475v1247

A Great Way To Give Back

2008-11-26T12:41:00.000-08:00

I think I've found a great way to give something back to those who have enriched my life. Every year my wife and I donate money, time and items to charity, not really knowing where the money goes or who benefits. I've recently got involved with a charity in Africa who's mission is to create sustainable development projects that lead to independence and community ownership.

One such project that www.LiftUpAfrica.org initiated and funded was to bring solar cooking to many African families. These modest solar cookers have been literally life changing occurrence for entire families. The benefits families are realizing are:

Cooking is cleaner with the stove - there is no smoke to breath in.
Saved time and lower kerosene consumption
Far fewer accidents around the fire
No longer need to find firewood
LiftUpAfrica is providing a means for families to help themselves change their life's.

Check out their website at www.LiftUpAfrica.org to review their mission and read about other life changing projects they've completed and have in the works.

I've made a donation to www.LiftUpAfrica.org that I know will make a life changing difference to impoverished African families or a vulnerable African child.

If you feel compelled to help and make a donation, please visit www.LiftUpAfrica.org. And because their board covers all administrative expenses, 100% of every dollar you donate to www.LiftUpAfrica.org goes directly to help African people life themselves out of poverty.

Photo of the Day

2008-11-24T21:35:00.001-08:00

Near Lenox, Massachusetts
October 2008

New Nikon Video: A Hands-On Guide to Creative Lighting

2008-11-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

A Hands-on Guide to Creative Lighting is hosted by award-winning National Geographic Traveler photographer, Bob Krist, with world-renowned photojournalist and lighting expert Joe McNally.

Subject matter and light are the heart of every photograph and discerning attention to both separates exceptional images from everyday pictures. Learning how to make light work for you with the power and versatility of the Nikon Creative Lighting System, featuring Nikon Speedlights delivers the ability to turn ordinary subjects into something special and elevate striking subjects into stunning works of art.

LEARN ABOUT...

Lighting fundamentals and techniques—in the studio and on location
Flash essentials
Direction, color and quality of light
Step-by-step placement of Speedlights within a scene
Creating an efficient portable Speedlight outfit
Overcoming the challenges of location lighting
And much more(Running time approximately 2-1/2 hours)

Check it out here: http://www.nikonmall.com/detail/NIK+11484

Vultures and the Cycle of Life

2008-11-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

While on safari at Londolozi in South Africa my wife and I got to experience something very few people get to witness.

It was getting late in the morning when our guide found a Cheetah guarding a young wildebeest it had killed the night before. The three of us drove to the area and found the Cheetah lying next to the lifeless Wildebeest. Our guide, Tom, thought it was unusual that the Cheetah hadn't hide the carcass away from other predators. In fact, the wildebeest was lying out in the open for all to see, especially the opportunistic vultures.

Tom thought that if the wildebeest was left out in the open for much longer vultures would see it from the sky, pay the Cheetah a visit and want their share of the prize. Tom said he couldn't guarantee vultures would find it, but if they did, they'd probably out number the single Cheetah and take the carcass from the original killer. He asked if we wanted to hang out for a while and see what events would unfold. We quickly replied, "yes of course".

This was one of the reasons we had hired a private guide. We wanted the option of hanging out, watching animals with no hurried agenda. We didn't want to be in a situation where we felt pressured to compromise our photographic desires against other people in the vehicle.

Tom parked the rig in the shade of a nearby tree and we scanned the cloudless skies for the large birds. Within ten minutes a single vulture saw the two animals lying in the open and started it's wide downward spiral to investigate. Now on the ground, the large bird walked as close to the dead wildebeest as the Cheetah would allow it. Each time the lone vulture walked too close, the Cheetah would rise and charge the eager bird only to have the vulture jump into the air safely away from the Cheetah. Finally, the Cheetah realized it wasn't a good idea to leave the deceased out for all to see and dragged it to the shady side of a small bush.

However, it was too late. While the Cheetah had been dragging the carcass to the shade, unbeknownst to us, vultures had been accumulating above our Range Rover. When we looked up we saw dozens of vultures circling and starting their descent.

