Fort Bragg, Oregon

Video Blogging

I've been watching YouTube videos produced by Thomas Heaton. He's a young Englishman who is turning into a terrific photographer. His videos are wonderful on so many levels ... technique and humor and emotional connection. He generates such amazing content and the images he produces are beyond wonderful. I recommend his YouTube channel to anyone who is interested in improving their game behind the lens.

I'm thinking about doing something similar. I spend 3-4 months a year on the road, visiting interesting places and finding the most amazing images to capture. It would be a good way for me to gain some exposure and fill the long hours I spend waiting for the right light. I already have all the equipment and software I need so there's very little expense involved. I'm a pretty good storyteller. It just seems like a good idea. And maybe I can make a little money along the way which isn't a bad thing. At least I could maybe pay for some new equipment and my travel expenses.

Trip Plans

I haven't made definite plans yet but things are starting to come together for the next trip home. It looks like I leave in late February and return to Crimea in mid-June. I want to get to Grand Canyon while there's still some snow and I want to get to the far north in Idaho, Montana and Washington which means I have to stick around until the snow melts in late May. I'm planning to revisit quite a few places I've not seen in a while and to add a long list of new venues to my already long list. Because the West is so big and there's so many places to see I'll be occupied for many years to come just filling out all the holes in my catalog. Hopefully I'll have my trip plans in place before Feb. 1 and will let you know my schedule.

Fort Bragg, Oregon

No, it's not FB, NC. No military base for miles around. Just a small, coastal town north of the California-Oregon border. I spent a few days there exploring the local beaches. Lots to see but the weather wasn't really conducive to getting around so my catalog is a bit thin. Most of the ground was saturated and unwalkable so I had to confine my shoots to blacktop areas and turnoffs. But what I did find was really nice. Like this rocky coastline. Not sure what it's called but wow, what a beautiful area. The sea was really angry and taking panoramas like this one are very difficult when the water is tossing and turning. You have to carefully match your shot times so you get waves in roughly the same place each time or it's impossible to stitch the images together without funny breaks and transitions. What I usually do is to pick a spot where the waves are hitting a known obstacle (usually a rock sticking out of the water) and that's when I start the bracketing sequence. It works pretty well as you can see.

This is a 3 image sequence, 10 sets all told, run through Photomatix. I spent a lot of time on this particular set of images because I was testing out alternative pano stitchers and wanted to see which one did the best job. I downloaded trial copies of PTgui and Auto Pano Giga and ran the images through them along with Photoshop. I wish I could say there was a clear winner but I can't. They all had issues with the image and it was frustrating to see how they each stumbled at one point or another. Stitchers look for similar features in each image which they use as reference points during the stitch. The problem is 1) waves are not static so the stitcher struggles to find matching points on the water. It generally punts and finds references on the ground and in the sky. That leads to 2) problems when the clouds are moving relatively fast so the reference points don't really match up very well. This leads to issues on the horizon with the water not being flat ... big steps giving really funny results like a staircase. So you have to get the best you can and then go into Photoshop to correct the horizon and to fix the discontinuities in the water. It gets very nasty very fast. I've got a lot of experience with this and can fix it somewhat but I need to get one of the other stitchers because Photoshop doesn't give me access to the various images being stitched. PTgui lets me output each image so I can blend them in Photoshop if I want. APG does some serious blending internally and that's OK but it's not as easy to get to the base images. I'm still debating which one to buy (and there's another option --- Hugin which is free and open source but isn't quite as advanced as the commercial offerings but, did I mention it's free)! The commercial offerings are expensive so that's a consideration as well.

Anyway, after several weeks of messing with this image I went back to Photoshop. I had to do some tonal adjustments to the various images as some were darker than others and Photoshop doesn't do a really good job fixing those problems. Then I just messed with the various settings in PS until I got something I could live with. There's a lot of work getting this image right but I think the result is pretty good. Love the rich colors and how the water is crashing on the rocks. It's lovely and I can still feel the wind in my face as I stood on the bluff taking these images. Will definitely return soon and, this time, I get the name of the beach. Promise.

Fort Bragg, Oregon! Enjoy!

Fort Bragg - 24mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

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

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

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

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

Cape Blanco Light

Politics in America

I've always been interested in politics. I can remember watching the conventions leading up to the second term for Eisenhower. I was 12 that year if I remember correctly. It was hypnotic ... all the pomp and bluster just enthralled me. I was really hung up on the whole patriotic thing when I was a kid.

Now fast forward to this moment. We have a certifiably insane person in the White House and a building full of crooks and liars just down the street on Capital Hill. The Supreme Court is a joke and the idea of being patriotic is more like a nightmare.. I haven't voted in years because it makes no sense to even make the effort when I'm given the choice between 2 corporate bootlickers who are essentially the same except for a few cosmetic differences. I'm all for gay rights and a long list of social issues but it's really hard to focus on those when the political elites of this country are hacking away at the very roots of our most basic liberties. Because I travel around a lot I run into the police state all the time and it's very troubling. Drive around southern New Mexico or Texas and you come across BCIS checkpoints where a heavily armed border guard asks you very probing questions about who you are, where you come from and where you are going. Getting in their face is an open invitation to trouble. Did you know that there is a 200 mile wide "rights free" zone all along the border? You basically do not have your constitutionally guaranteed rights whenever you enter that zone. You are well advised to not pick up any hitch hikers in that zone as they could be illegals and you might find yourself in a cell being charged with transporting illegal immigrants. Now, maybe you think that zone just applies to the Mexico border. WRONG! It applies to the entire country and think just how many large cities are within 200 miles of a border. Most of us live in that zone and don't even know it. So far these check seem concentrated near Mexico but it wouldn't take much for them to expand. We live in a police state ... a fact I've been reminded of on many occasions when I talk to foreigners as I travel around. They are very concerned about the "in your face" presence of heavily armed cops. Even the National Park's rangers are starting to display gestapo tendencies. Something you and I should be thinking about whenever we tell someone we live in "the land of the free, the home of the brave." Neither applies I'm sorry to say.

