Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant and community allies held a “Tax Amazon” rally last night to begin a new phase in their ongoing battle with Amazon in Seattle. Amazon put up millions to bolster her opponents and other ballot measures last November, with little success, after Sawant led a failed effort in 2019 to tax Amazon and other large corporations in the city. Sawant, an outspoken socialist, and her supporters enter 2020 energized to continue their criticism of Amazon and try to increase its tax burden to pay for things like affordable housing. 

I spent a stormy day recently at Pioneer Potatoes, a farm in Mount Vernon, WA that grows … Brussels sprouts (along with their primary crop, the potato).

I covered an anti-war rally today in Seattle for Getty Images. The gathering was one of dozens held across the U.S. today.One of the pictures was published in The New York Times here. MyNorthwest also ran a nice gallery.

I made some photos of Expedia Group’s new Seattle headquarters the other day for The Wall Street Journal. Article here.

Boeing Co. CEO Dennis Muilenburg was fired today. I photographed him several times over the years and he’s seen here on the 737 Max factory floor in Renton.

As news broke that Boeing Co. will stop all 737 Max production at its Renton, Wa facility, Bloomberg sent me out to photograph the grounded planes stored at its lot near Boeing Field in Seattle.

Field Mag editor and brother-from-another-mother, Graham Hiemstra, and I made a recent pilgrimage to Sun Valley, Idaho. It was an inspiring backcountry adventure. I snapped some digital photos but he brought his film camera and let me borrow it a few times. See his beautiful photos with the story here, along a few pictures by me mixed in.

Below are a few samples of pictures I made, along with one of me by Graham.

This fall, I was ready to finally make the plunge into studio strobe territory, upgrading from my small Canon speedlite flash system. I have been pleasantly surprised by the Godox AD200Pro after my friend Theo Stroomer put me onto the Godox company’s popular and affordable line of flashes. There is a lot that I like about the Godox AD200Pro and little that I dislike.

There were a few things I was looking for in particular, which the Godox AD200Pro hit quite well. I wanted something affordable as well as something small and easy to travel with, whether on a plane or to a local location for portraiture. I don’t have a studio space (yet) and at this moment I believe I will still want to do most of my work on-location. I am a huge fan of traveling light and keeping a low profile with my gear. The AD200Pro is great for that. It’s not much bigger than a standard little speedlite flash and the case, which holds a charger, accessories, etc., is only about 6″ x 8″ x 4″.

Another important factor is the power that the flash puts out, which is about three times as much as my little Canon 580EX. The final selling point was the ability to easily use adapters for Bowens-mount light modifiers. That is where I can really start to enjoy the benefits of using studio strobes. For some reason, I’ve been obsessed with getting a beauty dish. Ha.

The flashes were going for about $350 over summer and fall, and slightly more for Adorama’s version of the exact same flash, branded as the eVOLV 200. There are currently some Black Friday/Cyber Monday/holiday deals on major sites that put the flash at about $280. It’s a great deal and convinced me to pick up a third one.

Another great thing that saves you money and stress: The wireless receivers are built-in, so you don’t have to mess with Pocket Wizards. Those things are expensive and it’s just another thing to be dangling around from your light stand. You will need to buy a Godox transmitter for your camera, but it is wonderful and affordable. The XProC (for Canon cameras) is $57 and allows remote adjustments to flash power, and you can turn off specific lights at the push of a button. It’s great.

You may be wondering, is this thing powerful enough? Especially outdoors to overpower the sun? The power is fine, and what’s great in having two or three flashes is that you can double them up in the dual power Bowens adapter. This thing is cool because you also get a LED modeling light in addition to the dual-flash ability. The adapter can accept one flash as well, if you only want to use one at a time. I also have a couple single-unit Bowens adapters to round out my kit in case I want to use three Bowens-mount modifiers at once.

That said, below are my recommended accessories and other toys that I’ve used to build out my kit. Good luck and hopefully this Godox AD200Pro review was helpful …

• XproC transmitter (this is for Canon, but they are available for other major brands)
• Dual power flash bracket and Bowens adapter
• Single unit flash bracket/Bowens adapter (this can accept smaller speedlite flashes in addition to the AD200Pro)
• 7″ reflectors and grid set
• Snoot set for VB-series bare bulb flashes (edit: I’m not liking this one. My homemade one is actually way better. Details here.)
• Rosco color effects filter kit – gels can be expensive but will hold up better than the cheap ones
• Beauty dish
• Standard umbrellas
• 7′ umbrella with silk
• Glow 38″ portable softbox with grid
• Glow 42″ 5-in-1 reflector
• Black foil (this stuff is great for fine tuning and shaping light)
• Flashpoint sandbags – I love the Adorama in-house brands like Glow and Flashpoint. The stuff is totally fine for things like that and lightstands
• Impact c-stand and grip head – This is from the B&H in-house brand … also great …

I recently photographed Bill Gates for WaitWhat during the company’s podcast interview with him by LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman.

Young voters turned out for last year’s election. Will they do it again in 2019?