Without a top on the rig, I removed the Nikon D2x and 200mm-400mm f4.0 from my tripod and hand held the camera while lying on my back stretched out on the bench seat. I could easily pick out a vulture coming in, focus and fire off many images before it was too close for autofocus to work. I would look up, find a new vulture and again fire off as many images as I could before it got too close. I probably did this for about a dozen vultures.

Now on the ground, inching their way closer to the dead wildebeest, the three dozen vultures simply out numbered the lone Cheetah. It had no choice but to walk away from its kill and food source. It couldn't risk the chance of getting hurt or being killed trying to defend its prey.

As soon as the Cheetah was away from the wildebeest the vultures jumped on top of the carcass and began their feeding frenzy. There was not enough room for all the vultures so they piled on top of one another trying to get their fill.

Within 15 minutes of watching and listening to these unattractive birds the only remains of the wildebeest were the bones of the skeleton.

It was an amazing event to be a part of...from the prediction of what usually happens out in the African bush to it actually happening, it was something I'll never forget.

Click to view more Images of African Wildlife

Exciting news for the family

2008-11-06T14:10:00.000-08:00

It's been in the works for a few months, but we're finally able to announce that my family and I are moving to Paris, France in late December, 2008. My wife, Gina, has accepted a position to lead her companies' Applications division within their IT group.

It's going to be a big adjustment for us moving to another country, but we're very excited. I think, Delaney, my 13 year old daughter is the most nervous as she will be attending a new school, have half her classes taught in French and will have to make new friends.

We visited Paris last month in an attempt to line up an apartment and have Delaney interview at several schools. The trip was very successful. With the help of a relocation company, A Good Start, we fell in love with the first apartment we saw. It's an old style apartment building in the 15th arrondissement right on the border of the 7th an not far from the 6th. Below is a view looking out the 5th floor living room windows.

We spent some time playing tourist after Delaney was accepted to the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel school.

Delaney in front of the Tower Eiffel. I'm looking forwarded to living in the City of Lights and exploring the many many photographic possibilities the city will offer. Look for new Paris photos in early 2009.

Nikon D300 Firmware Update

2008-11-03T20:02:00.001-08:00

Nikon has just announced a firmware update for the D300.

Click the link to view the upgrades and download the update.

Mac: http://tinyurl.com/64cpzs

PC: http://tinyurl.com/6rp5n7

What's improved?

*The Highlights playback option has been moved from Display Mode > Basic photo info > Highlights in the playback menu to Display mode > Detailed photo info > Highlights.
*The size and color of "Demo" displayed in the monitor with playback when No memory card? in the Custom Settings has been set to Enable Release have been modified.
*The range of settings available for ISO sensitivity settings > ISO sensitivity auto control > Minimum shutter speed in the shooting menu has been increased from 1/250 - 1s to 1/4000 - 1s.
*When shooting in hand-held live view mode and the frame is magnified prior to autofocusing, operation has been modified so that display returns to the magnified display rather then the full frame display.
*Images captured with Rotate tall, in the playback menu, set to On, are not automatically rotated for display immediately after capture (image review).
*A Copyright information has been added to the setup menu. When Copyright information is enabled, the copyright symbol ( © ) is shown on the LCD display, Shooting info menu.
*Recent settings can now be displayed in the place of My Menu.
*Custom Setting e3 Flash cntrl for built in flash ( e3 Optional flash when an optional Speedlight is mounted on the camera) can now be added to My Menu using the Add items > Custom setting menu > Bracketing/ flash.
*The degree of the High ISO NR setting can now be confirmed in the shooting info display while the High ISO NR setting item, in the shooting menu, is being applied.
Ankara, Riyadh, Kuwait, and Manama have been added to the Time zone options for the World time item in the setup menu.
*When a GPS device is used and no heading information is available, --.--° is now displayed for the Position / Heading option in the GPS item in the setup menu.
*When shooting in live view mode using Camera Control Pro 2 (ver. 2.2.0 or later) with a PC-E lens, the aperture setting can now be adjusted from the computer.
*Focus acquisition performance in dynamic-area AF mode has been improved.
*Focus acquisition performance with contrast-detect AF has been improved.
*Auto white balance performance has been improved.
*The fourth digit in seconds display for GPS latitude and longitude information is now rounded off rather than omitted.
*The current MB-D10 battery type setting can now be confirmed in the shooting menu display when R6/AA- size batteries are used with the Multi-Power Battery pack MB-D10.
*An issue that caused an increase in noise when shooting in [M] exposure mode at a shutter speed setting of bulb with the shutter held open for less than 8 seconds and Long exp. NR enabled has been resolved.
*An issue that prevented shutter release at the specified shutter speed when no operations were performed for 30 seconds in mirror up mode has been resolved.
*An issue that caused abnormal image display when Image review was set to On and the playback zoom in button was pressed immediately after shooting at the following settings has been resolved.
*Image quality: NEF (RAW) + JPEG
*NEF (RAW) recording: Lossless compressed or Compressed
*Image size: S or M
*When the Speedlight SB-800 was mounted on the camera with flash mode set to distance-priority manual (GN) mode, and the camera recovered from standby mode triggered by the auto meter off function, the distance information in the SB-800 changed. This issue has been resolved.

