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Off to the Sierra

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Today, we’re off to the Sierra Nevada for an 8-day backpacking/photography trip that will take us to the base of the Minarets, and along the John Muir trail to Yosemite Valley.  I’ll be posting journal entries as well as (hopefully) many new photos when we return at the end of July.  Be sure to check back for updates on the trip.

Its been 100+ at my home here in inland southern California for almost a week now; it will be nice to escape the heat in the high country.  I’m almost certain, however, that the mosquitoes will be numerous and large enough to pull me down the trail, if I can figure out a way to harness them.

My hiking partner put together a GPS file of our route.  We’ll be starting at Devil’s Postpile, in the lower right, and ending at Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley.  You can click on the image to see a larger version.  Enjoy, have a great month, and see you when I return!

map of backpacking trip

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Photo of the Month–May

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

Spring is in full swing in southern California; on our walk tonight, I enjoyed the Brittlebush in full bloom, and noticed several migrant and summer-resident bird species who have arrived in large numbers: black-chinned sparrows, wrentits, indigo buntings, tanagers, etc.  With all of these changes happening, its almost impossible for me not to have “senioritis” of sorts.  By this point in the school year, seniors in high school and college have already mentally checked out, looking forward to their upcoming freedom, thus suffering from senioritis.  In the same way, I’m looking forward to long hikes in the mountains, lazy summer evenings at Mono Lake, and early mornings in the sagebrush of the eastern Sierra.

One of those summer evenings is the inspiration behind May’s photo of the month.  Last summer, on an early August trip to Yosemite and Mono Lake, we enjoyed a fantastic dinner at The Mobil Mart (Whoa Nellie Deli) in Lee Vining, then headed up to Yosemite to follow the sunset out of the park.  I started at Olmsted Point, worked my way east to Tuolumne Meadows, and finally photographed the last light of the day on Mt. Gibbs, the second highest peak in the park (12773′), with the Tuolumne River as a foreground.

This is a 3-image HDR shot I processed in Photomatix.  The river and forest were already in the shade, with the beautiful pink glow left on the peak.  I wanted to preserve as much detail as possible, so I chose to process this as a high dynamic range image.

Mt. Gibbs and Tuolumne River

Mt. Gibbs and Tuolumne River, August 2009

Here’s to your senioritis.  What are you looking forward to this summer?  What great summer memories do you have?

Posted in Photo of the month, hdr, locations, national park, sierra nevada, yosemite | 3 Responses »
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Tuolumne Meadows in summer

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

If you ask my wife, patience is not one of my virtues.  I usually want instant solutions to problems, and you do not even want to be around me at Christmas (little kids have nothing on me!).  However, in photography, I tend to have significantly more patience.  I’m happy to wait several hours for a shot, and lately I find myself sitting on images for days, weeks or even months before processing them.  This potentially has a lot of benefits: it helps us assess their artistic value without the excitement of having fresh images hang over our head, and it also forces us to be patient and thorough in post-processing.

The image I processed tonight benefitted from my waiting, I think.  I took this panorama of Tuolumne Meadows, in Yosemite National Park, last August, but I haven’t processed it until tonight.  Once I got home, I wasn’t really excited about the way it looked.  But, tonight, that golden light on one of my favorite meadows made me wistful for the high country, as well as letting me look forward to summer.  This is a 10-frame panorama of the meadows; I processed each RAW file 3 times, at -2/3, 0, and +1/3 EV then combined them in Photoshop using the blending technique recently described by Younes Bounhar.

I’m pleased with the result; clicking on the image will link you to a larger image file so you can more fully appreciate the detail here!   I love panoramas because they really bring you into the scene.  Enjoy!

Tuolumne Meadows panorama, Yosemite National Park, California

Tuolumne Meadows panorama, Yosemite National Park, California, August 2009

Click here to see all of my Yosemite National Park images.

Posted in california, national park, technical, yosemite | 1 Response »
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A busy 2010

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Its been a very busy 2010; so far I’ve taken photos in 3 states, as many national parks (Bryce Canyon, Yosemite, and Zion), and have added 2 new pages of landscapes (here and here) to my website.  I’m finally home in southern California, and we’re in the midst of what the TV weatherman is calling an “epic” series of storms.  This gives me time to catch up on image editing, as well as sharing images here on my blog.

About a week and a half ago, I had two posts on the “icons” (here and here), and I shared several of my images from Yosemite National Park.  The week after returning from Yosemite, we headed to northern Arizona in hopes of photographing parts of the Vermillion Cliffs wilderness.  Wet weather made the dirt roads impassable (bummer), but we spent a couple of days in Zion National Park before heading to our next destination instead.  Zion isn’t as photogenic in winter as in summer or fall, but there are few (if any) crowds, which is virtually an unknown if you’ve visited in the summer!

