It’s been a long time since I’ve photographed in Alaska, 4 months to be exact. International travel and surgery have kept me busy but it felt good to venture into one of my favorite places over the weekend, the Brooks Range, a massive range that arcs across Alaska’s arctic. I was doing an assignment for Cessna magazine, and the destination was a wilderness lodge in the Western Brooks range, and the Gates of the Arctic National Preserve. I can’t say too much about the project prior to publication, but it was filled with the usual logistical challenges of flying in bush Alaska. It was my first time to use the 5DII for assignment video, which will be included in an online version of the magazine. Shooting both stills and video divides the focus considerably!

Break-up, that transitional period that takes us from white snow to brown earth and flowing rivers is just about complete in the interior, but is still underway in the Brooks range. We landed the plane on wheels, on an ice covered lake, but that means of access is just about finished. The ice is beginning to soften and become too unstable, and pontoon floats will be the landing gear for future trips.

I find it very cleansing to the soul to fly over this vast and remote area, filled with lake after river after mountain, for a long, long time. The light in general was nothing spectacular, but the big space did me well, and it was wonderful way to re enter into photographing back in Alaska again.

Its time for a Sierra Club Calendar Submission. I used to submit to them for many years when I shot film, but there was a huge gap in time for them to catch up to the digital world, and just last year they began accepting submissions of digital photography. While that was a big step forward, it is still one of the most time consuming submission I prepare, due to the specific forms required, which is basically analog. It would be nice to see some sort of thumbnail reference form, as that is more in line with the many digital asset management programs that all us photographers use. Getting them a preview resolution file, and renaming them appropriately is not problem, but itemizing each on a sheet of paper is a clog in efficient workflow.

Below is my submission for 2012, which is basically a print out of a lightbox on my website that has embedded links to the preview image. It looks nice on my website but the style sheet here won’t let me control the layout without lots of work. This is not what I send them, but rather the environment I work in to collect the images for inclusion. I then make a catalog set in Lightroom and export the files as 1000px jpegs for their review. Including the paperwork as necessary.

You can see any image larger by clicking on the thumbnail.

On Monday, March 8, at 7:00 PM, I’ll be giving a presentation in Fairbanks for the Arctic Audubon Society’s March program along with colleagues Hugh Rose and David Shaw. I went to Antarctica with both Hugh and David, great traveling companions, photographers and extremely knowledgeable natural history guides. Our presentation will focus on stories and photo tips from the journey.

During January of 2010, three Fairbanks photographers
—Patrick Endres, Hugh Rose, and David Shaw—
spent a month aboard an icebreaker in the Southern Ocean.
On March 8th they will share images, stories, and photo tips from Tierra del Fuego,
the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island and the Antarctic Peninsula.

I’ve been invited to be the featured artist for the month of March at the Alaska House Gallery in Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaska House is a fine example of Interior Alaska’s log cabin artistry, designed and hand-built in 1939. There are oak floors, high ceilings and leaded windows in the three white-washed gallery rooms, hand hewn timbers overhead, and a river stone fireplace that brightens the gallery through the winter months. The gallery, owned by Yolande Fejes and Ron Veliz, is dedicated to preserving and promoting the art of Alaska. My photographs will be hanging there throughout the month but the “First Friday” artist reception will be this Friday, March 5th, from 5-8pm., please stop by for a visit if you are local to the area. If you are unable to attend, I’ve included my artist statement here below.

Artist Statement: Patrick J. Endres

I grew up in a small Midwest town, surrounded by the rolling hills of green farmland and hardwood forests. Adolescent curiosities and dreams of the future turned my vision north, and at age eighteen I ventured to Alaska—that seemingly mythical realm of adventure and land of extremes. I am not unlike many northern sojourners, lured to Alaska for reasons of intrigue and fascination, and compelled to remain by its giant space and rugged wilderness. Adventure is the seed of discovery, and Alaska is a place fertile and rich with opportunities for both.

An affinity for the visual arts has had a home inside me since childhood, and it leaked out repeatedly until I finally realized that in some fashion, it would become my way. This process of finding took a little time, but the fact that there is now a thin line between my photographic work and play, leads me to believe that I’m living near my passion. For me, the latter is critical because it is the context for creativity, which is the source underlying the words and pictures before you today.

Alaska’s natural world serves as a gateway into ubiquitous photographic material, from which I have sampled abundantly, but it is the layers and depth of its landscapes that now lure me most. While style is often found in the rear view mirror, I know that my long-time fascination with color and light, two fundamental aspects of painting and photography, weave their way into what may be descriptive of my work. I’m constantly intrigued by the influence of one upon the other.

My professional career is best summarized by nearly 30,000 images that span the last 17 years. They represent isolated moments in a fluid journey across Alaska’s vibrant landscape. Some are the result of serendipity, some of extensive planning and scouting, but all tell a small part of larger story. The process of their creation has been a voiceless, but not silent teacher, and I as the student am perpetually exhorted that the gift of seeing requires more than the eyes that see.