The Fallen

I'm going to be adding a new section to this blog the next time I head back to the states. I see a lot of homeless people as I travel around and I want to start documenting their plight. I have all my camera gear and an ability to approach people as I often look like them as I drive around in my ratty clothes and beat up truck. They are in desperate straits and only a few people, like Chris Arnade, are talking about them. They need more places that are telling their stories. So look for "The Fallen" when I make my next trip to America.

Cape Blanco Light

There are lots of light houses in Oregon. I guess in the old days there was a light every 30 miles or so but many have been retired. Some are gone, some are in disrepair and a few have been turned into tourist attractions without working lights. Cape Blanco is an actual working light as far as I can tell. It was running while I was there. No one really needs them anymore as most ships have good radar and GPS so they know their locations very accurately. But in the old days they served a big purpose. As a ship navigated along the coast, it could tell it's location by finding the lights and triangulating relative to several at the same time. Each light had a distinctive flash pattern combining time and color so a ship could tell which light it was. They saved a lot of lives. It's both wonderful that some are being saved but sad when one is allowed to fall apart. The US Coast Guard mans most that are still working but the original Fresnel lenses have, for the most part, been removed as they are often broken and in poor repair and there are no shops anymore that can supply glass segments. I'll have more on this in later posts as I work through my collection of light houses from this trip.

Anyway, this is Cape Blanco Light. Beautiful isn't it. The weather was difficult but that's when I get the best pictures. I always try to show more than just the light. I think it's important to show the context for the light's function. I want people to see the hazards too so they can understand why the light exists.

Cape Blanco Light - 35mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-|NC 4.0

Joshua Tree Sunset

Cycle #3 is over...

I've been silent now for almost 3 months. I was in America most of the time, doing my normal spring traveling. I had an agenda, as I outlined in previous posts, and most of that when in the garbage. I'll cover, in more detail, most of my trip in future posts but do want to give an overview of the adventure here. I guess the best way to characterize this trip is ... what a mess! Those rains I talked about got me big time and much of the early part of my trip was spent driving in downpours and sitting in parking lots watching water drops run down my truck's windows. It was horrendously bad for the first 6 weeks. There were landslides that closed all of Big Sur and much of the area around Stinson Beach north of San Francisco. There were also closure on the bluffs above the Golden Gate Bridge so it was almost impossible to get any images from that vantage point. I was also snowed out of Crater Lake in Oregon and much of the coast there was so wet it was almost impossible to take pictures. I drove almost 12K miles but got only 8K images to show for all that work. There were days where I didn't even take the cameras out of their bag. It was just so miserable. I had to abandon part of my trip up the coast, leaving at Portland instead of Seattle, because everything was so wet. I'd look at the weather forecast and see 5 days of rain, 2 days of good weather and another 5 days of rain. It was really depressing. So I spent a few days in the Portland area, mostly in the Colombia River Gorge, and then headed south toward places where I knew the weather would be more accommodating. I spent a few days in Yosemite and another few days in Death Valley where I and my gear had a chance to dry out. But even Yosemite was a problem as rt. 120 from the north was closed due to a road collapse. On the good side, the closure cut way back on visitors to the park and I was able to get campsites for all the nights I was there but they had lost all internet access so we had to get up early every day and stand in line to pay for a site. These disruptions were a constant in all the national parks. This year, for some reason, things just didn't seem to be working very well. It was very disruptive not only for my photography but for my communications with my family. I was often out of touch for days at a time which caused my wife and daughter great anxiety. But somehow I persevered and finished the trip on May 30th. Flew from Albuquerque to LA to Moscow to Simferopol in just under 24 hours, arriving late in the evening on the 31st. I've been home for just over a week and am still struggling to acclimate to the 10 hour time change. Flying west to east is really hard, even when you are young and healthy but is brutal for my old bones. I suspect it will be another week before I can sleep through the night and stay awake during the day.

I did meet some interesting people along the way. My wife had advised me to not talk about living in Russia but I didn't think most Americans really cared about my living arrangements. So everyone who asked that basic question ... "Where are you from?" ... got the full details of my life in Crimea. I think only one person was upset by that. Most people thought that was interesting and some even wanted to know more. I spent lots of time talking about America and Trump and what was happening to our country. Can't say I talked to even one Trump supporter. The vast majority thought he was crazy and out of control and couldn't quite understand how we had elected such a clown. They also, almost to a person, had nothing kind to say about Clinton. The universal consensus was both of them were worthless. That gave me some hope for the future but not a great deal.

On the technical side, my gear worked like it was supposed to. I had zero mechanical issues with my cameras and relatively minor issues with the truck. This year was emissions testing time and the truck failed due to it's throwing errors out of the emissions system. That required a trip to the repair shop where they found the EGR system wasn't working right. Turns out a hose had gone brittle and cracked, allowing air to leak into the vacuum system that controlled the valve. Also had an issue with the main drive pulley on the serpentine belt so that had to be replaced. Cost almost $400 but the old gal ran much better afterwards. Also had a punctured tire, probably when I was in Page, AZ, and a slow leak. I had picked up a nail somewhere and it had badly damaged the steel belts so the tire had to be replaced. That was another $79. But considering how much driving I do and some of the miserable places I take that truck, I can't complain about this too loudly. It is 17 years old and some things do wear out unfortunately. I suspect I'll have some major repairs to undertake next year too. All part of the process.

Made some preliminary contacts to begin the commercial side of my business. Found a framing shop/gallery in Albuquerque that has tentatively agreed to sell my stuff. I was going to get that started this trip but other issues (later) got in the way so it has to wait  until the spring. Also had an interesting encounter with SmugMug, the image hosting website, that I'll talk about more in another post. It was an interesting experience for sure.

Anyway, that's the trip in a nutshell. There was a great deal of frustration this time, both with the weather and with all the roadblocks that are being thrown up against people who work and live out of their vehicles. Some states are more tolerant of this lifestyle than others and the most draconian will surprise you. I'll devote an entire post to this issue as I think it's important. A lifestyle is being strangled by those who demand conformity.

