The American Southwest Road Trip

I've spent the last two weeks going through the Southwest on my way to and from a family reunion in Mississippi.

Utah was my first stop, and it's landscape was different than anything I've seen before. As a landscape photographer, I rank it up there with California in beauty.

I started off driving Saturday afternoon and ended up in Cedar City, Utah around 11:30 p.m. or 12:00 a.m. and then drove Zion National Park just before the sun came up. I went in without plan, so I slept in a truck stop parking lot in Cedar City. I saw most of Zion from the road, and it's landscapes were interesting - certainly different than anything I've seen in California. Orange and red are what the Utah landscape is all about.


Arches National Park in Utah was incredible. The landscape takes a bit to get used to if you're not used seeing that kind of thing, but it's just awesome the way the landscape was formed - almost barren in some parts with rock croppings and arches and all kinds of weird formations. Bryce Canyon was also mind blowing with the spires that were seemingly endless in the panoramic views with their red, orange and pink hues.

After leaving Utah, I drove to Colorado to Mesa Verde National Park, which it took nearly a day to do. I've always wanted to see the cliff dwellings, and on the day I arrived, I got to see a glimpse of the park as I drove though it, but it was too late in the day to actually go and check the dwellings out, so I headed back to the KOA and planned on spending the entire next day there. Little did I know the weather was about about drastically change - snow was in the forecast, so that changed my plans.

I woke up and bugged out. I had intended to go visit White Sands National Monument on my way back to California, but instead I spent the day heading to southern New Mexico where I camped out at the KOA in Las Cruces and then headed to White Sands the next morning.

I've always wanted to photograph White Sands. The white dunes of the gypsum sand were awesome, and the wind-blown lines in the sand were were what I wanted to photograph, with the contrasting rich blue skies in the background. The lines in the dunes' profiles with light on one side and shadows on the other of the were just spectacular.

One thing about White Sands is that you need to take sunglasses. The glare of the sun off the white sand is blinding - it made my eyes water.

From there, I headed to Roswell, New Mexico. Who can go to New Mexico without going to Roswell? I didn't have a whole lot of time there, as my next campsite was several hundred miles away in Oklahoma. I photographed some of the buildings, such as the UFO museum, the Out of this World Cafe and such. Main Street seems to get into the whole UFO thing and have fun with it.

From Oklahoma, I traveled to North Little Rock Arkansas where I camped for the night at the KOA there, and then I was on to Southaven to see my mother and then down to Starkville, Mississippi to stay with my cousin.

I didn't really make any images in Mississippi. Time and the weather were not kind, but I'm planning to drive back next spring or early summer to spend more time there, as well as Tennessee and Kentucky to photograph. I'm really looking forward to it, and Mississippi is one of the greenest states I've ever seen. It's beautiful. I saw a lot of things there I wanted to photograph.

On my way back, I stopped at another KOA in Alma Arkansas, (I'm sold on KOAs, but the two I stayed at in Arkansas were sour experiences). As I was leaving Arkansas, I stopped at Fort Smith National Cemetery and made some images there. Anytime I can get to stop at a National Cemetery, I will.

From there I moved toward the KOA in Oklahoma where I stayed the week before, but I made a stop in Oklahoma City. I thought about stopping the Memorial there, but then I decided not to - I didn't want my mind on that horrible bombing for the rest of my day or even my vacation. But I did stop at a Best Buy and picked up a GPS for my Element. My handheld GPS didn't have all the maps on it I needed, and I got lost once. It wasn't fun being lost at night in a state you don't know. That's a story I don't want to get into.

After waking up in Oklahoma, I had a touch of a sore throat, but I didn't think much of it, and I got cleaned up and Beelined it back to Colorado so I could go to Mesa Verde the next day. I got back to the KOA there, but by the time I got there, by sore throat had gotten worse, and I started to feel bad in general, but not too bad.

I woke the next morning about 2 a.m. and knew I didn't have the energy to go to Mesa Verde. I was feeling pretty bad, so I got cleaned up, and I left there about 3 a.m. I decided to head home.

I wanted to stop in at the Four Corners on my way home, but it came across the news the day before that the Four Corners marker was in the wrong spot by somewhere around two miles. I drove past it without stopping and headed toward Monument Valley in Utah. I figured I could make a few images on my out, and I did. It was magnificent at sunrise. I captured some great color, and then I headed down to Horseshoe Bend in Arizona, which was one my must stops for the trip.

I was feeling really bad by the time I got there, but I decided to hike out the bend anyway. The canyon cut was incredible, and I made some really great images, but I will have to go back with a wider angle lens next time - I will be going back. My widest wide is 16mm, but I need something wider for this. It was incredible!

