I took this photo over Memorial Day weekend when I got up early to photograph the morning light on Mammoth Mountain.  I loved the light on this rugged peak very much, and I like the way the light contrasts with the sagebrush in the foreground.  However, I do not know the name of this peak…can you help?

The mountain-whose-name-is-unknown is visible from California 203 (its south of the highway), not far from the junction with US 395.  Any help is appreciated.  If you can’t help, then at least enjoy the image!

Morning light in the Sierra Nevada, May 2010

To see all of my photographs from the Sierra Nevada, click here.

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Despite the fact its one of the more cliché and popular mountains in the Sierra, Mammoth Mountain is one of my favorites.  Why?  For starters, its a very tectonic hill.

Mammoth is a lava dome complex that is known primarily for the large ski area that bears the same name.  Mammoth Mountain was formed in a series of eruptions that ended 57,000 years ago. However, it still produces hazardous volcanic gases that kill trees and have caused ski patroller fatalities in 2006.

In addition to being very active geologically, Mammoth is also well known for its unusually high amount of snowfall–about 400″ annually.  In the summer, mountain bikers take over the mountain, with the Kamikaze downhill run being very popular.

Mammoth Mountain at dawn, May 2010

To see all of my photographs from the Sierra Nevada, click here.

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With our recent trip to the Sierra, I’ve been thinking of revisiting some photos that I’ve taken previously.  One that comes to mind is a panorama of Lone Pine Peak and Mt. Whitney (the ‘Whitney Crest’) from the Alabama Hills that I took last fall.  I shot this shortly after sunrise, and after shooting Mobius (Galen’s) Arch in the predawn light.  As one person noted, this is one of my favorite views.  Indeed.

Click on the photo to enjoy this image big.  It would, of course, look better hanging over your couch!

Whitney Crest at dawn, October 2009

Photographic notes: It is a panoramic image created from 5 horizontal frames.  I processed the RAW images twice, once for the highlights, and once for shadows, and blended the two resulting panos using luminosity masks.

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Although I don’t normally consider myself a bird photographer, or much of a bird photographer, I do enjoy getting out to our local wildlife areas now and then.  Last week, I met Mac at Bolsa Chica Wetlands near Huntington Beach for an early morning, pre-work photo session.  I work about 10 minutes from Bolsa Chica so its the perfect place to hit before work during the week.  On weekends, you can expect to find several photographers on the bridge across the bay, all with more expensive glass than I can afford.  But, during the week, you have the occasional walker or runner, but otherwise it is just you and the birds.

Pied-billed Grebe, April 2010

Ecologically, Bolsa Chica is very important.  It provides a rich feeding ground for several migratory species of passerines and water birds.  It also has several unvegetated islands that provide a safe breeding ground for the endangered California Least Tern.  In a nearby eucalyptus grove you can find nesting Great Blue Herons, and multiple species of raptors are also common, including Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, American Kestrels, and Peregrine Falcons.  You can also find the uncommon Belding’s Savannah Sparrow here.

Common Tern, April 2010

As the seasons pass, you have the opportunity to shoot many species here.  Right now, several species of tern (Least, Common, Elegant, Forster’s, etc…) are beginning to get active near the bridge and with some luck you can get some good flight shots of these species (I quickly learned this is much easier said than done…see some results here and here).  In winter, you can photograph Brown Pelicans in breeding plumage.  Shorebirds like sandpipers and larger birds like egrets are present all year.

Common Egret, April 2010

In addition to birds, there is the opportunity to photograph wildflowers, sunrises/sunsets and various other fauna (rabbits, southern Pacific rattlesnakes) at the wetlands.  With this in mind, if you’re in the area, its worth your while to stop and spend a few hours at Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

Sunrise over Bolsa Chica Wetlands, December 2009

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Last week, I had the opportunity to visit Channel Islands National Park, located off the southern California coast.  The park consists of five islands–Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, San Miguel, and Santa Rosa–each one with a different ecology and endemic species.  For my first trip out there, I chose to visit Anacapa Island, as it is the most accessible from the mainland, and it has a very unique ecology from the other islands (its geologic origins are different from the other islands too).

