2011 – Looking Back

As a self proclaimed “nomad” I tend to get antsy when I haven’t been on a major adventure in a few weeks. To keep myself appreciative of the kind of life that I’ve been able to lead thanks to a well chosen career and great friends like Lou Lesko helping me along the way.  I sometimes have to reflect on the last year and outline the best parts. Here’s how 2011 shaped up for me, and some of my favorite projects of the year.

Manatee

I got my start shooting for National Geographic in the underwater world, and although I’ve since moved on to mostly shoot above water, it’s one of my passions. I’m slowly but surely continuing my work on manatee, and hope to take it to the other side of the world and continue shooting dugong, a much more difficult subject that is a close relative of the manatee. This project was at first a way for me to start learning how to shoot the animals in an interesting way, but once I arrived in Florida I saw that most of the animals were covered in scars from the boats, and were nearly constantly pestered by the tourists. Expect to see more work from me on Manatee in 2012.

See my manatee photos on National Geographic Stock

Manatee in Three Sisters Springs, Florida.

Haiti

Haiti was a chance for me to start working with a wonderful photo editor named Leah Roberts.  Lou Lesko sent me to Haiti for the National Geographic Assignment Blog - See those stories here, and here.  It was also a chance to bring something new to photography.  I worked with Tomnod, a crowd sourcing group out of San Diego to put together a way for people to join me vicariously on the expedition.  Using satellite imagery to follow my ground based photography the viewer could not only see where I was, but they could see before and after images from the Haiti earthquake.  It was a huge hit, and quite possibly the first time this has been used in photojournalism.  I hear that Time magazine did something similar a few months later, I hope they got the idea from Tomnod but I don’t know.

A boy in City Soleil, Haiti.

Mongolia

Mongolia was one of the few projects that I did this year for National Geographic that narrowed my role down solely to the photography.  The project is headed by Dr. Albert Lin and was heralded as a huge advance in the field of archeology.  Dr. Lin took new tools into the field and used modern science to aid his search rather than the antiquated trowels and brushes that we associate with archeology.  We also used the predecessor of the Tomnod format as a way to crowdsource the search for ancient tombs by having millions of citizen scientists search through the satellite imagery for anomalies.   Here’s a link to the National Geographic page on the project.

Of course, besides the National Geographic photography that I was doing, I made my living shooting fashion, commercial, and adventure photos.  Here’s a gallery of favorites from this year.

A boy in City Soleil, Haiti.

Manatee in Three Sisters Springs, Florida.

I also got to try my hand at filming and producing television!  This was an entirely new angle for me, and I enjoyed (some of it) immensely.

Here’s a teaser from the Mongolia special I helped put together.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/specials/in-the-field-specials/expedition-mongolia.html

After this I filmed for Discovery Channel’s “Deadliest Catch” in Alaska, when that comes out be sure to Check out footage from the “Kodiak” to see my work.

Check out some of the personal video that I put together this year at http://www.youtube.com/user/Benhorton83?feature=mhee

I also wrote a number of articles, reviews, and blog posts for other websites and magazines, had my photos published in editorials around the country, I produced a new portfolio book from Blurb, and of course, have a grand personal project that I am not ready to tell anybody about. So 2012 if we manage to live through this coming apocalypse (I am not a believer) will be my best year yet.

Rant

Photographers are artists, and artist inherently are easily distracted.   It doesn’t  help that in the modern digital world our work is completed on the same device that supplies us with Facebook, Twitter, news and video’s of cats doing funny things.  A photographers workflow is as personal as other people’s morning ritual, asking us to change our ritual or throwing the odd wrench into our system doesn’t so much focus our wrath, it’s more of a intensifying of our distraction.  When a program isn’t working correctly or keeps crashing (even on my infallible MacBook Pro) I’m only about 1/4 second away from clicking on the google chrome app in my browser and being led down that rabbit hole.

 

I like the idea that my programs are updated automatically, that I can install plugin’s to Lightroom and Photoshop and so on; there was a time though that we’d read about what this new plugin or update consisted of.  Now in this age of the “Cloud” we don’t wait to hear if the updates work before our computer secretly downloads everything.  While we’re on the subject, all my programmer friends say that the “cloud” is just a facade, not a real cloud.

 

I would hope that this will force programmers to get their programs and updates working well before sending them out to be downloaded by the masses.   So far though, Text Edit is the only program I have any control of on my computer, and the result is this short piece.  I’m off to hold down my power button for a few seconds.

