2011 Yosemite Fall Safari

As usual we all met in Oakhurst and came into the park from the south entrance.  We shot the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias first before moving on to Alder Creek.  So many small to medium waterfalls!  When I had photographed this creek on the Yosemite Waterfalls safari back in May the river was running so high that the delicate small waterfalls were submerged.

Alder Creek

After a good water year Alder Creek was running higher than normal, though perfect for photographing waterfalls.  Both just off the road (at the bottom of the creek) and farther up the trail to the higher waterfalls (about 100 yards) yielded many to choose from.  Using a polarizer was essential to capturing the waterfalls without glare from the reflective surfaces, such as the creek and wet rocks.  Many of my exposures were over a second long, so a tripod was essential as well.  Low ISO settings, use of the self-timer, and bracketing images for each set-up guaranteed me a good image.  I have always found the smooth curves, eddies, and small trickle waterfalls of these types of scenes to be very photogenic.

In processing these images I noticed that blue/cyan starts to creep in to the darker areas of the image, so I used the Hue/Saturation dialog box (Ctrl + U) to reduce them.  In images where complete sharpness is required, not only do you want to use the Hyperfocal distance in your focusing location to insure the greatest amount of depth-of-field (dof), but applying some additional contrast through sharpening helps as well.  This can be done by going to Smart Sharpen and use setting like: 30% Amount, 10 Radius, and 0 Threshold.

Alder Creek

After Alder Creek we traveled into Yosemite Valley to photograph the Merced River and the color along its banks.  With most of the valley still in the morning shade, the river had nice even lighting without any direct sun hotspots.  Today was really a day for waterfalls, autumn colors, rivers, and leaves.  I don’t think I shot a single “big” landscape image.  I was totally captivated by the water and colors.

Color along the Merced River in Yosemite Valley

This image is similar to an image I shot last year at this same set of waterfalls.  The main autumn colors here are yellow, with only a little red and some orange leaves in the valley.  Everywhere we went the ground cover color was also very strong.

Our day had clear skies and bright sun, warming up to about 70 degrees on the valley floor.  A week later the valley received its first coat of snow.  Every trip to Yosemite is different:  some years its all about the big images, or shooting in the Tioga Pass area and Tenaya Lake, or the big waterfalls in spring, but this fall was all about the small landscapes, nearly macro-type images that showed nature’s designs.

Autumn Maple leaves in Yosemite Valley.

Our last destination was Fern Springs.  This very small spring, maybe 10-12 feet in circumference, is surrounded by moss covered rocks and vegetation.  Overhanging trees drop leaves into the spring which accumulate along the edges, or flow over a small series of waterfalls that drain it.  Every angle provides amazing images, and we shot with a number of other photographers, taking turns at each spot.

Fern Springs

Wow.  That’s all I can say.  Everyone on the safari shot similar images, and had opportunities to shoot their own specific compositions.  It’s dark under all the trees and long exposures create (due to polarizing filters as well) gorgeous frothy streams of water as they cross over the foot tall waterfalls.

We finished the safari shooting the Wawona covered bridge.  We began the day in pre-dawn light and ended the day in post-sunset light, and I think we were all pretty tired, at least I was.  But the images speak volumes of the beauty of Yosemite.  This safari turned out to be a macro landscape shoot, the big landscapes will have to wait for another day.  That day is Monday, January 9th, 2012 for the winter Yosemite safari.  I hope to see you then.

2011 Yellowstone Fall Safari

It was a month ago, so winter is close to setting in now, but this past Yellowstone safari was an incredible success.  The safari officially started on Sep 29, but I arrived on Monday, Sep 26 with Dave Collins and Bill Singleton for a few extra days of shooting.  The weather was beautiful, too nice as a matter of fact for great animal activity, but, as usual, we worked hard at finding animals and got lucky.

We made it from California to Alpine, Wyoming on Sunday, September 25th – a drive of about a thousand miles.  The next morning we worked the Moulton Barn on Mormon Row in the Jackson Hole Valley.  Some rain fell, as shown in this image (below), and the sunrise color only lasted for a few minutes.  By the time we hit Yellowstone’s south gate the weather had cleared.

Moulton Barn on Mormon Row in the Jackson Hole Valley

The colors in Yellowstone were awesome, with the cottonwoods in Lamar Valley really putting on a show.  We went from wildlife, to landscapes, back to wildlife as we traveled throughout the park.  Cold in the mornings, the weather warmed to comfortable (for us) temps during the day.  This was not a safari where we hit a lot of bears.  While I’ve shot them many times in the fall, spring is really the best time for bears, when they are the most active with cubs and moving more.  Our trips over Dunraven Pass turned up a single black bear working the white bark pines for nuts, but that was it.  Instead we hit the jackpot for red foxes and bull elk.

Leaping Red Fox mousing in meadow.

He was a great jumper, and we all waited for the moment.

The red fox that we spent the most time with (we saw two others) was at the Yellowstone River picnic site just over the bridge, about a mile northeast of Roosevelt Junction going towards Lamar Valley.  Like a precision timepiece, the fox showed up around 8:30am each morning, hunted briskly for about an hour, then vanished.  He was an excellent hunter, catching about 7-8 voles or gophers during each visit.