Joshua Tree Sunset

One of my first stops was in Joshua Tree NP near LA. I'd always planned to stop there but it was just too out of the way to divert for until this year. I made a conscious effort to go there as my cousin raved about the place. After several missed turns and one or two diversions, I arrived at the park. It is a very interesting place for sure. The signature draw is the Joshua Tree, a desert tree that is unusual and very ... ugly. Can't say I find them all that wonderful to photograph directly but I did some experimenting with back lighting at sunset to get some acceptable images. There are also lots of interesting rock formations and, if one looks carefully enough, lots of interesting plants that fly below the radar. Today's image is one of those.

The first day I was there I spent much of the day just wandering around several of the major attractions. I was scoping the place out, looking for interesting angles and images. I though about photographing the rock formations but generally find they don't translate too well into usable images. You need something more organic to generate interest. Anyway, I was wandering around among the rocks and started to notice that many plants were growing in cracks and crevices and created very impressive contrasts between the stone and the green needles. Rocks in Joshua Tree of very strange ... they look like they formed out of shells of dead marine creatures. They were very rough and give an amazing texture that I though would contrast well against some of the plants. This was my idea at that point. I kept wandering around until I found exactly what I was looking for. There was a pinon tree, very old, growing in a large crack in a big rock. It had been bonsai'd, stunted by the lack of water and nutrition, so was quite small and yet very old. The trunk was gnarled and twisted, giving the impression that this was a tree that had some serious history. And yet, it was only a bit larger than my camera and tripod. It was an interesting setup (see below) as the background didn't really contribute

to the image, being composed mostly of scrub brush and dead stuff. I had to get just the right angle so the tree was highlighted against the sky and was framed by the setting sun's yellow light. You can see the lengths I went to setting up the shot. Fortunately, the sun cooperated as did the sky, giving me just enough clouds to get a nice presentation.

I took a long series of bracketed shots as the sun set, looking for just that perfect combination of light and shadow. I probably sat there for an hour waiting for things to come together. And, fortunately, they did. The image below is the final result. I love the contrasts and how shadow and light interplay. My cousins thought the tree was much bigger and were amazed when I sent them the setup picture. There's not a lot of processing here, just HDR in Photomatix and finishing in Lightroom. I may run these images through RayaPro, the suite of actions for Photoshop from Jimmy McIntyre, once I get my feet wet with that process. He shy's away from HDR because of the distortions it creates and uses blending to create some spectacular images. I'll give it try in a few weeks and post the results here for comparison. Anyway, here's "Joshua Tree Sunset" for your viewing pleasure. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it.

Joshua Tree Sunset - 23mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Kolob Canyon

The Animal Kingdom...

We have a lot of animals in our family. My wife is a real animal lover and she has a hard time keeping the total number of creatures below what is unmanageable. At present we have 4 cats and 2 dogs in our small flat (on top of 3 humans). As I wrote in an earlier post, we lost our beloved Cocker Spaniel earlier this year and there was a gaping hole in our life. Well, this last summer, my wife filled that hole with a new Russian Toy Terrier. A very small dog in stature but with a huge personality. She's quickly becoming the boss of the animal kingdom. She loves to chase the cats and to play with our huge guard dog (the Crimea is a bit lawless at the moment and there are a lot of break ins). It's comical to see this little dog, all of about 5 lbs, 'fighting' with this 150 lb monster. Holly, the big dog, is very gentle with her but still, because of the size difference, occasionally steps on the little guy. As for the cats, well, they seem to be adjusting to being chased constantly by the 'boss' although one cat, Puma, isn't all that enamored with her and tends to give her a whack whenever the chasing gets too aggressive. Sometimes it's like the Keystone Cops with animals flying all over the house as the big game of 'tag' rages around us. One big happy family most of the time but there are days...

Kolob Canyon

There's more to Zion NP than most people realize. I'd say 95% of the visitors confine their visit to the main attractions in the south end of the park but they're missing some really spectacular scenery. The northern park comprises Kolob Canyon and is it ever amazing. There's only one road that winds up into the mountains from the small ranger station. As you climb higher the canyon comes into view and you are treated to these amazing rock formations and butts that soar high above. I would strongly suggest taking the time to drive north up Rt. 15 and visit this wonderful place. You won't be disappointed.

I took this image from the last overlook on the canyon road. It's looking east. There were storms in the area and that always gives dramatic views and amazing colors. This is a 5 image HDR run through Photomatix and finished in Lightroom. I use Photomatix a lot when needed but I've been pulling away from the more dramatic 'grunge' effects as I've become more confident in my photography. These days I limit my adjustments to tweaking the 'black' and 'white' sliders and then moving the 'strength' slider until I get the image I want. The main idea is to let Photomatix combine the various exposures into one tonemapped image and then use Lightroom (and Photoshop if needed) to correct any issues that emerge. This seems to give me the results I really want without introducing unpleasant artifacts that can destroy the photo. As users of HDR already know, it's very easy to go too far and create images that are overblown and unattractive. I'm trying to project the emotions I feel as I look at the landscape ... not to create some surreal alien landscape that offends the viewer. I also am running some image sets directly into Photoshop where I combine them to get the best presentation. This is especially true when I get photos that have a lot of contrast which seems to drive Photomatix crazy. Direct sunlight into the lens (or filtered through the clouds) seems to be a real issue for Photomatix and I'm forced to find different ways to get around this problem. I think it's really an issue with the way tonemapping works so there's no easy way to get around it. It's all part of being a serious photographer.

Kolob Canyon - 35mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Yosemite Valley

Russian Drinking...

