Cropping a Magnolia Branch
Careful cropping a photograph yields strong composition
Camassia Nature Preserve
God creates gardens. Camassia Nature Preserve, The Nature Conservancy, Portland Oregon Whether you consider God to be a benign Overseer, or Nature, or [...]
Retouching a Photo
How much photo retouching is acceptable? Phormium ‘Maori Chief’ with Wisteria and Leucospermum – interpretation This is a question I consider every time [...]
Fixing Light Leaks
Whenever I photograph wooden fences I watch for light leaks. The eye is always drawn to bright areas and the smallest slit in a fence [...]
Pruning with Photoshop
Sometimes when I photograph a garden, wanting to show a useful plant in a clever setting, I want it to be an illustration more than a [...]
Prints of Sherry’s Garden
I was delighted to hear from my friend, garden designer Sherry Merciari, who wanted to order prints of some experimental, abstracted photos I created of [...]
Ceanothus Painting
I spent the afternoon painting. The Ceanothus ‘Ray Hartman in my garden is in full bloom and my camera by itself could not do it [...]
Making Hard Light Work
There was a time when I would never shoot in harsh, hard light. Bright, strong, contrasty light tends to have deep, black shadows and no [...]
Gingko Branch with Camellia
It is such a relief, a release really, when I can stop my crazy schedule and create something new. Too much of what I seem [...]
Composing with Color
On a cool gray autumn day I went looking for color in my garden. I did not expect to see a red hole into another universe. [...]