Grand Canyon - Pima Point

Tax cuts ...

It would appear that the Republican tax cuts are going to pass ... what a surprise. The one thing that party can do well is give even more money to the already obscenely rich. Of course, in a few years when the deficits start to swell they will start screaming about how they have to fix that by taking more money away from the other end of the economic spectrum ... the poor and the elderly. They will leave that to the Democrats who are experts at taking things away from those demographics. It's all a scam ... you do understand that, right? It's also very unnecessary. All you need to do is read up on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) to see why. In short, taxes do not pay for government expenditures. This is something none of the congress members understands as they are almost all lawyers or doctors. They think a government should be run like a household. But a monetary sovereign (a government that controls it's money supply) doesn't have to work like a household. It prints money! No household does that unless they have an illegal printing press in the basement (but that's another story). Sovereign governments can print as much money as they need. I know ... but what about inflation? Well, excess money doesn't lead to inflation ... the last few years of rampant quantitative easing proves that. A lack of things to buy is what causes inflation. But we are awash in things to buy ... just visit a local WalMart or look at the massive warehouses being built everywhere by Amazon and others. We also have a huge oversupply of autos that are unsold and waiting for someone to find the money to buy them. Inflation won't happen as long as there are things to buy. And we need infrastructure investments ... to the tune of 3+ trillion dollars so that also applies to paying wages and buying things to fix the broken roads and bridges. The government could turn on the presses tomorrow and run them day and night for years without causing any inflation. But they won't because that would rob the bankers of their cut of the very lucrative money market where the government borrows money. We could, literally, eliminate the deficit by printing 20 1 trillion dollar platinum coins and drawing against them to buy back all those government bonds we've sold over the years. Without generating any inflation. But don't hold your breath waiting for our incompetent elected officials to fix the problem. No gona happen ... ever! Too much money to be made.

Grand Canyon - Pima Point

As always, my first stop during this last cycle was Grand Canyon. I find that this park sets the tone for my trip and it was certainly true this time. For the first time I found the campground full and was forced to leave the park after only one day. There is no overnight parking except in the established campgrounds so I was forced to leave. They are very strict about this rule. This bad start was an omen that overshadowed my entire trip. I got some very nice images along the way but the trip itself was one bad thing after another. Anyway, to salvage my trip to the canyon I wanted to get one good panorama before I drove south. I took the red line bus out to Pima Point which is about a far west as one can go on established roads and went to setup on the rim. I've never seen an overlook so overrun with people. They were everywhere, even hanging off the rim. I had to elbow my way through so I could get out on the very edge to take my traditional pano. I found a nice rock outcrop where I was alone and, for the most part, out beyond the crowds. I did catch some people in the very edge of the pano but was able to clip them out of the finished image. It was a beautiful evening with just enough clouds to get a nice sunset. What I got is below.

I have one thing that happens at least once during each cycle. I get antsy and finish shooting before the action is finished. If you've watched a lot of sunsets you know that there is a certain process to how the light ebbs. There's the anticipation as the sun approaches the horizon followed by the first big burst of color. Shutters are going like crazy trying to capture this phase.Then there's the inevitable lull where the clouds go gray and the scene gets very boring. That's the time when most people gather up their gear and exit stage left. The patient pro knows there's likely to be more and he waits. Eventually, if the cloud conditions are just right, there's a second, even more spectacular color burst that lasts only a short while. That's when the sun breaks under the clouds and illuminates the bottoms with very intense red light. Over time this fades and you enter the blue period where the sky slowly darkens from light blue to dark blue to black. You can get some very spectacular shots during this second surge but, as I said before, you have to be patient. Well, being the first day of the cycle, I forgot this cardinal rule and broke my setup when the gray period came. And I was horrified to be standing at the bus stop when the sky lit up bright red again. It was too late to run back to the rim and setup so I could only watch as an amazing picture came and went, unrecorded. But this is a time to be very careful, especially around the rim, as accidents can happen when you are flustered and in a hurry. In the rush to setup you can make a mistake and get dead. So I just reminded myself, once again, to wait until the scene if 100% over before breaking my setup. Someday I'll remember this before I make a mistake.

This is a composite picture made from 80 separate images. I took bracketed sequences of 5 images each for a total of 16 blocks. Each block was run through Photomatix to give me an HDR image and then stitched together in Photoshop to produce the final panorama. There's a lot of work in this image as the tonal variation across the HDR blocks was very broad and I had to do a lot of cleanup. Some people think panoramas are easy ... just take your pictures and stitch them together. That's rarely all that happens. Panos can get very messy and it takes a trained eye and a lot of patience to fix all the problems. But the result is truly spectacular ... don't you think?

Pima Point - Grand Canyon 24mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Midway Geyser Basin

Notes

I'm resolving to take far more notes from now on as I shoot my images. I find myself trying to remember where I shot an image and I often can't recall. This is especially true of locations which are not well known. Today's image falls into this category. I know it's taken from the Midway Geyser Basin in Yellowstone but I can't recall the specific feature being shown. I think it's the Grand Prismatic Spring but I can't be sure. I need to carry a notebook with me so I can jot down notes which will help me remember. It truly sucks growing old.

Tentative Plans

I'm starting to plan the next trip. I think I'll be leaving Crimea around mid-February and be staying in the states into the summer. Probably return in late June as I want to get to Montana, Idaho and Washington this time and that means I have to wait until the snow is gone or at least the roads are passable. That means June sometime. I'll spend the winter months in the south somewhere and then head north if I have the inclination and the energy.

I also hope to start shooting more people. I see interesting folks as I travel around and I want to start shooting them when possible. I really want to start highlighting people who are struggling and who are on the street. There are so many of them and they have such interesting stories to tell.

There's also the videos I want to shoot. I create some very unique images and I want to show people how I do that. So there will be some videos covering not only location selection but also composition and processing. I think I've progressed far enough in my studies that I have something to give back to the community. And I have time to create them so why not?

Midway Geyser Basin

I got up early to get to this area before the buses full of tourists showed up. They tend to swarm an area and once that happens you can't get shots without people everywhere. This picture was taken at 7:30 am and, as you can see, I had the place pretty much to myself. I like how the walkway curves into the picture, leading you eyes further into the frame. The morning steam also helps to establish some mystery.

The colors come from bacteria living in the hot water. One would think they couldn't survive but they do. It's a whole study just to understand how they cope with the caustic environment.

This is a pretty standard shot. I blended 3 images together using Photomatix and then finished off in Lightroom. I really like the mystery of this shot and the amazing colors. Hope you enjoy them too.

Midway Geyser Basin/Yellowstone - 16mm,f/16,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Joshua Tree Sunset

Update ... back

Getting back to normal with the damaged back. It's been a few weeks now and I can finally say that the pain has gotten manageable for now. Still some weakness and loss of range but I am able to do most things reasonably well. Thank goodness for small favors.

Thanksgiving

It's thanksgiving day as I write this. I've not celebrated this holiday for a long time since my move to Crimea. Not a lot to celebrate unfortunately since our transition to Russia. Times are tough here with the sanctions and many are suffering. Prices are most food are higher than in Moscow and St. Petersburg so most of people's earnings go to food. Utilities also eat up a great deal of the month's budget leaving very little for other things. It's a very hand-to-mouth existence for most. I don't see an end to this as both sides are very firm in their positions. Russia will not let Sevastopol go under any circumstances so we are pretty convinced this goes on for a long time. What a mess!

