Lake Hodges Sunrise

Lake Hodges Sunrise

Lake Hodges is a new favorite location for me, especially for sunrise. The lake is peaceful enough in the early morning hours to like a remote destination, and yet is only minutes off the freeway making it a quick enough trip I don't have to make special plans to get to.

This image is from my first visit to the lake and in hindsight, I should have visited during the day to plan out a couple good locations. Scouting locations is almost impossibly hard to do in the pre-dawn darkness. When I arrived, I wasn't even sure where I could park and the delay nearly caused me to miss this special sunrise. I've found that sunrises are best just before the sun actually comes up and as I got out of the car, I could see a few clouds through the trees that surround the lake already lit up with a slight pinkish color. Fearing that was the best color of the morning, I rushed to the lake shore and hurriedly began taking photos. The first few shots were poorly composed and clearly not thought out.

As I slowed down, relaxed and thought through each photo before tripping the shutter, I was rewarded with the brilliant sunrise you see here. Further proof that it's better to slow down and "smell the roses."

Grand Canyon Heat Part 2: Here Comes the Rain

A small pine tree finds a way to live on the lip of the canyon

Day Two of our Toroweap adventure brought tempratures nearing 120 degrees during the day, overcast skies in the afternoon and a evening windstorm strom enough to rip the door of my tent irrepearably off its zipper. Oh, and another crop of excellent images!

I missed sunrise on Day Two and from what I've seen from the other photographers who made it out of their sleeping bags in time, it was an amazing sunrise, not to be missed. (Have no fear, I made it to the next day's sunrise!) By mid-afternoon a bank of high, thick clouds rolled in to blanket the area. Aaron, Jim and I headed up to the overlook for a while, fearing that with the cloud cover we would all miss out on a chance to photograph the sunset. Turns out we were right, there was no sunset that night, but we were able to capture some sweet images anyway.

The glow and indirect light of an overcast day can be tricky to photograph in. It's a kind of light that is better suited to macro photography, not wide vistas, but I've found that the low contrast, even light can really make colors pop in a scene, as the image to the right can attest. You can see the cloud buildup in the distance hints at the growing storm, but the real proof lies to the east, behind the camera.

Grand Canyon Heat Part 1

Grand Canyon Light Show

Back in July, a group of fellow photographers and I ventured into the summer heat and headed for the remote Toroweap Overlook on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The South Rim is nice and easy to get to, but for a photographer, the crowds of people can drive you insane trying to get a shot without someone standing in it. The remote, undeveloped North Rim is much more difficult to get to but a vast improvement in terms of crowd control. The 3 hour drive over rough, rock strewn dirt roads deters all but the most dedicated.

Count myself and the other eight photographers as some of those dedicated few. Over the course of the three days we spent out there, we saw less than 10 other folks who weren't part of our group. The road had a lot to do with it but so did the heat. The mercury rose upwards of 113 degrees while we were there. With that kind of heat to contend with, we woke early to shoot the sunrise and quickly retreated to the shade of a pop-up canopy to drink water and wait out the day's heat. After a quick dinner, we would emerge from the safety of the canopy once more to shoot the sunset and enjoy the cool evening breezes. That is if you can call 95 degree wind a cool breeze!

The image to the right, Grand Canyon Light Show, was taken mid-afternoon on our first day on the rim. Mid-morning through mid-afternoon aren't typical times to shoot landscape images as the light isn't as sweet as it is during the "Magic Hour." But in this instance, I really enjoyed the play of the light through the clouds and the shadows cast down into the canyon. Those shadows and the play between light and dark through the canyon would not have been possible in late afternoon Magic Hour. Rules were made to be broken!

Under the Scripps Pier in La Jolla

Under Scripps Pier at night

A recent favorite of mine, this image was taken at La Jolla Shores, under the Scripps Pier and can be found in my ever growing California Coastline gallery. It is actually 3 images stitched together. My current gear doesn't allow me to capture an ultra-wide angle of view, so a relatively small space like under this particular pier is hard to capture in it's entirety with one single shot. (And the gear needed for that runs in the thousands!)

I waited for just the right wave to come in and recede before taking the first shot (bottom of the image). The little bit of water left as the wave receded gave me that nice reflection in the foreground. Once that was in place, I just tilted the camera up a little, took the second image and repeated for the third (top) image. Photoshop did an excellent job of stitching the 3 images together for me, but I had to go in and manually correct some perspective distortion that resulted in the camera being tilted upwards.

High Tide at La Jolla Cove

Waves crashing on the rocky shore at La Jolla Cove

Tides are good for business. That is, if your business is photographing the coast. Particularly good when it's a very low or very high tide at sunset. In between tides and even normal high or low tides are average at best, photographically speaking. Even at sunset, they lack drama or uniqueness because they are so common. But the extremely low and high tides associated with the full moon are another beast all together. During extremely low tides reveal rocks formally hidden beneath the waves and the high tides bring waves that batter the coast with a brutal intensity.