There were lots of photographers working this fox.  Most folks had smaller lenses and appeared to be excited tourists.  This kind of close encounter was probably thrilling for them and the (unless they got a grizzly close-up) highlight of the trip.  But others weren’t excited about this unique experience.  There were probably 20-25 people shooting the fox each morning we were there.  After posting some images online to a major Yellowstone reports site, there was quite a flare up over the ethics of shooting this fox at close range.  To not shoot the fox would have been ridiculous, why else are all these people in Yellowstone?  The fox wasn’t begging food from humans, he was hunting in an area in which he was very successful with natural prey.  I was amused by some who stated that the group of photographers (photographers and tourists) ruined the experience for them … which only begs the question that if they had arrived first, they would have been shooting the fox themselves when we arrived.

The reality is the fox could have ditched the photographers in seconds.  Instead, he ignored the humans, like he would have ignored a herd of bison, and continued his hunt.  He moved around the meadows quickly, not giving some folks time to get out of his way as he trotted by, moving through all of us quickly, irregardless of keeping a respectful distance from him.  Shooting a 500mm lens requires distance, and I was constantly moving back and forth trying to keep him well framed in his environment, like I would do with any wild animal.  If the fox is habituated to people, is he also habituated to the bison? or to cars? or to traveling on roads in winter?  I am not a believer in the commonly held idea (by some) that humans are interlopers in nature.

Cow Elk crossing the Madison River in sunrise mist.

Between the great landscapes and amazing red fox, the elk were putting on their annual show during the rut.  The two prime locations were in the Madison River Valley between West Yellowstone and Madison Junction in the mornings, and at the south end of Swan Flats, just south of Mammoth Hot Springs about 5 or 6 miles, in the afternoons.

A 6x7 Bull Elk crossing the Madison in sunrise mist.

There is just something amazing about the sound of a bugling bull elk.  It’s kind of a whistle, mingled with a grunt, and belted out with a primordial aggression that sends the hair up on the back on my neck.

Bull elk and cows in Swan Flats.

These morning and late afternoon elk encounters were opportunities for me to test out the high ISO abilities of my new Nikon D3s camera body.  This image (at right) was shot at ISO 3200 in near darkness.  The tight grain pattern and careful image processing resulted in images that look normal, shot in normal light without any of the harsh effects of low light and high ISO settings.  All I can say is wow!

We worked our landscape photography skills during times when we weren’t on a good wildlife subjects.  The colors got better as the week went along, particularly those cottonwoods in Lamar Valley.

Cottonwoods in Lamar Valley.

Bald Eagle

We had opportunities to shoot other animals and birds, such as bald eagles and osprey.  Coyotes made themselves a good subject near Dunraven Pass, while eagles and osprey were along the rivers.

On Sunday we drove down to shoot sunrise at the Oxbow on the Snake River.  Fires in the valley had smoked up the area, though the Oxbow was clear of smoke at sunrise.  Clouds began to pile up and storms were on the way.

There were a great number of photographers in Grand Teton National Park that day.  I would estimate that just at the Oxbow there were at least 120 folks shooting up and down the river and on the side hills.

Moments after sunrise at the Oxbow of the Snake River.

Finally, as we drove south towards Jackson we came across the horses of the nearby dude ranches in a pasture with the towering Tetons in the background, covered with storm clouds.  It made a great subject and provided many memorable images for all of us.

Horses in pasture with Tetons in the background.

2011 Southern Utah Fall

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted a new blog.  This summer, starting in Yellowstone in June, has just been off the charts in the number of safaris, shoots, and seminars I’ve been doing.  Family obligations and trips, as well as many personal shoots, have cut into my time and my ability to stay current … but I’m going to try to keep up.

My regular autumn southern Utah safari was Nov 4-6, just this past week.  Wow.  I got to Springdale on Thursday afternoon, the day before the safari, and on my initial run through Zion Canyon I ran across a Gray Fox.  Now, I’ve been shooting in Zion since 1985 – 26 years – and this is the first Gray Fox I’ve had an opportunity to see or photograph.  They are almost, almost, strictly nocturnal – so finding one in daylight, even poor light late in the afternoon, was rare.

My new Nikon D3s, that I started shooting a couple of months ago really paid off as I was able to shoot at ISO 3200, and with careful processing, capture a number of good images of the fox working the area around the Grotto, which is about 3/4 mile past Zion Lodge.

Gray Fox in Zion Canyon

For about an hour we had a cat and mouse game of hide-and-seek.  The gray fox would lose me, I would circle, and eventually find him again.  Four times he lost me and four times I found him.  We began in the meadow opposite the parking lot for the Grotto and ended with him on a rock ledge about ten feet up the canyon wall, curled up sleeping with his tail over his face.  He gave me four or five good encounters where he would stop moving and just watch me.

Hunting through the meadow.

