The Forgiven Seasons – Walk on the Wild Side

Watching your child grow is a masterclass in many things: obviously patience, but equally wonder, humility, happiness, frustration, the shouldas and the wouldas… and the yins and yangs of one’s own personality. It is to be active and inactive. It is to be protective yet withholding any fears. It is to be a teacher and a student at the same exact moment in time.

The Forgiven Seasons is an ongoing visual witnessing of youth as they grow from isolation into a limitless world limited by the constraints of yesteryear’s residuals. They grow from a singularity into a fevered exploration of what is what. In this journey, they step into the moss-laden forests to use their imaginations of young and old, discovering the nooks and crannies of old wood in search of faeries; a Walk on the Wild Side.

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Photo Essay: Wood – A Story from the Olympic Peninsula (Pt. III)

Photo Essay: Wood – A Story from the Olympic Peninsula (Pt. II)

As I continue to drive out into the Olympic Peninsula, camera bags full and surf gear packed, I slowly observe the culture of a timber industry unfolding before my eyes.  It is a people’s livelihood, their subsistence within the forest, bringing shelters over families heads and food to their hungry tables.  And for the blue collar, it is not a wealthy industry.  They are the cutters, sawers, operators, drivers and haulers of a civilization taking over the wild places.

With video files and the numerous still images of the cold cloudy spring passing over the Northwest wilderness, this project is evolving into an unbiased perspective of Man vs. Nature, and how the two can equally subsist; prosper side by side and thrive within one another.

Below is the second essay of imagery and visual thoughts from a story of wood deep within the Olympic Peninsula.

Photo Essay: Wood – a Story from the Olympic Peninsula (Pt. I)

Wood; a precious commodity.  Cut, sawed, shaped, nailed, lacquered, stained.  Occasionally it’s replanted, and years later, generations gone, money is made again.  Wood is money.  The forests are for sale, for their resources, for their lands, for their habitat.  The following images are the start of a multimedia project telling the tale of wood, from origin to combustion, and the phases of transition in-between.  How does it effect us?  How does it feed us?  How is the life under our feet and that above our heads impacted today, tomorrow and those generations ahead?

Seattle Central Creative Academy: Photography Assignment (George Hurrell Heavy-Set)

A George Hurrell-inspired photography assignment creating a classy black and white 1920’s film noir/glamour shot.  Involved set construction, props, wardrobe and some serious lighting skills.  Here is my mortician with a new patient waiting behind the walls.

Location: SCCA Studios, Seattle, WA

Model: William O’Donnell

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM Telephoto Zoom Lens

70mm, 1/100 sec at ƒ/7.1, ISO 100, tripod mount.

Post: Adobe LR3 & PS5

Photo Essay: The Great Scapes by California

Photo Essay: Flora & Fauna of Indo

Photo Essay: French Noir

Photo of the Day: Textured Rep

Captured in the jungles of southeastern Costa Rica, this little lizard rested in the afternoon heat upon a leaf of a local palm. Composing the image, I wanted to photograph the details of the tropical jungle, highlighting the lizard’s intricate skin while diffusing the background of a deteriorating jungle floor.

Location: Manzanillo, Costa Rica

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM;

1/25 sec at f/4, ISO 1000.

Post: Adobe LR3 & Photoshop CS5