Shoe Pastel © Jade Goodrich

Late last year, I wrote a blog post over on the Outdoor Photographer Website, about losing our creativity in America. This post was based on an article that was published on Newsweek’s website. Because of that article, our daughter’s main Christmas present was an easel and full set of professional art supplies ranging from pastels to water color paints and everything in between. I guess Heather and I figured we should at least give her the opportunity to create, since we knew it isn’t happening in her school. It didn’t take long for Jade to declare this “one of her favorite presents ever”. Heather and I are still shocked, because she got a baby carriage too, and those things usually wind up much higher on the love list.

In lieu of heading down the road of that bumper sticker–My Kid is an Honor Student…crap, I do have to say that I am quickly becoming the proud father of a somewhat creative daughter. People must have some kind of genetic mutation that kicks in when kids are born, that automatically gives us a propensity towards thinking our kids are the greatest. This probably happens so we don’t kill them, eat them, and get back to what it is all really about–sex! I am sure there is a perfectly good scientific explanation that my uber-educated wife can come up with, but I have yet to figure it all out. I have come to the conclusion that it gives our children the motivation to at least try, by having a vote of confidence from the ones they know the best.

Hands Watercolor © Jade Goodrich

The past week of my life has been pretty much work free, and unfortunately not by choice. Jade has been home sick with Strep Throat. Fevers close 105 degrees, vomiting, you don’t need to know the particulars, just really sick. It seemed like every dose of Ibuprofen had her up and about for at least 4 hours before the need of sleep would factor into the picture. During those times of insanity (sanity is when they are asleep) she wanted to “create artwork”. And there was no way I was going to argue with her at those moments, I just didn’t want her to puke on my carpet again.

Jade is 5, and acts like she is 15 with the exception that she still has a romantic innocence about herself. She holds prejudice against no one, doesn’t even fathom the idea of racism, and truly experiences the world with an open mind. It is fairly liberating for me to watch. My only goal now is to learn from it, to photograph like she paints–with complete freedom and for the absolute joy of doing so. I knew taking her to that Picasso exhibit was going to pay dividends. In 4 days of “home schooling” with dad, we watched countless movies on the apple TV, ate a few pounds of gummi bears, and actually painted 13 pieces. I guess I shouldn’t say painted, because Jade chose to use pastels, water colors, charcoal, and markers. Let’s go with created 13 pieces.

Flowers Watercolor © Jade Goodrich

I am hoping that her work is actually good and I am not being a “Jaded” father, then my creative background kicks in and I truly believe that this work has merit. She picked titles like, “name”, “face”, and “me” for some of the pieces, which has me thinking that she actually had a concept in mind when she went to town on that easel. The other part of the story is that it may not actually matter if the work is good or not. I got to spend a solid 4 days with my daughter, I got to be inspired by her creativity, and she personally taught me to look at the world differently, to create with more intensity. For that alone, I am forever grateful. And it might just have me picking up some of those art supplies to pull some of the visions I have banging around in that melon upstairs.

Life Cycles OFFICIAL Trailer from Life Cycles on Vimeo.

I have to be honest, I watched this trailer over at Steve Casimiro’s blog–The Adventure Life and just had to share it here. This little teaser had me purchasing the DVD before it was over. I am so excited to see this film after knowing the still photography of Derek Frankowski. I not sure what is in the water up there in BC, but there is a ton of amazing talent just to my north. Talent that any artist can not only be inspired by, but learn from as well.

Before my flight to Arizona last week I decided to upload a movie into my iPhone to keep me occupied during part of the three hour plane ride . Riding Giants is a surf film about the history of surfing and riding monster waves with a focus on surfer Laird Hamilton. And again, like my previous post on inspiration, this post has a message that is not as obvious as the footage you can watch above. Yes, Laird Hamilton is one of the most amazing surfers to ever exist. I have known of him since my teenage years, thanks to legendary ski film maker Greg Stump, who is an inspiration discussion for another posting. The inspiration here comes from the fact that Laird and all of his friends wanted to surf the biggest waves out there. Surfing a big wave is not as simple as paddling your hardest and dropping in. The bigger the wave, the faster it is moving, and the faster the surfer has to be moving in order to land it. These guys worked really hard to figure out how to do this.