Syd Park

I had the honor of shooting with child actress Syd Park a few days ago.  She’s 13 years old and already touring as a stand up comic, acting in several Television series, and best of all has no ego surrounding her success.  Syd is going far, fast, so getting to photograph her now is very exciting.  See more photos from the shoot on my website.

Why Beer is Important for Travelers.

The first thing you see when you arrive in a foreign country is usually a taxi. Whether exiting an airport or crossing a border, it’s the taxi drivers that first make contact. The question here, is how much should you be paying? Pay too much, and they’ll get used to ripping off uninformed visitors, pay to little and maybe you’ll end up in an ally.

I forget where I first learned this trick, it may have been from some stranger while riding a chairlift, it may have been from a fellow traveler. The best thing you can do is to ask a local “How much will a local beer cost me?”

To give an example of why this works think of your local restaurant. To get a taxi ride to the restaurant it’s about $10, or two beers. To eat, if it’s a cheap place $10-$15 will get you an entrée. That’s two or three beers.

Now let’s think of it in terms of travel. In Mongolia a beer is $1500 Touareg. A taxi in Ulaanbaatar will run you $3000 – $3500 Touareg. So expect to pay about the same for a meal.

Get the drift? Try it out and let me know how it works for you!

Forcing yourself to be Better

Here's a photo for Chris Kenny Connections that I absolutely had to shoot into the sun. Good thing I'd been practicing.

Getting better is hard. Especially when you think you know everything already. So to help myself continue to learn how to be a better photographer, I’ve introduced something new to my workflow, and I call it a “Forced Variable.” Don’t ask me where I got the name, that’s just what I ended up calling it. A forced variable is something that you always change when taking photos.  It could be never shooting the same location twice, deciding not to use zoom lenses for a day or shooting with your review screen turned off and not looking at your work until the end of the day. Using a forced variable makes things difficult at times but it is one of the best ways to continue learning how to be a better photographer. A forced variable is something that I use in practice, and while shooting personal projects.  Personal projects are what get us our “real” jobs, and keep our portfolios moving along.  It’s personal work that keeps me getting better at my job, and it’s also one of the things that keeps me interested in what I do. So forcing myself to use that time to expand my knowledge and skill set is a natural step. I know in the back of my mind that I can always return to a great location, so it’s not that I’m limiting myself, I’m expanding my library of locations by forcing myself to always look for something new and interesting. If I absolutely need that old location, it’s there. The benefits of forcing yourself to lear are countless. Just think about that next job you have, and they want you to shoot directly into the sun. There’s two ways you can answer them. 1. Gee, my photography class said never to shoot directly into the sun. Or 2. I have some great techniques I’ve been working on that I’d love to use for this shoot, would you like to see what it looks like?

How to Skin a Polar Bear

While I was in Baffin Island training for my Ellesmere Island Expedition we did a 300 mile race across the frozen landscape to a little village called Kimmirut.  This little village is made up almost entirely of Inuit, and though they now live in modern homes, much of the rest of their lives is still very traditional.  Hunting, surviving on the ice, and dogsledding take up a good portion of their time.  The hunting they do provides them with their meat, much of their clothing, and with a sense of tradition that may be impossible for someone like me to understand though I really do try.  It was found out that I’d done a lot of work involving sharks, and one of the students in the local school was doing a project on sharks, so I was asked to come in and speak to the class.  To my surprise, upon entering the classroom, they were in the midst of skinning a polar bear.  My conservation oriented mind was horrified, but as it is often necessary to do, I put my personal feelings aside and tried to see things from their perspective. 

In some villages, foreigners will come in and purchase the rights to shoot a polar bear for up to $60,000.  The inuit are allowed to take so many bears a year for their needs, and sadly, many of them are now more in need of cash than fur and meat.  Kimmirut was not one of these villages, they had the bear for their own purposes.

Later on in the expedition, I was in another town further north, and their economy had become largely dependant on foreigners coming in to hunt bears.  This town was much richer than Kimmirut, and had little need for the bears who’s lives they sold.  Walking down the street you would see dogs sitting there tied up, chewing on a frozen polar bear leg.  At some point I’d like to get back there to do this story, but in all my efforts, I’ve been turned away from the village where I saw this.  Perhaps I’ll have to go under the guise of a “hunter photographer.”

