When Oppourtunity Knocks...

...be ready to answer the call. In nature photography opportunity doesn't always knock at the most convenient time, or in the best location. On more then one occasion, we've found ourselves under perfect skies while in the car between destinations... or as we were hiking towards a spectacular photographic icon... or when we have six kids in the back seat. When the skies are right, we try to take advantage of the opportunity, no matter where we are. And we're usually pretty glad we did.

As we were hiking towards Horseshoe Bend in Arizona, the storm clouds opened up, and beams of soft light lit the entire area. Rather then continuing down the trail to Horseshoe bend (and risking a missed opportunity) we set up our cameras trail-side to capture the partially diffused light. We made it to Horseshoe Bend a few minutes later, but we captured the best light on the way.

While hiking through Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park, we were surprised by a fast moving storm. As we were running towards a shelter, we noticed the blue glow of Pearl Spring with dark storm clouds hanging in the background. Jay set up his tripod and captured a single shot before running to catch up with Varina and the kids... who reached the shelter just moments before it started hailing.

On the last day of a trip to Utah, heavy clouds obscured the sky. We were en route to the airport, when the cloud cover began to open up... so we changed our course. Rather than heading directly for Salt Lake City, we pulled out the map and headed towards the beautiful clouds. We stopped on the side of the road to capture a few photos before the clouds closed in once again. In the end, we caught our flight with time to spare - and got some unexpected photographs as well.

When you are shooting outdoors, you never know when opportunity will come knocking...but when it does, we hope you'll be ready to answer with camera in hand.

Beam Me Up, Scotty!

Dramatic sunbeams like those in the photographs you see here, occur only under certain conditions. Sunbeams appear when sunlight passes through - and is scattered by - particles in the air. In order to effectively photograph sunbeams, we need to capture them against a dark background... like heavy storm clouds. The difference between dark and light makes the sunbeams stand out.

In this shot from Glacier National Park, the sunlight scattered as it passed through particles of water vapor in the air. The dark valley provided an excellent backdrop, allowing the sunbeams to stand out. Heavy, humid air is a perfect medium for sunbeams - and because it was late in the day, the light took on a golden tone.

This photograph was taken in Arizona's spectacular Antelope Canyon. The air is very dry here in the desert, so these is little moisture to create water vapor in the air. However, the floor of the canyon is covered with fine sand. We tossed handfuls of the sand into the air, and photographed the resulting sunbeams against the dark walls of the slot canyon.

Happy New Year!

I know - I should be processing shots from this week's trip to Tennessee... but I wanted to get this one done. It's been waiting in the wings for a long time. I took this in summer at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. This is the light that every landscape photographer dreams about.

Happy New Year to all of you - and may your skies be perfect all year long. :)

The Earth Breathes

This is a shot from our trip to Yellowstone. Most evenings, the light was unimpressive - but when it was nice, it was VERY nice. :) I used a soft GND (graduated neutral density) filter to reduce the dynamic range, and combined two exposures to create an image as close to reality as possible. This beautiful geyser spewed steam for us all evening.

I'm finishing up my new website this week. The site is complete, but I'm hunting down bugs. I have a few issues that need to be dealt with before I'm ready to go live. But I should be able to get it up on schedule. I've made some minor updates to my existing site as well.

Jay and I are planning a trip to the East coast at the beginning of October. We want to capture the fall colors at their peak. We are feeling a little cooped up lately - we need to spend some time in the wilderness. :)

Photo of the Week

My photo, Sunrise Over St. Mary, has been chosen as photo of the week on Photoburst. Don't get confused, here - a few days ago, it was Photo of the Day, and now the same photo has moved up to the next category. That means it will compete with the other Photos of the Week for this month. At the end of the month, one photo will be chosen as Photo of the Month. I know some of my readers are excellent photographers as well. You should consider submitting some of your work at Photoburst. It doesn't cost you anything, and they give a $100 B&H gift card to Photo of the Month winners. Go on - submit your photos, leave a few comments... it's fun. :)

Actually - I changed my mind. If you all start submitting your shots, I won't have a chance in heck of winning! :)
I haven't had a lot of time for processing images, but I'm feeling guilty about not having anything new up for all of you. I get such nice comments and emails from people, and the least I could do is have a new photo on display every now and then. Once school is back in session, I will be able to focus more time on my job - but meanwhile, here's a shot from Yellowstone. We visited some of the old cabins with the kids, and this one had a particularly nice view from a back window. I used the built in flash on my camera to illuminate the inside of the cabin - and the sun did it's job on the landscape outside. It's not my usual style, but I like the shot anyway. :)

Yellowstone

This shot was taken in Yellowstone National Park near the end of our trip. Storms moved through the region all afternoon and evening, and we saw four or five rainbows in different locations as we drove along. As the sun neared the horizon, we pulled over and parked the car near a beautiful meadow. The kids listened to music in the car, while Jay and I took a few shots. We were rather glad that the sky didn't do this every evening - with the kids along, we wouldn't have been able to shoot regularly.