Coreopsis blooms on Anacapa Island, April 2010

We almost didn’t arrive on the island, as landing is difficult on Anacapa, and the presence of a large swell almost prevented them from dropping us off.  Luckily, the ocean smoothed out by the time we arrived in the landing cove, so we were able to get off and walk up all 153 stairs to the island.  As I had hoped, the Coreopsis, or tree sunflower, blooms were going strong (the only place you find these flowers is on Anacapa Island and a small patch of land on the mainland).  However, joining us in our relative solitude were ~50,000 nesting Western Gulls.  Have you ever shared a small space with that many gulls?  If you haven’t, its…ummm…noisy.  :-)

Western Gulls on Anacapa, April 2010

With only 1.5 miles of hiking trails, Anacapa is an easy island to scope out for potential photo compositions.  I spent the afternoon looking for intimate compositions on the island before the sun went down.  With gulls everywhere, it was only natural to include them in my shots.

About 1 hour before sunset, the wind started blowing.  While not bad at first, by the time we walked to Inspiration Point for sunset, it was a full-blown gale.  With wind gusts at nearly 50 miles per hour, how do you keep your tripod in place?  Make a friend anchor it, of course!

How to anchor a tripod in the wind

By the time the sun went down, and we arrived back at camp, the wind was blowing significantly harder: I’d guess it was sustained around 45-50 miles per hour, and gusts were nearly 65 mph (it bent and broke some of our tent poles).  We used guy lines to better secure our tents and went to bed.  It is difficult to sleep when your tent is continually hitting you in the face and chest.  After a few sleepless hours, I got up to a beautiful, windless sunrise over the Pacific.

Anacapa morning, April 2010

The photo above shows the water house and the light house on Anacapa (along with a whole bunch of our “friends”).

After packing up and hauling our gear down to the dock, it was time to head home.  Despite the smell and constant sound of the nesting gulls, and the hurricane-force winds, it was a very rewarding visit to Anacapa Island, and I look forward to visiting the rest of the Channel Islands in the near future.

To see all my photos from Anacapa Island, click here.

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Sometimes the best-laid plans just don’t come to fruition.  On our recent visit to Phoenix, I planned to get up very early (i.e. ~4am) drive to the Peralta Canyon trailhead and hike ~3 miles to the Weaver’s Needle Overlook to watch the sun come up, and to get that really sweet crepuscular light that happens in the desert.  Easy enough, right?  I ended up having a couple of roadblocks on my journey to ‘the Supes’.

• Roadblock #1.  Two days before I intended to hike, I came down with the worst head cold I’ve had in several years.  I’ll spare you the mucus-y details, but use of my nostrils was completely nonexistent, and my head felt like it was completely detached from my body.  As a result, a 4am departure time didn’t seem feasible.  I settled on getting up at 4:50am, figuring that if everything went smoothly, I’d still make it up to the overlook by 7:15am sunrise.
• Roadblock #2.  Of course everything didn’t go smoothly.  I really like Phoenix–its a great town, and its super easy to navigate as the streets are laid out in a logical grid pattern.  That said, there are exceptions, and a poorly marked detour can throw an out-of-towner like me out of whack.  Driving from my sister-in-law’s house, I wanted to connect from I-10 to US Hwy 60 to drive to the Superstitions.  The connector ramp was closed, and the flashing sign said to take I-10 to McClintock instead.  OK.  After driving nearly 15 miles south (I wanted to go east), I finally stopped and asked for directions.  I got on my way then.  OK, well, that cost me about 15 minutes.  But if I really hoof it, I can make it, right?
• Roadblock #3.  I finally made it to the Peralta Road east of Apache Junction, and as I began driving the 7 miles toward the trailhead I was met by school buses.  Lots of them.  School buses…on a Forest Service road on a Sunday.  What doesn’t compute here?  After I met the school buses, I was met by runners.  Lots of them.  It turns out it was the annual running of the Lost Dutchman Marathon, and I was driving up their course!  After slowly navigating several hundred finish-line-bound runners, I finally made it to the trailhead about 6:50am–25 minutes before sunrise.

