Michael Harris Photography

Canon 40D, 10-22mm at 10mm, iso 100 1/20 sec at f/8, + CLP As you can see the same location as Post 13. Just 12 hours apart "post 13" sunset and "post 14" sunrise. I had not planned on shooting the same image, but when the sun broke through the storm I ran to this location with the thought of comparing the two. The feeling of sunset was warm and joyful, so different than the cold morning storm headed your way.

Canon 40D, 10-24mm at 10mm, iso 100, 1/3 sec at f16 -1/2EV, +CLP Close to my style, clouds, ocean with a reflection from the above to below. This made me smile when it showed itself.

Canon 40D 10-22mm at 22mm, iso 100, 1/90 sec at f4.5 +CLP The perfect storm for a great evening. Sunset on Biscayne Bay with skating light shining on a sloop sailing below the fullmoon and of course four beautiful friends on the bow of the catamaran. I wasn't going to post this but after reading " Finding Your Photographic Style " by TJ Avery I felt that it more reflected my style and who I am better than the other image I was going to post. If you are looking for your style or just want to try and figure out who you are I encourage you to read TJ's article. This article very much reflects the name of my blog Svadhyaya which in sanskrit means "self study". I picked this name as this is a very important aspect of my yoga practice and I know that with continued practice in photograph that too will help me on my journey. Thanks TJ for your svadhyaya...

Canon 40D 70 -200mm at 70mm, iso 100, 1/2000 sec @ f2.8 This is an image with my favorite color. What color is it? I thought about making the image not so obvious, but the answer is there. First a strong B&W subject, but Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum ; they absorb all such frequencies of light. White is the color of objects that reflect all parts of the visible spectrum. Sorry for the science. Next you see the reds, oranges and yellows they appear to move toward you. NO, not any of them. And last the touch of blue, hopefully the last color you see in the image. Thanks for taking the journey.

Photo by Craig Tanner on the Grand Teton Workshop. Canon 1 DS MarkII , 16 -35mm at 32mm, iso 400, 1/250sec @ f5.6. Let me start with the greatest of gratitude to Craig Tanner . Craig has helped me grow as a photographer , artist and human. His ability to communicate both his understanding of photography and the creative process makes him a unique and inspiring teacher. If you have an opportunity to take one of his workshops, by all means take it. Craig sent to me this image of me taking image # 9 - Position. I thought I would include it to clarify my description of how the image was taken.

Canon 40D 70-200mm @ 70mm, iso 100 1/4sec at f13 Cropped to Panoramic This image is of course about light and how it can define your subject so easily. What made this possible was camera location, I had hiked up the side of a hill about 100ft. The additional height brought more of the mountain range in view and gave the image more depth. In addition the yellow leaves with the blue mountains and sky gives it color depth. When the setting sun cut through and lit up the aspens that was all I needed.

Canon 40D 24 -70mm at 24mm, iso 100, 1/15sec at f5.6 Another beautiful setting with the Grand Tetons as a background. Again many photographers jocking for a good position to capture the light up of the mountains with an interesting foreground. As the corners and windows of the log cabins had crowds, I looked for another angle. At this cabin the wall in the back had partially collapsed alloying me to climb to the top of the wall, I managed to stabilize my tripod on the beams and then capture this image.

Canon 40D 10-22mm @ 10mm, iso 100, 1/20sec f6 + CPL This image is another from the Radiant Vista workshop at Grand Tetons. This breaks the horizontal mid image rule, I think it works because of the tree line and rocks in the lower right. The lesson for me about this site was finding this location. Our instructor, Craig Tanner brought us to this site based on his previous scouting and what the sky was doing, it would not have worked at many of the other locations. Being in the right place at the right time is not luck!

Canon 40D 10-22mm at 22mm, iso 100, 1/4 sec f8, + CLP I took this image on the Teton workshop at the first site the group visited. It was very significant for me and helped set my style and mode for the entire workshop. The back story on this was the 50 photographers 100 yards down this road crowded around the front of a log house with the Tetons in the background, THE SHOT. Although this will never be as famous as the log house it is a good image in terms of line, color and texture. It got me started on my creative process, which starts by leaving the crowd to think on my own. I did not realize it at the time but group creativity is never better than singles working alone, this thought comes from an article named "Capturing Creativity" by Robert Epstein google it. Back to the image, what caught my eye was the yellow leaves against the blue road and then the line they formed. I will quite often look for "line" when I'm in a creative stuck zone. Comment...

I have just returned from a photography workshop at the Grand Tetons. The workshop was taught by Craig Tanner of Radiant Vista soon to be "The Mindful Eye". Craig is a great teacher that is able to communicate his journey with photography. I say it that way because with Craig you get much more than a how to workshop. You are offered new ways to look at nature and life. If you listen carefully Craig will give you the tools to turn your photography into your art. This is my second workshop with Craig and Radiant Vista. The first was Death Valley in February 2008, which was equally as inspiring as this last one. I learned how to take great images, but was not ready to integrate other aspects of the creative process. Because of the experience of last week I am changing the direction of this blog and hopefully becoming truer to the title of Svadhyaya (Self Study). In future blogs I will attempt to describe my process of discovery in the hopes that I might help a fellow beginn...