Landscape photography from the field

Lightroom Workflow

Stop Posting Edits You'll Regret: The Three-Pass Workflow That Changed How I Finish Images
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Stop Posting Edits You'll Regret: The Three-Pass Workflow That Changed How I Finish Images

There’s a particular kind of dread that hits around 11pm. You’ve spent the evening pushing sliders, the image finally looks the way you wanted it to, and you share it before the feeling passes. Then morning comes. You pull it up on your phone over coffee and the colors look radioactive, the shadows are muddy, and you can’t figure out what you were seeing the night before. I’ve been doing this for twenty years and that feeling still finds me when I let it.

Snow, Trees, and the Art of Seeing Less: Lessons from a New Zealand Forest Shoot
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Snow, Trees, and the Art of Seeing Less: Lessons from a New Zealand Forest Shoot

Forest photography has humbled me more times than I care to admit. I’ve stood in old-growth stands in the Pacific Northwest, light filtering through fir canopies like something out of a painting, and still come home with a card full of images that felt cluttered, directionless, and flat. The trees are beautiful. The camera doesn’t always agree. Add a dusting of snow to that equation and the compositional challenges multiply fast.

From 1,000 Raw Files to 8 Keepers: The Culling System That Changed How I Work
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From 1,000 Raw Files to 8 Keepers: The Culling System That Changed How I Work

Every time I come home from a shoot, the same quiet dread settles in. The boots are still muddy, the thermos is still cold, and sitting on my desk is an SD card with somewhere between 600 and 1,200 images on it. I’ve been doing this for twenty years and I still feel it. The problem was never the editing itself. I actually love sitting down with a strong cup of coffee and working through a file I believe in.

The 3-Element Filter That Cuts Your Post-Trip Culling Time in Half
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The 3-Element Filter That Cuts Your Post-Trip Culling Time in Half

Every time I come back from a long shoot, I face the same problem. Last autumn I drove out to the Alvord Desert and spent four days chasing light across the playa. I came home with just over 900 raw files. I sat down at my desk, opened Lightroom, and felt that familiar dread settle in. Not because editing is hard, but because I genuinely didn’t know where to start. Which images even deserved my attention?