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In about a month from today, I will be headed back to the majestic Canadian Rockies. No matter how many times I visit there, I always want to go back. June is a special time of the year for visiting and photographing. There is usually lots of snow left on the mountain peaks and there may also be a thin layer of ice on the lakes. The wildlife seems more plentiful during the month and there are sometimes babies to be seen. Lastly, the summer crowds are yet to make their way to this popular vacation destination.
Whenever I have an approaching trip, I start reviewing my photos from previous trips to see what I may have missed. I also spend some time looking at other photographers works to see what I may have missed or maybe a different way to look at a scene. In any case, I am starting to get quite excited about my trip to Banff, as it is my number one destination of all of the places I have been.
This photo of Herbert Lake is from my last trip there. All you have to do to get this shot is to wake up very early, hope that the weather cooperates, drive the fabulous Icefields Parkway to the lake, park on the shoulder of the road, get out of the car, and compose and take the shot.
taken leaning over a railing, while the rain was pelting down... the first real weather sealing test for my camera...Brandywine Falls, near Whistler BC
This image cannot be used on websites, blogs or other media without explicit my permission. © All rights reserved
Next month, I will be revisiting the Palouse and its amazing landscape. I have been there once before in early June when the rolling landscape was a carpet of green and absolutely fell in love with it. The area has become a mecca for landscape photographers in recent years. The Palouse covers approximately 4,000 square miles in eastern Washington, western Idaho and a small portion of northeastern Oregon, which is slightly smaller than my home state of Connecticut. It is tough to truly measure as there are no signs or boundaries. The best way to determine whether you are in the Palouse is to use your eyes. There is a unique look to the landscape.
That being said, I have seen photos of the Palouse during harvest time when the landscape has changed from green to harvest brown and I am excited that I might be able to see it during that time. Of course, predicting the time of the harvest is akin to timing a visit to see fall foliage. It always depends on many things, especially the weather that year. I will keep my fingers crossed.
JUST PRACTICING FOR THE NEW FLICKR. LOL NOW SERIOUSLY IF YOU HHAVE NOT YET VIEWED AND TRIED TO USE THE BETA VERSION OF THE NEW PHOTO DISPLAY PAGE, DO SO NOW. sEE ALL THE THINGS YOU CANNOT SEE OR DO. DO YOU SEE GROUP ICONS, PROBABLY NEVER WILL AGAIN. DO YOU SEE ADMIN. INVITES, PROBABLY NEVER WILL AGAIN. . ENJOY YOUR DAY, YOUR LIFE MAY BE CHANGING FOR GOOD REAL SOON.
Manche Bilder sind halt so: nicht spektakulär, aber allemal ein nettes Bildchen. Die Sonne scheint ja auch nicht jeden Tag und die gebratenen Hähnchen hängen auch nicht von den Bäumen herab.
Vieles ist einfach nur Durchschnittsware ... und dass ist gut so ... man müsste sich ja Tag für Tag selbst übertrumpfen. Wird man dann nicht atemlos?
2015 EBE Sebastian 8414
FB18
One of the areas high on my bucket list is eastern British Columbia. I have only done some minor exploring of the area and need to revisit, hopefully next year when I visit Banff and Jasper National Parks. Both parks, although in Alberta, are pretty close to the BC border. I will also revisit some of the places I first set eyes on like this one.
This beautiful scene is of the Fraser River, which is the longest river in British Columbia, measuring 854 miles long. It originates near Mount Robson (very close to where I shot this photo) and terminates in the Strait of Georgia at Vancouver. I was immediately taken with the color of the river, which is typical of mountain-fed rivers, especially near their source.
The only thing that would have made this scene even more special is the return of the Chinook Salmon to visit their spawning grounds. The salmon return here after years of swimming in the sea and it must be a sight to see. I suspect that when their return does happen, trying to get to this spot would be difficult, as it probably attracts a lot of visitors and photographers.
While driving to Acadia after our Maine Photo Tour, my buddy Jeff Clow did what he does best to find the off-the-beaten-track spots. He said to me, "Why don't you turn down this unpaved road and find out if there is anything there worth shooting?" Usually when he says that, the payoff is terrific. This was the case as we drove a little ways down the road. The colors of the foliage were on full display very quickly. We had luckily timed our tour with the peak of the Maine foliage season. It was late this year and both we and our tour participants were rewarded for it.
I have lived in New England for over 20 years but had never seen the ground change colors from green to red. Trees and bushes yes, ground no. We found out later that this was a huge blueberry field and blueberry plants change color with the season (who knew?). In any case, the colors just popped for us even though the ground and trees were in the shade due to the cloud cover. Maybe I should have titled this post "Blueberry Fields Forever?"
Mixed media on found book cover, 8.75 x 5.5 inches.
2009.
And that goes for all your Twitter followers too.
Sold.
