Twenty-twelve was a tough year for me.  Some amazing highs and some nasty lows.  I got engaged to the most wonderful, creative and supportive person I’ve ever known and fought hard to clear my body and mind of the influence of metastatic melanoma.

I didn’t get to photograph nearly as much as I would have liked, but I’m thankful to still be kickin’ around on this planet and to be able to pursue my passions again.  It seems I’m still not out of the woods as far as the melanoma is concerned, I have a new development in my left lung, but I’m enjoying the bit of healthy, non-medicated time I have left before we kick that bastard to the curb in 2013.

I’m heading back to the Eastern Sierra and Death Valley next week for 6 days of photography.  I’m really looking forward to it and can’t wait for the freedom of the hills.

I usually like to produce a list of 10 or so favorite images from the year, but with all of the time lost to cancer treatments and recovery from cancer treatments I only made about 10 images over the course of the entire year.  So, in the interest of actually wanting to pick the images I like the most I chose 6 as my number instead of 10.  Hope you like them!

Here’s a little of the context behind each image.

Moonstones:  This was an image I’d had pictured in my mind’s eye since I first climbed down to the beach at Soberanes Cove in Garrapata State Beach.  This area is the very top edge of Big Sur and it’s pretty accessible as a day trip location from our place in El Cerrito.  I headed down there with friend-tographer Lukas and Sammy.  There were no clouds so we dilly-dallied around until the stars came out and then headed down to this beach to make some images.  The timing was perfect as the moon was rising behind our backs and provided a nice balance of light to the foreground and sea stacks.  Gotta love it when a plan comes together!

Muir’s Melody: Sometimes you just need to drop everything and run to Yosemite Valley in the middle of the night.  This was one of those occasions.  Lukas, Josh and I left the Bay Area at 1 AM so that we could arrive in a (hopefully!) snowy Yosemite before sunrise.  We arrived early and drove up to the infamous Tunnel View to scope out the valley.  20-30 minutes after we got there the clouds overhead started to break up.  This let the moonlight in to glint off the snowy valley walls.

Tangents: I love Cataract Creek on Mt. Tam.  It never ceases to provide me with a new and interesting composition each time I visit and even if the conditions aren’t great for photography the hike still gets your blood pumping.  This particular image is a vert-0-rama and really showcases the vegetation around the creek’s many cascades.

Arcs and Arches: Sam and I got engaged during the hour that the camera was recording these star trails. We both love the Alabama Hills and so a quick weekend trip out there to celebrate her successful completion of graduate school exams turned into a time we’ll never forget.  This was another image that formed months earlier in my mind’s eye and I was able to make use of the 2012 super-moon to really light up the surrounding landscape while letting the stars glide across the sky forming the trails you see in the image.

Zephyr: Lone Pine has really captured my heart.  After I finished my interferon treatments in October I made sure to parse out a little time to get back out in the world and explore the Eastern Sierra.  I was traveling on my own — a great feeling after needing the care of others for many months — so I felt very free.  I had one very productive morning in the Alabama Hills while a storm cleared the Sierra.  This image was from well before sunrise so the exposure was very long and the light across the Sierra escarpment was very soft and even.

Feature Length: This was taken recently on one of those mornings where the forecast does not look all that great for photography.  I met up with Lukas and his wife Megan in the headlands and we took the hike down to Kirby Cove.  Things were starting to look pretty good and then they just kept getting better and better.  We photographed for what felt like and hour at least.  I soaked my sneakers in the process, but who cares!?

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I’ve been feeling much better as of late and have recovered enough to where I felt like I could take a long weekend solo trip to the Eastern Sierra.  I was hoping to be able to hop over their via Tioga Pass through Yosemite National Park but an early winter storm passed through on Friday and the pass was closed.  That meant I had to take the longer, significantly less pretty way to go around the Sierra Nevada from the south.  I ended up catching some incredible light and conditions on my first morning in Lone Pine, only to see the wonderful clouds slowly evaporate over the course of the day and never return.  I made the best of it and did some night work and also got to explore the area a lot more than I have in the past.  I took a soak in a hot spring near Mammoth and tracked down a derelict mine site in the Inyo Mountains.

This was the first opportunity I have had to seriously give the D800E a workout and I am incredibly impressed.  The files are loaded with detail and the camera handles very well.  I look forward to being able to print images very large now.

Here’s a 2560 pixel wide wallpaper for your computer that I’m currently using on my iMac.

Link to full resolution file: http://jeffreyswansonphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Yosemite_Wallpaper.jpg

Please don’t use this file for anything but as a wallpaper on your personal computer.  I don’t want to have to sick my rabid badger lawyer on you.  He’s really a badger and he’s hungry. Image © Jeffrey Swanson 2012.

 Saint of the Wildflowers — Mount Saint Helens, Washington, USA

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So, from time to time, I receive requests to use my images for various purposes — like on a blog or a pamphlet or a calendar or the side of a zeppelin or for a urinal cake.  Typically, if they are nice and they’re not going to be making a load of cash off where they’d like to use my image then I’ll let them use it as long as they give me credit.  I’m especially generous with environmental interests and non-profits and ice cream manufacturers offering vouchers for all-you-can-eat tours.