I like to say that I’m a pretty fast hiker, but I’m not that fast.  I didn’t make it to my destination by sunrise, but the hike was nice, and in hindsight the chain of events I encountered getting to the trailhead were almost comical.  I even ended up with a nice photo or two out of the deal.  It was definitely a good lesson not to take things so seriously.  Things won’t always come together as you planned, but if you fail to see the forest for the few negative trees, you’ll miss out on some great experiences.

Weaver's Needle from Weaver's Outlook Ridge, February 2010

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As a photographer, or even a nature lover, you’ve probably stood staring at a wide vista wondering how you can possibly do that view justice in your photographs.  Maybe you’ve even wanted to be able to print that picture large to give a room in your home the same feel as actually standing there.  Have you ever thought about taking multiple images of a scene and stitching them together into a panorama?

Shooting “panos” has become more popular in the last few years with the advent of point-and-shoot digital cameras that stitch the image in-camera for you, but if you want to shoot a panorama with your SLR, there are some things to consider.  First, and this should be a no-brainer, pick something interesting to shoot.  It may look impressive as is, but if you pick out something with substance, it will look even better!

So you’ve got your vista picked out.  Now what?  In my experience, the key to producing quality panoramas is making sure your tripod is level.  If this is the case, you will have much better luck at the stitching process.  I have used two different methods to level my gear; the first is via a 2-stop process that’s super cheap.

My tripod does not have a built-in bubble level, so I start by removing the head, and placing a bubble level (~$3 at Ace Hardware) on the tripod.  Tinker with the lengths of your tripod legs until you level the tripod.  Now, put your head back on, and you’ll see that it can rotate on a level base.

By removing the head and using a spirit bubble level, I can make sure my tripod head is rotating on a level base.

The second, and more recent, method I’ve used is by putting a leveling base on my tripod.  I use the Manfrotto 438 leveling base, but other companies like Acratech also make them.  They’re more expensive than my first method, but they’re way faster and you don’t have to fiddle with your tripod legs.  To level your camera on your tripod use a hot shoe level like the Jobu Designs Dubble Bubble level.

My tripod head can be leveled easily and quickly using the Manfrotto 438 leveling base.

After leveling my tripod head, I level my camera on the tripod using a hotshoe level.

OK, now you’re level.  The rest of the pano practically shoots itself.  I usually work from left to right, making sure to overlap my images by anywhere from ~1/3-1/2.  This makes for a lot of images (many of mine are 12-15 images) but you’re almost sure to get a better stitch at the computer.

A couple of other things to consider before we discuss stitching:

• To shoot vertical or horizontal…that is the question.  In stitching, you’re almost guaranteed to lose a little of the top and bottom of your images because the software will correct for barrel distortion.  Because of this, I almost always shoot my panos in a vertical orientation.  That way I’m left with an image that is a little more proportional, instead of something VERY long and skinny!
• Just like with any shot, sharpness matters.  When I shoot panoramas, I almost always use a cable release and set my camera to shoot in mirror lock-up mode.  This reduces any possible vibration, hopefully ensuring a better stitch.
• Do not change your focus or any camera settings while shooting your panorama.  However, consider bracketing your shots.  That way you have more to work with at the computer, and you can even consider making an HDR panorama (let’s save that for another blog post, please).
• I haven’t addressed the problem of parallax yet.  Unless you are rotating on the nodal point of your lens (or using a pano slider), you will have parallax issues if anything in your pano is closer than ~10-15 feet.  The cheap solution is to make sure trees, rocks, etc are further than ~10-15 feet from my camera, and that seems to work to subdue parallax.  The obvious downside to my method is that you’re constrained as to your compositional choices.

So, now you’ve got your image files, and you’re back at the computer.  Can you simply align them in Photoshop manually, then crop the canvas down to its final size?  I think this works for most people ~1% of the time (I’ve managed to do it once, and I’m 99% sure it was dumb luck).  Every other time, the barrel distortion, as well as other factors, will necessitate the use of software to help you stitch your images together.

