You must delete the work you are most proud of

"Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings” - Stephen King

As photographers, we need to know if our images make us feel the way we feel because of their composition, light, subject, atmosphere... or if it's our memories of making them that are responsible instead. Because if it's the latter, if it's the context only us have as the makers, as the ones who were there, then no one else is going to feel the same way towards those images.

Stick and mountains, Lago di Garda

Lago di Garda, Italy, November 2019.

I discovered this place by accident. I was supposed to spend a week in a small town in Austria, but some early snow made me change my plans. I thought it'd be better if I headed south to Italy a few days earlier than anticipated, to avoid driving on rough roads with my car and its summer tires. I had to find a place, though, and that's when I saw this lake just at the other side of the border.

I didn't really know much about it, but that was about to change... quickly. The lake was hidden most of the time while I was approaching it, but all of a sudden, it revealed itself. What a beautiful sight that was! I couldn't believe I had stumbled upon a place like that. How could have I missed this?

I took advantage of that week at the shore of Lago di Garda, and made plenty of images that are still today some of my favorites ever.

I've never been so happy about a sudden change of plans like this time.

Interview with "Cómete el Film" (spanish)

A few weeks ago, I had a very nice conversation with the folks from Cómete el Film, and this is the result. One of the very few times I got to talk about my work in Spanish, so it was a very welcomed change.

Hace unas semanas, tuve una conversación muy interesante con los chicos de Cómete el Film, y este es el resultado. Una de las pocas veces que he hablado sobre mi trabajo en español, un cambio que agradecí bastante.

Image of the Month, June 2021: "Silver Waterfall"

I made this image just over a year go in Silver Falls State Park, near Salem, Oregon. I lived in Portland for quite a few years, but never made the trip to this beautiful spot with a camera in hand. Something I fixed last year.

This is my favorite image of that day, and I call it Silver Waterfall. It is also one of my newest additions to the Image of the Month collection.

two sizes

Remember: there are two sizes to choose from, 6x6 and 8x8 (inches). In both cases, the matt and frame are 12x12 (this means a bigger margin for the 6x6 print).

shipping included

Shipping is free to the US now. International shipping is a flat rate of $19.95.

View fullsize

View fullsize

artist contract

A new image will be released every month and offered at a reduced price during that time. After 30 days, it will be sold at full price. They will never be on sale at any time in the future, the rate during the first month will be the lowest, ever.

want to know more?

You can find more information about how I create my images and all the details about pricing on The Art and Craft behind my prints.

"Silver Waterfall" is available for purchase here.

If I could use just one lens...

...that'd be the Tamron 28-200mm f/2.8-5.6.

I never had a super zoom lens before, and I had a lot of doubts about this one before getting it. And now I can't see myself with it. In many ways, it is the replacement of my now dead RX100VII.

I just love the range, image quality, and speed in that small package. It's also relatively affordable, especially for a full-frame lens.

Of course, it comes with some compromises, like strong vignetting (fixable in post for the most part), variable aperture (it goes down to f/3.2 by 32mm, and it reaches f/5.6 at 158mm) and, above all, it lacks stabilization - this could be a problem when shooting at long focal lengths. Personally, it wasn't a deal breaker for me.

Pillars

Galicia, October 2021.

An image I would've never made if it wasn't for my bike. This church was too far to get to by foot, and the road was too rough to drive on - with my car, at least.

I loved the contrast between these "pillars": the natural ones and the human made one. It's these kind of human elements that I try to add into my work, I feel like they make for very interesting images.

Palm Tree in the fog

Galicia, October 2021.

A plam tree on a foggy and cold morning. Far from its natural habitat, I wonder how it feels to be here.

Photography is not a competition

Photography (and art, in general) is not a zero-sum game. The goal should never be to try to “steal” a slice of the pie from other photographers, but to help each other to make the pie bigger. The more people know about photography, the more joy they can find in art, the better for every creator out there.

That’s why we owe so much to the photographers that came before us, and to the photographers that are bringing more and more attention to this world nowadays.

Want to stand tall? Don’t wish everyone else were shorter, just take yourself to higher ground.

Scarecrow

Galicia, October 2021. From the video "A bike and a camera".

I always wondered why scarecrow. Is it only to scare crows? In Spanish, these are called espantapájaros, or scarebird - because it's supposed to scare birds in general.

Anyway. This is an image I knew I had to make when I saw the scarecrow in the middle of a turnip field, on a foggy morning riding my bike. This is one of those images that I know will look terrific in print, and I can't wait to see it myself.

