Shore Acres State Park, Coos Bay, Oregon.

Cape Arago Light is the the least accessible of the Oregon lighthouses and it's no longer operational. The lighthouse is on private land and may be viewed at a distance from a pullout on Cape Arago road. I was happy to catch the rainbow when I arrived in late afternoon at this location. Thanks for visiting and your comments!

Miwok Beach. Sonoma County, California USA

Miwok Beach is a tiny beach named after the Coast Miwok Native Americans who lived in this southern portion of Sonoma County long ago. There is a small pullout parking area signed for Miwok Beach on the west side of Highway 1 north of Bodega Bay. A short trail with a small wooden bridge over a creek takes you down to the beach. Just note that this narrow shoreline will be mostly wet at high tides. At high tide the adjacent wider beach at the mouth of Salmon Creek is a good option. Dogs are not allowed on Miwok Beach and swimming is dangerous to say the least. Miwok Beach is part of Sonoma Coast State Park. Description by: www.californiabeaches.com

Explore. December 15, 2022

A setting looking to the west-northwest while taking in views at a forest landscape and across the mountainside in this part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is at a roadside pullout and parking area along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Given the negative space present with the overcast skies, I chose to focus on the ridges and spurs present to my front. I took advantage of the high ground, I was located on to raise the horizon a little higher into the image and bring out more of a sweeping view in this national park landscape.

A setting looking to the north at a roadside pullout along Texas State Highway 118. My thinking in composing this image was to use the road and center stripe as a leading line into the image with Elephant Mountain and other peaks of the Big Bend Ranges off in the distance. I took advantage of the swiveled out LCD screen and used LiveView to center and line up the image as well as finding a focus point. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 5 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

A brown Black Bear works its way down a steep rocky slope along the Akamina Parkway in Waterton. I was lucky that there was a pullout nearby, allowing me to park safely and get out of the car. There wasn't much traffic early in the morning, but it is a narrow, winding road, requiring caution.

The bear wasn't at all bothered by the appearance of a two-legged one, and for the most part ignored me. Waterton has black Black Bears, but also a high proportion of browns and the occasional cinnamon - really nice looking variations.

Photographed in Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2014 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

The Expectation is to Stop and Smell the Roses

But in the mountains there are only wildflowers to enjoy

So I will stop to live that moment

No speed involved to my finish line

Just the day, a moment, and a vista like none other

I could always sing and give Julie Andrews a run for the money

I am all alone with only the trees and birds to share my company

So hike your own hike

Speed to adventure, if you must

And explore the planet we all share

You might just find me with my shoes and socks off

And only a smile as I sit and take in a view.

Another work of short poetry or prose to complement the image captured one afternoon in Big Bend National Park at a roadside pullout along the main Basin road. The view is looking to the west across the Chisos Basin area to The Windows off in the distance. Because of the several thousand foot decline in elevation present across this national park landscape, I had to angle my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward to capture a more sweeping view. The more distant peaks and mountains would be pushed higher into the image but leave enough for me to include some of the blue skies and clouds above.

For processing the image, I chose to work with Aurora HDR Pro to better bring that complete setting in the image. I later exported a TIFF image to DxO?PhotoLab 4 where I did some final adjustments with contrast, saturation and brightness for the final image.

While at a roadside pullout along the Icefields Parkway with a view looking to the southeast to ridges and peaks around the Columbia Icefield area. This is in Jasper National Park.

While standing at a parking area pullout and overlook for the Jasper Forest and looking to the west across badlands and eroded formations in this part of Petrified Forest National Park. One can see the scattered fragments of petrified wood all over this landscape between the overlook and more distant badlands formations. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 4 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

- Stendhal.

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Last year, we went on a Christmas break trip to Utah to visit Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Although it was incredibly cold, I loved the ten days we spent in the southern Utah desert. During my visit to Bryce Canyon National Park, I encountered a pine tree towards the end of the scenic drive. On the second day of our trip, I returned to the same spot, hoping to capture a great image of the tree. However, I struggled to get the perfect shot. The small pullout area didn't provide me with enough flexibility to compose a good photo. My aim was to balance the tree with the cliff, but no matter where I positioned myself, I couldn't get a clear view of the valley beyond.