Joshua Tree Sunset

I keep returning to Joshua Tree NP because it's just such an amazing place. I took this photo at sunset. I found a way to incorporate these trees into an interesting photo. As I've stated before, Joshua trees aren't very attractive and finding a composition that uses them is hard. But by back lighting one against the setting sun I think I've found a method that works. The interesting part of this image is the weird cloud formation running left to right through the trunk. It was very real and I looked at it for a long time. It was like a long finger sticking out of a cloud bank to the north and it went on for miles. Some kind of wind anomaly I would guess. But definitely interesting.

This was made from 5 bracketed images, 2 ev apart. The sky was so bright and the background so dark that I had to go from -4 ev to +4 ev in order to get all the areas exposed correctly. I ran this through Photomatix and then finished in Lightroom.  So, one more time ... Joshua Tree NP.

Joshua Tree Sunset - 20mm,f/13,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Bean Hollow SB

Hurt My Back

I've always had a touchy back. There are spots where I have little feeling and some even tingle at times. I'm also quite susceptible to sprains. Last year I did a number on my upper back and, just last week, did a real number on my lower back. Not sure how it happened. I painted the kid's bedroom on the 3rd and 4th of November and also had to get on a ladder and clean the top of her big closet on the 6th. No big issues at that point but a few days later ... WOW. Was sitting on the couch watching TV and went to stand up. Full scale pain explosion which literally brought me to my knees. Couldn't walk or bend at all and even sitting was a real painful experience. No idea where the damage originated but it was a major episode. I applied heat and started pumping ibuprofen like crazy in hopes I could cut the pain down a little so I could function. It took most of a week until I got to the point where I was able to do anything useful and now, 9 days later, I'm off the meds and able to move around for the most part. Still have some pain ... where the back muscles attach to my hip bone ... and some stiffness. Really hoping this gets significantly better or I'm in trouble with this year's trip. No way can I carry around all my camera gear and hike long distances with a back like this. No real physical therapy in Crimea so I'm out on that score. If I'm still troubled I'll have to bite the bullet and find someone in Albuquerque who can maybe help me. A chiropractor would be a good choice and maybe someone who can give me some pain meds when it gets worse. Damn ... I hate growing old.

Bean Hollow State Beach

Travel down California rt. 1 from San Francisco and you come to the town of Pescadero. That's where you'll find Bean Hollow State Beach. What an amazing place. The ocean has carved the most intricate shapes in the soft sandstone. All kinds of hollow spots and interconnecting ridges make for the intricate webs one finds walking around the place. I was fortunate to be there on a day when the clouds and sun cooperated. It was a bit stormy and waves were crashing on the rocks. I got really lucky on this shot as a wave was just cresting as the shutter cycled. It actually looks like some aliens sculpted these rocks. It's surreal. I highly recommend visiting if you're in the area.

This is a sequence of 3 images, run through photomatix and then finished in lightroom. Hope you enjoy.

Bean Hollow SB - 28mm, f/22,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Mammoth Springs - Yellowstone

Another Day in America

I believe this was the headline on the Huffington Post yesterday. Another mass shooting in America ... Ho Hum. Nothing to see here ... move along. 26 people this time, in church. A crazy guy (no sane person does these things ... that's a given) walks into a Baptist church during Sunday services and blows away half the congregation. Half were kids. The shooter had a previous domestic violence charge against him but the military ... he was ex-military it turns out ... the military had forgotten to record this little tidbit on his record so he was able to get his gun without problems. And once again we have this conversation ...

Trump says, as one has come to expect from him, that this isn't a "gun" problem but a mental health problem. I wonder, just for the hell of it, what would have happened had this guy been carrying just a knife. You think 26 would be dead? Really? I think as soon as the knife appeared someone in the church would have gone after him and we'd be talking a different story right now. Maybe a few people sustained "minor" wounds disarming a crazy guy. But that's not what we got, is it? We got a semiautomatic weapon and lots of dead/wounded people. A bit different I think. And the "hero" who shot at him, missed of course because he wasn't trained and was nervous so he missed. I wonder how many of the slugs they dig out of the victims came from his gun? Anyone willing to make a guess? So no, he wasn't a hero. His gun made no difference in the outcome. It certainly didn't stop the killer did it?

I look at my country and wonder what the hell went wrong. When did the crazies take control of the country? When did we start selecting the most insane among us to be our leaders? I can't even begin to describe just how nuts we've gotten. Look at our leaders, local, state and federal, and tell me that they are the best of the best. They're not even the best of the worst. They're mostly just crazy. Is that the new normal for our elected leaders? Do we need to institute a mental exam and they have to "pass" by getting the highest crazy scores possible before they can run for office? We are heading for the abyss and everyone seems OK with that. Well, I'm not.

Mammoth Springs ... Yellowstone

I've already talked about Mammoth Springs in earlier posts so I won't bore you with a repeat. This image was taken on the other side of the walkway from where those earlier images were shot. The water has cooled somewhat by this point and the structures being deposited have gotten lower and less pronounced but are still extremely interesting. You can see, in the upper left corner, some calcium carbonate which has dried and bleached out. It is stark white. The colors in the frame are created by living organisms thriving in the warm, mineral rich water. Mostly shades of brown but I've also seen yellow, green and blue in other pools throughout the park. Life always finds a way to thrive, even in the most adverse conditions. It's truly amazing how they do that. So sit back and enjoy ... Mammoth Springs in Yellowstone.

Mammoth Springs - 35mm,f/18,1/100 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

San Francisco

Catalonia...

I wonder if this place, Catalonia, is the canary in the coalmine. What I mean by this is the following ... I've noticed of late that a lot of small regions are striving to get away from their bigger brethren. Scotland and Ireland for example. Or the Donbas in Ukraine. Or what happened to Yugoslavia. One can point to literally hundreds of places where the people are very unhappy with the powers that be and are agitating for their independence. I don't have a really firm opinion on this one way or the other but it certainly runs contrary to all the elite attempts to cobble together one big entity that rules them all. Suddenly trade agreements are falling apart and the EU looks a bit shaky given Greece and the Brits. Even the US is starting to see some ominous cracks. It certainly seems plausible that America could fracture into several large autonomous countries ... don't you think? The south certainly, then the West excluding the left coast, then the industrial northeast and maybe Texas on it's own. That would leave Alaska and Hawaii as odd men out with no where really to go. Maybe Alaska joins with the south or the mountain west region and Hawaii jumps in with California. I think many on both sides would agree that maybe Lincoln was wrong to force the south back into the union. Look what an unhappy lot they've been ever since. They just don't seem to fit in very well. Same with the mountain west with their libertarian tendencies and their big emphasis on state's rights. It's a very unstable time we live in. So many counteracting forces all pushing and pulling in different directions. Not the big, happy family one would expect. I don't know where this is going but it certainly looks like we're in for a big upheaval. Hold onto your hit ... it's going to get very rocky.

National Park fees...

