One Shot: A View From the Top

I found myself in a New York state of mind today, and naturally photographs are an excellent way for me to revisit a place, if only in my imagination. I can feel the setting sun and the breeze when I put myself back into this photo, a southward view from the 86th-floor observation deck of […]

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History In Site: Cahaba River Bridge Train Wreck, AL

Wherever we go, the landscape is dotted with history–places large and small where the world once shifted, for one or for many. Sometimes those memories linger in physical form–if you know the story behind what you’re seeing. As a student of the past, my History In Site posts tell some of the stories of places […]

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Destination: Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive

Sprawling across northwestern Orange County in central Florida glitters Lake Apopka, the fourth-largest lake in the state. Once it was a tourist attraction in its own right, its shore dotted with 21 fishing camps in the 1940s. Over time, the land surrounding the lake was converted to farmland, with the lake receiving more than its […]

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Destination: Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens

Tucked into a downtown Philadelphia neighborhood, behind a wall and gate of colorful tile mosaic, between two mosaic-covered buildings, lies a tiny world that defies description. It’s a folk art installation of epic proportions. It’s an artful maze, full of art, and art unto itself. It’s a melange of tile and toys and words and […]

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One Shot: Aerial Myrtle Beach

I think a cardinal rule of photography is that to make interesting images, you often need to find an unusual point of view on your subject. Sometimes that means getting down low, or zooming in close, or using a lens or focal length that causes distortion. And sometimes it means hopping into a helicopter and […]

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One Shot: Dulce Et Decorum Est

We photographers are lovers of light, and of patterns, and of colors and lines and textures. As such, some places we walk into simply make our jaws drop, and inspire a range of feelings. Simple awe for one, excitement for the opportunity to try to capture that place in a photograph–and a bit of trepidation […]

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Destination: Point Dume State Beach, CA
Point Dume Sunset

With the prospect of my first all-too-brief visit to the Los Angeles area, I had two main goals: get my feet into the Pacific Ocean, and catch a sunset over the ocean, both novelties for a Florida native like me. I very much prefer my beaches on the undeveloped and uncrowded side, so that pretty […]

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Destination: Ponce Inlet, FL

From the world-famous sands of Daytona Beach, Florida, a barrier island extends to the south, down through the oceanfront hotels of Daytona Beach Shores and the sleepy town of Wilbur-by-the-Sea, an enclave of beautiful beachfront homes and decorative marine-themed mailboxes. Keep heading south along A1A and Atlantic Avenue and you will at last come to […]

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HDR: An Introduction

Many of the photos I post here are HDR images–HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. In a nutshell, HDR combines several exposures of the same scene in order to give photographs more oomph, by making them more like what the human eye can see in terms of detail across a range of light levels. That’s […]

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One Shot: Golden Hills

One gorgeous fall day, I spent the afternoon driving a winding route through the Sequoia National Park in central California. On my way back towards Ducor and Bakersfield, the road took me through this gorgeous golden glade of grassy foothills and scattered trees, beautifully lit by the lowering western sun. I couldn’t resist pulling over […]

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