Photo of the Day

2008-08-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

July 7 - July 11 Dubai, United Arabic Emirates (UAE)

2008-08-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

The second leg of a long summer trip. The day after I returned from Alaska I left for a Dubai business trip. I was very excited to see Dubai as it promotes itself as a high-end glamour destination. The world's tallest building, the world's largest airport, the world's largest shopping mall, the world's only seven star hotel and the man-made world islands can all be found in Dubai.

I left Seattle at 12:55pm on Monday and checked in to the Grand Hyatt Dubai hotel at 11:00pm Tuesday evening. I had spent the entire time on the various airplanes and airline lounges working in Photoshop editing the over 3000 images from Alaska. I had stayed awake the entire trip so that I would be tired enough to sleep through the first night in Dubai. It worked. I woke up the next morning pretty refreshed and ready to explore the city.

I was traveling with a business associate, Jason. We made plans at the consigner's desk to spend the day traveling through the city on a double decker city tour bus ride and on a desert safari that evening. Upon exiting the hotel to walk to the bus pickup stop we were immediately hit with a wall of heat. At 9:00 that morning the temperature was already 96 degrees. Once aboard the bus we had our choice of seating, a section of the bus had air-conditioning, but you had to photograph through windows or you could sit upstairs towards the back without air-conditioning and have unobstructed views. I chose upstairs without the windows.

We listened through our head phones about the history of the city, why there were more construction sites and cranes than there are Starbucks, how Dubai earned it's reputation of a glamour destination and who occupied many of the large office buildings. Included in the tour was a boat cruise up Dubai Creek. The Creek, a natural sea-water inlet which cuts through the center of the city, is the historic focal point of life in Dubai. We were captivated by the color and bustle of the loading and unloading of dhows which still ply ancient trade routes to places as distant as India and East Africa. It looked as though there was no method to the madness. Piles and piles of boxes were stacked on one another with no apparent way to distinguish what went where and when. It was a unique trip and I'd recommend it.

That evening we were picked up by an Adventure companies driver to be taken out to the desert to start our safari. The safari included being driven in new Chevy Tahoe's across and over the endless supply of sand dunes. Our destination was a camp where camel rides were available and dinner would be served. We enjoyed the local food, the unlimited supply of red wine and beer, the belly dancer and the Hubblee Bubblee (shisha). Again, I would recommend this trip.

Unfortunately, the next day was work and we were tied up in meetings. However, we did have some time late that afternoon to relax next to one of the many luxurious pools and enjoy a couple of $9 dollar beers.

All in all, Dubai was an interesting place, the people were extremely friendly, I didn't have any problems communicating as most people spoke English and I'd like to go back if I ever have the chance.

