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on Feb 11, 2020 in Landscape Photography

Yellowstone’s Winter Colors

When you conjure up winter, white is predominant the color that flashes to mind. It takes only a short microsecond traveling through Yellowstone in winter to come to know that white has a run for its money when it comes to color. The one color you see a lot of is gray, as in, gray skies. That color too might make you think that there isn’t much color in Yellowstone in winter. Traveling about even under gray skies you find colors of nearly every shade around every corner of Yellowstone. Heck, its name tells you that even its rocks have color, yellow! When Old Faithful erupts into those gray skies, even the steam stands out from that gray. The colors can be that subtle yet powerful visually. Going from the size and grandeur of Old Faithful to the edge of a small pool in the Mudpots, the colors are unearthly. The yellow of the algae (or is that yellow stone?) against that amazing blue of the hot, deep pool,...

on Jan 28, 2020 in Landscape Photography

The Power of Steam

It’s just steam, but wow, what Mother Nature can do with it! I was fortunate to be at Beehive Geyser in Yellowstone when it erupted and it sounded like a 737 engine at launch! The water lew out with such power for so long, it almost got boring! I kept asking, “just how much water is down there?” And it’s not just hot water but has all these dissolved minerals which is what makes the cone at the base of the geyser. It’s simple, mind-blowing! Photographing really is pretty simple. Number one, don’t let that steam hit your front elements. It can take the coating right off the lens (yes, I personally experienced that mistake). Next, let the shutter fly! There is no way you can see the perfect explosion during an eruption, then tell your finger to fire, at least I can’t. When I see a series I like, I will take 5-7 frames and then pick the right one later. It’s a gorgeous display so shooting is...

on Jan 21, 2020 in Landscape Photography

The 10x Magic

Bringing movement to a still image, I simply love that challenge. I’ve explored many methods of accomplishing this and now I’m exploring to me a new one. Recently I decided to explore the long exposure afforded by the 10x Neutral Density ND filter to see what it might bring to my quest. My goal is not just to blur everything because, I can. I want to bring movement to just some elements in the photo, those elements I “feel” moving as I stand there that the story. This means that the subject is not the blur. The blur tells the story of the subject. Braving the elements (it poured and haled taking these images), I relied on the elements to bring a mood and romance to the photo along WITH the blur. I LOVE the Breakthrough 10x ND (I got at Bedfords) and used it for these images. I shot with the Z7 / Z24-70f2.8 which performed perfectly in these elements. I relied on ND Timer to determine my...

on Jan 17, 2020 in Landscape Photography

Moon Lit Night

The lighthouse, the lone sentinel protecting seafarers from dashing on the rugged rocks and reefs of the coast. This incredibly romantic symbol of our coastline draws me in over and over again. Just how do we tell the lighthouse’s story to draw our viewer in when they have seen lighthouses over and over? If the moon is going to be part of your story, that’s a major challenge. If you want the light from the lighthouse and its path never reaches the land, that’s a problem. The way I went about capturing this scene was to shoot at 10am (not PM) and underexpose once the sun was behind a cloud. I used a cooler WB to suggest night. I waited until a wave was in the foreground to provide some visual depth. And finally, added the lighthouse beam in post. And if I did my job right, you look at the photo and feel a little of the romance of the...

on Jan 14, 2020 in Landscape Photography

Angry Seas

Just how mad were those seas? How angry were those skies? For a fact, you don’t really know. You only have what my photo communicates to you. Was the exposure at 0, + or – comp? That anger and I feel the emotion in the photo, comes from not just the elements and how they are arranged in the scene, but the exposure I choose to tell the story. Was the storm brewing, raging or on its way out? Underexposure makes the drama come out in the photo, the anger of a raging storm appears and that’s the romance I wanted to bring. It’s such a simple thing and then again, it’s a big...

on Jan 10, 2020 in Landscape Photography

Fisheye Bay

There are some places where hanging for sunset is just cool, sunset or not. Neahkahnie Beach is one of those locales, at least the cliff overlooking it. I sat there for about an hour loving the view, watching the crab boats and the incoming storm move into position. It was a spot made for the 8-15Fish as it not only took in the whole view, but also the symmetry of the view. Because of that perfect fit, in my mind I named it, Fisheye...

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