Last Spring I decided to hike up Yosemite Falls Trail to spend the better part of an evening photographing Upper Yosemite Falls to capture a moonbow, star trails and a time-lapse. As you might imagine I was the only person nutty enough to try this and the only living creature I saw for much of the evening was a couple of raccoons. Hiking up to this spot with 2 sets of cameras and tripods seemed like it made good sen
“To love beauty is to see light.” – Victor Hugo This Victor Hugo quote in its original context had nothing to do with photography, but it is quite appropriate to photographers and those who love photography. Not only does nature photography revolve around the art of light and seeing, much to Hugo’s original intent, beauty inspires and gives us hope. One of the many reason I enjoy photography
Glacier National Park has always been a special place for me. I’ve been guilty of driving far out of my way to visit, in some instances with 19 hour stretches of driving. The park’s amazing views and glacially carved valleys are mesmerizing. One of my favorite locations in the park is Two Medicine Lake with its crystal clear water, majestic peaks and amazing morning light. This is one of a few locations I
These days it is pretty easy to lose myself in the stars with so many great images coming from NASA, the International Space Agency and others. It’s tough to resist day dreaming about what’s in the heavens and as a result become jaded with what is before us every day. While amazed by the constant flow of space photos it’s grounding to take a walk and appreciate what makes our oasis in the stars so s
One of the most amazing sights often overlooked on dark nights is the Milky Way. Tired, road weary and focusing on the road ahead its easy for travelers to miss out on the the scene above them at night. On a recent trip to Yosemite National Park I made a conscious effort to stop the car every so often when driving to survey the night sky above me. It wasn’t an easy thing to do due to a good amount of sleep de
30 minutes of amazing transformation is all it took to change a drab gray stormy view of Yosemite’s Half Dome and Nevada Falls into a dynamic fiery rainbow filled scene. Literally in the 11th hour after a full day of foggy and overcast weather I witnessed a sunset like I’ve never seen anywhere in all my travels. As if scripted, storm clouds rose above Yosemite Valley and were illuminated by a thin pipe
A visit to the Monterey coastline just south of San Francisco, California never fails to inspire. Recently I decided to use this location to test some camera bodies (Hasselblad H5D, Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III) and squeezed in a little extra time to try out a new Singh-Ray Mor-Slo 10-stop filter. While I didn’t have time to stack filters and experiment further I was very happy with the outcome. Gear aside
Yosemite Sunrise I was revisiting some old film scans from several years ago thanks to a client request and rediscovered this photo. Slide film isn’t very forgiving in regard to dynamic range, but I always liked the contrasty nature of this photo. It was taken on a cold snowy winter morning well before sunrise. Taking a long exposure allowed for the faint color in the sky to register quite strongly which I alwa