The Best of 2015...to date

Summer 2015 has been a little washed out for image taking, for me. A vermonter environmentalist declared Vermont a rain forest this year. However, winter and spring were not washed out for me,  I was lacking winter and spring images for my Lake Champlain project and my desire to find winter and spring images paid off; it is funny how that works when the priority is high enough. Five of the seven favorites, year to date are spring images. Ironically, my favorite image so far this year is a spring image, but was captured at Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Cannon Beach Canon EOS IDS Mark III 84mm 4sec f20 ISO 100 2 stitched images

I love the Oregon coast. I have seen beautiful images of the rock formations dotting the open sand beaches of Oregon, and I wanted to capture one. My daughter Bridget suggested we tour the coast rather than stay in Seattle when we visited her in March. I lucked out to find a full moon setting fifteen minutes before sunrise on March 6th (Actually Winter I guess). I would have loved to have had my more powerful PhaseOne 80 mega-pixel camera with me, but stitching two 21 mega-pixel 4 sec images miraculously worked out. I guess the gulls were sleeping.

Five of my seven favorites to date this year are black and white. Public feedback I receive do not favor black and white, but they really appeal to me. Often I process images in both color and black and white and decide by gut feel which appeals to me the most. Maybe it is just a learning phase I am going through. 

When I am not selecting black and white these days, color usually has a strong impact. I love the color in White Pine Camp and Spring Moon Light.

White Pine Camp Canon EOS IDS Mark III 300mm 1/30 sec f11 ISO 100 5 stitched images

Spring Moon Light Canon EOS IDS Mark III 100mm 1/8 sec f14 ISO 100

We'll see if the favorites to date will make the list for the year. Although summer has not been too productive for my tastes, year to date, I am way a head of previous years in capturing images that   I like.

My "A Clear Focus" Article is Published

Light and Landscape Magazine www.lightandlandscapemagazine.com published my article titled A Clear Focus in their issue 12. 

Spring Sprout PhaseOne IQ 180 300mm 1/60 sec f22 ISO 100 3 stitched images

I have enjoyed Light and Landscape Magazine. I have learned from reading the articles and studying the images. I like them all the more now! Take a look - they are a free electronic magazine that can be downloaded to your iPad or other mobile device from the iTunes app store. 

Independence - A Big Deal to Me

Who likes to be told what to do or how to be? I don't. I want to learn from the wise and be free to decide what is best for me, and how I relate to those I love (ideally everyone). 

July 4th Steve's House Minneapolis Hasselblad Stellar 10.4mm 2sec f3.5 ISO 200

Our Founding Fathers took huge risks for our independence. They moved forward with little strength to fight Great Britain, other than a great determination of one voice of thirteen United States to express unbelievably obvious, simple and lasting wisdom - "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."

I strive to have the same great determination as the 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, to live my life by celebrating my freedom, and pursuing my happiness by realizing all I can be, connecting to all I desire and giving as I am able, with the knowledge of the rewards therefrom.

In my blog, Priorities Are Always Present June 20th, 2015, I describe my present struggle with the push-pull of living in Vermont versus Minnesota; it's a personal, family, maybe health issue that involves compromise and the need to consider balance with conflicting priorities. Like a lot of high priority issues, it is a struggle to decide which love priority overrides another; will the final decision dilute the love priorities and create resentment, or will it enhance the love priorities, breding more love? I'll let you know how it works out for me.

We will live in both Vermont and Minnesota, spreading our money and time resources a little thinner. I am excited about being involved with creating a natural light photo studio with separate nuclear family living units in Vermont, which will be designed to have more with less, and being close to family of origin, friends and familiar surroundings in Minnesota. The Senior apartments in Minnesota are out for now: we will look for a comfortable apartment in the Highland Park area of St. Paul, near Carondelet Village Senior Living Community, where we keep our options open being about 100 on the 5-8 year waiting list. There are a lot of moving parts to this decision, so I expect a twist and a turn as we move forward... with great determination.

 

Coolidge Camp and Comment on Persistence

White Pine Camp Canon EOS IDS Mark III 300mm 1/30 ISO 100 F11 5 stitched images at sunrise

Our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge, a Vermonter, spent summer time at White Pine Camp in Paul Smiths in up-state New York. Patty and I had the pleasure of sleeping in his bed in the President's cabin this weekend. The log bed is original. I think the mattress has been changed since his one term presidency ended in 1929!