I talked about Russian drinking in my last post and just wanted to touch on a ancillary issue that's become a big story in the press here. Last week 48 people died from drinking methanol laced solutions ... all in one town. Turns out the cost of legit (really not legit but at least drinkable) alcohol has gone through the roof lately, mostly due to increases in taxes. The state is trying, laughably, to cut down on the huge issue of alcoholism in this part of the world. Of course, the ever resourceful Russians just move to other 'alcohol' based solutions, some of which are deadly. This latest incident involved bottles of 'skin tonic' which was basically all alcohol. 93% according to the label. In the past the alcohol was ethanol but, for some reason (probably because methanol is cheaper), the maker made a substitution to the toxic alcohol. There were warnings on the label but no one here pays any attention to the warnings. They all 'know' that the contents are safe. For a significantly reduced price people are able to get plastered. But this time it was very fatal. The government is making all the usual huffing noises about regulations and whatnot but the fact is there isn't much they can do. The people who make these elixirs will just move on to some other delivery vehicle. It was reported that people were actually buying 'legit' bottles of Jim Beam and Jack Daniels which were bootleg and made with methanol. Imagine paying a huge price for a bottle of Jack only to have it kill you. That's how bad it's become. Some reports say up to 70% of all the liquor sold in Russia is bootleg and a lot of it is very dangerous. No wonder people load up with alcohol at the duty free shops before heading home. It's just common sense in this place.

Yosemite Valley

If you take the road to Glacier Point, the first stop is Tunnel View, just before you enter the long tunnel heading west. There's a grand view of the valley and the overlook is always crowded with photographers doing their thing. I really was happy this day because the sky was loaded with low storm clouds and the valley was aglow in the most beautiful diffuse light. The clouds were just below the mountain peaks so there was some added mystery to be experienced. I spent several hours at the lookout, taking a huge batch of images. I know I won't use most of them but pictures are cheap these days and I want to have a large selection to choose from.

In this image, I'm looking to the east as the sun gets low in the sky behind me. The bright glow mid-image is the sun hitting some high clouds and reflecting back. To the left, the large granite monolith is El Capitaan while to the right is Cathedral Rocks and Bridalveil Falls. One thing to notice is the large number of dead pine trees. I heard an estimate that up to 100 million pines are dead in the High Sierras due to the 5 year drought and the number is growing at a frightening pace. Not only are they unsightly but there is a real fire hazard from all the dead wood. Really hope they get some relief this winter or things could get real dicey come summer.

This is a 5 image sequence minimally processed through Photomatix and then finished in Lightroom. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I take back an earlier comment about how Yosemite was better seen as B&W. This is really an amazing image and I wouldn't change a thing.

Yosemite Valley - 35mm, f/6.3,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Yosemite Valley Mystery

The Holidays Cometh...

Living in Russia we don't really celebrate Christmas ... New Years is the big draw in this part of the world. Lots of parties (and drinking) and fireworks (legal up to the biggest bombs you can find) and did I say drinking? Alcoholism is a big problem in this place and almost impossible to address. Kids start drinking at a very early age (especially boys) and it continues throughout their lives. In the summer it's non-stop, especially in the play area outside our building where the teenagers get together every night and drink until 3-4 am. The ground is always littered with discarded beer and vodka bottles. Of course, by the time these kids leave school they are already well on the way to being alcoholics. It's a huge issue but no one has the guts to address it.

On the other hand we don't have the feeding frenzy of buying tons of worthless crap to give to everyone. They do give gifts but most are small and inexpensive. It's the thought that counts, not the size. After years of battling my first wife's family over the obscene level of giving it's really nice to not think about this mess.

Yosemite Valley Mystery

I was in Yosemite early this cycle (end of April) so there were still storms in the area. One morning I spent time in Cook's Meadow near the visitor's center and was fortunate to have low clouds sweeping across the surrounding peaks. I really love how the clouds seems to cradle the rock and isolate it from the rest of the mountain. I was fortunate this trip to have many such encounters with clouds and they completely changed the feel of my images. Very dramatic effects are possible when clouds make an appearance.

This is a 5 image sequence, run through Photomatix and finished in Lightroom. There ss a bit of cropping to really center the image on the vertical rock face but nothing major. I just love these photos ... they give me a great thrill. Hope you feel the same way.

Yosemite Valley - 116mm(1.6 crop),f/11,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Mono Lake Tufa

Update

It's been almost 3 months since I came back to Crimea and a few things are becoming clear. The love affair between the folks here and the Russian government is ... let's be blunt ... on the rocks. Prices have gone through the roof so bad that people from Moscow and St. Petersburg are complaining about how much it costs to vacation here. Food prices are obscene and the government keeps raising the costs of utilities and other fees to the point where it's not even funny. People can't afford these prices and so many of our friends are struggling right now. It is now obvious that the crooks are in control of the economy and much of the life here. We have an election coming up in September but no one expects anything to change as the ruling party ... Russian Unity ... will not allow anyone else to gain power. I'm not sure where this goes but it has to improve or some serious conflicts are almost a given.

Adding to this irritation is the ever worsening asthma. Despite using a very strong steroid inhaler I'm still chronically short of breath. This leads to fatigue and a lack of desire to really do anything. Anyone who has asthma knows what I mean. I'm sleeping 10 hours a night and exhausted by early afternoon after only a few hours of exertion. Not sure what I can do ... can't afford the obscene prices the vulture drug companies are charging for some of their more exotic inhalers ... even here in Russia where the government controls prices to some extent. I'm really concerned about what happens once the summer is over and the fall allergens start popping up. Last year my problems started in the fall and got progressively worse into the winter but this year I'm already beyond where I was last year. Contemplating an early exit from Crimea (maybe as early as October) and not returning until late in the spring next year (if ever but that's another story for another time).

Mono Lake Tufa

Mono Lake is such an interesting place. I've written about it before so I won't rehash all that. This year it was very stormy around the Sierra Nevada Mountains so I got a very different look. I once again visited the south tufa field and spent a whole day wandering around the various structures looking for some new and interesting compositions. Much of the day was clear but in the afternoon storm clouds came rolling over the mountains to the west and it really looked like we might get some serious rain or even snow. I'd hoped to do some astro photography that night using the tufa as my foreground element but it soon became clear that wasn't in the cards. Hard to see the Milky Way when the sky is full of clouds. But I didn't want to go empty-handed. So I set up the camera and took some interesting pictures of the tufa and the storm clouds. Didn't have any big expectations for the shoot but I've come to understand that sometimes the camera sees things that your eyes don't. This is one of those cases. The colors and shading in the clouds are a perfect complement to the green waters of the lake and the snow covered mountains in the background. And if you look very carefully you'll see the sunset far in the distance ... a subtle hint of red on the clouds. That was the extent of the sunset but still, isn't the sky amazing? Taken with the Sanyang 14mm f/2.8 lens I bought this year. Takes very reasonable picture on the whole, don't you think?

