Laser ChiefLower Antelope Canyon Page, Arizona One of my fellow photographer friends, Jave, has a wonderful photo in Lower Antelope Canyon of light beams in front of the Granite Chief. Willie, Yan, and I had spent the night in Page, AZ and we found ourselves with half a day to kill. We arrived at Lower Antelope Canyon before they opened and were the first ones in the canyon. We didn't see anyone for over an hour. At some point one of the Navajo guides walked past and I stopped him and asked if he knew what time the light beams crossed in front of the Granite Chief. He told me that it was later in the afternoon but we had a flight to catch and couldn't wait for that to happen. Willie wanted to get a photograph of the Chief anyways. Willie took some shots and just as we were about to leave I noticed a light beam forming near the eye of the Chief! Sure enough the tiny little light beam grew and grew as the sun came up through the canyon. We stopped and fired a number of photos. I like how this looks like the Chief was Cyclop's early teacher … look at those laser beams coming out of his eye! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 38mm, f/11, 2 sec, ISO 125
Moody Skies over Tunnel View Yosemite National Park, California Every year around Valentines Day the setting sun lines up such that it strikes the rock wall next to El Capitan and lights up a waterfall, known as Horsetail Falls, to give the illusion of spewing fire. We call this the “Fire Falls”, although many will remember the original “Fire Falls” when a now long-gone hotel upon Glacier Point would throw their burning coal off the one of the cliffs. With the explosion of Social Media just about every photographer in the world knows about this and flocks to Yosemite to witness and photograph the event: myself included. The winter of 2012-2013 was very dry and as a result Horsetail Falls, which is fed from snow-melt, didn’t exist. My hopes of photographing it again were dashed and instead Willie, Alan, and I spent the weekend running around from place to play trying to find something decent to photograph. One morning we woke up to cloudy skies and decided to try our luck at the popular Tunnel View. Many other photographers were there but we all were treated to a beautiful ring of fog that decided to hug El Capitan. Between the ring of fog and the cloudy skies this made for a very moody scene. I named this photo “Captains Embrace” because I loved the way the fog embraced El Capitan. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 70mm, f/16, 0.6 sec, ISO 64
Fog over the Pacific Ocean Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California Most of the time when there’s low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge I find myself there during sunRISE. OK, perhaps not “most of the time” ... I’ve actually never been at the Golden Gate Bridge for low fog at sunSET. On this particular evening, however, my plans to photograph the SF coast were thwarted by fog and I quickly made my way over to the Bridge. Although the fog had ruined my chances of shooting the coast, it hadn’t quite made its way over to the Golden Gate Bridge. In yet another detour from my plans, I made my way over towards the Pacific Coast side of Hawk Hill and looked out over a giant blanket of fog. Off in the distance the fog was beginning to envelop this hill and I loved the way the fog obscured the hills and created a giant blanket behind the trees. The line section of road helps draw the eye into the photograph. I chose to keep this photo dark so that it would stick with the mood of the scene. Additionally, since the sun had set and blue hour was now starting to set in, the fog took a slightly blue tone. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED: 185mm, f/13, 30 sec, ISO 100
