There’s something in the “hiding in its shell” nature of turtles that give them a sense of shyness and fear, a threatened vulnerability. This sense is only enhanced when coming across the Desert Tortoise, like this specimen I came across wandering along the side of a wash in Saguaro National Park, whose numbers in some locations have declined by as much as a factor of ten, and which is listed as a vulnerable species by IUCN.

I worked quickly with another photographer holding a reflector and me working handheld, to shoot a handful of images. Depth of field was incredibly challenging here, as I was working on a steep slope and didn’t feel very stable, and was not willing to move the animal. Even selecting where to focus becomes a challenge when you decide not to keep the entire eye in focus. I really love the pebbly skin texture, and decided to make sure that some of this was kept on the top of this guy’s head.

Canon EOS 1Ds @ ISO 400, Canon EF 100/2.8 macro @ f/3.2, 1/100s.

Your book on Iceland is a feature on working with light!! The high key water images are very nice as are the texture images, “Waterfall and Columnar Basalt” and “Black Mud Swirls” but my favorites are the moody ones, like “Incoming Storm” and “Midnight Dusk”. –P. Lindsay

And just in case you still haven’t ordered yours, go do that now. Or at least enjoy a preview of the first 15 pages and covers.

I’ve updated the description for my November Oregon Coast Workshop, more updates to come. I’ve selected a range of locations we’ll be working in and have added a modest list of some of the photographic opportunities in the area: “not just beuatiful beaches and sea stacks but also pitcher plants, lighthouses, diunes, a covered bridge, waterfalls, and all sorts of wildlife, the one thing we will have, one way or another, is photographic opportunity!”. Keep tuned for additional updates on lodging, etc. The workshop is filling quickly, for more details on how to register see the workshops page.

I’d also like to remind you all about my unique, one-participant only photographic experience in Glacier National Park this September, I think it’ll be a great experience for someone.

After flash floods shortened my stay in Chiricahua National Monument last year, Joel Curzon headed out of the park near sunset, and stopped for a few moments to watch its last moments just west of the park. I envisioned capturing the last moments of sunset as a pair of panoramic images, one just after the next, on either side of the moment the sun began to slip behind the horizon.

Post-processing of these images is delicate, the slightest misstep brings channel blowout artifacts at the edge of the sun’s disk with their crazy hue change, I actually may need to use a different printing method than I usually do to print the images correctly.

These images are intended to be displayed as a pair, perhaps directly left and right from each other, or perhaps the first one up and to the left, the second one bottom and to the right, depending on where the pieces are to be installed.

Unusually for me, I will only produce one and only pair of prints of these images, optionally mounted using the beautiful panel presentation that I’ve used for large images in previous shows. I’ll wait to actually produce them until I have an order, and confirm size information at that point. Pricing will depend on size. At 24″ on the long side each, the pair of unframed prints would be $800, at 36″, $1350), panel pricing depends on specific materials used but would likely total $1600 for the smaller size or $2500 for the larger size, respectively. I won’t produce the pair of prints at smaller sizes than this, contact me if you’d like to talk about even larger sizes.

Both images Canon EOS 1Ds @ ISO 320, f/9, Canon EF 300L/4 IS and Canon TC 1.4x II. Left was shot at 1/2500s, right was shot at 1/2500s.

It’s worth scrolling through the (I’m sure, honestly felt) squeeing about the D700 for the storm chasing photo halfway down. Nice job.

Shallower depth of field is used here to really bring emphasis to the prickly pears, while leaving just enough detail to give the fruit a sense of place without distracting the eye from the fruit. The eye’s tendency to “go to the fruit” is enhanced even more by the color contrast between the fruit and the rest of the scene.

Canon EOS 1Ds @ ISO 100, Canon EF 16-35/2.8L II @ f/4 and 30mm, 1/40s.

Congratulations on a master work of art. Beautiful, breathtaking, serene. Each image captures a moment, an emotion. Bravo!’ –R. Truman

Ordered yours yet? Buy it here.

Another amazing moment of sunset storm light on the Signal Hill Petroglyphs in Saguaro National Park.

Canon EOS 1Ds @ ISO 100, Canon EF 16-35/2.8L II # f/16 and 35m, 4s, B+W circular polarizer.

Another ode to monsoon season in Arizona–a dramatic sunset storm formation over the west unit of Saguaro National Park. It’s not entirely clear to me what channeled the spooky orange-brown light down into the clouds, but the effect was certainly both unusual and dramatic.

Canon EOS 1Ds @ ISO 100, Canon EF 16-35L/2.8L II @ 27mm and f/16, 1.3s, B+W circular polarizer.

Sunset light and post-thunderstorm clouds decorate this threatening yet colorful composition. The branches seem to form jaws and pinchers.

Composition of images like this is always delicate where to allow branches to overlap, where to make sure the ends of branches don’t just barely leave or stay within the frame. The only thing I’d really try and improve were I to do this again is to try and capture just a bit more of the line of mountains along the bottom, just opening up to 22 or 23mm and perhaps recomposing just tiny bit “down” would have done the trick. Still, the result works well.

Canon EOS 1Ds @ ISO 100, Canon EF 16-35L/2.8 II @ f/16 and 24mm, 5s.

“Saga” features a number of images of my work from Iceland. Many of these pieces are from my show earlier this year at Stanford, which will get hung this Friday at a show in Cool, California (near Auburn)

Click on the book below for more information, and/or the preview link for a preview of the covers and the first 15 pages of the book. I’ve been working with Blurb in a beta program to improve how color fidelity is handled within their books.

Saga: Visions of Iceland

By Joe Decker

Book Preview

I’m quite proud of my Iceland work, and hope you enjoy it as well.

Thanks!

Ctien’s got a nice overview of resources about your rights as a photographer. [via Online Photographer].