Blog

Categories:
Six Months In, How is 2026 Doing
Six Months In, How is 2026 Doing
June 4, 2026  |  St. George Utah

Six months have passed so far of 2026. Now I am beginning to look down the barrel of the next six months of 2026. Six months of adventures, business change and un-foreseen head winds. I have had sheer moments of panic and moments of divine miracles...

Read more ...
Photographing The Wave
Photographing The Wave
December 31, 2025  |  Vermillion Cliffs National Monument

Want to know how to go on more adventures?

Say yes more.

A few weeks back I was sitting in my office, minding my own business when I got a message out of the blue from someone in the local camera club...

Read more ...
2025 A Year of Challenges
2025 A Year of Challenges
December 27, 2025  |  Southern Utah

As of writing this, Christmas is in two days and new years is seven days after that. Just a few days ago I wrapped up my first workshop with Nature Photography Collective. Three days before that I made it for the second time to a once in a lifetime location...

Read more ...
Two Days In Escalante
Two Days In Escalante
October 28, 2025  |  Escalante Canyons, Utah
The Set Up

Every morning these days I wake up and the first step hurts. Ever since I got foot surgery in December I have been dealing with Plantar Fasciitis. So when I woke up and took my first step on Friday it was no different...

Read more ...
The Goat Trail, My Tale Photographing Alaska
The Goat Trail, My Tale Photographing Alaska
October 6, 2025  |  Wrangles St. Elias National Park
Part 1- An Arrogant Man I Am

Ever been so confident in your own abilities that you didn’t put your full effort into something but you should of? Though I look at myself and see an overweight landscape photographer, I also see myself as someone who can hike 7 miles because I can...

Read more ...
Size Matters
Size Matters
October 5, 2025

I print big. 

The other day I asked my photography students what a large print was. Some said 8x12 and others said a 16x20 were big images. I was surprised that their responses were so small...

Read more ...
Major Changes Coming in October to St. Andre Photography and Beyond
Major Changes Coming in October to St. Andre Photography and Beyond
September 23, 2025

The winds of change are a blowing here at St. Andre Photography. Some of these winds are due to financial changes happening in the world, others are just standard updates that I am working on. So to avoid long worded introductions lets get right into the meat of this update announcements...

Read more ...
Seeing in Contrast
Seeing in Contrast
July 11, 2025

My life was upturned and became chaotic in May of this year. My home of 5 years was sold out from under me and my family. With that upheaval came the reality that we were forced to move. In the end the move turned out ok, but it brought many changes...

Read more ...
My Simi-Definitive Guide to Photographing the Narrows
My Simi-Definitive Guide to Photographing the Narrows
January 17, 2025  |  Zion National Park, Utah
The Plan

There are a couple ways you can photograph the Narrows of Zion National Park. The simplest is to simply show up and hope for the best. Not a bad strategy but will reduce overall success...

Read more ...
My Top 12 of 2024
My Top 12 of 2024
December 29, 2024

A photographer whom I know and respect recently talked about how sometimes you feel up's and downs. Droughts in his creativity, is actually more on par with what he said, but the idea is about the same...

Read more ...
Guide to Photographing Zion National Park Part 1
Guide to Photographing Zion National Park Part 1
December 16, 2024  |  Zion National Park, Utah

Ok, this is a blog post for those who are about to go to Zion National Park for the first time and want to photograph the park. Or they have been once before and want to make their photographic experience a bit better...

Read more ...
Reflections of Pain, Wilderness, and Art
Reflections of Pain, Wilderness, and Art
December 14, 2024
Pain

Pain has been a friend this year that I have not generally wanted to hang out with but yet has overstayed its welcome. Sickening pain, crippling pain, mind crushing pain, nagging pain, sharp pain, dull pain, emotional pain, pain pain...

Read more ...
A Year In Review
A Year In Review
December 7, 2024  |  Southern Utah

My year in review... Be gone 2024!

The year from hell is finally wrapping up. So long 2024! You provided contrast. So many dark lows and so many high highs. You had it all...