Mono Lake Tufa - 14mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Death Valley from a different perspective

Update again...

It's taken almost a month but I'm finally able to get through the day without falling asleep. Not sure what was wrong but it seems to have passed. I'm working on my images (and videos) and learning a whole lot of new stuff. I've got a ton of new software which is both a help and a hindrance to getting things finished. I now have 3 new packages dedicated to video ... DaVinci Resolve, Fusion and Nuke ... and they are lots of fun and a huge challenge. I've been working especially with Fusion which is a high-end compositing program for making really impressive sequences. The first project was to take the Point Vicente Lighthouse in LA and combine it with a sunset taken at the same location to get a really stunning sunset behind the lighthouse. It took me over a week to get everything as I wanted since I had zero experience with the software and not much experience with compositing. It was a lot of work to get everything finished. I had to make a series of masks in Photoshop that isolated the lighthouse and a palm tree from the sky background ... 136 to be exact ... one at a time. That took 3 days of careful work. I also had to work around some limitations in the free version of the software. They limited 'output' to UHD (3840 x 2160) but I was working with DSLR frames that were much bigger. Despite trying to output UHD at the end, the software kept refusing to render the final images because at intermediate stages in the node processor the image size was much bigger. So I had to downsize my base images to UHD and even then had to do some fancy footwork to get the final images to output. Forcing me to downsize my initial images is really a bummer for me as I want to work with maximum resolution up to the very end. I'm not the only person upset by this and there's some griping on the forums about this limitation. I'm sure they will eventually change as getting this software into the hands of many amateurs who will say good things about it is important for them to compete against Nuke, the current standard.

Anyway, that sequence is almost done. I'm just tweaking things a bit to get the best video I can. I want it to be spectacular as it will be one of the lead sequences in my video. Only the best make it as I'm hoping this is a showcase for my work.

Death Valley from a different perspective

I was in Death Valley twice this trip. First time, in April, I wanted to take some astro sequences but the moon was full and not many stars appeared. To get the best star shots you need absolute dark and a full moon isn't going to get you there so I left and went on to LA. A few weeks later I came back to a new moon and things were much better. I spent a few days in the valley, sleeping in my truck and letting my camera run unattended. Not too many people wandering around in the desert at night although the hazards aren't all that bad so the equipment is very safe. No big, nasty animals out on the salt where I took my milky way shots. I did see a small coyote in Furnace Creek (he was walking down the main road in the morning, just ambling along at his own pace and didn't give me a second glance as he walked by) and a small red fox out near Bad Water but he was too hot to give a damn about me. Biggest problems are on the sand dunes with sidewinders and scorpions at night.

Last night in the valley I wanted to get a panorama of the entire valley from Dante's Overlook. You basically leave the park heading east toward Vegas until you see signs for the overlook to the right. Take a narrow, twisting, steep road 13 miles or so, passing several commercial mining operations and a very steep final climb of 15 degrees, until you get to the overlook. The whole valley is spread out below including the salt flats. It's a very impressive sight. As usual I waited until near sunset and then found a good spot for my pano. The sky had some interesting clouds but it was pretty obvious a red sunset was not in the offing. So I did what I could and took several sequences at different locations. This particular image shows the north end of the valley, from the salt flat to the sand dunes. It was a blue evening so what you see is what I saw. I could have warmed the image a bit but that's not true to the colors that were present and it looked fake.

Death Valley - 24mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Capitol Reef

Starting but...

I've been home 2 weeks now and, surprisingly, am still plagued by exhaustion. I'm sleeping a lot more than I should, much to the consternation of my wife and daughter. I just can't seem to get back on Moscow time no matter what I do. I've probably had one night of good sleep so far but most I get maybe 4 hours and wake up just as the sun comes up. Really not sure what's causing this but it's a major headache. I've been using a new asthma inhaler which sort of works but I still find myself short of breath much of the time. Maybe that's the issue ... the new med may be making me sleepy and I may be chronically short of oxygen. Oh well...

As for my processing, it's proceeding slowly. As I feared, many of my images are not all that impressive. I knew I had an issue with holding steady ... I've discovered that my sense of balance isn't what it used to be and that really messes with holding still during longer exposures. Even with stabilization turned on I find too many images are blurred and worthless. Add to that I wasn't really able to get in a groove with the new camera and too many of my images are not in focus or the exposures are wrong. Not sure yet what the problem was/is but I need to figure it out by next year. Probably just need to get time with the instrument so I can learn it's sweet spots. Really hope it's not the camera.

Photomatix & chromatic aberrations

Chromatic aberrations (CA) are the bane of  every photographer's work. They are a fact of life, an issue with every lens ever made. Because glass bends different colors of light at different angles, there are always issues with color fringing. This is especially an issue when an image goes from bright to dark. I'm sure you've seen them if you look at your pictures close enough. Photomatix, the HDR software, has the ability to remove CA but there's a problem. In some images, especially when there is a very strong transition from bright sun to heavy shade and it's very sharp, you tend to get bleeding from the bright area into the dark. This is an acute issue at higher f-numbers. Because of the way Photomatix works, it merges and tone-maps the various exposures before attempting to remove CA and that's an issue. If you have any of this bleeding in your brighter exposures, the resulting merged image has a very messy transition between light and dark and the CA algorithm can't handle the transition. That means you have an ugly fringe along the transition and it's really noticeable. You can't really fix this after the merge. So, to remove the issue you need to run a CA pass on the photos BEFORE putting them into Photomatix. I use the excellent CA in Lightroom which is available in the Develop module under "Lens Corrections". If you do this first and then use Photomatix the problem disappears. Check out the light/dark transition in today's image ... middle of the photo on the left side. No CA to be found but boy was there an ugly mess there without correction.

