On one of our mornings in Glacier NP, we headed to Apgar Village to get some sunrise photos. It is an extremely popular location in the park for sunrises, as the sun rises across Lake McDonald and often silhouettes the Rocky Mountains in the background. Another reason for its popularity is that there are always boats there that can be used as a foreground element. There is always one boat that is anchored offshore and I have never not seen it there. In fact, I don't know if it ever used. The other boats are always tied up on the small dock that extends onto the lake EXCEPT for this morning. The boats were inexplicably all onshore. In all of the visits that Jeff Clow has been there, including his many photo tours, he had never seen them in this position. In any case, I wanted to get a shot of this not too often composition just before the sun rose above the Rockies.
Morning Snack - Oakesdale, Washington
I have been posting photos of a few of the barns that Jeff Clow and I scouted in the Palouse. This was actually the first barn that we saw. It was unique for two reasons. The first reason was that it was a red barn, which is not as common as one might think in the area (many are unpainted). According to Jeff, whose knowledge of trivia seems to have no bounds, farmers painted barns red as it was the cheapest color of paint they could buy in the 1800's. The second reason was that it was surrounded by a fence and there were several horses grazing there. I may be wrong, but I think it was the only barn of the 80 plus barns we saw that had horses. I wanted to get an angle were I could get just one horse in the frame, so I exhibited patience (that I am not known for) and finally got this photo.
Cairn View - Bowman Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana
On our last day in Glacier National Park, Jeff Clow and I wanted to get an early start to the Palouse for our scouting trip. As luck would have it, the car we had rented wasn't available for an early pickup and we decided to head up to Bowman Lake. Not many visitors head up to the lake, as it takes about 2 hours to drive 32 miles on a narrow non-paved road. I think the photography gods were on our side as the weather was extremely nice. The ride was pretty uneventful, with not many close encounters with large vehicles (the road is quite narrow and it can take a lot of maneuvering when two large ones need to pass each other).
Once there, we were blessed with relatively calm water. Despite the fact that it was mid-morning, the light was surprisingly nice. We took a trail around the right side of the lake and took quite a few shots at different points. I spotted this cairn (a manmade stack of stones) and decided to use it as a foreground element. Cairns are often used as trail markers, but this one seemed just to be there for no reason that I could determine.
Tracks - Steptoe Butte State Park, Washington
One of the interesting things about shooting the Palouse during the harvest time is the patterns that the farm equipment make in the landscape. When you are on ground level, they don't jump out to you as compared to the view when you drive to the top of the 3,600 foot high Steptoe Butte. The first challenge that you encounter once on the butte is what to shoot. The 360 degree gives you so many choices that it is difficult to pick one. Trying to take a wide shot, in my opinion, doesn't work as well as zooming into parts of the undulating landscape, as you lose a lot of the nuances (I still shoot wide but I never like them when I get home). Using a telephoto lens can focus on the details much more and bring more interest to the photo. In this image, I used the tops of the trees to anchor it, and used the tracks in the landscape moving from the lower right to lead the viewer through the image. As a side note, this was shot in early evening light just as we were arriving.
Smoke on the Water - Glacier National Park, Montana
One of the sunrises that we shot in Glacier NP was at Fish Creek, which runs into Lake McDonald. From this location looking east, there were plenty of shots of a terrific sunrise to be had. After getting some pretty good shots, I did what I like to do and explored other vantage points. As I turned around, I spotted this scene that really intrigued me. Across the lake, there was fog rising from the water. The sky had turned a great shade of soft red and orange. I think that what intrigued me the most was the stand of trees that are silhouetted and the top of the hill. It was a great reminder to myself to always look behind you or explore other areas of a location. You might find a hidden gem.