I found winter a great time to explore the more intimate scenery of Zion.  While in the canyon one morning, I was struck by the colorful reflections the sandstone walls were casting on the Virgin River.  By playing with different exposures, I got an intimate, abstract image I’m very happy with.

Sandstone reflects in the Virgin River, Zion National Park, Utah

Virgin River Reflections, Zion National Park, January 2010

In my next post, I’ll share some images of the wildlife that can be found in Zion in the winter…

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Book recommendations

Saturday, January 16th, 2010

As a teacher, my spring semester doesn’t begin until February 1, so I’ve had time to do some reading.  I’ve recently finished 2 books that I found fantastic, and would like to recommend them to you.  A little over two months ago, I wrote about how I seem to have been stricken with a bad case of Topophilia.  In trying to reconnect with southeastern Utah, two of the books I’d like to recommend are by David Roberts.

The first book, In Search of the Old Ones: Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest, takes the reader along on his 20-year journey through the Southwest and he recounts the history of the discoveries, the appalling thefts of artifacts, the cave paintings and his own transcendent experiences in stumbling upon some vestige of this lost civilization.  His awe and reverence are contagious.

In Search of the Old Ones by David Roberts

Click the image or here to purchase this book from Amazon.com.

The second book, also by David Roberts is Sandstone Spine: Seeking the Anasazi on the First Traverse of the Comb Ridge. Fueling both my Topophiliac tendencies and my desire for adventure, this book describes–as the title says–the first traverse of Comb Ridge, which runs almost all the way from Kayenta, Arizona to Blanding, Utah.  Its a fantastic, fun read.

Sandstone Spine by David Roberts

Click on the photo or here to purchase the book directly from the publisher, The Mountaineers Books.

Finally I have an unsolicited, but heartfelt recommendation for a photography guide.  On July 10, 2006, on my first trip to Yosemite National Park, I purchased Michael Frye’s The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite and have found it to be a continued valuable resource.  Buy it and study it; most of the locations are easy to get to, and the superb advice will have you there at the right time of day.  You can click here to see some of the images I’ve made in Yosemite using this book as a reference.

Michael Frye, The Photographer's Guide to Yosemite

Click on the image, or here, to purchase this book directly from the Yosemite Association.

Posted in General, Personal, locations, national park, utah, yosemite | 5 Responses »
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The Icons, reinterpreted

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

In my last post, I talked about how there may not be a whole lot of “original” compositions left of the “icons” (especially considering the vast numbers of photographs taken of them!).  While I may not be the most authoritative person to speak about making fine images of anything, there were two themes that struck me in the discussion of that post.

First, maybe instead of shooting the icons for the sake that they’re icons, perhaps we should look around and find new ones.  While I surely haven’t created any new icons with my photography, over the last 1.5 years or so, I’ve made a strong effort to “peel the reptilian scales from my eyes” and look around me.  For instance, last week, I was standing in El Cap Meadow in Yosemite, when I turned around to get something out of my bag, and saw this fantastic fog coming in from the river behind me.  Despite the fact I was standing at the base of a true icon, I gladly ignored it for a few minutes to make this image:

Pine trees and fog, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite National Park, California

Pine trees and fog, El Capitan Meadow, Yosemite National Park, December 2009

The other theme that came out of my last post was trying new interpretations of the well-photographed icons.  As it happens, one of my New Years Resolutions for 2010 is to focus more on the “intimate landscape” present within the grander one.  While in Yosemite last week, I looked for the intimacy present in the landscape and found it was all around me.  Here are a couple of my intimate interpretations of some icons:

Detailed image of the face of El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California

Face of El Capitan, detail, January 2010

Detailed image of Upper Yosemite Falls in winter, Yosemite National Park, California

Upper Yosemite Falls, detail, January 2010

And one for the bonus round, can you guess what icon this is (it would be easy enough to cheat, but that wouldn’t be any fun!)?

Half Dome detail, Yosemite National Park, California

What Icon is this?, January 2010

Here’s to making an effort to “see” the icons in a different way.  While I still don’t believe there’s anything wrong with shooting them as is, challenge yourself to see them differently–you might just love what comes out of the effort.

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The Icons

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Every national park has its icons: Death Valley has Zabriskie, Canyonlands has Mesa Arch, Zion has the Watchman, the Great Smoky Mountains have Clingman’s Dome, and Yosemite has, well, too many to count (they are, after all, what makes Yosemite one of the most photographed places on the planet).  These icons are what draw people to our national parks and wild places, and especially they are what draw photographers to these places.

A quick Google image search for “Mesa Arch” yields ~220,000 results; “Half Dome” yields 4.3 million (!!) results.  The one time I was at Mesa Arch, I shared it with 7 other photographers; on New Year’s Eve, I shared the Valley View vista in Yosemite with at least 10 other photographers when I captured January’s image of the month.   Admittedly, I have mixed feelings about this.  On one hand, as a citizen of this country, I’m happy to see people in their national parks, enjoying the vistas, standing in awe next to me.  On the other hand, part of me wants to stand in this grand place alone.  I doubt the latter is going to happen any time soon, so I have to focus on the former, and be happy about it.

