The story behind Mount Rainier, Lenticular Cloud

It was the largest lenticular cloud I had ever seen. Lenticular clouds, which look a bit like flying saucers, hover around Mount Rainier several times a year, but this one seemed to be as large as the mountain itself.

Bringing still images to life

When you take a picture, do you capture or do you express? This question gets right to the heart of the art of photography, and it’s a shift that you have to make as you evolve from taking pretty pictures to crafting images that mean something to someone.

The legend of the Milky Way

There have always been stories about the origin of the land and the life that calls it home. Before there was science, those stories came from imagination and spirituality. In this series, I have created contemporary nature photography to illustrate them. Read more about my Legends of the Land series.

It used to be that once the sun went down, the sky was completely black. But that ended one night when the biggest dog ever decided to steal a snack from some farmers.

Where do you find your vision?

I’ve spent more time thinking about my photography — why I do it and why my images look the way they do — over the past three months than I probably have over the preceding decade. I’m still doing interviews about my Rainbow on Haleakalā image, featured on a Forever postage stamp to commemorate the centennial of the U.S National Park Service. I’ve learned a lot about my approach to photography through the process of doing these interviews.

A few of the interviews focused on the thought process and effort behind the image (my favorite.) A few others concentrated on equipment and camera settings (my least favorite.) And a few fixated on the fact that I’m “self-taught,” I didn’t study — in fact, I detested — art in school. I think it’s really easy to take the latter the wrong way.

He who seeks beauty will find it

Since the announcement of the commemorative postage stamp featuring my Rainbow on Haleakala image, I’ve been asked a lot about my approach to photography. One quote that kept coming to mind each time I answered the question is the title of this blog post: “He who seeks beauty will find it.”

What Cali taught me about animals

If you’re the person who says, “Come on — she’s just a cat,” you should probably just skip to the next post right now. Otherwise, please bear with me. This is how I grieve. This will also tell you much more about my approach to wildlife photography than anything else I could write.

The story behind the stamp

As a child, we were often told to come in out of the rain. In a national park, however, it’s sometimes best to stay put. Otherwise you could miss out on an experience of a lifetime.

And I’m honored that one of my experiences of a lifetime — the afternoon that resulted in the image Rainbow on Haleakalā — was selected by the U.S. Postal Service to appear on a very special commemorative stamp to honor the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.