But then there’s the chumps (and chumpettes) who will be making a substantial amount of money off of the use of my image and I send them packing unless they pony up a fair amount of money.  The latest version of this repetitive saga really got caught all up in my craw and so I felt the need to write a bit about it.

I should say here that this is 100% legitimate, the company that contacted me exists and has a rather impressive retail footprint in the US.  The emails below are word-for-word with names removed to protect the company.  The underlying issue I discuss does not begin and end with this example or company, it is much larger.

So, Monday morning I awake to an inbox message on flickr that reads:

SUBJECT: Saint of the Wildflowers

Your photos are breath taking. I work a a company called {Company Name} located in Michigan. We always produce a landscape calendar for our customers to purchase. We match up scripture with the beautiful landscape images that God has provided.

This is a very low print run and only around 20,000 calendars produced. I was wondering if you would give us permission to use some of your photographs? I would be able to give you credit for your photograph. Please look at this an opportunity for you to reach a possible customers.

I have a meeting at the end of this week to present images. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks
L

Lead Graphic Designer

20,000 calendars is a low print run?! Can you see the dollar signs lighting up in my eyes? Wooooo!!  Surely they must have a budget for the artwork, they have a lead graphic designer after all!  So I reply after checking out the going rate at Getty Images to get an idea of what the market should bear:

SUBJECT: Re: Saint of the Wildflower

Hello L,

Thank you for the kind words regarding my photography and for contacting me with this opportunity.

I would love to be a part of your calendar, but I can’t allow my work to be used without monetary compensation. (It is work after all!)

I believe that fair compensation for use like you’ve described above would be $550 per image. That would cover use of each image at full page size for a one year run of your calendar.

Thank you,

Jeff Swanson
www.interfacingnature.com

I hear back quickly.

SUBJECT: Re: Saint of the Wildflowers

Thanks Jeff

Your very talented photographer and thanks for taking the time to respond. I completely understand your point of view and I do realize how much time and equipment you have into each photo.

This price is out of our budget for project.

Thanks
L

So I’m thinking, hmm, they have a budget after all.  Let’s probe a little more and see what it is.

SUBJECT: Re: Saint of the Wildflower

Hi L,

Thanks for understanding that there is indeed a lot of preparation and skill involved in landscape photography.

If you’d like to make a counter offer that will fit your budget, I might be able to work with you on the price.

Thank you,

Jeff Swanson
www.interfacingnature.com

And again, she replied quickly and this is where the my jaw drops:

SUBJECT: Re: Saint of the Wildflowers

Hi Jeff

I have a very little budget. I don’t think we will be able to work together.

I have 100.00 for all photos. I’ve been finding some of them for free.

Thanks again
L

$100 for ALL THE IMAGES! WHAT!?  That is HALF A CENT for all the images in each calendar.  Let’s do some math here to show how painfully out of whack that is.

The calendar run is (only) 20,000.  Say they can sell the calendar for $12.99 or so and have to pay $1 each for the printing of the calendars (a rough estimate from uprinting.com).  That leaves $11.99 to cover the rest of the costs associated with producing and selling a calendar and some profit for the company.   That comes out to $239,800 left over to cover the rest of the costs and some profit.  Of that amount they have only reserved a little more than four one hundreths of one percent for compensating the artists that produced the artwork that will actually sell their calendars (when’s the last time you bought a calendar because you liked the font?)

This is appalling and I’m sure it happens all the time.

So here’s the message:  I’m not a professional landscape photographer, I’m not relying on this business to feed myself and cover my rent.  So, in theory, getting credit should be plenty for me.  But here’s where that doesn’t work anymore.  I know many landscape photographers who ARE making a living at this and every time I (or you or ANYONE) accepts an image-credit-only offer for publication it is effectively taking food off of their plates.  What happens is that more and more companies start resorting to this method all the time because they are successful at it.  So I implore you to think twice about your actions the next time you are approached with a similar deal.  Don’t help to erode the market for high-quality artwork just because you’re not relying on that market to feed yourself.

Next, don’t believe the schtick they feed you about exposure.  When’s the last time you saw an image in a calendar or on a urinal cake and said “Gee whiz! I like that enough that I want to track that artist down and send them money!”  See what I mean?  They already have your image to look at (or pee on) anytime they want.  Plus, you can’t take image credits to the grocery store or gas station or zeppelin store.  “Sorry Bill, I can’t pay you for this gas, but I will tell anyone that asks why my car is running so well that I bought it here from you at Bill’s Gasoline and Urinal Cake Emporium, that cool?”

See how absurd that sounds when you aren’t talking about art?

I have been working for a little bit with my good friend Ryan Arruda.  He’s one of my oldest and best friends, we went to school together and even formed a band at one point called “Poached Trout (in a White Wine Sauce).”  Nowadays he’s working as a graphic designer.  So with this new website I was in need of a little graphic help, since I’m a little challenged when it comes to that side of things (among a long list of other things that I won’t mention here).

He’s great to work with and has quite a knack for the art, plus he actually listened to what I had to say! :)

Check out his work @ www.midnightumbrella.com

We even have a print of his “Tangram States” hanging in our kitchen which I love!