Okay, we got to the end of the week and there have been no Moab photos posted on the blog. It was a hard decision, but I think variety won out. This is an image from Bologna, Italy, of a part of the Basilica di San Petronio. The image was originally in color, but I thought that processing it in black and white would really make the intricacy of the stone pop. As usual, I had a mental block when deciding to name this blog post. I sat there for about five minutes and I had nothing. I then did what I usually do when I encounter this challenge: I went on Google and searched for "What is the arch above a door called?" You guessed it, a lunette, thus the title. How many of you knew that? I know I didn't.
Savannah River Guardian
Whenever I travel to the coastal regions, the first thing I research is whether there are any lighthouses near the destination I am visiting. It doesn't matter if they are close or not. As long as they are within a two-hour drive, I put them on the itinerary (if they are close, a sunrise or sunset visit is in order).
We spent a week in Hilton Head, and wanted to spend a day in nearby Savannah ( a 40-minute drive). Of course, since Savannah is only about 20-miles from the Atlantic Ocean, there had to be a lighthouse somewhere close, right? Of course there was --Tybee Island Lighthouse. This light was a little unusual, in that it is located in the middle of a neighborhood. It was originally built in 1736 to guard the entrance to the Savannah River from the Atlantic Ocean. An interesting fact about the light is that it has been rebuilt four times, with the first two iterations not being illuminated (I wonder if it was called a lighthouse then?). In any case, the current iteration was built in the 1860's after being burned down by the Confederate Army. It now stands 154 feet and is beautifully maintained, as can be seen in this photo..
Chapel Bridge
Visiting Europe is always a history lesson, where I always walk away with a greater appreciation of the past. That was so on our visit to Lucerne, Switzerland, after our Rhine River cruise a couple of years ago. Lucerne is a great city that lies next to the blue waters of Lake Lucerne, and it is surrounded by towering mountains. One of the most beautiful areas of the city is where the Reuss River passes under the Kapellbrücke (literally the Chapel Bridge) on its way to Lake Lucerne.
The Chapel Bridge is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe, as well as the world's oldest surviving truss bridge. The bridge is so named, as it starts on one side of the Reuss River near Saint Peter's Chapel. Originally built in 1333, it is 560 feet in length and is unique, as it houses many interior paintings that originate from the 17th century. Today, the bridge serves as one of Lucerne's main tourist attractions, and is prominent in almost any scene along the main thoroughfare.
Fall Flow
One of the best places to take in the New England foliage each year is the Kancamagus Highway in New Hampshire. Affectionally known as the "Kanc", it is the destination of leaf peepers from all over the world. The highway can be quite crowded, especially on Columbus Day weekend, when I shot this scene. The Kanc (aka Route 112) runs for almost 35 miles, and during peak foliage season can give a wonderful display of colors. Along its route, you can find numerous hiking trails, a covered bridge, and six campgrounds.
When I setup for this long exposure shot, I had to work my way through a crowd of people just hanging out on the rocks. As it was mid-afternoon with harsh light, I decided to compose this shot taking advantage of the shade while keeping a glimpse of the color in the distance.
Orange Mounds of the Badlands
It is very hard to describe Badlands National Park to someone who hasn't been there. The diversity of rock formations range from jagged peaks to erosion-carved rock. The park has one main road that runs 31 miles from end-to-end. Every curve in the road brings you to a different type of scene. This composition shows the road curving around what are known as the Orange Mounds toward a section of the famed 100-mile "Wall" that acts as the spine of the park. I left the cars on the road to give viewers an idea of how expansive Badlands is, keeping in mind that this photo shows only a small section of the road.
Lenticular Goodness
About a month ago, I posted this image when I headed off to Moab. It was taken last year in April when my son and I drove cross-country to Oregon. I know that I have been posting a lot of images from my trip, which is quite unusual for me. I tend to vary my locations on the blog. Starting next week, I will resume that tradition. I wanted to post an image today to close out the Moab series, and decided to post a different composition to the one I posted before leaving on the trip.
The image in this post also brings back some great memories of shooting with old friends and meeting new ones. Our group stopped at Balanced Rock to work the scene. It was early evening, and the light and clouds were amazing. As we were finishing shooting, a few of us decided to wander in the field toward the Windows Area of Arches National Park. As we walked toward the distant rock formations and La Sal Mountains, two things happened. First, these lenticular clouds became more prominent in the sky. Their unique shapes really stood out agains the blue sky. The second thing that happened was that this huge group of clouds blocked the sun.