Brooks Camp, Alaska - Katmai National Park, July 2 - 6, 2008

2008-07-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

Once again I ventured up to Alaska to photograph the large Brown Bears in Katmai National Park. Each year the bears go to the Brooks Camp area to gorge themselves on the migrating salmon in Brooks River, a mile long river that connects Naknek Lake and Brooks Lake. This was my third time at Brooks Camp photographing the bears. My first time there, back in 2000 I was shooting film in a Nikon N70, my second time was back in 2003 with the Nikon D100 and now I had the Nikon D2X and the D300. I was especially excited about this trip because I had cameras capable of shooting 8 frames per second.

Brooks Camp offers photographers, fly-fishermen, and tourists a unique opportunity to view Brown Bears and other wildlife up close. Within walking distance of the camp there are three viewing platforms; the upper falls platform where you can watch bears stand in the middle of the river, atop of Brooks Falls and catch salmon mid flight as they attempt to jump the falls to continue their migration. The platform has two levels and safely holds about 40 people. It is here that you try to capture the "shot" as the flying fish is about to enter the bear's mouth. This is where I knew having 8 frames per second would be extremely beneficial.

Another viewing platform is located just below the upper falls platform and in fact they are connected via an elevated sky bridge. This acts as both a safety barrier for the people and it serves to keep people out of the bear's environment. From this vantage point you can see more of the river in both directions.

The third viewing area is the lower platform across the river from Brooks Camp. It's situated so that you can see bears as they roam around the mouth of Brooks River, in the pools of water below the platform and out in the open grassland area. This platform offers you the greatest viewing range to see the bears.

Ninety nine percent of all the people who visit Brooks Camp use the platforms to view the bears. The other one percent put on a pair of fly-fishing chest waders and walk up and down the banks of Brooks River looking for bears. Wearing chest waders enables you to walk through trails covered in mud and water, tall wet grass without getting wet and it allows you to enter and cross the Brooks River when needed. Getting off the viewing platforms and venturing out into bear country opens up a much bigger landscape to view and photograph the bears. You're view is not limited from what you can see from the platforms. If you don't like the background you can simply walk to another location. Another bonus from walking around is that you're shooting at bear level; you're not shooting down on the bears. Of course, now that you're out in the wild walking around in bear country you must constantly be watching over your shoulder looking for bears approaching.

The general rule of thumb around the area is to keep your distance from the bears to at least 100 yards. The bears have one thing on their mind and that is salmon. They need to catch and eat as many protein rich salmon as possible between July and September. If left alone and not bothered, the bears mind their own business and just walk by their human intruders. This same philosophy runs true out on the river. In fact, in the 50 odd years the camp has been operating not a single person has ever been attacked or injured by a bear.

This trip proved a little different from my previous two visits. The salmon runs typically starts sometime in late June early July, but this year the salmon were late. There were salmon in the river and a few big schools of salmon had gone through the system, but the thousands and thousands of salmon typical at this time of year were missing. Consequently, there were fewer bears along the river banks than normal and the bears looked lost at the falls. In the four days I was there, I didn't see a single salmon jump. The bears would stand on top of the falls and stare at the pool of water below them waiting for flying salmon. They stood patiently for 20 minutes or longer waiting, but eventually gave up and moved on.

The lack of salmon and bear proved disappointing. Shooting at 8 frames per second from the upper viewing platform while salmon met up with hungry bears mid air would have to wait for another year. The bears we did see were mostly down by the lower falls, walking along the shores of Naknek Lake and a few could be found walking along the banks of Brooks River. In years past, the big male bears tend to dominate the upper part of the river with the biggest of the males intimidating the younger ones for the best spot atop of Brooks Falls. Along the lower river you’d find the sows and their cubs. The sows are very protective of their young cubs. They get nervous if any male, big or small, gets near.

Although the salmon weren’t jumping too much, I was happy with the images I did capture. I think any time you can get close to Brown Bears, become part of their environment and record a moment of their time is special.

