I am thrilled to announce the biggest honor of my career to date: I am now a Canon “Explorer of Light.”
From Canon’s site: “The Explorers of Light concept came out of Canon USA in the mid 1990s as a broad-ranging initiative for photographic education and inspiration. Today, the group is comprised of dozens of the most influential photographers and cinematographers in the world, each a master of their creative specialty.”
You can’t apply to be an EoL. They come to you. For me, it’s like a lifetime achievement award for my 25 years in the business (so far!).
It’s humbling to be in the same group with legendary image makers Greg Gorman, Lauren Greenfield, Gregory Heisler, David Hume Kennerly, Douglas Kirkland, James Nachtwey, Rick Sammon, and Joyce Tenneson. I’m also joining my talented friends Vince Laforet, Simon Bruty, Peter Read Miller, Damian Strohmeyer, Bob Davis, and Parish Kohanim in the program. Besides myself, they are adding about a half dozen new EoL’s this year, and there are fewer than 50 worldwide — all giant names in our industry.
For the last couple of years, I’ve been trying different camera systems and have been really happy with the Canon equipment and the level of support I’ve received from the company. It all came together last week at the massive Canon Expo in NYC. I produced one of my largest projects to date – literally. It’s a 20,000 megapixel image from a game at Yankee Stadium. I made it by stitching together 825 Canon 5DsR images (50-megapixels each!).
It took an hour to shoot and three months of post-processing.
On opening day, I posed on the field with some of the guys they brought in to play baseball in front of my photo. It’s hard to appreciate the scale without seeing it in person, but you could walk right up to the image and read the hot dog prices in the outfield 450 feet away from my camera position.
Fredric King produced a behind-the-scenes video for Canon showing how I did it.
Thanks to my countless friends and colleagues who have supported and inspired me over the years. I plan to continue producing images, making public appearances, leading seminars, and hosting gallery events while hopefully inspiring others along the way.