From there, I spent the rest of the day driving home. It took me a little more than a week to recover from whatever it was I caught. I wanted to have this blog entry up last week, but I just didn't have the energy.

It was a very worthwhile trip, and I'm planning another road trip for later this summer. I'm hooked on road trips!

To see more of my images from the trip, you can find Arches National Park images here, Bryce Canyon National Park here, White Sands National Monument here, Fort Smith National Cemetery here, and the remainder are here, in landscapes.

Death Valley Workshop

I'm now offering two Death Valley National Park workshops. Death Valley is such an incredible place to not only see, but to photograph too. Check it out.

Spring is almost here!

Wow. Spring seems like it's almost here! I went with fellow photographer to the Sonoma Valley today to photograph the area, but it was the mustard that was everywhere. Get out there - even if you're not a photographer - just get out there and take it all in. You can see this image larger here.

Death Valley National Park

I've always wanted to photograph in Death Valley, and as a photographer, I wasn't disappointed with what I found. The entire park is a highlight, and it really becomes a question of how to photograph it with so many things to photograph, and no, I didn't hit them all, which means I will be going back. I'm also considering offering workshops in the park in future.

Zabriskie Point was incredible to see. You see it photographs and think it was be an awesome location to photograph, but photographs don't do it justice. The lines, textures and colors can be overwhelming, and you really don't know where to point the camera first. I was drawn to the lines, while others are drawn to the colors. I really don't believe a bad photograph can be made of at Zabriskie Point.

Being a desert, it's easy to see why some of the features have "devil" in the name. Devils Golf Course is an incredible sea of dried salt beds and crevices in the ground that come up to your ankles. It seems to go on for miles. I photographed the golf course from the ground level wanting to get close to the texture of the ground and really show why it's called Devils Golf Course.

Devils Cornfield is also inhospitable looking. Salt on the ground with arrow weed plants growing out of it. I also took the approach of shooting from near the ground to depict the "cornfield" to capture it more from a "being in it" perspective.

Artist's Palette on Artist's Drive is a smattering of colors everywhere you look. The palette looked like mounds of ice cream - pistachio green, hot fudge brown, French vanilla yellow and strawberry. It was hard to photograph because there were so many ways to photograph it, so I took it directly on and got close to show the natural colors the desert offers up.

The Natural Bridge and the canyon leading up to it looked like location where you'd expect to see a band of Jawas or Sandpeople come out at you. Natural Bridge is in a canyon, which Death Valley is loaded with. The challenge in photographing the natural bridge was finding the best angle to compose the shot from. There were so many that were good, and when I got home to process them, it was hard to choose.

I will head back to Death Valley, hopefully sooner rather than later, to photograph areas of the park that I wasn't able to get to this time. Death Valley is a huge park, and it's too much to take in in the three days I was there. Two of those days were spent mostly on the road. I can't wait to back.

You can see some of the landscapes here, and you can see even more in one of my places galleries.

Going to Death Valley

I'm so excited. I'm going to photograph in Death Valley, which is a location I've always wanted to photograph. I can't wait to come back and post my images and write about my experience there.

Mt. Shasta & Clarksville

I wanted to write last week when I got back from Mt. Shasta, but life got in the way, and I didn't have the time. I'm kind of glad now, because I have two shoots to write about.

Mt. Shasta covered with snow was awesome the way it towers over the landscape, which seemingly comes into view from over 100 miles out. My dad, brother and I started out really early in the morning to get to Shasta, so we could spend some time there since daylight is still pretty short, and it takes about four hours to get there.

In trying to find a great picture of mountain, we somehow ended up in the town of McCloud, and while the Mt. Shasta was in the background, the town was home to many rail cars, some covered in snow, and it made a wonderful shoot.

What really amazed me about shooting Shasta was how far away from it we were, how high up it is, and yet, how much detail of the mountain I picked up with my camera. With it, I could even tell where it looked like a broken off snow ridge and an avalanche occurred. With the naked eye, you couldn't see where it that easy. If you're ever in the area in the winter time when the mountain is snow-capped, do yourself a photographic favor, and stop by. You can see the images of Mt. Shasta here, and I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did making them.

Now, Clarksville, just outside of El Droado Hills, is a town of local historical significance, and it's going to be torn down for development. In several ways, it reminded me of Bodie since it was deserted, but unlike Bodie, isn't in a state of arrested decay, and the land is privately owned.

On the ground are the remnants of an old Wells Fargo Bank, an empty open space where a shcoolhouse once sat, and a few homes. The schoolhouse was moved up the hill a bit and turned into stables. Also, there are a few old homes that are falling apart and looking kind of like shanties that a person can picture in the deep South.