You can't help learn a little about the former president while staying at this very remote and quiet camp; the camp was full and you hardly knew anyone else was there. There are large fieldstone fireplaces all over the place, including boat houses, bowling building, tennis courts, the great living room and, of course, each cabin. We must have used up a cord of wood during our two day stay. The summer, stone fireplace fires reminded us of good times gone by at Patty's family of origin northern Minnesota cabin on Gull lake.

Quiet Cal, as Coolidge was tagged, may have earned the label by spending too much time under the white pines, and fishing on Osgood Pond. He loved the camp and he loved to fish for brook trout. He was sometimes  criticized as avoiding issues while persisting on catching enough trout to feed all his quests.

Osgood Pond; where the fish hide - Canon EOS IDS Mark III 285mm 1/250 sec F11  ISO 100

Coolidge wrote about persistence. He said: "Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent." What drives persistence and determination - Love, Passion, High Priority.

Talk About Love Priorities! Love Saturates Charleston Church Parishioners

Anger is real. Hate is chosen. The Emanuel A.M.E. Church parishioners in Charleston chose love over hate after 9 of their parishioners were gunned down while praying for the souls of those possessing evil....like the madman who gunned them down, absorbed by hate.....for some fxxxxxx reason.

Hate begets hate. Love begets love. Thank you mighty parishioners of "The Church" in Charleston for showing the world the power of love. If only the world would follow your example - we would have a world of people filled with love, healing hurts and feeling wonderful connection to all humankind, with all the many differences to celebrate. God speed.

Revisited in New Light

It was my 65th birthday diner with Patty at Basin Harbor on Lake Champlain in 2011.

Patty shore diner Basin Harbor 8/8/2011

The beauty was too much for me to leave my camera in the cabin. I even made a spectacle of myself and brought my tripod. I normally don't divert my attention so much from my diner partner, but it was my birthday after all, and for me, the main course was going to be the fading evening light on the water and Adirondack Mountains.

Basin Harbor shore diner view ISO 200 1/200 F5.6 105 mm Canon 1DS Mark III

Backyard from Basin Harbor ISO 200 1/250 F5.6 400mm Canon 1DS Mark III 4 stitched images

I overlooked the real beauty of that special birthday celebration. I have over 10,000 images in my Lightroom Library on Lake Champlain. During my process of deleting some that I have not forwarded to my photo gallery at www.mesipe.com or my favorites at www.MySCGpriorities.com, I came across these forgotten images. Maybe with improved skills with Lightroom since 2011, I have learned  how to make images more liking to my tastes. I turned down the light on these two images, tweeked them a bit more, here and there, and now I love them. They moved from trash to treasure, by me looking at them in a new light, four years later - How special of a birthday diner was that!

Priorities Are Always PRESENT

Harbor Haze ISO 200 1/200 F11Hasselblad Stellar

Tell me what you ARE doing and I will tell you your APPARENT priorities!

First Snow ISO 200 1/400 F5 Canon IOS 1DS Mark III with 35mm lens

The present is all we have; the past is gone and the future is yet to come. 

What is MOST important to you NOW? For me, right now, I am being pushed in one direction and pulled in another, trying to figure out how I juggle my priorities. There is only so much time,. You can only be in one place at a time, and I want to do my PRESENT by design rather than by accident.

I am being pushed to move back to Minnesota and Pulled to stay in Vermont. It is complicated and personal - the big priorities decisions often are: there are future health issues, family connections, the love of a place and, maybe the most important - the unexplainable DESIRE to just  do it. Passions are like that sometimes!

A possible solution for me - We used to have a condo in St. Paul and our present condo in Vermont. My original intent was to maintain both places until about age 80 and than sell one and live out the rest of our lives in the other. It sounded good to me originally and it sounds good to me NOW. We sold the condo in St. Paul to simplify; so we did not have to maintain two places and move back and forth. After all, they are both winter locations. Now we know - it can not always be simple. 

The ability to keep the condo in Vermont for an extended period of time, after we get a Senior's apartment with continuum care possibilities in Minnesota, is questionable for various reasons. I however am going to do everything I can to keep my heaven on earth place, in the Champlain Valley, as long as possible. One thing is clear though...my love for Patty is my top priority.

 

 

Same Image Different View

I am exploring with looking at photography subjects differently, to capture a mood or create a feel, or maybe just an appealing look. Take a look at the images below. They are the same image with a different perspective.

