REFINING MY CRAFT

PART TWO

I came home from my first trip abroad with hundreds of rolls of film. It was such a joy to finally get them processed and look over the images for the first time. There were some surprises and some disappointments but overall, I was filled with satisfaction. 

Once I had them printed and in a portfolio, I couldn’t stop myself from showing them to anyone and everyone who would lend me their eyes. I put together a slideshow and showed it to friends, family, and local schools. These processes of editing, developing, and sharing, I discovered, were bringing me just as much fulfillment as traveling and shooting had. 

My next season of photography hinged around the question, What photographic path do I want to follow? Finding a single direction for my work, I realized, would help me develop my skills and grow as an artist.

FINDING MY PATH

During this period of reflection, I had the opportunity to meet Steve McCurry who is a renowned National Geographic photographer. Travel magazine photography was one of the two paths I was considering, but interestingly, Steve’s words inadvertently nudged me away from editorial work.

As he spoke about his life and work as a photographer, he said, “A still photograph is something which you can always go back to. You can put it on your wall and look at it again and again. It burns into your psyche and becomes ingrained into your mind. A powerful photograph becomes iconic of a time and place.”

This really stood out to me. I realized that when I listened to my heart, the type of photographs I wanted to make were the kind that people would want to hang on their walls and enjoy for a long time - not just the kind they see while flipping through a magazine.

Artistic photography also gave me more freedom to express my own style and ideas. After nine months of contemplation, I finally made a resolute decision to focus on landscape photography.  

SERENITY

Fairly soon after, I could see that my work was getting stronger. One evening, I was photographing at the beach while the sun was setting. As the light levels got lower and lower, my exposure needed to be longer to compensate. Finally, my light meter told me that I needed to open my shutter for 4 minutes. At the time, that seemed crazy to me but I did it anyway.

When I got my film back a week later I was thrilled by the smooth and peaceful aesthetic that the long exposure had created. It was interpretive. The waves looked different than they had in real life, but somehow they were truer to the feeling of that moment.

The image, Serenity, became the second pivotal picture in my photographic journey. From it, I learned to see past the objects in front of me and envision a greater potential. It also helped me narrow my path. I became primarily focused on long exposure landscape photography that was more suggestive and interpretive.

TIME

A year later, my wife, Rebecca, and I moved to La Jolla. I had been offered a role as an artist represented by a fine art gallery that would begin my professional career. At this point, I was consistently producing photographs that were beautiful to look at, but my time in La Jolla would teach me how to bring new depth into my work.

Rebecca and I spent our first day in town roaming the streets and shoreline and eventually ended up at Scripps Pier. Standing under the dynamic, torii-like arches for the first time, I knew immediately how I wanted to photograph it.

I returned that night at sunset and eagerly shot several rolls of film on my specialized, large format panoramic camera. Looking through the processed images the next day, I was disappointed. None of the images lived up to the vision I had in my mind.

This was still early on in my photographic path, and I didn’t often return to the same subject or composition over and over. Instead, I typically bounced from one subject to the next, accepting whatever images I got.

But this pier was different. I knew there was a great shot there - I just had to be patient and persevere. I returned to Scripps Pier for 18 sunsets in a row before I finally captured an image that inspired me.

That image, Time, is the third pivotal image in my photographic journey because it moved me to evolve my approach. Through it, I realized that the key to dynamic and compelling photography is delving more deeply into the process, and forming a greater relationship to the subject. 

DEPTH AND BEAUTY

While living in La Jolla, I shot a 3 mile stretch of coast between Scripps Pier and Windansea more than 200 days a year for 4 years. I revisited the same subjects again and again - finding new life in familiar compositions. Over time, that coast began to change me and my work.

My time photographing in the field became a meditation. I stopped going out everyday with the intention of bringing back the perfect shot. Instead, I would sit by the ocean, listen to the sea and settle my mind. Whether or not I pulled my camera from its bag depended on whether or not I found inspiration.

From this newfound state, I saw my work deepen and grow. It had more soul and spirit coming through. I was no longer simply making “eye candy”, I was making emotional works that came from the heart.

I learned what Eliot Porter meant when he said, “The essential quality of a photograph is the emotional impact that it carries, which is a measure of the author’s success in translating into photographic terms his own emotional response to the subject.”


Discovering this was like discovering the secret key to dynamic and compelling work. I learned what inspires my soul and fuels my passion. To seek balance and beauty externally, I needed to find it internally. My artistic growth and personal growth are now intertwined.

My latest collections are focused on peace, beauty, depth and mood. I’m constantly refining the collections to be stronger, more expressive and full of heart. In turn, I believe, my photographs have a better ability to connect in meaningful ways with the viewer.