I was privileged to get to shoot one-time town of Clarksville and document what had been there because it isn't open to public, and I will probably be one of the last professional photographers to really photograph the place. As for the images of Clarksville I've published, you can see them here. With all but one, I gave them an old looking flavor to add to the time-period.

I was really proud to do the kind of work I did in Clarksville because I got to help preserve something for the historical record that will probably not be there in the next couple of years.

Snow

So, I went on my annual New Year's Day outing, and this year, like last year, I went to the snow. Last year, I went to Yosemite, but this year I wanted to stay a little closer to home, and I went up into the Sierra's near Lake Tahoe.

The image I wanted to make was of the winter snow-capped mountains from a distance, but that didn't pan out, as the road I had to be on to get the view I wanted was closed due to snow. I would have thought that it would a be a plowed road. I thought about turning around and going home, but I decided against that. It was a nice day out, but I should have gone with my first instinct to turn back.

I made two images, and while I like them, it wasn't what I wanted. Both are snowscapes, one in black and white and one in color. You can enjoy them here and here.

If the weather is permitting, next weekend I plan on shooting Mt. Shasta, as it's covered with snow, and I've been wanting to image it in the winter for two years now.

Wedding Photography

Well, I'm taking the plunge. I'm offering wedding photography as service. I've shied away from it because of how daunting it seemed, but I've got some experience under my belt, and it's really not as difficult as I had been led to believe. To check out my wedding services, you can look here.

My style is photojournalistic, which is a natural carry-over from my award winning work as a photojournalist. At a recent wedding I shot, I really had a lot of fun working it with fellow photographer Michael Kriby, who I've worked with at the Auburn Journal.

Apes

I trekked down to the San Francisco Zoo yesterday hoping to make a some great images of exotic animals. I wasn't too happy with what I came back with. The lions and tigers slept while I was there, and the bears were behind smudged glass, so those images didn't come out too well. But the payoff was when I came across the apes and chimpanzees.

The apes made beautiful images, each of them told their own visual story. Their facial expressions were almost human, and you had to wonder what they were thinking about, as they sat in their enclosures looking back at the people looking at them. The Silverback looked sad most of the time. He retreated inside several times where he couldn't be seen, and then he sat in the doorway a lot looking at his fellow apes and the people looking at him. Something was up with him.

The images of the apes and chimpanzee I imaged can be seen in this gallery.

I also posted more images from Bodie, which I went back to last week. I was supposed to go with another photographer friend, but he got ill, and there were still some images I wanted, so I went back on my own. I plan on at least two more trips to ghost town in the future, but I'm not sure when. It's odd - most of my life I've wanted to go there, and then all of sudden I've been there three times in past few months.

It really is a beautiful drive there, and the town itself is in a state of arrested decay, whcih is worth seeing. It's very interesting.

Fall Foliage

So I've been watching over the past few weeks of other shooters posting their fall foliage work at digital grin, and I've been telling myself that I have to get my butt out there out there and shoot some for my own galleries before it all falls off the trees, and I made my up Highway 88 today to see what the Aspens were doing.

I was afraid that I missed the good stuff, as I checked weather.com's fall foliage map, and it said the area was pretty much passed its peak. To my delight, that wasn't quite accurate. Yes, a lot of the trees were missing their leaves, but some hadn't started to turn yet, while others had turned and others were ready to drop their leaves. Anybody who knows me knows I'm really not all that full of myself, and I really don't have time for people who are, but I was pretty impressed with what I came back with today. It also might be because I came back with a lot of yellow, and it is my favorite color. I bet none of you knew that!

I was really taken back with how many shooters were out on the road doing that same thing I was, both amateur and professional. I was in good company.

While photographing leaves is one of my favorite natural features to photograph, there are ways to photograph them to make them stand out and "glow" using natural light. I couldn't use that technique today because it was overcast, and I also didn't want to wait for the sun to be in the right position if it did come out from behind the clouds - I could have been there all day, and I wanted to be home before dark. To make leaves glow, capture them with the light of the sun coming in from behind them instead of in front of them. They look so much better, and not too many people capture leaves this way, so yours will stand out.

I know my last post was related to what I do at the paper, and I don't really like to talk about "work" on this blog, but I was out on assignment last week, and I came across previously submerged tree stumps with their roots now exposed at Folsom Lake, and I captured one of them while I was out there and added it to my personal collection. If you're in the area, now is a great time to get out there for this kind of stuff, since the lake is so low.

Shooting In The Dark

Normally, I won't publish here what I publish on my work blog, but this one is a great cross-over. This won't publish where I work until December, if you read it here, you get to read it way before our readers do. Hopefully, some of you might find these tips helpful if you're shooting in dark places.