People, if you want to hunt a polar bear, I challenge you to even the odds.  Walk out there onto the ice, survive off of what you can find in the frozen landscape, and at least use a knife instead of a long range rifle.

The furs rarely leave the village anyway because it’s illegal to take the fur across the border from Canada, so all the foreign hunters get in the end is a photograph with them a the dead bear.

Better yet, challenge yourself to take a good photo of a living bear, it’s harder than killing it, and the bear gets to walk away.

Split Personalities?

It’s official, my personalities have broken up.  I could no longer go on with half of me wanting to shoot fashion and art, while the rest just wanted to be slogging around in the jungle looking for tribes that have yet to be discovered.  So, I broke up.  I’ve got two websites now, one for commercial work www.benhortonphoto.com and one for my photojournalism www.benhorton.biz

Ok seriously, people don’t think a photographer can shoot more than one subject matter.  We photographers tend to think we know better.  But having the split websites certainly is an interesting experiment.  I’ll see if certain types of clients start using me more often, or if nothing changes at all.  Either way, both sites are a big step up from my old site.

Leave your opinions in the comment section below, I’d love your input.

What Separates a National Geographic Photographer from the Average Shooter?

To put it another way, what separates a good photographer from a great photographer?

I’m still new to shooting for National Geographic, and as a result I’ve been constantly putting my mind to figuring out what I have to do to become a great photographer.  I’ve managed to get in the door with some big name companies but staying there is a whole story on it’s own.  A great photographer has to  constantly grow with the industry and constantly reevaluate themselves.

Fortune has smiled on me in it’s own bipolar way and I’ve taken some tough criticism from people who I would say have made it to the very top of the game.  Learning to take that criticism has transformed me into a better photographer and I think a better person.  I’ve been lucky enough to sit with photographers and editors that most people will never get to talk to, and this is what I’ve taken away from those conversati0ns.  It is a collection of things that I’ve both had to go through myself, and things I’ve learned from better photographers.

1. Kill the ego

Photography is an extension of ourselves.  We may not even realize it, but when we are showing imagery that we are proud of we are showing people how we see the world, and that’s a view that nobody else has ever had.  Every time someone sees your photography they are seeing a completely new perspective. That’s why when someone doesn’t like a particular photo it feels more like an insult than an opinion.

This first step isn’t something I learned just from photography, I learned it from my father who was one of the top sculptors in the world.  He would have the clay form of the sculpture complete, fine tuned, and ready to send off to the foundry, and more often than not he would invite a few of his contemporaries over to see the piece.  More often than not, the next thing we knew the head was chopped off, the arm twisted around, and a months worth of work had been seemingly destroyed.  The final piece when complete had unquestionably transformed from a good sculpture to a great sculpture.

Photographs don’t have the elasticity of a sculpture, once they’re taken there is little we can do to change it save for a few tweaks in photoshop.  Putting this lesson into practice as a photographer means losing the self-importance that surrounds our imagery, and being open to criticism from other photographers and editors.  It means that we are that sculpture.  Killing the ego means seeing our art for what it is and taking the advice of those who can see our work with clearer perspective.

Exception to the rule:

Of course, we don’t want to lose our individuality, our unique perspective that makes our work what it is, we want to advance it and become the best that we can be without losing our vision and our perspective.  The hard part is learning when advice is just an opinion and nothing more.  When that advice comes from someone we want to work for it’s important to give it ample consideration without losing what makes us unique.

2. Stack the odds in your favor

Vogue is never going to hire a product photographer to shoot a supermodel for their cover, and National Geographic isn’t going to send a fashion photographer to photograph killer whales.  So many people have asked me to introduce them at National Geographic but they have never shot anything that would remotely be considered for the magazine.  The first step to getting in the door at any magazine is having something to show them that they want.  I got lucky, and had just returned from shooting shark poachers on Cocos Island when I met with National Geographic.  It was easy by comparison to transition from showing them a portfolio to figuring out how we can work together.

Do you want to shoot fashion? Hire real models, professional models will make your job easier, get stylists, interesting wardrobe and unique locations where you don’t have to struggle to find a good angle.

Do you want to shoot wildlife?  Don’t waste time fumbling around the mountains, go to where the wildlife is impossible to miss! Go to Yellowstone, the Serengeti, or somewhere where you are guaranteed photos of what you are looking for, and where you’ll have time to try different shots.  Just remember, don’t be so amazed with what you are seeing that you forget to look for new interesting ways to photograph it.  (more on this in section 3)

You can't take this in L.A.

