While a single change cannot take credit, it was a single change that was the catalyst to my rekindled passion for photography. In large part, the changes reduced the friction of taking photos and doing something with the photos. This is going to take some time, but hopefully anyone can learn at least one little nugget. A Brief History To understand my recent changes it would help to at least know a little bit about my photography background.

We loved living in Arizona, but there is no denying that we have a fantastic view from our home in Oregon. Over the last few months I have switched from Aperture to Lightroom which makes photos like this even easier. Given that, I have stuck with my MacBook Air, I owe my readers several posts.

Nearly two years ago I wrote about how the iPhone greatly impacted the usage of my Canon 5D Mark II. A quick summary: the iPhone camera got to be so good that I used it instead of my DSLR not only because of the photo quality but because of how easy it was then to post photos online. Fortunately technology changes. Canon 5D Mark III + Eye-Fi = AWESOMENESS I have had my eye on the Eye-Fi for years.

Not that I am an expert, but I often get asked photography related questions. A commonly asked question: What lens should I buy? Of course, there is not a single answer for everyone. I do have a single, initial response though: Buy the best lens you can afford 1. I have had many camera bodies, but for the most part have had the same lenses since 2001, so consider your lens purchase a long-term investment.

Sometimes we all need a little bit of inspiration to motivate us to be productive. Recently I have leveraged two sources for finding some fantastic photography for inspiration: Google+ and 500px. Google+ The big two social networks have a very fine grain purpose for me…Twitter to keep tabs with technology and Facebook to communicate with a few friends and family members. The newest kid on the block, Google+1, currently is my favorite place to find inspiring photos.

OK, based on my last post I should be reading right now. Instead, I wanted to write this post since several friends have asked for my opinions on photography recently. I’ll start by saying I am simply an enthusiast when it comes to photography. I am not in a position to share techniques to make you a better photographer. However, I have purchased a fair share of gear so I’d like to share my tips to those looking into getting photography…specifically those wanting to upgrade to a DSLR.

We spent Memorial Day Weekend 2011 in the Hood River area thanks to an invite from friends. Each day we enjoyed a fantastic view of the Columbia River and even caught a glimpse of Mt. Adams on Saturday (bottom-left photo). If you want a view and be just a few blocks from downtown Hood River I highly recommend checking out the Riverdell Vacation Rental! Every day we walked from Riverdell to downtown whether to shop1 or feed ourselves (or both).

Bikes have always played a large part in my life. I vividly remember each bike all the way back to my first Big Wheel1…one of the originals in the early 70s. The first monumental bike purchase for me occurred in 1982. For a year I had been working on my parents and grandparents to buy me a Honda three wheeler. I was totally consumed with the idea of having my own three wheeler…my cousin had three Honda ATVs which I loved to ride anytime we went to his house.

The basic idea is this…at least once a week I will post a photo of something I interact with on an every day basis. Along with the photo I will include what that thing means to me and/or why it is important. I’m sure this isn’t a unique project but I think it will be a wonderful exercise to focus my photography and writing passions. It will also expose my life in new ways.

We are all very, very busy these days. We fill our time with work, friends, and family. Any spare time we fill with hobbies, TV, and of course the Internet. Many of these activities lead to consuming and generating copious amounts of digital content as I have mentioned before. It is the generating of so much digital content that is overwhelming to me. It leads to more time to manage the content.

Surprisingly, I was in Aperture a bit tonight. I was migrating last month’s photos from my MacBook Pro to our iMac (probably time for another photo workflow post) when I randomly thought about a photo trip Denise and I took back in 2002. About 12-15 of us from the Intel Arizona Photography Club (or something like that) took a trip in Northern Arizona. In two days we shot at Painted Desert, Canyon de Chelly, Glen Canyon, Antelope Canyon, and Monument Valley.

From time to time I will post a random photo. I chose this photo not only because I like it but also how surprised I was to capture it… It was just an average weekend afternoon hanging out at home. We were sitting down for lunch at our kitchen table and I took note of the amaryllis (aka naked lady) on our table. I liked how the light from the front door was in the background.

As I mentioned in a preview post, How to Keep Your Husband Engaged in Furniture Decisions, one of my favorite features of our house is a gorgeous view of the Coast Range. Sometime I will put together a series of shots taken throughout the year. In the meantime, here are two favorites just from last month.

Last weekend we took a little drive on the Historic Columbia River Highway which is just east of Portland (about 50 minutes from Forest Grove). It had been several years since we had been on it, which is an absolute shame. In less than four hours we can drive, hike, eat, and take photos of dozens of falls, bridges, trails, and other breathtaking views. How easy it is to take those things for granted.

Note: this was originally posted here. Denise and I received our iPhone 4s on Day 1. The very day we left for a long weekend at Crater Lake. And the weekend after that we spent 10 days on in Door County. In a typical month this year we take around 800 photos (and that is WAY down from previous years) with our Canon 5D Mark II. On vacations we typically take 1000+ photos.

I am so very frustrated right now. I just spent 30 minutes typing up this post on my iPad and only the photo came through…NONE of the text. Well now I have a new post, “Why I Threw My iPad Out the Window!” I’ll try to rewrite about this topic later. It only took me a month to write it in the first place. It will probably take another 2 months for me to muster up the will power to rewrite about this.

As I have mentioned in the past, I have typically taken full control over both web presence and content management (mainly photos). However, I am exploring the notion of leveraging photo sharing sites mainly for backups and video sites so I don’t have to take up a lot of hard drive space. I will have a much more in-depth post soon on this topic, but I came across this video from one of my favorite tutorial websites, Common Craft, that I just had to share.

Several years ago one of my fellow photographers, Cecil Walker, showed me an easy, but priceless photo editing tip. I wish one of us could take credit for this, but unfortunately we can’t—nonetheless I’m glad Cecil came across the article. I’m sorry I do not remember where, so apologies to the original “founder”. All photographers, on occasion (ha), take a flat photo…I know, shocking. With a quick 2–step tweak the flat photo can be reborn into the image you really witnessed.

I have a Japanese Maple outside my (home) office window. For about a week now I have noticed the morning sun illuminating its beautiful limbs, buds, morning (more like all day) dew. Each day I would say to myself, “I should capture that moment with my camera (Canon EOS 20D).” I finally did or at least I finally attempted to, I’m hoping you will let me know what you think of the outcome.

I just returned from a six day trip to Costa Rica. Unfortunately it was for work so I did not have much free time. However, I did manage to set aside some time for photography. In the next week I will work on posting a gallery…though I should work on an Alaska gallery considering that trip was months ago. I did post several photos from Costa Rica on my photo blog though: http://blog.