2 Dec
2011

Posted in: Featured, General
By Ian Plant    4 Comments

Guest Bloggers

As you can probably guess, I’m spread a bit thin lately. Between my blog, the Outdoor Photographer magazine blog, magazine articles, my ebooks and video tutorials, workshops, and my day-to-day travel and shooting schedule, I feel like butter scraped over too much bread. I’m finding it hard to keep up with this blog’s three-prong mission of education, inspiration, and entertainment in the art of nature photography. In order to provide a better experience for you, the reader, I’ve decided that I need some help. To that end, I’ve asked some of my colleagues and friends to come on board as guest bloggers.

What I’m really doing is adding new perspectives, new experiences, and new voices. Hopefully, this will stimulate some interesting discussions, and provide new opportunities for readers. My goal has always been to make this site a resource for people interested in learning about photography, and with additional bloggers, this goal will become more of a reality. You’ll have decades of professional photography experience at your fingertips, all in one location.

My first new guest bloggers are Kurt Budliger and George Stocking, both good friends of mine and excellent photographers. They will add a fresh new element to this blog, and bring with them expertise in areas of photography other than just nature, including travel and outdoor sports.

Kurt Budliger is a professional photographer based in Vermont specializing in nature, landscape, outdoor lifestyle and fly-fishing photography. I previously introduced Kurt with the release of his eBook Vermont: Behind the Lens, so bear with me as I repeat some of the words about Kurt that I used before. What I love about Kurt’s work is how tenderly he approaches the natural landscape. We live in an age that seems increasingly dominated by what I like to call the “Internet Wonderboy” style of photography—big scenery, big light, uber-wide angle compositions, and lots and lots of Photoshop. Kurt offers a more humble approach. Rather than bending the landscape to his will, he instead lets the landscape speak for itself, a subtle process that hearkens back to the tradition of Ansel Adams.

Let’s take a look at one of my favorite images of Kurt’s. I simply love the flow of textures, the juxtaposition of complementary colors, and the deep and graphic blacks in this photograph. To me, it looks more like a painting than a photograph. Top-notch work, in my opinion.

Kurt Budliger Photography

George Stocking is probably the best landscape photographer you’ve never heard of. Well, some of you may have heard of him. If you read Arizona Highways, or if you followed the Mountain Trail Photo Team for the short time that it was around, then you have heard of George. He’s been a professional photographer for about twenty years now, and he is a master of composition, mood, and moment. Although my friendship with George might leave me biased, in my opinion he’s one of the best desert photographers to ever live, and I honestly can’t think of anyone who’s better. Like Kurt, he isn’t very Internet Wonderboyish. George doesn’t feel the need to beat you over the head with epic beauty. Rather, his work displays a deft mastery of the subtleties of nature.

One of George’s images from the Grand Canyon reveals the depth of his mastery. It is simply one of the most stunning images of the Canyon I have ever seen. The layering, the rich cool palette, the hint of morning mist, and the perfectly placed gleam of light—all come together to produce a masterpiece.

"Dawn of Creation" by George Stocking

I wish I had both of these images in my portfolio—which is something I don’t say often, and is about the highest praise I can give.

So please join me in giving a warm welcome to Kurt and George. They will be posting (hopefully) within the next few days. Things should start getting a bit more interesting around here!

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About Ian Plant  (275 Posts)

Ian Plant's photographs and instructional articles have appeared in a number of books, calendars, and magazines, including Outdoor Photographer and Popular Photography. Ian writes a regular blog column for Outdoor Photographer online, and he is the author of numerous instructional eBooks and digital processing tutorials. Ian leads several photo tours each year.