Panamint Playa / iPhone 15 Pro Panamint Playa is one of my favorite locations in Death Valley because of the abstract shapes and patterns that provide endless photographic opportunities. “Playa” is the Spanish word for “beach,” and is other wise known as a dry lake bed, a basin that was formerly a lake (a million years ago!) but has since dried up. Exploring this giant mosaic of intricate shapes and textures on the playa is lots of fun and I can spend many hours marveling what nature can produce given enough time. Just as the sun was setting behind the nearby mountains, the light became softer ..read more

Bad Water Basin, Death Valley NP “Simplifying one’s life to extract its quintessence is the most rewarding of all the pursuits I have undertaken. It doesn’t mean giving up what is truly beneficial, but finding out what really matters and what brings lasting fulfillment, joy, serenity, and, above all, the irreplaceable boon of altruistic love. It means transforming oneself to better transform the world.” – Happiness, by Matthieu Ricard The post Bad Water Basin, Death Valley NP first appeared on Robert Rodriguez Jr ..read more

Join our new free Creative Cafe series where we explore creative ideas, share insights, and enjoy the camaraderie over virtual coffee. I’m back for another free webinar this Wednesday helping you improve your compositional skills. This time I’ll be analyzing some images from other photographers before moving on to some more of my own recent images. As always, feel free to post your questions before or during the webinar—your interaction makes it more beneficial for all of us! Creative Cafe #04: Composition Breakdown Date: Wed, Mar 20th, 2024 Time: 7:30PM EST Register Here ..read more

My next free webinar is scheduled for this Wednesday, and I’ll be helping you improve your compositional skills by analyzing and breaking down few or my recent images from Death Valley. As always, feel free to post your questions before or during the webinar—your interaction makes it more beneficial for all of us! Creative Cafe #03 Date: March 6th, 2024 Time: 7:30PM EST Register Here! The post Free Webinar—Creative Cafe #03 first appeared on Robert Rodriguez Jr ..read more

My next free webinar is scheduled for this Wednesday, and I’ll be discussing black & white conversions in Lightroom using a cityscape and landscape image. As always, feel free to post your questions before or during the webinar—your interaction makes it more beneficial for all of us! Creative Cafe #02 Date: Feb 21st, 2024 Time: 7:30PM EST Register Here! The post Free Webinar – Creative Cafe #02 first appeared on Robert Rodriguez Jr ..read more

I’m offering a live 5-week course on Lightroom Classic that focuses on mastering the most powerful features of Lightroom: organizing, managing, developing, and sharing your images. This unique course will be delivered live on Zoom to allow for interaction between myself and students, creating an engaging experience that I think makes learning more enjoyable. It’s the same experience that students love about our field workshops, and now you can enjoy that from your own home.  There will be two separate sessions to start, one in March and another in April. The introductory cost is $299. I ..read more

I’ve been hosting a regular webinar series about photography and related topics for about 7 months now, and it’s been extremely satisfying to help others with everything I’ve leaned over the years. For 2024, I’ve decided to try something a bit different, which I’m calling “Creative Cafe.” Essentially I want to keep hosting live webinars, but with a relaxed atmosphere where I can be more comfortable discussing and sharing concepts, ideas, techniques, and general thoughts without the structure of a formal presentation. It’s what happens when I hang out with friends at a coffee shop to discuss w ..read more

I began my journey in photography nearly 20 years ago as a thought experiment that seemed almost impossible to me at the time: can I make a living as a landscape photographer, and if so, am I crazy enough to try? The idea seemed unimaginable, yet, there I was, not just imagining it, but actually considering it. Looking back, the question that kept me imagining was “what if?” and no matter how hard I tried to rid myself of my delusion, I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibilities, faint as they were. What if I was making a mistake?  What if I was missing an opportunity?  What if ..read more

Continuing in a new series of free webinars, I’m excited to announce “Creative Lightroom Developing” where I’ll share my approach to developing images in Lightroom. I’ll share my creative workflow, how I decide what tools to use in Lightroom, and my overall approach to applying compositional principles to the interpretation of images. Plus I’ll answer all of your questions related to Lightroom and editing. It will take place on Wed April 5th, 2023 at 7:30pm EDT (1930 UTC) For those that can’t make the live webinar, there will be a recording available soon after. Hope you can join us and pleas ..read more

My ongoing conservation work with Scenic Hudson is not only some of the most meaningful work I do, it’s also the most creatively challenging. It puts me in difficult situations where I often have no idea how I’m going to capture an image or series of images that convey some essence of the location. On top of that, I’m often visiting for the first time, without any trails to follow, and a tight deadline. I usually receive a map of the area with boundaries and points of interest, but it’s very general and really just a rough guide. I also use satellite imagery to get a better sense of the terra ..read more