At 14, Michael Semaan found a way to forge a unique relationship with his grandfather – photography. With a camera on loan from his high school, his grandfather’s experience in photography and chemistry, and a full dark room in the basement Semaan found a passion that would last all his life.

When it comes to landscape photography, I like a dramatic sky, vivid colors, an interesting setting/subject, and water. When I shot color slide film, I was always after the maximum chromic saturation of colors in a scene. This was most often during the low angle hours of the sun or minutes prior to sunrise and minutes after sunset. Aside from those preferred times to shoot, I often enjoy photographing during the sun transit hour of the day because Circular Polarizers have their greatest effect 90 degrees to the sun. At the transit hour, this allows for me to have maximum polarization in any direction along the horizon.