Gone Campin’

As I write this post I am getting ready to head off to bed so I can wake up bright and early for a camping trip. My buddy Paul is having his birthday so all the guys are camping out in Glen Rose at Dino Park for the weekend. Not sure if I will have a chance to take many pictures but I will do my best! Hopefully I’ll get to see some dinosaur tracks, and maybe some dramatic clouds to frame them with

TED Talks

Have you checked out the TED Talks section yet? If you have some time, head over there and get comfortable. TED is an incredible organization with some of the brightest thinkers and creators and dreamers around, and they are all giving the talks of their lives to a crowd full of people at the top of their fields. If you can’t make up your mind, I recommend two to start out – Jill Bolte Taylor’s talk is my all time favorite TED video. She is a brain researcher and she actually got to study herself while she was having a stroke! Not by choice of course, but it’s a really eye opening talk on the difference between right brain and left brain thinking. This weekend I plan on shutting my left brain down and leaving it at home! Another is Taryn Simon’s talk on “Photographing Secret Sights.” She spends months trying to get behind closed doors as different places to photograph things that most people never see, or even knew existed. Very interesting. If you get hooked on TED like I have, you won’t get much done this weekend. Cheers!

Snotty Nosed Elephant Seals at San Simeon

These images are near and dear to my heart. They was taken during the trip to California that got me hooked on photography. Now, I was already into photography at this point. I was an avid hobbyist and was searching for clients, but this trip sealed (pun intended) the deal. We were visiting my wife’s side of the family for her cousin Chelsey’s wedding and we made it out there a few days early to help prepare. They live in San Luis Obispo and it is absolutely gorgeous there! One day, my sister-in-laws boyfriend (now husband) Noah and I (are you confused yet?) decided to take off for an afternoon and go explore. We headed north and had to choose between seeing potential Elephant Seals, or paying to go see a definite Hearst Castle. We decided on the seals and it was a great choice! We got to the beach and there were literally hundreds upon hundreds of seals lounging on the shore! While I don’t condone this kind of behavior, we immediately climbed down to the beach, past the sign that said “Do not approach seals, federal fines up to somethin somethin.” In my experience, sometimes the best images involve a little rule breaking. We were very cautious to get a feel for how close the seals wanted us to get, and we figured out quickly that their bubble was about three feet. I took about 300 some odd photo’s before we decided we had better leave (some guy started yelling at us saying we would get in trouble). Here are the images that started it all

My favorite of the bunch

This girl might of had a cold, not sure

The moment I knew I might be too close…

The 3 foot rule, give or take