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