Wonderful time-lapse film created by Chris Williams.  It was such an honor to be included in this show last year, hosted and curated by Will Jacks.  This trip to Mississippi to spend time with friends and fellow visual artists was one of my most creatively-nourishing trips of 2009.

I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to be introduced to John Anderson’s body of work earlier this year.  Following our conversation in January (on the Folio Podcast), I’ve been inspired to dig deeper into John’s work, and have really enjoyed following along on his creative journey.  John was recently here in California, and created this remarkable image.

Thank you John for taking us Inside the Image.

John Anderson: “Without thinking about it, I took my camera off the tripod and opened up the aperture enough to stop motion at around a 350th of second. Then I just stood there a moment wondering why I had done that.  That’s when I saw it.  A set of enormous waves swiftly closing in on me – they were easily twice the size of any other waves I had seen that day – or any day for that matter.

“I barely had time to think…uh…this could be bad…when the first one hit.  The sound was incredible and the splash wave shot straight up in air mingling with the clouds in a solemn display of lethal horror.  I stated photographing; clicking my sophisticated legend of a camera like a point and shoot. Someone was laughing maniacally – turns out it was me – when the terrifying volume of water dropped  harmlessly into the chasm at my feet – leaving the shelf of rock I was standing on completely dry.

“I didn’t have time to marvel at being alive – more big waves were pounding into the air and I kept shooting them.  I took a lot of photographs in short period of time but it was that first wave that captured my emotions.  If chance favors the prepared mind, it absolutely adores the stupidly lucky.”

• Learn more about John and support his journey
• View John’s body of work
• John on the Folio Podcast

Image Copyright: John Anderson

This film, created and produced by Ron Dawson of Dare Dreamer Media, perfectly captures the emotion and creative energy of PartnerCon 2009, New Orleans. It is such an honor both serve, and be a part of, this amazing community of professional photographers/artists and friends.

Planning is well underway for PartnerCon 2010!

Save the date: November 16-18, 2010 New Orleans

I had the honor of helping lead the San Diego Photog Shootout this past weekend, and was so inspired by the creative energy and talent of all those that participated.  A big shout-out goes to event organizers Stephen Knuth and Yvonne Lebrun who are doing an amazing job running the group – all the details were top-notch, including the models, make-up artists, venue and props.

One of my goals for 2010 is to do more teaching among the photography community.  In addition to focussing on knowledge-sharing and giving back to the community, there’s also a selfish motive with this goal (as I find the more I teach the more I learn).  Along those lines, it was a thrill this past weekend to work alongside photographers and community leaders that I admire and respect — including;  Betsy and Jeff McCue, Evan Bishop, Garrett Delph and Hanssie Trainor. It was also a treat to hang-out with Roxanne Benton from Pixel2Canvas and Lawrence Chan (aka Tofurious).

Be sure to check out the San Diego Photog Shootout Facebook group for additional links to the model portfolios on Model Mayhem, as well as contact information for the MUAs and participating photographers.

Here are a few of my images from the shoot…

I’m a bit behind on a variety of projects…so, here’s a quick image.

This is from this past Saturday’s San Diego PhotogShootout — which was creatively nourishing on many fronts.  Stay tuned for a post within the next couple days with a full recap.

These fall from trees all around our neighborhood.  Not sure of their official description, but my kids call them “chocolate trees.”

Let me know if you know the true botanical origin.  In the meantime, this image is being added to a slowly-growing body of work — Found Natural Objects.

Thanks for looking.