Category: Landscape

Badwater Salt Crust Sunrise 1

Badwater Salt Crust Sunrise 1

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I created this dramatic image on the Badwater salt flats during the 2nd morning of my recent Death Valley National Park Photo Tour. My favorite landscape lighting scenario is the one that you see here, when sunrise light illuminates a mountain range underneath ominous clouds. I could not have asked for anything more. Over the next hour, the light interacted with the clouds giving me some very different images, but this early one is my favorite. On my way to Death Valley, California photographer G Dan Mitchell was kind enough to send me a Facebook comment about looking for nice salt crust patterns around the first corner south of the Badwater parking lot. I’m not sure if I found the exact spot that he was referring to, but I probably would not have parked in that area and walked the short distance from the road to these bizarre salt crust eruptions without his recommendation. As the sunrise began, I was mostly walking back & forth answering my 4 clients questions, but I still managed to briefly set up my camera to capture the wondrous scene unfolding before me.

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Mobius Arch Incredible Sunrise 1

Mobius Arch Incredible Sunrise 1

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Here it is!  My “epic” sunrise image of Mobius Arch, created last week in California’s Alabama Hills. I spent over 1 hour photographing this arch as the color of the sunrise light intensified from pink to yellow and the clouds swirled in different textures. This was the most dramatic sunrise that I have witnessed from this location. I had visited Mobius Arch a half dozen times over the last 10 years hoping to create an image more dramatic than the typical one involving blue sky. I am happy that my persistence finally paid off with this incredible opportunity.

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San Elijo New Years Sunset 1

San Elijo New Years Sunset 1

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As promised, I am finally posting one of my incredible sunset images from New Years Day here at San Elijo State Beach in California. Not only was the sunset one of the most spectacular that I have ever witnessed, but there was also an extreme low tide that afternoon that exposed the reef & eel grass beds just in time to make an interesting foreground. I’ve got a few more that I will eventually share, but this will have to do for right now. I don’t have great internet access while traveling in California. Hopefully, I will see many more sunrises or sunsets like this during my Death Valley Tour this week. Wish me luck!

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Place of Refuge Sunset 2

Place of Refuge Sunset 2

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This is my favorite (and 1 of my only!) landscape images from my recent trip to Hawaii’s Big Island.  I was fortunate to photograph this amazing sunset early in my trip during one of the few vog free days.  I created it near Pu’uhonau o Honaunau (Place of Refuge) National Park, which is just south of Capt Cook.  The park is one of my favorite places near Kona to spend the day snorkeling, hiking, & exploring.  It has a long history & powerful spiritual presence.  In ancient Hawaii, kapu (laws) governed every aspect of Hawaiian society.  If  you violated a kapu, the penalty was death.  Your only option for survival was to elude your pursuers and reach the nearest puuhonua, or place of refuge, where you would be safe.  Fortunately, I was not on the run from anyone, but I did have to quickly set up my camera to capture these brilliant clouds before the sun dropped below the tropical horizon.

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Place of Refuge Wave 1

Place of Refuge Wave 1

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Yesterday was my last day in Hawaii. Overall, the trip was exciting and adventurous, yet the photo opportunities were limited. The volcanic haze (vog) foiled almost every sunset landscape image that I tried to shoot. I also went boating 4 days to try and shoot some underwater wildlife. Even though I encountered spinner dolphins, pilot whales, and oceanic white tip sharks, none of them came close enough to me in the water to capture a publishable image. I always say that you better enjoy the boat ride when you are looking for pelagic critters. The chances of finding them are few and far between, yet when you do, it is an incredible experience.