Yes, I may be producing images of the same icons as those 10 other photographers around me.  I’m sure out of those 220,000 results for Mesa Arch, mine is in there somewhere, and there probably are some that were taken by other photographers the same morning as me.  But, I don’t really care.  The images I make of these icons make me happy, and photographing them is fun.  When it stops being fun, its not worth doing any more, right?

So, I’m not going to stop photographing icons any time soon, which means you’ll have to endure looking at them.

However, one of my resolutions for 2010 is to shoot more ‘out of the box’ images.  I’ll share some of those in my next post.  But, for now, a couple of my favorite icons.  Enjoy!

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, April 2007

Zabriskie Point, Death Valley National Park, April 2007

El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California, January 2010

El Capitan, Yosemite National Park, California, January 2010

Posted in Personal, locations, national park | 14 Responses »
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Image of the Month–January

Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Happy New Year!  As 2010 begins, I’m already late with my Image of the Month post.  We made a last minute trip to Yosemite National Park and I simply didn’t have time to post while we were gone.  I do hope your new year is off to a great start, though.

2009 was a great year.  Photographically, I had the opportunity to make images in several fantastic locations.  I learned more about image processing and through my interactions with other photographers, I feel like I grew leaps and bounds this year.  My wife and I watched our son grow and change in ways I can’t imagine.  Every day he amazes me.  With such a great year in mind, I thought it would be appropriate to display my final photograph of 2009 as January’s image.

This–of course–is El Capitan, with the Merced River in the foreground.  On warm winter days, fog rises from the river as the sun sets.  Combine this with the last rays of daylight on El Cap, and you’ve got a fantastic sight to see.  I hope you enjoy it!

Gates of the Valley, December 2009

Gates of the Valley, December 2009

Over the next few days, I’ll get my Yosemite page updated with all the new images from my trip, as well as sharing many of them here.

Posted in General, Photo of the month, california, national park, sierra nevada, yosemite | 5 Responses »
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New images posted!

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Since returning from our Sierra trip, I’ve been editing photos, and have some new ones up on the website.  In true banzai* fashion, a friend and I made a run up to the eastern Sierra over the weekend.  We left after work on Thursday, and arrived in the Alabama Hills outside of Lone Pine about 11pm.  I shot some star trails of the now famous Mobius Arch (also called Galen’s Arch, after Galen Rowell).  After sunrise, we headed north, and shot up Bishop Creek to hunt for some fall colors.  In my last post, I summed up the difficulty we had finding fall color.  That night, we headed north and shot the Minarets at sunset.  The next morning, we visited Mono Lake at dawn.  At the South Tufa parking lot, I counted 28 cars when we arrived, one hour before sunrise.  Figuring on a minimum of 2 photographers/car, I bailed and went to the Navy Beach parking lot; we were the only ones there.  In my opinion, Navy Beach has tufas that are waaayyy cooler than the “regular” ones at South Tufa.  After sunrise, we went to Lundy Canyon, in hopes of finding fall colors there, then to Tuolumne Meadows for a hike to Cathedral Lakes.  Sunset at Olmsted Point, then to the Whoa Nellie Deli for dinner.  The next morning, we went for a hike in Devil’s Postpile, then shot home.

I’ll share some of the images from this trip in the next few posts.  However if you can’t wait, I’ve updated my Sierra Nevada page with new images, as well as Mono Lake.  I’ve added a new page for Devil’s Postpile National Monument as well.

Desert Bouquet, Autumn, Alabama Hills, California, October 2009

*See Phil Colla’s definition of a banzai photographer.

Posted in General, california, locations, national park, sierra nevada, yosemite | 1 Response »
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Mammoth Peak at dawn

Monday, September 28th, 2009

I’ve been sitting on this image since we got back from our Yosemite* trip in August for two reasons.  The first is that I haven’t had much time to give it more than a half-hearted attempt.  The second is that I didn’t know how to process it.  I was photographing Mammoth Peak** from across Tioga Lake, and the sunrise really was beautiful, but the wind was howling, and I was disappointed with the RAW files that I got home with.  I did a rough edit, but haven’t yet made a good effort to edit it properly.

However, today I had a chance to sit down and play with it more.  This is actually a blend of 3 shots, using Photomatix, and a technique I’ve described previously.

Mammoth Peak at dawn, Yosemite National Park, California, August 2009

*Although Mammoth Peak is in Yosemite National Park, Tioga Lake is not–its just outside the east entrance at Tioga Pass

**Mammoth Peak is not to be confused with the more popular Mammoth Mountain, about 30 miles south

Posted in hdr, locations, national park, sierra nevada, yosemite | 2 Responses »
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