“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”

John Muir

While walking amongst some aspen trees with green leaves showing the signs of spring in the air. This was a view looking to the southwest at a roadside pullout along Utah Scenic Byway 12 in Fishlake National Forest. Google Maps adds a reference of Spruce Spring. My thoughts in composing this image was the capture a look across this forested and woodland setting with aspen trees all to my front. I would angle my Nikon SLR camera slightly upward, looking to the skies above, while having the focus with the trees. The image itself was in someways a keepsake to cooler temperatures with spring-like weather. Watching aspen tree leaves shimmer with each passing breeze, but only a capture of that one moment in time. The blue skies and clouds would be that color contrast to complement the earth-tones in the lower portion of the image.I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 5 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

While at a roadside pullout along the Icefields Parkway with a view looking to the southeast to ridges and peaks around the Columbia Icefield area. This is in Jasper National Park.

Experiencing Things Physical

While capturing things with my eye

Walking forward, backward, and spinning around

I have the gift of time spent

And a wondering mind

It's magical and explainable

A story told in words and photos by me.

Another work of short poetry or prose to complement the image captured one afternoon in northern New Mexico with the southern Rocky Mountains. The view is looking to the northwest to the ridges and peaks with the Brazos Cliffs in the Tusas Mountains. This was at a roadside pullout along U.S. Route 64. With this image, I zoomed in a little with the focal length to center the cliffs off in the distance, while still including some foreground interest with the nearby grassy meadow and forest of evergreen trees.

After leaving Skye we headed towards Inverary. As we headed east along the A87 we happened across an incredible pullout just west of Glen Garry Viewpoint West. While we only got a sliver of Loch Garry below, the light filtering through clouds and fog gave us an amazing scene. Of many mind-blowing views in Scotland, the clouds and light along our A87 drive were the craziest we saw in Scotland.

While at a roadside pullout along Maligne Lake Road with a view looking to the northwest. This was in Jasper National Park. My thought on composing this image was to capture an image of the sun as it was nearing sunset time. The clouds off in the distance had that reddish glow from a combination of the wildfire haze. What I wanted to focus on here was the mountains all around to create a layered look beyond. Medicine Lake is in the image left bottom and the Medicine Lake Slabs are the mountainside on the image right.

There is a certain...let's use the word impulsiveness...to what I do as a landscape photographer. One minute I'm typing happily away on my computer, and the next minute a story pops up on my news feed about the Spring flooding in Yosemite Valley. A few short hours later I am in my car at 2 AM after an hour's worth of sleep heading off to shoot the Alabama Hills for sunrise before heading off to Yosemite to shoot a flooded Merced River.

Somehow I managed to say awake all the way up to the Alabama Hills where Skyfire actually paid off. I shot a fairly nice sunrise before jumping back into the Prius and heading off to Yosemite. Roughly six hours later I pulled into the valley which was completely covered in low clouds. I kept driving as I knew that my first stop had to be Swinging Bridge where the water level was reported to be at epic levels.

Unfortunately, it seems that many, MANY other people had seen the same story and my timing could not have been worse. The line began just as I passed Bridal Veil. It took me 30 minutes to get to Swinging Bridge, and there was no parking at the bridge, no parking at the meadow, no parking at the Chapel, no parking any where near Yosemite Village or Camp 4......

Over an hour later I was still driving and finally found a spot to pull over West of camp 4 as every parking spot in the valley was taken. Eager to see the water level at the river, I set off for Swinging Bridge, which now meant hiking a couple of miles back across the valley.

I wasn't disappointed. In all my years of shooting Yosemite, I've never seen the Merced like this. The water came within inches of hitting the top of Sentinel Bridge and had jumped its banks at the footbridge on the way to the Chapel. The meadow in front of the Chapel was completely swamped. Swinging Bridge was likewise almost engulfed by the river which roared underneath. I eyed the bridge suspiciously and noticed that someone had broken police tape which looked like it had been placed by the rangers. I tried to follow the path on the North side back to my car, but another branch of the Merced River was now flowing across the path. I thought about rolling up my pants and going for it, but I could see myself going down hard on the slippery mud underneath. So it was a long, wet hike back to the car. On the way back I kept shooting the various waterfalls that I had never seen before which were now feeding the Merced and flooding the meadows on the valley floor.

