Two particularly interesting sites to check out:

• Roger Hicks and Frances Shultz — Roger and Frances are the authors of some very practical books on photography that I found helpful and inspiring when I was starting out. They have a number of free modules in their Photo School (such as this one on Art and Photography) as well as galleries and a blog. I only wish their site was a little easier to navigate (it’s somewhat clunky as-is).

• Jean-Sébastien Monzani — Jean-Sé’s site is filled with pictures of beautiful women. If that weren’t reason enough to visit, his tutorials surely are — they describe his approach to portraiture, composition, lighting, and post-processing.

After two weeks travelling in the States (an academic conference in western Mass. followed by vacation in California), I’m finally back in Canada. Over the course of my travels I managed to shoot about 1,000 digital images (like this one) with the D70s and a dozen rolls of film (colour slide and B&W) with the Rolleiflex. Now begins the task of organizing and sorting the digital images, developing and proofing the film, and making some sense out of the whole thing — often the hardest part! I’ll post the highlights on Flickr and the more artsy shots will be serialized here.

This particular picture was taken at a “vista point” along Highway 1 in the Big Sur area of central California, about 60 km south of Monterey.