February 20th, 2012
The Bryce amphitheater faces east, so sunrise is usually a better time to shoot the rock spires that make the park famous. However, sunset is also good, especially in winter when the beautiful pink glow lasts a little bit longer.
I had been photographing in the park for most of the day, wandering along the Rim Trail looking for views with snow on the rim. By sunset, I was at Inspiration Point, which sits higher on the rim than Sunset Point. This viewpoint overlooks a group of densely-packed hoodoos called the Silent City. To the east of the Silent City, a group of evergreen trees provides a great contrast. I wanted to include both of these features in a horizontal image, but the snow just below the rim led me to compose a vertical image instead.
Tags: bryce canyon, hoodoo, national park, snow, sunset, Utah, winter
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February 15th, 2012
Hoodoos are found in many places on the Colorado Plateau, but the most recognizeable rock spires are found at Bryce Canyon 
National Park. These pillars of sandstone are world famous, and tourists from all over the world come to this Utah park to see them. They are odd, yet mesmerizing; they look fragile, yet they’ve been there for millions of years.
Bryce Canyon is technically an amphitheater. This giant sandstone gallery opens up to the east, so sunrise is the best time to shoot the park. The view from the many viewpoints along the rim is nice, but the views open up a little ways down into the canyon on one of the park trails. Before sunrise on January 2, I made my way down the Navajo Loop trail into the amphitheater to catch the early morning light.
This hoodoo is known as Thor’s Hammer. In the summer, the sun rises right behind the pillar, over the point in the ridge at the upper right of the photo. In the winter, it is farther south, so it lights Thor’s Hammer from the side and makes it glow nicely. The light blanket of snow provides a nice contrast to the brilliant red rock.
Tags: bryce canyon, colorado plateau, desert southwest, hoodoo, national park, sunrise, thor's hammer, Utah
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February 10th, 2012
The sandstone landscape of the Colorado Plateau is contorted into squiggles and swirls in this remote spot along the Utah-Arizona border. Known as th
e White Pocket, this area isn’t easy to get to; I hired an excellent guide for this trip.
The name White Pocket is a bit of a misnomer. This special place consists of a few different rock layers; only the top layer is white. This top layer has been molded and mutated into shapes that resemble pillows, or better yet, a brain. These brain rocks surrounded me as we hiked into the White Pocket, and even though the light was muted by morning clouds, it was still fascinating. The white sandstone, however, hid a secret world below which would only be revealed by scrambling farther into the wonderland.
Cresting a small ridge, this candy-striped landscape opened up suddenly. Red and yellow stripes swirled every which way below the white caps. In some spots, there were perfect lines of white, yellow, and red, as if it were a freeway of stone. I stood in awe, just wanting to turn every direction and snap away. However, my guide told me to wait; the light was still blocked by clouds and some spots farther on would get better light at this hour. So deeper into the formation we went.
Toward the north end of the White Pocket, I found this multicolored rock formation. By this time, the clouds had cleared off and the light was just about perfect. These stripes led up into a small canyon between two rock domes. The rocks above were a pale yellow color; it was like a swirl of strawberry and vanilla ice cream. Crouching down over the red stripe, I composed a shot with a long leading line and great contrast in the foreground. I used a small aperture to keep everything sharp.
It’s amazing what nature can do.
Tags: Arizona, colorado plateau, desert, desert southwest, national monument, sandstone, vermillion cliffs, wave, white pocket
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February 5th, 2012
On New Year’s Eve, I made the 13-hour trek to Bryce Canyon National Park. This was my second trip to Utah in as many months, having visited Zion at the beginning of November. I had wanted to photograph Bryce in the winter for several years, and now I had 
my opportunity.
The western US (aside from the Pacific NW) has been very dry this winter, and Bryce was no exception. The canyon rim usually has several inches of snow at this time of year, but on this chilly New Year’s morning, the trails and viewpoints were mainly clear. I went straight for Sunset Point; despite the name, sunrises are best here. In the winter, the sunrise isn’t blocked by a high ridge farther north, so the light hits the hoodoos a few minutes sooner than it does in the summer.
After finding a spot a little north of the main viewpoint, I found a composition I liked. I wanted to get the snow on the rim in the image, along with a few red rock spires. Using an aperture of f/22 for the starburst effect, I waited until the sun cleared a distant mountain and snapped away.
