Jul 13, 2010 | Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
The radar showed clouds and in just the right places so I knew exactly where I wanted to take the gang for their last sunrise shoot. That is one of the big advantages of the Eastern Sierra Adv, I do know my backyard pretty good for just such occasions.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6393.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
Horseshoe Lake is one of the very few that man doesn’t mess with. It’s waters come and go on natures clock. Right now it’s just one giant mirror reflecting the incredible beauty of the Sierra crest.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6426.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
There’s a really good reason John Muir called the Sierra the Range of Light. Just wait five minutes and it will change as you see here. Sometimes it gets better, sometimes it gets worse but it will change. Was it worth getting up oh dark thirty to greet the day? Hell ya!
Photos captured by D3x, 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 12, 2010 | B&W Photography, Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
With the great puffies and gorgeous July light, a trip to Bodie was a must. Bodie is not new to me, in fact, my family has been going to Bodie since 1900. So it was with great delight we took the group there to share not only it’s photographic wealth, but also it’s colorful history.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3858BW.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP3890BW.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
There are many, many ways to approach photographing Bodie. My approach this time was to have corrected buildings in B&W. The first obstacle most fret over are all the people that walk through your photo. There are two ways of dealing with this. The first is simply wait, most folks don’t stand at any one place for more than 30secs. The seconds is simply use Content-Aware fill in Photoshop. I used a combination of these two in these photos.
Next, I shot with the 24PC-E handheld. I seemed to have opened Pandora’s box by talking about these lenses so much, all I get are questions on how to use probably one of the simplest of photographic tools. We have a video being posted this week which will hopefully make this simple tool simple to use.
Lastly there is the B&W. What I did was create 1 image HDR and then take that Tif through ACR 6.2 for the B&W conversion. It’s really easy to do and as you can see, it creates pretty dramatic results. But the key to all of this is the one thing we have zero control over, and that’s the clouds. They make the whole image happen. Without them, all the rest is just talk.
Jul 12, 2010 | Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6350.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
Tuolumne Meadows is just gorgeous right now!
Jul 12, 2010 | Landscape Photography, WRP Ed Zone
We’ve got a great group of folks with us here on the Eastside so thought we’d take them on a quick trip to Monument Valley. In miniature that is.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6104.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
OK, we didn’t drive to Utah overnight, rather we left at 4AM and headed to a favorite locale. After doing some star trails, we headed down and got on our knees. We got on our knees, elbows and stuck our butts in the air as we photographed these very delicate and fragile sand tufas.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP6145BW.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
OK, so getting down on your knees is part of making the photo, what else is? The top photo was taken with the 18AF, the bottom with the 24PC-E, one with tilt in and the other corrected. I don’t think either one is required to make the shot. Nope, to make the shots come alive required the great clouds and light and then a good dose of romance. No matter how big or small your landscape, I feel the same ingredients goes into all of them in order for them to be successful. Oh yeah, having good knees doesn’t hurt!
Photos captured by D3x, 18AF / 24PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 9, 2010 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5833_tonemapped.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
There is no doubt that you have to live in the mountains and be into history for these subjects to seem romantic to ya. I love living in the mtns and love history so these are very romantic. This is an old time cooling rack attached to the kitchen of a 1900s cabin. Put wet burlap around it on the outside and you have a cooler. Pretty clever considering it’s in the middle of nowhere, a little modern convenience created through ingenuity.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5836.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
And this is no more than a study of time. The century this little out building has survived being buried under 30′ of snow each winter. The study of time as the light of the day slowly slips up the side before disappearing and saying good night. Damn, what a great day to be out and be a photographer!
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 9, 2010 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5786.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
That’s what I do at least, I head for the shade, muted light and look for subjects when there are bald skies. Chasing light is what it’s all about and in the forest, there are always beams of light coming through the canopy, the challenge is finding something interesting in those beams. Well, I headed to a locale that has provided some in the past.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp5791BW.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
i never can remember the real name for these plants, only the trivia that the natives used them as disposable diapers. Always a good thing to think of when shooting them if your photos turn out shity. In the muted light, it takes very little backlit to make things start to happen. Now I’m no marco photographer but I do like to play, once a year, with this subject and sometimes they turn out better then normal. The top image, good idea but…. The bottom image is different and I’m not sure if that’s why I like it or because I really see something in the image to like. I’ll have to stare at it for awhile. At least I don’t have any bald skies in the photo!
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