Dusk One, 2.5 seconds, f11 using medium format camera

The bottom images were taken just a couple minutes after the top one, looking at the same subject, while moving the camera horizontally, back and forth rather slowly, over 2 to 4 seconds; in effect, painting with light. The first 2 images on the bottom are merely the 3rd image divided into two parts to create a look of separate and unified, which, when printed large and framed, will cover a very large space on a wall. The color on the top image is probably most like the color I saw at the time I shot the images. Although the skies and colors are changing quickly at dusk, I play with the color and warmth of the image in Lightroom and PhotoShop to be most appealing to me.  These images are new to me. I will need a while of looking at them to know if they have staying power for me. We'll see if any make the list of my favorites for 2015.

Below is another image I captured this spring, while looking for a single boat in Malletts Bay, without the noise of too many boats around; in other words - the first one in the harbor for the season. Color versus Black and White and different cropping.

Early harbor, 300mm lens with medium format camera, 1/30th sec at f6.3, high key, Black and White

Early harbor, unedited

The feel, graphics and appeal of these two renditions of the same image are substantially contrasting to me. I love the black and white and am bored with the original color capture. I have to go with what I like; what appeals to me, even if no one else likes it. I guess that is integrity with my photography; capturing and rendering what I like to look at - what else can I do?  It is great though to have other people like the stuff too..

A related priority planning comment I make with this blog is - each person's reality is different, and what is appealing can be easily "distorted" or "viewed" differently from one person to the next. What is appealing is based on perception of what you want to see or do or feel...and that  can be quite different for you and me. This concept was presented to me, in the 80's, by Psychology of Mind professionals as Separate Realties. The Separate Realities concept is powerful for understanding where the other person or even yourself are coming from. Take for instance newly weds who do not totally understand each other's history. One spouse is used to receiving a lot of small gifts from family loved ones at Christmas and the other spouse is used to receiving very few and more expensive gifts from loved ones. Their first Christmas together they operate based on their traditions and proceed to unknowingly hurt each other's feelings. Understanding histories, dreams, values, passions, and plans are absolutely necessary to do your own planning or help someone else with their planning. Take a look at the mere 50 priority planning foundation questions in the appendix of ADVOCATE PLANNING: To Do What You Love To Do and see if you know the answers for your significant others, clients, and even yourself - just 10 questions per area. A free download is available under the book tab or on the home page.

 

 

Values-Based Priorities Planning Testimonial

Jim made my day with his comments regarding ADVOCATE PLANNING: To Do What You Love To Do.

Here is, in part, what he had to say: "You have been an inspiration to me in more ways than you could ever imagine. I have been going through a process of self-reflection on what I should do in the next phase of my life. Lucky to have survived childhood cancer, I have had a great career and raised a great family. Now I want to give back. but what do I have to give? Your book helped me realize that my true passion in my career has been creating and building. If I wasn't creating and building a new company, I was creating and building a new department or product offering for an existing company. Although my career has been in financial services, it has really been about entrepreneurship and innovation. You helped me realize that is what I have to give. 

I realized that not only do I have a gift to give, but it has real purpose and meaning for me. I passionately believe that entrepreneurship is the key to socio-economic growth on the global basis. I can help!

I have accepted a position as Professor of Entrepreneurship in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Some may question my sanity but they may not realize that I have the opportunity to Learn, Mentor, Contribute, Relate, Explore, Serve and Self-Realize. I get to teach entrepreneurship in a developing country! Thank you for your inspiration.

Finally, let me share with you my mantra - Seek Joy, Find Love, Accept Serenity, and have Purpose Right Here, Right Now. This mantra helps me to remember that the present moment, if you look hard enough, presents the opportunity to feel joy by exploring, learning, playing; to feel love by connecting, sharing, giving: to feel serenity by finding balance and perspective; and to feel that sense of purpose by finding meaning and following your passion."

Thank you Jim for helping me feel purpose!

CONNECTING

I have been developing MySCGpriorities.com website with Ronn and Sam at Thelen, the idea people, out of St. Cloud, Minnesota, for some time now, and I am ready to connect with as many people as possible, starting with this launching blog. 

The purpose of MySCGpriorities.com site is to connect with everyone interested in doing their passions; loving themselves, others, and most everything one does. And secondly, to explore, relate and play with my passion for photography. 

In ADVOCATE PLANNING: To Do What You Love To Do (Get your free download by clicking here) I write about Exploring, Relating and Playing as Connecting planning value activities. I believe that if something is a high enough priority, a passion if you will, you will do it and it will contribute to your success - the realization of your unique good. 

I have loved photography for forty years and over that time I just dabbled with exploring it, relating with it and playing at it, while I evolved my passion for planning. It is not uncommon for one passion to fall away to the benefits derived from living out another passion - There is only so much time, and balance is an ongoing challenge requiring some prioritization.  