“Once in a while you find a place on earth that becomes your very own. A place undefined. Waiting for you to bring your color, your self. A place untouched, unspoiled, undeveloped. Raw, honest, and haunting. No one, nothing is telling you how to feel or who to be.” ~ Sundance

Notes About Digital Photography:

I make my living from a broad range of photography which includes stock photography for brochures and advertisements, editorial assignments for magazines, commercial photography for special projects, fine art print imagery, and to date, no wedding photography. They are all uniquely different in approach and style and are marketed largely through my website: www.alaskaphotographics.com.

I began the migration from film to digital in 2002 and by 2004 was shooting exclusively digital files. I retain no hint of nostalgic fondness for film photography since I find in the digital capture a greater dynamic range, superior overall quality, and an easier means of organization.

The work I present as fine art nature prints receive basic tonal enhancements and adjustments which include contrast, color temperature, brightness, sky control, etc., but the subject remains as it was observed. Disclosure when alterations are made for commercial or other aesthetic reasons is a value I consider important to the viewer, and thereby make note of it when performed. The prints themselves are made with Epson professional, archival quality inks and paper that when properly cared for, will outlast the healthiest viewer.

Every once in a while I get a little feedback from a photo buyer and let me place an emphasis on “once in a while”. Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a designer (ChadMicahel Morrisette) who purchased a photo for use in a store front window display. The photo–a snow covered boreal forest of  birch trees– is of particular interest to me because it was taken from the deck of my house, it was winter, and the subject of trees have always intrigued me. I’ve often thought that if Thomas Pakenham did not already publish his very cool book: “Remarkable Trees of the World“, I’d make that my next personal photo assignment.

Upon reflection, I never imagined while taking the photo, that it would be used as a window display. This is not surprising, but it is a good reminder that when photographing “stock imagery”, it’s a good idea to think broadly about your subject, and photograph it in different ways. In this case I made a panorama image by stitching five frames horizontally. I also photographed it as a single still image as well. The longer format of the two suited the store front wrap.

Early in my career I modeled my photographic style and subject material largely from the motif of the Sierra Club calendars and other respectable nature beauty images. This is the style of fine art prints, those pictures that are self sustainable through strong composition and dramatic light and color. They still are my favorite type of image to capture, but stock photography requires a different set of parameters. Generally speaking open space is essential in stock photography, and a more mild or muted color palette is often preferable. This is so because the image itself should compliment and not compete with the copy or add material that is used in conjunction with it. If you look at successful stock photography, specifically background imagery, the image alone is often not striking in and of itself. But it works well with the layout and copy. Pick up your favorite magazine and look at the advertisements within the magazine that use background imagery and you will see what I mean. You will notice very few dramatic, strongly colored images. So when photographing stock it’s something essential to keep in mind.

There is a lot going on in the process of acquiring a photograph but it does one well to think broadly and photograph the scene in a variety of ways, which produces an image more versatile for today’s challenging photography marketplace.

The access and viability today for personal, desktop publishing is none other than remarkable. Back when I was saving my pennies to come to Alaska at age 17, I worked in a print shop, operating an ink press. Typesetting was still done with copy paper and wax, blue pencils, and believe it or not, rulers. But now, my how the times have changed…

I’ve published a hand full of photo books, largely through www.mypublisher.com. If you have not embarked on this fun and creative journey, then I would recommend stepping your toe in the water. There are many different companies that offer this book publishing feature, and I have not tried them all, so this is not a review of the many that exist. I do however like the easy software that mypublisher uses, which can be downloaded and used off line until ready to publish the book.

I just finished a book on my trip to Antarctica, 11.5in x 15in wide, hardcover, with a jacket, at about 100 pages. It’s not cheap, somewhere around $225 for one copy, but it looks pretty much like you picked it off the shelf at your local book store. Excellent photographic reproductions. Since deadlines force production, I used a recent two for one sale deadline to force the books conclusion. It was rather hastily done, but soon other demands on my time shall clamor loudly so I pushed it through. It’s not something done for resale really, just a trip summarized for posterity and available on the house book shelf for those curious in browsing.

In addition to that, I’ve had another personal book idea on the charts for some time, and am partway into it. Its a much broader topic, which will include some writing, so its progress will be much slower. Along the way though, I’m enjoying going back into the photographs and reliving my journeys. The title is: A Place in Time: Photographic Reflections. And here is the cover.

A big thanks to everyone who offered their comments and opinions on a cover choice for my 2011 calendar. The blending of photography, art, rack appeal, and marketing present a challenge. I went back and forth on the selection, but ended up with my first choice, and the one that garnished the most votes by you all. I did add a stroke of red to the cover, since it has a great eye catching value to it. Calendars get placed in odd locations in the market place, and sometimes, all that is visible is the top few inches. Winter, although not unique to Alaska, certainly has an extended profile in this state. Most people that really enjoy Fairbanks, enjoy the winter in some respect, and I’m therefore keeping a winter shot as a cover choice, at least occasionally.

For those who are interested, I posted a .pdf near final, unedited version of the entire calendar here.