My point is, if you want amazing photographs find amazing locations.  It will make your job easier.  If you really have what it takes to push your photography to the next level, then it’s in these places that you will get your best work.  Stack the odds in your favor by giving yourself all the advantages you can.

Exception to the rule:

When I was first shooting fashion photography, I couldn’t afford the best models and locations.  I had to find places I could shoot that were close to home.  I learned to make any location work.  A corner of a building or a park just around the corner from my house had to make do.  I’m glad though that I didn’t have it easy, because now when I have a fantastic location I can really pick it apart, looking for the best possible angles just like I had to do in the beginning.

3. The harder it is, the less likely someone else has done it.

A few months ago I was on a shoot in Corcovado National Park in Costa Rica.  My job was to get photos of the bull shark pups that used this river as a nursery and to photograph the ecosystem that made it ideal for them.   Countless hurdles had to be overcome just to get a usable photograph.  First I had to find the sharks, then I had to photograph them in murky brown water that was home to as many crocodiles as it was to sharks.   Photographers have been coming here to photograph the sharks since it’s discovery that the sharks were here but I didn’t want to shoot the same images as everybody else.  I wanted a photo of a shark from in the river, looking up at the rainforest to give a sense of place.  I had tried getting in the water, but the sharks seemed too afraid of me to get as close as I needed them to in the murky water, and the crocodiles were too unafraid.  I needed a way to separate myself from my camera, but still be able to get the shot.  It occurred to me that I could re-wire my underwater camera housing to allow me to use it with a remote.  The problem being that the camera would be underwater where no radio waves could reach it.  I solved this problem by creating an antenna that would float to the surface.  This is the point where most photographers say, “it’s too much work,” and stick to shooting the cruising fins from shore.

This is why I think National Geographic really stands out from the rest of the magazines, they only use the work of those who go to great lengths to get the shot.  For some it’s sitting in a hide in the jungle for a month, for others it’s building camera equipment that doesn’t exist yet.   Look at Nick Nichols, his work stands out from the rest because he’s constantly coming up with new ways to photograph old subjects.  Paul Nicklen stands out because instead of shooting daunting subjects like leopard seals from the comfort of a boat he’s in the arctic water face to face with the huge and intimidating animal.

National Geographic photographers will use any means necessary to get the shot.  Climbing, abseiling, diving, and jumaring are all standard practice, but even more ubiquitous is tenacity, and a willingness to suffer to get the shot.  It seems like a lot of work for a photograph, but I guarantee your photo will stand out.

Exception to the Rule:

There isn’t one.  Always try to shoot in a new and interesting way.  Sometimes it’s good to get some of the standard shots first just so you have something to fall back on if the creative approach fails, but you should always try to do it differently.

4. Shoot the whole story

One good photograph is going to look good in your portfolio.  Without context though you’ll be resigned to shooting stock.  Putting together a story is one of the hardest parts of being a photographer.  It’s fairly easy to get a single good frame from a photo shoot, but a single frame isn’t going to get you shooting assignments.  A good way to know if you are shooting the whole story is to pick 12 images of your subject and see if people get the point without you narrating for them.  I’m still working on this myself, and I hope I’ll keep getting better at it as my career evolves.  Some people accomplish this by just shooting as much as they can, of everything that they come across.  I like to imagine what the article is going to look like, and even draw out a sketch of the images the way I want them to end up.  That way when I see a scene that is close to what I’ve imagined for the story I know that it will work.

Exception to the rule:

Sometimes a photo is so great that it tells the whole story all by itself.  That’s why we use the expression, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

5.  Personal Work

When I get a new client I always ask them one question to get things started, “Do you want me to shoot your artistic vision, or do you want my artistic vision?”  Most of the time it ends up being a blend of the options.  Their view with my twist.  I’ve found that this blend of visions may work well for an add campaign, but the photography isn’t the most memorable of my work.  It’s important that I have the chance to fully put my own artistic vision to the test so that I can show people what I’m really capable of.  This is where personal work comes in.  I probably shoot more of my own curious ideas than anything else.  The majority of the time though, that’s what people remember, and that’s the work that makes me stand out.  Another benefit to shooting personal projects is that I get to do what I’m passionate about, and it’s fun.  It keeps me interested in the career of photography.  I know a lot of burnt out photographers that haven’t picked up a camera for fun in years.