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Photography is an art, even in photojournalism where it’s ethically frowned upon stage or pose an image that could result in ending your career, it is an art.

So, how do I and others like me do it? It’s about composition, knowing your equipment and understanding its limitations. It’s also about experience.

My greatest challenge is shooting in dark places. The worst two indoor places I’ve had to photograph in as far as lighting is concerned are the Folsom Community Center and the gym at Oak Ridge High School. To the human eye they’re fine, but to a camera, they’re both caves.

If you’re going to shoot with a flash, that’s fine, but most working photojournalists tend to shy away from using a flash, and I include myself in that group. Personally, I don’t like the harsh shadow images that flashes produce, and I do have a diffuser for my flash when I do use it, but there are times when you’ll still get those shadows, which look entirely unprofessional. To boot, you’re influence is also evident in the image of the scene since you caused the shadow to be there where it normally wouldn’t be. Bottom line, while recording the event as an observer, you manipulated the way it really looked, and it isn’t true to the people viewing your image of the way it really was.

So, how do I get the images that I get at sporting events that are in dark places outside at night, such as Friday night football? It’s all about the equipment, understanding it and not pushing it beyond its limits – you can push it to its limits, if you know what those limits are, but not beyond them. After the event is over, and you’re looking at your images, you can tell when you’ve pushed your equipment beyond what it can do to produce a good quality image.

Good lenses for shooting in dark places are usually 2.8 or faster. Generally these professional lenses are more expensive – in the thousands of dollars range, but they help get the job done right. Don’t even think about going into a gym with something slower unless you plan on taking a flash with you.

One thing I do, but most photographers I’ve talked to won’t do, is max out my ISO speed, and shoot at 3200, the highest my camera will go. ISO speed determines how sensitive your camera is to light. The higher the number, the better in low light situations it is. If I were to set my ISO at 3200 in the daylight, my images would blow out under and be over exposed in most circumstances. The downfalls of using a high ISO speed such as 3200, and why most photographers that I’ve talked to stay away from it, is noise. The easiest way to describe noise is equating it to grain – it’s not pretty.

Because I’ve learned how to use the 3200 setting, I’m not afraid of it, and I make some really good quality images while using the setting. You’ve seen them – any night football shot that we’ve published by me has been shot at 3200, as will as most images made inside the Folsom High School gym, and absolutely all the images I’ve made in the Oak Ridge High School gym. Vista del Lago High School will also need the use of the 3200 speed too. I’ve only shot there once so far, though.

One of the drawbacks of shooting in dark places is using a slower shutter where you can’t entirely stop the motion and motion blur will come through. I don’t mind this in certain cases, as it shows the action, but other people do. It’s art, so it’s subjective. At Folsom High under the football field lights, I won’t push the shutter past a 400th of a second. It gets too dark for me for that, and I get more noise that way when I go to lighten the image for print. At the FHS and Vista gym, I usually won’t push past 320th of a second, and sometimes those don’t come out either. At Oak Ridge, it’s a crapshoot. I generally won’t push past a 250th of a second, and sometimes they’re still too dark. Sometimes I’ll drop down to a 100th of a second in that gym, but there’s way too much motion blur that goes on in those shots most of the time. Every once in a while I’ll get something we can use. We come back with a lot more images than you see in print or on the Web. We have to wade through the garbage, and you only get to see the best stuff, but sometimes we’re forced to say, “It is what it is.” I hate that phrase because it generally means it’s not that good, but it was best we could do under the circumstances.

One technique I’ve learned to use in the Oak Ridge gym is go let them come to you by being in front of the action on the sideline. Sometimes this works and I’ll get a clear image while using a 125th of a second with the shutter. I don’t why this works, but it does for me – hey, I’m just the monkey that pushes the buttons… yeah, right. Not all of the pictures are good enough for print, but I’ll usually get something that’s good enough to publish.

This is just a glimpse of shooting in the dark, and if I made it sound easy because of the techniques I use, it’s not – at least in the beginning. There’s more to sports photography then just knowing the settings for the lighting. I’ll talk more about sports photography in my next blog entry.*

* It may not be posted on this blog in that this is really for my work blog.

Goin' Back To Bodie, Bodie ... I Think So

Wow. Bodie and Yosemite in one day. And what a long day it was. Driving about four hours to get to Bodie was long enough, but I will be doing it at least one more time. More on that in a bit. And then two more hours in the car after that to get to where I wanted to shoot in Yosemite. Whew. But the day was worth it, and I got what I wanted in both locations.

