Snow Blowing off Mt. Williamson Eastern Sierras, California I spent a weekend in the Eastern Sierras with Willie and Sammi trying to find some snowy scenes to photograph. We had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to shoot but sometimes even with all the planning and scouting you just happen upon a beautiful scene. It’s even better when you don’t sleep through it! The benefits of keeping an open eye while in beautiful places ... I was driving down CA-395 on our way to the Alabama Hills when I looked to my right and saw snow blowing off Mt. Williamson and creating this awesome scene. I slowed the car down and looked back at Willie to see if he had noticed. He was fast asleep … mouth open, head back, practically in a snore. “Willie, look to your right!” I screamed, waking him up. He response was “woah, yea, pull over.” Pull-over I did and we spent about 30 minutes watching the wind blow the snow off the mountain and snapped photos the entire time. I just loved the way the wind created a lot of motion, even in a still photograph. The combination of shadow, wind, and light-rays all made for a gorgeous scene! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF: 190mm, f/11, 1/125 sec, ISO 125
Japanese Maple Tree Portland, Oregon One of the most iconic photos of Portland is of the famous Japanese Maple Tree at the Japanese Garden. People photograph it at all times of the year but it looks most stunning in autumn when the leaves turn orange and red and make for an absolutely stunning scene. Unfortunately I arrived a little too early and the Japanese Maple hadn’t quite turned orange. A little trick in photoshop fixed that. I’ll have to go back another year and photograph this when it's really orangey red! I always laugh when I see this tree because photos of this, taken using ultra-wide lenses, make the tree appear fairly large. How tall would you say this tree was? 20-25 feet maybe? If you thought that, you’d be wrong. The tree is maybe FOUR or FIVE feet tall! We were all hunched over in between some branches trying to take turns shooting the tree. It would have been quite a peaceful time too, had Alan not spend the entire time grumbling about how he had to pay $15 to take a photo of a five foot tall tree. Surprisingly, with all his kvetching, he spent the most time photographing the tree. I guess he needed to get his money’s worth. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/16, 0.8 sec, ISO 250
Choo Choo TrainThe Subway Hike Zion National Park, Utah When I visited Zion National Park in 2011 one of the hikes that I absolutely loved was The Subway. In fact, I went so far as to call it my most favorite hike I've ever done! Willie, Yan, and I had hiked the Narrows the day before and also found it to be equally amazing. Yan, having heard me raving about the Subway insisted that we head here on our second day in the park. I wanted to try something new, specifically hike to Kanarra Creek, but Willie and Yan convinced me that emerald pools and glowing walls would be worth it. The Subway it was! We arrived at the parking lot quite early and were shocked to see so many cars had already arrived! It was decided to see if we could pass *all* of them and we took off almost at a run at times. Other groups came and went in our wake as we flew up the Virgin River towards the Subway. About halfway through the hike I realized that our blistering pace was causing me to not enjoy the hike at all and I forced Willie to slow down so we could take in the scenery. This also gave us a chance to look back and realize that the clear skies we were hoping for were being covered with clouds … not good for glowing walls in the Subway. On the other hand, it was perfect for photographing Archangel Falls located slightly before the Subway. Despite our fast pace to the Subway we were the second group to arrive. We had to wait for them to finish taking their pictures and then waited some more while they got out of ours. Turns out that waiting was well worth it because the clouds that had been blocking the beautiful glow inside the Subway disappeared for about 15 minutes and we frantically snapped photographs. A flash flood 2 months earlier deposited sand inside the Subway and left the emerald pools looking yellow and boring. It took some "special sauce" in post processing to bring back an emerald color to the pools. We brought a bag of leaves with us and were able to get beautiful some beautiful swirling motion in the water, which had eluded me when I photographed this in 2011. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 24mm, f/16, 8 sec, ISO 50 B+W Circular Polarizer