Tags: bryce canyon, colorado plateau, desert southwest, hoodoo, national park, sunrise, Utah
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January 31st, 2012
After watching a fiery sunset on Garrapata Beach in Big Sur, I wanted to try some longer exposures for a mystical, ghostly water image. The tide was coming in at the time, so the waves were rolling closer and closer, even washing around me a couple of times. 
Unfortunately, this was also leading to blurry shots as the waves shook my tripod. To combat this, I anchored the tripod legs into the sand and brought the height down a bit; I also opened up the aperture.
One large wave chased me back up the beach. I heard it crashing farther out and it sounded big, so I grabbed the camera and ran. When the water went back out, it left a nice glassy reflection; however, it also left a long piece of seaweed draped around the rock I had been shooting. Of course, I didn’t like how it broke up my nice, smooth composition, but it only took one more wave to fix it. The second wave left the kelp in a perfect, semi-circular shape around the rock and my symmetry was back.
The bigger waves had stopped for a few minutes, so I took the opportunity to shoot a couple of pictures before they came up again. Going back to f/8, I photographed this scene with a 10-second exposure to smooth out the water and bring out the details in the rock.
Tags: beach, Big Sur, ocean, Photography: California, reflection, sea, sunset
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January 26th, 2012
Chistmas Day found me photographing along the Big Sur coast, south of Monterey. I spent the day driving along Highway 1 and stopping at various viewpoints, enjoying the views and the soft winter light. By late afternoon, I was heading back north from Sand Dollar Beach, watching the western sky and the fog bank that was lurking just offshore. I hoped that the fog would stay out there, at 
least until after sunset. I also noticed a deck of mid and high-level clouds that were moving in; these clouds often create vivid skies at sunset, so my hopes were high that they would continue their course.
About a half hour before sunset, I made my way to Garrapata Beach. I’ve always enjoyed shooting at this beach; there are plenty of rocks and sea stacks, especially at the southern end of the beach. A small stream winds its way to the ocean here, which is great for reflections and photographs with snaking leading lines. I didn’t really have a plan for what to shoot, so I wandered up and down the beach for a while.
I found some triangular rocks below the tide line and set up for sunset. As the waves washed around, they smoothed out the sand and left nice reflections of the rocks and the sky, which was becoming more colorful by the second. Soon, the entire sky was red; the clouds I had noticed earlier were moving overhead and catching the last rays of the sun. What a scene! The entire beach glowed red for several minutes.
This amazing sunset keeps my lucky streak going.
Tags: beach, Big Sur, clouds, garrapata state park, ocean, Photography: California, reflection, sea, sunset
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January 21st, 2012
For the Christmas holiday, I decided to take a couple of extra days off and head down to the Big Sur coast for some relaxation and photography. The holiday season has never been my favorite time of year, so I planned this little getaway 
trip to, well, get away from the holiday hustle and bustle. Since Christmas fell on a Sunday, the holiday at work would be observed on the next day, so I had a couple of days to play with.
Friday afternoon found me at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. This beach is a lot of fun; there are great sunsets, waves, and surfers. At one time, there were three sea arches on the beach; two have met their natural end due to the relentless pounding of ocean waves, while one still stands at the southern end of the beach.
The tide was coming in around sunset, so I waited with my camera (and a few other photographers) while the afternoon crowds cleared out. The waves would wash up to me every so often, creating a smooth, glassy reflection on the sand. By the time the sun was setting, a patch of high-level clouds was moving overhead, just in time to catch the pink and red sunset light. I focused on a composition that was anchored in both bottom corners, the left by the arch reflection and the right by the sand ripples. The clouds were moving right to left, so I made sure to capture them before they moved over the arch and unbalanced the scene.
This was the first time I’ve photographed this beach to my liking, so I was quite happy with this result.
Tags: beach, natural bridges, ocean, Photography: California, refleciton, Santa Cruz, sea, sea arch, sunset
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January 4th, 2012
I’ve been raving about t
he Narrows hike to just about everyone I know since I got back from Zion. There’s just something about being in a 1000-ft deep crack in the earth that appeals to me. Maybe it was the challenge of wading through a rushing river in a drysuit; I don’t necessarily like being in water, especially water that’s colder than an Ozark spring, and I had never worn a drysuit. Maybe it was the fact that I had always wanted to do this hike, and had driven all the way to Utah and wasn’t going to return without the experience.