When one thinks of our national parks, the last thing that they think of are places of worship. If you think about it, what better places to build them than in front of the Earth's most beautiful sites? There are two that are in Grand Teton National Park, and this one, the Chapel of the Transfiguration, has the best view of the Tetons. Built in 1925 before the establishment of the national park, this Episcopalian chapel has a view of the Cathedral Group of peaks from both inside and outside the chapel. It was originally built to serve the many dude ranches that were located in the area.
I shot this one evening when the soft light was on full display. This is probably a much better sunrise location, but with the many other stellar sunrise locations, it didn't make my early morning cut. If I were able to spend a longer visit to the park, it would make my sunrise list of locations to shoot.
One of the main requirements to be a successful landscape photographer is to shoot during the golden hours, either at sunrise and sunset. In fact, many magazines will not even consider photos that were taken during other times, no matter how good they are. Even when not publishing, there are certain places that the only way to get a good picture is to shoot during the golden hours. The Grand Canyon is one of those places. Photos shot during those times add depth and definition to the beauty of the canyon. Any other time, photographs are flat with little or no definition because the sun is higher in the sky thus casting very shallow shadows. This shot from Yavapai Point was taken just before sunset.
One of the sights that is associated with Acadia National Park are the "bubbles" that are prominent when visiting Jordan Pond. The Bubbles are the two rounded mountains that probably do not qualify as mountains. The North Bubble measures only 872 feet and the South Bubble is a bit shorter at 766 feet. Regardless of their height, some of the best views of Acadia are from the Bubbles. While they can be seen from many different stops, the best view is from Jordan Pond.
This composition is not the usual one when you see photos of the pond and the Bubbles. Most photos are taken from the south to the middle part of the pond that gives you a more direct view. On this fall morning, I decided to hike toward the northern end of the trail, and got this angle of these cool rocks while showing off the fall colors.
Leica M3 + Leica Summilux ASPH 50mm f1.4 @ f1.4 + 35mm CineStill 800T + 85B filter
C41 lab developed + Epson v800 scan - Facebook crop
Polish model Teresa. Sopot Poland. Window light only
CineStill 800T - mrleica.com/2015/01/14/cinestill-800t-35mm-film/
Shot in Udaipur, India
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This image is part of the album Streets of India
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There is a section of Grand Teton National Park that is known as Mormon Row. This area of the park got its name from a group of Mormon settlers that settled into the area from Idaho in the 1890's. Today, only a few buildings from the settlement are left, including two of the most photographed barns in the world built by the Moulton brothers (Thomas and John).
After shooting the more famous of the barns (the Thomas A. Moulton barn), we headed to the John Moulton homestead to shoot some of the buildings there. This stucco house is known as the "Pink House" for its pink color. It was built by John Moulton 30 years after he settled there, replacing the original log cabin that originally housed his family.
After a few weeks of posting photos from the American Southwest, I thought it time to move on to another favorite place today, Alberta. Many visitors to Banff National Park head north to explore the Icefields Parkway and some of the most beautiful landscapes you will ever see. Most of them never get past the Columbia Icefield, where they can walk onto the Athabasca Glacier (it is something that you should do at least once). For those that don't continue, they are missing some prime sights on the parkway the rest of the way to Jasper. The Canadian Rockies are just as beautiful in Jasper National Park as their brethren in Banff. As you drive up this 140-mile road, you see vistas that make you pull over and photograph them, like I did in this photo. Without stopping, one could probably do the drive in about three hours. For photographers like me, it is an all-day affair with a stop seemingly every mile or so.
Sometimes a magical moment happens when least expected that gives you the most memorable event of a trip. A few of us had spent a few hours at Oxbow Bend and the weather did not cooperate at all. Mount Moran was totally socked in, the weather wasn't so hot, and, all in all, it was a morning to forget. My good buddy Jeff Clow suggested that we head to Cattleman's Bridge to see if we could find a bald eagle or two flying above the water. As we all looked up for the eagles, someone spotted some movement down river. There, amid the low-lying mist were quite a number of elk that were crossing the river onto an island. It was so unexpected and one of the coolest moments I have experienced. The fact that I also got some decent photos of the event was a bonus.
This shot was my "unicorn" of the trip. My good friend Chris Nitz has the best description of what a unicorn is to a photographer. In Chris's words, "... the “unicorn” is that single image that makes an entire trip. It is that moment that you compose your photo, click that shutter button, check the LCD and immediately know that you could never take another photo during your trip and be completely happy with what you have." I couldn't say it any better (which is why I stole Chris' words).
Last September, I participated in a photo tour in Colorado with my friend Rick Louie (for those of you looking to take a tour, Rick's tour is highly recommended). The group met in Denver for dinner the night before the tour started. Rick's plan was to head to Telluride, stopping at different locations along the six hour drive. One of the first stops was a little cemetery in the small town (population 439) of Como. When we pulled up, it was clear that there were not very many headstones in the cemetery (so people were dying to get there). It was also clear that it was a beautiful place to be buried, with several stands of Aspens, all at peak color. The interesting part of the scene above that intrigued me was the bench where visitors could sit. I don't frequent cemeteries much, but I don't recall many benches in them.