One of my favorite fashion photographers of all time is Helmut Newton.  His work is easily recognizable, even by those who may not know his name.  You’ve seen it, we’ve all seen it. The photograph that made him his living we may not even realize was taken by the same person, but the photographs that got him that work will be remembered till the end of time.  It’s personal projects that keep us moving forward, getting new work, and excited about our career.  To me it’s by far the most important thing that I do.

Exception to the Rule:

Don’t get so into your own work that you forget about step #1, and don’t get in so deep on a project that you don’t have time for your clients that make it possible!

I hope this gets you thinking in a new direction.  It took me a long time to go from just knowing these things to putting them into practice.  I still have a lot to learn myself (see step 1) and the day I think I’ve figured it all out is the day I need to start over.  Photography is art, and it’s impossible to quantify exactly what makes it good or bad.  There is always a general trend, or a style that prevails over another.  It’s good to adapt and to change with the ever changing market, but don’t lose what makes you unique, and definitely don’t lose what makes you love photography.

The Endangered Sacred Lands of Mongolia

People who live a nomadic life learn how to respect the land that supports them. They learn to become a part of the environment that supports them, and they find it easiest to live harmoniously with their surroundings. Today, very few nomadic cultures still exist.  In a few short years, we will have lost the opportunity to learn about them and from them.

It has been suggested that agriculture was the downfall of mankind. Across the globe, the effect of stationary lifestyles is taking its toll on the planet. Perhaps the greedy human condition, the idea of ownership, is a product of no longer having to be able to carry all of ones belongings on your back. Or perhaps it is simply a desire for the conveniences that most of us take for granted. Cell phones, cars and markets really do change the way that we interact with our world. The energy it takes to run the conveniences has an obvious negative impact on the planet. Less obvious is the effect of how people earn these belongings.

At some point in the development of the modern world, we stopped living harmoniously with the planet, and started to see it as a disposable resource. We took from it what we wanted, and in the process turned what we wanted into what we needed. If we were to end all of our destructive practices today, society would crumble, and I believe we would be forced to return to the lives of nomads that most of us abandoned long ago.

There are few places in the world where people still live a truly nomadic life. These people, who still live their lives in motion, are slowly being absorbed into the “modern” stationary lifestyle that has proven harmful to the planet.  Mongolia is a country where people strive to keep up the freedom of motion that they had hundreds of years ago and where nomads still move their lives with their livestock to greener pastures.

Genghis Khan, the man who unified and established Mongolia on an international scale, was himself a nomad who valued the land that he lived on more than the comforts of his belongings. As a testament to this he built very little to be remembered by, other than his terrific reputation. He died in a tent that was much the same as the one he was born in, even after conquering much of the world.  Upon his death, his body was carried for over a thousand kilometers so that he could be buried in an as of yet undiscovered site, deep in the sacred lands. It was only in these sacred places that he believed his body would be able to remain unmolested forever.  At the time, no one dared disturb this land. These sacred lands have endured and most are now protected as national parks.

Borders do not come naturally to nomads, and people who have traveled freely their whole lives are not only having to deal with the modern world as it steadily creeps in on them, they are faced with the rapid expansion of the Gobi desert.  It has been calculated that the Gobi will completely overtake Mongolia in only 25 years.  China and Mongolia are fighting the rapid expansion of the desert by planting trees at its margin.  They hope the trees will slow the desertification which at the moment is racing along at 3,600 square kilometers a year.  Mongolia is shrinking even though it’s borders aren’t.  To adapt to this world, some of the nomads have changed their entire existence, and to survive have abandoned their nomadic lives and have struck out to find their fortune in the sacred lands by mining for gold.

Some of the mines are exactly as we would imagine them, with hundreds of workers and gigantic machines chewing into the earth. They even have offices occupied by wealthy businessmen who drive around Ulaanbaatar in fancy cars. Others have earned the designation of “ninja mines.” These mines are worked by smaller groups, who descending on a promising dig in a fury, work without permits, and make haste so as to go undetected. Many of these mines are in the sacred lands so they must work quickly. They take what they can in a short burst, and then they disappear, leaving behind only scarred landscapes to show that they where there.  In the race to get rich, no place remains sacred.  Meanwhile, the nomads move their sheep to richer pastures.