I see where the Trump administration wants to significantly increase the entrance fees for many of the most popular national parks. I have a senior pass so I'm safe but these new fees, up to $70/car are really steep. A lot of families couldn't afford rates like that. The justification is the increased crowds that are, surely, overwhelming these parks. I can attest to this first hand but I think the solution is not the correct one. What is overwhelming the parks is all the foreign tourists and their big buses. I've been in a venue when a couple of these monsters roll in and it's a huge circus. Especially when they are Chinese. I'm not against Chinese tourists but they are the majority of these big waves that wash over the parks. I was in Yellowstone in late May and saw this issue big time. One morning I was in the midway geyser basin when 2 big buses rolled in. Suddenly there were 150 Chinese, all doing their best to get in each other's way and the noise was impossible. They have no appreciation for the amazing place they are visiting and you literally can't set up to take a picture with them around. I've had them walk in front of my camera and stand (or vamp) while I'm trying to get a shot. There is no respect for others. They all want to vamp for the camera and take a million selfies. For about 30 minutes the place is bedlam. Then they get on their buses and move on down the line. But all too soon another group arrives and the mess repeats. So, why not charge these tour groups big fees to enter the park. Let them pay $100 each for the privilege of visiting our parks. That would raise a lot of money and maybe keep the citizen's fees down to a reasonable level. And maybe cut down significantly on the numbers in the parks. I think it's worth a try.

San Francisco

I love this town. I went to graduate school down the peninsula in Palo Alto and my wife and I would ride the train up just to spend the day wandering around town. I know the overstuffed coders from Google and Facebook have overrun the place but it's still not all that bad. That said I find myself only spending a few days at a time there as the craziness gets to me and I have to chill for a while. This last trip I was only there for 3 days and then moved on. It's hard to find a place to sleep (I don't stay in hotels for a lot of reasons) so I have to drive out of town. This time I spent 2 nights in a rest area on I280 near Hillsboro which was very interesting. But there are so many wonderful places to shoot and that's what keeps me coming back.

This image was taken from the foothills in Golden Gate Recreational Area. I was in the last overlook just before turning north and couldn't pass up taking this image. You can see most of the bay area including the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island (just behind the north tower of the bridge) and just a bit of Alcatraz. It truly is an amazing place.

This is a single image, run through Lightroom. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

San Francisco - 35mm,f/16,30 sec, ISO 200,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Joshua Tree Sunset

California is Burning ... Again

I spend a lot of time in California every year during my photo cycles. There's so much to see and so many interesting places to photograph. I am deeply saddened to see news of the massive fires consuming Napa and Sonoma counties right now. I was there, in Santa Rosa, early in my trip. I went to the local WalMart to find a good internet connection in the McDonalds near the entrance. Think I even spent the night there if I remember correctly. I'll have to check my notes to verify that statement. Nice town in the wine country. So many homes/businesses lost and so many lives disrupted. I took some very nice images on the coast ... one appears earlier in this blog. I'm not sure what my schedule looks like this coming cycle but I may be back there again. I didn't finish my trip up the coast and I do want to do that sometime. But it looks like I'll be leaving Crimea early this time, maybe before the holiday season in November, as my asthma is getting really bad already. In that case I'll probably be spending the winter in the American south, avoiding as much bad weather as I can. But you can be assured that the Pacific coast is definitely on my list of places to revisit.

Joshua Tree Sunset

Joshua Tree NP is one of those places that you really have to look hard at to find interesting images and compositions. As I've said before, most of the plant life there is simply ugly but one can find, if they search enough, compelling images that are really spectacular. The image I show today fits this idea perfectly.

Sunsets/sunrises are a contentious subject among professional photographers. Many disdain taking sunsets because they are so common (365 chances every year ... give or take). Everyone has a sunset/sunrise they took with their cell phone/tablet/point-and-shoot camera so they are literally a dime a dozen. I posted a Wyoming sunset a while back which was spectacular but isn't going to win any awards because it's "just a sunset". I understand that sentiment completely. So what does one do to make a sunset/sunrise spectacular? It has to be part of something bigger. The pinon tree image I posted a while back is a good example of this. The focus of the image is the tree and the sunset adds some beautiful color and aids the overall composition. It's not the main focus. If you go through my postings you'll see that same idea over and over.

This image was taken the first evening I was in the park. I was concentrating on a small pinon tree surviving in a crack in a rock and was watching a very nice sunset develop. While the wide angle 6D camera was setup on this tree, I was shooting this sunset with the 70-200 on my Canon 60D but was having a hard time of it because I didn't have the use of my tripod. Most of the images were blurred simply because I'm an old guy and not all that steady anymore. But, once I finished with the tree I was able to concentrate on the sunset with my 6D and the 16-35 f/4. The result is below. This is a 5 image bracket (2 ev apart) run through Photomatix and finished in Lightroom. I emphasized the foreground which was very interesting as a counterpoint to the sunset and the very attractive clouds. The dead tree adds some interest and is an important compositional element. All-in-all the result is very nice ... don't you think?

Joshua Tree Sunset - 33mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Mormon Barn at Grand Teton

Las Vegas...

59 people died in Vegas over the weekend. 59 people enjoying a concert on the strip. Over 500 were wounded, many seriously. Many lives were changed forever. And once again we have to face the questions. What happened? Why did this man go so wrong? What drove him to commit such a heinous act? I don't know but I wish I did.

I'm not going to go on a rant about gun control so you can relax. America has gone so far around the bend on guns that it is literally impossible to talk about them in a coherent and rational manner. For too many Americans, guns are such an integral part of their family that they get all discombobulated when anyone brings up the idea that they might want to curtail their ownership. There's something almost orgasmic about an AR-15 with a "Bump Stock" firing several hundred rounds a minute that just cannot, it would seem, be denied. Better than sex? For some it would seem so. And it is almost ... almost except for the dead and wounded ... almost comical to see a congressman wind himself up into knots trying to justify why guns are so sacred that nothing can be done to stop them. In fact, the NRA and other gun clubs would like to force everyone to have a gun for "protection". Imagine for just a minute what would have happened if all those concert attendees, all 22K of them, had started shooting at the Mandalay Bay hotel in a really stupid attempt to stop this one shooter from continuing his rampage. You think one window in that building would have survived the onslaught? So everyone, according to one Republican congressman, should have had a similarly equipped AR-15 with a bump stock so they all could have spent several 100 round clips trying to hit a guy firing from a blacked out window somewhere on the building. They could have easily put a million rounds into the facade and still not stopped him. But they would have probably killed a lot of people in the building. But hey, it's all about freedom, don't you know? But, as I said at the onset of this column, I'm not getting into this with anyone. Not worth all the anxiety and heat it would take and to no avail. Changing a gun owner's mind is almost impossible. To fix this problem we need to change the culture of our country. We need to, somehow, heal the deep fissures that exist between various communities in this land. I don't know how that happens given all the hate I find as I travel around. I don't know how to get everyone talking. But that's what needs to happen and soon. We can't keep watching as more and more, mostly white people decide that the only way out is to kill a lot of strangers, randomly, and then kill themselves. That's not the way to go forward. So figure it out and get started.

Mormon Barn at Grand Teton

I'm sure most of you have seen this image before. In the valley just east of the Grand Tetons, there's a dirt road and many old, wooden structures. It's called "Mormon Row". Mormons were the first settlers in this area; they were mostly farmers. They build their homes and barns in the valley, a few miles east of the mountains. I'm not sure how successful they were as the soil is mostly moraine, rubble washed off the peaks. I can't imagine they were terribly successful but I'm sure they gave it their best effort. The Snake River runs nearby so maybe they also tried to raise cattle which might have been more amenable to the conditions. Now, of course, the mountains and part of the valley are in the Grand Tetons NP. It a spectacular place. I spent 5 days in the park, taking well over a thousand pictures. Got some beautiful images which I'll show as time goes on.

