19-MAY-2008
The Angel Road, Columbia, California, 2008
By backing away from this statue of an angel, which stands over a grave in Columbia’s cemetery, I change its context. I place it over the crest of a road instead of over a gravesite. The setting sun partially illuminates the angel, while the dark street and background isolates it and brings a dream like mood to the image. We ride on the road of an angel, and just over the hill, eternity awaits us.
14-MAY-2008
Cascade Falls, Yosemite National Park, California, 2008
We often must confront a waterfall head-on, but every now and then we get the chance to photograph a waterfall in profile. Such is the case with Cascade Falls – my side vantage point allows me to define its clouds of vapor and spray against the dark canyon wall. I layer both the plunging fall, its leading edge looking very much like reaching fingers, and the curling plumes of vapor, by filling the foreground with a frame of dark green trees. The result is a blend of beauty and mystery – a mood of nature at its most atmospheric.
05-APR-2008
Under the fishing nets, Cochin, India, 2008
Soaring birds and a forest of ancient Chinese fishing nets greet the inbound ferryboats in Cochin’s natural harbor, which was created by a flood in 1341. By shooting this scene at sunset, I am able to turn the Arabian Sea into a textured golden sheet, with a sky to match. It recalls Cochin’s storied past as a port, nearly thousand years of reaping benefit from the trade winds. Coloration and abstraction help me produce an atmospheric image rich in mood and unique in character.
23-MAR-2008
Moonset at Ranthambore, India, 2008
As we prepared to leave our hotel for our early morning game drive in search of the Royal Bengal Tiger, a full moon in all of its detail was very much in evidence. I spot-metered on the moon itself. It was so bright that it allowed me to shoot this image hand-held at 1/40th of a second. There was just enough early morning light to barely make out the cupola of our hotel just below the moon. The dark cupola is a good example of abstraction – it is there but not there, at the same time. It leaves much room for the imagination of the viewer to work. Together, the moon and the dimly seen cupola make a picture that richly expresses the mood we felt here.
23-MAR-2008
The Nahargarh Hotel, Ranthambore, India, 2008
Our hotel just outside Ranthambore National Park, one of India's great tiger sanctuaries, resembled a palace -- seen here at dusk. By abstracting the hotel as a silhouette, framing it within an arch, and juxtaposing the gold tinged diagonal cloud against the deep blue sky, I produce a mood that evokes storybook India.
02-APR-2008
Houseboating, Kerala Backwaters, India, 2008
More than 400 houseboats ply the backwaters of Kerala. They are 100 feet long, and feature thatched roofs over wooden hulls. We spent three nights on one of them as we cruised the backwaters. Here a crew member helps dock our houseboat at sunset. By juxtaposing the silhouetted man with the sunset, I create a two-layer image producing a three-dimensional effect. The viewer becomes part of the picture, virtually looking over the shoulder of the crewmember as he works. The evening sky is beautiful, but acquires more meaning because of the dynamic gesture that is superimposed upon it. Seen together, the dual layers present both a mood and an atmosphere that provoke emotional response.
22-DEC-2007
Dinner on the Perfume River, Hue, Vietnam, 2007
The Perfume River is lined with small houseboats in downtown Hue. I made this photograph from a bridge around dinnertime. This is more than a description of a woman cooking dinner. It is a distillation of life in Southeast Asia. By choosing to abstract the cook by shooting through a cloud of cooking smoke, I try to distill the nature of life on the river, difficult, yet somehow manageable. The image is full of mood and atmosphere – it’s the struggle in the chocking smoke that conveys the most to us.
23-DEC-2007
Dusk, Hoi An, Vietnam, 2007
As the sun goes down, Hoi An's Thu Bon river is the place to be. This woman has come in her own small boat. If you look at this image in its full-size, you will see the head of a small child in that boat. The copper coloration extends a powerful sense of both atmosphere and mood over this scene. The arm of the woman echoes the shape of the bows of the ships in the background. The image gives us a sense of place through its mysterious copper color, a color that defines the charm and timeless beauty of this place.
08-JAN-2008
Lost in a cloud of dust, Tan Chau, Vietnam, 2008
They came at us out of the golden haze of rising dust -- a steady flow of roaring bikes. The helmeted and masked riders could see as little as we could. It was a wonder that when the dust finally settled, no accident marred the scene. If ever there was an image that conveys the mood and atmosphere of rural Vietnam it is this one – an abstraction boiling life down to a puddle and band of shadowy figures lost in the dust. Existence in such places as this can be primitive at times and the atmosphere conveyed in this image brings it down to exactly that.
06-SEP-2007
Huangpu morning, Shanghai, China, 2007
The 1,500-foot high Oriental Pearl TV tower soars over the Pudong skyline on the Huangpu River, just across from Shanghai's famed Bund. Pudong was built on the rubble of peasant houses that once fringed the river. The cloud effect here is particularly striking -- I had visited Shanghai twice before, and always viewed this scene in hazy, flat light. The third time was the charm! The play of light and color on the buildings, water, and clouds offer us the symbolic mood of the dawn of a new day. A very appropriate mood for this booming city that is spearheading China’s enormous economic growth.
13-SEP-2007
Sunset, Pingyao, China, 2007
A sun wreathed in clouds, and rooftop dragons hosting a pair of birds are featured in this sunset image. I expose on the sun itself to make the image much darker than it looked in life. This darkness offers considerable abstraction to the scene, reducing the Chinese context for the sunset to a minimum. The birds perching on the dragon’s head roof ornament add a whimsical touch to an otherwise dramatic cloudscape.
11-SEP-2007
Chimney, Ji Ming Temple, Nanjing, China, 2007
The long column of smoke, spreading out into the surrounding forest, brings a timeless, spiritual mood to the grounds of this ancient temple. I made this image from the temple’s pagoda, giving me a vantage point that allowed me to juxtapose the smoke and the forest.