Today marks ten years to the day that I sent out my first photography blog post! On December 4, 2013 I created my (then) new website and sent out the first blog post from a trip I did to Joshua Tree National Park. I didn't have any grand aspirations. I wasn't looking to build an audience of thousands. I just wanted a better way of sending out occasional photographs to a handful of friends.
And over time, I used the monthly blog post as a way to force me to create more photographs locally, rather than only when I traveled to National Parks or other far away places. And for many years it worked... Each month, I would wander around nearby places and see things in a fresh way and create a meaningful photograph. I still did great trips to National Parks. But I also did more photographic work locally.
And then I retired. And somehow became even busier than when I was working! My photography has suffered a little... I don't devote nearly as much time to creating images as I did in the past. But, things ebb and flow and I'm sure I'll find a way soon to balance photography with all the other things we're doing.
The image above is from a recent trip to Glacier and Banff National Parks. It's also a complete lie and fake. No, not the color of the water. It truly was that magical shade of brilliant blue-green. But the peaceful and remote feeling you get looking at the image is a complete lie. For anyone who has ever been to Lake Louise in Banff NP, you know that I was surrounded by hundreds of tourists, babies in strollers, teens taking selfies for Tik Tok, a chinese choir group singing on the south shore... with a five star resort right behind me. It's a beautiful sight to see... but I prefer much quieter places!
Thanks for sticking around these last ten years. And to ten more!
We awoke to a perfectly sunny, clear autumn day outside Glacier National Park. This was the first day of our trip and I couldn't wait to get up into the mountains. I could see the majestic peaks rise up quickly in the distance and they got even more impressive as we drove toward the park. But I noticed something else too... some clouds in the middle of the peaks. Probably nothing to worry about.
But the persistent cloud shelf wouldn't leave... in fact it got larger. And as we drove up Going To The Sun Road I started to think the National Park Service had the wrong name for this road. Sure, they had a hundred years of experience in the park and this was my first day... but I was certain I knew better... this road should have been called Into The Clouds Road!
We gained altitude as we gained distance and it started to get brighter... and brighter. The layers of mountain peaks in all directions were revealing themselves as the clouds and fog thinned out. And as we continued gaining altitude, we emerged above the clouds. The tallest peaks stuck out of a bright white foggy floor... thousands of feet above sea level. It was time to make some photos!
Things started changing quickly. Even though we stopped moving, the landscape changed before our very eyes. Light rays shone though thinning fog... unseen pine trees suddenly became visible... and the foggy floor high above the valley started breaking up. I made many images, but this is the one I liked the best. You can see the remnants of the fog and clouds that had earlier obscured the landscape causing me to think I knew more about this park than the National Park Service. Fortunately, they knew better than me!
Sometimes you are simply at the right place at the right time. All the planning in the world is of no help. When weather changes as frequently as it does in Newfoundland, it is hard to conceive of an image in advance and then go try to make that image. Sometimes you need luck... and you need to be at the right place at the right time.
It was a little past eight o'clock after a long day of hiking. We were driving back to our cottage in Rocky Harbour when we saw the sky start to light up. And... we had just driven past a scenic overlook. What luck!! We made a u-turn and zipped back to the parking lot of the overlook. I worked quickly to get the camera and tripod set up since the light was changing fast. I made several attempts and liked the image above the best of all.
At first we had the place to ourselves, but slowly a few more cars had the same luck we did. They were at the right place at the right time too. They quietly joined us and we all watched the light show eventually fade into early evening.
This is the last of the Newfoundland images I will share on the blog. Please visit my Newfoundland Page to see more images (you'll see Puffins!). I hope you enjoyed this "trip" to Newfoundland as much as we did! We recently came back from a trip to Glacier NP and Banff... so I hope that is what you will find in the next blog post.
Twelve days and not a single clear morning for sunrise photography. Twelve days and very few clear evenings for sunset photography. The weather in Newfoundland was very changeable and rendered all advanced planning almost useless. On my photography trips, I meticulously plan sunrise and sunset photography locations. Everything else is secondary... eating, sleeping, even bathing! It all happens only if time permits and only after the sunrises and sunsets.
We met our match with the Newfoundland weather. But we adapted and it turned out to be great weather! We had some beautiful periods of sunny skies. We had fog. We had clouds and even a short period of rain one day. What we learned was that each day would start off with fog or clouds, turn sunny by late morning, then cloud up again toward sunset. And on very few evenings, we would be treated to about five or ten minutes of absolutely magical sunset light.
In the case of the photograph above, we were on Cape Bonavista when the sunlight broke through a small gap in the evening clouds and lit up the coast with incredible golden light. I was literally running from spot to spot to get the right composition before the light faded. One hundred yards behind me and across the road, Marilyn and Rich were watching whales put on an amazing show... breaching, diving, blowing air and water and simply playing in front of an appreciative audience. The light faded quickly and my work was done, so I joined Marilyn and Rich and watched the whales enjoying their evening of fun off the coast.
I'll probably share one or two more photos from our trip. Newfoundland is not a place that many people know about. And hardly anyone has it in their top locations to visit. But it should be... it was simply beautiful. We will go back. For sure.
I've always been fascinated by extremes. If a place is described by a word ending in "est" it grabs my attention and almost begs me to see it! Tallest, driest, hottest, furthest, highest... these are some of the words that describe places that appeal to me.
While planning our trip to Newfoundland, I found out that it has a location that is the furthest east in North America. I had to see it. Cape Spear is a section of rocky coast on the eastern edge of Newfoundland. The sun's light touches this rocky coast before any other land in all of North America. And what a beautiful place!