I spent several early mornings with these buildings. I was there quite early as I wanted to take pictures before the crowds. Seems everyone who visits the park has to stop by and wander along the road so getting good pictures is a challenge. If you visit, plan to get up early, before the big buses with all the foreigners start to arrive. You'll get nothing useful once that happens.

This particular image was taken with my 70-200 mm telephoto lens on a Canon 60D. I was at 70 mm which, on the crop sensor, is about 105 mm equivalent. I had to walk far out in to an adjacent field to get the whole structure into the frame. The telephoto "pulls" the mountains closer to the barn which gives a much more dramatic presentation. The sun was low in the sky, over my right shoulder so there are some nice shadows. It was 7:30 am but the sun had already been up for a while. Next time I visit I'll try to get there before sunrise so I can get the red glow on the peaks and the barn. There's always something that can be done better. That's why it's important to visit over and over. One could spend a lifetime just photographing the West and it still wouldn't be enough time.

I combined 2 shots with Photomatix and then finished in Lightroom. I want to run these same images through blending to see if the result is better. I'll try that in a few days and report back if the results are good.

Get to Grand Teton NP. It's well worth the trip. Enjoy.

Mormon Barn - 70mm (1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Tower Creek at Tower Falls - Redux

Censorship...

I've been running into a very disturbing issue the last few weeks. I read a lot ... mostly on the Internet. I read from websites across the political spectrum because I want to get a broad understanding of the issues and to remove, as much as I can, political bias from my reading. But something really sad is happening. Because our government is very conservative now, there has been a strong undercurrent to eliminate "fake news". Now, I'm a reasonably smart person and I have no idea how one identifies fake news. I don't think anyone really knows what this is but our president has been humping this idea since his campaign days. He doesn't know what "fake news" is either but, by his definition, it's anything that disagrees with his position (at the moment). Since he tends to be conservative, he thinks anything from a "liberal" or "left wing" website or publication is automatically fake news. That, in itself, is a terrible position for a whole host of reasons. But what makes this much worse is the attempts by social media and search engine companies (mostly Google and Facebook) to translate this desire to eliminate "fake news" into algorithms in their respective online environments. Google, in particular, has made major changes to their search engine and many of the sites I read are reporting that their content has disappeared from searches. Many are afraid they will be forced out of business because they are losing hits and, as a direct result, advertising revenue. If you are a conservative and are cheering this outcome, let me remind you of something ... liberal ideas are all that stands between you and disaster. Think about all the nice things you have in your life ... 8 hour days, holidays, unemployment insurance, workman's comp ... those all came into being because of some "lefty" deciding that workers needed a break. Do you really want to return to the days when Pinkerton detectives gunned down striking workers at Carnegie's steel mills? Now I will admit that liberals do get it wrong sometimes. Welfare was a disaster on many levels. But we need liberal ideas now more than ever. We face problems unlike anything from the past and, I'm sorry, conservatives have no clue how to solve them. Going back to the "good old days" is not an option simply because, first, the good old days weren't all that good for most people and, second, America isn't the same country that it was back at the turn of the 20th century. We absolutely need new ideas and new approaches to get past where we are. And those nasty liberals are the only ones who have the ideas and the new approaches. Sorry, but that's just how it is. Conservatives need to "tolerate" liberal ideas and even give them a chance to succeed. How much success have the conservatives had in solving the health care mess? Anyone? They come up with these disasters that will never work because they are so wound up with their "philosophy" that they are unable to even try new approaches. So we get these twisted train wrecks that will never solve the problem and will kill a lot of people in the process. I'm not a liberal, a lefty or a progressive. I'm not a conservative either. I'm practical ... I want solutions to problems. I don't care where they come from but I do care that they fix whatever is wrong. I hate wasting money chasing stupid ideas and I hate giving money to people who already have too much of it. Fix the damn problems!

Tower Creek at Tower Falls - Redux

Last time I put up a photo of Tower Creek in Yellowstone. It was a clear day and I got one aspect of the creek. This time I give you essentially the same image but with snow! Winter stays late in Yellowstone and, despite it being late May, we had lots of snow. So, 2 days in a row I visited the Tower Falls area and the same spot on the river. This is also a long exposure (121 sec) with my 10 stop ND filter. It was overcast so the image is darker but also very interesting. I love snow because it covers up so many "warts" in an image. All the broken trees evident in the last image are basically gone. This is a single image, worked in Lightroom to bring out the best. I hope you enjoy it.

Tower Creek at Tower Falls - 35mm,f18,121 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Tower Creek at Tower Falls

Tower Creek at Tower Falls

I've not been doing much with my Yellowstone pictures and I can't really explain why. I would guess it has to do with 'Y' being late in the alphabet and my catalog is sorted alphabetically so I always find another image to process as I scan down the listings. Seems kind of stupid given there are so many amazing images from there so I resolve to try and process more Yellowstone images in the coming days and weeks. There's really some fabulous stuff in those files.

This image is one of those great shots. In the northwest corner of the park the Yellowstone river runs through canyons and eventually reaches the "Grand Canyon".  Tower Creek breaks from the river and runs to the west until it reaches Tower Falls. Just above the falls is where I took this image. The creek is really wild there, crashing through the boulders as it rushes to get beyond the towers. The noise is almost deafening. I actually visited this place 2 days in a row because it snowed one day and I wanted to see what it looked like with the boulders covered in snow. That's a picture for another day. To find this place, drive to the Tower Falls parking lot. Just before you enter the lot you cross a small bridge, next to the visitor's center. This cascade can be seen from that bridge. You can work your way to the water by walking to the left end of the bridge and easing down the rocks. For maximum impact, get as close to the water as you can.

Whenever I get around water I always bring out my 10 stop ND filter because I love how the water turns soft and mysterious. This is a rather long exposure, 90 seconds at f/18, so any turbulence has disappeared. The contrast between the soft water and the sharp, hard boulders really jumps out. This is truly a special place.

Yellowstone River - 35mm,f/18,90 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Heceta Light - redux

Cassini's End

I don't know if you are a space nut ... someone who hangs on everything NASA and others do in space ... but you can't be uninterested in the Cassini mission to Saturn. What an amazing piece of engineering and human persistence. Almost 20 years from beginning to end and essentially flawless. And the science they accomplished ... it is hard to even comprehend everything they discovered. Such an amazing place with the rings and the moons. There may very well be primitive life on at least one of those moons. And what a spectacular place Titan has turned out to be. An actual methane driven atmosphere with a 'water' cycle of evaporation, rain and flowing rivers along with large lakes of liquid methane. There will be more missions to explore this moon and all the others plus someone will eventually put a probe into the Saturn atmosphere that can survive for some time and see exactly what lies at it's core. Put the pressures and temperatures are extreme so it will have to be a truly magnificent machine. I won't be around for it but my kids will.