It was getting dark by this time and the rain was coming down harder, so I decided to head off to Oakhurst to grab some food and some wifi while I figured out if I should stick around or go home. After arriving at Jack In The Box, I used the wifi (I have T Mobil which has NO signal in the park) to bounce between several weather apps. The National Weather Service was calling for an 80% chance of rain with no break in the weather until Sunday night. But the satellite showed the storm was falling apart and the low was drifting far lower than what had been forecasted.

Hmmmm.

Having been burned one too many times by the National Weather Service, I decided to trust my gut and to stick it out. At this point, I was VERY toasted and it took me 2 -3 hours to get back into the valley as I had to keep pulling over to grab some sleep. After my last nap, I looked up and saw stars! I picked up my pace, and sure enough, when I got back into the park, the moon was now shining brightly over the valley. I headed immediately back to Swinging Bridge which was now deserted. I was the only photographer shooting the bridge, the only photographer shooting the meadow by the chapel, the only photographer shooting the ponds on the other side, El Capitan Meadow, the Bridal Veil Pullout and ultimately the only photographer when I arrived back at the tunnel. There were a few other cars driving around while I was shooting, so there must have been other photographers out there, but I was alone at each of those locations.

Which brings me to this shot, which was the last of the night. I had just pulled up and managed to get 3 exposures before the clouds began moving in again. A minute after I had started shooting, I was engulfed by fog again and the clouds were still there when I left the following morning at 10 AM.

So...yes, I suppose I am a bit impulsive. But in this case, I've never been more thankful. There were waterfalls coming down in every direction in that park. Cascades on Royal Arches, Ribbon, Sentinel, Horsetail, and a few others that I've never seen going before. And the reflections! It was like there were suddenly 14 new lakes across the valley floor with stunning reflections in every direction. It was also interesting to see how quickly the water level dropped by midnight. By the following morning, the water levels were at least a foot lower than the highest point on Saturday afternoon. I''l try to get more shots up from my two days of shooting up soon, either here or on my blog.

I headed home exhausted on Sunday morning only to find a 2 hour back up due to an accident on the Grapevine. Being the impulsive person that I am, I decided to spend those two hours exploring rather than sitting in traffic. So I headed East through a town called "Arvin" and finally out to the 58, to the 14, to the 5, to the 210 and finally back home on the 57.

Impulsive: "A wide range of actions that are poorly conceived, prematurely expressed, unduly risky, or inappropriate to the situation." Yeah...that about sums it up.

But what a great weekend!

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Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions or need to get in touch with me, please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:

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In Gunnison National Forest at a roadside pullout where I had a view across a mountainside of aspens. As I composed the image, I was aware that a portion of the road was in the bottom part of the image while the upper portions were mostly overcast skies. With that in mind, I knew that I wanted to crop those portions and have a more wide angle, panoramic feel to the final image processed.

- Michel de Montaigne.

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Another beautiful view from Ridgeway, Colorado. This town is so small but the road leading away from it are spectacular in their scenery, especially highway 62 which snakes through pristine ranches with the Sneffels range in the background. This shot was taken in one of our drive to Telluride, Co where we found some amazing restaurants.

I took this shot basically from a highway pullout, all I did was point and shoot, also added a polarizer to get a bit of pop in the colors. I don’t know when I will be back but I can’t wait to come see this place again.

At a roadside pullout along Badwater Rd with a view looking to the southwest and across the Death Valley basin to more distant ridges and snowcapped peaks of the Panamint Range. This location is in Death Valley National Park not too far from Badwater Basin the walking area. My thought on composing this image was to capture the contrast between the almost complete flatness of the basin to my front with the mountains off in the distance. I decided to have more of a leveled-on look as I angled my Nikon SLR camera to the horizon. I was though able to use some high ground that I was located on to include some nearby foreground to add an interest for this national park landscape.

