New eBook Coming Out in February

In February - if I finish it on time - I will be publishing a new eBook titled Ten Years Ago Today. The book is a retrospective of 20 landscape photographs I took in 2002, the year that I got serious about landscape photography and the year before I decided to turn pro.

A big part of this book is about my journey to break away from the expectation that in order to be a good landscape photographer, I had to photograph all the 'usual suspects' - Tunnel View in Yosemite, the Tufa Towers in Mono Lake, the slot canyons of Arizona, star trails in the bristlecone pines, etc., etc.

And although I have shot some of those places, this book is about how I learned to find beauty in the place that I lived - the unglorious Sacramento Valley. The book is a celebration of finding your own vision, of cutting loose of images and expectations of others to find your own way of seeing the landscape - whatever landscape you have in front of you.

The book contains intimate details and descriptions of 20 images I took in 2002, including an examination of the composition, techniques used, and post-processing of every image. The book shows my growth and evolution as a photographer over that year - leading up to my decision to shoot professionally on January 1, 2003.

In my next post I'll include some samples from the book.

Under the Endless Sky Book on Sale Now!

My self-published book of photography of the Sacramento Valley, Under the Endless Sky, is on sale for $29.95 until January 31st! That's a savings of $6! Order here.

Under the Endless Sky by Anthony Dunn | Make Your Own Book

Consisting of photographs taken over the past ten years of the Sacramento Valley and its surroundings, Under the Endless Sky showcases the often hidden beauty of the north state.

From the Introduction:

"For most people, the Sacramento Valley is not a beautiful place. To them, the valley is only what they see through their windshield as they rocket up the Interstate at 80 miles an hour in their rush to get through its oppressive summer heat to some cool, green destination in Oregon or Washington. And what they see are endless flat miles of dusty fields and orchards: rice, tomatoes, corn, almonds, olives and walnuts. Hot, boring, flat and repetitious. Not a beautiful place. Not beautiful at all. 

"But the Sacramento Valley is a true California landscape in its own right. It is a landscape not of wild rock or majestic forests, but of emerald rice fields under an endless blue sky and of golden sunsets reflected in the placid Sacramento River. It is a landscape of farms and of rolling hills; a peaceful and pastoral landscape, reminiscent of a California long gone in other parts of the state. And despite its wide open spaces, it is an intimate landscape that can’t be seen at 80 miles an hour, and so remains unknown – and unknowable – to the travelers whose only goal is to get through it as quickly as possible. 

"To know and appreciate the beauty of the Sacramento Valley and its surrounding hills, you have to get off the freeway and wander at a more deliberate pace down the dirt roads that wind over rounded hills and through mazes of orchards that seem to go on without end. In order to truly see the landscape of the Sacramento Valley, you have to slow down to its pace. Unlike Yosemite or the Sierra Nevada, which force their grandeur on you, the Sacramento Valley landscape is a hidden landscape, one that takes time and patience to know before it begins to reveal its true beauty."

 I'm basically selling the book at cost during this sale, so don't miss out!

My Ten Favorite Photos of 2011

2011 was an odd year, very busy in the first half, with nothing at all in the second half. However, I did take a lot of great photos during the first half of the year, and here are my 10 favorites.

This year I'm not going to break them out by category or put them in any particular order. These are just 10 photos that I particularly liked that I took in 2011.

Road to Lazy Creek Winery, Anderson Valley

Rows of Hills near Newville

Hills near Paskenta

Midnight Poppies, Table Mountain

Snow Geese in Flight from the Air, Llano Seco Wildlife Preserve

Snow Geese in Flight from the Air, Llano Seco Wildlife Preserve

Irrigation Boom

Bald Eagle

Mount Shasta

Summit of Mount Shasta

Top Ten Most Viewed Images of 2011

Every year, I tally the most viewed images on my websites. You can see the results for 2010 and 2009.

Last year was a bit different since I was only able to focus my attention on my photography for the first six months of the year. However, that didn't have much effect on the most viewed photos. My sites rank high in searches for images of Sacramento, so not surprisingly, nearly all of the top ten most viewed photos on my sites are of Sacramento. Honestly, not a lot of change from previous years.

1. Sacramento Skyline at Night #2

2. Tower Bridge, Sacramento

3. Delta King and the Sacramento Skyline #9

4. Tower Bridge, Sacramento

5. Ziggurat Building, West Sacramento

6. Sacramento at Night

7. Peach Tress in Bloom

8. State Capitol, Sacramento

9. The Capitol Building at Sunset #3

10. Bank of the West Building, Sacramento #7

Resolution for 2012

Having had little business in the past six months, and not even having had the time for pleasure shooting on the weekends, I was very happy to be able to get out and do some wildlife photography right before Christmas (I'll upload some photos in my next post).

I do this every winter (usually on my birthday), just for fun, since there's really no money in it for a guy like me. But just getting out and having fun taking photos after such a long hiatus made me really appreciate the opportunity and made me realize how much I love photography.

So my resolution for 2012 is simple: Photograph for the joy of it. Photograph what I love for the love of photography.

I really want to refocus what I do not so much for the money and the business end of it, but because I love doing it. It's easy to lose site of what you love in the race to make ends meet being a photographer. Although I don't believe that if you 'do what you love, the money will follow', I do believe that whatever money does follow will be worth more than if you are just earning it to survive.

So in 2012 I hope to get back to my roots photographically. I started taking photos because I loved doing it and this year my focus will be on maintaining that love of photography.

Here's a photo I took before I turned pro, a photo I took just for the love of it. I'd like to take more photos like this in 2012.