At Bodie, I got the interiors of the some of the buildings and homes of the ghost town. It wasn’t easy at first – it took me a little while to figure out how to shoot inside the buildings with windows without getting all the reflections from the glass. I saw other people trying to avoid the nightmares of shooting through the windows, but they couldn’t quite figure it out. And that’s a secret that’s going to stay with me for a while, unless you want to go with me one of my Bodie workshops (I’m sure other pros have figured it out though).

What a fun day it was in Bodie. I got see areas of the town I didn’t see the last time I was there, and a highlight was the jail. I’m not sure why – probably because it didn’t resemble anything you see in a western movie jail. No bars – just locked doors. I was bummed the I couldn’t get a shot of the interior to bring back. There were bars on the outside windows, and I couldn’t compose a good shot of the inside with the bars in the way.

But, I did find one of the left-behind cars I was looking for last time I was there, and I made some great images of it. The car was one of my big reasons for wanting to go back. It took some searching, but I found it – and a couple of others too.

When I was making images of the inside of buildings, I couldn’t quite pull off the ones I wanted inside the school house, so I’ll be going back for that, and I also want to reshoot the outside of the firehouse. I didn’t like the way mine turned out after this trip. So at least one more trip is in order for me, and I hope to do it soon before the snow starts to fall up there. Bodie is 8,000 feet up in the eastern Sierras.

I was after one thing in Yosemite, and that was a picture of Half Dome from Glacier Point, and I got it. But I will tell you, pictures don't do the scenery justice. You have to go there. It is awe inspiring to look out across the valley at this monster rock. No photograph can do it justice – it doesn’t matter who the photographer is. It has to be experienced to fully understand it.

Driving to Glacier Point, I entered Yosemite on Highway 120 from Highway 395. I’ve never seen that side of the park, but I have seen many photographs of Tuolumne Meadows, and I was hoping to see some of that awe inspiring scenery from the road. I didn’t. It was unfortunate. From most of the photographs I’ve seen, the meadows looked green and plush. I guess it was the wrong time to the year – the grasses were yellow and appeared to be dried out. I kept on moving, but I would like to go back after next spring’s snowmelt. I look forward to it.

I’m not sure what my next big photo project is going to be, but I’m really liking the eastern Sierras. Maybe this winter I’ll get up there after a few snowfalls and get some of those awesome mountainscapes.

A New Look

A few weeks ago, after I processed and published my images from Bodie, I created a new format for my prints. On them, in the bottom right hand corner, I created a box with my initials in it. I went out on a shoot yesterday, and I made two images where I got to use the new template. Let me know what you think.

Oh, by the way, I will be going back to Bodie tomorrow to photograph the inside of the buildings, and then I'm going to hit Yosemite for an image I've been wanting to make for several years now. It's going to be a long day, but I think it'll be fun.

Geotagging My Images

I’ve activated a pretty neat feature on my website, and now you see a lot of the locations where I’ve photographed thanks to google maps. I’ve geotagged a lot, but not all, of my images – hey I have keep some secrets. Anyway, I’m pretty stoked about the feature that smugmug offers, and I hope you check out where I've been.

The Workshops Are Back!

My fine art workshops are back! I’ve been wanting to get back into offering them for a long time, and now I finally can, and I love them all. I can’t wait to get back out and show people how to use their cameras and push them (the cameras) to the edge to make fantastic fine art.

Right now, my workshops include photographing San Francisco and some of its famous landmarks at night, the natural beauty of Point Reyes National Seashore, the central coast and Big Sur area, Mt. Tamalpais, Bodie, an old-west ghost town suspended in time. Those workshops are just the beginning – I have more planned that I’m researching that I plan to offer.

So, look at my workshops, and come and join me. It’ll be educational and fun.

Bodie And More

I went to Bodie State Historic Park yesterday, which is a place where I've always wanted to go to photograph for the longest time. Bodie is a ghost town in a state of arrested decay high up in the eastern Sierras that was gold boomtown in the late 1800s and early 1900s. After going there yesterday and making over 150 images, I know I'll have to go back, perhaps on a weekday when less people are there, to get more images. I would rather have my images more "natural looking" to Bodie in its time period, and having people in modern dress blows that look and feel I focused mostly on the exterior buildings, and the next time I want to focus more on what's inside the buildings.

After going to Bodie, I went down to Mono Lake since I was so close to photograph some of the tufa, but with time running short, I couldn't stay long. I'll have to go back and shoot it more when I can spend the majority of a day there. Both shooting Bodie and Mono Lake were life goals of mine, and I'm glad I got to go, and I look forward to going back, knowing now what to expect from both places and how to approach them better next time.

The images of Bodie can be seen here. While there aren't a lot of them up as of today, I will be posting more in the future. I really have a lot of images to process.

