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Rain was falling sporadically and it was hard to keep rain drops off of the lens. So this image was littered with rain drops. I used spot removal or a radial mask to hide distortions where I could, but it was still unusable. I tried the new AI replace, and although fairly slow in the current implementation (it apparently sends data over the Internet for processing), that enabled me to get the image this far.
I'm leaving today for our next Eastern Sierra/Bodie workshop, but I'm glad that there will be more photos recoverable from our last one!
I believe that the taller peak here is Mount Lyell, the tallest mountain in Yosemite at 13,114 feet tall.
I refuse to use focus stacking. It's easy to avoid: if the content won't fit within the depth of field available, pick a subject and commit to it. The resulting image may be more interesting and/or impactful as a result.
On the second day of summer a snow storm passed through Bodie just before we arrived for our night photography workshop!
The falling snow was heavy as we drove up Bodie Road, but it started to break up as we arrived at the front gate and waited for the park to clear of daytime visitors. The snow didn't stick long on bare ground, but it did stick on vegetation, even grass. Snow was still stuck to the side of the 1937 Chevy after midnight, and the temperature was 24 degrees as we left shortly before 1am.
As often happens in Bodie, the precipitation cleared the air, so we had stunning shooting conditions for night photography. I was trying out a new lens, the Nikkor Z 14-24mm f.2.8 S, which was on loan to Lori. It seemed stunningly sharp, which makes sense for a new lens design which needs to stay relevant through future sensor upgrades (including resolution), but I suspect that the crystal clear skies helped as well.
Cold temperatures and high altitude are ideal as well: less air to shoot though, less atmospheric motion and distortion, and cooler sensors produce less noise.
Try shooting in Death Valley at 11pm and 90+ degrees. The resulting sensor noise is horrific, especially if you're used to shooting at night temperatures in the 50s or less. Compare that to your results at 8000+ feet, where temperatures are often in the 30s or 40s.
They say that there's never been a month of recorded temperatures in Bodie without at least one low temperature below freezing. That's one of the factors that makes it an ideal place for us to pursue night photography!
Mono Lake last weekend, when Lori and I were leading a photography seminar for the Mono Lake Committee. We’ll be back out there with another group tonight, practicing for our nights in Bodie this weekend!
The sheer scale of green growth in Death Valley National Park is mind-boggling right now. If we could get one more train in mid-February...
The weather forecasters at Open Snow yesterday:
"The dry pattern continues to be stuck over the region through the 1st week of February, and into the 2nd. The pattern starts to shift during the 2nd week of February, and storms could return before mid-month."
Fingers crossed.
What an amazing sight and experience. Often the sunset light on Horsetail Fall doesn't happen. When it does happen it may essentially be "colorful waterfall". But sometimes it's it's intensely bright, scintillating spectacle, most analogous to seeing the sun's corona during a total solar eclipse. In fact, while the color may fade to dark orange or red as the sun sets, the most intense and most compelling portion of the event can be 10 or more minutes earlier.
People travel the world to see and experience a total solar eclipse and get those rare minutes of extreme contrast light. I've seen the sun's corona with my own eyes, and I get it. Landscape photographers hope for intense storm light, and chase storms to find intense sunlight breaking through or under dark storm clouds. There are times when the brightness and contrast are so great, the event transcends what seems possible. When we're out with photographers and this happens, first I make sure that people get their faces out of their cameras and experience the full impact of looking at the event directly. Then I point out that "No one is going to believe this." I then add, "And if they do, you've failed to convey the full impact of the event". When the actual event seems impossible as we experience it, what we're trying to capture and convey is also impossible. Prints are probably the least effective way of conveying these events, these experiences, since the brightness and contrast are limited. A bright transmissive medium like a very bright monitor technology may come close, but a projected image from a projector so bright that it hurts your eyes to look at the reflected image would probably be best. Most of us don't have that, nor do the people that we're sharing with, so we do the best we can.
It's no surprise that people flock here for the possibility that they may once, or again, experience the repeatable scintillating light of the sun reflecting off of the water and wet rock alongside Horsetail Fall. Most of you may see "colorful waterfall" and think "What's the big deal?" That's OK. I get it.
May you someday experience something that seems so improbable, so spectacular that you will be unable to adequately describe, capture, or convey it as well.
Purple mat wildflowers showing an impressive specificity regarding the sites they favor. It's possible that they germinated in a much more diverse collection of hillsides, but the areas where they're concentrated had just the right combination of moisture, nutrients, heat, and sunshine to result in large persistent patches.
It's amazing how specific plants can be about where and when they like to grow. For golden evening primrose, this hillside was just right.
Program:Manual
Lens:70-300mm f/4-5.6 G VR
F:4.8
Speed:1/400
ISO:140
Focal Length:155.0 mm (35 mm equivalent 232.0 mm)
Focus Mode:AF-C
AF Area:Dynamic Area (3D-tracking)
Shooting Mode:Single-Frame, Auto ISO
VR:On
EV:-2/3
Metering Mode:Center-weighted average
WB:Auto1
Picture Control:Standard
Focus Distance:4.73 m
Dof:0.17 m (4.65 - 4.82)
HyperFocal:249.34 m
I pointed my camera north for a while to see if we got a return of a more active sub storm.
Apparently the Mono lake Committee has selected this image for their 2027 calendar!
No light added; a crescent moon was setting to the northwest.
Mono Lake is critical habitat for nesting and migration routes. Please don't harass osprey and other birds by lighting up the tufa!
Fortunately we saw this coming, we've shot in Bodie in the snow multiple times before, and everyone was prepared to shoot until 1am!
Our summer 2026 Bodie workshops are open for enrollment. We like in the area and we've done this dozens of times before... we'll make sure that you're prepared for the conditions!
Often in winter and spring the main road here is closed with snow. The road in from the south has rough tire-destroying washboard in places (and I've gotten two flats at once on that road).
Nevertheless, we can't wait to return late next month with several photographers (with All Terrain tires of course)!
Taken from a moving car at 240mm hand-held. I was skeptical that the shot would work, but we had no time to stop. The Nikon Z8 and Nikkor 28-400mm lens captured a remarkably sharp result
Emphasis on foreground sand ripple patterns in warm first light, ultimately leading to an interesting sunny sand dune. The curvy shadow lines are a nice touch in the midground, and they continue to lead the viewer ultimately to the ray of sunlight streaming through the sky over the distant mountain.
Ultra-wide focal lengths like 14mm, used in a portrait orientation, promote foreground while de-emphasizing the midground and background. This can be a powerful tool to deploy, in your intent to showcase a particular portion of a scene, and to prioritize the foreground vs. other elements in a deliberate way.
I like to provide additional details that can be discovered and appreciated over time, so I rarely make shadows to fully to black (enjoy). Subtle details can be included or de-emphasized using subtle photographic techniques that impact the end result.