Even though we had plans to head to Delicate Arch later that evening, we all had the same thought: Let's ditch that plan and hang out on the ridge that we were standing on until the clouds blocking the sun cleared. Patience is not my strongest suit, but spending almost 45 minutes waiting for the sun to break through was instead quite enjoyable. We all talked photography, knowing that the scene would be worth it in the end.
Once the clouds cleared the sun, the rock formations were bathed in great light and shadows, with parts of them being quite bright and other parts being in shadow. The La Sal Mountains were lit perfectly and were as clear as I ever had seen them. Finally, those great lenticular clouds looked like some artist had painted them on the sky. All in all, a wonderful evening in the desert.
On the Rocky Shoreline
On my trip to the Oregon Coast last summer, we drove up the coast from Gold Beach in southern Oregon and ended up staying overnight in the coastal town of Yachats. Visitors to the coast of Oregon can oftentimes find fog and rain in bunches. This day was no exception, and the wind and cold, even for August, was challenging. After checking into the hotel and having dinner, I was determined to go outside and shoot, especially since the hotel was right on the Pacific Ocean. This scene was shot maybe a block from the hotel, and I decided to shoot a long exposure that would have the water match the same texture as the storm clouds in the distance. When I looked to edit this, I decided to dial back a bit of the rocky shoreline's color to match the mood of the scene.
Potash Road
Another place that is often missed by visitors to Moab, Utah, is the drive down Potash Road. The road is roughly 17 miles long and runs parallel to the Colorado River. The scenery is terrific, with rock formations literally right next to the road, which is quite close to the river. This area being a favorite destination of rock climbers, you can almost always spot them at various stages of their climbs. On this visit, we stopped for a while, and shot a few climbers as they ascended the sheer rock wall. About 5 miles from Moab, there are a number of petroglyphs that are visible on walls.
At one of our stops, I wanted to shoot an image that emphasized the steepness of the cliffs and how narrow the space is where the road runs (the Colorado River is mere feet to the right of the road). I also wanted to use the road as a leading line that would make viewers wonder what was around the bend.
Postbriefkasten
Sometimes it is the little things that catch your eye and just pop out of a scene. We had spent the day sailing slowly down the Rhine River from Amsterdam to view the amazing castles that tower above the river. The weather was not good most of the day, with heavy rains. As we neared our destination of Rudesheim, Germany, the weather broke, and, once docked, we went to explore the town.
Rudesheim is a nice place with lots of shops and restaurants. Whenever my wife and friends went into the stores to do a little shopping, I looked around for subjects to shoot on the streets. When I saw this postbriefkasten (translation: mailbox), I knew that it was going to make a cool subject. The ornateness of it was unlike anything that you might find in the US (I have yet to see a public mailbox that I would describe as ornate). The deep blue color is what first attracted my eye.
The Iconic Southwest
One of the musts when shooting scenes with canyons is to shoot when the sun is very low. Besides the fact that you get that great golden hour light, the real reason is that the shadows add tremendous depth to the image. Shooting with the sun higher in the sky will eliminate the shadows, and the resulting image will appear extremely flat. When planning to shoot such a location, knowing whether it is a sunrise shot or a sunset spot (maybe both) is very important.
Dead Horse Point State Park, pictured here, is one of the most iconic scenes of the southwest. It definitely is a sunrise location, and the light adds a lot of interest, especially with the reflections in the Colorado River as it "goosenecks" around the formations. I really wanted to add some anchor to the scene, and when I saw this lone tree with the leaves lit up, I knew I found it.
The Tree II
One of the challenges we were given by our Moab tour leader Jeff Clow was to photograph one (or both) of two great trees on Potash Road. The challenge in shooting the trees is that the formations on both sides of the road are quite high, and the shadows wreak havoc on capturing them. From a composition point of view, a decision needs to be made on whether to include the road, or exclude it in a way that made a compelling image. After shooting from a few different angles, I wasn't happy with the results, as whenever I excluded the road, the tree wasn't prominent in the scene. When I included the road, it seemed to run away from the tree as opposed to leading to it. I finally got the idea of using the railroad tracks as a complementary leading line to the road and am quite happy with the result. I processed this in black and white, as the colors took away from the tree, and I felt the tones popped better without the color.