Driving through Kolob canyon (Zions National Park) there's a pullout where I captured this pano in 7 frames.

At a roadside pullout along the main Basin road heading to the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend National Park with a view looking to the south-southeast. I had two thoughts in composing this image. One was to use the road present as kind of a leading line into the image. I also wanted to have a layered approach with the plant-life and nearby ridges in mountainsides. The other thought I had was to pull in on the focal length so that more of Casa Grande would fill the image captured. There would be a little bit of blue skies and clouds above to complement the national park setting present. I later did a conversion to black & white using Silver Efex Pro 2 where I made some adjustments to color filters to bring out a much richer tonal contrast for the final image.

My wife and I recently moved to California from the East Coast, and our first trip here occurred over Thanksgiving weekend. We went to the Eastern Sierras and spent nights at the Alabama Hills and Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. I've visited the Alabama Hills a few times before (and have photographed this arch before too!), but this time it was very different. In 2012, I camped at the parking lot for Mobius Arch and hardly saw anyone at all. This time, there must have been a thousand people spread around the Alabama Hills. Every single pullout had someone camping in it. Truly, it has been discovered. Instagram has claimed another victim.

There were about six groups camped near this arch, so I placed the camera late at night and then got up at 4 AM to retrieve it so it wouldn't get stolen. Placing the camera was quite difficult, since I had the camera all the way back in the rock and was using a fisheye lens. I couldn't fit behind the tripod.

Mt. Whitney, the tallest peak in the continental US, is on the far left of this image.

A setting looking to the north while taking in views across this setting in west Texas. My thinking in composing this image was to use some high ground I was on at a roadside pullout and capture a sweeping view across this desert and national park landscape leading up to the Guadalupe Mountains. The blue skies and clouds would be that color contrast to complement the earth-tones in the lower portion of the image. The clouds present would also help to minimize what I felt would be more negative space for the image captured.

While at a roadside pullout along Tioga Road with a view looking to the west to ridges and peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains in this part of Inyo National Forest. Given the haze present in the skies above from nearby wildfires, I decided to compose the image by focusing on the meadow to my front as it led up to ridges and more distant mountains. I later used the ClearView Plus tool in DxO PhotoLab 5 to bring out more of the details present, given that haze, and worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 5 and to make some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

A setting looking to the north while taking in views across mountain desert landscape leading up to the Guadalupe Mountains and the national park. This was at a roadside pullout along Texas State Highway 54. What I wanted to capture with this image was a view looking up to those mountains with its ridges and peaks and include some foreground with the sagebrush as a way to bring the viewer into the image. The rest was just some random thoughts that I noted with the wooden fence post crossing to my front and a layered approach with the flatter desert landscape leading up to some hillsides and then finally the foothills before the actual mountain range.

We stopped at the north pull out for viewing the Tepees formation.

www.nps.gov/places/the-tepees-north-pullout.htm?utm_sourc...

The Tepees is a area of the park named for the conical hills with banded mudstones that were thought to resemble tepees—or tipis as some people spell it. Tipis are not part of the culture in this region, but some Navajos have pointed out one of the hills that resembles a male hogan.

In these badlands you are viewing the erosional pattern of the Blue Mesa Member of the Chinle Formation. Sediments of the Blue Mesa Member were deposited by a vast tropical river system that flowed through this area during the late Triassic Period similar to the Amazon River Basin today. So how do we know what this area was like 225 million years ago? Several characteristics about a rock - like color, rock type, stacking patterns, and fossils they contain - give clues to geologists and tell a very specific story about past environments and how those environments shifted and changed through time.

Colorful badlands meet the Mother Road in Arizona’s high desert.

