Aug 12, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5939.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
I woke up this morning and just decided we needed to climb to the top of the mountain we live on. So my family appeasing a doddering old fart said sure, after lunch. In my 50yrs here, I’ve never been to the top of Mammoth Mtn, been on top of most the rest, but not the one we live on so off we went.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5997.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
Not that getting to the “top” is any great deal, you ride the gondola close to the top, it’s just a 1/2 walk to the very top. But the view, well, it’s to die for! It was a great way to spend the afternoon, making circles and taking in a 360 view of where we call home. What you see above is what’s called the Lake Basin with Red Mtn, Duck Pass, Crystal Craig and Mammoth Crest. No great photographic oop, just family and home. Perfect day!
Aug 10, 2009 | Landscape Photography
Give this a read and try to wrap you mind around the volume. Wow!
Aug 10, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP5721.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
Jake had the itch to photograph some shorebirds so early Sunday morning we headed to our favorite coffee shop and with a brew in hand headed to Mono Lake. August is just not a great time to be finding wildlife on the Eastside. Most breeding birds are done and leaving, their kids too stupid to be photographed. Falls migrants from the north are just starting to show up and unless you want to spend hours just finding them, you ain’t going to get any glass on them. No matter, we checked out one, two, three locales. We got skunked.
We were heading home when I said, “How about checking out that plateau up on the ridge?” A few seconds later Jake had the truck whipped around and heading back up the highway. We started out at 7700′ altitude and when we finished climbing the peak, we were just short of 10,000′! It was a wonderful new area we found to explore and if the light hadn’t sucked, I would have images to show you here. As it was when we reached the top of the peak and catching our breaths we had this great view of Mono Lake. We are planning to go back when the smoke from the fires has cleared, should make a great pano.
Photo captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital fim
Aug 7, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DLCMCGL2320.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
I’m always asked, “How much time do you spend on the road?” The answer is six months out of the year which means, we spend six months out of the year at home and I like that! The Eastern Sierra is a gorgeous place! It’s not full of wildlife but just enough to keep me shooting. But it is overflowing with scenery and landscapes at every turn. This sunset from last night is just one example. I made turn out the door and then a turn down the deck and made the click. The biggest challenge, which end of the deck to shoot from.
I’m often asked how I get the depth of color in my images. This photo which is right from the camera is an example of what I’m talking about. While I’m normally in Auto WB, when shooting sunrises and sunsets I switch to Cloudy WB and typically, but not always, set exp comp to -1. In this case, I set it to -1.5 stops. Then I just shot.
Photo captured by D3x, 45PC-E on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 24, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP0942.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
We were heading out to go get dinner when I saw this formation over the mountains. While we were pulling over, I had visualized in my mind a totally different cropping for this image so grabbed the 70-300VR. I was going to go in tight, I thought the dead space above and below the main clouds as needing to go away. But when I looked through the viewfinder, I didn’t like what I saw at all. I quickly switched back to the 24-70 and zoomed back to 55mm and went click.
Looking at the image for awhile, I’m pretty sure that without the foreground and space in the sky above the clouds, they just seem less mighty. They need that space to breath, spread and be all that thunderheads need to perform their magic. It was a good lesson, one I’ve tucked away in the back of my head.
Photo captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jul 24, 2009 | Landscape Photography
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_BMP0918.swf, 500, 402 [/swf]
I know I’m not alone in the attractions of clouds. We’re starting our normal late summer monsoon season which can produce killer formations in the afternoon. This afternoon was no exception. We went up to Mono Lake as that’s where the tallest clouds were performing. By the time we got there, they had gone east but as they went over the mountains, some moisture was squeezed out and the sun caught the drops creating some cool towers. When it comes to the B&W thing, that was Nik Silver Effect. You can learn how I use that by heading the video library and clicking on the link.
Photo captured by D3x, 24-70AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