If you plan to visit the Brooks Camp area, here are my recommendations:

To get there:

Seattle – Anchorage – King Salmon (commercial flights)
King Salmon – Brooks Camp (operated by Katmailand)

Where to stay:
Cabins: operated by Katmailand ( usually book out a year in advance or more)
Campground – Operated by the National Park Service (you can book a reservation only up to six month before your visit)

Electrical Needs for Digital Cameras and Laptops:
The mess hall at Brooks Camp runs on a generator and has electrical outlets. You’ll find many of the outlets recharging batteries. I took a power strip so I could recharge my digital camera batteries and laptop at the same time. This way I only needed one outlet to satisfy all my electrical needs.

Nikon D300 Shooting at 8 Frames per Second

2008-06-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

The Nikon D300 advertises that it can shoot up to 8 frames per second when the MB-D10 is attached. What's not advertised and I later found while searching the Internet is that for the camera to shoot up to 8 frames per second you need the EN-EL4a battery inside the MB-D10 instead of the EN-EL3e. The EN- EL4e is a bigger battery, costs more than the EN-EL3e and requires its own battery charger. You’ll also need the new battery chamber cover, BL-3. Fortunately for me, I had an extra EN-EL4e in my possession as I used it as a backup battery for my Nikon D2X. You can also get 8 frames per second by using the AA battery (8 batteries) adaptor that comes with the MB-D10. I've read reports that some photographers are getting up to 1000 shots with the AA batteries and it's much less expensive that buying the additional EN-EL4e and EN-EL4e battery charger.

First Use and Review of the Nikon D300

2008-06-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

As a longtime user of Nikon digital cameras I just purchased and used the D300 for the first time. I was very excited about using the camera as I had read great reviews about the camera and its enhanced capabilities. I've owned and used the D100, D200 and the D2X.

I was in southern California on business and had some time to photograph surfers off Huntington Beach just before sunset. I positioned myself on the beach so I could either shoot surfers with the golden light covering them or I could shoot into the sun with the surfers and waves backlit. I was using the Nikon 200-400 f4.0 lens mounted on a tripod.

I was eager to use the new Dynamic-area focusing feature with the options of 9, 21 or 51 focusing points. I also wanted to try the Dynamic-area focusing with the 3D-tracking feature and see how it followed the surfers. And, I wanted to experiment with the much improved higher ISO settings.

Right off the bat, I was impressed how fast the camera focused and stayed on the surfers using the Dynamic-area selection with 51 points. When I tried to use the 3D-tracking, the focusing sensors were constantly changing from the surfer to the moving waves. I’m not sure if this type of subject is goof for the 3D-tracking. Looking through the 3 inch LCD screen and zooming in, I could see my photos were in focus and sharp. Equally impressive was how well the camera captured the exposure. With the water reflecting the light, sometimes camera sensors are tricked into thinking the light is brighter than it really is. I'd have to say the exposures looked good on the histogram. I started out using an ISO of 400 and kept moving it up as the sun continued to set. I was trying to keep my shutter speed over 1/1000 and I wanted to see how much noise or how little noise would be in the photos at higher ISO’s.

I was very excited with my first shoot with the Nikon D300. I felt the auto focusing system worked great, the images were properly exposed and I felt the noise was minimal up to 1600. I’ll continue to play with different settings before my next big photo shoot, the big Brown Bears of Katmai National Park in July 2008.

D300, 200-400mm, 1/1250 at f4.0, ISO 400

D300, 200-400mm, 1/800 at f4.0, ISO 400

D300, 200-400, 1/2000 at f4.0, ISO 400

D300, 200-400mm, 1/640 at F5.6, ISO 800

Virtual Swimsuit Photographer

2008-04-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

Taco Bell gives you the opportunity to shoot swimsuit photos for SI. Go ahead and see for yourself why it’s so difficult (here).

Free Version of Photoshop

2008-03-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Adobe launches a free web based photo editor Photoshop Express (here).

