2015 Favorite Images

2015 was a productive year for my photography with travel to Montana, California, Nevada , Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona  as well as  lots of Colorado trips. It is always hard to pick  10-12 favorites. Hope you enjoy these!

Mammatus Clouds

Springtime on the White River Plateau

Swainson Hawk

Green River Valley Storm

Hayden Valley Bison

Summer Sunset Storm

Two Mountain Goat Kids

McDonald Creek Rapidss

Medano Ranch Storm

Sandstone & Trees

Autumn Mountain Meadow

Two Young Deer

Exploring the Square Composition

One of the important compositional tools available to the photographer is considering the orientation and  final aspect ratio of the image. One option is the classic square format. The following images are all square compositions cropped from the 2:3 aspect ration of  35mm digital captures, and each of them illustrates the  strength of a square composition.  The next time you are out photographing and searching for an image try thinking square!

 

2014 Favorite Images

2014 was a good year for me photographically. The highlight of the year was a trip to Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve where my wife and I spent two weeks cruising on her sister’s boat. We had typical SE Alaska weather with a mix of rain, clouds and sunshine, and I was able to make a number of landscape and wildlife images that communicate the spirit of the place. Other work ranges from the Grand Canyon and Colorado mountains and valleys to the plains of Kansas.

Enjoy this Bakers Dozen of my favorite images from 2014!

Best of 2013

As we  rapidly approach the end of 2013 and look toward 2014 I have been reviewing the photographs I made to choose a 10 best list. This is always a  difficult choice and since I did a fair amount of traveling this year I have a variety of images to choose from. From the Canadian Rockies and the plains of Kansas, to Florida and the Blue Ridge of North Carolina, I experienced some great light and artful compositions!   Enjoy!

2012 Favorite Images

It has been too long since I have posted to this blog, The past year has been busy and challenging with ups and down including the passing of my father. I managed to get a reasonable amount of photography done with several trips. Reviewing my images I have picked out 12 of my favorites from the year. Enjoy! I am resolving to post more in this new year.

Missouri River floodplain grass, Charles Russell NWR

Eureka Dunes, Death Valley NP

Grass and Willows, San Luis Valley

Cotton Lake Marsh, Medano Ranch

Tall Grass Prairie Sunrise, Oklahoma

Wind River Aspens, Wyoming

Kebler Pass aspen boles

Blanca Peak Clouds, Colorado

Kansas Prairie Sky, Quivira NWR

Prairie Storm Rainbow, Chico Basin Ranch

Running Horses, Zapata Ranch

Kebler Pass Aspen and Ferns, Colorado

High Falls, Rocks and Water: Dealing with the conditions at hand and having back-up equipment!

I made this image of High Falls in Tettegouche State Park on a trip to the North Shore Region of Minnesota. I had hoped to photograph some spectacular fall colors, but as it turned out I was late by about a week as a large wind storm had brought down most of the leaves. I traveled to Minnesota primarily to attend the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America that was held in Minneapolis this year, so I wanted to take advantage of the travel and do some photography after the meeting. The North Shore region along Lake Superior north of Duluth is spectacular, and I headed first to Gooseberry Fall State Park where I previously had photographed a Summer solstice sunrise over Lake Superior. As I prepared for a sunrise from the rocky shore and was setting up my tripod low in front a pool I had hoped to get a nice reflection of color in, a moment of in-attention resulted in a bit of a disaster! As I turned to get my cable release from my pack, my tripod with my Nikon D700 and 14-24 lens tipped over and crashed into the shallow pool. Not a good feeling as I quickly pulled it out, but the damage was done. The result was a large scratch in the middle of the front element of the lens and a wet camera body. Not good,and I thought well there goes the trip!. Fortunately I had my D300 along as a backup, but my only other wide angle I had with me with was a 24mm TS-E that has a 36mm field of view on the D300. With this combination I would not be able to photograph the real wide angle shots with prominent elements large in the foreground I love to compose. Oh well, sometimes photographers have to just deal with the situations and conditions they are presented with. So traveled a bit farther north to Tettegouche SP, and ended up a having a great couple of days concentrating on images and compositions that worked with the equipment I had and did not lament the real wide angle compositions I could not make.
This image of High Falls (the highest waterfall in Minnesota) was made using the 24mm Tilt -Shift, which given the composition I extracted actually worked well. The moral of this story for all photographers is 1: pay attention to the stability of your tripod; 2, have a second camera body as a back-up; and 3 see and extract the compositions that can be made with the equipment you have!

High Falls in Tettegouche State park, Minnesota

September Print of the Month : Canyon Autumn, Zion NP

The print of the month for September 2011 will be Canyon Autumn, an image I made in Zion National Park.

I am looking forward to Fall Colors in Colorado and then on a trip to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in October!

Enjoy!

June Print of the Month: Spring Aspen Grove

The June 2011 Print of the Month will be Spring Aspen Grove, an image I made in the Kebler Pass Aspen forest last Spring:

Dawn light filters into a Spring aspen grove, Colorado

May 2011 Print of the Month: Mothers Love

I am pleased to announce that the May 2011 Print of the Month will be Mothers Love, an adorable image of a mother prairie dog and two of her young ones photographed in Wichita Mountains NWR, Oklahoma!

Soft Light: Wonderful for the Intimate Landscape: New Tapestries of Grass

I spent last weekend photographing down on the Medano-Zapata Ranch looking for signs of Spring! As is often the case in Colorado, the weather was very variable and ranged from rain and snow to bright sunshine. Saturday afternoon I found myself wandering in one of the meadows near the Zapata lodge looking for intimate compositions of grass and sedges. The soft cloudy light was perfect and I captured a number of images that I am including in my on-going series of Tapestries of Grass Images.

If you are interested in photographing and exploring the Medano-Zapata Ranch I will be offering a Photography Workshop there this Summer on August 25-28. Please Contact Tess (tess@zranch.org) or 719-378-2356 (x 110) for more information and to register.