Welcome!

Thanks for stopping in! I am an advanced-amateur photographer interested in landscape photography utilizing HDR and digital infrared photography. I also create interesting fractal images and animations. This website provides a peek into some of my work over the years, where you'll also find information about me and the training courses I've published. I am a software developer by profession, and have been at that for 35+ years. With my experience with computers, I’m not intimated by them and powerful software that helps me process and create amazing images and author amazing video animations. I’m happy to have this opportunity to share my work. Enjoy your visit!

Suggestions for Your Visit

You might like to start by reading About Me and my Artist Statement. Take a look at my digital infrared training course if you’re interested in that special area of photography. Check out my Infrared Gallery to get an idea can be done with infrared photography. You might enjoy viewing my fractal images, terrain images and Mandelbulb 3D animations. Also available are a number of my photos from my early days of film and digital photography, including my Grand Canyon trip where I utilized my skill in HDR photography.

NEW!

A new Fractal Fantasy presentation named “One Life” is released. Read about the project at this website below or link directly to YouTube to view this new 4K Fractal Fantasy presentation.

Digital Infrared Photography

My Infrared Photography Gallery contains a selection of my images produced with a digital camera specially converted for infrared radiation.

I publish an infrared photography training course on Udemy.com. Learn more about the course in the pages about the course at this website and review the educational articles of extracted from the course (listed under the “Infrared Photography” menu). You might also like to explore what digital infrared photographs look like in my Infrared Photography Gallery.

Dreamtime Animations

I’ve recently created a Patreon membership portal to make my Dreamtime fractal animations available. My Dreamtime Animations (Dreamscapes) have been in development for months, and I’m delighted to finally make them available to the public here.

My Dreamscape animations utilize a variety of different fractal images with a mirroring effect applied so as to create a moving pattern that never repeats. This produces a visual pattern that has an interesting affect of being interesting, but not so engaging as to lock attention. This, I believe, make Dreamscapes a useful aid for relaxation and for falling asleep. In keeping with this being a relaxation or sleep aid, I used care to avoid bright colors and to avoid sudden visual changes. The steady visual movement speed is, I believe, an appropriate pace to promote relaxation.

I create the soundtracks for my Dreamscapes using synthesizers. As with the visuals, I make an effort to avoid sudden audio changes, and there are never lyrics (singing) that might otherwise demand too much focus on the audio track. As with the visuals, I wanted the soundtrack to be interesting, but not so engaging as to lock the listener’s attention and interfere with relaxing.

The key to both the visuals and the audio is to be interesting, but not so interesting that they capture and hold focus and attention. Ideally, the presentation is enough to get one’s mind defocused from the daily worries to make way to relax or fall asleep, but itself not so engaging as to demand too much attention.

Mandelbulb 3D Fractal Animations

I’ve created a number of video animations using software that enables the creation and animation of 3D fractal patterns by combining formulas and various parameter values. The software is called “Mandelbulb 3D”. The software is very old, but still very capable of producing amazing animations once you master it (I’m still working on that). I’ve published my Mandelbulb 3D animations on YouTube, some of which are imbedded below. Click the links to my YouTube anaimations below or stop over to my YouTube Channel to browse. Be sure to view the videos in high quality, with many of them being 4K. Please enjoy!

Just published The Ruins of Edon My visit to an ancient collapsed community. I brought my trusty 8mm camera along and now we’ll have a good ole’ fashion home movie night. BYOP (Bring Your Own Popcorn)

And here’s “Hydra”, a spooky Mandelbulb3D flythrough of a creature’s domain. Hydra is my most popular Mandelbulb3D animation to date.

There are more of my Mandelbulb 3D videos up on my Youtube channel. Here’s a list of those posted on YouTube to date. I have plenty of ideas for new Mandelbulb 3D animations which will be posted on YouTube when each are completed. Please enjoy!

A Bug’s Paradise - A romp in an other-world garden from the bug’s perspective complete with fellow bugs going about their business. The insects were created using the excellent Adobe After Effects “swarm” animator called Creative Effects. The soundtrack was created with the Arturia Minifreak synthesizer.

Hydra - Among my best Mandelbulb 3D animations to date (I’m a bit biased), Hydra takes you on a trip in close proximity to a menacing and undulating hydra-like thing. Watch out for that tentacle!!! The soundtrack for this animation was created using the Arturia Minifreak synthesizer.

Below are some still captures from the Hydra animation (click once to view the larger image). Please enjoy.