Bulls-Eye Lens
I know I have been posting many images from my Moab trip, and I have quite a few more to post. It is a bit unusual for me to post so many after a trip. I normally vary my posts from different locations, and promise that I will get back to normal after next week. I thought I would break the Moab posting for today and take you to the coast of Oregon (a little different from desert landscapes).
The lighthouse is located in Oceanside, Oregon, and served as the light for the Tillanook Bay. The lighthouse sits about 200 feet above the Pacific Ocean and it is no longer active. The light is quite small, and the area around the light is quite tight, making photographing it a challenge. I shot it from several angles with a wide-angle lens, but it was too distorted even for Photoshop. I suspect the best place to shoot it is from the ocean. Since Avis only rents cars, that wasn't an option for me. Instead, I decided to get this shot of the light's bulls-eye lens (also known as the Fresnel Lens named after a French physicist who invented the lens in 1822).
River Road Beauty
The first things photographers think about when they head toward Moab is shooting the two amazing national parks located there, Arches and Canyonlands. Tourists and photographers head to both places almost as soon as they check into their hotels. With all of the attention that these two places get, there is some amazing beauty in the surrounding area that many visitors never get to. One of those places is the Colorado River Scenic Byway. Also known as the River Road, it follows the twists and turns of the mighty Colorado River for 44 miles and is one of the most scenic drives in the US.
Rock formations rise from the ground everywhere you look, and each one seems more spectacular than the last. Many of these formations have unique names, such as the formation on the left in this photo that is known as the Priest and the Nuns (it is also known as the Rectory). We started out here on our first full day in Moab at sunrise and captured the early morning light and deep shadows that started our day. This particular formation can be found in the Professor Valley section of River Road.
La Sal Aspens
Look What We Found in the Desert
One of the advantages of taking a photo tour is that you benefit from shooting with someone who knows the area intimately and can point out some great off-the-beaten track locations to experience. When visiting Moab, you are headed into desert country with the great colors of the southwest. Formations rise from the landscape, and are often lit wonderfully with a terrific orange-red glow from the rising or setting sun. A backdrop to these formations is the La Sal Mountain range, and they are often used to offer contrast and scale to the scene. Of all of the times I have been to Moab, I never ventured into the mountains themselves to see what was up there.
Our tour host, Jeff Clow, took us up on the La Sal Loop (which I never knew existed) to shoot the landscape from above. Much to our surprise, we turned a corner in the road and spied these beautiful aspens that were side-lit, making their bark light up. The added bonus was that the snow had not yet melted, and it made a perfect white cover for the ground. It was quite the unexpected scene to find in the middle of desert country.
The Monument
Flying into Moab from Hartford can be quite the challenge, as the Moab airport is open only at daylight, and there are not that many flights that land there. As a result, I decided to fly to Grand Junction and drive to Moab (about a 1.7 hour drive), to make sure I didn't have any plane connection issues. I had an ulterior motive in doing this, in that I wanted to be able to shoot the wonderful Colorado National Monument right outside of Grand Junction.
The first time that I visited there was in the 90s, and I took a similar photo of Independence Monument, which became a favorite of mine. Unfortunately, I wasn't into photography then, and all I had was a point and shoot camera with me. When I got back into photography, I put this place on the bucket list to shoot near sunset to recapture the memory. I had been back there several times since, but I was with non-photographer friends, and it always seemed to be in mid-day. This trip, I hoped to be able to get a great sunset shot.
When I landed in Grand Junction in the afternoon, the weather was overcast and quite gloomy. I thought that I would again miss my opportunity. As the day progressed, the weather didn't improve, but I hopped into the rental car to scout out the area for shooting at sunrise the next day. By the time I got to park, the skies started to clear to the west, and I was able to check the photo off of the list. I got lucky, as I was able to capture the dark clouds in the distance heading east, with beautiful cumulus clouds taking their place.
Arch Shadows
A trip to Moab would not be complete without images of the most famous arch in Utah, Delicate Arch. Even those who have never set foot in it's home of Arches National Park have probably seen it. The arch is pictured on Utah license plates. Seeing the arch in person can be a little more challenging, especially if one wants to get a close-up view.