Thanks again, tomorrow it will be back to Antarctica.

I’m interrupting my string of posts on Antarctica to ask for a little help from my visually acute freinds out there in cyberland. Its time for me to wrap up my 2011 Fairbanks and Interior Alaska wall calendar and get it off to the printer. I’ve narrowed the cover down to two images. One winter, one summer. A simple question: which do you prefer? In answering, keep in mind that it is a calendar, and think about what would be attractive on a rack full of calendars. Thanks for any feedback.

This would describe much of my work over the last few weeks. Html code more specifically. I’ve had a searchable website since 2002, and a retrospective glance leaves me with a feeling that I reinvented the wheel in some respects. But, the wheel was very hard to find back then, which is a telling tale of our web-based beginnings.

Even after all these years, I finally made a custom 404 error page, it has remained elusive until now. I’d recommend everyone managing a site to do that. It is relatively easy and you can follow some very simple directions here. This is the page I made which you will see for any string of text following the domain URL, that is not actually a real page in the directory: http://alaskaphotographics.com/xyz

Back to the website in general. I would do so many things differently now, but I feel the same way about the house I built too. All in all, my website–which was a risk at the time–has proved a vital part of my photo livelihood. I’m a little married to the choices made long ago, and have considered a complete redesign and rebuild of the back-end code of my sight. Such a thought (which I would not perform myself by the way) has proved too formidable at the moment, especially when I remind myself that I’m a photographer!

The blending of design, functionality, usability and search engine optimization is a finicky blend, and ultimately a compromise in some measure. Figuring out Search Engine Optimization and Organic search results placement is a pretty greasy marble. I’ve scoured all the general basics and experimented plenty. Some things have worked, some have not. There is always room for improvement in that area.

I’ve watched the continued development of many “stock photo website programs” but I always seem to want those customized options that are not available in the template version. A few important things that I’ve designed into my site are as follows:

• Expandable side bar search panel which highlights and expands your search choice (This has been a tough one to work with, I can’t say it is prefect, but I find it hard to give up. It is not created automatically from the image fields or categories, which has its pros and cons.)
• zip compression on the fly of the side-bar search which facilitates faster load times
• An option for displaying larger thumbs
• Grouping similar images into a stack (it de-clutters the search results but gives designers many options to view from the same scene.)
• Horizontals and Verticals of the same scene will show up next to each other.
• Displaying all the similars when a thumbnail is clicked on to view the main photo
• <div> based thumbs per page, which lets the search results images fill your entire monitor
• Setting privileges for clients to download non-watermarked files both individually, and for an entire lightbox
• Uploading a .txt file of metadata to the web site. (This is a huge one. I can change all the caption, keyword, etc., information of my entire image database in 10 minutes by uploading a text metadata file)
• Print a lightbox feature that includes thumbnails and caption information.
• White border around images in lightbox
• Ability to rank images so they appear in a controlled manner other than date or file number.

My wish list is even longer, but here are a few:

• An entirely revamped shopping cart with more flexibility
• Continuity between static and dynamic pages
• Better Login/User registration interface
• Mouse over previews which include similars.
• Did I mention 1st place rankings in Google?
• A code geek sitting right next to me in my office, on demand, real time.

Many of my colleagues have fantastic web sites, with good and functional integration. Three cheers to you all, I know the amount of work it takes to make it happen. If you are just starting out, study the web, get organized, be accurate and consistent with your keywords and other IPTC field entries.

Samuel Johnson got it right when he wrote “Writing without effort, in general, results in reading without pleasure” The same principle stands for websites.

I’m guilty of tight compositions. It’s a by-product of the school of thinking that frowns on cropping and feels that a single image needs to be self contained and compositionally defined when you push the shutter button. It’s a school of thought I no longer adhere to, but won’t get into that subject right now.

When I began nature photography, my sights we focused on beautiful scenes that would be candidates for fine art prints and Sierra club calendars. As the world of stock photography opened up to me I quickly became aware that there is one thing that art directors and graphic designers want, and need–and that is some space to work with.

My own background in the graphic arts and design told me this but it is different when you are behind a camera, and not at a desk working on layout. Additionally, this has been reinforced over the years through the photo requests that come through my stock website. But even still, I need to be constantly reminded and thus my digital specialist is always telling me to shoot wider.

The case and point is illustrated in a photo request I received last week. A designer wanted a wrap around cover for a particular project and asked if I had any similars from the above bull moose shoot that provided more room. I dug through the files, but for any myriad of reasons, I did not. Those myriad of reasons could include: I just did not think to do so, I was shooting with a fixed focal lens, I had tunnel vision, the moment did not last long enough for multiple compositions, and so on. It served as an admonishment to keep in mind what the end purpose of a given photo subject is, or could be. The two photos below illustrate some variations in framing.  But a cover wrap needs space to the left of the subject, which is not the typical “subject looking into the scene” type of composition. Shoot the subject in different ways! This is stock photography 101 but even after many years in the business, it is essential to keep the basics in mind.