Looking like pastel mounds of Neapolitan ice cream, Northern Arizona’s Painted Desert is a vast, striated badlands that extends some 150 miles from the eastern end of the Grand Canyon into Petrified Forest National Park. A geologist’s other-worldly paradise, the colorful hills, flat-topped mesas and sculptured buttes of the Painted Desert are primarily made up of the Chinle Formation, mainly river-related deposits dating back some 200 million years. Inhabited by indigenous people for thousands of years, the multi-hued sweep of pigmented rock in the arid high desert received its present name in the 1540s from the Spanish explorer Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, who called the area El Desierto Pintado.

www.nps.gov/

I’ve often heard stories from visitors to Crater Lake National Park that they arrive and the lake is completely socked in with dense fog with no view whatsoever of the water or of iconic Wizard Island. It certainly was foggy when my husband and I set out this particular morning for sunrise, and the more popular overlooks were completely socked in with zero visibility. We found a small pullout at a lower elevation and just waited it out for the misty atmosphere to be burned off by the rising sun, for which we were rewarded with a beautiful warm/cool color combination.

www.optimalfocusphotography.com

A view looking to the north-northwest along the main park Scenic Drive at a roadside pullout. The setting is of the monocline and Waterpocket Fold located in Capitol Reef National Park. The story behind my thinking in composing this image was a memory from back in 2017 when I had stopped at a similar location and later decided to use that image for a digital sketch and then watercolor painting (www.flickr.com/photos/markcstevens/50509975356/in/album-7...). With this image I decided to use the LCD screen and LiveView to line up and then compose the image. I chose a focal point a little down the road so that the cliffs and monocline would be in focus, along with some of the nearby tree and plant vegetation. I then cropped about a third of the image foreground so that it would have a wide angle, panoramic feel. The blue skies and clouds would be that color contrast to complement the earth-tones in the lower portion of the image.

from a pullout on highway 395 near mono lake.

One of the three ex-SD45-2s based at NTW works a pullout job on a February morning. I still saw a couple of the ex-SD45-2s working at Northtown on Black Friday, but I also saw one of those silly-ass ex-ATSF C44s working a pullout job too.

- James Russell Lowell.

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During our drive from Anchorage to Fairbanks, we experienced cloudy conditions with poor visibility until we were about an hour away from Denali National Park. When we were nearing the summit lake, the clouds dispersed, and sunlight appeared, revealing the distant mountain peaks. We spotted a pullout and decided to take a break to soak in the sunshine. It felt as if we were the only people for miles around, and the scenery was breathtaking. The road's slight curve created a perfect leading line toward the mountains, prompting me to capture a panorama image.

Some Vacation for Adventure or Relaxation

While others seek warmer weather to escape the cold

Myself, I travel to national parks

And experience whatever is there

Sometimes I am even blessed with

What can only be described as magical

Planned for a time two months before

And snowing on the day I arrive :-)

Another work of short poetry or prose to complement the image captured one afternoon in Joshua Tree National Park. This was at a roadside pullout along the main park road not far from Big Horn Pass Road with a view looking to the northwest to an open area of Joshua Trees a snowy landscape. Composing the image was a matter of moving around until I caught an alignment with the nearby Joshua Tree and then was able to fill the background with more leading up to the unnamed ridges and peaks off in the distance. One thing that did catch my eye while I was taking in this setting, was how it appeared to be almost black and white, except for the greens and yellows of the trees. Just a quirk of overcast skies with a snowy landscape, I guess you could say.

Even with My Arms Open As Wide As Possible,

I would not be able to take in the world as my own

I would have to begin a journey by walking amongst the prairie grasses

Be with the wind as it blew them this way to that

Walk until I felt the sands beneath my feet

Climb higher until I reached a distant peak

I could then reach out to touch the skies and clouds

That is the story I will tell of this travel.

