journal
Most of my friends and family keep wondering why I deliberately ruin my photos shooting in Black and White. After all, the real world is in color. And the pictures I used to take were in color, and beautiful. Why change?
Read MoreThird day of my trip in Oregon. This time I drive to Wasco County and the Cottonwood Canyon in the high desert, stopping first by some spots in the Columbia Gorge like the Vista House and Multnomah Falls.
Read MoreThis was my second visit to Death Valley in 2017, and the second time I didn't get to do as much as I wanted to do there.
Read MoreLuna and I walking on a frozen Trillium Lake, in Oregon.
Yesterday, I found myself thinking about an essay from *"Why people photograph"* by Robert Adams. The piece was about Paul Strand and how, according to Adams, he never achieved the excellence he showed previously after he moved to France, where he lived for more than 25 years.
Read MoreSecond episode of this series, where I go back to Oregon and visit some of my favorite spots.
This time, I go to the coast: Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Fort Stevens State Park and Astoria.
Read MoreThere, I said it. Social media isn't the source of our problems, but rather a reflection or amplification of them.
Read MoreToday's video is a bit different. And rather long. I go through two rolls of film from my recent trip to Oregon and edit the 24 shots in Lightroom.
Read MoreFirst video of my short trip to Oregon a few weeks ago. I was too tired to do much after several hours of travel, but I still managed to do a quick trip to the Columbia River Gorge and visit a waterfall.
Read More
This is a quick tip for those who, like me, can't wait to see the images on that negative we just developed.
Once you've seen a few negatives, you get a good understanding of how the photo will look, but there's nothing like seeing the positive version of the image.
I use my phone to get a quick sneak peek, this is how I do it.
Read MoreWinter is over here in the Midwest. Sure, it's still cold (it went down to 20F this last night), but the white and snowy landscapes are gone for good, I'm afraid.
In this video, I drove to Michigan City at the shore of Lake Michigan in an attempt to capture the last of winter. I found heavenly conditions for photography and I made some of my favorite images here.
Read More
The faster, the better. Or so it seems these days.
A few days ago, I was struck by a photographer telling people that in order to learn they should go out every day and shoot as much as they can. Then, they'd have to go through those few hundred photos before the day is over and select 1 or 2. Next day, repeat.
What this photographer seems to be missing is that photography is much more than taking a picture.
Read MoreIn this episode of the American Road Trip, I visit one of the most beautiful places I've seen in the US: the Alabama Hills.
Read MoreI was supposed to be in Tennessee this week. Or in the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. Those were my two destinations for March. At the end, I decided to stay home.
I’ve been shooting a lot lately. I thought I wouldn’t for a while after the road trip, but the winter here in Northern Indiana has been beautiful, and then I went to Chicago and Portland where I put almost 1,000 miles on the rental car in just 4 days.
So I decided to take a break from making images. It’s been 11 days since I took my last photo with the Bronica; it feels a bit weird but I don’t have that rush I usually have. Not yet. I think it was a necessary break.
I’m still working hard on my photography, just everything that isn’t using the camera: developing film from Portland, writing on the blog, editing videos for my YouTube channel, uploading stock photos and pitching some editorial work. I’ve also been reading some books and playing the piano, not only because I like it but also as an attempt to feed the creativity.
My next photography trip is planned and almost fully booked, but it won’t happen for another month. I know that I will feel that rush to get out before that, but for now, I’m letting the camera rest for a bit.
Third and last day in Chicago, and I had a sunrise mission: take a long exposure of downtown Chicago. I'd tried the days before but I didn't feel like I actually had gotten it so this time I went a bit farther north.
I loved this thing. I sold it. I don't miss it.
This is one of the questions I get asked the most.
My short, quick, TL;DR... answer is always the same: get the camera you enjoy shooting with the most.
Keep reading if you want to hear me out as I go deeper into what I think you should consider when choosing a new camera.
Read Morea6500 with the beautiful kit lens
I apologize in advance for this Saturday morning rant
Is it me or it feels like everyone is freaking out about the new Sony A7III?
As the former owner of an A7II and a current user of a Sony a6500, I was really interested in seeing what they'd come up with for this new generation of cameras. I'm overwhelmed about the reaction to this camera and underwhelmed about the camera itself.
Read More
I'd been wanting to write this book for a long time, but I always found an excuse to put it off. Now that I don't live in Portland anymore, it seemed like the perfect time to do so.
In "Examples of the PNW", I showcase 15 of my favorite images I made during my time in the Pacific Northwest. I tell the story behind them, how I made them, I give some advice about the location, and I talk about the post-processing involved.
I also thought that it'd be the perfect way to say thank you to the subscribers of my (also new) monthly newsletter. I intend to make this newsletter the link between this website and the people interested in my work, something I can control completely unlike social networks or other websites.
So if you are interested in getting this book (and many more to come in the future), or in signing up for a monthly newsletter about my work and much more, please follow this link.
Thanks for your support!
As I've mentioned before, the week we spent in Palm Springs was a lazy one. I was planning on going to Anza Borrego (didn't happen) and spend at least a full day and night at Joshua Tree National Park.
At the end, I only spent a few hours in the park, and that was a mistake that I still regret today. Definitely somewhere marked in red on my list of places I "must-go-back-to".
With very little time, I spent most of it driving through the park and trying to grasp what it had to offer. I did walk through a Cactus Garden and went on a tiny hike to a nearby arch, but that's nothing in such a vast land.
This video showcases my two sunsets in the park and some photos I took over there. Hope you enjoy it!
I'm back from Portland. I had a blast visiting some of my favorite places once again: I drove over 800 miles in 3 days! But while doing so, I couldn't stop thinking about how bad that was for my photography and how different it is back here in the Midwest, where my choice of location is much more limited.
I must admit, I'd gotten used to have a million beautiful landscapes to photograph within a couple hour drive. I took it for granted.
I'm experiencing the opposite situation here in our temporary residence in the Midwest: the hundreds of miles of wilderness have been replaced with a few small city parks, and the (very limited) shoreline of one of the big lakes has taken the place of the vast ocean.
It might seem unintuitive at first, but I think this change has been really good for my photography.
This past week in Portland reminded me of most of my time there: jumping from one location to another, always struggling to choose just one. This might sound like a good problem to have, and it really is, but I've come to the realization that having some constraints can be really good.
Here in the Midwest, having limited locations has had a positive impact on me in a few ways:
Amazing places are awesome for any photographer. But living in more limited places shouldn't have to mean fewer opportunities to make images, and most importantly, it doesn't mean lower quality images.
Compilation of photos and videos from our 3 days in Palm Springs, in Southern California. Photos were taken with pretty much every camera I have, film and digital.
