Snags, Mammoth Hot Springs

Swirling mists surround these dead snags overtaken by the formations at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. The swirling of the mists, the deadness of the trees, and the visual rhythm of the snags are key elements here.

While I often pre-visualize monochrome images as monochrome, in this case, I had originally seen this as a color image. The blue sky peaking through the mist was clean and deep, the oranges of the mineral deposits are beautiful and contrast wonderfully with the sky. But here the color didn't work, and, unusually, not because the color was uninteresting. The colors were vibrant enough, but they didn't add to the feeling that I had when I was there. While pretty, they distracted.

Even when thinking about a single image (and things get more complicated as one assembles a portfolio), and trying to decide on whether to use a color or monochromatic presentation, it isn't enough to simply ask oneself if the color is interesting, or a separate source of beauty. In the end, I think a better heuristic is to ask oneself if the color adds. In this case, I slowly, but eventually, came to the conclusion, that it did not. What do you think?

 

First Sighting of the Antarctic Mainland

To be clear, the title refers to this being my first sighting of the Antarctic mainland.

It was still dusk, but I hadn't been able to sleep, knowing what was ahead. I'd been on the ship for nearly two weeks at this point, and this was going to be the culmination. The Falklands, South Georgia Island, and the islands just off the coast of Antarctica had all been incredible, but this I had anticipated most of all. I dressed and went out on the bow, finding nothing but sky and fog banks in the distance. But I waited, and about twenty cold minutes later, the mists began to break in shapes that felt moody, dramatic, and full of possibilities.

I've made a few test prints over the past two years, quickly dismissing a color rendition and working on a monochromatic one. In the end, just a hint of split-toning completed the mood I'd felt that morning, I finally think this one is ready.

 

Earth Shadow before Dawn, Oxbow Bend

A classic location, indeed, but it certainly paid to get on the road before there was even a hint of light in the sky. The layer of clouds between the far bend in the river and the mountains much farther away helps create another layer of depth. And a stronger than normal earth shadow effect (why does it vary as much as it does, I wonder?) worked well here too.

This is an extremely well-visited location, by true sunrise it would have been difficult to take this picture without including a photographer, and in fact I have a few, but in any case, this soft predawn light was more pleasing in any case.

Spring Detail III, Yellowstone

I love mysterious photographs, I love the moment of seeing someone wonder what it is they're looking at. 

I'm noticing that this image really comes into its own at a large scale, details of the water and the lower-right "waterfall" are pretty key, and they're small elements easily lost in smaller renditions.



 

Coastline Study, South Georgia Island

One of the most delightful surprises of my 2013 Antarctica residency was the three days at South Georgia Island. This nearly completely unpopulated bit of land contains the largest penguin colony I've seen to date, glaciers, waterfalls, and spectacular mountain forms. Even as we left, I couldn't stop looking and photographing, despite winds that threatened at least once to knock me over. This image is one of a series of studies I made of the coastline using a telephoto during that departure, and I think, so far, my favorite, I can still hear the roar of the wind...

Penguins Bowing

One of the first surprises I had upon meeting penguins was a quirk of their behavior, you will often find penguins bow at each other. This is at least sometimes a courtship display, I'm told, but it wasn't a behavior I'd seen reflected in photographs, so when I got an opportunity to work in Antarctica in 2013 I set out to look for it, and I think this image captures a bit of it. 

The blizzard conditions were, relative to my other days on the icy continent, tough. This was really my only day on the icy continent where I returned to warmth before I'd expected to. And it was entirely worth it.

 

Throwback Thursday: Pescadero coast, and next month's workshop

An older image from near Pescadero, one of my favorite coastal locations in the Bay Area., and a dynamic composition as well.

I was reminded of this recently because of my upcoming photographic workshop, "Beaches and Backroads", along and near the San Mateo Coast. I've been reviewing years of past images of the area, coastline, nifty geology, architecture, and redwoods, while I think out workshop logistics. I've also been reminiscing about my first visits to the area led by Rick Knepp, who originated this seminar idea. It is an incredible area providing a stunning breadth and depth of photographic locations.