Dumb luck. I stitched this 4-image pano together manually--I've never gotten it to work since.

For stitching panoramas, I use the software package Panorama Factory.  I like it because it has a fully automatic mode, which should work really well if you leveled your rig properly and provided enough overlap between images.  Alternatively, Panorama Factory allows for various levels of manual stitching, letting you define stitching points, and for the occasional difficult to stitch image, I like that mode a lot as well.  If you are interested in shooing HDR panoramas, Panorama Factory will stitch different sets of exposure identically so they overlay perfectly.  I have to admit that I’ve tried this once, and it didn’t work quite as smoothly as I’d like.  I’ve found that using the auto-align feature in Photoshop CS4 works well before blending images.

So, that’s basically it.  This tutorial was meant to get you taking beautiful panoramas using a minimal amount of equipment.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Feel free to add to the comment section if there’s anything I missed, or needs corrected.  Hope you can find this useful!

An 11-image panorama of the Ritter Range, Sierra Nevada, California

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As I promised in my last post, here are a couple of sunrise photos from my recent trip to Bryce Canyon National Park.  Although it was my first sunrise in the park, anyone would quickly realize that Bryce is truly a place to see the sun come up!  We elected to go to Sunrise Point, and although it was very pretty, I’m convinced Sunset Point would have been equally as beautiful.  After waddling (I say ‘waddling’ because the trail from the parking area is was steep and icy) carefully to the point, we enjoyed near solitude as the horizon was beginning to light up an intense red color.  I’m pretty sure this red was at least partly due to emissions from the Navajo Power Plant, almost 90 miles away in Page, Arizona, but it was still very pretty.  Within minutes, the snow in the Amphitheater was glowing pink, and the hoodoos were beginning to light up.

Morning Alpenglow, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, January 2010

As soon as the sun came up, the entire Amphitheater enjoyed a brief, glorious, glow that lasted only a few minutes.  Within about 20 minutes of the sun cresting the horizon, the show was over.

Sunrise, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, January 2010

Not only is Bryce perfectly suited for early morning shots, its good proof to the photographer that it really pays to be there early!  To see all of my images from Bryce, click here.

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It always seems like the end of the year is a good time to look back and reflect.  As a photographer, I think its instructive to do the same thing; by looking at what I’ve learned, what I tried and what didn’t work over the last year, it helps to make my images better.  As such, I’ve chosen to finish this blog year by choosing five of my favorite images from 2009.  These images may not be my absolute best of 2009, but for various reasons, they’re the ones that mean something to me.

As a post-Christmas special, I’m offering 30% off the purchase price of these five prints through January 15.

I hope you enjoy them!

The first of my five favorite images of 2009 was somewhat planned, somewhat not.   In October, my friend and I headed to the Sierra Nevada to attempt to find fall colors (looking in the archives, you’ll our hopes fell flat…alas).   Because we left work late, we camped in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine, CA.  I had been looking forward to photographing Mobius Arch (aka Galen’s Arch) for several months and had visualized in my mind’s eye the nighttime shots you can see on this page for months.

That star trail shot almost made my top five for the year.  However, early the next morning, the alpenglow on the Sierra was unreal.  The sky lit up a beautiful purple color, and the mountains turned a lovely light pink.  For about 5 minutes, it was unreal.  The moon was setting over the Sierra, adding to the scene.  Thus, Mobius Arch at dawn is the first of my five favorite images of 2009.

Mobius Arch at dawn, October 2009

I recently had this image printed as a 12×18, and it really does look phenomenal.  It will hang in a friend’s home eventually, but right now I’m enjoying it in my own!

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Here’s another California sunrise from my new page, California Sunrises & Sunsets.  This is a recent picture, taken last Friday morning at Bolsa Chica wetlands near Huntington Beach, California.  Three original images were taken, -1, 0, and +1 EV, and were processed and tone mapped in Photomatix Pro.  I’m quite happy with the result, as it was a beautiful way to start the day.

Sunrise, Bolsa Chica Bay, December 2009

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