Thoughts on Underwater, Landscape, and Nature Photography by Jim Patterson

The new year has begun and it is a good a time as any to look back at 2011 and review some of my favorite images. What follows are ten images, all made last year. I have a difficult enough of a t...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2012/01/2011-year-in-review.html

A RECENT IMAGE: PROOF I STILL GET OUT FROM TIME TO TIME. I'll admit it. I avoid my blog. I avoid it like the dishes in the sink or the junk mail on the kitchen counter. I started this blog a fe...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2011/10/where-in-world-is-jim-patterson.html

I hope everyone had a safe and fun holidays.  Except for spending about ten hours trying to rid my parents' computer of a virus on Xmas, I had a wonderful week off from work.  This year, I head...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-new-site.html

Winter time in California can often be the best season for dramatic weather and light.  In the summer, however, landscape photographers along the coast such as myself, can often be found wanderi...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2010/12/importance-of-preparation.html

Taken back in February, this was one of those 'race to make it in time for sunset' shots. It was also one of those times I felt like I was just going through the motions. I was going to the same...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2010/12/taken-back-in-february-this-was-one-of.html

For years, my inspiration came from diving the kelp forests of the Monterey Bay. But as the years passed, I was diving less and less and as a result, my time spent doing photography also decline...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/reflections-of-photographer-for-years.html

--The Shot-- The storms that have been hitting the western coast of the US brought some dramatic clouds and luckily the sunsets stayed dry. I have a few new images from this weekend that I will ...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2010/11/golden-shores-san-gregorio-state-beach.html

One of the things I've realized about this blog is that I have never posted an underwater shot, and to be honest, that is where my passion for photography began. I always took snapshots back in c...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2010/08/appearances-namena-marine-reserve-fiji.html

I realize I have neglected this blog for almost 9 months. For that I apologize, more to myself, for not motivating to write and share. I will eventually switch over to Word Press for my blog. It ...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2010/07/passage-of-time-2-sand-harbor-lake.html

Some of the most common questions I get on the flickr photography forum are related to filter use. I plan on creating multiple filter tutorials over the winter and will blog and post them to my...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/12/math-and-photography.html

I can thank the slumping economy for one thing. In eleven years of working at a retail outfitter, I've never had the entire Thanksgiving weekend off. When I found out this year would be differen...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/12/tahoe-in-gold-n-blue.html

One of my more recent fascinations (or obsessions) is to capture the sun in a single exposure through proper use of camera settings and graduated neutral density filters. There are several ap...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/11/capturing-sun.html

One of the challenges of photography is capturing light in that special way. Over the course of the last year, I have learned that creating a unique image can be a life long journey. Natural Br...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/11/painting-with-shutter-speeds.html

First, I want to thank all of you who follow me through the various avenues the internet has to offer (Flickr , Facebook , Blog, Twitter , my website ). In just over a year, I have fallen in love...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/11/morning-after-blues.html

Sorry I've been absent from the blog. I often find myself wondering what to write, and then days pass by so quickly. I guess my only excuse is that I never kept a journal growing up, so I haven't...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/10/waiting-game.html

First off, I don't want to come across in any of my posts as an expert or that I know it all. I think that photography, like any art form, should be an evolving process. Hopefully, we will all ge...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/06/growing-as-photographer.html

One of my most favorite places to shoot is a little stretch of coast a little more than half way from Santa Cruz to Davenport along Highway 1. It is also a popular beach where people like to part...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/05/panther-beach-clean-up-sunday-may-24th.html

The title of this post stems from a common question I get (and others I'm sure) when out shooting. That question is "Get any good pictures?". I often reply "I'm working on it". Well, the other da...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/keep-shooting.html

My recent focus on landscapes along the coast has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience, an epiphany of sorts. I have found inspiration in the coastal beauty near my home and the exploration inv...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/rediscovering-past.html

I've been catching up on my sleep as the sunrises these days have lacked some serious "umph", Instead, I've been noticing all the flowers I drive by on the way to work. Specifically, there a...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/04/spring-has-sprung.html

In my last entry, I touched on the refreshing feeling of shooting with a new lens, forcing my perspective with a new visual tool. Less than 24 hours later, I found myself stagnating over shooting...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/03/listening-to-inner-voice.html

When I first got serious about photography, I was an avid SCUBA diver. I dove close to 100 dives a year, most of them in the cold waters off Monterey and Carmel. I still love diving, but it ha...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/03/break-from-norm.html

So there we were, my girlfriend Kendra and I, sitting through light mist to mild sprinkles getting wetter by the minute, and I kept hoping the clouds would break and the sun would make a dramatic...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/03/power-of-positive-thinking.html

When I first started getting really interesting in seascape long exposures, I had no clue how long of a shutter speed to use. I filled many a memory card with trial and error shots (mostly errors...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/03/always-learning-knowing-your-shutter.html

With daylight savings time recently "jumping forward", I find myself chasing light once again. For the last couple months, sunsets have been too late for me to shoot them during my late breaks at...

http://jimpattersonphotography.blogspot.com/2009/03/chasing-light.html