We’ve been away from this blog/website for almost a year. We returned from Alaska last fall (2017), posted pictures, Boyd finished the movie of our adventure, and then … nothing. Or at least that is what this website would have you believe.

We didn’t really lose interest. Our priorities changed. We decided to leave our home of 30 years and move to Central Oregon. This was not a small task. Look around where you are. How much stuff have you acquired since your last move? Exactly. Not to mention all the bureaucratic tasks associated with moving: a loan, new insurance, re-register vehicles, find a new doctor/dentist/repair person, find the best place for a cold/hot drink. You get the idea. Well, we are settling down and have started to get back into the groove of photography. Expect to see some new stories soon. We are excited by what our new location provides for photographic opportunities.

So bear with us as we get back in the seat of this photographic sharing machine. We hope to have some new stuff (and maybe some old stuff) up soon. If I can just find that 5/16 in long socket and a pair of wire cutters….

Sometimes this website works for us in providing an excellent venue for displaying our photography. The Land of Salmon has been the theme of the website since we returned from our summer "expedition" last Fall (2017). We hope the website has done a good job of showing some of what we experienced. But sometimes the story tells us it wants to be told differently. This trip needed something more dynamic (although we hope you find our still images dynamic and exciting in their own way). So we put together a 15-minute movie/video. We hope you enjoy the Land of Salmon.

During summer in the Land of Salmon, water often seems to hurry along as if to avoid being captured again by the chill breath of winter. But we have the ability to slow the passage with our cameras. By lengthening the period of time the camera takes to record the scene, we can see the more sinuous, more sensuous curves of movement. A ballet of curves, gravity, foam and air bubbles. The flow becomes softer, yet still intricate, more intimate. The dance between air and water becomes more supple, more of a caress between the liquid and the gaseous. All too soon, ice will form as night captures the landscape. But for now, the dance is on, and the water flows.

What? a new Turner web site?

Time for a change

After being on the road 95 days and 12,000 miles we have returned from BC, Yukon, and Alaska. We gathered some images and stories over the course of the summer. And this is where we like to share the best images and some of the stories. Since we haven't changed the basic design of this site in about three years now it seemed like the time to try something new. We hope you like this design that organizes our photos a little differently. This is a scrolling based system instead of clicking around. Although we would love it if you saw our work on a 27-in 5k color corrected monitor, reality is most people use a mobile device. So hopefully the new design will be intuitive enough. Let us know through the "Talk with us" link what you think. So go scroll through the pages and enjoy. We did.

Landscape photography is a double-edged sword.  When we review our photographs after a trip we are always disappointed.  We remember how the water was so much bluer, the rocks so much grainier, the expanses so much larger, the calving glacier so much taller, so much…

Of course everything not visual is totally missing from our photographs: the smells, the touch, the sounds, the tastes…  The market ripe with fish, a plethora of textures, winds howling, waves crashing, hoppy-tasting beer, or a fine glass of wine at the end of a long day…

But what if we could exactly replicate all of that – the very essence of the scene?  Virtual reality and other technologies are approaching that degree of sensation.  We watched a 4-D movie at the Atlanta aquarium misting water and scents at us as we watched the movie with 3-D glasses while our seats moved.  But, what then?  If you’ve already experienced the complete grandeur of a place – would you need to visit it?   

We think so…

[All the photos in this story are "lightboxed" which means you can click on them and they will open in a separate window. This is a great way to see them 'close up'.]

You could certainly start a lively debate asking: “Where is the most beautiful place in the world?”  There are a multitude of viable choices, with personal taste thrown in to make it a useless subjective debate.  But, I could make a pretty strong case for Torres (towers) del Paine National Park, Chile. 

Our guide was nearly overcome with emotion when the towers first came into view around a ridge of the Andes, saying she had never seen it so stunningly clear.  As we stopped and looked at its splendor, several Andean Condors circled lazily, then chased a Black-chested Buzzard Eagle away, mere feet above our heads.  One of those moments. 

