RIP NICK DECKER

Nick passed away on December 15th 2009.

Nick was an instructor at Brooks Institute of Photography and that is were we met. Even though I only had one class with him some twenty seven years ago I seem to still be learning from my friend. He had great impact on many who went through his class, just read the numerous posts on his Face Book page.

Nick you pushed us to the limit, you even made us angry some times bring us to tears, you gave us encouragement and taught us well. I would have it know other way and I want to thank you for every thing you did all those years ago. It is because of you that I am the photographer and person that I am today. Again thank you my friend!

I will remember your joking you called me a stump jumper from Minnesota and I called you the beat farmer from North Dakota.

Nick you will be missed greatly!

Getting Lucky

Being in the right place at the right time is so important to what we do as nature photographers. Research the location and the natural lighting and then making sure that we are there and ready for those few fleeting moments of the sweet light. When talking about what I do with people I stress this point.

I’ll follow up by saying there are time when mother nature just smiles on you and you feel like the luckiest person. I was on my way to check out a location on a cloudy fall day when the sun broke through the clouds and shone on the trees on the far side of the river. At that moment I knew I had just gotten Lucky!

Portland Head Lighthouse

Lighthouses are a relic from the days before Radar and GPS, each one looks and sound unique. Their uniqueness told the old sailors where they were and warned of danger in any weather conditions.

Over the years I have photographed many lighthouse some over and over. Some are close to home and some are far from home. I have visited them when the weather is nice and when it’s been so nasty no would want to be out there. Some times when the weather is in between good and bad you need to photograph in a way to make the image interesting and stand out otherwise you might as well left the camera in the car.

I ask myself how can I make this image more interesting than what I am looking at? In the case of this image I decided to shoot at a slower shutter speed in order to make the waves seem more active then they were. I made a series of exposure starting at 1/30 and going to 1/4 second and chose this image which I believe was 1/15 of a second.

When I was much younger and just getting started in photography I read a book by Les Blacklock said in relationship to photographing waterfalls the the human eyes see at about 1/60 of a second. Therefor if you want blurred water make your exposure at a speed slower than 1/60 of a second.

Peter, Paul and Mary sung about Puff the magic dragon living near Hanalei on the Hawaiian Island of Kaua’i in the early 60’s, I grew up listening to the song. Some thirty years later while on vacation with my wife on Moloka’i Puff worked his magic on a Hawaiian sunset. The thing is for several years I just saw a nice sunset until one day someone pointed out that I had a photo of him. ..... Aloha Puff

New Images

I've just uploaded some new images to my website! Follow this link to the New images section to see what I've posted http://www.phawkinsphoto.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1π=10000&s=0&p=0

Duluth

Duluth, Minnesota is the worlds furthest inland sea port. Vessels from around the world visit each year to load grain, the port ships mostly Taconite pellets to the steel mills down the lakes. Taconite contains iron ore and is brought to Duluth from the Masabe iron range by ore trains. While many goods are shipped in and out of the Duluth Harbor its main good is Taconite. There is a new challenger that could out do Taconite some day, Giant Wind Machines and I mean the big ones. Each blade leaves the port on it’s own oversized truck, So just the blades and turbine take a minimum of four trucks to get from the port of Duluth to its final destination.

Are we really a better photographers?

There are some subjects that I keep returning to year after year and some how I come away with new angles that I never thought of before. This is a result of personal and professional growth, the photographs I make present I could not have made before. These changes come out of more life experience and visual growth. What I mean by visual growth is that I spend a lot of time looking at other photographers work on the web both professionals and hobbyists, by doing this I hope to fine tune my own image making. If the last image we make is no better than one we have made in the past are we really a better photographers?