Read more ...
The best advice I heard from other artists
The best advice I heard from other artists
November 11, 2024

Want to hear a question I feel like I have no good way of answering? What’s your inspiration? Or in another way, what inspires you? I feel like I don’t know what to say. In my mind when I hear this, I should see something an artist creates then have the sudden desire to go out and do something in response...

Read more ...
Photographing Auroras in Southern Utah
Photographing Auroras in Southern Utah
October 11, 2024  |  Zion National Park, Utah


The northern lights are a phenomena that generally occurs at high latitudes. From my understanding it is caused by charged particles coming off from the sun that interact with the magnetic fields high above the earth resulting in a dance of colors that have intrigued people for as long as they have been people...

Read more ...
Under Development- Nevada Fine Art's New Acrylics
Under Development- Nevada Fine Art's New Acrylics
June 3, 2024  |  Nevada
Nevada Fine Art Printers New Printing Technique

Well I never get the scoop on any particular product before it comes out, and frankly this isn't a scoop, but me being a bit nosey. A famous photographer whom I follow, Mark Metternich, posted to Facebook about Nevada Fine Art Printer and how they were coming out with a new type of print...

Read more ...
Lossless Workflow for Photo Editing
Lossless Workflow for Photo Editing
May 8, 2024

There are times to have wordy explanations about topics. This is not one of those times.

There is a proper methodology to taking and editing images. This method allows for the ability to restart if things go wrong or you need to adjust images days, months or years in the future...

Read more ...
Why You Should Edit Your Images
Why You Should Edit Your Images
May 1, 2024


I do a lot of art shows and the number one question I get at shows is "Do you edit your images?" I always respond the the strong affirmative yes. The follow-up statement I give goes something as followed

"A good photograph should be edited...

Read more ...
A Print Photographer I Will Be
A Print Photographer I Will Be
April 13, 2024  |  Zion National Park, Utah

Yesterday I sat in Zion National Park feeling introspective (just to the left of the above image). I was with a class of photography students from Utah Tech University, leading them and teaching them the ways of nature and landscape photography here in Southern Utah...

Read more ...
Understanding Apertures
Understanding Apertures
February 7, 2024

If you are new to photography you probably came across the exposure triangle. This triangle is made up of ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture. I have already covered the first two in previous blog posts, but today I am going to cover the latter...

Read more ...
Shutter Speed and Landscape Photography
Shutter Speed and Landscape Photography
January 18, 2024
What is the Shutter of "Shutter Speed"

I think the best way to start off this conversation of shutter speed is to actually see a shutter in action. So with that, let me introduce you to a 10 minute video of the Slow Mo Guys recording the inside of a camera as it takes an image...

Read more ...
What is ISO, Understanding The Basics
What is ISO, Understanding The Basics
January 8, 2024
What is ISO Glossary ISO- International Standardization Organization Noise- unwanted random signals (in this case photons) of light striking your sensor

Lets start with something right away. ISO means International Standardization for Organization (ISO)...

Read more ...
From 2023 to 2024, Accomplishments and Future Goals
From 2023 to 2024, Accomplishments and Future Goals
January 2, 2024
There and Back Again, A Photographers Tail

Low and behold a year has gone and a new year has arrived. As I begin writing this I firmly sit two days into the new year, but the past year is still fresh on the mind...

Read more ...
Review of Canon 14-35f4L for Landscape Photography
Review of Canon 14-35f4L for Landscape Photography
10/3/2023  |  Utah

Above image taken on the 14-35f4L

I think the Canon 14-35F4L launched sometime in 2021 and a lot of review sites got their grubby paws on the lens and did a quick review and threw that up on the internet...

Read more ...
My Perceptions of Art and Landscape Photography
My Perceptions of Art and Landscape Photography
7/8/2023

I do a lot of art shows. I get to look at a lot of art that people do. I get to see paintings, photographs, sculptures, rock art, pen and paper, pencil and so forth. At the nicer shows I get to see those who have been doing art for a long time, who have honed their craft and have become quite exceptional...