New Things

It's been a long time since I've posted. I've been dealing with a lot of stuff, but I'm back to shooting and it feels good. I made some really nice images of the American River near Lake Tahoe last week, and a good friend suggested another series for me to work on, which I've started. More on that later, soon, I promise, when I have more material to release.

I found this river location by a campsite on Highway 50 by chance, and I spent about an hour and a half there as the sun went down. I didn't venture out into the river, and walking on the rocks next to the river got a little dicey with the camera gear in tow, but it all worked out. I'm really happy with what I brought back from this shoot.

One of the new things for me that I started working on is also shooting people. I spent four days last month in the Monterey area shooting one person, and while it was supposed to be fun and just for a few hours a day, they turned into all day shoots consisting of nearly 1,000 images where only about 20 were usable for what was intended. It was work, but it was also an awesome experience.

I'm going to start photographing people in various areas: weddings, portraits, senior portraits and events. I'm not walking away from fine art photography, but I'm adding to what I do.

Working On Projects

I haven’t posted in quite a while, but it’s not that I haven’t been shooting. I was down in Big Sur a couple of weeks ago, and I posted a couple of shots that can be seen starting here, but I’m more looking for particular images for my Inner Thoughts gallery.

Originally, Inner Thoughts was called Raw, but I moved away from that since they weren’t as hard hitting as I wanted them to be. Raw was designed to be a tap into the deep inner thinkings of the people in the images, and while there are a couple posted that reach that level, that majority don’t. I think I’ve finally found what I’m looking for to create Raw, and now I’m looking for the emotional expressions that will accompany the thoughts of the people depicted in the images.

I'm also looking into starting a project that may take me away from photojournalism, but I'm only in the beginning stages and will be meeting with a potential business partner later this month. While it may take me from photojournalism, it won't take me from photography. If things pan out, and I probably won't know until much later in the year if it's going work, it will allow me to spend more time photographing landscapes and seascapes and also to focus on shooting images for my Raw galleries.

San Francisco At Night

I’ve broken away from landscape photography for the time being and have started shooting cityscapes at night. I was in San Francisco last night looking for some of the city’s famous landmarks from the entire skyline to the Bay Bridge, Coit Tower, which happened to be lit up in blue to honor World Diabetes Day and the Palace of Fine Arts. They can all be found here.

There were a few other places I wanted to go to, but a few obstacles got in the way, and I had to move on. I’ll go back at some point. I started shooting around 8 p.m. and didn’t finish up until around 3:30 a.m.; I didn’t get home until 5:30 a.m. I seriously underestimated how long it would take. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed my change in photographic venues. I hope you do too.

If anybody knows of any places in the San Francisco area that would make for some really cool night shooting, please share them with me. I would love to hear about them.

Pyramid Lake

So, what started out as a day of earthcaching in Nevada, much more interesting and educational than geocaching, in my opinion, took to me nearby Pyramid Lake, north of Reno in the high desert where I whipped out my cameras. I’ve come to hear from many people, especially from California where most people are accustomed to trees, that the high desert is an acquired taste. I can understand that, but I loved it, and I can’t wait to go back in full photo-mode. The hills and open landscapes were alive with interesting lines that told stories, but so did Pyramid Lake. The day was really hazy, so it was hard to shoot sweeping landscapes without the background being obstructed by the haze. I will go back at some point, but until then, please enjoy what I have.

For those of you who are returning to look at my work, I've had to add watermarks to the images for web security purposes. I've tried to avoid it for as long as I could, about three years now, but I cannot any longer. If you choose to order a print, of course the watermark will not be present on your final print.

Bear Valley

Over the years, I’ve heard so much about the wildflowers in Bear Valley in Colusa County that burst out in the spring that I finally had to go check it out. After a long windy road, I finally found what I was looking for. Fields of poppies and lupine as well as tons of flowers I couldn’t name were everywhere. The place was a wash with color, but my lupine shots were the best, and those are what I’ve posted. If you have the time, go check them out in the springtime. They might be there for a couple of more weeks. Those lupine images can be in the gallery here. I may post more images as I process them further.

Stock Photography

While I don’t have a photography outing to write about yet – that’s coming in a couple of weeks - I want to say that I have made many of my images available to those who buy stock photography. They are available to purchase and download, and the collection has several categories, and many images. Both categories and image counts will grow over time. My stock photography can be viewed by clicking here. (The link is currently suspended pending some changes.)

The stock photography I offer is available in many different categories at 300 ppi. All are three inches long on their longest side, making the verticals 5.667x9 at 300 ppi, while the horizontals are 9x5.667 at 300 ppi. What this means is that they can be up-sized within reason and still keep their high-resolution quality for printing.

