Here is an oldie but (in my opinion, anyway) a goodie. One of my very first attempts at using a slow shutter speed combined with a panning motion of the camera to create an abstract image. This is a stand of birch trees in late winter, taken after sunset just as the darkness was starting to descend on the forest. This was a 5 second exposure, during which I was panning the camera slowly from left to right.
Here is another interpretation of the same scene. This is the same stand of birch trees and again a 5 second exposure, but this time I panned the camera vertically during the exposure. I also chose not to convert this image to black and white however I did desaturate it quite a bit, removing at least 50% of the color that was in the original exposure. The original image was way too blue, and I liked the feel of this one much more with the subtle color.
Yesterday afternoon and evening our sky was flat gray with very little detail in the clouds. Rain was also in the forecast. We decided to do a sunset walk to a local lake and I was hoping the sky would clear in time for the magic hour. As we drove up into the woods, rain started to fall from the sky. As we got closer to the lake, however, it looked like there was a break in the clouds to the west. Sure enough, just as the sun was starting to set the clouds began dissipating. Before we knew it the sky was ablaze with color. It was one of the best sunsets so far this year!
I'm still reminiscing over my trip out West a few years ago, and today I came across this image that I had wanted to put on my website but just never got around to it. This was at the end of a beautiful day of shooting in and around the Jackson Hole/Grand Teton National Park area. My friends Jake and Stuart were looking forward to an evening of photographing the stars over the Teton Range, something neither of them had done much of before. As the night descended, we began hearing more and more Elk calling in the distance (this was in late September). All night as we photographed the stars over the Snake River and Mt. Moran we could hear the Elk bugling. At times it seemed as though they were on all sides of us (and they probably were). But, thanfully, we never had any up close and personal encounters with them in the dark :-) This photo is another great reminder of what an excellent trip I had with my friends.
Last night as I drove home from work the clouds were looking favorable for a beautiful sunset so I asked Jessica if she wanted to take a quick boat ride out to Lucille Island. We had just enough time to make it out to the island before the good sunset color started to light up the clouds. We watched in awe as the clouds drifted over and changed color as the sun dipped closer to the horizon. The view to the South was the best, as we could see the half-moon drifting in and out between the clouds. It sure was a beautiful sight!
We went paddling on the Pigeon River today and the conditions couldn't have been more perfect! We saw barely a ripple on the water the entire time we were out there (well, other than the ripples created by our paddles and kayaks!). Here is a picture of Jessica enjoying the incredibly calm and beautiful water of the river today.
Columbia River Gorge, Oregon
I had the urge today to look through some images from the trip out west that I took in 2009 and work on a couple of waterfall images from that trip. Latourell Falls was my goal... I had remembered taking some photos of that falls that I really liked but hadn't worked on yet. Of the many waterfalls within the Columbia River Gorge, Latourell is unique among the best-known Columbia gorge waterfalls, in the way that it drops straight down from an overhanging basalt cliff. Most of the falls tumble to some degree, but not Latourell. The thing I found most amazing about this waterfall was the interesting rocks on the cliff face behind the falls.