To stand next to it requires a 3-mile round-trip hike that takes the hiker over a trail of slickrock (not recommended in wet weather for obvious reasons) that rises almost 500 feet over 1.5 miles. It is not an overly difficult hike if you are used to high elevation (the arch is 4,800 feet above sea level). I hiked this trail with my son in 2005 in 40 miles-an-hour wind. Probably wasn't the brightest thing I have ever done, as it was blowing so hard when we got there that we couldn't even stand up.
For an easier view of the arch, there is a shorter trail that takes you pretty near to the arch, but doesn't reach the arch due to a wide canyon. Many hikers take the trail to the viewing platform that says "End of Trail", but there are actually two ridges that are closer to it. A few of us ended up at the first ridge, and this is where this image was taken from. The sunset light was great (the only thing better would have been some nice clouds), and it really helped cast a long shadow of the arch on the sandstone.
Another Brick in the Wall
This unique display can be found in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. I grew up in the 70s and was exposed to some of the greatest rock bands of all time. Music has always been an important part of my life, and I am happy that I was able to pass it on to my son. When we were driving home from Portland, Oregon, this past September, we both agreed that a stop there was an absolute requirement. This display honors the rock band, Pink Floyd, and their song, "Another Brick in the Wall", from their 1979 album "The Wall".
Balancing Act
I am sure that if you have viewed many photos of Arches National Park, you have come across an image of Balanced Rock. It is an amazing sandstone structure that reaches a height of about 130 feet, with the rock portion taking up the top 55 feet of the formation. This subject has been photographed countless times by visitors and photographers alike, as it is on the main road in the park and at an intersection with another road taking you to the "windows" area.
Given how often it has been photographed, I wanted to shoot it from a different angle than most, and headed toward the back right side. Another reason was to get some of the great clouds that were in the sky. Being in a desert area, cloudless blue skies are the norm, and, even though the blue sky contrasts well with the orange landscape, photographers want the clouds to add interest to their images.
I am quite pleased with the result, even though Balanced Rock looks a lot smaller than it really is from this angle (trust me, it is large). The early evening light was great and really conveyed the color of the sandstone.
The Fort
Followers of my blog know that I tend to post images from different parts of the world and don't typically show images from the same trip. The exception is when I get back from a place where the scenery was terrific and the weather great, like my Moab trip. So, in order to give you a break from my Moab shots (don't worry, you will see a few more in the near future), I am taking you to the other side of the country, namely the Florida Keys.
On the westernmost seven islands (and surrounding water) of the Florida Keys, visitors find one of the more remote National Parks in the US, Dry Tortugas National Park. The park is about 70 miles west of Key West, and is only reachable by boat or small plane. The park is surrounded by coral reefs with their abundant sea life. The main centerpiece of Dry Tortugas is the unfinished fort, Fort Jefferson. The fort is huge, being the largest masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere (although unfinished, it is still made up of over 16 million bricks). It was initially built to control piracy in the Caribbean, but was never finished due to fears that the island might not be able to support the weight that finishing the fort would require. This is a composition showing the inner courtyard and the steel lighthouse that guards the waters.
Dead Horse Reflection
My photo tour to Moab, Utah, was an exhilarating change of pace from the dreariness of winter in New England. It was desperately needed. The tour was run by my friend Jeff Clow, and I met a great group of people. Jeff runs a terrific tour and gets you in front of the right place at the right time. For information about his tours check out his website.
I am a big fan of Utah, as I got back into photography there during a two-week shooting and hiking trip with my son in 2005. The number of unique landscapes there are not only amazing to see, but are also great photography subjects. I sometimes get asked where my favorite place in the southwest is. That is a hard question to answer, as there are so many great choices. The easier question to answer would be: if you had to pick one location to shoot, which one would it be? That answer is easier, and it would be this one of Dead Horse State Park. The park is a relatively small state park near Canyonlands National Park. It has one iconic attraction, where the Colorado River has created a gooseneck around some fabulous landscape. A one-trick pony (pardon the pun), but what a trick it is.
It is best shot in the sunrise hours, as the shadows and light add a depth to the scene. This composition is a tight shot of the reflection of the formation that is prominent in the Colorado River.