New West Network

My Page: Chris Lombardi

Special Photo Gallery

If you've lived in Missoula for any length of time you may have noticed a peculiar seasonal phenomenon that occurs in early summer. Just as the university students ship out and the streets quiet down, the weather warms and the river is good for floating, a large flock of folks bearing all manner of photography gear fills our streets. They wander, they stare, they tilt their heads this way and that, and sometimes they ask you for a photograph.

These wandering shutterbugs are the latest class of students attending the Rocky Mountain School of Photography's Summer Intensive program, an 11-week boot camp of sorts with the aim of refining raw photographic talent into the stuff of which art and careers are made.... [more]

New West Images: In the Loupe

Last autumn I had the opportunity to attend my first field photography workshop with a professional instructor. I spent several days tromping about Glacier National Park with Tim Cooper, an amazing digital nature photographer and an instructor with the Rocky Mountain School of Photography.

The most instructive part of the workshop experience, by far, was the daily critique in which Cooper would gather a few photos taken by the students that day, project them onto a screen, and then, tactfully and kindly, rip the photography to shreds. As Cooper moved through each image responding to its best and worst qualities, tracing the lines of "movement" through the image and making suggestions for improvements, I gained my first glimpse into the workings of a talented and practiced photographic mind. Tim was teaching me how to think like a photographer. He expanded my conceptual vocabulary, giving me new tools with which I could critique my own work. I could have kept my camera in its bag the entire workshop and still come away a better photographer.

I was delighted to find two web sites this week that offer something like my experience with professional instruction.... [more]

New West Images: In The Loupe

Here we are at the height of summer, which, of course, is peak photography season, and the New West photo pool is sloshing over with great summer imagery. Allow me to point you in the direction of a few FLICKR photographers who've caught my eye.

First up is Ginger Hatten of Wyoming who goes by the handle Anon Nona. Ginger is a relative newcomer to the New West group and has been showing us some outstanding work. Ginger has developed a very distinctive PhotoShop processing style that is low-key, densely saturated, and richly textured (often with the aid of subtle texture layers). Her images are loaded with emotion -- equal parts landscape and landscape of the soul. You can start with her Personal Best set, but start anywhere and you won't go wrong. [more]

New West Images: In the Loupe

It's inspiration time.

Several prestigious photography organizations have put up photo galleries recently, chock full of powerful images to inspire.

For the nature lovers, there's the Nature's Best contest gallery put together by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Here you'll find the top 40 images from a field of 24,000 submitted to a Smithsonian contest last year. My faves: Bottlenose Dolphins and American Alligator. [more]

Featured Photographer

In their quest to find a unique angle on well-worn subjects, some photographers go farther than others. Or higher. In pursuit of his passion for the world's desert regions, photographer George Steinmetz has done both. He has traveled to some of the most remote regions on the planet and found a fresh photographic perspective by strapping a motorized propeller to his back and launching into the air under a paraglider, risking erratic downdrafts and rough landings in harsh terrain for the sake of stunning low-level aerial shots.

Steinmetz's desert obsession has led him to visit more countries than many Americans have visited states..... [more]

New West Images: In the Loupe

On June 15th, 24 cyclists lined up their mountain bikes on the Montana/Canadian border for the start of the 4th Annual Great Divide Race. Their goal: Mexico, as fast as possible. Their course is the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, a 2,490 mile path criss-crossing the Continental Divide 28 times and climbing 200,000 feet, a course which they ride totally unsupported, carrying all of their own food and water, making their own repairs, and setting up their own camps along the way.

The record for the race, an incredible 16 days, 57 minutes.... [more]

New West Images: In The Loupe

I feel like a prospector returning from his claim with a handful of choice nuggets. I'll let you assay the ore....

A weary Mormon family sits in front of their Conestoga wagons

Portrait of Obtosoway, a Native American Ojibwa chief

Benjamin J. Hodges - flamboyant frontier character, cowboy, outlaw, lawman, gambler

Theodore Roosevelt rides down 17th Street, Denver

Colorado National Guardsman toss a soldier in the air during a Miners strike

[more]

New West Images

Several of the major photo gear pushers have announced summer photo contests recently.

The tastiest, and likely the most competitive, is the Canon Photography in the Parks Photo Contest. Canon will be awarding camera gear (including a Canon 5D, 30D, and Digital Rebel XTi) to the top three winners in two categories, Wildlife and Landscape. Photos can be taken in any state or national park. The big winner gets an all-expenses trip to any park in the US (fine print: in the contiguous lower 48 states -- no trips to Denali or American Samoa, alas.). Submissions are open until September 29.

Olympus is running a contest with a lot more categories.... [more]

New West Images: In The Loupe

Some of the best photojournalists on the planet have come together to donate their work to Operation Azra, an online photography auction benefiting the victims of acid burning in Pakistan. Acid burning is the intentional disfiguring of women with acid or kerosene as a act of retribution.

Among the images donated to the auction are some of the more powerful images I've seen in a long while. Be sure not to miss "Kashmir: Troubled Paradise" by Ami Vitale, "Procession of Virgins" by Antonin Kratochvil, and "Buzkashi" by Shaul Schwartz.

Of regional note, the Rocky Mountain News has donated an image by photojourmalist Todd Heisler, who won a Pulitzer for his work while at the Denver paper (he's since gone on to the New York Times). His image, Final Salute, of a flag-draped coffin being loaded into an aircraft at Reno International Airport (pictured here) has become one of the more famous images to emerge from the Iraq war. This auction marks the first time the image has been available for public sale. Heisler's web site, www.toddheisler.com, is well worth your time, as well.

Featured Photographer

Does it bite?

Is it poisonous?

If Boise's Frank Lundberg had a nickle for every time he's been asked these questions, he'd be able to afford some very nice photography equipment. As proprietor of Reptile Conservation Resources, educator, and advocate for reptilian wildlife, Lundberg frequently finds himself in public accompanied by one of the many snakes and lizards that have come under his care. And the answer is sometimes, yes, his companions are poisonous. The snake pictured here (photographed by Garren Evans) is "Lucky," a Western rattlesnake who, before he died of old age last year, helped Lundberg teach biology courses at Boise State, as well as a Rattlesnake Awareness program through his business.

Lundberg is also a dedicated photographer and a FLICKR photosharer.... [more]