Of An Abstract Nature

Abstract Trees and Grass

This image is the first of a new series, titled Of An Abstract Nature. The series is an avenue for exploring different photographic techniques and at the moment I've been experimenting with longer shutter speeds and deliberate camera movement.

Most photographers (especially landscape photographers) strive for super sharp, crisp images where any blur from camera shake ruins the image. Even the smallest amount of shake will be noticeable in a print and detract from the overall scene. This image, and the series thus far, explores what happens if the whole scene is a blur. With vaguely recognizable forms and purposeful movement, the image becomes more of an impressionistic, painterly view of the natural world. The colors of the scene are emphasized over the details of the scene.


Part of the fun of this type of shot is the mystery. When taking a standard landscape image with the camera set atop a sturdy tripod, what you see through the viewfinder is what you get (hopefully). With these shots, I could only imagine at how it might end up. I found it best to take multiple shots of similar scenes with varied shutter speeds and camera movements.

Torrey Pines State Beach - Low Tide

Coastal Rock formation at Torrey Pines State Beach

Torrey Pines State Beach and its neighboring State Reserve are quickly becoming a couple of my favorite spots for photography. Just a quick 10 minute drive from home, these parks offer some gorgeous landscapes just begging to be photographed. Every time I visit, something new catches my eye.

On this particular visit, back in early January of this year, I planned my arrival with an extremely low tide associated with that night's full moon. Most days, even at low tide, these rocks are hidden beneath the waves and the beach is an idyllic, gently sloping sandy beach. Only on very low tides do these rocks emerge from the depths.

Fortunately, the tide stayed out long enough to capture these rocks with glowing sunset in the background. In actuality, this shot is from several minutes after sunset. Generally the best sunset colors can be found once the sun is already below the horizon, and this day was no exception.

This shot, along with being a current favorite of mine, was the inspiration behind a new series entitled Elegant Erosion. The series is intended to look at the benefits and beauty of erosion as opposed to its current negative connotations.

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!