A Road Trip to Remember: The People

Rock Climbing Class

A recent road trip to Central Oregon allowed me a chance to not only connect with friends and photograph some beautiful landscapes, but also photograph some people, most of which were hanging/climbing 50 to 100 feet in the air on the face of Smith Rock.

While I myself do not climb, I have a mix of a great of respect and absolute confusion for those that do. For myself, I have a great dread of heights that is based on personal experiences in my past. My fear of heights is so bad, that when I get close to edge of something like Smith Rock, or lets say Crater Lake, it takes all my energy to not throw up.

But beyond that, the main reason I have never pursued rock climbing is that I lack confidence in my ability and in the safety of the gear to be successful in this particular endeavor. And in this particular case, if you are aren't successful, you are likely dead or possibly even worse, wishing you were dead.

With that said... enjoy the photos.

Reaching

Scaling Smith Rock Face

Example of Smith Rock Scale

Resting on the face of Smith Rock

Out of the Darkness on Smith Rock

Climber Explaining His Passion

A Road Trip to Remember: The Landscapes

Smith Rock

Last weekend I embarked on a road trip with some friends to Central Oregon.We explored several different locations including, Smith Rock, pictured above, the Head of the Metolius River, Crooked River Gorge and the Three Sisters viewpoint pullout. Each location provided distinct terrains and unique photo opportunities and all were within thirty minutes, or less, of each other and most importantly, each provided us a chance to bond not only as photographers, but as friends.

I am finding personal interactions much more important today than I did even just a few short years ago. I am finding social media and technology platforms like mobile technologies (texting, email, etc.) a very dissatisfying experience these days. This reinforced in me the importance of putting down my phone, tablet, computer, etc and look up, look around and connect with people face to face. Thanks Rick, Shawn and Matt for inviting me to be a part of this extremely awesome day.

Enjoy the photos below.

Mt. Jefferson Over the Head of the Metolius River

Jefferson National Forest

Smith Rock

Smith Rock

North Sister Viewpoint from Smith Rock

Crooked River Gorge

Three Sister Viewpoint

Happy Easter Balloons....

Happy Easter from the Creative Monkey Studios.

A day at the tulip fields

I spent the day at the tulip fields with my family. It was beautiful. I decided to try some simple artistic pieces this time out... since this was my fifth trip to the fields and didn't focus too much on the flowers... not too much.

I have been lazy lately... or have I

******Warning This Post Contains Tasteful Nudity Called Art******

You have been warned.

I recently had a conversation with a friend. We had some friendly banter about just how busy I have been since I had claimed to have been too busy to have scheduled a shoot for a local photography club. Well this is an example of what I have been doing in the last few weeks. But in the end he is right, I am probably just sitting around on my ass watching An Idiot Abroad or playing solitaire or writing or drawing or reading or walking or gardening or managing a headache or managing my fibro or working my day job... just kidding. Actually all that is true, I was just throwing that out as a friendly jab back at my buddy. :)

Aside from this ongoing headache, which I have been suffering from since mid-December, life has been good. It has felt good when I picked up my camera and I that had not felt good in a long time. I have been writing and drawing quite a bit. My wife has had me out in the yard quite a bit as well. It has been good for me to care about things other than art. It is nice find other forms of creating outside of with a camera, pencil or paintbrush. Balance is coming, but rest assured that I am still fine tuning that balance, and until I get the headaches under control, I have to put things aside from time to time, then I play catch up and then recover, then catch up again and I pay in other ways for that.

It is an interesting journey; finding balance. It isn't always easy, but it has been rewarding. Part of that reward is being able to deliver photos like these to a friend who really wants to do something fun, daring and creative to get out of rut she feel herself in. She is not a model as she puts it. She wanted to simply step outside her comfort zone and asked me to help. How can I say no to a friend. So my wife and I helped. My wife helped pick out the costumes, which aren't pictured here to protect her anonymity, did her makeup for the shoot and also acted as my voice activated light stand for the shoot as well as helped with some of the posing.

Many thanks to my friend Nathan Smith of http://photonate.com/ for loaning me his lighting kit for the day to help make this happen.

Enjoy this small sampling of the shots.

The Art of Levitation

It is amazing what you can do with the power of your mind. What's even more amazing is what you can do with camera, a ladder, a chair, a couple of hours and some creative friends eager to have fun.

I recently got to spend an afternoon with my friends Rick and Nathan levitating objects for our cameras. It was a relaxing time for all, great results were had. Enjoy the photos.

Copperfield-esq 

Carried Away

Coming For You

So Excited

Miscalculated

Inside The Elsinore Theater

A few weeks ago I got to spend an evening in the Elsinore Theater with my photography club. This place is absolutely beautiful and it was a unique opportunity for us to be able to get in and have unrestricted access to the entire building. Simply stunning.

Enjoy the additional two images below, one of which I was able to get with the help of my friend Rick and his lights. Thanks Rick.

Coming Back

It has been a long while.

I have been busy.

I have made some changes.

I have made some good changes.

And as a result, I have been making art again.

I have found some balance. I no longer have to choose between my health, my family, my friends and my art, sacrificing one for something else. By letting go of other things, I now have time to balance all of these things and have time for me as well.

I thought I would post some of what I have been doing... mostly experimental work, but at least I have been creating again and it is getting me out of that creative rut I was drowning in for so long.

I must say, honestly, it is nice to be breathing again.