Hard Times - Colfax, Washington
When scouting the Palouse, one of the challenges is determining the best barns to shoot when we go back. During the trip, Jeff Clow and I looked at 88 different barns. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some are painted, some are not. Some are in excellent condition while others are in total disrepair, including some that have fallen. Some are close to the road and others can only be shot from a distance. Sometimes it was easy to agree on whether the barn was photography friendly and other times we disagreed. While both of us will not claim to be barn experts, we certainly know a lot more about barns than we did when we started.
This particular barn and its accompanied shed has fallen on hard times during the years. There is hope for it though. The farmhouse that sits further down the street was being renovated as we drove by, so maybe the barn is to be next on the list. If it does, I don't know whether it will be a better or worse photography subject, but time will tell.
Glacier Drive By - Glacier National Park, Montana
Driving along the Going to the Sun road is such a treat. The road is the only paved road in the park (there are only a couple of other roads) and it stretches 50 miles from the west entrance to the east entrance of this amazing national park. The road is quite narrow and takes visitors through the rugged Rocky Mountains, crossing the Continental Divide. It's highest elevation is at Logan Pass at 6,646 feet, which is an extremely popular stop offering all kinds of hiking opportunities.
The road is particularly narrow with two lanes and little guardrails and has quite a number of hairpin turns. It is one of the most difficult roads in the US to plow the snow, often taking 10 weeks to plow up to 80 feet of snow. There have been instances when the road has not been cleared until mid-July.
For photographers, it is difficult to get many shots, as there are very few pullouts to park along the way. During the peak of summer, the small pullouts can only fit a few cars. To get this photo, I was in the shotgun seat of the car and stuck my camera out the window. I had it on burst mode and probably shot about 150 photos. I knew that traveling at 30 mph, many of the photos would be blurred, have trees in front of the scenes or worse. I also knew that I might get lucky and get a few good shots. This one is one of those lucky ones.
Golden Farmland - Steptoe Butte State Park, Washington
Steptoe Butte State Park is the Palouse's must visit location to stop and shoot photos. Standing about 3,600 feet above some of the most fertile farmland you can find, it gives a 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape. It is best seen and shot at sunrise or sunset (or both) when the sun is low, allowing for the undulating landscape to be best captured with golden light and deep shadows that add dimensionality to the photo. Once the sun gets higher, the shadows lighten and the contrast is reduced.
The last time I shot there, it was spring and the view displayed all different shades of green with some patches of brown thrown in. On this last trip, it was the harvest and the greens were replaced with gold. It was a shock to my system but, as you can see, it was beautiful in its own right.
Fire in the Sky - Glacier National Park, Montana
Last month, I visited Glacier National Park for the third time. One of my goals on this trip was to get a decent photo of McDonald Lake, as I had been stymied on all of my previous visits even when I went back there several times on each trip. The first first day, we went to Apgar Village at the western end of the lake. As you can see, the photography and weather gods were on my side as Mother Nature put on quite a light show. After seeing the scene in the blue hour, the clouds came rolling in and the sky lit up like it was on fire. With the Rocky Mountains silhouetted in the background, the lone boat on the lake (which always seems to be there) and the boats on the dock, it was a scene that I will remember for a long time.
Leaning - Colfax, Washington
When I was scouting the Palouse last week with Jeff Clow, I was hoping to come across this house again that I had shot in 2015. I wasn't sure where it exactly was, but the map I was using delivered me to the right road and there it was. When I shot it last, the sky was overcast and was completely a monotone white. This visit was a little after sunrise, and what a different look it has with blue skies and golden hour light.
Since my last visit, I have learned a little more about this abandoned house. It turns out that it was built in 1885 (according to another photographer) and was actually a one-room schoolhouse named the Skeen School. The schoolhouse had a bell tower on its roof and, if you see the other side of it, you can see where the roof was patched where it once was. I haven't been able to find out any more information on it. I would love to know its history. It is currently used for storage and it looks like it could fall any day. That being said, when I was searching for information on it, the main thing I found were lots of other photographers posting photos of it wondering if it would survive a harsh winter. These musings date back at least 10 years, so it seems that the schoolhouse is resilient.