Heceta Light - redux

Last time I showed you a picture of the Heceta Lighthouse, in Oregon. It was done using HDR and Photomatix. I had some major issues with that image and finally was pushed to make the leap to blending in Photoshop as a way of fixing the problems. In particular, when you use tone mapping to blend different exposures, major defects show up. For one, if there is any noise in the images, tone mapping accentuates them horribly until they look like popcorn all over your image. The only way to eliminate this graininess is to either noise reduce all the bracketed images before you run through HDR or to aggressively noise reduce the final image afterwards. The image from last time used the latter approach. But removing all this noise also softens the image and it just doesn't look all that attractive. Second, any dust on the sensor really shows up in the final image. I had to remove dozens of these spots from the HDR image. It takes time and the results aren't always that good. I have some images that I can't even show you because the sky is just so "dirty" from the HDR process that it's embarrassing. Finally, the tone mapping process distorts the true colors in the image and I often see sunsets that are just "weird" and not nearly true to what I saw. So, especially with sunrise/sunset images I have to find another process that isn't so brutal to my vision.

A few months ago I found a photographer who has come to the same conclusion. His name is Jimmy McIntyre, a scotsman. He tried HDR and was not impressed. He has developed a complete set of actions for Photoshop that make blending bracketed shots almost easy and the results are really nice. Not to say there are's issues but one can always find ways to correct them. I bought a set of his actions a while back (RyaPro) that are a big help and he's put together a complete course that you can buy at the same time that shows how to use blending to get really spectacular images. I'm not shilling for him and not getting any compensation for telling you about his stuff ... just pointing out a nice resource to make blending in Photoshop a bit easier.

Anyway, a few days ago I jumped into this whole blending process and ran the bracketed images of the lighthouse as my first attempt. It wasn't easy and wasn't without some issues but the result, shown below, is a big step up from the HDR image I showed last time (I've included both below so you can toggle back and forth to see the differences). Notice how much sharper the blended image is. There were almost no dust spots in the blended image and the noise was much reduced. Also, notice how the water by the white walls is distorted and softened in the HDR image. I see that quite often in HDR images and am not sure what causes it. Almost always shows when transitioning between dark and light areas. It's called a halo and is a big artifact of HDR. I've lost count of the images I've had to throw away because a halo showed up when I got into Lightroom.

So compare these images. Don't worry about the contrails, I just didn't take the time to remove them from the HDR image. But look at the lighthouse and especially the light. The red roof is actually red in the blended image, not magenta like in the HDR. And the sunset just looks more natural, don't you think? I really like how this image came out. So if you use HDR and it's not really making you feel great about your images, look into Jimmy's stuff and study blending in Photoshop. There are a lot of nice tools there just for this process. It's actually forcing me to learn how to use PS ... not a bad upside to the whole process.

Heceta Light - HDR version

Heceta Light - Blended version

Heceta Light

The Cleanup

Irma is now history, except for some lingering rain in the southeast. We dodged a big bullet as the eye went to the west of Miami, sparing the city a big disaster. But the flooding and wind damage in the Keys and along the west coast of Florida is still extreme and it will take years to mend the damage. Not going to get on any soapbox this time, just extend my best wishes and thoughts for all those who were impacted by this storm. I hope you can recover and carry on with your lives. But I fear that Irma is just the first of many storms that will pound the US and the Caribbean in the coming years. I know we are not ready for any of this. Our politicians and far too many of us have ignored all the warnings and now we face the future with our heads firmly planted up our collective a$$. Welcome to the future.

Hillary's book

I see that the Clinton has penned yet another book. "What Happened" without the "?" is a good title but she should have put that extra punctuation there because it really is a question. Not one she wants to honestly answer unfortunately. So vain that she can't look inside herself and see what a horrible human being she has become. It's testament to her badness that, even now, with all the bad stuff we know about Trump, there are still questions about whether she would have been worse. That's really sad.

Heceta Light

I really like this lighthouse. The location is spectacular and it's location high on a cliff gives it so much more prominence. I spent much of a day there, shooting and just drinking in the amazing atmosphere. I spent some time talking with the guides who give tours of the house and tell the history. They were very helpful in showing me a hidden path up the hill, behind the light. where I was able to take this image. It would have been much better had the clouds cooperated and the ever present jet trails not been there but one cannot control that which is uncontrollable. Vapor trails are now a fact of life that all landscape photographers have to deal with. I could go into Photoshop and remove them, of course, but it would be a long and difficult process to get right. I've seen enough photographs with "ghosts" in the sky where the process was not correct and I've done enough repairing of images to know just how hard it is. This is especially true around clouds. I'll probably take the image for a spin in Photoshop sometime in the future and, if things work out, I'll repost the results. I also want to try blending the images to see if the funny "halo" around the white base goes away. That's an artifact of HDR that is hard to remove. Blending may just do the trick.

Anyway, this is composed of 3 bracketed images, run through Photomatix to blend them together and then finished in Lightroom. Amazing location.

Heceta Light - 35mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 200,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Point Cabrillo

Hurricane Irma

I'm starting to feel like a broken record, always talking about hurricanes, but they are the number one topic right now. Irma is within hours of pounding into south Florida and I have every reason to expect this will be another disaster. Florida has been ignoring the threat for a long time, building big hotels and resorts right on the beach and draining the Everglades in the stupid belief that they will never be needed to stand sentinel against a big storm. Well, now they are about to pay big time. It will be truly interesting to see how much of south Florida is left next week. Of course, the pundits, who have little skin in the game, are convinced that this is just another storm like all that came before it. Rush Limbaugh, the mouth who can't stop "entertaining" his followers with one bucket of bullsh*t after another, announced that this hurricane was all a liberal fantasy, not real in any form, and then, like the coward he is, ran from his Florida home to somewhere safe while those who listen to his bile are stuck there to ride out the monster. If ever there was a case for muzzling someone, this clown is a prime candidate. People are going to die because of his lies and I think it's time for him to pay up. What do you say .... Rush? Willing to put your money where your mouth is?

As always, my heart and thoughts go to those who are being hurt by this storm. And I hope some of our lying politicians are watching this disaster unfold with a new awareness that our country and others need to start taking climate change and these monsters seriously. Maybe it's a good idea to abandon much of the low lying parts of Florida ... to let it return to the barrier reef state it had in the "good old days". Maybe we should reconstitute the Everglades too while we are at it. This storm gives us the opportunity to rethink our development practices and to not throw good money after bad in some stupid attempt to regain our foothold on the beach.

Point Cabrillo, CA

Point Cabrillo light is a few miles north of Mendocino on California's north coast. It's now a museum but still functioning as a lighthouse. The association that keeps it running is sanctioned by the Coast Guard to maintain the light in first class condition and they do an amazing job. I spent an hour talking with the keeper on site and he filled my head with all kinds of neat information. I took lots of pictures of the light and will, sometime in the future, put one or more here for your enjoyment.

This image is of the rocks near the light and it shows why the light is there. I wanted to really show how it must have looked to an earlier mariner, trying to feel his way up the coast in a storm and at dusk and what he must have seen. Those rocks and the crashing waves gave me the willies and I was on solid ground at the time. Imagine what it must have felt like looking through an old telescope as your boat pitched and yawed beneath you. Crazy or insanely brave they must have been.

Anyway, I took this image at f/22 so the exposure would be long enough to show the breaking waves as a mist. In this case the view is very ominous, as the dark rocks thrust up through the surf. The noise was deafening. Put yourself in that mariner's shoes and feel the pounding water and the salt spray. Makes you feel a bit queasy, doesn't it? A picture can do that sometimes. That's the power of an image. Grab hold of the rail ... it's going to get very rough out here.

