Yours truly punching through a winter wave in 2005.

After a long day of photo editing yesterday I was weighing my options on the evenings outdoor exercise and fresh air activity. The wind was laying down on Kachemak Bay and from my house I can just barely see the beach- the waves didn’t look big enough for a good surf session on a surf board but the sea kayak is less demanding, AND it had been just over two years since I last surfed the big boat.

Loaded the sea kayak, drove to beach and had second thoughts about my choice of activity as I watched a few 5ft beach break waves crash into the gravel. Definitely worth the drive back home for that helmet that I forgot.

Back at the beach I waited for a lull between sets and happily slid out without any hydro-poundings in the shorebreak. What fun to paddle a slippery fast 18ft kayak through the waves. It’s a totally different experience from paddling out on a 7ft surfboard. I headed down the beach to where a few surfing buddies where out on their longboards riding the mushy wind swell. While the waves were a bit too soft for good surf board rides they were awesome for my re-introduction to sea kayak surfing. The faces on the set waves were roughly 4-5ft high, and the rides were plenty long with the speed of the long kayak allowing me to catch the waves far from the shore and ride them for a couple hundred yards until I was either spat out or slipped off them before getting too close to the boulder strewn beach.

It’s always fun to get back out doing a sport […]

Back home in Alaska I have been spending hours, no days, editing photos from my recent 2.5 week assignment to Vietnam. While editing this morning a couple photos got me thinking about what I do as a professional photographer. What am I looking for in these thousands of images?

My task was to “photographically document priority areas.” With such a vague assignment I had the opportunity to constantly decide what specifically to photograph and how, in order to best document the issues. This basically meant looking for photographs that would help a World Wildlife Fund publication or staff person explain the forestry industry in Vietnam.

As a photographer my desire is to use the photographs to not just tell a story, but to present the visual elements in such a way that the photo is attractive. I want the photos to be engaging in some way that will hold the viewers attention and create interest in the subject.

I believe this familiar effort to document something with photos that draw and hold attention is my greatest value as a professional photographer. When touring a furniture plant with limited time and harsh mid-day light I use all the experience and talent I can muster to make photos that show the subject in an interesting and engaging way.

The photo above I consider a success because it grabs my attention and asks me stop and think about the story it tells.  I won’t struggle to describe why it attracts me or why I think it’s ‘artistic’ that is better left to writers. For my part I’ll continue striving to make images that contain these mysterious qualities and perhaps you can explain them to me.

Part of the work I’m doing in Vietnam for the World Wildlife Fund includes documenting the booming furniture manufacturing industry. In the last two weeks we have toured four very large scale manufacturing plants and I’ve seen more deck chairs than I could have imagined.

All these chairs are made of wood– some of which has been harvested locally in Vietnam but a higher percentage is imported for processing. With such a demand for wood there is an obvious concern that the forests are going to pay the price for our patio furniture.

Thankfully WWF and others are working with the furniture industry to help find the best solutions to responsible wood sourcing. One such program led by WWF is a worldwide partnership organization called the Global Forest and Trade Network. “The goal is to create a new market for environmentally responsible forest products.” Several of the furniture companies we’ve visited have been active members of the Vietnam branch of this program.

Another well known program is the The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC is an international organization that “brings people together to find solutions which promote responsible stewardship of the world’s forests.”

A big part of responsible forest management is tracking the wood through the entire process from a tree in Uruguay, to Vietnam for processing, to a retailer in Europe. For my part I was able to document the documentation at Dai Thanh furniture manufacturing company here in Vietnam. Dai Thanh was clearly keeping track of their wood, and seperating any ‘non-FSC’ wood from their mostly FSC certified products.

I’ve made a quick edit from the tour of the Dai Thanh processing plant to illustrate this process for you.