Nestled - Pullman, Washington
After a photo tour in Glacier National Park, Jeff Clow and I headed to the Palouse to scout out over 200 locations. I had visited the park last year, and Jeff had always wanted to go to but hadn't yet. He has been inundated with requests from his alumni to host a tour there, but he needed to see what it was all about. I wasn't sure what to expect when we got there, as I had only been there in the late spring when everything is all shades of green. We were hoping to catch the harvest in the Palouse, but we weren't sure if we timed it right. Happily, the harvest was still happening although we might have gotten there when it was half over.
I must say that I was in for a shock when I first set my eyes on it. All of the shades of greenery were gone and were replaced with more of a monotone color. As the scouting trip went on, I got used to the change in color and fell in love with the landscape all over again. Just like the spring, the light plays such an important part in showing the Palouse at its best. The undulating hills create these terrific shadows, which really add a three-dimensional look to the landscape. I particularly loved scenes like this, where the farm is nestled in among the mounds and hills.
Grinnell Reflection - Glacier National Park, Montana
Very slowly recovering from my recent trip to Glacier National Park and a scouting trip to the Palouse. Haven't looked at many of my photos yet, but I remembered this photo that I took on the first morning at Many Glacier Hotel. It looked great on the LCD of my Fuji but I knew better than to get too excited until I could view it on my iMac. Suffice to say, it still looked pretty good.
We had a great sunrise and Mount Grinnell was bathed in the orange light of the Golden Hour. I am a sucker for reflections shots and look for them wherever I go. Many times, if you follow me around when shooting, you will spot me lying flat on the ground to get the most of the reflection. I think that my buddy, Jeff Clow, has taken more shots of me in that position than I want. In any case, I was able to get the whole puddle filled with Grinnell's peak. I was really lucky to have found this spot as the wind was really kicking up, making the rest of Swiftcurrent Lake extremely rippled. The stones around the puddle made a terrific barrier so that the wind did not affect it.
John Ford Point View - Monument Valley, Navajo Nation
If you have spent any time watching old time westerns, you have seen this scene many times before, probably in black and white. It is the quintessential landscape that defines the wild west. The point from which I took this shot is known as John Ford Point, where he shot a scene from the 1939 movie, "The Searchers" where an American Indian village is attacked.
Haven't seen any of the old westerns? Here are some other times that Monument Valley has been in the media:
- The rock band Eagles used Monument Valley on the cover of their 1985 UK Best of album.
- The 2003 Led Zeppelin DVD features the West Mitten of Monument Valley on the cover.
- The film 2001: A Space Odyssey features footage of Monument Valley.
- In the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest ends his cross-country run here.
- The film Thelma & Louise features some shots of Monument Valley,
- The video for "I Disappear" by Metallica was partially shot in Monument Valley.
- The opening shots of Mission: Impossible II feature Monument Valley.
- The film National Lampoon's Vacation features footage of Monument Valley.
- In Back to the Future Part III Marty McFly drives from 1955 to 1885 from a drive-in theatre set at the Valley's base.
There are plenty of other famous films (Easy Rider, Once Upon a Time in the West, Electra Glide in Blue, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West); TV commercials; television shows; video games; music videos; and album art that feature Monument Valley.
So it is very likely that everyone has seen Monument Valley even though they haven't been there. Take my advice, no matter where you have seen it, nothing does it justice that seeing it with your own eyes.
Light Through the Shadows - Doubling Point Lighthouse, Maine
Did you ever take a photo and in your head you are thinking, "Why am I shooting this?". Usually it will never come out and I will end up deleting it. The question, Why am I wasting my time? also enters my mind. If this was the film days, I never would have taken it, but now in the digital age, why not?
So a little background. I took this photo in April on the Maine Lighthouse Tour that Jeff Clow runs and I co-host. This stop is Doubling Point Lighthouse and we normally get there in mid-afternoon. The light isn't the best, but when trying to shoot thirteen lighthouses in three days, you can't have every lighthouse shot during the golden hours. In any case, we were leaving for our next destination and I looked back toward the lighthouse, and something subconsciously told me to take a photo. The thoughts above went through my head after I pressed the shutter button.