I’ve photographed hundreds of red fox, and seen many kit foxes in the southern Utah and southern California deserts, but never a gray fox.  He was skilled at climbing logs of the fallen Fremont Cottonwood trees and the cliff face were he ended up.  It was a great encounter for me.  The next day I had another first when I saw a raccoon in Zion Canyon.  I’ve seen Ring-tailed cats before, but never a raccoon.

Gray Fox taking a break in Zion Canyon

The next day we began the safari by shooting sunrise images at the Towers of the Virgin viewpoint behind the old Visitor’s Center.  With the canyon still pretty dark we headed up to the top of Zion above the tunnels – which I call the “roof”.  A mile past the second, smaller tunnel we came upon a small herd of desert bighorn ewes in the company of a very large full-curl ram.  They were very close to the road and posed for us on the rocks many times.  As with the fox, I shot some hd video of the sheep as well.  I’m hoping to put together some footage from these encounters and create an interesting video.

Desert Bighorn Ram headshot

We captured as much of the sheep and their inter-actions as possible, then moved back to Zion Canyon to shoot some of the color.  We saw sheep a number of other times on other days, but didn’t run across any other rams to photograph.  They were all located in the same general area from the park’s east entrance to the smaller tunnel.  The rut was just beginning for the both the mule deer and the bighorn sheep, and should run through early December.

After returning to Zion Canyon we began to photograph the Maples, Gambel’s Oak, Fremont Cottonwoods, and Velvet Ash that were in their fall colors.  The maples with their bright red leaves always catch my attention first, but the others in yellow are photogenic as well.  You hardly know where to start.

Autumn Maple leaves in Zion Canyon

We spent each morning shooting up on the roof first, where the light was better, then we shot in late mornings and afternoons in the canyon.  Each day the colors got better, more vibrant, and more trees in full color.  I figured Nov 7-8 would be peak colors for the maples, maybe a couple of days later for the cottonwoods.  Last year the safari fell over those days and Nov 7th was peak color day last year.

The Pulpit and autumn colors.

On Saturday morning we headed over to Bryce Canyon National Park to photograph the morning light in Queen’s Garden.  Snow had fallen the night before and many of the park roads were closed, limiting our travels … but still the snow added an amazing counterpoint of color and brightness to the images.

Morning light on rock formations in the Queen's Garden.

While we worked the canyon we encountered many mule deer bucks.  On our first day in we saw a dozen bucks and maybe 35-40 does and yearlings.  After hiking the side walls of the canyon for color we spent some time Saturday afternoon shooting the muley bucks we encountered.  The largest buck we saw, a massive 4×4 34-36 inch rack (determined by how far the antlers are outside the ears of the deer, which are generally 22″ wide from ear to ear when alert) was in the ranger housing area, where when we stopped to photograph another large buck – we were promptly asked to leave.  Some things never change.

A nice 3x4 mule deer buck in Zion Canyon.

So in the late afternoons the mule deer were very active, and of course, I continued to look for the Gray Fox hoping for another encounter.  The canyon, but also the campgrounds near the park’s entrance, have been traditional mule deer breeding grounds over the past quarter century that I’ve photographed the park.  The largest bucks I’ve photographed have been in the 5 and 6 point class, mostly in the 30″ width range in Zion.  This year the rutting activity seems to have started fairly early.  I thought the deer looked very healthy and sleek.

One animal that I’m used to shooting there are the wild turkeys.  This year we only saw a handful, so maybe the foxes or coyotes are making in-roads in reducing their population somewhat.  On Sunday storm clouds began to move in and thicken up, darkening the park considerably.  If you have time, the park should still have good color and lots of wildlife opportunities for another ten days, then the color will fall to the ground.

The Mittens – Shooting and Processing for Effect

Photoshop is a remarkable program.  It allows us mere mortals to recreate the images we actually envision in the field.  My last post was about my photo safari to southern Utah, and shows a number of images.  One that has drawn a lot of comments and e-mail is the silhouetted sunrise image of the West and East Mittens, rock formations in the middle of Monument Valley.  Like all photographs, the elements of how the image was taken is a mix of natural occurring events and man-selected options.

The naturally occurring events include the passing storm clouds and the amazing gap in the distant clouds that allowed the suns rays to burst through.  The graphic scale and design of the mittens, the low light of sunrise, and the wind that drove the dust into the atmosphere to create those sun rays.  Of those, only the time of the image – at sunrise – was within my control, and more fluke than plan.  It was a hundred and thirty miles from our hotel in Page, Arizona to Monument Valley that morning.  The remnants of the evening storm were still active as we headed out about 4:30am into a blustery wind and driving rain.

This first image is a representation of the mittens when we stopped on the switchbacks that led into the valley.  The flat light on the monoliths and the contrasty sky were a problem.  The second I saw this scene I knew that a  decision had to be made about where the power and energy in the image was, and make exposure control choices accordingly.

The image of the East and West Mittens as I first saw them.