Capitol Reef

I had never heard of this national park until I saw it on the Utah map. It's been around for a long time but gets very little attention. It's really a hiker's park as there aren't a lot of things to see from the road. I also didn't have a lot of time there as the campground was full and there weren't a lot of places to pull off and sleep. All parks discourage your sleeping in the observation areas although I do on occasion break this rule in some of the larger parks. I even get a 'wink' from the rangers as they tell me it's not allowed. But Capital Reef was very adamant that I couldn't sleep in the park. So I decided to find a good spot for a sunset shoot and then move on. Little did I know that 'moving on' would entail driving for several hours on very dark mountain roads to find a rest area. Saw way too many large elk standing at the road's edge ... all it would have taken was for one to jump out in my path and I would have been ... literally ... roadkill. Driving at night in the mountains is not a good idea.

After driving up and down the only major park road I found a spot just south of the campground. These huge vertical walls just screamed out to be part of the image and the road had just the right curve to make it an interesting compositional element. I was fortunate that the sky cooperated with a massive, dark cloud bank in just the right spot. And the sky was completely open to the west so the sun could make it's contribution to the overall look. I parked and waited. As the show progressed I kept taking 5 image sequences, spaced 1 ev apart. It took a while but was worth it. The resulting image is the essence of Capitol Reef ... wild and utterly amazing.

Capitol Reef Sunset - 16mm,f/18,HDR,ISO 100,copyright CC BY-NC 4.0

Grand Canyon Yaki Point Storm

It's Been a Wonderful Trip ... NOT

As most of you know by now, I spend part of my year in Crimea. A few years ago, just after the Maidan disaster in Ukraine and after the corrupt president, Viktor Yanukovitch left the country, Russia came to Crimea and basically took us from Ukraine. There was a referendum but no one the west accepted the result. Despite this contention, Russia annexed Crimea in the spring of 2014. The west responded with crippling sanctions that cut the Crimea off from all international banking including Visa/MasterCard, Western Union and SWIFT. But, until this last trip I was always able to access my accounts in my financial advisor (who shall remain hidden as I don't want any trouble). Not so this time. I found I was locked out from all my accounts, unable to use my ATM card even for purchases in the US and unable to do anything in my IRA. I got home with a few bucks in my pocket and a big itch in my trigger finger. I went to my advisor's local office and they told me that due to my being in Crimea and actually "living" there they had the right to essentially confiscate my money and there was nothing I could do about it. The conditions for returning the money were horrendous to say the least and a circular firing squad with no resolution.

The big instigator of this problem is a little known US office called the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC for short). OFAC monitors and enforces all the sanctions on all the countries presently in the US doghouse. That includes North Korea, Cuba (still), half the Middle East, other assorted bad boys and Crimea. OFAC sets the rules for any financial transactions that transpire between the US and the sanctioned country. No two situations are the same. But, and it's a big but, my financial advisor wanted to apply the same rules to all sanctions and wanted to apply the most draconian rules to all of them. Now I know, from personal experience, that the OFAC sanctions on Crimea allow me access to my money when I'm not in Crimea and also allow me to transfer money to my family for personal expenses. Only business and 'charitable contributions' are not allowed. I tried, for 4 days, to get this across to my advisor but he refused to comply or even talk to OFAC for guidance. He held that it was within his right to enforce rules that were more stringent than the OFAC guidelines and there was nothing I could do. His instructions were so ludicrous that I won't even repeat them here but the essence was my wife and daughter had to leave Crimea. Not going to happen in my lifetime so the money was trapped. In desperation, I sent an email to OFAC explaining the situation and requesting their help in solving the problem. They came back with the same stipulations I outlined above. I gave this email to my advisor and waited. It took 2 days for them to get in touch with OFAC and get told, rather forcefully I'm understand, to cut out the crap and give me access to my money. That they did and I'm in the process of moving all my assets to another location. So pox on my financial advisor for being a total jerk. If you're nice to me I might even tell you who it was. One of the big boys I'm afraid.

Grand Canyon Yaki Point Storm

After 5 days of beating my head against a brick wall I finally got my money. I was exhausted and needed someplace that would lift my spirits. That place is and will always be the Grand Canyon. I have a few friends there and I love the beauty and serenity of the canyon. So I packed up all my gear and headed west. Due to the El Nino warming, the weather in the West has been a lot wetter and somewhat colder. Last year it was very dry but this trip we had lots of rain and cold winds. Didn't matter really. It was just great to be there. I visited some old photo sites and found a whole new look due to the clouds. One such place was Yaki Point, a few miles to the east of the main encampment. This is a beautiful overlook and the heavy clouds gave it a very different feel. I shot this during the daytime but the image is still very dramatic because the sun is being filtered by all the cover. I like it very much and hope you do too.

Grand Canyon Yaki Point - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Zion West Entrance

Trip on Hold...

It's not been a good 2 weeks. 12 days ago I was getting the kid ready for her shower when I noticed a black streak across the center of my left eye. Having seen this before I knew immediately what had happened ... a vein in my eye had ruptured and blood was flowing into the fluid inside my eyeball. I had this happen to my right eye 2 years ago. Within seconds my eye was filled with floating debris and I knew that my trip home was in jeopardy. I informed the wife who immediately went ballistic and then got crazy. After she settled down it was decided I needed to see the eye doctor the very next day. After about 30 seconds the doctor made the decision that we needed to see the laser surgeon and get the veins sealed before the bleeding got worse and I lost the eye. So, after a very nervous weekend we went to get the procedure done. It's very uncomfortable and painful ... feels like someone is driving a needle into your retina. The surgeon directs a powerful green laser beam through your cornea and focuses it on the back of your eye. He literally vaporizes the tissue, sealing the vein and stopping the blood flow. In 15 minutes he was done and I was sent home to recuperate. I'm not allowed to do any heavy lifting or any activity that might raise my blood pressure or put any strain on the repaired vessels. So, travelling is now out of the question for a while. Last time this happened I was told no plane flights for at least 2 months. That means I could be stuck here until at least the end of March. Now, I many not actually stay here that long but I'm probably not leaving here until the end of February. I have to get home to fix some financial issues pretty soon under any circumstances and I'm still having real problems with my breathing. But all my planning is out the window for now. Stay tuned and I'll update you as I know more.