Point Reyes National Seashore

I know it’s been awhile since my last post, but I’ve been really busy. I’ve just added some new images to my gallery.

I spent Saturday at Point Reyes National Seashore and came across several really things to make images of, but some reason I was fascinated with “The Dancing Stick” and three shells that were lined up on the shore. I wasn’t sure how they got there the way they did, but it didn’t look like a human did it. I made several images of “The Dancing Stick”, but I liked that’s in my gallery the best.

Point Reyes is a beautiful place to shoot because the land so diverse. One minute you’re on a sandy beach looking out at the crystal blue sea, and the next you’re hiking up a mountain, and then you’re walking through dunes and looking at driftwood wondering how it got so far inland.

All along the way you’re looking at the details of the windswept sand and the textures on the driftwood and the plants growing around it.

To see the images I made, check out my website in the new images gallery.

The North Coast

I went up to the California’s North Coast Saturday, and my only regret is that once I was there, I had to return. Photographically, where I went, Hidden Beach, was a beautiful place full of photographic opportunity.

The trail I was on, Coastal Trail, which is just north of where the Klamath River puts out to sea, was very dense and green that also was home to several kinds of wildflowers.

The steps put on the trail lead to one of the better photographs of the day since it left me with a sense of imagination as I looked at them wondering where they would take me through the coastal forest. But the true highlight of the trail overlooking Hidden Beach and the giant rock that just off shore. A beautiful sight to behold.

Probably the most amazing thing I saw could not be photographed since I didn’t have a lens wide enough to capture more than 180 degrees, but from one lookout point on the trail, you can look out north and follow the horizon west out to sea and south, you can see the curvature of the earth as you pan the horizon. For photography or not, for nothing else, this is a most amazing sight that anybody with the means should try to get to and see.

There’s really not much more to say about this, but as a photographer, I could spend a week in the area north or Eureka and south of Crescent City and not photograph everything I would want to.

To see the images I made, check out my website in the new images and squares gallery. They're the first two in each gallery.

Capay Valley

I was in Capay Valley for part of the weekend, and as usual, I had to whip out the camera. I was looking for those ever-elusive rattlesnakes, and nope, I didn’t find any. I tend to see them when I don’t have the cameras with me. I’ve shot about everything in the area that I've wanted to shoot with the exception of the snakes. I want to make an image of a big one coiled up and ready to go. Of course, I would have my big lens on for that.

Anyway, it was really hot, and not much was out in terms of wildlife. I did make a couple of images of dragonflies, a re-shoot of an old barn that I took over a year ago that is still one of my favorites, and I happened upon an egret before it saw me. Those images I’ve posted to the galleries.

I did happen across some really pretty deer and some wild turkeys, many of them babies, but I couldn’t get in close enough to make really tight images of them. I was using my 400mm telephoto lens, but I’ve come to the realization that I need Canon’s 600mm telephoto. It’s been added to the list, but there are a few things I need to get before it.

To see the images I made, check out my website in the new images and squares gallery. They're the first two in each gallery.

Yosemite

Wow. Yosemite. I was awed by the magnificence of Yosemite Valley and the towering waterfalls. Who isn’t? I was stoked to be going to one of the most beautiful places on the planet at a time when the falls were gushing, but it turned into a real photographic challenge for me.

I like to shoot moving water with slow shutters, and a lot of my images came out over exposed, even the ones that were shot at .4 and .3 seconds. Software couldn’t even correct it, so I was disappointed with many of the images I made. But, I did come back with a few killers, and of the ones that made it into the gallery, I'm really happy with them.

With powerful falls at Yosemite, it isn’t always good to let a long exposure be the best way to capture a waterfall. When I shot McWay Fall at Big Sur earlier this year, a long exposure worked for that “stream” of a waterfall. At Yosemite, the falls thunder down with such power that splash, spray and burst, a fast shutter is needed to make the images of the drama – softening those falls just doesn’t work and takes away from their brilliance.

I think my favorite was not actually a waterfall, but of bustling Bridalveil Creek. I would have passed the shot by if my brother didn’t suggest it to me. I look at the image and see motion. Even though the water images are still, I look at the water lines in the creek over the rocks, and they scream smooth poetic motion.

Shooting the valley was difficult because the second day we were there it was extremely hazy, so landscapes were tried, but they ended up being out of the question as far as presenting any of them in the gallery. Unfortunately, this included shots of Half Dome. They just looked too over exposed, while the foreground was crisp, clear and beautifully saturated.

The image of Bridalveil Fall that is in sepia was too washed out in color and was actually part of a larger image that had the valley off the left, but even as early in morning as it was, it was way too hazy to make a good shot of the valley. That was too bad. I think the shot really works in sepia, but I really wanted to come back with vibrant color.