There are times as a landscape photographer that I shoot way too wide and sometimes miss an important feature of a scene. Sure, the scene is usually in a wide-angle photo, but so are a lot of other details that confuse the viewer's eyes and they miss the important part. That is why I find myself trying very different compositions of the same scene, trying to capture the "right" one. Why not just shoot the "right" one in the beginning? My answer is that you don't always know which composition is the one until you get home and edit the image. All you know is that something in the scene caught your eye and compelled you to want to take the photo.
For this photo, I took probably 25 shots of this abandoned farmhouse in the Palouse. I took wide shots, tight shots and photos from all different angles and heights. It wasn't until I reviewed the images that I discovered what attracted my eye in the first place. It was the shadows of the roof line and how the sunlight came through the openings in the roof that drew my eye to see inside that window. Had I not varied my shooting, I might never have found what inspired me. My advice is to mimic this behavior and you might realize what drove you to take a photo. After all, shooting digital doesn't cost anything but time.
Stamen of a Hibiscus. Used the Raynox DCR 250.
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I have been posting a few photos from the American Southwest recently, probably due to the fact that I will be visiting there in early March. No trip to Utah is complete without stopping by Monument Valley on the Arizona-Utah border. Located in the northwestern portion of Navajo Nation, it is a place of great landscapes that have appeared in countless westerns and commercials. It has even been featured in a Metallica music video. The official name of the park is Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, which is the equivalent of an American National Park.
There are many rock formations that, over the years, have been given names either by the Navajo or early settlers to the area. Many of the rock formations can be seen from the 17-mile dirt road that visitors to the park can drive for a daily fee. To get off of the road and see some of the lesser-known formations, the hiring of a Navajo guide is necessary. The arch in this photo is one of those off-road formations. I have been told it is known as Keyhole Arch, but have also heard it called Pottery Arch. Regardless of its name, the view through the center of it is pretty cool.
Return to Pemaquid - Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, Bristol, Maine
Back from Jeff Clow's Maine Lighthouse and Coast Tour and I have started to look at the photos that I was able to shoot. Other than some stormy weather on the first afternoon, we were blessed with nice weather, although it was a bit cold and windy. Over the next week or two, I will be posting from the trip.
To the surprise of anyone who has been with me in Maine, my first photo is of my favorite lighthouse, Pemaquid Point Light and its famous puddle reflection. Many people have asked if that puddle is real and did I Photoshop a reflection in it. I can state unequivocally that the puddle is there year round (or at least over the course of my 15+ visits). The puddle may be bigger or smaller on each visit depending on the weather. The better question to ask is "Was the wind blowing?" That question is easily answered in that, if there is any decent wind, there will be no reflection. Our group visited the puddle in the late afternoon and the wind was pretty steady. While we got some reflections, the ripples made it barely recognizable. Fortunately, we visited Pemaquid on our last day at sunrise. After shooting from the front and the other side, some of us revisited the puddle, even though the wind was blowing. With a little patience, the wind died off periodically in order to get some still reflection shots.
fireworks from Sarnia's Canada Day firework display, July 1
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The trip to Banff last month was a resounding success. Based upon the photos I have seen from my friends, their favorite place by far was Moraine Lake and for good reason. Every time I am asked where my favorite location in Banff is, my answer seems to change, but not anymore. Moraine Lake treated us with some amazing conditions from snow, rain, clouds and sunshine. Seeing it in all of those conditions has locked it in as my favorite location. Sure there is tremendous competition from all of the surrounding mountains, mountain lakes, waterfalls and glaciers but any lake that is surrounded by ten peaks (known as the Valley of the Ten Peaks) is usually the winner.
There have been so many photos of the lake posted by my friends (the disadvantage of being the last one home), I am posting my first photo of the lake with its always present canoes. I have always loved their color with the mountain peaks in the background.
As you may have noticed, I spent the last two foliage seasons away from my home state of Connecticut. Last year, it was taking a tour of Colorado to see the colors of the aspens against the magnificent mountains. This year, I co-hosted a Maine Photo Tour with my good buddy Jeff Clow. When I got home, I was too busy to get a chance to shoot the Connecticut foliage. So this photo is from a few years ago, and is of my go-to location for foliage photography. Located about an hour from my house near Lake Waramaug State Park, this particular location is privately owned and difficult to shoot. The property is large (some might consider it a mansion) and I wish that I had the run of the place to photograph it. There is no shoulder on the road, so it is hard to pull over to shoot it. I sometimes park on the home's driveway (about a half-mile long), hop out and get in some shots. I am always ready to hop back in the car and take off if I see anyone coming. Perhaps one day, I will get the courage to drive the very long driveway, knock on the door, and ask permission.