A bike and a camera

I've been having a lot of fun with my bike lately. My bike and my camera, that is: almost the perfect marriage. I got to go to places where I'd never go neither by foot nor by car, and as a result, I made some new images. I got sick, though, as the temperature drops like a billion degrees when you ride a bike in cold weather. Totally worth it.

Not crosses

I'm not entirely sure what function these serve, but they looked pretty good. Good enough for an image, I believe.

Galicia, October 2021.

Image of the Month, May 2021: "Mobius Arch"

Mobius Arch is the first image I add to the Image of the Month collection in a while. Actually, it is 1 of 8 new images to complete the collection for this year 2021.

I made this image on a cold morning at the Alabama Hills, a spot I had visited many times in the past. It is definitely one of the, if not the most beautiful single view I had seen in the US so far. Sunrises can be truly stunning there.

But this morning, there was no sunrise: the clouds obscured the view of the peaks of the Eastern Sierra. They also created a very nice atmosphere that I tried to capture here, using the Arch to frame some of the mountains in the background.

I knew this was going to be one of my favorite images from that place right away, and I believe now it is my best from there.

View fullsize

two sizes

Remember: there are two sizes to choose from, 6x6 and 8x8 (inches). In both cases, the matt and frame are 12x12 (this means a bigger margin for the 6x6 print).

shipping included

Shipping is free to the US now. International shipping is a flat rate of $19.95.

View fullsize

View fullsize

artist contract

A new image will be released every month and offered at a reduced price during that time. After 30 days, it will be sold at full price. They will never be on sale at any time in the future, the rate during the first month will be the lowest, ever.

want to know more?

You can find more information about how I create my images and all the details about pricing on The Art and Craft behind my prints.

"Mobius Arch" is available for purchase here.

Powerline in the fog

Galicia, October 2021. Another image from the video "Back in the fog".

I love making images of powerlines, they are very strong subjects and they look amazing in some weather, like... you've guessed it, fog.

Fence and tree

From my video "Back in the fog".

Back in the fog

Back home, back to photographing the fog. I only had an hour before having to run some errands, but I was still able to sneak in some photography.

Obelisco Millenium, A Coruña

Two images I made on a day spent with family. Even in those walks, I can sneak in some photography if I have a camera with me. I only had one lens, though, so I used my phone to take the first one (the one on the left) using the ultra-wide lens.

Even though I don't believe smartphones are the future of photography, I do think they can be very useful and a great complement to any photographer with a standalone camera. This is a good example of that.

Waterfall, Canfranc

It was a rainy day, this one, so I'm not even sure if this waterfall flows regularly. I made this image from the town of Canfranc, in the Pyrenees, very close to the border with France.

Light through the forest

Galicia, October 2021.

I made this image yesterday during my morning bike ride. As I kept going uphill, the fog started to make way for the clear sky. There's a magical spot where the Sun can create light beams through trees, and that's what I was looking for. I found it, and it was beautiful.

Tree in the morning fog

Galicia, October 2021.

I've made dozens of images of this tree, in every possible condition. I walk by it very often, almost every day, and I just love the way it looks. Some days, though, it looks especially good. This foggy morning was one of those times.

How I predict fog

I love fog. Fog is very important for my photography, as it creates the atmosphere and the mystery I look for with my images.

As you can imagine, being able to predict (or at least have some degree of confidence) where and when fog happens can make a big difference. That’s why I always keep an eye on some key numbers that are a good indicator of possible mist.

I use an app called Clear Outside. It’s not a good one, it’s old and hasn’t been updated in years, but I love how simple it is. I can see everything I need in one quick glimpse, with no distractions.

What I look for is:

• Wind: as little wind as possible, ideally no wind at all.
• Rain can create its own fog, but most of the time it will leave you with images that look like they were taken on a cloudy day. Only that you got wet to make them.
• Humidity: has it rained lately? is the ground wet? are there lakes nearby? Here where I live, fog won’t happen if humidity is below 90%.
• Temperature: a cold night followed by a warm day can fill the air with all that humidity present on the ground.
• Dew point: the closer to the actual temperature, the better. It is when these two values are the same that fog appears to be the thicker, at least in my experience.
• Topology: valleys are more prone to fog, as they “trap” that humidity.

This is not an exact science, quite the opposite: predicting fog is really hard. But with the right numbers, and some knowledge about the location, you can have a rough idea of what to expect. And maybe have your camera bag ready to go, just in case.