As I ended my practictioner planning career I realized how living my passion for photography and dealing with the related priority planning therefor connected to the most important part of financial planning - values-based priorities planning. I don't have to give up my planning passion! I can live it and write about it. I may have to give my planning ideas away without charge. That's good. I was well rewarded in my career and I get much pleasure in giving out my planning opinions. This is my time to flip flop the time I spend on planning with the time I spend on my other two passions -  family and photography.  

Without connecting with people there is less likelihood of fulfillment from learning, serving, mentoring, contributing and transferring. I connect with myself more these days. That is a natural part of life during retirement from being a planning practitioner, I suppose. The benefit is I get to know myself better and I get a lot of agreement with my opinions. That being said I wish to connect with as many people as possible with this site. Will you help me by spreading the word? My connections are few, but my desire to connect with all is great. Please pass on this blog, book and best of my photos site to you Facebook and Linkedin connections. 

Thank you. I hope I connect with you!

Black and White with Split-Toning - A real priority?

I have focused on capturing the beauty of Lake Champlain for the last five years. My intent is an exhibit, book and making large prints of what I view as eye-holding. The more I shoot the Lake and view the images the more I seem to learn about what I really like. I surprise myself often; I capture an image that I like at the moment, but it doesn't hold my attention long on the wall. On the other hand, I have images that I didn't like as well initially that took me a while of viewing to conclude...this is something that really holds my attention. This is not unlike refining any priority, it takes some experimenting and reflection to know what you really like.

I am not sure about these split-toned black and whites that I recently captured; they haven't had the test of time. But, I am presently attracted to black and white, and in some cases, like the ones that I exhibit here, a little split-toning to warm them up and give me a feel that may just be eye-holding.

Choosing my favorite images for 2011, '12, '13 and '14

2011 There are no images in 2011 that qualify for printing large, to 30x40 or thereabouts, a present objective. That makes sense; I wasn’t geared up to produce images of that size nor did I have that lofty objective back then. Producing large prints became possible for me in 2012 with the purchase of sufficient megapixels with my medium format PhaseOne camera, and with starting to stitch 35m photos from my Canon with Photoshop.

Castellina

Castellina

View all Best of 2011 Photos

It was a fun year to photograph though. It was the year I captured one of my all time favorite photographs — the white villa at Castellina, Italy, in the Tuscany region. Accordingly, my choice for 2011, for my favorite image of the year is easy — it is the White Villa.

The image is really by luck. Well, maybe they all are. I had taken an image of the Castellina village at sunrise, April 5th, with a 300mm lens and a 2x adapter, to affect a 600mm lens. I was high and far away, maybe ten miles, so I still captured too much in the image. The While Villa section of the image is just a fraction of the total image. When I saw the results of cropping to such a small size I was delighted with the results – It presented me with a very painterly effect; one that goes away if I print the image any bigger than about 15x15.

2011 was the year of the Flood on Lake Champlain. The water got to about 103 feet, an all time record level. The breakwater disappeared under water and presented a once in a lifetime view of a May Burlington waterfront with no breakwater and no boats. One morning the sky and water blended together, broken only by the lighthouse and a floating log here and there. I love those images – two are presented in my 2011 picks.

I generally don’t move the camera intentionally while taking a picture. I usually use a sturdy tripod and a cable release to minimize movement while the image is captured. You spend a lot of money to get sharp focus and high resolution – then you’re going to intentionally move the camera and screw it all up? Yes, I do occasionally, to get a feeling. The beauty with digital is you can try it and immediately see what you got and modify accordingly. I continue to enjoy playing with natural elements and motion, looking for that gift of just the right confluence of elements to give me a great feeling to view. Two motion images in 2011 that I like are Summer Dream and Morning Run.

2012  Of the six favorites that I picked for 2012 only Peggy’s Lighthouse and Drought Watercolor are clearly able to produce large both horizontal and vertical directions. Three were taken with my 35mm and stitched to be able to print larger and three were taken with the larger megapixel PhaseOne camera.

Unbelievably, 2012 was a drought year on Lake Champlain, following the flood year of 2011. The drought too presented images I will possibly never again see the likes of. Drought Watercolor and Drought Art are a couple I like, depicting drought effects.