Another work of short poetry or prose to complement the image captured one afternoon in Great Sand Dunes National Park at the roadside pullout near the park entrance sign. This was looking to the north with as wide an angle view as I could get with this 24-120 mm Nikkor lens. Most the time in composing a wide angle view like this, I attempt to include more foreground and bring the horizon a little further up into the image. Here though, I went with a more balanced view since I was up a little higher along the roadside edge. The image the camera captured would then still have a sweeping view across the desert grasslands before coming to the horizon with the sand dunes of the national park and mountain peaks in the national preserve. By keeping the image more balance, I could also include that big sky view I had that afternoon. Those blue skies would also act as a color contrast to the more yellow and brown earth tones in the lower part of the image. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 3 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

I almost missed this location as I was burning rubber to make it up to the Bristlecone Pines in the White Mountains a couple of weeks ago. As I came around one of the final corners before arriving at Schulman Grove, I suddenly spotted a pullout and, more importantly, some crazy clouds over the valley being shredded by gale force winds in the background. I forced myself to keep driving...but the more I drove the more I began to wonder if there was a better shot behind me back at the turnout. As I arrived at the parking area for Schulman Grove, I noticed that all the amazing clouds were now behind a ridge, and my curiosity got the better of me. I made a U turn and headed back to the pullout. The wind ripped the door out of my hands as I pulled up and I knew that there would be no tripod out on the trail in front of me. After grabbing my gear, I fought against the wind as I climbed the trail to the overlook. Several times I felt that the wind would lift me right off of the mountain and I could barely keep my eyes open while shooting.

When I arrived at the end of the trail, I found these two empty benches. For a moment, I stood alone in the howling gale drinking in the epic scenery around me. As this was a Friday night, I was surprised that not many other folks knew about this particular overlook as several carloads of photographers and visitors passed me by while I was shooting. I continued shooting until all the light had gone from the sky and then began the drive back to the rest area North of Mammoth where I would grab some ZZ's before heading to the Little Lakes Valley for sunrise the next morning.

For a full run down on my adventures in attempting to shoot some Fall Color in the Eastern Sierras a couple of weeks ago, please feel free to visit my latest blog post at:

Autumn In The Eastern Sierras

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Thank you so much for your views and comments! If you have specific questions please be sure to send me a message via flickr mail, or feel free to contact me via one of the following:

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The Heart of the Earth is Speaking to Me

I will not improve upon god

But rather capture images as I listen in silence

Being in a wide wondered amazement of the Guadalupe Mountains.

Another work of short poetry or prose to complement the image captured one afternoon at a roadside pullout along Texas State Highway 54 with a view looking across the Chihuahuan Desert to the Guadalupe Mountains. My thinking in composing this image was to capture a wide angle one with the desert landscape leading up to the more distant mountains. Blue skies above would be that color contrast to complement the earth tones in the lower portion of the image. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 5 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

It's kind of amazing - I spend hours researching awesome hikes and cool photography spots. I drive all the way to a location, set up 2 hours early, take lots of nice photos. And after all that....my favorite images from the night came from an impromptu stop at a pullout simply because we needed a bathroom. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother trying to prepare!

Here's some proof that nature photography really doesn't have to be that complicated. A wildly beautiful afterburn from dusk a couple nights ago on the Oregon Coast. I just loved the way the remnants of sea fog formed those layers of hues above a sea stack far off in the Pacific.

The Cosmic Navel, a.k.a. Cosmic Ashtray, Red Breaks Volcano, or Islomania Dome, is a rock form inside a bowl of sand atop a slick rock peak in southern Utah. To reach it, I traveled about 10 miles down Hole-in-the-rock Road near Escalante and turned left (east) onto Harris Wash Road. After about seven miles, this rough dirt road crosses Harris Wash. There is a sign saying that further travel is limited to “Authorized Vehicles Only”, so I stopped the truck at that point. There are a few pullouts for primitive camping and I took one, intending to spend the night. I signed the trail register and started out down the road, across the wash, and walked in sometimes sandy conditions for about four miles.

I had the coordinates of the formation in my handheld GPS, and at that point it indicated that I should leave the road and head north across rising slick rock in the general direction of a peak about half a mile away. After about 500 feet of climb, I arrived at the location. The formation is much bigger than it looks in the photo. The central rock rises about 40 feet above the smooth layer of orange sand. To get this shot, I stitched together 13 images using the widest-angle (24mm) setting on my Sony RX-100 III camera. On the far wall there is a set of Moki steps that might be useful if one were to fall in.