Point Cabrillo - 144 mm,f/22,10 sec, ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Mirror Lake - Yosemite

Another Hurricane...

Looks like another hurricane is heading into the Caribbean. And another is forming in the mid-Atlantic. Harvey was a disaster for Houston and now it looks like this next storm will trash much of the islands from the Virgins all the way to Cuba before setting its sights on Florida. The disaster budget for FEMA is already deeply in the hole and our do-nothing congress doesn't seem to have the ability to forget the politics and just help. Worthless bunch of c@#p as far as I'm concerned. But, we get exactly what we deserve and these clowns are just about perfect. So much self-interest in the world right now. My heart goes out for all those who are about to confront this massive storm and the ones that come afterwards. It's going to be a horrible season this year.

Mirror Lake - Yosemite

I was in Yosemite for 3 nights and really didn't get very much done. Because it was mid-April much of the park was still closed off and I was confined to the valley for the most part. Did hike up to Mirror Lake which was certainly an interesting experience. It was very near my camp so I was able to leave the truck there and make the trip by foot. The bad winter in California had washed out route 120 so driving into the park had taken me into the mountains and on some really challenging roads. Probably a good thing for me as many visitors had not been able to make the trip and there were lots of campsites open for the taking. Anyway, instead of a large stock of images I got less than 200 for 3 days. That's simply because much of what I wanted to see was still closed. Oh well, maybe next year I can get back and do more. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, I hiked up to Mirror Lake which is at the base of Half Dome. It was before noon when I got there and the wind hadn't yet picked up so the lake's surface was fairly still. In some places I had to get out my 10 stop ND filter to get long exposures to smooth out the ripples but in this spot I was able to just shoot normally. If you look closely at the sky there is all sorts of debris flying around plus many birds aloft so there is plenty to see there. Also the lake was fairly dirty and you can see lots of junk in the water. The trees were just starting to throw leaves giving them a very yellowish golden color which contrasts nicely with the blue sky. All in all a very nice image. This is a blend of 2 images, run through Photomatix and finished in Lightroom. Very pleasant for the most part.

Mirror Lake - 35mm,f/18,HDR,I|SO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Antelope Canyon

Hurricane Harvey

My heart goes out to those struggling to survive Harvey in Texas. I'm not a big fan of Texas but no one deserves to be confronted with the disaster that awaits them this week. There will be flooding and a lot of damage before Harvey moves on. Let is all hope "The Donald" can get his head out of his a&% long enough to get the federal government to help with the cleanup and rescue operations. Enough said on that issue.

Antelope Canyon

I was in Antelope Canyon last year but the place is so beautiful I thought it was a good time to show another image from the place. I went in the early morning as I wanted to see what the canyon looked like with early sun. It was a different place for sure and that was a nice feeling. I didn't have any tripod or even a monopod as they are not allowed except during the special, and much more expensive, photographer's tours later in the day so I had to be extra steady. Most of the pictures came out blurred even with my stabilizer running because I tend to be more than a bit unsteady these days as I grow older. Some of the longest exposures were more than a second and not even the best lens stabilization can fix shaking that long. So I had to throw away a lot of images.

This photo is made up of 3 images, a bracketed series. What is interesting about the image is how "fluid" it looks. The lighter areas appear almost translucent, like a glassy surface is spread across the rocks. It's not, of course, but looks that way. What's happening here is the light, already diffuse from striking other rocky surfaces, is illuminating the right and left sides of this protrusion and making them appear like water is running across their surfaces. The effect only appears on the brighter exposures in the bracketing. It is a very interesting artifact of the light conditions and probably only appears in the early morning. Just another fantastic aspect of this very special canyon. I have to go back again some day and see what else is going on there.

Antelope Canyon - 35mm, F4,HDR,ISO 800,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Sonoma Coast

Charlottesville...

I'm not going to say much about the confrontation that took place yesterday in VAI've been warning family and friends for years that the "calm" we've seen in the last few decades was an illusion. The race hatred and all the other bigotries have always been there. It just took Trump and years of bad economy to bring it all back to the surface. The Republican party has been fanning these flames for a long time and now they are a raging inferno that may very well consume America. I have no great ideas about how to fix this ... it's been part of my country from the very beginning. The great melting pot was always a joke. Trump may very well be the lit match thrown onto the gasoline soaked hate that was always there. I'm actually glad this is now out in the open where all the smug elites can see/smell it first hand. Congratulations ... you've just kindled the fires that may very well consume you. Guess what ... it's the economy stupid! It always has been. Provide everyone with a good job and all this crap disappears. But you bought into the neoliberal bulls**t and now it's come back to bite you. And, in what has to be the greatest irony, it's happening all over the world. There's no safe haven for you to hide in this time. Get used to looking over your shoulders because that's the new norm. Payback's a bitch!

Sonoma Coast

I love driving the west coast. It's so beautiful and there's always somewhere that just begs for a picture. Sonoma is mostly known for it's wineries but the coast is also a magical place. This image was taken at Coleman Beach. The clouds/fog was very cooperative that evening and I was able to get a really nice sunset. This is a panorama made up of HDR images. There's a lot of work in cleaning up the blending which sometimes goes funny as the light changes from one panel to the next. There are 85 images in the mix, 17 sets of 3 bracketed shots. Each panel takes upwards of 2-3 minutes to shoot so you can easily have 30 minutes between the first panel and the last. The light changes a great deal in that time frame so I often have to work the image to repair these changes. It's part of the process and a reason why these types of shots are so hard to execute. I've spent several years perfecting the technique and still confront issues with almost every one. Stitching together panoramas isn't always foolproof and I often have to repair damage caused by the software. It's not unusual for me to spent a day with a single image. But the results are worth all the effort. You'll not find more dramatic images than these. I really hope you enjoy them.

Coleman Beach, Sonoma - 24mm,f/16.HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Mammoth Hot Springs

The Gods are not Happy...

I'm sure most of you have been reading about (or experiencing first hand) the tremendous heat sweeping across much of the US. We're experiencing much the same in Crimea where temperatures have been in the 90's most of the last week and are forecast to remain this way for another week at least. In addition, they have been drowning in Moscow for much of the summer as a persistent low pressure storm dumps massive amounts of water on the area at least once a week. They have been dealing with floods and damage on an unprecedented scale. You may not like the Russians but this is not something you should wish on your worst enemy. I will not draw any lines between these events and climate change but you can if you wish. The weather is getting very dicey of late and it is not a good thing. We are ill equipped to deal with what is happening. And America is not immune to this either. After a horrendous winter and spring on the west coast, something I experienced first hand during my last photo cycle, California is once again burning. We should all be wishing for rain in the West.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Yellowstone is one of the most amazing places. I've already written about this before but still ... one cannot say too much about all the really cools things to be found there. I was in the park for 8 days and took well in excess of 2300 images. Everywhere I looked there was something to shoot. I could have easily doubled that number had I just looked a bit further but I was at the end of my trip and exhausted so I spent much of my time resting. I will return there in the near future and intend to take as much time as is needed to visit every nook and cranny to see what I can photograph. Expect a lot of Yellowstone in this blog in the coming months.

