On the first day, clouds marked the sky. And it was good. And we were wet with rain and frozen by wind and pelted by hail and splattered in mud, and we did not care. For the Earth was carpeted with yellow and red and purple and blue and we were soar amazed. Tomorrow: Poppy Paradise. (Nikon D500, Tamron 100–400mm F/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD. Nikon D850, Tamron SP 24–70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD G2. RAW processing […]
Day Two? What happened to Day One? Day One has been postponed in order to save the best for last. The Carrizo Plain is known for many things. In the Spring, it’s known for wildflowers — especially this year, when it is the site of a super bloom. Super blooms happen in years that have had a far greater that average rainfall, and we certainly had that in California this year. When we arrived on […]
I don’t recall when I first saw Georgia O’Keeffe’s work. It just seems like she was always there. She decided to be an artist when she was ten, and then for almost nine decades she kept herself and her art intensely alive through constant evolution — but she was always unmistakably herself and her art was always unmistakably her own. I don’t know if Ms. O’Keeffe ever visited the amazing and seemingly endless gardens at […]
For an all-too-brief period in the spring, California poppies proliferate. They’re just starting to appear here in the Bay Area. In a few weeks — maybe just a few days — there will be more patches, fields, entire hillsides of intense golden blooms shimmering in the breeze. There will be more in this space too. Here’s a preview of this year’s bounty. (Nikon D850; AF-S VR Micro-NIKKOR 105mm f/2.8G IF-ED. RAW processing in DxO PhotoLab […]
(The essence of a tulip might be a onelip. Nikon D750; Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR Zoom. RAW processing in DxO Pro; final editing in Adobe Photoshop.) More fine-art photography: www.amagaphoto.com
I started this blog only a short while ago — November 2018 — in answer to requests from friends to put my “other” photography on the Web. “Other” photography would be defined as images that go beyond the self-imposed limits of what I put on my formal website. I also intended this blog to be a way of making all my photography more widely known. That was my original purpose and that remains my purpose. […]
Yesterday, forty-nine fellow inhabitants of our world were murdered while they were worshiping in Mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The madness of this act is unfathomable. The fact that it happened in New Zealand is deeply saddening. New Zealand ranks number two in the Global Peace Index. At times like this our hearts can get very dark and the darkness can be infectious. While we mourn the loss, we must not succumb to a hopeless […]
June 20, 2018; Doubtful Sound, South Island, New Zealand. It was a beautiful day. First day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Bright sun. Not a cloud in the sky. Gorgeous. The air was crisp. Clean. Cold. Except this was our one and only day to photograph one of the most dramatic fjords in New Zealand. We wanted clouds. Mist. Fog. Dark dusky drama. Rain squalls. Rainbows. We got none of it. Mother Nature served […]
February 2019. My back yard and my computer. Every year there are plum blossoms in my yard. Every year — in homage to Japanese art — I photograph them, searching for The One. Over the past few weeks, many gigabytes died on this search. This blossom? That one? One blossom? Many? High-key? Low-key? Simple background? Mottled background? High contrast? Low contrast? Saturated? Muted? On and on and on and on. . . Images fell like […]
February 17, 2019, San Joaquin River Delta; February 10, 2019, San Francisco Bay. I’m lucky to live in an area where White-tailed Kites are relatively common. Yesterday we went on a birding trip through the San Joaquin River Delta with naturalist David Wimpfheimer on a boat operated by Dolphin Charters. I recommend both. Along the way we saw about sixty species. One standout was this beautiful and cooperative white-tailed kite. He watched us as we slowed […]
Gulls are everywhere. Gulls are a dime a dozen. They’re not special. They’re not particularly beautiful. They’re not evocative. Gulls are a waste of time. I don’t shoot gulls. Yeah. Right. The only statement above that’s even partially true is the first one: they do seem to be almost everywhere. Meet Spot. Spot is a Western Gull of a certain age who hangs out in the vicinity of Tomalas Bay in California. Spot was given […]
January 17, 2019, Point Reyes National Seashore. There he was. Coyote. There I was. Human. As we warily watched each other it occurred to me that each of us thinks the other is wild, unpredictable, and dangerous. We stared. I got my shots. He walked off—impatient to get on with life, but unscathed. I thought he was handsome. I don’t know what he thought. (Nikon D500, Tamron 100-400 f/4.5-6.3 Di VC USD)
Saturday, December 8, 2018. Point Reyes National Seashore. I probably shouldn’t give the secret away, but the Tomales Point Trail is one of the best walks it’s possible to take—anywhere. Best known for its Tule Elk preserve, the trail will also put you under the flight paths of Red Tailed Hawks, Northern Harriers, Peregrine Falcons, Osprey, and more. Here we have a Raptor on a Rock surveying its realm, which includes Point Reyes itself, some […]
Thanksgiving morning. November 22, 2018. On the first morning of clear air after the smoke from the recent Northern California fire washed away in very welcome rain, my wife and I took a walk by the marshes at the south end of the San Francisco Bay. As we discussed our immediately upcoming Thanksgiving chef duties, I tracked this Northern Harrier hunting for her own Thanksgiving meal. This series was shot over the course of about […]
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