I shot with a GND filter (click here for a brief explanation of GND filters) - but no polarizer. The GND let me capture the detail in both the shadows on the ground and the highlights in the sky. I nearly always use a GND filter to shoot sunrise and sunset. The dynamic range is simply to broad to be captured otherwise. In some cases, I use a circular polarizer when I'm photographing water. The polarizer cuts through glare and reflection, and allows me to see beneath the water. In this case, I wanted to see the colorful reflection in the water. And, you can't shoot a rainbow with a circular polarizer. The rainbow will disappear. :)

The Storm

Norris Geyser Basin provided some absolutely fantastic foreground objects - and the sky went nuts for us. We headed for Steamboat Geyser - the worlds largest - which rarely produces a large eruption. However, it's small eruptions are pretty impressive in themselves. The kids hoped to see a major eruption, and while we waited and watched, we heard rumblings in the distance. At first, we thought the rumbling came from a geyser or hot spring nearby, but it soon became apparent that a major storm was approaching. We believed that the fastest way back to the parking lot was to continue on our trail... but we were wrong. The storm was moving fast, and the kids started to get scared. Jay and I took turns running with the kids and getting a few shots in before the storm hit - this shot of Pearl Spring took just a few seconds. I put down my camera, removed the lens cap, hastily adjusted my settings, and hit the shutter release. Two seconds later, I was running to catch up with the kids - folding up the tripod as I ran.

We reached shelter moments before the storm hit, and we watched from the safety of a stone shelter at the museum. Lightening, thunder, high winds, rain, and hail... it was one heck of a storm. Luckily, it was moving so fast that the worst of it lasted just a few minutes. The little kids were scared, and the big kids helped calm them down until we could return to our car. In the end, everyone decided it was a great adventure. I love this photo - in part because of the memories it holds for me.

Minty Fresh Bison

We're in a hotel in Wyoming tonight. The kids are all sleeping, and we finally have an internet connection again! :) I've checked my emails, and made some quick responses, but I don't have much time to write tonight. We have to be up tomorrow to get to the airport - and then we'll be flying home. The kids have had an excellent time - they loved the geysers and hot springs. It's all been fascinating for us.

My youngest son - age 5 - said to me... "Mama, do Bison smell like mint?" Hmm. Mint? Now, where'd he get that idea? Ah well - sure, why not. Minty-fresh Bison.

Now, I know this will be hard to believe, but Jay and I didn't do much shooting on this trip. I never though I'd be happy to find myself under boring skies while traveling, but the fact is, we weren't going to be doing much shooting anyway. Too many kids in tow. It's just not realistic. In fact, we only shot one sunset (and no sunrises) during the entire trip. Last night, the sky was absolutely stunning. So we stopped by the side of the road, and let the kids listen to music while we shot. Storm lighting, gorgeous colors, rainbows... beautiful. One evening. That's all. Still, the trip has been great.

I'll be home late tomorrow, and I'll try to get some photos processed next week.

Sleeping Rainbows

The Indians call this area The Land of the Sleeping Rainbows. It's in Grand Staircase - Escalante National Monument in Utah. We've been here a few times, now, but this is the first time we were able to capture such spectacular skies. The land is equally impressive, though. The mountains are striped with unbelievable shades of green, gold, white, and red - and lines that reach as far as the eye can see. As one of our students from our last Utah workshop so aptly put it... "Fan-freakin'-tastic." :)

I won't be getting much work done this week. My kids are home from school and we're spending as much time as possible out of doors. Three of them have swim team every weekday morning, and we spent a few hours in the pool this afternoon too. They spent the rest of the day playing in the woods - and we'll go catch some frogs and crawdads after dinner.

We'll be heading for Yellowstone National Park next Wednesday. We're taking all six kids, so I can't promise any blog posts. But I'll try for a few. This trip won't be about photography, either... it's about the kids. So, although we may get a few shots here and there, we'll spend most of our time exploring the park. The kids are very excited. They are used to long trips, so we aren't too worried about the plane trips or the long drive from Denver to the park. We're more concerned about losing someone. Ah well - if they get lost, they can join a bison herd... and that's one less mouth the feed. :)