Steve-Z.com

After my wedding on Wednesday I got out for a quick hike from the town of Telluride. The weather was unbelievably schizophrenic, and it would change from sun to rain about every 3 minutes. I walked with only my 45mm Tilt Shift Lens, always looking to tie together compositional elements. Steve-Z.com = perspective misalignment!

If you drive to Ouray, there is an overlook over town, where you can take the same photo that 8 million other people have already taken. 7,999,999 of them do not have the focal plane aligned with Main Street, however.

Aw. A sunset. Isn’t that special? Well, it was pretty schweet.  I took these photos from the deck of a shirtless tattooed dude. He offered us snow peas that were growing on the deck along with a lot of tomatoes. He showed us the shelves where he started them in March. He says that he has a computer full of sunset photos from that deck. It didn’t make me feel all that special. Apparently the supermarket has a compressor that changes speeds and makes it really hard to sleep there. But the sunsets are mega fabulous.

So, while I was at Mount Rainier, I couldn’t resist taking some tourist shots. It really is quite an impressive chunk of ice, towering 10,000 feet above most of the other mountains in the Cascade Range. We were blessed with incredible clear blue skies the entire weekend.

We camped deep in the forest near Rainier. It was wicked magical.

We watched the sun set from the Paradise area of Mt. Rainier National Park. Apparently Paradise is the snowiest place on Earth, of the places that regularly measure that sort of thing. That’s cool. The light on the mountain at that time of day was pretty washed out, which is less than cool. So to make up for my incredible disappointment, I used the tilt shift to track the focal plane of this rock wall, which is wicked cool.

We got there a little early for the sunset. So we had to spend some time hangin’ around.

And then. Twilight.

After leaving Seattle and the coast, we headed up to Mt. Rainier National Park.  George needed to get out of the car and stretch his legs at a rest stop, and agreed to pose for a quick photo.

When camping, I’m captivated by the primal power of fire. I can spend hours collecting, building, tending, arranging, contemplating, and generally zoning out in peaceful zen.

We continued our journey north out of Seattle. I was sneaking my way around the coast, looking for a spot to enjoy the water. I noticed this cool old fishery on Puget Sound, and knew that this was the spot.

This area was populated with some really sweet homes. They looked great on this sunny day. I’m not so sure how they would look socked in by months of fog! This would have been a great location for shooting some high school senior or maybe a fashion shoot.

On the beach, Mel found a souvenir. I named him George, and he became our mascot for the rest of the trip since Glendale couldn’t be with us this time around.

Hi. Steve here. I have a ton of new photos and posts to publish from my latest adventures. But first things first. I gotta change the name of this website! This is a blog of personal photos and adventures, and as a result it is a steadily morphing entity. As I evolve as a human and as a photographer, the look and feel of the site needs to change with me.

“The Dark Side” was a name that I impulsively came up with a couple years ago one late night when I was changing both of my blogs to my new ProPhoto WordPress blog template (great template, there is a discount coupon at the bottom of the page!).  My professional websites took over an all-white theme, and I thought it would be fun to have my personal site reflect the opposite of that. So I just started calling the two, the Light Side, and the Dark Side. It was never really a well thought out plan, I will admit. One was white, one was black. One was professional work, one was personal work. It was really supposed to be temporary, but, I’m pretty busy with all the tons of things to do with this photo biz, so I just never got around to changing it, mostly because I never really thought of anything else to call it.

What is the purpose of this site anyway? Do I really need it? Does it really matter?

To me, it does. I love photography. I’m passionate about it, and addicted to it. I love taking photos when I’m on my adventures. Sometimes the photos are just travel snaps. But once in a while I get a really cool shot, the kind that I’d like to hang on the wall of my house. So I feel the need to put them out there and share them with the world, rather than have them live a cold and lonely life on a computer hard drive. I want them to see the light of day. I’d like to set up a cart where they could be purchased . . . but that’s a whole nutha project.

I need a new title that is more representative to the photography work that I publish here. In all reality, there isn’t much that is Dark about my photography. I’m more interested in beauty than sadness. I do have a quirky sense of humor, no doubt. I love what I do and I do have some pretty cool adventures where I have a lot of fun. The Dark Side had some people thinking that they were going to see horror movie stuff or something! So I need a title that is smart and clever, and possibly hints that this is a photo blog featuring photos from my travel, biking and snowboarding, and other random photos I take in my free time. There is also occasionally some technical and educational info for photographers, although I don’t seem to manage to find the time to publish a quarter of the articles that I think of in my mind. How do I sum all of that up in a title? How do I sum up 39 years of me in a couple words?

Until I come up with a cool new title . . . I’m just going to have a clean white sheet of paper.  The Great Title-less Blog! I just couldn’t stand the old look any more and had to change it immediately! I made a Facebook comment about changing the name; in a dream world someone will come up with a clever name for me! I’m not counting on that though. My best ideas usually come from an unexpected moment of clarity, and will just pop into my head when the time is right. As for now, I’m going to throw out the idea that I’m ready for the new name to come to me.