Zion West Entrance

Much of the action in Zion happens on the west side of the park. The visitor's center, the museum, the campgrounds and the valley all sit there. There's some spectacular scenery in the east but it's not as organized or as concentrated. People tend to congregate in the west and venture out by car to see the rest of the park.

My first night in the park campground, I took a short drive to the west gate. I wanted to get a really nice sunset and, as I've pointed out in previous posts, much of the park is in shadow long before the sun goes down. So I drove to the parking area just outside the entrance and walked across the street to a bluff that looked to the east. I wanted to get the line of peaks just as the sun was hitting their bases so they were somewhat isolated from their surroundings. This is an HDR panorama. You can just see the Zion entrance sign in the lower left. Out of view at the bottom is the parking lot and entrance road. To the extreme right is the Watchman, a famous feature in the park. I'm sure the other peaks have names but I don't remember them.

Beautiful, isn't it? I hope to see them again if, and when, this next trip happens. Care to join me?

Zion West Entrance - 31mm(1.6 crop), f/25, HDR, ISO 100, license CC BY-NC 4.0

Point Reyes Light

Further Update...

Unfortunately, still not sure what happens with trip. Had talk with wife about it and she is resisting very much. Seems my asthma doesn't matter as much as her inconvenience. I'm still going and it will, eventually, come to a shove on my part but I'll keep trying for a few more days to get it done with diplomacy. I need to get a few months stateside to find out what's happening and to let the dry desert air work on cleaning out my sick lungs. There's no other way, short of very strong and dangerous medicines, to do that. I much prefer the dry air, thank you very much.

Point Reyes Light

It's a long drive from rt. 1 out to the Point Reyes lighthouse and the road isn't all that much fun. There are many dairy farms along the road and one has to be aware of all the cows. Plus, the winds whip up sand and make the road dangerous along with it not always being a safe road with lots of blind corners and whatnot. After all that effort, you arrive at the parking lot below the light. There's nothing there but a driveway leading upwards and a very long and exhausting climb. By the time you reach the top, you're exhausted and hoping there's something worthwhile at the end. Imagine how disappointing it is when you finally reach the end and find ... this.

Point Reyes Light - 121mm(1.6 crop),f/22,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Not exactly a classic example of lighthousing, is it? The explanation is simple enough ... there was no need for a tall base given the light was already hundreds of feet above the water. And, according to the explanation, the trip to the light by mule team took a looooong time and it just didn't make any sense to waste all that energy on frills. So they built a minimal light, powered by coal and steam. It did it's job for a very long time and that's why it's famous. Add to all this the light was closed, in the late afternoon, so we (there were several of us who made the arduous climb) were forced to take pictures from an overlook several hundred feet above the light. It was a gray day (fog again) and colors weren't forthcoming so I had to make due with what I was given. This is a 3 image HDR and I worked very hard to find color in the final composition but there's just not much there. If I push too hard the whole image goes to hell and that's not going to please anyone. So you see a nice blue sign (bottom center) and some pretty rust streaks (on the light) and a bit of oxidized copper (roof vent on the attached building) and that's it. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. That's life for the photographer. That's why it's so hard to get that amazing image that pops. Everything has to be perfect and all too often it's not. But still, it's an OK picture, isn't it? At least the composition is good.

Vermilion Cliffs Excitement

Trip Delayed...

Due to some family issues my trip home has been delayed for a few weeks. I'm now intending to leave around February 17th and return to Crimea at the end of April. That's a few weeks shorter than I'd planned but sometimes that happens. I'm in the process of developing my itinerary and will post it to this blog and my trip map when it's finished. I won't be rushing all over the west like last cycle but will concentrate on Southern California, Arizona and some spots in New Mexico. Still a very aggressive schedule but not nearly as much driving. I blew through 10K miles last time and that was far more than I'd expected. All those side trips to find a McD for internet access and getting out of town to find a place to sleep really piled up the miles. I'm hoping I won't have to do that as much this time as my schedule has me working at night and sleeping during the day. I would expect I can find many places to sleep when the sun is shining and won't be hassled by the cops as much. We'll see.

Vermilion Cliffs Excitement

I applied for a permit to get into the 'Wave' at Vermilion Cliffs but was unsuccessful ... over 650 applications representing almost a 1000 people fighting for 10 slots. The odds were just too against me. I may, if I'm in the area, swing by the BLM office there and see if I can get in during the daily lottery. They have 10 spots open for that and I'll probably have better luck as you have to be physically present for the drawing ... and the office is really out of the way. We'll see.

Anyway, I really like this area even without the Wave as it's truly spectacular. I spent a day last cycle wandering the slot canyon network (over 10 miles of canyons ... dwarfs Antelope Canyon big time) and took a huge number of pictures. I've only posted one so far and that's a shame as there are so many beautiful formations to record. I may go back even if I don't win the lottery just to wander the right branch of the canyon heading south ... I didn't even touch that one during my last trip. Hopefully it won't rain again and I won't get stuck in the mug like I did last trip. You really need a big tire off-road vehicle to make sure you can get in and out on the crappy dirt road they have there. Sometimes the BLM takes the 'wilderness' designation a bit too seriously and that causes big troubles. Every year some people die in the 'wilderness' because they can't find their way back out due to a lack of trail markers. If you don't have a GPS tracker it's really easy to get lost up there. And some people shouldn't even go there as their health isn't good enough to endure the strains of hiking the steep terrain.

I took this image on the dirt road south of the parking lot for the Wave. I really love the colors in this part of the Great Basin. You can see a large pallet of minerals in the many colors (and layers) in the lower half of the image. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was low in the west (over my shoulder) so the colors really pop. And it's like this the entire 30 mile drive! You want to stop every 100 feet and take pictures. I only saw one car in the entire time I was making the drive. If you are in the area I highly recommend you take the time to see this. You can park in any of the trail heads and walk in as far as you want. Just be aware of the heat (especially in summer) and the potential for rain as some of the canyons can fill up with runoff very quickly. You won't be disappointed I promise.