Everyone knows that there are three rock monoliths here, Merrick Butte is cropped out via the composition, not through image cropping.  My first decision was not to back off the composition and include all three buttes.  The wider angle view would have pushed these two buttes farther back in the image, reducing their impact.  That would also have reduced the impact of the sun rays flashing through the clouds.  In my mind this was where the energy was in the scene before me.  I stayed with the 24-120mm lens instead of moving to the wider 12-24mm lens and framed the image as shown above.

Second, I knew the image would be stronger if the foreground was silhouetted.  When I look at a semi-silhouetted scene I tend to look into it to see if I can identify elements of the foreground – something I don’t want a viewer of my image to do.  With the horizon separating nearly equal parts of the image, which I knew would probably burn my sunrise clouds – I set the camera to shoot a 5 shot bracket spaced a half stop apart, with the exposure compensation set to -1 eV to center the bracket around.  You might ask why a 5 stop bracket, why not 3, or even a 3 shot bracket spaced 1 stop apart.  My answer is that I don’t know if I will ever see this scene here again and I’m not going to take any chances.  I want the closest to perfect exposure for the image I imagine, and a half stop can make a difference.  The final image I used (below) was the -1 image, so my initial guess for the center of the bracketed images was correct.

This image was taken as a raw file then converted in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and processed in CS5.  The ACR converter is the same across Adobe’s image editing programs, such as Elements 9 and Lightroom 3.  I don’t process for color or sharpness in ACR, just exposure.  So I tweaked the middle six sliders: Exposure, Recovery, Fill Light, Blacks, Brightness, and Contrast.  As you could imagine I didn’t mind large areas of the foreground and mittens going to black.  That was how I envisioned the image.  Once I had the exposure tweaking done, I opened the image in CS5.

I sharpened the image some (30% in smart sharpen) then carefully selected the darker areas I wanted to silhouette.  On a separate layer I darkened those areas a little more using the Levels control, then I inversed my selection to work on the sky.  I sharpened the sky more in order to define the rays of light, used the contrast tool to add contrast to the sky, then applied a Sepia Photo Filter twice to the sky to bring back the sunrise color I remembered.  You can see the results below.

After processing the raw file in ACR, then in CS5.

While not a perfect image, the composition allows for both a panoramic or traditional image dimension for printing.  The bursting through effect of the suns rays is enhanced by the higher contrast sky and the photo filter.  Finally, I created another layer and ran Imagenomic’s Noiseware Pro over the image to reduce the noise in the underexposed areas of the clouds.  There is no noise in the silhouetted areas to worry about.  I added a black mask to that layer, then painted in the noise reduction in the sky, except where the suns rays are so well defined between the mittens.

When I pulled my vehicle to a stop, jumped out and set up my tripod, and began to compose and shoot – this is the image I had envisioned.

May 7-10, 2011 Southern Utah Spring Safari

When we arrived in Zion late Saturday afternoon the sky was clear blue, the winds were mild, and temps were comfortable.  On our return leg through Zion on Tuesday morning there was a dusting of snow on the high ridges, the raging winds had calmed some, it was in the mid 30′s, and the sky was full of storm clouds.  Those of you who have read the blogs this year know that adverse weather has become a normal condition.  Success in the field becomes a matter of determination.  On this trip we photographed in Zion, Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley, and the Goosenecks, a Utah state park just north of Monument Valley that overlooks the San Juan River.

The late afternoon shoot on Saturday in Zion was centered on the large group of desert bighorn ewes, lambs, and immature rams that we encountered between the two tunnels up on the roof of Zion, a few miles west of the park’s East Entrance.  From all the spring rains and mild temperatures the park has a green sheen to it that I’ve never seen before.  The grass is green and lush, and all the creeks that are normally dry have water running through them.

Desert Bighorn ewes and lambs on an overlook.

The sheep put on a great show of interactions between the ewes and lambs.  The lambs would nurse, chase around a little, the immature rams would knock heads – it was an entertaining group to photograph.

Two ewes on an overlook.

A lamb nurses from its mother.

Eventually the road started to fill with tourists and the sheep began watching them as much, if not more, than they were being watched.  We never did see the larger rams, but they were around somewhere.  They usually hang together in bachelor groups until a month or so before the rut begins in October.  The smaller size and thinner bodies of the desert bighorn allow them to survive in much harsher environments than their more numerous cousins, the Rocky Mountain Bighorn I’ve photographed often in Yellowstone and Glacier parks.  While shooting the sheep I noticed a small arch a few hundred yards farther up the slope that I had never seen before.  Having only my 500mm lens – I slowly rotated around the scene above the sheep and shot a number of nice landscapes.  It crops very tight images, but in processing they were sharp and that’s what matters.

Silhouetted Pine

Near the sheep, this arch caught my attention.

Saturday night we stayed in Kanab, rising early to shoot the sunrise in Bryce Canyon.  At 8000 feet it was cold Sunday morning, but the sky was clear and the winds were probably average.  Queen’s Garden looked awesome.  We hiked down the Navajo Trail from Sunrise Point this year.  The trail we took down last year was washed out from the rains and blocked by a small bulldozer that had been rebuilding the trail.  There are so many rock formations – ranging from panels and ridges, to hoodoo clusters and windows, to erosion folds and pronounced color changes in the rock – it is a target rich environment.