The best waterfall shot is of Yosemite Falls with all three upper, middle and lower in the frame. It was magnificent to see.

One of the issues of shooting the falls close up was all the mist created by them. You could be hundreds of feet away, and still get really wet, which for myself I could handle, but not my gear. That was too bad, especially at Vernal Fall, where I came back completely soaked from the mist the fall created. It was like rain.

I made about 140 images, but less than ten made it to the galleries. That was unfortunate. As mentioned, some of it was due to me leaving the exposures set too long on some waterfalls, but the majority was due to the crappy weather both days we were there.

The first day we were there, we hiked to Vernal Fall, but the real objective was Nevada Fall. We got caught high up in a thunderstorm and had to turn back. The water started rising around us with the rain coming down, and we found ourselves in areas prone to flash flooding. We made the wise decision to not hang around, as the storm worsened.

To see the images I made, check out my website in the new images gallery.

Eyes Wide Open

Getting to the Presidio and shooting the tombstones in San Francisco National Cemetery is something I’ve wanted to do for over a year. It was incredible, and of the dozens of images I made, I really liked the two that I’ve placed in my galleries.

Shooting the white tombstones was amazing on two levels. One was because of where I was and knowing that many of those people died in the service of their country, and the other was turning the white dotted hilly landscape into art.

One of the challenges in shooting the tombstones was figuring out how to shoot them on the hill and get a very large number of them in the frame. Shooting them diagonally was what worked for me in delivering the impact I wanted. That impact was the shear numbers of those who died either in combat or at one time had served their country. The images don’t need words; they speak for themselves. The same goes for the “Eyes Wide Open” image I took around a year ago in Sacramento when the boots of soldiers killed in Iraq were on display at the Capitol.

Also included in these new images is another shoot I took on early Sunday morning in the city of Elk Grove, and specifically in its Old Town District, which is loaded with character.

The mailboxes turned out to be my favorite image of the day, but Old Town offered up many more images that told their own story by just looking at them. I used sepia tones on many of the images because that’s how I see Old Town. It’s nostalgic. The barber pole is heavy in the symbolism too. You don’t see them a lot anymore, and they represent a time that seems to be fading away. And then there’s the doorway with the edge of the window in the image. It tells a story too. Just let your mind wander and let it talk to you.

To see the images I made in their full size, including the one shown above, check out my website.

Mount Tamalpais

Mount Tamalpais is both an angel and an unforgiving beast at the same time, but to capture the angelic images, the beast has to be trekked.

The waterfall shots were the most challenging to get, as they were along Cataract Creek, and it was great going in, but coming back up it was a steep 1,300 foot accent along the trail back to where we parked.

Besides the rugged climb, or comfortable descent, getting the waterfall shots were tricky. Off shoot trails from the main trail went downward toward the creek and were slick. Not easy with a pack full of equipment on our back. Falling down a couple of times on the offshoot trails and also having to duck under fallen trees to get to the objective seemed to be the order of things.

Composing the photographs wasn’t easy either. There were a lot of wonderful shots of the waterfalls that I had to pass on for one reason or another, but the largest result was that too many dead branches were in the way or other minor obstructions that would not have played well in the finished image.

For shooting the waterfalls, I found that my best results came exposures ranging from one to three seconds.


One of the beauties of Mt. Tam is that the terrain is so diverse. One minute you’re hiking among redwoods and the next oaks and then through meadows and on rolling hillsides. Shooting on Mt. Tam for me as a photographer is probably like Disneyland is to a kid.

While hiking a service road, we went from being out in the open and exposed straight into and old oak forest that was seemingly spooky. Old trees, dead trees and fallen branches were all around, but amongst that death was green moss and brownish-orange fungus growing out of dead trees.

On the ground were all sorts of colorful wildflowers, insects and banana slugs, though none wanted to pose. We descended on the trail several hundred feet that offered spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean as we looked down on Stenson Beach. Though it wasn’t a good day for sunset photography, I plan on returning to that spot this summer to capture some great sunset shots. The only physical difficulty is climb back up with all the gear.

As physically heart-pounding as Mt. Tam was, the end result was worth it, and encourage any photographer, no matter your skill level, to take it on. Just take lots of water.

To see the images I made in their full size, including those shown above, check out my website.

First Post

This is my first post. What I want to accomplish with this blog is kind of a journal of where I go to make photographs and maybe how I go about it - or the hell I went through to make the images. I won't post something just to post, but usually after I get back from a trek with images. I should have something up late Sunday, as Saturday I plan to spend the day making photographs in the San Francisco Bay Area and trekking around Mt. Tamalpais. I was there a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't get all of what I was after. This time I have a plan.