Everything in Yellowstone is driven by the massive volcano that lies just a few miles below the surface. Heat from the underlying magma rises through the rocks and heats water which constantly percolates downward from surface snow and rain. Once heated the water rises and absorbs minerals from the rock. Depending on the combination of heat and water, various features form on the surface. If there is high heat and lots of water, you get geysers like Old Faithful. Less water but high heat gives you fumerols and mud pots. Low heat and lots of water gives you hot springs like Mammoth. This particular thermal feature is special for several reasons. One, it's not within the main caldera for the volcano. It lies several miles to the north. Second, due to the presence of abundant mineral salts the water is very saturated and, once it hits the surface, quickly evaporates to create the most amazing basins and structures. Because the caldera is seismically active, the underlying rock is constantly shifting so the springs move around meaning a great area one year becomes a barren, bleached pile of mineral structures the next. And, the whole thing is a massive breeding ground for bacteria and other organic entities which give the structures color and a fluidity that is very interesting. The whole structure is very much alive.

It was still winter in Yellowstone when I visited in late May. We had snow several evenings and cold nights. The best images are found in the early morning, just after sunrise, when the hot water creates a dreamy, steamy patina around the springs. I was there around 10 am, well after sunrise, but the cold morning air was still turning the steam into dense clouds. It was very mysterious.

This image was taken in the Lower Terrace area. I parked in the second lot above town and followed the wooden walkway upwards. You can't seen this particular area from the road but follow the walkway to the right and take the stairs leading higher into the field. Suddenly you emerge into this magical place and it's spectacular. I believe the area is called Minerva Terrace but I'm not sure. I do recommend going early as the tour buses start to appear pretty quickly and then it's almost impossible to get a clean shot with all the selfie shooters popping up everywhere. The dead tree is testament to the shifting nature of these fields. It's fairly intact meaning it was living not too long ago. The colors all come from the bacteria and other creatures that thrive in this hot water. There were even birds walking in the water, eating this living mat. Too hot for me but they seemed very happy there. What I love most about the picture is an almost painterly look. That's due to the steam and the way the bacteria soften the structure. It gives the most amazing dreaminess, doesn't it?

Mammoth Hot Springs - 78mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 400,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Big Sur Again

Sometimes bad things happen...

Toward the end of my cycle I decided to head south from Albuquerque and check out a few places. White Sands, Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe NP were on my to-do list. I hit White Sands and then went south to the other parks before heading north to Albuquerque again. At the end of this trip I was driving up I10 through El Paso and noticed that there was a storm brewing over Las Cruces. Storms in that part of the world are a great thing as they give you a dramatic sky to go with the wild geography. I wanted to see if I could catch a storm in White Sands as it can get really interesting so I turned east on rt. 70 and drove like a madman to get there before the storm broke. I was lucky and made it into the monument and up on the sand just in time. I wanted to get a timelapse of the storm. It took a while to get everything setup but finally the camera was rolling and getting some great shots. I watched a couple of guys get out of their car just below where I was positioned and wasn't at all surprised when one of them started climbing the sand dune straight toward where I was standing. When he was still 20 feet away I shouted at him that I was shooting and wanted pristine dunes for my shots but he kept coming. So when he got 10 feet away I told him again that I was shooting a timelapse and wanted him to change directions so he didn't interfere with my shoot. He kept coming. Just as he got about even with me I told him that I was not adverse to picking up my $2500 camera and lens and using it to beat the crap out of him if he didn't stop. That seemed to get his attention and he turned but not without giving me a dirty look and a finger. I have a hard time understanding the mentality that says it's OK to be an a**hole and simply destroy someone else's shot. He wasn't willing to explain to me why it was necessary for him to walk across the pristine sand I had chosen for my work. There are literally thousands of dunes in the monument he could have chosen to climb and why mine was so important still isn't clear to me. But I'm glad I ruined his day because soon after that confrontation he and his friend left the dunes and drove away.

The storm provided another unexpected bit of excitement as my shoot continued. The wind was blowing pretty strong but there was little sand in the air when I first arrived. In the video below, you can see about 30 minutes of the storm and the first 25 are very clear. But as the shoot progressed I could see sand far away but wasn't really worried because the wind was mostly from left to right. However, if you look carefully at the video you can see a wall of sand suddenly rising to my left and coming very quickly toward my position. I guessed it was about 8 minutes total from the time I first saw the cloud until I hit me full force. I had taken precautions for the camera, putting it in a rain sleeve so the sand didn't get inside or cause any damage but I hadn't made much effort to protect myself. As it was very warm I was in jeans and a short-sleeve t-shirt. I really wanted to stay a few minutes more and capture the full force of the storm as it swept over my position but I was being filleted by the sand which was stripping skin off as I ran back to my truck. I also wanted to get my truck out of the sand blaster but it was slow going as the road was rapidly disappearing under the sand. When I finally got to the ranger's station I showed the ranger my shots and he was amazed at how fast the storm had come. There were people way out on the sand and they had to have been in real danger as they couldn't avoid the full force of the wind. I hope they got out safely.

Anyway, sometimes stuff happens. Sometimes it's an idiot who thinks he's really important and sometimes it's something completely beyond your control. That's one of the reasons why I do this ... you never know when something really interesting will happen.

Big Sur Again

I already related my trials in Big Sur this trip so I won't rehash them. This overlook was just down the road from the spot where I took the other image from last week. I love the erosion which has created the most interesting forms in the foreground. Very dramatic and wonderful to look at. Enjoy.

Big sur - 24mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Cholla Cactus - Joshua Tree NP

HDR vs. Blending

I've been a pretty faithful user of HDR over the last several years. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. In HDR photography, I take a bracketed set of shots of the same image. Bracketing means changing the exposure time while holding the F-stop constant, thus getting a series of images that capture different amounts of light with the sensor. The idea is that camera sensors don't have the same dynamic range as the human eye so you make this series of images and then 'blend' them together to get the final image. In reality, you don't really extend the dynamic range of your image ... you compress the dynamics of the image to match the limited range of the display you are using. This is called 'tone mapping'. So the HDR image you see is really a false representation of the true dynamics of the picture. You can always tell you're looking at an HDR image by the way it seems to be over saturated. HDR is OK ... a lot of famous photographers have used this technique to make their images more dynamic and attractive. But I get the feeling this technique has run its course. I find myself still using the same software but applying a much lighter touch to the controls so my images aren't nearly as intense as they were before. I've also been spending some time exploring a different technique ... image blending ... to get what I want. I've just started doing this and haven't really gotten good enough to show the results. But I like the technique. The results appear much more natural and less forced. I think I'm going to start heading that way in the near future. I just need to spend some more time getting familiar with the methods and figure out how to get the results I want. Stay tuned.

Cholla Cactus - Joshua Tree NP

I've already commented on how difficult it is to take photos in Joshua Tree NP. Most of the living entities are just not that photogenic. Certainly not the Joshua Trees which are down right ugly. You need to look very carefully to find shots that are exciting and nice to look at. Such is the case with this blog's photo. This is a Cholla Cactus. There's one spot in Joshua Tree where they appear. You're driving along Pinto Basin Road and suddenly there they are. Ugly things on the whole but, if you look very carefully, you can find some very intriguing compositions. I was coming from the south, right around sunrise, when I got to this location. I wanted to shoot there before the sun got too intense and washed out everything. That's how you shoot in a place like Joshua Tree. I found a cactus that was just starting to flower and was able to get very close so the flowers were basically the only thing you could see. I also wanted to get some sky which was very blue at that moment and I wanted the background to be out of focus. Notice the f-stop of 4.0. The lens is wide open.