This image, from my California Coastline gallery, was taken during high tide at La Jolla Cove. While these coastal rocks normally do get wet during an average high tide, the extreme high tide brought an energy I had yet to see here. To shoot this image, I chose a slow shutter speed, to allow the crashing waves to blur and show their movement and energy. This technique is not an exact science and I've found the best way to bring home a great image is to choose a composition, then choose the shutter speed that allows for the best movement in the waves and finally to just lock the shutter down for a while. The result is normally quite a few similar photos to sift through, but the payoff of finding that one image with just the right wave splash in it is more than worth it!

Energy Drink

Energy Drink

I try to participate in as many of DGrin's photo challenges as time allows. Not only are the prizes paid up in credits for my SmugMug subscription, but they push me towards new levels of creativity and excellence in my photography. Every quarter, the forum offers a Mega-Challenge with increased prize payout and only open to those who have placed in the top 5 of a challenge during the previous 3 months.

This image, Energy Drink, was shot for one such Mega-Challenge that my Transportation image qualified me for. The theme for the challenge was Energy and as a caffeine junky, the idea of an energy drink was an instant fit.

The set up for this shot was pretty simple, a couple pieces of black poster board for the background, a cold soda from the fridge, camera on a tripod, couple small flashlights and shoot away.

The bottle was lit up from behind with a small Maglite in three separate exposures which were then stacked together in Photoshop. The swirls were made with a tiny Maglite dangling on a string and swished around the bottle. These swirls were shot in three different exposures and again stacked with the bottle in photoshop. The image could have been produced in one single exposure, but the nature of swirling a flashlight around a bottle is unpredictable at best. Trying to light the bottle and create the swirls all in one shot would have led to needless pain and frustration.

After Dark - Sunset Cliffs

Only One Way Out - Stairs up from the coast, well after sunset

Amazing things happen after night fall. This new image is from a set entitled After Dark, that strives to document the look of the world once the sun goes down.

With very low light, an After Dark scene demands a long shutter speed to capture the details. This particular scene, from the foot of the staircase leading to the beach at Sunset Cliffs, required a 7 minute exposure (you read that right SEVEN minutes!) and was taken about 2 hours after sunset.

It was a full moon night, and I believe that added to the surreal pink clouds and purple sky, but a large cliff directly behind the camera blocked any of the moonlight from hitting the rocks or staircase. The light falling on those foreground objects is from a well placed, but far off, street light. So far off in fact that to the naked eye, it doesn't appear to be adding any light to the scene, but after 7 minutes of adding up, it's clear the light is on at least the railings of the staircase.

A few more After Dark images can be seen in this gallery.

The Ancestral Puebloan Primer

he Ancestral Puebloan Primer

Almost 2 decades ago when Dad moved from the East Coast to the West, I joined in for the ride. Being a pretty smart guy, Dad realized the only way to make the cross county driving trip with a 6 year old (me!) and still be sane at the end would be to make a lot of stops along the way and visit "cool" stuff. I don't remember all the stops, but I know we stopped at the Petrified Forrest and Mesa Verde, where we both became fascinated by the ruins of the ancient Native American culture then known as the Anasazi. Recent years have led to the revelation that the term "Anasazi" isn't the most politically correct name and has been replaced by "Ancestral Puebloans."

Over the years, my dad and I made a number of return trips to the four corners area to explore these magnificent ruins in a seemingly inhospitable land. And about 4 years ago now, the opportunity arose for my dad to leave the coast behind and spend his time in and around the Four Corners area, volunteering at some of the most culturally significant sites of the Ancestral Puebloan. Leading tours of visitors by day, Dad would retire to comfort of his trailer at night to research and write what ultimately became this book.

As he finished writing, Dad sent me the files to proof-read and edit, then with my corrections approved I laid out the pages and assembled the book. The result is a compact easy to read, yet full of information volume that bridges the gap between overly simplified literature and signs at the majority of the parks in the Four Corners and scholarly writings meant to be read only by other scholars. The Ancestral Puebloan Primer can be found here on Amazon.com.

We are currently working on a follow up book, America's Southwestern Treasures, which focuses more on what there is to see and do at these amazing sites as well as offering suggested itineraries for those looking to make the most of their time in the Southwest. Treasures should be available by late spring 2010, check back here for updates.

On a similar note, a few years ago, I had the opportunity to go spend a week visiting Dad while he was still volunteering at the National Monument at Aztec, NM. I was lucky enough to get a personalized tour of both Aztec Ruins and Chaco Canyon from my dad and I've recently uploaded a gallery of photos I shot while I was there. You can find them here in my Ruins of the American Southwest gallery. They were all shot with my little point and shoot camera (this was probably 2 years until I upgraded to my new fancy DSLR) but some of them turned out quite nicely.