We hiked for six miles along a thousand foot high barren headland along the coast... through small stands of stunted pines... over boardwalks through boggy marshy fields with granite outcroppings... alongside carnivorous pitcher plants... and more.
We saw humpback whales swimming in the waters below... breaching, feeding, and blowing air as they reached the surface of the water. We sat at North Head Point and just enjoyed the magnificent views and sounds all around us. Definitely one of my favorite hikes in all the places I have been. And we finished the day with five minutes of magical golden sunlight on the Cape Spear Lighthouse as the sun slipped out from under the clouds before dropping below the horizon.
We recently returned from a twelve day hiking and photography trip to Newfoundland. It was a fantastic trip through a rugged landscape, charming coastal villages, with warm and welcoming people. I'll have some more images to share as I review them to find the best.
This blog post is coming to you on the summer solstice... the beginning of summer and the longest day of the year. Unfortunately this also means the days will be getting shorter from now on! :(
Equally momentous is the fact that I was out in the landscape with my camera for the first time in a very long time. I spent a couple days on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay near the Blackwater area. I have been here several times and it is one of my favorite places to visit... flat, wide open, marshy areas with lots of wildlife... and hardly any people.
Those grand, wide open, flat marshy scenes require great light and interesting skies in order to make worthwhile images. And if you live in the northeast, you know we have had terrible hazy white skies almost all spring because of the wildfires in Canada. Hazy white skies are about the worst you can have if you are trying to make good photographs.
Luckily, the smoke does something else. It partially obscures the sun and gives a warm, orange glow to the land at sunrise. So, with a wake-up call at 4:45am, I went to my favorite place on Maple Dam Road and started looking. After some time, I found the right combination of color, sky, water, and trees. While the Jeep was parked on one half of the road, I set up the camera and tripod on the other half and created this image that I really like. It conveys how quiet the morning felt as the sun slowly rose through the smoke filled skies.
It felt good to be out there again. I have a couple more trips planned and some other nice images from Blackwater. So... there just might be some regular monthly blog posts coming again!
Why not? I had never been to a real live auction in my life. I’ve heard the stories and I had a good idea of what I thought it would be like, but I had never been to one. So when the sign went up on the property of a local farm saying the auction was next Wednesday at 9am, I thought… why not?
We arrived early and were surprised at the large parking lot in the field… with a separate area for trucks and trailers. We parked the Jeep among rows of huge pickup trucks and walked up the hill to where the machinery and farm equipment were on display. We immediately noticed the auctioneers in their black hats and coats and couldn’t wait for it to start. People greeted each other with warm recognition. Clearly we were the outsiders here… the only ones in sneakers and the only ones with a camera. Once the main auctioneer started with his sing-song melodic voice, the reality matched what I imagined auctions to be. It was a great way to spend a couple hours on a Wednesday morning.
Click on this link to see seven more images. And be sure to click on the button with some background audio while viewing the photos.
For regular followers of my newsletter, you will obviously see this is very different from the photographs I normally create and share with you. As you know, my pickleball addiction has caused me to spend much less time creating new landscape images. But it has done something else as well. It has provided a break and allowed me to experiment with other kinds of photography. And this has brought back some of the excitement in making images again. Who knows if this is a real change in direction or just a temporary experiment. Either way, its been fun!
"Just another sunset"... that was the reaction I got from a friend when I previewed this image. Now I know he was joking, but it really got me thinking. Are we that jaded with images showing special moments in nature that we don't even appreciate them anymore? Jaded means "lacking enthusiasm, typically after having had too much of something". Do we not get excited at a spectacular sunset image simply because we have seen so many highly saturated, over-processed sunset photos on Instagram, or Facebook, or the Internet? How about the real thing? Are we so flooded with photos that we don't even slow down the car when we see the real sunset?
I hope not! Each special moment is unique, and worth noticing. We can afford a few minutes to stop the car, or stop what we are doing, and witness the beauty in something as everyday as the sunset.
We were on the gulf coast of Florida visiting close friends when I created this image. Not only did we stop the car, but our friends purposefully made dinner reservations for thirty minutes after sunset so we would have time to stand on the beach and watch the sun sink below the horizon. And for the second day in a row, we were on the dividing line with clear skies to the north and clouds to the south... giving us this beautiful mix of clouds and sunlight and color that simply could not be seen anywhere else. At least fifty other people took the time to stand on the beach with us and watch the colorful ending to a beautiful winter day down south.
Thanks for bearing with me as I share just anther sunset photo. Maybe next month I'll get back to a more meaningful image! :)
Happy New Year Everyone!
Here is something a little different from my normal photographs. I've often noticed how street lights illuminate the bare trees of winter. The light source seems to change the physical shape of the trees by revealing some branches while others remain obscured by the dark of night. As you drive by in a car, the shapes change as your perspective changes.
I decided to make a few images to see if this might become a small project. I was pleasantly surprised by the first image I created a few nights ago. It looks mysterious and almost as if it's from a different world. I like how the trees just seem to fade away into nothing as you move further from the light. What is hidden in the dark world beyond?
The trees in the light seem to provide a line of defense against unknown forces. What are they protecting? Why are these trees so important that they are illuminated? Many questions, but no answers. (As a side note, I posted this image in a fine art photography group on Facebook. It received a very positive response and gained the "Editor's Applause" award for the week! There were many comments... most unique is that from a distance, the image looks like two animals engaged in a fight.)
Stay tuned. It may turn into an interesting small project. Or it simply may be one nice picture taken one warm winter evening. Either way... I'm using my cameras again!