I love this image! This particular day was an amazing sunny day and the clouds were perfect. How beautiful. I love how it is a combination of technology and nature, yet the nature wins in beauty!
This quote really summed up my feelings while taking this image. I don’t know how anyone can look at creation and not be moved. It was created for us!
After reading through this book again I just have to take a moment and write a brief recommendation for Ansel Adams’ Autobiography. It truly has it all and is definitely not only for photographers only! I really cant stress that enough. It really is for everyone that enjoys living history as well as art and photography.
You can find it on Amazon. Don’t be dissuaded by the initial price since you can search the used books and get an incredible deal on it.
It not only features great reproductions of his best known photos like ‘Moonrise’, and ‘Yosemite Half Dome’ but he also tells the stories behind the photos and that is what I enjoyed the best. I felt like it really helped the photos to come alive.
He told how he started the f64 group and his National Parks tours, but I particularly enjoyed his enlightening stories about how he began in photography and he was so transparent about the mistakes that he made. So often people like to say that he was just a landscape photographer but he explains that when he started out he would shoot anything. Yes he primarily specialized in landscapes, especially our National Parks, but he also shared about his early years when he would take a wide variety of jobs.
Out of the many stories and anecdotes he shares one of my favorites is of his first professional job in 1920. He shot a class picture for a Chinese Grammar School and ruined it on his first attempt! He used too much flash powder and they had to clear out the building and there was so much smoke that the fire department showed up! He then took them outside in the direct sun and took the shot and it all worked out. There are a few more stories that are similar that as I read them I was really comforted hearing them. I dont think that it is just because I am a photographer but just the fact that we all run into challenges in life and is comforting to see how even he had such troubles at times but overcame them.
I can almost guarantee that you will love the book, learn a lot from it and be thoroughly entertained by it.
We recently had the privilege of shooting the cover story featuring Jacomo Bairos for ‘My School Rock’s’ Magazine. We had a great time and are really happy with the photos. It was not only great photographing him for the cover story but it was great being there early to enjoy his music he conducted. Shooting the orchestra was a great opportunity to silently shoot using our sound blimp. (see earlier post ‘In A Silent Way’)
Here is some info about Jacomo: Recently concluding a two-year post as Associate Conductor for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Mr. Bairos regularly works with some of America’s finest orchestras and ensembles.
Recent seasons include return engagements with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta National do Porto (ONP) and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra as well as performances with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Malaysia Philharmonic and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Bairos has worked with an array of distinguished artists such as Shlomo Mintz, Caroline Goulding, Latin-Grammy winner, Nestor Torres, the crossover group ProjectTrio, and Cuban Band Tiempo Libre to name a few.
A passionate educator, Mr. Bairos regularly visits local schools and has developed concerts for youth that have reached thousands of kids across the Carolinas. In his native homeland of Portugal he led concerts for some 2300 kids with the ONP and was Music Director for the 2010 National Youth Orchestra Festival of Portugal. As former Director of Orchestras with the renowned Baltimore School for the Arts, he worked closely with the Baltimore Symphony’s “OrchKids”, creating side-by-sides and education workshops for children in underserved urban communities.
Born in Lisbon to both American and Portuguese parents, he holds Portuguese (EU) and US citizenship and currently divides his time between Miami, FL, and Charlotte, NC.
