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