Creating Videos from our Photographs

2008-01-17T15:45:00.001-08:00

For all of you who like to turn your photographs into slide shows presentations using the various slide show software applications, I’d like to present an application that very quickly and easily turns your photographs into MTV like presentations. This web based program will automatically generate a Video for you with various background layers and multiple transitions from image to image. If you don’t like the Video, just click a button and a new version will be created. The company http://www.animoto.com/located in New York City not only creates the Videos, but they allow you to upload your Videos to social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook and you can share your Video on Video Sharing sites like http://www.youtube.com/and http://www.viddango.com/. I've posted two examples of Videos I have done. After several remixes I like these versions:

New York City

AND

Greg and Vikki's Wedding

Hey, Nikon Lovers and Haters

2007-11-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

In August, the new Nikon D3 was officially announced and sales are to begin in November. For the past three or four months, a select group of photographers have had access to the Nikon D3. One such person, famed photographer Dave Black has been using the Nikon D3 in his work and has posted his findings on his website. Dave’s passion has taken him around the world photographing, among other things, 12 Olympic Games, PGA Golf, NFL and NCAA Football as well as teaching and giving workshops. Not only is Dave a great photographer, but he gives so much back to the photographic community through his monthly website postings, "On The Road” and “Workshop at the Ranch. The November postings are dedicated to his Nikon D3 reviews, check them out, Workshop at the Ranch, “New Nikon D3” and On the Road, “Traveling with the New Nikon D3”. Some of the words Dave uses in his reviews are, REMARKABLE, INCREDIBLE, UNBELIEAVALBE. If you’re anything like me you’ll be out in the garage trying to figure out what you can sell on eBay to help pay for this revolutionary camera.

African Photo Safari - Part 1 of 3

2007-10-18T21:41:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try and write a magazine article about the African Photo Safari my wife, Gina, and I took last summer. I'm not done, but I wanted to publish what I've written so far. This is Part 1 of 3 parts. I'm open to your comments and suggetions. Thanks, Randy

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I stood there, watching luggage come up the ramp from the dark well beneath the baggage claim area and as it reached the top of the ramp, each bag turned and slid down onto the stainless steel luggage carousel. My yellow North Face bag had yet to appear. As each minute passed with no sign of my bag I started to tell myself to remain calm, that there was still luggage coming up the chute, but I couldn’t help from scanning the area for the British Airlines baggage counter. I started to come to terms that I would have to go out on our African photo safari without my bag of clothes and my tripod. I didn’t care about the clothes. My tripod was important to the trip, but wouldn’t doom the success of the safari if it didn’t appear. With all my other camera gear, laptop and electrical gadgets packed in our two carry on bags, I had what I needed to capture most of the images I had imagined. I looked across the carousel at my wife, Gina; I could tell she was nervous, nervous that I would be disappointed and upset that our trip would get off to a poor start. Finally, after watching black bag after black bag come up and be rescued by their rightful owner, I saw a glimpse of yellow, then more yellow with the bold black letters, The North Face. Now smiling with all our bags, nothing could stop us from having the trip of a life time.

As a photographer, Africa had always been on my long list of places I had to see and photograph. For years, I’d admired the photographic work of other photographers and always told myself I wanted to create my own works of art. This is a story of our travels and the things I learned while traveling with loads of photographic equipment.

Our trip to southern Africa had begun almost 18 months prior to our arrival into Johannesburg. I had searched the Internet for travel companies that specialized in putting together photo safaris. I wrote emails to about a half dozen companies with my initial requirements, but only one company responded with something other than a canned auto response. Katherine, at Rhino Africa, wrote back to me in detail about all the possibilities. She answered all my questions and concerns about animal viewing, accommodations, guides, travel and our budget. Finally, after many emails going between Cape Town, South African and Bellevue, Washington, our itinerary was set. We would visit three game reserves, two in Botswana and one South Africa. She recommended Camp Moremi in the Okavango Delta and the Savute Safari Camp in Chobe National Park. In South Africa she suggested we end our trip at Londolozi, located in the Sabi Sands area of Kruger National Park. We were told all three places were special, but different from one another. We would get a much broader experience while seeing the different landscapes, varied animals and meet more people.