I lucked into this image yesterday morning while snorkeling near the Place of Refuge. My flight home was not until the afternoon, so I decided to go for one last swim. Almost immediately, I found some green sea turtles feeding underwater, but soon turned my attention to a large school of yellow tangs that were moving back and forth in the wave surge. I noticed how dramatic the waves appeared in the background of my useless fish photos, so I turned my attention to capturing the drama of the large waves breaking over the coral reef. After some trial and error, I got my timing down for when I should dive underneath the surface and how to angle my camera up to shoot as the waves boiled over the reef. Of course right after the waves hit me, I felt like I was on the inside of a washing machine! It was challenging, but I had a lot of fun shooting something different.

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Chilkat River Winter Sunrise

Chilkat River Winter Sunrise

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During my recent photography tour to Haines, Alaska, this was the only morning worth photographing landscape images, but the shooting conditions were extreme. I had to lay on my stomach to get low enough to the ground to shoot this composition and the wind chill was at least -10°F. I was also instructing my clients at the same time that I was setting up my camera. For a few seconds, the low angle sunrise light briefly illuminated the foreground wind-blown snow patterns that I chose to frame the mountains. I managed a couple of exposures before the light went back behind the clouds. I continued my instruction until we all agreed that we could no longer feel our fingers or toes. Brrrr!

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Torres Dramatic Sunrise 1

2009 Nature’s Best International Photography Awards

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I am excited to announce that my image “Torres Dramatic Sunrise” will be a Highly Honored Landscape in the 2009 Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice International Photography Awards!  I created this image 2 years ago while backpacking in Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile.  Most trekkers who have visited this location have done so while multi-day trekking and usually only spend 1 night before moving on.  However, my only goal during my visit was to photograph the Torres in epic light, so I spent 5 days/4 nights camping in the same location so that I could photograph the spires each day.  My last morning was the most dramatic.  You can read more about it in my previous post on the Singh-Ray filters blog.

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Crystalline Hills Tundra Pond 2

Crystalline Hills Tundra Pond 2

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While I was visiting Wrangell-St Elias National Park last month, a rainbow briefly appeared above this beautiful tundra pond. It is one of my favorite images from the trip. I am always on the lookout for dramatic weather, clouds, & sun-breaks. I also scout a location in advance so that I can anticipate an image like this. Most of the time I get skunked, but occasionally all the right conditions come together and I capture an amazing image.

When photographing rainbows, the biggest challenge I have found is keeping my lens & filters water drop free. I keep my camera put away or covered until it is worth risking the exposure to the rain. I usually get 1-3 images before the water drops become noticeable and ruin the picture.  At this point if it is still raining it is impossible to dry everything off to continue. My other trick for photographing wide-angle rainbow landscapes is to anti-polarize the light and use a 3-stop soft graduated neutral density filter. A rainbow is polarized light, so I can either make it totally disappear or make it really pop by rotating the polarizer. The grad filter helps balance the overall exposure. I have used this set up many time and it always works.

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Fireweed Mt Reflection 1

Fireweed Mt Reflection 1

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This is another beautiful reflection pond that I photographed in Wrangell-St Elias National Park last month. It’s right next to the road, so if you ever drive the McCarthy Road you can’t miss it. As you can see, the fall colors were are their peak during my visit. McCarthy had already closed down for the season, so there were no other people around, let alone photographers. About 99.99% of the time when I am taking pictures, there is no one else around (other than my travel companions). That is just the way I like it.

I am going backpacking the next few days into the Enchantments in the Central Cascades. The larch trees should be at their peak for fall color. It probably snowed up there the last few days, but this week it is suppose to be sunny & warm. Wish me luck!

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Backpacker November 2009 Cover

Backpacker Magazine November 2009 Cover

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The November issue of Backpacker is coming out and I have the cover for the 2nd time this year! I photographed these petroglyphs 4 years ago in Saguaro National Park in Arizona. I lived in Tucson from 1990-95 while studying at the University of Arizona (I have a BS in Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering, in case anyone wants to know), and while I was a student I spent a lot of time hiking & bike riding in this part of the Tucson Mountains, though I never visited these glyphs. I have been to this location several times while visiting the last 9 years and this is the nicest morning that I photographed.

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