Below is a presentation on YouTube about the making of the Hydra animation. I discuss making the graphic and keyframing with the Mandelbulb 3D fractal generator application. I then provide an overview of preparing the animation video. Then, as the Hydra animation plays, I provide a commentary of some of my artistic goals.

Edge of Chaos - With this Mandelbulb 3D animation I tried an experiment where I had the camera, with an extreme field of view (FOV), “slide” right-to-left in a perfectly straight path as it moved past a single fractal object. The result is even better than I expected, so this animation didn’t end up on the digital cutting room floor. The soundtrack is by Orchestralis (Envato).

The Rim - I worked hard on this guy to try and simulate a believable underwater experience. This animation required five software applications to build and I have about 18 hours into it, yet it has a very low view count on YouTube. Goes to show that effort doesn’t always result in popularity The coral-like material is a Mandelbulb 3D fractal at an extremely up-close distance. The marine life is created using Creation Effects. Video editing along with masking, underwater effect, light-shimmer, etc. is using DaVinci Resolve Studio 18. The soundtrack is by Orchestralis (Envato).

Riding the Loop - Now this was a fun animation to put together! Very challenging, but fun. The camera travels on a nice straight-line path moving steadily along inside of a high-detail fractal object. The tricky part was getting the camera inside the fractal object without collisions and clipping. The rear-view in the upper left corner is the forward animation re-rendered with the keyframes in reverse order. The soundtrack music is from Orchestralis (Envato).

There are more of my fractal animations on my YouTube Channel. Feel free to stop in when you get a chance. Consider subscribing to my YouTube channel to be notified of new animations as I publish them. Of course, LIKES are always welcome.

Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial Series

A tutorial series for the Mandelbulb 3D fractal generator and animator application is being posted on YouTube.com. When fully published, the Mandelbulb 3D tutorial will consist of 153 sessions. If you are interested in creating your own fractal art with the Mandelbulb 3D fractal generator, please visit the Fractal Art page at this website to learn more about this Mandelbulb tutorial series, including list of topics covered in the series. Below is the fist session of the Mandelbulb 3D Tutorial Series on Youtube.com.

Digital Terrain Art

As a photographer I have always enjoyed capturing the beauty of our world with it’s vast terrains and landscapes. However, access to such beauty is often difficult and expensive. But I can still travel…in my imagination. I thoroughly enjoy creating landscapes using software tools because it enables me to imagine landscapes that I can’t travel to with my physical camera. The terrain art shown in my gallery were created using World Creator and in some cases Tarragen. My digital terrain creations are just one way to enjoy the beauty of our planet, even if it’s only simulated. Please take a peek at my Digital Art Gallery. Enjoy!

Digital Fractal Image Art

Fractal Fantasy Videos

On my YouTube channel you’ll find a large collection of my Fractal Fantasy videos that I think you’ll find interesting and entertaining. Fractal art is a hobby of mine. The software used for most of these Fractal Fantasy videos is JWildfire, a popular and extremely capable “flame” fractal generation software. I’ve enjoyed many hours creating these wonderful mathematical graphics. After creating the images I have a variety of ways to present them which includes high-resolution prints and/or set to music in videos. The soundtracks are properly licensed from their respective authors. Below are a few samples of the Fractal Fantasy videos along with a complete listing of what I’ve posted to my YouTube Channel. Please enjoy!

One Life takes us on a journey of one variation of a human lifespan, from birth to death. Along the way we sample the toddler, the teenager, the young adult and the working adult. Also encompassed in One Life is companionship, misfortune and nostalgia. Our One Life journey concludes with the senior and the elder years, and then death.

One Life can be viewed below or directly on YouTube. One Life is a 4K presentation, so viewing it at the highest quality your device supports will provide the best experience, Headphone or earphones will also improve your experience.

One Life is a project that I planned for over a year. I wanted to tell a story of a human lifespan, doing so with fractal graphics and music presented in a manner where the graphics and the music compliment one another. Selection of the music was a long process because I wanted music that was unique and interesting, expertly performed and that fit the timeline of One Life. I narrowed the music down to royalty-free selections from Orchestralis that licenses their work on the Envato Market. Orchestralis has a wide selection of royalty-free music and are excellent performances.