After spending the night at a hotel next to the Johannesburg OR Tambo International Airport, early the next morning we flew to Maun, Botswana. Maun is used as a hub for the thousands of tourist who visit the many game reserves in and around the Okavango Delta area. Once we cleared Botswana immigration and retrieved our two pieces of checked luggage, we were cheerfully greeted by representatives of Desert and Delta (owners of Camp Moremi and Savute Safari Camp). They gathered our bags and escorted us out to the tarmac where we met the pilot of our small Cessna C-206. He would be flying us over the Delta for our quick 25 minute flight to Camp Moremi. As the plane leveled out at 3000 feet, we bumped, dipped and jumped along the warm thermal air. My eyes were glued to the colorful landscape below us. With an abundant amount of water in the channels of the Delta I could easily see trails cut through the standing reeds and algae formed by hippopotamus and elephants. Before we knew it, we were descending and approaching the air strip. We landed smoothly on the air strip made up of crushed rock and packed dirt. We made it; we were finally out in the African bush.

Waiting for us was a well dressed young man wearing khaki’s and a matching shirt with the Desert and Delta logo embroided in the upper left hand corner of his shirt. He introduced himself as “Lucky” and he would be our private guide for our two nights in the Delta. He grabbed our bags and placed them in the back row of seats of our extended Toyota Land Cruiser and off we went to camp. On the short ride to Camp Moremi, Lucky pointed out three female lions lying and resting atop a termite hill about 40 yards off the road. I was eager to break out the cameras and start shooting. I didn’t mind that the sun was almost straight up in the sky providing harsh light on our meat eating subjects. After a few minutes of shooting the lions and just watching them we made our way to the entrance of Camp Moremi. Situated on the stunning Xakanaxa Lagoon, Camp Moremi is in the eastern part of the Okavango Delta, within the Moremi Game Reserve. Camp Moremi accommodates only 22 safari guests in beautifully furnished East African style safari tents with private facilities. We were greeted by the General Managers, Luance and Kirsty, a husband and wife team. They welcomed us with refreshingly cold wash clothes to take away the African dust from our hands and face. Our bags were whisked away and we were escorted to the cabana area for a late brunch and orientation.

Once we finished our brunch we were shown to our room, room number 6. It was a nice comfortable tent on an elevated platform. The walls and roof were made up of heavy canvas. We had two twin beds, two night stands, an armoir, desk, table, lamps and power outlets. The bathroom was detached and across the outside deck. The bathroom was big and roomy with a big double walk in shower. The appealing thing about the bathroom was the outside wall; the upper half was made of mesh screen. You could easily hear the sounds of crickets and hippos calling out into the night as you showered. It was a wonderful sensation. It made you feel very close to nature and part of the bush. And of course it was very private.

Moremi Game Reserve supports a diverse habitat and animal population. In the four game drives we took in the Moremi Game Reserve we observed and photographed Elephant, Lion, African Buffalo, Giraffe, Impala, Waterbuck, Hippopotamus, Crocodile, Zebra and many types of birds. The landscape will filled with Acacia and Mopane trees. Parts were thick with foliage and other parts were open grass lands. Our open Land Cruisers traveled over the terrain on well established roads made up of sand. Before we left on our first game drive we sat with Lucky and explained to him the kind of images I had envisioned. I knew the right situations would have to unfold, but at least I had an idea of what I wanted to capture. Within minutes of leaving camp on our first afternoon game drive, Lucky pointed out three giraffe walking through the brush. Soon, a herd of Impala’s were casually eating foliage next to the road presenting themselves as wonderful photographic models. Further up the road we were photographing Elephants and Africa Buffalo. Things picked up and started to get interesting very quick. The Lions we saw earlier in the day were now present and stalking the Buffalo. Lucky didn’t think they would attack the Buffalo during the remaining hour and a half of day light. He said most attacks happen during the hours of darkness. As the Buffalo continued their grazing and wandering through the three foot high grass, they kicked up lots of dust. The air around the Buffalo looked like fog. I asked Lucky to move our Land Cruiser across the field so that I could shoot into the sun and dust filled air. I wanted to try and capture the Buffalo as silhouettes while standing in the orange/yellow lite dust. As we moved our Land Cruise into position, Buffalo from across the field started to run and within moments we saw three lions chasing the Buffalo. Before we could stop and raise a camera lens, it was over; the three Lions had brought down a single Buffalo. All we could see from our position was a single Buffalo leg and hoof sticking straight up in the air.

