Sunrise Fog-Break Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington I’ve always wanted to visit Mt. Rainier National Park to see its epic wildflower blooms, but every summer the wildflower blooms were predicted to be small or Willie and I had been too busy to make a trip. With the wet winter in 2016, we had hoped that the flowers would be booming and planned a trip. We arrived at Mt. Rainier at night, setup our tent and tried to get some sleep before having to wake up early for sunrise. When we did make it up the mountain we found 2 things: lots and lots and lots (and lots) of fog, and no carpets of flowers. Instead, the hills had patches of blooms, spread here and a little over there. While looking for the flowers we had come across this spot, which was the first area that had a good number of both Indian Paintbrush and Lupine, but we kept walking, hoping we’d find better flowers. We had no idea where Mt. Rainier was since the fog was so thick but just after passing this patch, Mt. Rainier suddenly appeared through the fog! We raced back to these flowers, falling flat on my butt in the process, and managed to snap a few photos before the fog covered Rainier again. I called this photo “Peeping Rain” because it reminded me of Peeping Tom, poking its head up to take a peak, then disappearing again as soon as you look. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 15mm, f/11, 1/30 sec, ISO 100
Cracked Mud Pariah Chinle, Utah While exploring the Pariah Chinle Desert in Utah I came across a patch of cracked earth ... a spot in which a little bit of water pooled up, turned to mud, and then dried, causing cracks to form. I always love the shapes and patterns that it creates. I've taken photos of cracked mud before and I love the way that each patch has its own unique shape, form, and mood. I love the geometric shapes that they create. So what is this?! I took a standard photo of mud-cracks ... one with a standard red-brown color, nice texture, some interesting shapes ... and ran it through a new Photoshop plugin by Topaz Labs called "Glow". After fiddling with some of the settings I loved the crazy abstract look that resulted in this. Love it? Hate it? I find something kind of crazy and awesome about it. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 55mm, f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO 100
Winter's MarkSunset on Yosemite Valley, from Tunnel View Yosemite National Park, California On the top of my photography bucket list has been to witness and photograph a snowy Yosemite. This year I've paid close attention to the snow in Yosemite and finally during my Christmas break I had my chance to see Yosemite covered in snow! A giant storm had just hit the Eastern Sierras and dumped about 10 feet of snow (in fact, Kirkwood received 7 feet in ONE DAY!). Willie, Alan, Sammi and I planned on arriving just as the storm cleared. Unfortunately by the time we rented a 4-wheel drive vehicle and made our way through chain control and into Yosemite most of the storm had gone. The radar showed more clouds coming and we held our breath that sunset would be nice. After visiting several stops around the Yosemite Valley and running into a couple other photographers that we knew we settled on returning to Tunnel View for sunset. Joined by a gazillion other photographers (or a "meat market" as Breezy would call it) we witnessed a beautiful sunset. Although the clouds did not light up with much color there was an absolutely beautiful stripe of color that appeared on El Capitan, as some clouds made enough room for the light to seep in. This evening turned out to be pretty much everything we asked for: a snowy white Yosemite, some color in the sky, a mark of light on El Capitan, and low fog creeping into the valley. It was quite a spectacular moment and I was glad I could share it with a number of great people! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 42mm, f/11, 1/15 sec, ISO 100 No Filters, No HDR 3 exposure manual blend for increased dynamic range