Eroded Rock Formation off the Navajo Trail.

After spending a few hours working on landscapes we stopped at the Utah Prairie Dog colony inside the park.  One of four types of prairie dogs, the Utah Prairie Dog is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.  The gregarious prairie dogs live in colonies in southwestern Utah, including Bryce Canyon National Park.

Utah Prairie Dog

They are rough-and-tumble little animals that will wrestle and chase each other and provide great moments of action.  As you can see in the image above, the meadow grass was thick inside their colony of burrows.

Later that day we traveled to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park but the weather front had really begun coming through and the high winds and blowing sand prevented us from doing any photography.  On our way east we stopped at the Toad Stools site in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and photographed them and many of the blooming flower species.  While rocks are easy to photograph in the wind, flowers aren’t.  The light was constantly shifting with the passing clouds but the winds really seemed to pick up.

Blueleaf Aster Wildflowers near the Toad Stools

We headed out for Monument Valley at 4am.  On the trip the severe weather seemed to be telling us to go back.  There was rain and high winds as we drove north, finally entering this Navajo Tribal Park just before dawn.  Photography is the story of moments in time, and luckily not hours, or even minutes.  Our first stop along the 17 mile dirt road brought a view of the The Mittens and Merrick Butte.  With dark bands of clouds above the rocks and very little light below I didn’t want to shoot with the 12-24mm lens and include too much in the image – so I opted for my 24-120mm lens in order to compose the images.

The Mittens - Just after Sunrise - Panoramic

In the image above I tried to center the sunburst through the clouds.  It was shot at 28mm, F16 and 1/80 second, at ISO 100.  In processing I brought the levels down using the gray slider, both to provide a better silhouette of the Mittons and to darken the sky that was beginning to burn out above the clouds.  I selected the silhouetted area, then inversed the selection and added some additional yellow to the sky using the photo filter options in CS5.  After processing the image, I further cropped it into a panoramic format to reduce both the amount of silhouette and the dark clouds.  I think the final image shown here has a good balance between the Mittons and the rising sun – and the sun burst.

Monument Valley with its famous Mittons and buttes is a landscape so large that cropping to panoramic dimensions (usually 2:1 – like 15″height x 30″wide) provides a more interesting presentation of its geologic features.

Artist's Point Overlook - Panoramic

As you can see in this view, storm clouds are sliding by during the brief period of time we had sun to work with.  Below is another view of the valley buttes from the North Window Overlook, but left with traditional dimensions.  I like the composition that forces your eye up like this – it makes the valley seem as large as it really is without emphasizing the buttes as much as the space.

North Window Overlook - High POV

Eventually the high winds and blowing dust obscured the valley to the point that the buttes were just shadows in the distance.  The storm front continued to pass over us as we headed back to Kanab to shoot Zion on Tuesday morning before heading for home.  This was my first shoot to Monument Valley – after the 5 years of living and shooting around St. George and 17 more years living in northern Utah – I finally made it to this remarkable valley.

Checkerboard Mesa

The next morning we drove through rising clouds into Zion.  We spotted the sheep again but they were bedded down and not moving.  We shot Checkerboard Mesa and moved west down the road, beyond the tunnels, to the the switchback overlooks.  Clouds were moving north, swirling across the face of the West Temple and into Zion Canyon.  Wow.

Clouds swirl around the West Temple in Zion.

April/May 2011 Yokohl Valley Images

Yokohl Valley, in the foothills of the mighty Sierra Mountains and east of Exeter, Ca has become one of my favorite local destinations.  It’s 30 miles from my driveway to the beginning of the valley.  Throughout April and so far in early May I’ve made numerous trips to photograph the bobcats, birds, and wildflowers of the valley.  I’ve blogged about this valley before, about shoots in Feb/2011, but as I learn the valley better I’ve had more opportunities, and found more great subjects.

Yokohl Valley Bobcat hunting California Ground Squirrels

As the weeks have gone on the grass has grown deeper, and deeper – until yesterday’s shoot (May 5th) when I’m not sure I could have seen a bobcat in the meadows and pastures.  But as one set of subjects fade, others seems to arise.  While I didn’t get any great images, I saw 17 wild (feral) pigs yesterday.  I just missed two snakes that got away from me, a distant coyote, and chased bird images up and down the valley.  One creature I didn’t miss was the Sierra Alligator Lizard that I shot on the switchbacks leading out of Yokohl Valley over to Spring Valley.  I was walking along looking at the wildflowers, checking for butterflies, spiders, etc – when I saw a strange pattern of texture in the weeds a few feet off the road.  I grabbed my 24-120 lens, my flash, and crawled into the bushes and weeds to get a shot or two.

Sierra Alligator Lizard

While not as scary as crawling into a small cave to photograph a hissing Gila Monster, or facing off with a Mojave Green Rattlesnake among the poppies of Antelope Valley, or going face to face with grizzlies – it still got my blood going.  The lizard was surprisingly thick and stocky and shadedan interesting blend of yellow and green that I hadn’t seen before.