Vermilion Cliffs Excitement - 93mm(1.6 crop),f/22,1/13 sec,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point

Some Ideas for Cycle #2

I'm in the planning stage for cycle #2 which starts, unofficially, around the end of January. I'm intending to spend all of February in and around LA, shooting timelapse and video for my project and taking pictures for my portfolio. I expect lots of rain as El Nino is building to a historic level so plan to see lots of wet views and images. Hopefully I won't get too sick while there but who knows. I'm also looking at visiting as many parks in CA as I can, depending on the snow load and how well they are kept open. I'll then spend some time in AZ/UT, visiting places I went during cycle #2, including Zion, Vermilion Cliffs, Grand Canyon and maybe a few more. Depends on how much snow they have and how much time I have. I'm considering applying for a permit to hike into "the wave" which is something I really want to do given time and a favorable outcome of my application. I'll finish up with a few locations in NM. Expect to return around the end of April although that could adjust depending on how much I still want to do and how much energy I have. I'm hoping I can take upwards of 3-4 terabytes of data which should keep me busy for the rest of the year. It should be an exciting trip.

Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point

One afternoon, about the middle of my stay in Yosemite, I took the long drive up to Glacier Point. From this overlook one can see the entire valley and the view is spectacular. Most of the park is visible from this high vantage point and there is so much to see. Of course, you can see half dome and the waterfall but you also see the high Sierra mountains. The view really does take your breath away.

I took this as the sun slid below the horizon and only half dome and the high mountains are still illuminated. Yosemite village is in the valley below, to the left of the picture. At the center bottom you can just see the parking lot for one of the hotels. Yosemite Valley is straight ahead, to the left of half dome. This is a glacial valley, it's sides polished smooth by the massive glaciers from the last ice age as they slowly slid down the valley and then melted. It has the classic "U" shape although the bottom has been filled in over the years with wash and landslides so the valley is flat but scientific studies (using oil exploration rigs) found the rounded bottom a glacial polished valley must have. This is an HDR panorama shot from the extreme corner of the overlook facing to the northeast.

As I pointed out in a previous entry, it's difficult to get really stunning color photos in Yosemite because the granite is all gray. Compare this with my pictures from Zion or Bryce and you see what I mean. The iron rich sandstone from the Great Basin gives the whole area a very warm and inviting hue that is lacking in Yosemite. Only the amazing rock formations and the high mountains make Yosemite really special. And it's close proximity to LA and SF guarantees a steady stream of visitors.

For comparison, I've included both a color and B&W image. You can see why so many iconic images from Yosemite are done without color. By removing all color you're forced to see the amazing shapes and contours that define the valley. Maybe I should leave this image B&W. What do you think?

Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Yosemite Valley from Glacier Point(B&W) - 16mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0

Mono Lake Tufa

Some Semblance of Normalcy...

After a week of mostly darkness we finally seem to have turned the corner. 2 days ago they turned the lights on at 8:30 and left them on. We still are lacking elevators which is a severe hardship but at least we don't need to sit in the dark and can watch some TV when we want (and when the cable is working which is sometimes). We also have heat at least part of the day (it's getting cold now with temperatures just above freezing and raw winds blowing from the north and west) but almost no hot water so our electric backup boiler is getting a good workout. We've almost returned to what qualifies as 'normal' around here. Of course, the whole thing is held together with spit, tape and bailing wire and could fall apart at any time but it's a step in the right direction. Amazing how being deprived of something for a while makes one grateful for even the smallest of favors.

Mono Lake Tufa

This is another shot of the famous tufa at Mono Lake. I've already talked about them so I'll just add one additional fact ... if the lake returns to the level mandated by the court settlement between the lake and LA water district these will mostly disappear under the water. With the ongoing drought in CA that may never happen but that's the plan. So enjoy the picture while you can.

These formations lie to the west of the main grouping and I had to use my telephoto to take this image. It's a composition of a large number (110) of portrait HDR shots stitched together with Photomatix and Photoshop. Final adjustments were made in Lightroom. Amazing formations which, unfortunately, are disintegrating as the engine that made them has been cut off by the drought and the falling lake level.

Mono lake Tufa - 200mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100, license CC BY-NC 4.0

Point Estero Sunset

A Few Updates...

The spayed female has, to some extent, returned to her old self. She was just in pain and doing what cats do in that condition. She's still walking a bit gingerly but has started coming out of hiding and is interacting with the other cats. she's sitting on the window of my office as I type and watching me intently. Think she'll make it.

The anticipated clash between the West and Russia seems to be cooling. Russia is pounding the hell out of Syria right now and working with France and even America to form some type of coalition to do battle with ISIS. Not sure that's the best way to defeat these fanatics but if all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail. We'll see how things work out (or not) going forward.

Point Estero Sunset

As I was driving north toward San Francisco I came across Point Estero. Just south of Big Sur it's a nice photo spot overlooking the ocean. I got there later in the day and decided to see if there were any interesting spots. It's a several mile long overlook with paths so it wasn't really very hard to walk along the cliff until I found what I wanted. Met a local who walked there every day and we talked a bit about California and what's happening in the country. I was watching the sky as we talked and was disappointed to see yet another fog layer forming. In this part of the world, fog usually doesn't come all the way down to the ground but hovers a few thousand feet up so it just tops the coastal mountains. You can get some interesting shots when the sun is peeking between the fog and the water but you need to be in the right spot. I found my rock but was unhappy to see that the sun was too far north and went behind a mountain range (to the right side of the photo). But, since I was already out there and several miles from my truck, I set up the camera and took some bracketed sequences anyway. Was hoping something interesting would come from the experience and I wasn't totally disappointed. Worked in Photomatix and Lightroom to get something nice. Sorry it's not going to knock your socks off but what can I say. Sometimes you have to make due with what nature gives you.

Point Estero - 35mm(1.6 crop),f/18,HDR,ISO 100,license CC BY-NC 4.0