Fish House Blue Rocks

Fish House Blue Rocks

View all Best of 2012 Photos

Patty's and my trip to Nova Scotia in 2012 was special; maybe Patty’s favorite place she’s visited. We went to Peggy’s Lighthouse, the afternoon of September 18th, probably an hour and one half from the village of Lunenburg, where we were staying. I had to get there at sunrise. I got up in the middle of the night on the 19th and drove again to the lighthouse to get there at sunrise. I took my image and got back to Lunenburg for a 9am breakfast with Patty at one of the small friendly village cafes that was getting ready to close for the year.

My favorite image of 2012 was taken at sunrise, another morning while in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, just a few miles away in the fishing community of Blue Rocks. It is the Fish House Blue Rocks. It has a good feel and look to me. I took the image with the 35mm and stitched 3 images together and I took the image with the 80 megapixel PhaseOne. This was done over a half hour's time. I ended up picking the stitched image because I liked the position of the light on the fish house. The changing light makes all the difference in the world.

Sun Drenched is an interesting light image. It was taken in February of 2012 on Lake Champlain. This Adirondack mountain range is my favorite and I have not yet captured all the beauty I feel from the range. There is always next year.

2013  More prolific in 2013. I suspect because I retired in 2013 and started to become comfortable with the PhaseOne. Accordingly, I show twelve images from which to pick the image of the year, rather than six. I have strong feelings about a number of these images and worry about overdoing the layout for you. I really only wanted to show six, but I couldn’t do it, maybe next year. The more I shoot the more critical I become of my image making, but apparently I am not critical enough yet. I will have to push the learning curve to demand more; to, in effect, raise the bar. I am confident that the more I shoot, the better the images will be and the more discriminating I will become. I will better understand how to narrow the field of possibilities to appealing images. Self study, reviewing others work, and a workshop here and there will also be good to take it to the next level, which I really want to do.

When I enter a photo contest and don’t win I am surprised. I am emotionally locked into my images. I usually look at a number of the winners and say, I wouldn’t have even considered entering that image, or that image, or this other one. I never want to be driven by what others think but jury photography always has something to teach, so I will entire a contest once in a while when I think the theme applies.

red sail yellow marker

red sail yellow marker

View all Best of 2013 Photos

My favorite image of 2013 is one that I have a hard time taking my eyes from and, I know would not have a chance in any photo contest. It is a simple image that took me a half-year looking at before I understood what was so attractive to me. It is the clouds, not the water or boats. The image is Red Sail Yellow Marker. It meets my objective of printable large and, for me, has wall staying power. I sold one the other day, so I guess I am not the only one that likes this image.

2013, and for that matter, 2014 were years of the clouds, or maybe I am just coming a live with the beautiful impact of clouds. I also noticed this in New Mexico when I visited there a number of years ago. Some areas may just have more noticeable dramatic cloud formations.

2014  I found it easier to limit my selection to twelve for 2014. I must be getting more discriminating. I discovered black and white and split toning in 2014. Or rather, I started to fall in love with the more traditional classic look on some images. I started to look at color images as black and white and frequently preferred the black and white, specifically with a warming touch, with split toning. I like the dynamic tonal range I see with black and white. I am getting back to the thinking I had while shooting large-format film with my 4x5 Wiesner; print black and white unless color is an important element for image impact. Seven of the twelve images I show for 2014 are black and white. There is no intent to select the black and whites. It just worked out that way in my unsophisticated selection process.

I had a hard time choosing between Uncertain Weather and Off Track for my 2014 selection. I really love the foreground water in Off Track. I finally chose Uncertain Weather because I love the massive varied clouds dwarfing the mountains and sailboats.

Uncertain Weather

Uncertain Weather

View all Best of 2014 Photos

I realize real artists don’t explain their work and don’t call out their favorites. I suspect that is telling about where I am on the learning curve. The process is good though, for forcing me to select and thus refine my thinking on the value of my images. I have learned how I have moved or changed, by doing this process. Any input you have is welcome. I appreciate all perspectives, unless you try to encourage me to quit this treat of an avocation. I look forward to digging into my images for 2015. As part of my blogging I will review like I have here on a quarterly basis in the process of refining the annual selection. No promises though… I am feeling my way along.

Submission to Light and Landscape magazine for possible publication: A Clear Focus

It was about the time I sold my financial planning practice, at the age of 62, when it became clear to me that a focus on one's priorities was the most important part of financial planning for people; or for that matter, the most important part of planning life itself, and all we desire. I mean a clear focus and not just a casual walk by. I was so stunned by this revelation I wrote a book talking about the importance of values-based priorities planning and how to do it, using my self-proclaimed principles.

