Here’s my first shots taking a 1 mile (70 laps) at the MA pool: I’m happy with the resolution of this little camera: (see the video Scoble shot.)

underwater blue

My coach –the best in the biz, Tom McRae

A bit too serious, but getting in my 70 laps

Yipes!

Beautiful Shepard waiting at Peet’s

This is going to be a huge year, here’s some of what’s ahead:

More Photowalking. Met with Scoble the other day, as he mentioned...

    Also deserving credit is Marc Silber — we spent a couple of hours today at a Peet’s just brainstorming and talking about what we want to do in 2008. Hanging out with creative people does     rub off and does make life richer…

We’ve got some super-cool plans for expanding Photowalking to the next level, more shows, wider coverage…stay tuned.

Studying Ansel Adam’s Photo series

A project I’m working one right now is bringing to life the masters though their children/grandchildren. For example, I just spoke with the wife of Kim Weston—son of Cole and grandson of Edward—one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century. Ansel would be the first to give him the credit for his being a major force behind photography becoming recognized as art. We’ll be visiting the Weston homestead with the rich history of three generations of amazingly talented photographers.

I’ll expand on this by taking up the six part Ansel Adams Photography Series, highlighting and bringing them to the 21st century. He is the man when it comes to the technology of photography, and he would have embraced the digital age, in fact he wrote

“The challenge of the photographer is to command the medium, to use whatever current equipment and technology furthers his creative objectives, without sacrificing the ability to make his own decisions…”

It’s going to be a great year with so much to learn and see. We’ve got many workshops and ways to really expand your skills and creative objectives…

I’ve been out surfing so many times and seen the most amazing shots…but no camera! What to do? I can’t lug out a big, expensive DSLR in a housing, no way to have fun surfing lugging that anchor around. I researched and found that Olympus makes a 7.1 MP Stylus that is waterproof to 16′ (I hope I’m not under deeper than that!) and shockproof for a drop of 5′. Makes it great for snowboarding, climbing, backpacking and the other adventures we find ourselves doing as often as we can.

So I added this to my wish list and Santa (aka my wife Jan) brought it to me!

Today Robert Scoble (#9 on The Web Celeb 25) and I were at Peet’s and he caught me on his videophone and his blog.

Last Sunday I was surfing in Santa Cruz, a dolphin and seal went by, then the sun was setting on the water with the moon rising in the east–aesthetically painful not to have a camera…that’s the last time I miss those shots!

Sometimes if feels like I was born with a camera or must have had one in the crib—it does seem that photography has always been a part of my life. Like most kids in the 50s I started with a Brownie Bullet, which like Ma bell phones you could get in any color as long as it was black. I shot tons of pictures with this camera. But one day I graduated to 35mm—yes, an Argus C3—now that was cool, the real deal just like the pros. I had really arrived.  My Uncle Sambo taught me to frame a shot by showing me how the branches of a tree would add a border to the image. Those were magic words to me.

Needless to say I continued to progress, each new a benchmark was a huge awakening for me (like learning to develop my own negatives and make prints—now that was real magic!)  This continues to this day—learning some new point in Photoshop for example.

Each of these steps opened up my ability to express myself on the blank canvass of a print and fill it in any way I envisioned. Ansel Adams taught me to look through the viewfinder and see the finished print—even framed and on the wall.  I do love to show my work and see how others view what I saw; I must say it is a thrill to pass that on to others.

The magic continues and with it the expression of art as a way to broaden the view of life, to step out of the mundane and see what lies beyond…