You also have to be very careful around these cacti. They are barbed on the end and will do some serious damage to any exposed skin. While I was there a park ranger was attempting to extricate some of these nasty thorns from a guy's leg and it wasn't going very well. He was using a pair of needle nose pliers but the spikes are very fragile and hard to get out without breaking. The guy was in some intense pain. He was advised to visit a hospital emergency room to finish the repair. Was his fault as there are signs everywhere warning about how dangerous these cacti are. He was wearing shorts! Not a good idea in this place.

Anyway, this is made from 5 bracketed images, run through Photomatix and then finished in Lightroom. I really like the contrasts and the composition came out pretty good too. Joshua Tree NP ... definitely a place to visit but not in the summer. It's really hot and dry. Bring plenty of water and arrive early. And watch out for the cactus thorns.

Cholla Cactus - 35mm,f/4.0,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Multnomah Falls

Too Many People...

I've written about this before but it needs to be talked about a lot. There are too many people in these venues and they are causing lots of problems. This is pertinent to my image today because this particular falls, in the Colombia River Gorge, is literally overrun with people. They come by car and by bus and it's getting more and more difficult to take pictures with them all over the place. The bridge in this picture was constantly filled with people and their presence spoils the mood I'm trying to create. I'll talk more about this later but I do want to make some points now. First, there is a striking lack of reverence toward the venues being visited. This is particularly a problem with foreign visitors, many who show absolutely no respect for either the venue or the other people who are there to see it. They swarm the place like ants, talking loudly, standing in front of the other photographers and just making asses of themselves. Some just can't resist vamping for pictures which is disrespectful in the extreme. I remember last year when I was in Arches NP, at Delicate Arch, and there was this woman who insisted on dancing in the middle of the arch with a huge purple scarf while her husband/boyfriend took pictures. Delicate Arch is a very special place and this stupid behavior was not right. Certain nationalities seem to have this idea that the venue is nothing more than a backdrop for their selfies. They are in every picture, hogging the spaces where serious photographers need to set up and take their images. I've had confrontations with these people on several occasions and it's really irritating. This leads to the second point which is just about volume. My generation, unfortunately, has this idea that the ideal retirement involves a huge RV and driving all over the country. These monstrosities take up lots of space and are very noisy. I use generators for my computers but I always respect the hours posted as I know how irritating it is to listen to a noisy generator when you are trying to sleep. But I've had that happen all too often when people park next to my truck in the middle of the night and fire up their generators. They literally don't care if it bothers you. This last trip was especially bad for some reason. I've almost always been able to find a campsite in the national parks but this last trip I had major problems finding places. When you look at the campgrounds all you see is these big RVs and camp trailers. They have satellite dishes and ATVs ... hell, one guy even projected movies on a screen and invited everyone to come watch. All the comforts of home. But the bedlam they create is hard on everyone around them including the animals. I don't have an answer unfortunately. They have the right to do whatever they want but the impact on these places in major.

Multnomah Falls

I'm sure most of you have seen a picture of this waterfall. It's part of the Colombia River Gorge NP. What an amazing place. Because it's so popular there is a major issue with crowds. I talked about this above so I'll keep it short. Too many people spoils the mood of a place like this. You really want to just stand quietly and drink in the beauty and serenity of this location. Almost impossible because too many loud, obnoxious people are swirling around. The parking lot was almost full. And because this is a popular spot there are signs everywhere about taking your valuables with you so no one can steal them. I always laugh at that because my truck is filled to overflowing with valuables and there's no way I can take even 10% with me. I have a suggestion for the local authorities ... if this is such a big problem, why not station law enforcement around the lots to keep people from breaking in. You make a lot of money off this traffic and maybe you should spend some of that on keeping people's valuables safe. Maybe?

Anyway, there's always a problem with photographing such a venue. It's been shot millions of times, often by professional photographers and the basic image is well known. How do you shoot a place like this in such a way as to be different? No photographer wants to take a "me too" shot. Well, in my case I wanted to really capture the serenity of this place. That's best done without people. People spoil the shot. I also wanted to take a very long exposure so the water took on a soft, almost dreamy quality. That required me to use a 10 stop neutral density filter and that lead to exposures of 3 minutes or more. Keeping the bridge empty for 3 minutes was almost impossible so I had to take many shots of the same scene, hoping at least one would be sans people. I got lucky with this one shot.

This is a single exposure of almost 3 minutes. I ran it through Lightroom to bring out the colors and that's about it. There's very little done to "fix" this image. I really like how it came out. I understand why this place is so special. It just grabs you and won't let go. It's on my bucket list for another visit, early in the morning before the crowds arrive. I just want to shoot this place over and over. It's that special.

Multnomah Falls - 35mm,f/18,151 seconds,ISO 100, license CC BY-NC 4.0

Wyoming Sunset

The Eyes...

I've had more than my fair share of eye problems of late and, unfortunately, the issues continue. The biggest problem has been hemorrhaging in both eyes in the last few years. Laser surgery sealed off the leaks but there's serious side effects that continue. I have a lot of debris in both eyes and that makes seeing a big issue. I have "spider webs" in both eyes, collagen webs that hang in my vision and cause distortion. When I was home this last trip I noticed that they seemed to be falling apart and debris is floating all over the place, including near my retinas. So occasionally my vision simply blurs and I can't really distinguish much of anything. Not a good thing when you are a photographer. Usually I can move my eyes and the blurring goes away but it's still a major inconvenience. I'm hoping the problem abates but might take a long time. I still have the webs in my right eye and the surgery was several years ago. The eye doctor assures me they will go away but, at my age, time is fleeting and I don't have years to wait. Not sure what I can do to fix the problem.

Wyoming Sunset

It's funny. Most of the time, to capture the images I put in this blog, I have to work very hard. I have to find the location, often carrying a ton of camera gear on my very broken shoulders, deal with the elements, sometimes risk life and limb to get in a place to make the image, and then hope that the results are worth all the effort. Out of thousands of images I take each cycle I'm lucky if I get 100 that are useful. Of course, some of that bulk is simply due to taking lots of cycles looking for just the right light. It's not unusual to take 50 sets of images to get one final presentation. That's just the nature of the beast.

Then there are the rare occasions when the image comes to me. It literally drops from the sky and hits me square on the head. Such was the case for this photo. I had just left Yellowstone, heading south toward Albuquerque and my trip back to Russia. I was in a rest area on I80, near Laramie, WY. It was located on a hill above the highway so I could see a long way in all directions. It had been cloudy most of the day and was very windy. I was sitting in the truck, feeling it rock as the wind roared up the hillside, reading on my tablet. I was facing east with the sun setting over my shoulder. For some reason I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the beginnings of a spectacular sunset. Everything was perfect. I was really tired, having been up since 4 AM but I knew that I'd really kick myself if I let this event slide. So I grabbed the camera and my tripod and headed out into a field near the parking area. Several people had the same idea I had and we all stood there, our cameras at the ready, watching this majestic sunset unfold. The colors were amazing and the clouds, interacting with the strong winds, created the most spectacular shapes. This was, by far, the best sunset I'd seen on this trip. It was a wonderful way to finish the trip from hell. I guess the gods were feeling sorry for me and decided to give me a little pick-me-up as a going away present. This is the west at its best.

Wyoming Sunset - 16mm,f/11,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0