The effects that these mines have had on the land is not just cosmetic. Rivers used for washing away the dirt that hides the precious gold run thick with silt and heavy metals unearthed by miners. These contaminated rivers were a vital ecosystem that have nurtured a rare and impressive fish.  The taimen is the worlds largest relative of the salmon. These fish are known to reach upwards of 50 pounds and have attracted the attention of anglers from around the world who seeking a novel challenge. Most of the anglers practice catch and release with barbless hooks so as to minimize their impact on the already dwindling population of the taimen, but their conservation efforts may do little to save the fish.  The amount of silt that enters into the water buries fish eggs, hides the fishes prey, and ultimately destroys an ecosystem that has developed in these rivers for millennia.

It is a classic story that is all too common in the story of man dominating nature. We take what we want, and ignore or find some reason to justify the consequences. As is the case in many remote regions of the world, the animals and people whose lives are at stake are barely known to outsiders, and without a public voice, will disappear forever.

My journey, like the lives of the nomads, begins without borders. I will be starting out in the far north of China, where it is said that Genghis Kahn was killed either during or shortly after a battle with the Tangut people. This region on the edge of the Gobi Desert is a harsh, inhospitable place, and when Genghis died, his army marched across it carrying his body, heading to the sacred lands far off in Mongolia. What was it that made these men so determined to carry him so far? I can only know by taking the journey myself.  I will be traveling at first by camel, and then switching to horses once I cross the Gobi desert.  I do not see the advantage of seeing how far I can travel in how short a time.  Stories like these do not reveal themselves fully until the adventurer has paid their dues.  I will travel at the speed that the experience requires.  My journey will only differ from that of the warriors of Genghis Khan in that the Gobi is now far larger than it was in their time.

By traveling in this way, I will be able to take my time and really learn about the land and the people that inhabit it. Along the way I aim to meet nomadic people living far from the cities, the mines, and the modern world. I will travel with them when I can, and experience their way of life. It is only by living with them and learning about their lives that I can understand what makes the land sacred to these people.  I will see first hand how the nomads grazing their livestock is aiding the expansion of the Gobi, and I’ll see how their lives are being affected in return.

Perhaps most importantly, I will also be searching for evidence of and documenting the “Ninja Mines.” In the process I hope to understand why it is that the miners no longer see this land as sacred, or if they do why it is that they feel they can desecrate the land. I will also be incorporating some of the larger mining operations into the story so that I can juxtapose the effects of major verses minor mining operations.

I will be working along side local collaborators for much of the time, and have contacts in government (the Ambassador to Mongolia for Kuwait) that can help me along the way with connections, shipping in equipment, and lodging while I’m in the city. I’m sure that for part of the time I will be traveling by car, and will be working out of Ulaanbaatar, so the value of a local collaborator will be paramount.

Many of the places that I will be will also offer the chance to document the rare animals of Mongolia that, though they are not directly affected by mining, are subject to poaching for the same reasons as some people turn to mining.  I’ll be in the same regions as the taimen, bactrian camel,the snow leopard, and the saiga

Saiga horns for sale in the background

.  The saiga is a rare antelope poached for its horns which I’ve seen for sale in Hong Kong markets.  Sadly, the snow leopards greatest enemy in Mongolia is the nomads themselves who see the animal as a threat to their livestock.  Although my focus is the mining, I believe the opportunity to document these rare animals may present itself and add depth to this story.  I will be using underwater cameras to photograph the taimen, and camera traps for the saiga and bactrian camels.  The chances of me capturing a snow leopard is next to nothing, but when I’m in their territory I will employ a camera trap in an effort to photograph them.

In summary, this expedition will focus on how the shrinking of usable land in Mongolia is forcing people to change their view of the sacred lands in Mongolia and the many threats that face them.  Primarily mining for gold, and secondarily poaching. My medium will be photography and experience gleaned from true exposure to the culture and to the land itself.  This is an ethnographic story that can only be told properly by spending time fully immersed in it.  In living this story I will document the lives of those people who see these places from opposite perspectives: As a resource and as sacred.

New Ideas

I’ve started a photo project I call moving stills.  The idea is to make video advertisements with still photo qualities.  This will be used for online magazines, or hopefully in the near future on the Apple Tablet once magazines start going digital.  Just trying to stay ahead of the pack.  Since my camera shoots HD video as well as stills it is really not too hard.   Check out www.photocine.com for more cool stuff shot on the 5D Mark II.