About a third of the way to Orderville Canyon, the Virgin River cuts a deep alcove in the canyon wall; it’s a perfectly sculpted chamber. When I first spotted the alcove from downstream, I picked up my pace to get there and photograph it. Then I noticed that the trees on the opposite side were glowing; the morning sun hadn’t gotten all the way into the canyon, but it was illuminating the walls above so much that the entire scene seemed to glow.
I rushed up to the gravel bar and hastily set up my tripod. As I was composing the shot, I noticed that the calm water in front of me was reflecting the glowing trees. What a nice find!
Tags: autumn, canyon, fall color, narrows, national parks, reflection, Utah, virgin river, zion national park
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January 2nd, 2012
What better way to start out 2012 than with a sunrise shot?
Sumrise light on towering rock faces has always fascinated me. I’ve always liked how the sunrise can turn otherwise flat rock formations a brilliant red color. This effect can be seen along the eastern escarpment of the Sierra Nevada in eastern California, which I like to shoot from the Alabama Hills in Inyo County. Thankfully that’s not the only place that this effect can be seen, however. Another such spot is the Towers of the Virgin in Zion National Park.
The skies were clear for each sunrise during my trip to Zion, so I had many opportunities to shoot this scene. It’s easy enough to find the view; just go to the Zion Museum and go behind the building. It’s not necessarily that difficult to shoot, either; the foreground isn’t all that interesting, so tightening the composition to include only the trees and rock works well. But the light is really special.
Sunrise was not until around 8 a.m., so I was able to get a nice breakfast before bundling back up and heading out to the spot. A couple of photo workshops were also there, so I chose a different spot behind the museum as not to bother them. In my haste to leave home, I had left my cable release in my other backpack, so I had been using the self-timer the whole time; this feature comes with a pleasant beeping noise which I’m sure makes me everyone’s friend. So I chose my spot and set up to watch the spectacle.
About 15-20 minutes before the sunrise light hits the towers, the entire rock face starts to glow. This is easier to shoot than when the light gets there, since the scene is more evenly lit. But the real magic is when the light hits the peaks and slowly illuminates the entire scene. The sandstone walls glow a brilliant red with the sunrise light, and thanks to the lower sun angle, the spectacle lasts for a good 10-15 minutes before it washes out.
While this may be a cliche view, it’s really my cup of tea.
Tags: national parks, sunrise, towers of the virgin, Utah, zion canyon, zion national park
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December 29th, 2011
2011 has been a very trying year for me. I’ve been through quite a bit of personal turmoil this year and it’s left a big void in my life. The silver lining to that dark cloud is that I’ve had the opportunity to travel; I’ve photographed more often this year than I have in several years. While my life has changed a lot this year, my love of photography and travel has only grown stronger, and I’m excited by the possiblities that the next year will bring for my photographic endeavors.
With that, here are my eleven favorites from this year.
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#11 – Conway Color
Fall color in the Sierra was a week or so later this year than in 2010, so when I went to the Bishop area in early October, the trees in most areas were still green. But when the third weekend of the month rolled around, reports started coming in of brilliant colors in Mono County. I made a short weekend trip over to the eastern Sierra to hopefully capture some of these aspens, and I was not disappointed. This particular spot is a well-known fall color hotspot; I’ve been to early for peak color here in previous years, but this year I made a special trip for it. |
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#10 – Flowing Narrows
In early November I made my first trip to Zion National Park in southwestern Utah. I timed the trip to coincide with the peak of fall color in Zion Canyon, and the timing was just about perfect. The last hike of the trip was the unforgettable Narrows of the Virgin River. While this hike starts innocently enough, after about a mile you’re in the Virgin River, wading through water up to chest high in some places, and trying to cross rushing rapids in others. Someone once likened it to trying to walk on greased bowling balls. This image was made while standing in the river, using a wider aperture than usual since the rushing water would shake the tripod. Read the rest of this entry » |
Tags: 2011, arches national park, best of, best of 2011, brainard lake, canyonlands national park, Colorado, Kansas, lightning, Mono Lake, national parks, Photography: California, storm chasing, sunrise, sunset, thunderstorm, Utah, zion national park
Posted in Photography: California, Photography: Colorado, Photography: Desert Southwest, Photography: Fall Color, Photography: Weather | 8 Comments »