On Monday friend and fellow photographer Yuri Choufour snapped this image of my daughter Jade and me. If you guess where we were and what we were photographing, you will get a print of the subject. Answer coming next week.

Architecture Photography Jay Goodrich Style

Ok, this is pretty simple (not in the slightest). Insert Dr. Evil laugh here. Tell the world how you think I created this image. We want as many details as you can think of from lighting, capture, to post processing. Remember too that architecture photography is all about moving furniture. Start there. You can even click on the image to see it larger, that may help. The person with the closest guess and most details will win a free 16 x 24 print of their choosing off of my stock or portfolio websites. You have one week! Begin.

Looking Out at the View © Jay Goodrich

So there I was staring down the barrel of over 14 hours in modern aluminum tubes dubbed “airplanes”. Crossing the sky at over five hundred miles an hour at 30,000 feet. If you know me, you know that I don’t sit still for five minutes. I don’t even sleep like a normal person. Six, seven hour tops. I was going to have an aneurism or some other kind of psychotic episode. Drooling like my son as he gets ready to cut a new tooth. This was no biggie I had been there before. I had gotten hammered, hung over, and drunk again, that never worked. I tried to sleep, that never worked. I tried to sit patiently, that never worked. I figured out what did work on long flights was actually, work. Pile the list from the task master sky high and then before you knew it they would have to take me off of the plane kicking and screaming because there was just one thing left on the list.

Earlier this year my flight to China was this exact scenario. I chose to do something never before accomplished by me, read an entire book. That book was The Hotshoe Diaries by Joe McNally. I read his stories. His connections to the human connection. Every step of the way sprinkled with humor and, well, Joe. During the whole read, I never wanted to stop. I was actually entertained and being trained…although I didn’t know it. I had no way of verifying anything he wrote about. Not yet anyway.

Jump ahead four or five months. Back home in Washington. Up in the Cascades near Mount Baker Ski Area. A hike. A hike in a shitload of snow. Dinner with the wife and kids on a half snow submerged picnic table and then…time to play. The kids went running. I went running. And Heather sat reading a book. That was until I saw something unfolding. A scene of sorts. A girl. My daughter. Staring. Staring at a view of where her father had skied all winter long. A place she has openly discussed going when she knows how to ski better. Heather Meadows. The Baker backcountry. The Cascades. Only one problem. The sunset was fading by some low clouds on the horizon. What to do?

Open up the brain and knowledge base for a few minutes. Dust off the 40+ year old hard drive and bam. Light it like Joe would. Make him proud. Show him that I learned something. One of camera flash at +3 TTL. One AV setting of -1 2/3. One full CTO gel. One angry wife-book had to be put down to hold the flash. And one bribe. “Jade there is an extra desert cookie for you if you hold that pose.” One shot. The first shot. Beginners luck, maybe, but because of Joe McNally I had the brain power to create my sunset. Thank you Joe McNally, thank you.

Heather Goodrich Riding on Red Hill © Jay Goodrich

Join me on September 28th, 2011, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PDT for a free webinar as I highlight how I use Lightroom 3 and multiple Nik plugins to simplify my creative vision. I will cover some of my basic Lightroom time saving techniques as well as how I integrate Nik plugins like Color Efex Pro and Silver Efex Pro 2 into my current image processing workflow. To be part of this webinar visit Nik’s registration page and sign up now! In addition, you can now receive a 15% discount on any Nik Software by entering my discount code of “goodrichnik” during your checkout. I look forward to talking with you in September.

Lake Crescent Olympic National Park WA © Jay Goodrich

Oh yeah it’s one of those scenes…I can here you now, nice colors Jay, I like the textures, interesting perspective. This scene is not what you think my friends. What you don’t see in this image is the devil, pure concentrated evil. I am speaking of the 666 variety. Just lurking below the calm waters of of Lake Crescent here in Olympic National Park exists a serpent. Last weekend I was leading a workshop there with a great group of 25 photographers and all of them were just as unsuspecting as you are to the events that were about to transpire. Hell even I wasn’t on board.

It wasn’t mere minutes after this wonderful, peaceful scene was created on my sensor, sent through the buffer, and written to my flash card that the world was about to change. I moved in closer to the water to create abstract reflections of those branches in the right of this scene. Some great compositions. And then in an instant. FUCK! Yes, I managed to knock my brand new 1D Mark IV and 70-200 f2.8 IS II lens, tripod, ballhead, and shutter release into the lake. I mean that unseen fucking serpent took it–I can’t blame it on my own stupidity now can I. Not just a little, but into the depths, complete submersion. Listen to the needle drag across the record here.

My alter ego, (Tyler Durden from Fight Club) wanted to beat the crap out of me, but he resisted in this case, so the 25 severely concerned witnesses didn’t have me committed. After going fishing to bring the whole rig out, Art and Gavriel helped me dry it off. What the heck was I going to do? There were still two days left in this workshop? I decided to go for it and press the shutter release to see what would happen, and to my surprise, the damn thing took a picture.

Arms raised like I had just won the SuperBowl. YES! A true testament to a Canon professional body and lens. After toweling off the exterior, I went in. Opened the battery compartment, flash card compartment, lens off, everything completely dry. Looking through the lens no water, nothing. This can’t be happening to me. I never have this kind of luck.

And then, after about 2 hours, the scene from the Empire Strikes Back came blazing into my life. “Chewy, let’s make the jump to lightspeed.” Han Solo pulls the lever, and in the true spirit of his luck, the ship shutters and slows, as if to say, I am just too tired my friend you are out of credits once again. The lens fogged, camera produced an error message, and menu went blank. “But, but I thought I fixed the hyperdrive?” Laser blasts all around. FUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK! No water anywhere inside? What the hell? Again?

