The Found Bike Project began on May 16, 2016. I found an old-but-well-maintained bike on the North House Folk School campus and photographed it with a 35mm f/1.4 lens. After posting it on the Internet, those that saw it encouraged me to take more pictures of found bikes. The project was born. I estimated it
Do you skip out on Rainy Day Photography? If you do, then you are missing out. If you go out on rainy days, you already know the secret. The secret is simple: rainy days make for great photography. This is especially true when photographing waterfalls. Earlier this week, I did a one-on-one photo workshop with
In the middle of February, I joined Northstar Canoe and a seasoned crew of adventurers on the Rio Grande River. We paddled the lower canyon using the new Northstar B-17 in the IXP layup. While I write a photography column for Ocean Paddler Magazine and have photographed expeditions before, this trip lead to a slightly
If I had to pick one national park as a favorite, I’d pick the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There wouldn’t be any hesitation or delay in my answer. It is by far my favorite park. If I had to pick one season, I’d pick Fall in the Smoky Mountains (or spring). I really couldn’t pick
While many approaches exist to produce simplicity in photography, the idea of additive composition instantly creates a simple minimalist shot that works as a palette for as much complexity as needed. In my workshop presentations, I talk about a three-part process for composition: Simplicity, Flow and Relationships. Summed up, simplicity means including as few compositional
In 1987, my buddy Steve and I were watching TV when a news report reported that Jim Reinders had built a replica of England’s Stonehenge near the city of Alliance, Nebraska. We decided that one day we would visit Carhenge. College came and went. Steve moved to Colorado and I to Minnesota. Years past. More years
Plein air painter Neil Sherman first told me the name of The Tombolo. He heard it from painter Howard Sivertson. I can imagine Howard walking the beach in his red suspenders to paint the spot. The Tombolo is one of three iconic north shore islands on Lake Superior in Minnesota. The most famous is Hollow Rock
My first strong memory of a canoe was paddling a beat-up, old, fiberglass canoe on the backwaters of the Mississippi River. Many adventures ensued. Kirk Wipper, the founder of the Canadian Canoe Museum, captured what a canoe means to me when he said, “You have to do what you can, do your best with what you are.
I recently did my typical year-end post where I talk about how my year went as an artist: what worked, what challenges I had, how I feel about my work in that year. In that post (see: My Favorite Shots of 2017), I also picked one shot from each month that was my favorite shot. It
Each year I like to look back and see how things went. In 2017, I put a lot on my plate. It was the year that I was on the road the most since back when I was 25. I spent about 120 days on the road and put just under 36,000 miles on my
