Sunrise or sunset? I suppose that will depend if the glass is half full or half empty for you on this Monday. Either way I hope that everyones Monday starts off well.
Photographed below are California Oak trees in a grassy meadow. If you’ve been to California you’ll know that much of the landscape inland from the coast resembles this scene. Several years ago I would often travel from Santa Barbara, in the central coast region of California, to north of San Francisco in Marin county. Much of the view along the way was this very type of landscape. Driving by this landscape it’s easy to take for granted the forms and textures present in this environment. Only recently have I started to explore this common view by foot and each time I’ve learned something new and/or gained a new perspective. It’s amazing how a sense of discovery can be found in your own backyard, so to speak, versus half way around the world.
Technorati Tags: California, photography, landscape, nature, stock photo, oak, tree
Here in California during the Spring all the photographers go crazy looking for wildflowers. While wildflowers are great I can’t help but think a flowerless field is equally if not more attractive. A field such as this is quite a busy subject to photograph, yet due to our exposure to grass on an everyday basis we seem to lump it all together into one object.
Back in college chemistry there was the concept of the “Avagadro number”, a value of 6.022×10^23 or 602,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms in 12 grams of carbon. “A mole is defined as this number of “entities” (usually, atoms or molecules) of any material.” (courtesy of Wikipedia) In one of my lectures a philosophical if not rhetorical question was asked by my professor, “How many moles of sand are on the beach?” The concept of this value was mind boggling to me. Looking at this picture less wildflowers I’m left to ponder how many moles of blades of grass are in this field? on this hillside? in this state park? in California? To think how much life this represents and how much life resides in these fields is awe inspiring to me.
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Dark descending on Los Angeles is always a sight to behold. As noted in earlier posts the view from Griffith Observatory is always a favorite. My next trip to LA will be more beach focused, but I still can’t help but think of this view every time I visit.
Griffith Observatory Sunset, Los Angeles II
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The Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best aquariums in the country let alone California. Even though I’ve visited several times it’s difficult not to be amazed by the beautiful display of sea life. This candid photo of an aquarium visitor displaying that moment of awe at the Sea Nettle Jellyfish display is a perfect example of that feeling you get when visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I have to admit I get an extra sense of nostalgia with this photo as it was one of the first taken with my digital SLR back in the day. I was blown away by the image quality in low light. You might say I got a double dose of awe while visiting the aquarium.
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Running around a location as beautiful as Yosemite National Park it’s easy to lose track of the more subtle beauty that exists there. For most this will certainly lack the impact of Yosemite Falls, Half Dome or Mirror Lake, but to my eye it is on equal footing. The shadow of the larger tree branches falling on the small plant emerging from the snow caught my eye, but looking at this I’m reminded that timing is everything. Would I have stopped to photograph this if the shadow was not cast on the smaller plant?
Shadowscape, Yosemite National Park
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Below is the third photo in a series of wild Bobcat photographs taken in Yosemite National Park in early March. This is one of many very close photos I was able to capture of this beautiful wild creature. Ironically my entire trip to Yosemite was devoid of wildlife encounters until I began my drive to leave for home at mid-day.
Wild Bobcat (Lynx rufus, Yosemite National Park
The story behind this photo and wildlife encounter is that I was leaving the park and got stuck behind a small traffic jam of 4 cars. As the backup cleared I drove slowly by a shaded snowy embankment. Just as I turned my head to the left to see what people might be slowing for the head of this cat popped up. In fact the bobcat stared me square in the eye as I passed. To date I’ve had horrible luck photographing bobcats so I was very frustrated I couldn’t pull over immediately. After driving a 1/4 mile or so I finally found a spot to safely pull over and park my car. I quickly got my camera out and attached my 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and 2x TC. I was actually quite pessimistic I’d be able to catch up to the bobcat to photograph it, but I decided to give it my best shot. I ran towards the meadow across from my last sighting of the cat.
At the time the park was covered with a thick snow covering from a large storm the previous week. This made running around tricky. The meadows were covered in snow 2-3 feet deep with a few clearings of dead grass scattered across the landscape. Trying my best to stay out of the snow I ran parallel to a guessed path of the cat as quietly as possible. After 3-5 minutes of tracking the bobcat I found it standing in the shade of some trees. I took a few quick “look I saw a bobcat” photos mostly of its profile with very busy backgrounds and decided to try my luck moving ahead of its path to photograph him/her coming straight at me. It was very important to not disturb the bobcat so I aggressively ran far ahead and would take up position out of the cat’s view. I consistently guessed correctly where it was heading next enabling me to get quite a few good photographs. In one instance the cat walked with in 30-40 feet of me oblivious to my presence. The result was the photo you see above.
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A slightly different take on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The manner in which this photo was taken is not unlike the technique used in making Half Dome Reflection II, Yosemite. Early morning lighting in this area can be elusive and fast changing, but for the purpose of this photo mid to late morning light seemed to work out for the best. This particular photo has grown on me, but I’m curious how it resonates with others. What are your thoughts?
Reflecting on El Capitan, Yosemite
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One of the most amazing things about nature is how it so easily dwarfs even the largest man made structures. I’ve taken my fair share of Golden Gate Bridge photos over the past 10 years, but my favorites are those that put this impressive structure in context to the natural world. A recent favorite is the following “San Francisco Starry Night”. Conditions were optimal on this evening to photograph fog rolling over the bridge. The warm air above the fog layer kept the skies super clear and enabled me to capture the stars over the iconic Golden Gate Bridge.
San Francisco Starry Night
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