As I watch my 10 month old son trying to figure out how to walk, I see this trial and error. He is not quite there, but I know that eventually he will come running across that floor towards me. It is that process of trial and error in order to find success that I find inspiration in. The continually working on the problem at hand to find the solution. Is that not what photography is all about? This sums up the last 20 years of my life–trying to figure out how to take a better picture. There are days when I bring back the mother load of perfect images, and then there are days when I throw out the entire crop. The key here is: was it a unique learning experience for me? Was that day that I took all those trash photos a stupid mistake, or an attempt to try something unique and new? A lot of times it is the first scenario, but more and more it is the latter. I like it when it is the latter, because I know that I was not a complete dumb-ass that day. I pushed my personal envelope and probably learned how to do something new regardless of the outcome. If it was a complete failure, I now know how not to not fail like that again.

Tomorrow, when you head out to take some photographs, remember, it is okay to fail, as long as you continue the journey towards succeeding. There will come a time when all of the trials and errors add up to slingshot you forward, and that is when you will reach your biggest success. And the funny thing is that instead of being unprepared, you will realize that you have trained for that moment your entire life.

black + white – Images by Jay Goodrich

I have been really inspired by black and white imagery lately. So after 20 years of shooting nothing but color here are the beginnings of a new collection for me. Let me know what you think.

I spent last week confined to my office staring at my computer monitor, miscellaneous papers, and books. My goal was a self-inflicted intense week of learning. I have been gathering tons of information on Photoshop techniques, flash techniques, and HDR techniques over the course of the past few months, and it was time to finally educate myself and then practice what I learned.

Courthouse Towers Region, Arches National Park, Utah © Jay Goodrich

My week began learning how to use Tony Kuyper’s Luminosity Masks, Dodge/Burn techniques, Saturation Masks, and Web Sharpening actions. Tony is an extremely talented photographer residing in Arizona and his images of the desert are just breathtaking. He will send you all of his photoshop tutorials plus the actions that create them for an unbelievably small donation to his PayPal account. Once you get the hang of working with the Luminosity Masks they will quickly become part of your workflow. In a nutshell, almost all of Tony’s processes allow for self-feathering tonal selections of your images. This makes it really easy to adjust contrast, brightness, color, and saturation. It’s pretty amazing.

Tony Kuyper Masks and Photomatix Image © Jay Goodrich

Photomatix Only Image © Jay Goodrich

Kitchen of Eagle House with Portable Flash © Jay Goodrich

Once I got the hang of using Tony’s tutorials, I wanted to better learn how to use Photomatix Pro for HDR image processing. I love the imagery that fellow photographers Tony Sweet and Trey Ratcliff are producing using Photomatix, but I was looking for a less dreamy approach to my imagery. Basically, I want to incorporate this innovative software into my landscapes and commercial architecture work. I needed to figure out how to achieve that, and it took some working through. I finally came up with a solution through a combination of Photomatix and Tony Kuyper’s Saturation Masks.

As if that wasn’t enough, the next item on my list was an architecture lighting technique used by many of the photographers from Strobist. Strobist is a website/blog that is dedicated to “Learning how to use off-camera flash with your dSLR to take your photos to the next level. Or the next ten levels. Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about how to more effectively use your small speedlights…” There are many photographers on this site using portable off-camera flash to light an architectural space. The attraction here for me is the portability feature and the speed at which you can light an architectural interior. After a bunch of reading and studying, I came up with this image of my kitchen as a final exam. Currently, I only own three flashes, no wireless triggers other than the infrared built-in to the flashes, and no gels, but I figured I could make do to at least see if I liked the possibilities. As the photos here demonstrate, I do, and now I need to purchase some more gear. This is just another tool to add to my repertoire to allow me to photograph any subject that catches my eye.

Finally, I wanted to test out the new 5D Mark II that I borrowed from Canon. Although I am not sure if this camera will make it into my equipment base, I am really interested in this tool for its video capability. The photos are pretty amazing too. I am noticing a bit more contrast in the images than I am used to coming from Canon’s dSLRs, but I am glad to see it. I have always felt that digital images have lacked contrast in their initial capture. Here is a shot that I took at the Teva games in Vail and, of course, using what I have learned over the course of this past week, I have applied some of Tony’s masking techniques. I will include more images and some video from my test in an upcoming equipment post.

The moral of my story lies within the fact that you can teach an old dog new tricks, so why not refresh the skill set every so often. I am looking forward to utilizing my new-found knowledge with every upcoming project. I have already decided on some additional upcoming learning experiences for myself, and they are going to include learning Apple’s Final Cut Pro, creating really large prints- 40 by 60 inchers from 10 megapixels, and more creative speedlite imagery. Stay tuned!