Andean Condor

Black-chested Buzzard Eagle

Andean Condor soars near one of the Torres

The Torres stood resolutely against the sky, defying ages of erosive forces.  The lagos (lakes) and waterfalls, with their suspended glacial sediments, cast an indescribable hue of greenish-blue.  A glacier cracking so loudly the decibels would overwhelm canon fire, followed by several minutes of jet-volume rumbling as the calved segment broke into a million pieces, racing down the cliff face.  It was all nearly overwhelming.  Could almost make a person sit down to quietly take it all in and shed a tear in testament to its absolute beauty… ok, maybe it did.  Kathy

[You can see the photos in this story in a window of their own by clicking on the photo]

As you can tell from our photos we recently traveled to Chile. The country has many spectacular sights and a ton of landscape diversity. Our trip took us to the Atacama desert in the north, central Chile (Santiago and Valparaiso), Patagonia in the south, and Easter Island (Rapa Nui) out in the Pacific. We put together a short video of our travels to try and share some of our experience in this beautiful country.  Hope you enjoy the video.. Boyd

Hope you saw our favorites of 2016. We have deleted that page to make room for our new "Chile" page. We recently returned from touring Chile. It is a vast (but narrow) country with incredible diversity. And incredible photo opportunities. We have some images from the trip that we hope you will enjoy. So the favorites page had to go. Many of those photos live on in one of the other pages (landscape, fauna, flora, moments, monochromatic). But, there wasn't room for all of them. So if you are looking for your favorite from 2016 and don't see it on the site, shoot us a message (form available on the "Talk with us" page) and we will put it back up. But, we hope you check out our "Chile" page too. And come back frequently as we will be adding new stories here on the blog over the coming weeks.

In case you didn't notice, we have added a page of our favorites from 2016. There are 10 color and 10 monochrome images. So just click above, on the title bar,  where it says "2016 Favorites". And hopefully, you saw the three episodes of our 2016 retrospective (below in the blog). These three video episodes have a different perspective.  They tell the history of our year photographically. The gallery page 2016 Favorites displays our 20 individual favorites. Did I mention you can click on the link above? Did i mention they are our favorites?

One of our 10 favorite color images from 2016.

And one of our 10 favorite monochrome images from 2016.

Episode 3. The concluding episode of our 2016 retrospective. Yes summer and fall wrapped into 4 minutes and 10 seconds. You know you don't have to be anywhere in the next 10 minutes.  Heck, you can watch it twice!  Enjoy!

And now for Episode 2, the 2016 retrospective continues with photography from our spring adventures. As usual this is best viewed on a large monitor at 1080p. But it works on a mobile device too. Don't forget to watch Episode 1, Winter 2016 too. We hope you enjoy Spring 2016.

Here is the first segment of our retrospective on 2016. This segment is winter photography from Iceland.

Geologists classify rock into igneous (basically volcanic), sedimentary (rock broken into small pieces and turned back into rock), and metamorphic (igneous or sedimentary rock changed by pressure and heat). We aren't geologists and we can't always differentiate rock into the three types. But we do love the different textures. Especially when we think about the age of some rocks.

While at the Oregon Coast recently, the texture of the rocks caught our eyes. Some places rough, some places fine. All of the textures constantly changing and evolving, facilitated by the movement of water and the grinding of one piece of rock against another. Just imagine the journey of a single rock. Out of the center of the earth, ground down to sand, buried under miles of other layers of sand and mud, then lifted up above the waves and exposed to the relentless force of wind and rain, only to be buried again, maybe heated, melted, squeezed by pressures of unfathomable force. When you think about them like that , there's no such thing as just another rock. No wonder the textures are so fascinating, they are the lines of age on the face of the planet.

Can we all just chill for two minutes? Breathe in. Breathe out. Two minutes. Maybe this will help.

Sometimes I am not sure where I want to go with our art. Should I stay literal and documentary; keep subjects super sharp and full of detail? Or should I take a more impressionistic approach: more painterly maybe with softer lines, muted colors maybe more dreamy? "Dreamy?" "Whaaat?" "Are you going all artsy-fartsy?" I hear a little voice somewhere in my head say. The same little voice that purrs over a well-crafted spreadsheet with cool graphs, built-in macros, statistical tests. The little voice that was fed most days at the old paying job.

Along the Coast Highway

But then the other little voice speaks up. "Hey, its me. The starving Biafran in the other part of your brain. Come on dude, it's ART."

"Boyd, you are doing photography. Come on. This is the craft of Ansel. You aren't Monet or Kratter. What are you thinking?" "Remember how much you liked that super sharp, detailed image of the canyons outside Moab?" the bigger voice says. As the memory of that frame bounces around my skull this voice gathers strength and momentum.

Clearing Storm over the Colorado River outside Moab, Utah.

But the second, more gentle voice isn't finished. "Remember the smell of the beach? The feel of sand underfoot? You love that." The little voice has a point. "And the mist and fog and the muted sound and the way the waves mesmerize" he continues. I think he has a point. Mr. Detail retreats. But I know he will be back. And the third part, the referee part, will have to wrestle with the conundrum and have to make a choice between voices again.