The formation is hard to photograph in direct sunlight because part of it will always be in shadow and part in bright light. I hung around until sunset to get this shot. In the fading light I hurried down the steep slick rock before it became too dark to see. The moon was a tiny crescent in the western sky. Back at the truck, I ate and prepared for the night, which passed uneventfully. The next morning I headed up another wash in search of Red Breaks slot canyon.

This is one of my favorite views in the Big Sur area. It is just South of Bixby Bridge and has a nice pullout for people to take in the view. I came in between storms on this trips and there was a lot of water coming off the mountains and into the ocean like you see here. This is the Bixby Creek that is emptying into the Pacific Ocean.

Most of the side roads and access to the beaches wasn't available because of the storms this winter. Another rock slide occurred South on Highway 1 and the road is still closed going South. It limited my shooting possibilities, but I was able to explore the Andrew Molera State park for the first time and that was a great experience.

While at a roadside pullout along the Alpine Loop Drive with a view looking to the west to some distant ridges and peaks coming off Mount Timpanogos as part of the Central Wasatch Range.

A setting looking to the north while taking in views across the mountain desert landscape leading up to the Guadalupe Mountains. This is at a roadside pullout along Texas State Highway 54. My thinking in composing this image was to angle my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward and bring the horizon a little higher into the image. That would in turn bring the mountains also higher and have less of the skies above. But I felt it would help to avoid any flattening of those ridges and peaks, while creating more of sweeping view across this landscape leading up to the national park.

While at Vermillion Lakes in Banff National Park and taking in views at roadside pullouts. This is at one stop looking to the southeast to Mount Rundle and Sanson Peak, as well as the reflections on the lake waters. Few places quite compared to this setting for me than with Mount Rundle. The rest of the image composition was lining up the ridges and peaks to have a balance with the mountains themselves and the reflections.

While at a roadside pullout along the Icefields Parkway with a view looking to the south to ridges and peaks around the Columbia Icefield area. This is in Jasper National Park.

Hayden Valley è un'area di osservazione della fauna selvatica di prim'ordine, nota per i suoi vasti prati senza alberi, il sinuoso fiume Yellowstone e l'abbondanza di animali come bisonti, alci, orsi grizzly e lupi, facilmente visibili dalle piazzole di sosta lungo la strada tra il Lago Yellowstone e il Grand Canyon dello Yellowstone.

Formata dal letto di un antico lago, è un luogo privilegiato per l'avvistamento della fauna selvatica, soprattutto all'alba e al tramonto, con opportunità di avvistare grandi mammiferi, uccelli e persino fenomeni termali immersi in splendidi paesaggi aperti.

Hayden Valley is a premier wildlife viewing area, known for vast, treeless meadows, the meandering Yellowstone River, and abundant animals like bison, elk, grizzly bears, and wolves, easily seen from roadside pullouts between Yellowstone Lake and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Formed from an ancient lake bed, it's a prime spot for wildlife spotting, especially at dawn and dusk, with opportunities to see large mammals, birds, and even thermal features amidst stunning open landscapes.

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For this image, I found a point nearby to focus while closing down the aperture on my Nikon SLR camera to capture this view at a stop named Slump Block Pullout. Composing this image was then just a matter of getting down (after walking a few steps back) near some taller grasses. I let the formations then fill the remaining portion of the image with a little bit of blue skies above. My thinking was that slight upward angle and sliver of skies would add a sense of depth for the final image processed.

There were many worthwhile roadside pullouts along the way, and this one was no exception. Finding a safe place to park off the highway proved to be the first of various challenges. Next, this vista proved equally demanding to access with various hurtles to cross. The viewer rarely sees the many duals with the elements one must overcome to capture a scene. And for that matter, so what?

Perched and perilously balanced between uneven rocks, both my tripod and I found just the right crevasse in which to park. However, as the time went by, the clouds completed their motion, and appeared to sandwich the island across this small lake. Again, the inclement weather played its part, and made my challenge worth while.