Joshua Tree National Park

A Joshua Tree at night, lit by a nearby campfire.

A couple weekends ago I made my first visit to Joshua Tree National Park and it won't be my last. These trees are amazingly cool looking. The dry, high desert climate these trees inhabit shapes them into truly unique beings. After the first year, when they grow about 5 inches, Joshua trees only grow a half inch a year, making the tree shown to the right here several hundreds of years old. For a Joshua Tree to bloom in the spring, it needs to have at least a brief freezing cold spell during the winter, and remember it's a desert area.

The tree shown in the photo to the right was just on the edge of our campsite and on this night, it was illuminated entirely by our campfire. The image was taken long after sunset as my girlfriend and I relaxed from a long day of hiking around the park. Conditions weren't right to create an image of star trails circling the top of this particular tree, so I opted to isolate it against the dark sky instead. By using a medium size aperture, f/8, and a relatively fast shutter, I was able to get a black sky with very few stars showing up. The couple that did show up looked more like mistakes than reality and were edited out.

Hand in hand with the unique trees, the park also houses some very unique geological features. The soft sandstone that composes much of the exposed rock in the park has been eroded into immense boulders pock-marked with interesting features.

Yosemite National Park

A Giant Seqouia in Mariposa Grove

Back in September I left home on an almost two week journey that brought me to Yosemite National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Lava Beds National Monument and Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was quite a journey and there's no better way to learn your camera than getting out to use it!

That's exactly what the trip was for. With the exception of 3 days while I was visiting family in Washington state, I was out in the field with my camera every day for those two weeks. It was really an awesome experience and if I hadn't used all my vacation time up for it, I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

I took nearly 6,000 photos over the course of the trip, and now I can safely say, that's entirely too many. It was good for the learning process, but bad for the processing process. Since I have my camera set to save images in the Raw format, I need to process each image before it's ready for public consumption. Luckily there were quite a few overlapping images of the same subject but with different camera settings, so I was able to pick the best of each bunch and process those.

Yosemite has a number of Giant Seqouia groves. The most accessible for me on this trip (since it was nearby my campsite) was the Mariposa Grove at the southern tip of the park. My camera bag currently lacks an ultra-wide angle lens so it was difficult to capture the full majesty of these enormous trees. That didn't keep me from trying however, and I think this image as the late afternoon sun lit up the tree's bark, comes close.

Stand Behind Line

Stand Behind Line

I'm not sure why Google Maps is choosing to show the location for this image as "Core - Columbia, San Diego, CA," but this image was shot at One American Plaza in downtown San Diego. The plaza houses a fairly busy hub for the MTS Trolleys, San Diego's above-ground subway solution, and was the perfect location to shoot for a recent photography forum contest entitled Transportation.

As soon as the contest was posted, I envisioned an image similar to this one, a red trolley flashing by with that uber-cool ribbed, arching roof showing above and through the flash. Various compositions, angles and shutter speeds were attempted with the sole purpose of capturing just the perfect frame to match the vision I had.

A few hundred frames (mostly because these types of long exposures can be so unpredictable in their results) yielded a nice crop of keepers, but this one here stood above the rest. It was the one frame that matched my vision completely and had the add bonus of titling itself.

Cabrillo National Monument

Wildflowers at Cabrillo with the Old Point Loma Lighthouse as  a backdrop

Cabrillo National Monument is one of my favorite places to photograph. The park might very well be one of the smallest in the National Parks system (this is a guess... please no fact checking), but offers a wide range of opportunities from the views of the bay and downtown San Diego, to the Old Point Loma Lighthouse (circa 1855), whale watching or the tidal plains on the Pacific Ocean side of the park.

I spent this past Sunday there enjoying the warm sunshine and super low tide. The extreme low tide is the lowest I've ever see there and awarded me with and almost alien landscape to stumble across and explore. Before I made my way down to the tidal areas, I took a quick run up to the old lighthouse, mainly to test a new lens and how it could be used to capture one of my favorite subjects, the spiral staircase leading up the inside of the lighthouse tower. I found the lighthouse too popular and crowded to capture anything of real value on the inside, but found some of the seasons first wildflowers blooming just outside.

More of these can be found in my Cabrillo National Monument gallery, here.

The California Coastline

The rocks of Sunset Cliffs lit up at sunset.

Califonia's Coastline with the Pacific Ocean stretchs on for an amazing 840 miles. This new gallery on my site, approriately titled "California Coastline," is dedicated to documenting my exploration of this fascinating area.

This image is from Sunset Cliffs, just south of Ocean Beach, just before sunset. As the sun gets low in the sky, the almost sideways rays of light cast a warm golden glow on the sandstone of these cliffs. The tidepools in the foreground held just enough water between waves to reflect the blue sky and clouds from above.

I estimate that I've now explored at least 3 miles of coastline, and with only 837 more to go this gallery is sure to keep growing!