Read more ...
More Than A Rock, A Book By Guy Tal- Response
More Than A Rock, A Book By Guy Tal- Response
7/6/2023


Read more ...
Compositional Triangles
Compositional Triangles
6/10/2023

There are a hand full of compositional elements I hate the way its been written about online. One of those elements are triangles in photography. Most of the time authors end up drawing way too many triangles, or put them in random spots or make them up...

Read more ...
Tips on Composition in Photography
Tips on Composition in Photography
4/27/2023

Last night I finished watching Steven Spielberg's most recent movie, The Fabelman's. In it, the story follows a young man as he comes of age and falls in love with film making. The movie is filled with compelling characters, advice and warnings for artists, and in the end following your passion...

Read more ...
Review of Canon 14-35f4L for Landscape photography
Review of Canon 14-35f4L for Landscape photography

As the title suggests, this review is not a post about how this lens works in a generic sense, but in a specific field of interest of mine, landscape photography. It will cover a broad aspects of landscape photography but won't cover astro-images since I have not done any astro-photography with it...

Read more ...
Know Thy Deserts- A Journey Through Americas Great Deserts
Know Thy Deserts- A Journey Through Americas Great Deserts
3/21/2023  |  American Southwest

I have completed a life goal I never knew I had until it was presented to me. I finally visited all of North Americas great deserts. Yes there are four deserts in North America, but lets include the Colorado Plateau because I am biased towards it, and that makes five for this article...

Read more ...
8 Tips I Wish I Knew Before I Started my Landscape Photography Journey
8 Tips I Wish I Knew Before I Started my Landscape Photography Journey
2/1/2023

There was an individual the other day that asked a local photography group the following question- "What do you know now that you wish you knew at the beginning of you photography journey." So I answered his question and after thinking it through I decided to bring those bits of details to you and expand on them...

Read more ...
A Brief Review of the Canon R5 for Astro Photography
A Brief Review of the Canon R5 for Astro Photography
1/24/2023

Some time ago I put out a review on the Canon R5 and I mentioned I would do some more astrophotography tests and get back to you. I have had a few chances to take the camera out at night now and have a few thoughts on it in general...

Read more ...
Chasing Waterfalls in Zion Sunday
Chasing Waterfalls in Zion Sunday
1/16/2023  |  Zion National Park, Utah

My adventure of chasing waterfalls in Zion in mid January 2023

Read more ...
Photographing Emerald Pools
Tips For Photographing Emerald Pools
1/4/2023  |  Zion National Park


Emerald Pools is Zion National Park is one of those areas that has huge hit and miss potential. In fall it is a huge hit, in summer it is mostly just green and usually falls in the category of miss photogenically...

Read more ...
An Excursion of Zion's West Desert
An Excursion of Zion's West Desert
1/5/2023  |  Zion National Park, Utah


The gold standard for catching exceptional grand landscape photos of the front half of Zion National Park is the following formula.

Stormy Conditions. Clear skies to the west...
Read more ...
Canon R5 for Landscape Photography- A Review
Canon R5 for Landscape Photography- A Review
1/6/2022  |  Southern Utah

Now that I have had the Canon R5 for about 6 months, I feel like I could write a review that was worth someone's time if they were considering getting it. Unlike many reviews though I only do landscape photography, so if that is your gig, stick around...

Read more ...
Photographing the Great Salt Lake
Photographing the Great Salt Lake
12/3/2022  |  Salt Flats


A few weeks back I was visiting my parents home in Northern Utah. I had been itching to go somewhere for a while so after looking around at my options I decided to re-visit the salt flats...

Read more ...
Photographing the Paria River, Tips and More
Photographing the Paria River, Tips and More
March 11, 2022  |  Paria River, Arizona

The Paria River shows up regularly as one of the most famous backpacking trips in the United States. I just had the opportunity to go, so let's talk about it.

I am going to state this right now, the best cheap material for planning your trip in the way of maps and details on the trail is the 4-8 dollar flip map/guide produced by the BLM...

Read more ...