Once the soundtrack was decided, I turned my attention to the graphics. It was challenging to accomplish multiple goals for each segment of One Life where the graphic needed to conform to the music and also be relevant to the segment topic. Some of the segments were easier to assemble than others. Misfortune, for instance, was difficult to get the animation to match the many variations of the music for that segment. But I think the Misfortune segment turned out well. I also put in an extended effort with the "Arrival" graphic because I wanted the perfect opening to get One Life off to a great start.

All of the graphics for One Life were created using JWildfire version 8.10. I have a couple years experience with JWildfire from creating my many Fractal Fantasy videos, which are available on YouTube. One of my design goals for One Life was to be consistent in the style of the graphics, which is one reason I used only JWildfire to author the fractal graphics. I knew I could create wonderful images with JWildfire, but the animations were a challenge because of the timing with the soundtrack. Using JWildfire for this project was made practical because, just in just the past couple years, JWildfire had been made capable of using the GPU for rendering fractal graphics. Considering that One Life required 72,550 image frames, the project would have been essentially impossible were it not for GPU rendering. The final fractal graphics were each custom designed and animated to help tell the story of One Life.

Editing One Life was challenging because of my rather stringent design goals for the project. First, I wanted One Life to be edited in native 4K quality - not upscaled to 4K after editing. Second, I wanted the segments of One Life to blend together as would an actual human lifespan, which required detailed control of the numerous elements of the project. DaVinci Resolve Studio 18 was up to the task, as was my beefy Intel i9 personal computer with an excellent GPU. In total the One Life materials consumed 627 GB of hard drive space, required 72,500 frames of graphics, utilized 6 software applications and involved 3 PC's. I estimate that I invested 125 hours into the One Life project - and enjoyed them all!

One Life can be viewed below or by linking directly to the presentation on YouTube. For your best experience, it is highly recommended that One Life, which is 4K quality, be played at the highest possible resolution your device can support and with headphone or earphones. The YouTube description for One Life includes a summary of each of the segments of the One Life presentation.

Please enjoy One Life!

Film And Digital Color Photography

Review some of my favorite color photographs in my Color and HDR Photography Gallery, and take a tour of my Grand Canyon Gallery photos that I brought back from my memorable trip to the Canyon in 2011.

You may also be interested in my photography video courses described below.

Training Courses

The Infrared Photography Masterclass is designed for anyone interested in the unique branch of creative photography known as digital infrared photography. All photography skill levels welcome. All camera makes and models. No camera required to take the course. Please visit this page at this website to learn more about this course.

The HDR Masterclass

My 6+ hour video training course delves deeply into HDR photography. The topics of this training course include HDR image examples, HDR defined, fundamentals of HDR, capturing for HDR and tone mapping. The HDR Masterclass is a start-to-finish video course to help develop HDR capture and processing skills by which to make remarkable and memorable images. Please visit this page at this website to learn more about The HDR Masterclass.

projects

Project GBPL (Game-Based Photography Learning) explores how current 3D game technology can be leveraged to learn real-world photography.

One evening while playing a video game I wondered how 3D game technology could be used to learn real-world photography. I reasoned that an in-game camera could simulate a physical camera and the game environment could simulate a real-world environment. So, it seemed to me that the principles of photography could be learned and practiced in a game situation.

So I set about to build a prototype using Unreal Engine 4 to evaluate, for myself, if 3D game tech could be leveraged for teaching photography. It’s possible that game-based photography learning could become a viable method of learning real-world photography.

Please visit the page for the Project GBPL on this website for more information.

Blog Articles

My Blog has a collection of photography stories and some helpful advice that you may be interested in. Stop over when you have a few minutes.

I also have a number of educational blog articles over at my infrared learning website. Stop in if you are interested in learning digital infrared photography.

Other Ways to View My Work

While this website showcases much of my work, feel free to visit the following Web locations:

• If you are interested in digital infrared photography, visit an overview of the course at this website and read the educational articles listed under the menu “Infrared Photography”. You might also want to visit the course on Udemy.

• You can browse my YouTube channel to discover the Fractal Fantasy and Mandelbulb 3D videos I’ve published to date.

• I post my photography-related videos at this YouTube channel.

• I have a selection of my images at 500px.com, several of which are very popular.

• I maintain a personal cache of my images at my Flickr account.

• At this time I am not active on the Twitter, Facebook or Instagram social media platforms. With their ever-increasing focus on commercialization (ad insertion) I found them to be a time-sink and one-by-one cancelled the accounts to free up time to focus on my creative interests and projects. I do, however, maintain several YouTube channels for my fractal art and my photography interests.

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