After kicking the tires, scratching my head, and other various body parts, trying to figure it out, it came to me. Wait, wait, I went from the clear blue warmth into the cool, moist, shaded rainforest of the Hoh. Temperature gradiant and just enough moisture left in those seals? What if I open everything up and put this puppy in the hot car, in the sun for a few hours?

Hours later as we walk down the water’s edge of the Pacific on Second Beach, my thought process was about to be tested. Had I come up with a legitimate solution? Was I worthy of the “Professional” title in front of my name? “R2 what do you mean the hyperdrive was disconnected?” The flick of a little lever and…The stars all of a sudden align and blur like a long exposure. Hyperdrive fixed once again. Click. Time to photograph the sunset.

I am now off to the desert to lead a group in Zion, where this no water–no water, just rocks…

twenty 10 from Jay Goodrich on Vimeo.

Photographer and writer Jay Goodrich has assembled a collection of his work from the past year. Images were captured on location throughout Washington, Colorado, California, Oregon, Utah, New Mexico, Montana, and Wyoming.

My friend Jim Goldstein has a project on his blog every year where he asks people to submit their favorite images taken during the previous year. This year he inspired me to take it a little further. I finally created my first film, video, or what ever you would like to call it. I know there are plenty of mistakes, but I tried to go a little further and tell a little bit more of a story. Maybe I achieved success and maybe I didn’t. Either way I guess we all need to start somewhere. I hope you enjoy. One thing this project has taught me though is that I am pretty impressed with the capabilities of today’s software and computers. As a kid I never imagined that this would be possible from my office above the garage.

Eastern Oregon Foothills, Christmas 2010 © Jay Goodrich

Happy Holidays from all of us at jay goodrich photographer inc. to all of you and yours. May it be the best yet!

Mark Kogelmann Finding the Motherload, Mount Baker, Washington © Jay Goodrich

Just wait a week and things will definitely change. Last week I wrote about the skunking Mother Nature delivered to us a Mount Baker, but this week was an entirely different story. Mark Kogelmann and I spent all of Friday partaking in some of the best conditions of the season on Mount Baker. 36 inches of new snow in 48 hours. I remember when I lived in Vail and a 8-10 inch storm was to die for, now I don’t even ski if that is all we receive and at Baker the tend is usually to serve up monsters. Last week Mount Baker received some 5 feet of new snow! What is not to love. When that happens, I am out there burning a whole in my brand new season pass and shooting photos to highlight this season. Not too let the whole cat out of the bag, look for more images taken this day on the new website when it launches on 1-1-11.

The Pacific Northwest Slurpee, Mt. Baker © Jay Goodrich

Have you ever fallen for this little game? A friend or fellow loved one jumps in the water of a pool, lake, or river and without a flinch surfaces and spouts those words? Your brain tells you as the words are coming out of their mouth, “warning, danger, do not proceed.” And as if your body is in some disconnect at that very moment with your brain, you realize that you are headed straight for the easiest of laid traps. It is only as the tip of a forward reaching toe or finger breaks the surface tension of the water, do you realize that the private parts of your body are about to suffer and suffer greatly. Just like Chevy Chase in Vacation. All in the name of lust for Christie Brinkley. Sucker.

Ah lust. We all experience it at one point or another in our lives. If you are a skier you experience it every fall as the highest of peaks see glimpses of white. As new ski movies surface, and as resorts give you a break on the early purchase of a season pass that lust grows more and more. Dreams of cold smoke powder hitting your face as you glide effortlessly towards the lift ready to return for another run of heaven.

This is where the record needle scratches across the platinum vinyl and the fantasy sex dream with Christie ends. Abruptly, and most forcedly.

This is day one for me at Mount Baker. 10” plus inches of new snow and snowing heavily. The blowing blustery wind of a winter storm. In the skier world we were about to “get some”. Silly kid, tricks are for kids. Looks were inevitably deceiving on this very first day of the season. What looked like perfectly untouched powder quickly became a mission to not tear an ACL and lose this entire season. After run one, Mark and I whole heartedly agreed to stick to the groomers for a while. Oh, and that was only about 30 minutes before every inch of Gore-Tex, wool, and fleece we owned became so wet that you could ring it out. And it wasn’t mere seconds after this that the freezing cold came rushing in on that train of liquid.

How about we call it? Agreed. In the lodge, collecting our bits and pieces with many other lost souls, we listened as the words rang out from our newest arrival, “Come on in the water is fine.” Exactly my friend, exactly.

All is not lost though, because I thought of my long departed grandmother. My guardian angel if you will. The grandmother who I would have taken a bullet for if necessary. “Life is like a roller coaster, there are many peaks and many valleys, when you hit a valley, know that a peak is shortly on the way.” Thanks Gram. I will always remember your words of wisdom. Tomorrow, is yet another day.

This Is All We Wanted, Chris Carpenter, Whistler B.C. © Jay Goodrich

Mount Shuksan Reflected in Glacial Tarn © Jay Goodrich

This month I have the honor of being part of Outdoor Photographer Magazine’s 25th Anniversary Issue. I am so grateful that the editors chose to use two of my Top Locations for Nature Photography and two of my Pro Tips for this issue. Although, I have not been part of the OP contributor list for 25 years like my friend and colleague Art Wolfe, I feel it is a great honor to be with such talented company. You can read many more of the contributions made by other friends and colleagues of mine by visiting the Outdoor Photographer website.

I want to congratulate OP for their 25 years of publication geared toward all of us who are inspired by the natural world.