2012 calendar -- front cover

Well, I’ve made a calendar for 2012. It doesn’t follow any seasonal format. No snow scenes for winter or wildflower photos for spring. Just twelve photographs. Thirteen counting the cover. Some are old standbys, some recent work from here in LA.

Actually I didn’t make it — I selected and sequenced the photos, and the fine folks at redbubble will make them as the thousands, or tens of thousands of orders come in. Then I can retire to a life of comfort and ease.

You can see it and order yours right here.

2012 calendar -- back cover

You hear the question quite often — what defines success?

To me, doing what is considered in our society as being ‘practical’, living someone else’s expectations, pursuing a career simply because it can make a lot of money even though it’s not really something that resonates with your spirit, living a life that satisfies society’s norms rather than your own gut instincts isn’t a successful life. Even if it makes you an uncountable fortune. It’s death on two legs.

Maybe that’s where this whole zombie and vampire craze comes from…

Question: What does success mean to you?

One thing that strikes me about photography blogging, and the community and friendships that grow out of it, is that age plays no part. Unless someone actually states their age it’s unknown, and nobody cares.

A few of us are sixty somethings, a few are fifty somethings or forty somethings. Probably the majority of bloggers are in their twenties or thirties, but I wouldn’t bet a paycheck on that even if I had one. A few are even in their teens.

None of that matters, and that’s cool. There’s a lot more exchanging of thoughts and ideas, a lot more give and take between generations going on in the blogs than there is out on the streets. How often do you see fifty year olds hanging out with twenty or thirty year olds in your day to day life? Not often. Humans tend to herd up by age group and lifestyle in the every day world, but far less so in the blogs.

I think that’s a great thing. I learn a lot from those younger than I am.

I moved photomontana graphics from weebly to my hosting plan over the weekend, and changed it over to a wordpress installation. Weebly is fine for some things, but it doesn’t match wordpress for functionality and flexibilty. Weebly is free, but like most things, you get what you pay for. I decided I’d be better of with the more dynamic and powerful wordpress CMS.

I will be adding new work to my galleries as I go along. In the meantime, please note the three main categories of cards and prints that I offer.

The biggest selection can be found in the photo prints section. Here is where most of the photography I do is located.

The next category is art cards. This is more experimental — the photos are done with my phone and then altered in various ways. Serendipity plays a huge role in these pieces.

The third group is my wilderness series. These are photographs I take in our great wilderness areas and other natural places such as National Parks and National Forests among others. This is where you can also help in the efforts to protect these areas. Ten percent of the profits from sales of wilderness series photos will be donated to grassroots environmental groups.

It’s not too early to order prints or cards for the holiday season, and stay tuned, sign up for the newsletter, and view the entire gallery right here.

While you’re at it, check out some of the coupon deals from a few of my affiliates. Simply click on the affiliate name.

I love to read about master photographers from the past. Maybe you do too. The work they did, the lives they lived, and the thoughts and philosophies they developed over the years can be both fascinating and inspiring. Here’s a short list of a few of the books that I’ve read, some several times, over the years and that will always have a place on my bookshelf. I highly recommend each and every one of them.

Ansel Adams: A Biography

Ansel Adams: Classic Images

Ansel Adams: Letters, 1916 – 1984

The Daybooks of Edward Weston; Two Volumes in One: I. Mexico, II. California

Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History: The Story of the Legendary Photo Agency

Dialogue with Photography: Interviews by Paul Hill and Thomas Cooper

Focus: Memoirs of a Life in Photography

homeless

We all have much to be thankful for. Not just on one long weekend a year when some of us gather for a feast of turkey, but every morning that we wake up.

I can’t help but wonder about the future of a society where the growth industries seem to be payday loans and car title loans… where selling plasma is seen as an income opportunity… where shopping carts are the vehicle of necessity for a growing number of people…

I hope your holiday is going well, but let’s not forget those, like this man, who are less fortunate. The line between comfort and catastrophe is a mighty thin one, and growing thinner for a lot of folks.

Philip Hyde was truly a master landscape photographer. He studied with the likes of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Minor White among others. He went on to pioneer the use of color in landscape and wilderness photography. He loved the wilderness, dedicated himself to protecting it, and his intimate and moving photographs were a mainstay in Sierra Club books for years.

The Lumière Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia has an exhibit of Philip Hyde’s wilderness photography, and has put together a short video of his works with narration and commentary by his son David Leland Hyde celebrating wilderness. It’s beautifully done:

Philip Hyde from Lumière on Vimeo.

To find out more about the exhibit you can visit the Lumière Gallery. To find out more about Philip Hyde, his photography, and his dedication to wilderness, you can visit David Hyde’s fine site Landscape Photography Blogger. You’ll be glad you did.

Trapper Peak -- Bitterroot Mountains, Montana

I come more and more to the conclusion that wilderness, in America or anywhere else, is the only thing that is worth saving. — Edward Abbey

And the longer I live, I come more and more to the conclusion that Cactus Ed was right…

This goes back to the early 1980′s, my first summer in the Bitterroot.

Western Avenue mural

You see a lot of murals painted on the sides of buildings here in LA. Some are of historical scenes, others are of famous people, mostly entertainers and Hollywood legends. I always admire the work that goes into these things.

If I’m not mistaken, this is a mural of Donny Osmond. Sure looks like him to me. You don’t see Donny Osmond depicted on a larger than life mural everyday… unless you’re driving up Western Ave. in Los Angeles.

Any other thoughts on who it might be?

Update: I stand corrected. It apparently is a mural of a singer named Juan Gabriel. This was pointed out to me in the comments, and though the plaque is hard to read in the photo, and is written in Spanish, it does have the name Juan Gabriel in it. That makes a lot more sense to me than Donny O did. Thanks Mei.

Not that it has anything to do with photography, but the longer I stay in LA the more convinced I get that the best way to get around here is on foot, at least for reasonable distances. I don’t have enough limbs and appendages to be a good driver.

I drive a stick shift.  I’ve yet to master the the technique of  using the clutch, the brake, and the gas pedal all at the same time with only two feet without losing speed and getting run up the curb. And how in the hell do I steer, shift, lean on the horn, and stick a finger out the window at the guy on my back bumper who’s honking his horn at me with only two hands?

Either it can’t be done or I’m just not good enough…