As I was looking through my images from Maine, this caught my eye and I remembered my thoughts. The more I looked at it, the better I liked it. The play of light through the trees against the shadows spoke to me. The lighthouse in the background and the snow on the right added to my interest. So here it is. Good enough for me to edit it and post.
Spider Rock - Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona
When I begin writing the words that accompany my photos, I often leverage my knowledge of the location and my experience when I took the photo (e.g weather conditions, time of day, etc.). Depending on what the post is trying to convey, I may also augment this with some research on the location. For this photo of Spider Rock, I wanted to convey how it got its name. In my research, I found it wasn't just a name but rather a significant story in Navajo culture. So rather than try to summarize, I found this explanation on this website: http://www.weirdus.com/. I didn't think I could write anything better so here is the writeup - word for word.
"Canyon de Chelly National Monument, located in the northeast corner of the state, is one of Arizona's lesser known destinations, but one of its most dramatic and inspiring. Though much smaller than the Grand Canyon, visitors often say it can be just as spectacular with its extraordinary ruins and breathtaking features.
De Chelly (pronounced de SHAY-ee, or more commonly de SHAY) consists entirely of land owned by the Navajo Nation and still maintains a community of Native Americans who live and farm within the canyon's walls. While sightseers are allowed to explore the chasm's rim freely, visits to nearly all areas within the canyon itself are allowed only with a guide, as many sites are considered sacred to the Navajo people.
Notable among those sites is Spider Rock, a red-sandstone survivor of epic erosion. An 800-foot spire stabbing the air that flows between the canyon's walls, it stands as a sort of unofficial icon of Canyon de Chelly. It's also the address of the mythical Spider Woman, who has chosen its pinnacle as her home.
Spider Woman is considered an important deity in the Navajo culture. According to their creation story, when the Navajo people found their way here from the underworld, she gave power to those who destroyed the evil creatures that roamed this land. In addition, she's been responsible for protecting peaceful men who have found themselves in danger from others. In one story, a young Navajo was hunting in de Chelly when an enemy warrior began pursuing him. Chased deeper and deeper into the canyon, the hunter had run out of options until he saw a silk-like cord drop down the side of Spider Rock. He tied it around his waist, and with the help of Spider Woman, the young man escaped to the top, where he was allowed to stay until it was safe.
Yet, the legend of Spider Woman does have a darker side. Aided by a spirit snitch who resides on the lower, adjacent peak known as Speaking Rock, Spider Woman seeks out those who have been mischievous and disobedient. Whenever she hears of a child who has been badly behaved, she crawls down from her perch, snatches him up and carries him back to the top to meet his fate. The chalky color that caps Spider Rock is said to be the bones of the Navajo children she has devoured."
Back Alley - Edinburgh, Scotland
This is another in my series to re-edit a photo from the past that I edited quite poorly and posted on my blog as I thought it was good, but now realize that it wasn't. In some of my previous posts, I had blamed my poor results on my then rudimentary HDR editing skills. Can't do that on this one, as this definitely was not a HDR, which proves that I could be equally bad with other editing programs. The originally edited photo has a lot going wrong in it: over saturation, crooked buildings, and buildings that actually seem to glow. Hopefully, I have corrected these mistakes and now present a more natural photo.
When I took this photo back in 2007, it was the deserted alley that I was trying to convey along with the age of the architecture. The reason that I shot it was also related to the scenes on the rest of the alleys and streets. We visited Edinburgh during their Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The Tattoo is a famous show that features military bands as part of the Edinburgh Festival that is held in August each year. The Festival attracts over 200,000 people and it seemed that there were at least that many on the streets. What amazed me most about this scene is that there was no one in this alley, unlike almost every other alley that I passed that day. It's like the photography gods wanted me to shoot this scene.