We just witnessed a Lion kill which we were told was pretty rare to see. We repositioned our Land Cruiser so that we were only 30 feet from the unlucky Buffalo and hungry Lions. We watched, along with seven other 4x4 vehicles, the Lions tear into the Buffalo. This would become a three day meal for them. As the sun set we made our short ride back to camp. What a great first afternoon. Perhaps having “Lucky” as our guide was a sign we were going to have a fantastic trip.

Each night we met up with the other camp guests for cocktails and dinner in the elevated Moremi Tree Lodge. Giant Ebony trees shade the Tree Lodge which is used as the central point of the camp and houses the luxurious main lounge, a wildlife reference library, dining room and cocktail bar. Over a scotch and soda we met and shared the day’s events with guests from Italy, Germany, Australia and Phoenix, Arizona. The camp staff had formed a volunteer choir and each evening they came out to sing their “greetings” and announce the meal for the night. Our meals were first class. There would be no need to break out the Imodium. After dinner and sharing travel and safari stories we adjourned outside, to the bottom of the stairs to the chairs surrounding the fire pit. There, we continued to enjoy South African red wine, coffee or any other after dinner drink we could imagine. By the nights end we had made new friends from distant parts of the world.

We left Camp Moremi after two nights with sadness. In that short period of time we had bonded not only with Lucky, but with the camp’s staff and Kirsty and Luance. However, they assured us we would enjoy our next Lodge, the Savute Safari Camp, in the Chobe National Park. Lucky drove us to the airstrip. We had to get there about 15 minutes early as we would act as the runway lookout. It was our job to inspect the edge of the forest nearest the runway. We were on the lookout for any animals that might wander onto the airstrip as the plane approached. If we did see any animals we had to chase them away with the Land Cruiser. Fortunately, the plane landed safely and without incident. Our bags were quickly loaded; we said our good byes to Lucky and we were airborne again.

Fun Photography Game

2007-10-12T09:22:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, Chase Jarvis, made me aware of a fun Photography Game on the web. Try it, it's fun.

Randy

Welcome to the new website design

2007-10-11T08:50:00.001-07:00

Hello and welcome to the new website design of Randy Harris Photography. The site is still under construction with more images and features being added everyday. Let me know what you think of the design, colors, images, etc.

Thanks, Randy

Gear I Use

2006-09-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

I've been a long time Nikon user. Over the years I've used the N70, F100, D100 and D200. Currently in my bag you'll find:

Full Equipment List

Camera Bodies

Nikon D300

Nikon D2X

Nikon Lenses

AF-S VR Zoom NIKKOR 200-400mm f/4 IF-ED

AF-S VR Zoom NIKKOR 70-200mm f/2.8G IF-ED

AF Zoom NIKKOR 24-85mm f/2.8-4.0D IF

AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm f.2.8G ED

AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D

AF Zoom NIKKOR 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5D IF-ED

Nikon Flashes

SB-800 AF Speedlight (3)

Camera Accessories

ThinkTank Airport Security v2.0 Roller Bag

Benro Tripod and Benro Monopod

About Me

2006-09-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

I have been a long time fan of photography. You can tell by my vast portfolio of subjects. Whether I'm crawling throught the brush after an animal or setting up light stands and strobes, I enjoy the process of capturing the perfect shot. I began my pursuit of a career in photography in early 1998. My travels have taken me all over the world through North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.

WIth homes in Bellevue, Washington and Paris, France, I'm able to get out and pursue any opportunity that comes up.

I'm currently living in Paris for an extended stay with my wife and daughter.

Projects and Awards:

2006 Art Wolfe Environmental Photography Invitational Exhibit
2005 Washington State Heart Gallery Project
2005 Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Exhibit
2004 Nature's Best Magazine International Grand Prize winner of their annual photo contest.
2003 Ritz Camera's National Grand Prize winner of their annual photo contest.