As for the photo . . . It’s just a funny self portrait that I took on my recent trip to Washington State. My chin is all distorted and enormous due to the distortion of my Nikon 14-24mm lens. I love to take beautiful pictures. But I also like taking funny and somewhat distorted pictures as well!

If you actually read all of this, thanks. I hope you keep coming back for years to come, as this blog will still be around, although the format may completely different. Evolution is like that.  Cheers, Steve Z.

Here we are at the grand finale of Steve and Mel’s Great Sand Dunes adventure! In case you haven’t been following along, so far we’ve seen:

Chapter 1 – Sunrise Landscapes

Chapter 2 – Afternoon Planning

Chapter 3 – Dune Camping & Night Shots

Having checked out the appetizers, let’s dive into the main course; this is the one blog to rule them all; where we strap on the snowboard and find out what sandboarding is all about!

I awoke in the early pre-dawn light lying in a pile of sand.  We had camped the night out in the open dune field. I was a little chilly, and there was a slight breeze.  It was hard to tell exactly how long it would be until the sun came up, but I knew we had to get moving in order to catch the perfect light.

The plan was to descend Star Dune at first light.  While hiking, we quickly realized that we weren’t going to get to the top quite in time.  There is only a narrow window of time where the sun grated across the sand to reveal the immaculate textures of the sand.  So I pulled out my camera and started shooting some landscape shots where we happened to be.

Silky sexy smooth sand shapes show sunken shadows.

OK, enough goofing around with landscape photos. We still had some serious business to attend to. It was time for a sunrise descent of Star Dune, perfect light be damned.  By the way, Star Dune is the highest dune in North America, rising 750 feet above the valley floor. BTW, whenever possible, I like to have girls carry my gear for me.

Here we have Melissa gearing up for some serious sandboard shooting. Side note, when asked to put sunscreen on my back, she didn’t whine nearly as much as Carl did when I was in Mexico last December. True story.

Nearing the summit of Star Dune, I encountered more windswept textured sand, and a great view of the Sangre de Cristo Range.  Star Dune didn’t actually turn out to be the best spot for sand boarding, as it wasn’t the steepest slope.  Some of the best slopes were smaller, and had a steeper angle and a harder surface which allowed for more speed.

At this point in the journey, I had to relinquish my shooting duties and strap on the snowboard for some warm weather sand boarding.  Melissa has posted some of her sand boarding shots on the Melissa Welsh Photography Blog. Part of our team effort on the adventure involved sharing camera gear, photo ideas, and blog fodder.  With her permission, I’ve selected and edited a few photos that she took but did not publish on her blog to accompany my version of our sandboarding adventure.

Riding a snowboard down sand dunes is one of those things that sounds like more fun in theory than it really is in practice! First off, I was using a snowboard, which isn’t really designed for sand. This does not lend itself to high speeds.  So in order to ride the dunes with a snowboard, you have to find the steepest slopes you can find just to be able to go fast enough to make any turns.  The second part, is that when you turn, you really just sortof push sand down the hill. So you can’t really traverse too much.  However, when you get a good slope, you can build up some speed, then make 3 or 4 good turns before you hit the bottom.  Oh, then comes the hike back up!  At 8700 ft above sea level, there isn’t a ton of oxygen to assist you in the battle against sand and gravity.  While some parts of the dunes are easy to walk on, getting back up from the steep slopes usually involves getting back up some loose and steep pitches, where you take a step up then slide half a step down. Just think of excruciating post-holing and you get the idea.

While it’s not going to replace snow sliding any time soon, it’s still pretty addicting. I would get just enough of a run to experience the groove, but not enough to really satisfy my need for carving. So after every run I just kept wanting to go back for more and more!

Here I am contemplating High Dune, which is the second highest dune in the park.  Oh, and by the way, I don’t think that I’m ever going to get the sand out of my snowboard boots.

I had this idea for a really cool angle on a shot, where I come sweeping across the front of the camera, shooting up a rooster tail of sand.  Well, as I said, the sand doesn’t really perform like snow, and traversing was a real challenge.  We tried to get the shot over and over, and every time I had to climb back out while baking in the sun.  Finally the heat and exertion started to get to me, I caught a backside edge, and I suffered my only crash of the trip. Fortunately, Mel caught the whole thing for your entertainment.

But finally, we got a shot that was somewhat close to what I was thinking! Mel also posted this one in her set . . . but I had to include it here too, it’s the money shot!  Want more action and arty sandboarding dune shots? Go here!

Well that’s the end of my first sandboarding adventure. While we were there, I saw some people with boards that were designed to be ridden on sand. It sure would have made the adventure a lot easier if I had a lighter board with bindings that worked with regular boots or sneakers.  I’ve since found out that there are actual sandboards. There is even a Sandboarding World Championship! Who knew? I didn’t, until I checked Wikipedia!

Overall it was a great first dune experience. It’s a pretty cool adventure to head to the beach, strap on the board, get a great workout, all while working on your tan. I’m definitely looking forward to heading back sometime with someone else who has a board so that I can both ride the dunes and shoot some action shots. Maybe I’ll even get a real sandboard. Who’s in?