Registration for "Beaches and Backroads" is open at PhotoCentral,, if you haven't registered for a class with them before you'll need to call (sorry!) to make an account at 510-881-6721.

Experimental printing...

Continuing to experiment toward a project I've been ruminating about for a while. This test print is on a translucent mulberry tissue. It's kinda cool!

Quiet Sea, Mendocino County Coast

it would have been pretty easy to pass this situation up, or not work it as carefully as I did, it's not loud or showy. In fact, that's what works well here. A gentle pearlescent glow at the horizon, soft water textures, soft colors, soft light, a simple rhythm of the four rocks--the only objects our eyes can find a place to focus on, and an intentionally more static horizon placement all were part of this print coming together. 

The print looks fantastic, the first one was a tiny bit dark, and the second still needs a tiny bit of tweaking, but the feel of the water is really coming through beautifully in print. So very pleased with this.

It's funny, too, I only realized today that I had not uploaded this particular card from my spring trip up to visit the famous Headwaters Forest Reserve, there was very little on it, I'd uploaded the other cards.

Dusk spires, Ø Fjord

Cloud textures and a half-moon overlook dramatic spires in this quieter composition from Ø Fjord, East Greenland. The fjord translates literally to "island fjord", the islands no doubt a reference to the wonderful density of icebergs in the fjord.

And by the way, who says you can't work landscape with a telephoto? This was taken handheld, with a 300mm lens on a crop body, in 2006, with some assist from image stabilization.

Still, the light levels were sufficient for the task (and in fact, I worked later into this sunset), as you can tell from the moon. As I am fond of reminding my students: the moon is as bright as a rock in full sunlight. Because it is rock in full sunlight.

Portal into Color

Microbal matting give this opening into the earth a crazy, surreal quality that I've attempted to capture here. While a number of detail abstracts from this area produced beautiful colors and forms, it was the contrast with the perfectly ordinary conifers in the background that produces an image that really throws me off-balance the way the scene did in real life. Nature can be wonderfully crazy, don't you think?

Canyon Snow, Yellowstone

Mists and a dusting of snow in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. I can't get enough of winter scenes, particularly when it's hot outside!

Punch Bowl Spring

I really wanted to soften the look of the water in this bubbling spring, in part to contrast the textures of the texture of the rock around it, in part to help communicate almost magical feel of the place. A 10-stop neutral density filter came to my rescue, allowing a long exposure time to work its own magic on the bubbling waters and wafting steam.

Throwback Thursday: Yosemite Falls Detail, 2005

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Nothing like a good classic black and white look, for Throwback Thursday, eh?

This detail of Yosemite Falls and a few surrounding trees was taken largely from the main path from the falls, which, as you may know from personal experience, can be a busy, and crowded area. It's no secret that I tend to prefer shooting in quieter environments, finding peace in the solitude of wilderness. But even when I don't have the pleasure of that sort of quiet, there is a mental quiet that comes from finding a composition I'm happy with despite the distractions around me. And so it was on this cloudy day in late 2005.

This image is a reminder (to you and me both!) to note ignore the value of your telephoto lenses when working in nature. I know that wide-angle is the "go to" focal length range for most nature photographers, but remember that not every interesting scene needs to have a close foreground, to have depth and dimensionality.(Alternatively, you can embrace the flattening as an abstraction tool.) 

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Trees Reflecting

It is rare that my attention is captured by pines and other evergreens, the colors tend to be dark, the shapes not as compelling. Here the individual tree shapes and their reflections create a variety of wonderful rhythms that I couldn't ignore.

This was one of the last images I took on my 2013 Yellowstone adventure, heading back from an amazing sunrise in the Norris Geyser Basin, and right at the location where I'd stopped to assist an overturned truck only a few hours earlier. (The gentleman involved was fortunately unharmed, the road had had a patch of black ice bad enough that it was difficult to walk on.)