But while chasing the lizard was interesting, it was the birds that kept my attention.  If the following images make you think of a great number of species that must live in Yokohl – there were far more that I could never get into position to photograph.

Anna's Hummingbird

Phainopepla

There were times I was able to photograph them on branches or in trees, but most of the time it was on fence posts or on strands of fence wire.  Songbirds are quick, never tarrying too long in one spot – making photography difficult, though not impossible.  I just continued to drive the road looking for changes.  In locations like this there is an ebb and flow to the movements of the birds.  Quiet in the morning, the birds that are insectivores become more active once it begins to warm up and bugs begin to fly.

Western Kingbird

Seed eaters and hummingbirds tend to be fairly active all day.  The Western Kingbird (above) has an interesting tactic for catching insects, it will fly off a fence and hover above the meadow grass hoping to stir up a meal to catch.

Bullock's Oriole

Western Kingbird hovering

Most of the time I never leave the car unless I know I need to position myself in a better spot.  Cars are great blinds, something most birds and other wildlife have come to accept, and usually not fear.

Since birds are quick flyers and tend to bounce around even when perched, high shutter speeds are important.  Since all of these bird images were taken with a 500mm F4 lens, this f-stop setting results in very out-of-focus backgrounds.  There is no photoshop magic to the backgrounds, the closer you are to your subject the less depth-of-field you will have with any lens. 

Acorn Woodpecker

There are plenty of raptors and owls in Yokohl Valley as well.  Earlier this spring their were numerous falcons, both American Kestrels and Prairie Falcons.  While I still see them they nest in old woodpecker holes or in tree cavities high off the ground – getting images is tough.  Many of the sycamore trees have red-tailed hawk and great horned owl nests in the top branches which are easier to photograph due to their size.

Great Horned Owl nest in Sycamore.

Beyond the birds and bobcats, the wildflowers harbor an amazing number of interesting looking insects – though few butterflies right now.  Stalking through the brush isn’t a lot of fun, neither is having buzzing bugs and creepy crawlers all around your head, the results are amazing.

Cricket ... doing something.

I’m not averse to getting into the brush, especially when I’ve spotted something that I think will make an interesting subject – its getting in there and finding something close that you didn’t expect.

Crab Spider on Bush Monkeyflower

Last summer I didn’t make many trips to Yokohl, the heat wilts the flowers and the oppressive sun drives the birds and animals to seek shade – things slow down considerably.  But this summer I plan on making more trips, so far this year the valley hasn’t run out of interesting subjects for me.

Red-tailed Hawk and Garter Snake

Lark Sparrow

Turkey Vulture

April 23, 2011 Sequoia Spring Safari

It was sunny, then cloudy, then really in the clouds, then back to sunny for the afternoon.  I was amazed at the how much snow is still on the ground in Sequoia NP, in some places there were walls of snow ten feet high.  Locations that I photographed in the spring last year were still inaccessible, including the Giant Grove and the Marble fork of the Kaweah River where it crosses under the General’s Highway.

Snow-fed creek waterfalls on the Switchbacks.

With May just around the corner we can anticipate some amazing run-off waterfalls pouring down these granite mountains and filling the Kaweah River, and the Kings River in Kings Canyon NP as well.  Once on top in Sequoia we entered a layer of clouds that added   mist and fog to our drive and photos.  With most locations still covered in snow, we stopped and photographed the Sequoias in Grant’s Grove.  The giant trees rose through the swirling clouds out-of-sight, creating a surreal mix of light and shadows.

Grant's Grove of Sequoias in the clouds.

The temperatures had dropped into the mid 30′s and a breeze made the frigid humid air really bite.  These weren’t the landscapes I had anticipated, but photographer’s learn to turn the unanticipated into the unique.  So we worked our way around Grant’s Grove putting together images that combined composition with weather.  Probably my favorite image is this shot of a group of smaller pines receding away from the foreground and into the clouds.

Pines in the clouds of mist.

After an early lunch we headed back for the switchbacks and down to Three Rivers.  The sun was shining and it was warm – giving us a new look at the landscapes.   The Western Redbud trees were blooming, spring’s first wildflowers were out, and the mighty yucca’s (known locally as Our Lord’s Candle) that dotted the hillsides and grow along the highway were starting to bloom.  We stopped again and again to crawl through the flowers and photograph the landscapes.

Blooming Red Bud above the Kaweah River.

Our Lord's Candle Yucca

While these yucca’s can stand a dozen feet tall, this five foot yucca promises to have a dramatic white stalk when it blooms right next to the highway.  The spring bloom in Sequoia is a rush of color with many flowers, shrubs, and eventually trees (Dogwoods and Red bud) joining in.

Blooming Spider Lupine

After working our way down the switchbacks we headed out to Yokohl Valley, which begins about 16 miles south of Three Rivers, just off highway 198.  This has become a favorite shooting location of mine – initially for the landscapes of oak woodlands – but this year for the bobcats and birds I’ve been able to photograph along the fifteen or so miles before it crosses over a ridge into Spring Valley.  Giant Western Sycamore trees line Yokohl Creek, providing habitat for nesting owls and hawks, and the classic rolling oak woodlands of the valley provide habitat for the animals and birds they hunt.  While private ranch land and some houses fence off the land, there is much to see and photograph along the road.  We never saw any bobcats on this trip but took advantage of the wildflowers.

