Moving Rock, Racetrack Playa, Death Valley NP, CA, USA, 2014.
Death Valley is one of my most favorite national parks. Of the various locations within this park, I love the Racetrack Playa. I have been there twice and this image came about during my second visit. From a paved road, it is a hard 2+ hours of rough unpaved road to get there. A serious workout for your car’s suspension. The rewards are well worth it. As a landscape photographer, although we reached there in the afternoon, I insisted that we wait until the sun sets, so that I can get some cool photographs. The hard part is that once the sun sets, the return journey becomes all the more difficult, given that it turns pitch dark. Along the way, we stopped a few times to enjoy the starry night with no light pollution.
Moving Rock, Racetrack Playa, Death Valley National Park, California, USA
Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Pescadero, CA, USA, 2014.
Some weekends, I drive locally near my home. This was shot in Pescadero, on US-1. This lighthouse has been photographed a lot. My version of it involves wading and climbing onto one of the sea stacks followed by photographing it with a 10 stop neutral density filter on, to average the waves over time to give this snowy effect.
Pigeon Point Lighthouse and Sea Stacks, Pescadero, CA, USA
My friend, Wesley Chen, challenged me on facebook to present my top ten travel photograph favorites. Since I am sharing these on facebook, one per day, I decided to share them here as well. So, here they are, continuing on my top ten, in no particular order.
Number Five.
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA, 2013.
Visited the Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park with a photographer friend of mine. This photograph was made during normal daytime, when we visited as a family. I have included tourists in this image, which is unusual for my landscapes. However, for my eyes, the lady with the orange jacket, forms a nice anchor for this shot. Usually panoramic stitches are made from telephoto frames, but this one is an exception. Stitched in Photoshop, using several wide angle frames.
Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA
My friend, Wesley Chen, challenged me on facebook to present my top ten travel photograph favorites. Since I am sharing these on facebook, one per day, I decided to share them here as well. So, here they are, continuing on my top ten, in no particular order.
Number Four.
Moulton Barn, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA, 2013.
Visited the Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park with a photographer friend of mine. When both of our families were sleeping, we drove to Moulton Barn well before sunrise. As dawn broke, this panoramic was made. Several vertical frames were captured, which were later stitched in Photoshop. As you can see, the first light is hitting the window of the barn and the background hills. This warm light was fleeting – clouds took over just after we got the glow for a few moments – enough for me to finish the capture.
Moulton Barn, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA
My friend, Wesley Chen, challenged me on facebook to present my top ten travel photograph favorites. Since I am sharing these on facebook, one per day, I decided to share them here as well. So, here they are, continuing on my top ten, in no particular order.
Number Three.
Lake MacDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA, 2015. My family and I took a road trip to Glacier National Park in Montana. While my family was still sleeping, I carried my camera gear and arrived at Lake MacDonald, at least an hour before sunrise. I sat along the banks and observed the light change. I enjoyed the dawn break, making several photographs along the way. I kept changing lenses and trying new compositions as light kept changing. I waited there and made photographs for over 90 minutes after first light. Towards the end of that session, I made this one and remains one of my all time favorites.
Compositionally, I used a few standard formulas, reflection of the hills in the horizon, place the horizon at a 1/3 of the frame, interesting foreground at the other 1/3 of the frame. Precise placement of the camera/lens near the foreground rocks and the precise adjustment of the tripod height were key. The camera/lens and ball-head assembly were just inches from the water. As you can imagine, the tripod was in the water and the hardest part for me was working on the camera placement adjustment, in icy cold water. My shoes were waterproof – so my legs didn’t get cold. However, my hands almost froze from getting wet and the tripod legs were cold as well. I usually deal with this by using gloves, but couldn’t adjust any of my camera settings with thick gloves on. When I made this shot, there were waves and the water was not as still as perceived in this photo. The effect is one of long exposure averaging over the 4 minutes of exposure. Long exposure created using a 10 stop neutral density filter. This image was shot at f22 for depth of field.
Lake McDonald, Glacier National Park, Montana, USA
A few winters ago, I went to the Sequoia National Park for a few days. My favorite location in the park to easily see and photograph great landsapes, is the Moro Rock. One can easily climb it and get great views from the top. Here is one such image, close to sunset.
Folks, this year, I am sheltering at home, to contain the spread of coronavirus. No July 4th fireworks for me. However, let me present to you, my July 4th celebration from last year. Here’s an image I made a year ago.
Brown Bears on Brooks falls, waiting for Salmon swimming upstream. As I said before, we spent the first day trip to this area seeing and photographing bears on Brooks Falls. The second day trip was spent at the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. This photograph begins the shoot from day 3. After my shoot on day 1 and during my shoot on day 2, I knew that my third day would be spent at Brooks falls. I did some brainstorming on how I could shoot. I came in on day 3, with a preconceived idea to make a slow shutter speed shot to smoothen the falls. Here’s my first such image. Nikon D4S loaded with the Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 lens. Shutterspeed of 1/6 s, slow enough to smoothen the falls, but fast enough to ensure that the bears are not fully blurred out.
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Alaska, USA. The sheer uniqueness of this landscape encouraged me to shoot this image. The horizontal pattern at the bottom, followed by diagonal pattern above it and finally, the uniquely different hills anchoring the background. The low clouds added drama. To isolate this scene, my Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 lens was insufficient. I needed to add my 1.4x teleconverter, to effectively shoot this at 700mm.
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Alaska, USA. This scene was interesting for me firstly because of the pink flower laden hillside. Secondly, there is a repeating pattern of ridges coming out of the clouds to the bottom right. Nikon D4S loaded with the Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6 lens.
