U.S. Coast Guard People’s Choice 2010, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen (pause).

Life is still on pause, but a bit of awesome news in the mix…

Hey everyone! My photo is up for a People’s Choice Award for the USCG photo contest. I spent some time out in Pt. Townsend with the crew of this ship back in October…Awesome bunch of guys!

You can vote for my image! Follow this link. My photo is the first one in the third row. Thank You!!! -vK

Window Light *is* Beautiful, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

There were actually two people that inspired me this past week to post this. Not surprisingly it was none other than Jeff Engelhardt and Clayton Wells, whose shots over the past couple of weeks have included portraits done with nothing but window light.
If my memory [...]

A Solitary Existence, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

"A Solitary Existence". Edmonds Waterfront, Washington, USA
February 3rd, 2010 © 2009 Doug van Kampen, All Rights Reserved
B l a c k M a g i c
So in between me nearly getting sucked into the path of a moving locomotive and shooting macros of driftwood, this women [...]

Sounder, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

A while back I attempted to get this shot, but completely wimped out regarding how close I got to the train passing at around 40mph….
That being said, this time I had about 30 seconds to change lenses (because I was off shooting macros of driftwood near where this was [...]

Cradled, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

Achieving the proper separation with the Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 can be somewhat frustrating considering the sweet spot for this lens is at around f/2.8! The only other lens which has better performance is the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 which is considerably less expensive!
The goal here was to provide separation while [...]

Daddy’s Little Football, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

This was a few minutes before she fell asleep…a full belly and some rocking from Mom and Dad have a tendency to do that!
Thank you to everyone who’s provided such supportive comments and feedback the last couple of days regarding my previous post. This shoot has really [...]

Eight Days Old, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

My good friend John said that this shoot would be more rewarding and fun than shooting a wedding….he was *so* right! Perhaps I just really like babies as well!
The two most difficult things about today’s shoot was 1.) Controlling the spill of light with flags, reflectors, etc. [...]

My Very Own ‘Mittens’, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

Even though I am pleased from the quality that I can achieve from a properly composed and processed HDR image, with a properly exposed photograph using filters and a minimal amount of processing in post, beautiful photographs can be made.
This shot was made by stopping down [...]

Mt. Shuksan, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

This shot was from a ski trip up to Mt. Baker last year. Epic, epic day….
I’m planning on heading out tomorrow morning to hopefully get some decent shots of this glaciated peak in the North Cascade wilderness of Washington State. Like I said earlier, if anyone [...]

Rise and Fall, originally uploaded by Doug van Kampen.

The plains of Washington State, otherwise known as the Palouse, consist of miles upon miles of landscape that continually curves in a tapestry of lines and textures. This is hands down one of the most beautiful places I have seen on earth. From a purely photographic standpoint, [...]