Double Arch Glow - Arches National Park, Moab, Utah
One of my favorite rock formations that I have shot is located in Arches National Park. I have shot there quite a few times and have determined it is best shot early in the mornings. The few times I have shot it in evening light have not come out very well, so I had given up on shooting there at that time. This past March, Jaki Good Miller and I had just arrived in Moab in the late afternoon and decided to take a quick spin into Arches National Park. As we headed toward The Windows and Turret Arch area, I explained to her my reluctance on shooting Double Arch at this time of day but said we would stop there on the way out. Stop we did and, to my surprise, this is the scene that we walked toward. I quickly realized that whatever I had experienced before had lead me to false conclusions. Maybe the time of the late afternoon was different in the past, but the glow through the arches was wonderful. While I still think that Double Arch is better in morning light, suffice to say I will visit it in late afternoon light in the future.
Parkway Beauty - Icefields Parkway, Banff National Park, Alberta
It is heard to explain to anyone how I feel when I am in the mountains. I am not sophisticated enough with words that can express my feelings. Perhaps quotes from one of the most admired naturalists and another from one of the most admired landscape photographers can better express my thoughts:
“Keep close to Nature’s heart…and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” (John Muir)
“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied – it speaks in silence to the very core of your being” (Ansel Adams)
Here is another quote that also express my feelings:
“This mountain, the arched back of the earth risen before us, it made me feel humble, like a beggar, just lucky to be here at all, even briefly.” (Bridget Asher)
So when I stand in front of subjects like this one of Hilda Peak and Mount Athabasca near Parker Ridge, these quotes are not going through my head, but rather the feelings that they convey are present.
There are some people that I know that don't understand my draw to the mountains and it is hard to explain. I often don't try as I find it impossible to properly convey what they mean to me. At those times, I sometimes say:
“The mountains are calling and I must go.” (John Muir)
Round Roof - Endicott, Washington
In just a few short days, I will be driving from Glacier National Park to the Palouse. I am pretty excited to visit there for the second time. What is so exciting is that I will be with my best friend, Jeff Clow and, in addition, hopefully seeing the Palouse during the harvest time. I don't know if we are hitting it at the right time for the harvest but, rest assured, it will look very different.
My previous visit was in June, when the landscape is a wonderful green almost everywhere you look. I don't expect to see much green on this trip. Instead, I hope to see (and photograph) the the golden colors of the crops grown there. The crops include the nation's richest yields of wheat and barley, lentils and chick peas. In fact, the Palouse region produces twice the national average of crops per acre.
Regardless whether we time the harvest right (this side trip was an afterthought to the Glacier trip), I am sure it will be a great scouting trip. By the way, this is the roof of one of the round barns in the area.
Autumn Mirror - Lake Waramaug State Park, Kent, Connecticut
This is another in my series of re-editing older photos that were poorly processed by me in the past. This one may be my worst processed photo ever with a "cringe" factor of 10 (out of 10). The original photo was shot in 2009 and was processed during my early HDR phase. I sometimes say that I don't know what I was thinking back then and the original proves it. HDR has gotten a bad reputation for over processing photos. Don't believe me? Just do a search on "I hate HDR" and you will find a myriad of poorly processed photos. I wouldn't be surprised if you find my photo there because it is dreadful. That would be a shame as the subject is not at fault here, only the editing.
The subject in this case, shows off the beauty of the foliage in New England that is renowned. Lake Waramaug is about an hour from my house and is a gorgeous setting for the foliage, often resulting in some beautiful reflections. It is, in fact, my favorite local place to shoot foliage. Hopefully, now that I have re-edited the photo, its beauty comes out to you.
On a side note, you might have gotten the impression that I hate HDR. I don't. I have learned over the years to properly process HDR photos. I don't do it often anymore, as the more modern software and camera sensors have gotten to the point that it is not necessary. There are certain situations where HDR is required. The way I look at it now, HDR is just another tool in my toolbox.