A really cool thing about the Great Sand Dunes National Park, is that you are allowed to camp out on the dunes! It was really a cool experience to hike out there with just a sleeping bag and just sleep under the stars! It also is a great way to be where you need to be for great sunrise photos. Between the camping gear, photography gear, and snowboarding gear, we had quite a bit of gear arrangement to prepare!

Watching the sun set out on the dunes was incredible. The air was super still (thankfully!), and the nighttime temps were quite balmy.

After shooting the sunrise photos, Melissa and I headed up to the dunes for some hiking and sandboarding.  What is sand boarding you ask?!? Well, the dunes are steep enough to actually ride down on skis or a snowboard.  I chose an old snowboard, since there doesn’t seem to be anything fun about hiking up the dunes with heavy ski boots!

We got up on the dunes a little bit late that day.  So it was good to do some test runs and find out which dunes had the best runs.  But we knew that the real money shots would come the next morning, when we would set out in the dark to be at the top at sunrise.

We spent the afternoon hanging out in a coffee shop in Crestone, staying out of the sun and refueling with coffee and sandwiches.  On the drive back from Crestone to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, we spotted a cool old building, and did an impromptu shoot that I posted earlier.

On the way back into the park, the light was just starting to lower. We decided that the best way to be at the dunes at sunrise was going to be to camp out on the dunes…

We drove into the Great Sand Dunes National Park after nightfall. I didn’t really know what to expect, exactly. I did know that the dunes were only going to photograph well at sunrise and sunset. On the first morning my internal clock woke me up at first light. I found out that it was going to take quite a bit longer to get out to the Dunes than I really expected, so I had to settle for some shots from out on the entrance road. Still, the light and shadows and sexy curves of the flowing sand were really breathtaking to behold.

I believe that mountain goats are actually from another planet. True story.

I have lots of difficultly buying a product that just works. It seems like when I purchase something, there is only a 50% chance that I will be able to have it work, function, or look like it is supposed to on the first try.  There doesn’t seem to be quality of products any more. We live in a disposable society, where products are actually designed to fail so that you will be forced to buy a new one in a few years.  Additionally, many are just scurrying about with their tails between their legs hiding from The Recession. Consumers are searching for a cheaper and cheaper deal all the time without thinking about where the costs are being cut.

Photography is a luxury expense. As a result, many photo pros running top notch businesses are feeling the crunch of the economic downturn.  No one really understands why it costs so much to run a photography business these days.  I don’t blame them one bit.  I really didn’t have a very good idea when I started doing this either!  There are so many hidden costs that it never ceases to amaze me. And as long as I continue, more and more costs keep surfacing.  My latest is it’s going to cost $1000 just to adjust and calibrate my cameras and half of my lenses.  How much would the already expensive equipment have to cost for the quality to be perfect, so that I didn’t have to make these adjustments and repairs? Sure, I could just deal with my cameras the way they are, but I’m committed to having perfectly calibrated cameras so that my images are perfectly sharp.

The real lesson here, is that quality is just plain expensive.  Just take this photo of this screw for example. It’s hard to tell from the photo, but there are no true threads, just metal rings!  When did it become difficult to buy something with screws that actually had functioning threads?  There were screws like this in two  sofa tables that I bought to display my albums in the studio.  I really don’t have the funds to buy them from Design Within Reach, so I bought some cheap bolt together ones from Target online.  The first ones showed up with brush marks and hand prints under the clear coat on the wood.  Then the second set showed up with non-functioning screws.  Luckily I had screws from the first set, so I could put the tables together.  So while I got a cheaper deal, I still had to waste a bunch of time assembling, disassembling, calling, reshipping, etc.

What is the cost of the cheap tables?  The margins are so tight that they are trying to remove fractions of pennies out of the cost of the tables, and the screws.  Should I always just buy designer tables so that they will (hopefully) work the first time? Should I support local merchants in the way that I hope to have my business supported? My accounting spreadsheet doesn’t really support buying top of the line studio furnishings in a business where I’m always being undercut by photographers who are willing to sell out their digital files for nothing.
Despite the sliding trend of photo studio profitability, I am working towards reaching the higher end of the market where quality is respected.  I am seeking the clients that will recognize the top quality of the product that I offer.  While some people in the world will continue to be content to display their Wal-Mart  prints with bad skin tones proudly on their Target sofa tables with hand prints and screwed up screws, I pledge to offer services that represent, support, and exude Quality. The perfectionist in me will only be satisfied offering a premium product at a premium price.

Get the stick, Lassie!

On another day in Vegas, I headed out to the Valley of Fire to assist Chuck Arlund on a shoot. It’s a really cool area, I will definitely go back and explore when I have the time.  The clouds were great, and I snapped a couple landscape shots while I was there.  I couldn’t decide which composition I like the best, so I posted them all.  :-)

After leaving the Railroad Pass Casino, we headed out to Nelson, Nevada for a model shoot. The “ghost ranch” as they call it is kindof a tourist trap. There are many old buildings with junk all around like trashed 50s cars and planes and stuff. When we got there it was like a photographer’s convention was in town or something! Well, despite an initial bad feeling of being completely unoriginal, there were still plenty of great backgounds to be had. I’m still editing the model shoot, but here are some test shots from the setups.