Monthly Archives: August 2018

It’s Still August – More Backyard Challenge!

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The days are getting shorter and the nights cooler, but the wildfires in California are still wreaking havoc on the views and the air quality. My lovely bride’s efforts in the backyard are paying great dividends for me, however – take a look!

This is a Julia Child Rose.

It’s beautiful from all angles. My lovely bride planted this on while I was away this last Spring.

These were the last Blackberries in our yard. We had a decent crop this year – very tasty at breakfast.

I love our Hibiscus and it’s a favorite subject when blooming. I saw this bloom with a portion backlit by the morning sun and the lower portion of the bloom in shadow. I made bracketed exposures, merged them in Adobe Camera Raw, and applied a custom filter in Nik Color Efex Pro. I wanted to emphasize the texture in the leaves, so I combined a little Glamour Glow with the Detail Extractor to make it happen!

Enjoy – PHOTOROGR

The Backyard Challenge continues…

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The smoke seems to come and go. Our air quality is a little better, but seeing the mountains and sky is hit or miss. The flowers in the backyard, however, are doing just fine and loving the camera.

So far, I’ve chosen to shoot with the Tamron 150-600 lens handheld. To improve the quality of the images, I need to use a shorter lens and tripod. I enjoy experimenting, and using the big telephoto lens for macro and close up images is an experiment for me. I need to refine my processes, but there’s hope.

And so, here’s a sample of the last couple days.

Enjoy – PHOTOROGR

How I Spent My Summer Vacation – Volume 5

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While preparing my post this morning, I realized that I didn’t finish my ‘summer vacation’ series last year. This volume will showcase images from our trip to Yosemite National Park in August 2017. I was taking a night photography workshop and we decided to spend a few extra days enjoying the Park.

I rented a Canon 6D camera body for this trip to enjoy the ‘full frame sensor’ experience. I liked it and subsequently purchased a Canon 6D Mark II body.

There were fires around Yosemite last year which impacted our time there. They were not as bad as this year, however. Without further ado, here’s my stuff.

We entered Yosemite through the Tioga Pass entrance, uphill from Lee Vining CA. We took our time crossing the Tuolumne Meadows to avoid the daytime traffic in the Yosemite Valley. One of my images of Tenaya Creek…

…and another image from Tioga Road…

…and more Tenaya Creek.

One of the iconic sunset views in Yosemite (El Capitan on the right) obscured by the smoke.

I got to looking around while making the previous image, and found that I liked this view of the Merced River at my feet much better.

One of the images from the famous Swinging Bridge during the night portion of the workshop. The glow on the rocks in the lower right of the image is Yosemite Village.

And the Milky Way did not disappoint. The photographer could have done a better job, however.

Tunnel View.

We were in Yosemite during the solar eclipse and had just arrived at Glacier Point as the eclipse was in progress. My lovely bride made friends with a family looking at the eclipse (they shared their solar glasses with her) while I made this image.

Everyone who goes to Yosemite should ride the Green Dragon. If you don’t know what it is, then you need to go find out. One of our stops was on the Merced River. I used a log as a tripod and made multiple exposures for this HDR image.

Yosemite Falls didn’t disappoint. I got up early one morning and took a walk with the camera and tripod. With few people around at that time of day, I had my pick of vantage points.

We had a wonderful time in Yosemite. We celebrated our wedding anniversary with a dinner in the big dining room at the Majestic Hotel. Go to Yosemite when you get the chance!

Enjoy – PHOTOROGR

 

What to shoot when there’s nothing to shoot…

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Today started like any other day. I woke up, did my morning things, and went to the kitchen to make breakfast. I was just about to take breakfast to my lovely bride when she walks into the kitchen with her iPad showing a video presentation called ‘what to shoot when there’s nothing to shoot.’ We watched while we ate, enjoying the images on the screen and the commentary.

As we watched, I got to thinking about the current situation here in the Carson Valley. We have serious smoke from the wildfires in California – some news reports indicate that Gardnerville has the worst air quality in the country. Visibility is almost nil. We haven’t seen the mountains in a long time. Of course, the smoke makes for some interesting sunsets.

This has been our view of the evening sun for the last 4-5 days. I shot this with the Canon 7DII, big lens, handheld. Look close and you can see the outline of the mountains in the lower right corner of the image.

The guy making the presentation talked about a time when he was leading a photo workshop in Monument Valley and a snowstorm kicked up. The storm obscured the grand views and challenged his creative processes to make the trip worthwhile.

This is not the first time I’ve faced conditions like this. A year ago, my lovely bride and I were in Yosemite National Park and many of the vista shots were obscured by smoke, so I made the best of it and shot on a smaller scale. I came away with some beautiful images. And I see that I didn’t post any of those images – stay tuned!

With this year’s smoke, I’ve chosen to shoot on an even smaller scale – macro in the back yard.

This is a Rose of Sharon flower being pollenated. (Get really close and one can see pollen on his head and body.) Handheld Canon 7DII with the big lens, from about 9′ away.

Our Hibiscus has been a favorite subject for several years. More close up than macro, as these blooms range from 6″-12″ in diameter. This mature plant produces a large number of blooms for a couple weeks every August.

Another point the presenter made was to give yourself a challenge to make you get out and make images. Taking this to heart, I’ve decided to give myself a new challenge every month. I’ll continue my backyard challenge this month and set a new challenge for September.

Until next time…Enjoy – PHOTOROGR

Wyoming landscapes!

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While I was in Wyoming this spring, my Dad and I took many drives to places that neither of us had ever been or hadn’t been in a very long time. The landscape around Cheyenne is high plains, as opposed to the high desert and mountains around my home in Nevada. The mountains rise up as you travel west to Laramie. On most days, the skies did not disappoint. Montana advertises itself as ‘Big Sky Country,’ but we had them in our travels in Wyoming.

Traveling on Round Top Road west of Cheyenne, we came across this scene – one of the historic ranches.

Closer to Laramie than Cheyenne, this is one of the smaller rock formations in the Vedawoo recreation area. This image was taken from the shoulder of Happy Jack Road (Wyoming Highway 210).

Traveling on one of the dirt roads off Happy Jack Road, we drove past Crystal Reservoir on the way to Buford, and passed this little scene.

If you’ve ever been to or viewed images of the Palouse Region in southeast Washington state, you know what a photographic place it is. Dad and I took a drive around eastern Laramie County one day and found landscapes that, in many ways, rival the Palouse for its beauty. Here’s one…

…and here’s another. This barn is actually in the Burns township and an old friend if mine chastised me for not calling while I was ‘in town.’ He later admitted that he wasn’t home that day so I was forgiven.

I shot this from US 85 approaching the town of Hawk Springs.

This is also on US 85. I stopped here a couple times. This is the second shot where I got out the neutral density filters to smooth out the water on the spillway.

This image was made along Wyoming Highway 313, east of Chugwater.

This is the Snowy Range west of Laramie. I’m standing near the middle of Wyoming Highway 130. Snowy Range Pass (the road) tops out at 10,850 feet elevation and the views there are stunning!

Well, this is just a little peek into the beautiful scenery that can be found in my former stomping ground. I hope you can see why I refer to the area as God’s Country.

Enjoy – PHOTOROGR