Rosy Fairy Lantern

In Sequoia we were photographing Bird’s eye gilia, golden brodiaea (Pretty Face), and others, as well as some California Ringlet butterflies – in Yokohl the species changed to Rosy Fairy Lanterns, Chinese Houses, Lacepod, Tomcat Clover, and Common Madia, among many others.  There was a veritable smorgasbord of colorful flowers with different textures and sizes.

So while the weather (and snow pack) was continuing on with it’s zany unpredictability, we photographed some unique misty landscapes of Sequoia National Park and the wildflowers of both Sequoia and Yokohl Valley.  It was a great day to be out in the field.  BRP

Using the CS5 Photo Filter

If your looking for a quick way to add color to your image, try the CS5 Photoshop Photo Filters, found under  Image >> Adjustments >> Photo Filters.   You will see the default filter is “Warming Filter (85)”.  If you click the down arrow next to it there are a number of filters that can be applied to your image – the top group corresponding to glass filters with the same number.  As with all image retouching, remember to create a new Layer  (Ctrl-J) to apply the filter effects to so you can see both the original and corrected layers by flashing the layer’s eye on and off.  Here is an original storm cloud image I shot in Death Valley a month ago:

Death Valley Storm Clouds March/2011

The image has on overly blue/cyan caste to it.  After applying some color balance adjustments using Levels, then some added contrast, and the Sepia Photo Filter shown in the drop down menu, increasing the Density to 40%, and with the Preserve Luminosity box checked – the cloud formation becomes much more like the image I remember shooting.  I tried a couple of selected colors, and various density settings, before I settled on the Sepia Photo Filter.  Experiment a little to achieve the right look.  Also, in images where you don’t want the filter applied globally (to the whole image), use the lasso tool or one of the other selection tools to determine the area of the image to apply the filter to.

Death Valley Storm Clouds - Processed

I like the processed image much better.  For deeper colors you can click the color box and a Filter Color dialog box opens and you can change your color dramatically, or subtly.  The blue/cyan caste in the first image reduces the drama and energy of the storm clouds.  Why you might ask?  Because blue is a color that suggests tranquility, or even sadness – to our human brains.  It is also a cold color that doesn’t normally create energy or drama.  Thus, a blue sky adds an important sense of tranquility to landscape images.

Photo Filter Dialog Box

This is a quick, easy way within CS5 and Elements to have filter effects applied to digital images without the need for using filters in the field.  BRP

March 31, April 2nd & 5th Wildflower Safaris

Three safaris with thirteen folks attending.  These three safaris spanned 5 days in the Antelope Valley near Lancaster.  Normally we travel to three locations, but on these we traveled to just two – and on one safari we stayed in the valley.  Arvin was a disappointment as the weeds were taller than the flowers.   With the cold and rainy weather persisting longer into spring than normal, I was interested to see the effects it had on the fields of poppies.

Antelope Valley Poppy Fields

On the 31st we shot the poppies then traveled above Caliente (off Hwy 58) to photograph baby blue eyes and other wildflowers.  It is hard to tell if the the flowers are just a little late, or if the additional rain and cold damaged the bloom.  In some locations north of Antelope Butte the flowers were fairly thick, though still less than normal.  The Goldfields, Cream Cups, and Pygmy-leaved Lupine were evident in numbers, with the Goldfields providing the bulk of the color and a background for the brighter poppies.

Cream Cups and California Poppies

In traveling to Arvin and finding the high weeds, we did spot a hunting bobcat near the new National Cemetery on Hwy 223.  In the past month I’ve seen at least a dozen bobcats and photographed a number of them.   This male bobcat put on a bit of a show, mousing (or squirreling, as was the case) in the meadow before heading for cover after we stopped out cars.

Bobcat near the National Cemetery on Hwy 233.

Though I’ve warned people about the snakes in Antelope Valley for years, it wasn’t until the April 2 safari that we actually ran across a few – two Mohave green rattlesnakes and a gopher snake.  It was a great experience to safely photograph them.

Mohave Green Rattlesnake in Goldfields in Antelope Valley.

While we had to maintain a distance from the rattlesnakes, I was still able to shoot them with my 60 macro lens (the lens I happened to have on the camera and didn’t have time to change) from about 3.5 feet or so.  The gopher snake was much more tolerant and I was able to crawl up to within 18 inches, again shooting my 60 macro – sometimes you just have to shoot with what you have.  My longer lenses (like the 80-200 and 500) were safely back in my vehicle, about two hundred yards away – I only had my macro and wide angles with me.

Gopher Snake in the Goldfields.

Between the Antelope Valley and the Southern Sierra foothills the wildflowers were adding their beauty to the deep green landscapes.  I’ve always found the contrast between the greening hillsides and the just leafing-out Oak trees to be an interesting dynamic to photograph.