Explore #287

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While taking in view to the northwest and across a mountain desert landscape at a roadside pullout in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. What I wanted to capture with this image was look across the landscape to my front, filled with a variety of different plant-life, and have that lead up to the sandstone peaks and rock formations off in the distance. I wanted to have a more or less leveled-on view with the horizon. The blue skies and clouds would be that color contrast to complement the earth-tones in the lower portion of the image.

I chose to work with HDR Efex Pro 2 (which I’d recently purchased with a DxO upgrade) to better bring that complete setting in the image. I then exported a TIFF image to DxO PhotoLab 5 where I did some final adjustments with contrast, saturation and brightness for the final image.

While at a roadside pullout along Badwater Rd with a view looking to the south at ridges and towering peaks of the Amargosa Range in Death Valley National Park. What drew me into this the setting were those ridges and the way they seemingly towered thousands of feet above the almost flat basin of Badwater. They had a look up fjords like one might see in Alaska or Norway, but this was a dried up basin. So my focus in capturing this image was to include some of the nearby foreground and the basin leading up to those ridges, but angle my Nikon SLR camera to bring more of the ridges and skies above into the image. There was some noon-time haze present on the ridges, but I was able to use the ClearView Plus tool in DxO PhotoLab 6 to cut through and bring out some of the details.

Watch the creation of this image at youtu.be/VNWQjUDKW7o

I felt like a bit of an idiot after we got back down from this hike.

You see, when we set off at 3.30 AM we were the only people in the roadside pullout (I can't really call it a car park).

I had the truck/camper combo which I prefer to park in a flat spot so I parked it however I liked just to get it flat.

Several hours later after Brent and I descended, I instantly realized I'd made a boo boo.

There were around 200 vehicles parked all up and down the road, each carefully placed to make the best use of the limited space.

The limited space I'd eaten up with the camper clearly devouring 3 spaces.

Oops.

I had no idea that most of Alberta was coming out to the middle nowhere too.

Ah well. Nobody gave me the stink eye so it was fine.

Next time, I'll predict the swarm and park accordingly.

What I love about this image is the stark contrast between shadow and light. I also love the patches of shadow on the lake caused by the passing clouds.

Brent and I had to wait a few hours for the sun to reach a suitable height in order for the lake to glow in such a lovely way.

I can't imagine a better way to spend my time than sitting around in paradise waiting for the light.

Thanks for reading.

Gavin

At a roadside pullout along National Old Trails Road with a view looking to the south across a Mojave Desert setting with more distant ridges and mountain peaks along the horizon. What drew me into this setting was the wide open space and more distant mountains that reminded me of images and movies that depicted the American West. To my front was the dried up Bristol Lake with a railroad line cutting across and then a more distant view of the Southern Mojave Ranges with Poll Peak and other unnamed peaks.

My thought on composing this image was to zoom in with the focal length to center the setting one of the long ridges and also angle my Nikon SLR camera slightly downward to create a more sweeping view across this desert landscape. That would bring up the horizon a little higher into the image, but I felt I included enough of the skies above to be a balance. I later worked with control points in DxO PhotoLab 6 and then made some adjustments to bring out the contrast, saturation and brightness I wanted for the final image.

While we were driving in the Fresno Foothills, I saw this pullout along side of the road that was near some wild flowers next to a creek. As pulled over, I noticed something moving in the puddle and stopped real quick. My daughter asked me why I stopped and I told her what I saw. As I got closer, I saw three sets of eyes in the puddle of water left over from our recent storms. Three frogs had decided that this puddle was a great place to hang out.

I put on my 300mm lens and attempted to get some shots of them. It wasn't easy because the weren't too photogenic. Every time I moved a little, they swam to a new place in the puddle. This was one of the better shots that I took.

While at a roadside pullout along US Route 550 (San Juan Skyway Scenic and Historic Byway) with a view looking to the south across a grassy meadow and valley to a more distant forest of evergreens present on the other side of the Kendall Peak and Mount Rhoda (as identified by the PeakVisor app on my iPhone). In composing this image, I took advantage of the high ground I was located on to create a sweeping view looking across this national forest landscape. From near to far was a ledge that I was on leading to the evergreen trees on both sides of the valley, and then the peaks of the San Juan Mountains.