On the edge of a storm

Kelp lines and rocks

Reclining rock

All the images in this story are lightboxed, click on them and they will expand to a larger size. This effect is really nice on a larger monitor. Most images also have a title that is viewable when the cursor hovers over the image.

This is the first of what we hope are several stories that have their origin on the Northern California and southern Oregon coast.

When someone says the word dock what comes to mind? The tray at the bottom of your computer screen? The place where the accused stands in an English courtroom? Or maybe the verb used to indicate securing a vessel. In this case we refer to the place where boats tie up, deliver their catch, and prepare for the next trip. Along the southern Oregon coast there are two species that most of us think of when it comes to seafood from this coast: salmon and dungeness crab. So guess what we saw when we were at the dock.

Chillin'

Deceitful Jetty. It only looks peaceful at the mouth of the Rogue River.

Maxx lift. Port Orford, Oregon

187 times 100

Landing table

Double shot

Lines and buoys

Wet 187

Pot knot

Buoy in a pot

Air show, ships, and a beautiful San Francisco Fall day.

The Breitling Jet Team turns on Alcatraz Island during Fleet Week San Francisco 2016

A friend told us months ago about a special way to see an airshow.  "From the deck of the WWII Liberty ship USS Jeremiah O'Brien out in San Francisco bay, you'll have a great view" she said. Of course we would have to book in advance, gamble on the weather, and take whatever angles were presented to us. But cameras in hand we arrived on a beautiful, clear and warm fall morning.  Soon we were on deck and the ship departed for a leisurely cruise under the Golden Gate Bridge.

The tug Taurus sheperds the USS Jeremiah O'Brien under the Golden Gate Bridge.

After watching the Bridge and the ships and sailboats, we toured the ship including the engine room. This was an up close view of pumping connecting rods, turning shafts, steam heat, and a symphony of mechanical sounds. I only wish I had brought a flash and had more time. It was a fascinating place.

Meanwhile after the tour the ship steadied upon the location we would maintain until after the air show was complete. And cameras in hand we enjoyed several hours of humans doing things even birds only dream of.

Because we were at the east end of the flight line, the jets would often pass very close to where we were. Very close. As in count the access panels on the bottom of the aircraft close.

And then there were the Blue Angels. Six F/A-18s bringing the sound of power to the bay with their close precision, high speed acrobatics.

And of course we had to try and capture the feeling of the day in our artwork:

It was a great day to be on the Bay

We were out this week (last week of July 2016) in and around the Ruby Mountains of Nevada. It was warm, no, it was hot. Can't sleep hot. We tried to get some pictures of the Milky Way over the marshes of Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge but the weather wasn't cooperating. Clouds and haze were were making it hard to see the Milky Way. Suddenly, a very bright light appeared in the west moving toward the east along the southern horizon. It looked like very bright airplane landing lights, but there was no sound. Then an exhaust plume began to form behind the light. Within a minute the light became a long trail and started to break-up into smaller pieces. But still the light was bright enough to light the clouds and throw shadows on the ground. Eventually the light disappeared over the southeastern horizon.

Fortunately, the cameras were on the tripods, the remote cable releases in our hands and we were able to get some photos of this celestial event. We put together a video of the approximately two and a half minute event. Hope you enjoy it.

The oldest form of controlled human flight is the hot air balloon. (Most boys have experienced uncontrolled flight by the age of 4 but that is another story.) The French first made balloon flight work in the 1700s. Since then the principle hasn't really changed. Fill a bag with hot air and attach it to a basket. Add people to the basket and use the hot air and the wind to blow you somewhere else. Of course nothing is really that simple, but it is sure simpler than some other forms of flight. The perspective is also different than most other forms of flight. The view is lower, and slower, and vibration free. Even the sound is different - the sound of the burners igniting and pushing hot air up into the bag, then quiet except the sounds from the ground below you. Quiet is not generally associated with other forms of flight. Even sailplanes have a constant sound of air flow.

This lower and slower and quieter form of flight fits nicely with how I like to do photography. I like slower and quieter. And lower is certainly more scenic than 35,000 feet. In the middle seat. In front of the 2-year old on his fathers lap. For what seems like 237 hours.

Hopefully these photos share some of the feel of hot air balloon flight. Lower. Slower. More peaceful.
Boyd

This is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the US National Park Service. So we decided to celebrate the parks by putting some of our photos from the parks together in a slide show. For this day and age it might be a little long at just over 7 minutes with credits. Or just long enough to enjoy your favorite beverage adult or caffeinated. Attached is a link to the HD version of the slide show on YouTube. We hope you enjoy the slideshow and enjoy and support our National Parks