A lot of my thinking had evolved over the more than forty years planning with individual clients. I felt compelled though, to be clear with former clients and associates before I closed my professional planning chapter. They deserved it. It is like it hit me.....Hey....wait a minute, I shouldn't go away yet. I have some new stuff; I don't see planners using these principles and processes and they are so important.

It is probably not in the cards for me to have much influence on future planners of the world. I have to let that go. Someone else will undoubtedly figure it out and evolve the same principles for the profession. In fact it will even come out a bit sideways with former clients and associates that read my book, without the benefit of me evolving the practice from theory. Maybe that is the reason I intend to continue connections with former clients and associates, as well as making new connections, professing people's passion pursuits including my own photography passion to capture the image of a lifetime, that when printed large and on a wall will hold the attention of all who look at it.

Now, that I use my priorities planning process for myself with my fifty year personal advocate, Patty, and my professional advocate planner, Cathy, I feel the process is working most effectively - helping me optimize my self-realizing, connecting and giving, to my enrichment. I am retired from professional planning, but not retired from life. In fact, moving into what I call "The Third Period" is most exciting, especially as it relates to photography possibilities.

Being a photo enthusiast for forty years with a desire to better master the craft with my new found time, partially explains my use of photography as an analogy in my book on values-based financial planning, which I titled ADVOCATE PLANNING: To Do What You Love To Do. Another reason is that photography is my passion and I use myself as the main example in the book to explain principles and processes. A third reason is that a number of photography principles apply so well to priorities planning. For instance, terms like focus, center of interest, clarity, simplicity, directional vectors, emotional impact intent, conflicting elements, balance, etc. Feel free to download a free copy of the book right here on this website — just click on "book" in the navigation and look for the download link at the bottom of the page.

 

LAKE CHAMPLAIN PHOTO PASSION PROJECT

I fell into the Lake Champlain photo passion project, as I call it, because my wife, Patty and I fell in love with the lake, and Burlington, Vermont, the Champlain Valley, and the surrounding Adirondack and Green mountains, while following our professional photographer son Michael's move to Vermont from Minnesota and granddaughter Avi's birth, more than thirteen years ago. Now it is our primary home and my New England base to capture images involving water, my clear photography subject focus.

We look across the lake, from our condo, at one of the most beautiful mountain ranges off a lake site in the world. We live on top, what is called, the Burlington Hill-Area, stretching from the waterfront through the popular Church Street downtown to the top of the hill, where you'll find the University of Vermont (UVM) and UVM Medical Center. You can arrange a spectacular view from many points on The Hill during all four seasons. What I find most interesting is, being on a hill and looking straight forward, you most frequently are looking out at the sky above the Adirondack mountains and Lake Champlain. You notice light changes and cloud formations, particularly at dawn, dusk and stormy weather. Often, I have seen something cool coming from the west, grabbed my gear and ran to one of my favorite vantage points to capture yet another look over the same terrain. It is a never ending story of beauty over historic Lake Champlain.

I have well over 10,000 images in Lightroom categorized under "Lake Champlain" and many have common content yet are completely unique captured moments with a unique feel.

There is a great canvas in my backyard to paint with light. It is never blank. The possibilities to interpret, isolate and catch fleeting light on a subject of interest at just the right time are endless, challenging and exhilarating. My main approach is getting out at the right time, with the right equipment and be patient, open with belief that I will see something that says to me "capture this beauty at this moment" so I and others can feel what I am feeling, while viewing the image, large and impactful on a wall.

I know that with attention to my photo priorities I will continue to learn and contribute. I do love it and I will do it. The necessary ingredient here is passion. The best is yet to come. It has only been recently that I decided to focus my photography on water. I also, not too long ago, clarified my target as a 30"x40" high resolution print. This almost throws me back to needing to use my large-format film camera in order to get the quality. My alternative, with much pleasure, is to push to the limits the PhaseOne IQ180 medium format digital camera, with enough pixel capacity to get the job done. This is the way I figure it: 40 inches x 260 dots per inch = 10400 pixels long side and 30x260dpi = 7800 pixels short side. The overall pixel count being 10400x7800 equaling about the 80MP the camera has. I know this is large and costly. Further, that printing software extrapolates pixels and can, in affect res-up images to look better. I also know that the print might look just fine with less than 260 dpi.

Mostly though, I know that my passion to capture that photo of a lifetime that when printed large and on the wall, to keep the attention of all lookers, will have to be perfect. So, to get there I want a clear focus, attention to priorities and a serious hard-fun ethic!