Southern Sierra Foothills.

Even though the flowers weren’t as thick as normal (at least not yet), there were still vast fields of poppies and small areas where the flowers were very thick.  After seeing the snakes we paid particular attention to where we knelt and laid down in the flowers to take photos.  Knee pads made the process a lot easier.

Yellow Poppies amid the Orange Poppies.

The wind was the biggest problem.  The high desert is known for a fairly constant wind, but on April 2nd we had a strong wind that didn’t seem to subside much.  There was a constant battle trying to time images when the gusts were least.  While the wider shots don’t show the wind as much, the portrait and macro images were particularly hard to do.

California Poppies

In the image below I used a strong group of foreground poppies to make the overall scene look like the flowers are denser than they really are.  Notice that the wind is playing havoc with the flower petals of the left most poppy.  I shot 16 images of this scene and kept only one due to the strong wind distorting the flowers.

California Poppies in the Antelope Valley.

Baby Blue Eyes above Caliente in the Sierra foothills.

Round-leaved Violet - Sierra foothills.

March 20-22, 2011 Death Valley Safari

This safari proved a challenge in beating the weather and still coming away with incredible images.  We faced rain in the valley, sleet in the foothills, and snow at the higher elevations of the Panamint Mountains.  The weather would continually cycle through high winds, broken clouds, and occasional sun.  But with the adverse weather came opportunities to shoot many of Death Valley great landscapes with breathtaking cloud formations in the sky.

Mesquite Dunes at Sunset

We were fortunate to get moments of beautiful light, such as the image above taken at sunset on Mesquite Dunes.  The light was intermittent until just the last couple of minutes before the sun dipped below the horizon.  There are always a lot of people hiking around these dunes and finding untraveled ridges is difficult.   While you can remove people from the sand dunes, removing their trails is much more difficult to do – so I tend to try and find more remote dunes without tracks and trails.

Sunset on Mesquite Dunes

The Park Service had recently graded the awful, bone-jarring 28 mile long dirt road out to the Racetrack, a playa lake known for its “skating” rocks.  On our trip out there we passed through the Joshua Tree forest near the pass, and on past Tea Kettle Junction, with its reflective collection of tea kettles.  Unlike the severe clear blue skies on previous trips, this time shooting at the racetrack was enhanced by dark storm clouds and distant lightning.

Skating Rock at the Racetrack.

There is something about those movement patterns on the playa that draws me back to the Racetrack every year.  I don’t know how often the rocks move, though I do know the playa is wet and the weather windy to move them – and I guess I come back each year expecting to find some new and amazing curves.  This year the trails seemed to overlap a lot, though, to be honest, maybe they hadn’t even moved from last year.  But light and position make everything seem new again.

Skating Rocks at the Racetrack. Notice the dust devil at the north end of the playa.

There are other interesting subjects on the playa – from pieces of broken sagebrush to black beetles walking along.  The intricate pattern of the playa and it’s cracked surface is almost mesmerizing – each cell different, yet when looked at as a whole lake, so amazingly similar.  Parts of the playa about a half mile from the parking area are covered in rocks that have tumbled off the nearby cliffs, while the further away you walk the fewer rocks and trails are evident.

Sagebrush on the playa of the Racetrack.

We spent a great deal of time exploring areas I hadn’t shot much in before.  Allen Round and I stumbled into the main mining complex at Skidoo.  We followed a narrow dirt road past the completely run down ghost town of Skidoo.  After photographing an old rusted car we were about to drive away when I saw a sign on a closed gate near where we had parked.  On a whim I walked over to the gate and read the sign pointing out the mining complex just around the curve of the mountain.  We walked a hundred yards and came upon the main Skidoo mining complex ruins blanketed by the recent snow storm.  If I hadn’t stopped to read the sign we would have missed the mining ruins.

One of the Skidoo Mining Buildings.

Rock formations abound in Death Valley.  The Golden Canyon, Panamint Mountains, Black Mountain and the Bad Water area, Mosaic Canyon, Zabriskie Point, and Artist’s Point – and literally hundreds of other spots offer landscape views of geologic history.  We stopped near the Golden Canyon and hiked south, and then east into the foothills.  Golden cap rock had collapsed and fallen into the mushy, ash colored and aerated ancient mud soil.  My deep footprints would be visible until the next rain washed them away.

Erosion near the Golden Canyon.

Our last sunrise shoot was at Zabriskie Point.  Views to the Panamint mountains to the west and their snow covered peaks and ridges were awesome.  But its hard to look past the folded hills of erosion at Zabriskie Point.  From Manly Beacon, a small pointed elevation on the right (northwest) side of Zabriskie Point, to the eroded hills on the left, the light played shadows across the hills – a truly remarkable sight.

Zabriskie Point view at sunrise.

Death Valley was another great shoot this year.  I found a few new locations (like the Skidoo mine site), shot some new flowers and dune landscapes, but had some traditional locations improved by the amazing clouds.

Storm Clouds over Death Valley National Park.