One of the most amazing experiences (among many) that I had in South Africa last December was our encounter with a large elephant herd. To set the stage, our two vehicles had pulled over for lunch and we had a relaxing bite to eat. Right before we got back into the vehicles, Jaki Good Miller had us line up for a group photo. As she was composing the picture, we all saw this big elephant coming down the road toward us. Jaki thought we were kidding and turned around to see that we were not. We all ran to the vehicle, hopped in and drove off to position ourselves to get some photos of the elephant. Then the amazing happened. As we looked toward the elephant, we saw that there was a herd coming down the mountain. When I say a herd, it was huge. We counted 43 elephants and I am sure that we missed some. They were walking on the other side of this creek and our amazing Rangers thought they would walk across it to the other side where this very small water hole (looked more like a mud hole) was. We positioned ourselves close to the the water hole and hoped that they would come to it. As you can see, they did and while we were shooting some of the of them taking a “bath”, we discovered we were fully surrounded by them. If you are wondering how close we were to them, I shot this at around 50mm, which is akin to a person’s normal eyesight. So very close. Some of them walked by the sides of the vehicles, and, if I had reached out, I would have come close to touching them. Just another day on safari in South Africa.
Italian Wine - Siena, Italy
Sometimes when you see a photo that you have taken, you are transported back to an experience that was extraordinary. Last year, a few of us had an open afternoon in Siena to roam around the city. We went down this narrow street and noticed this big man standing on the side of the street smoking a cigarette. Nathaniel Smalley stopped to ask if he could take a photo of the man which he responded with a “Yes”. After thanking him, a conversation started. Turns out that he owns the ristorante across the street and he invited us in to walk around and take some photos. The ristorante’s name is Ristorante Gallo Nero and it is very highly rated. Along with the fine food, the Ristorante offers many fine Tuscan wines and has frequent wine tasting. If that isn’t enough, they conduct a cooking school on the premises.
The owner allowed us to wander over the three floors with a guide from the cellar to the the two dining rooms. There were a few customers scattered throughout and they didn’t seem to mind the four of us with or cameras. This experience was indicative of the inviting, friendly and warm culture that the Italian people often display. It certainly made our day. The only downside was that we were unable to eat there as we were leaving the next day and already had dinner reservations that night.
Lake McDonald Glory - Glacier National Park, Montana
The darkness starts to give way to the light. The majestic subranges of the Rocky Mountains in the distance are silhouetted in the distance across the lake. The right amount of clouds are in the sky and are beginning to light up like a fire. The ten-mile long Lake McDonald has a few ripples, but not enough to destroy the mountains reflection. The lone boat in the lake sits there like every other time I have been there, turning slowly as the current moves beneath it. To my left, a group of boats on the dock await the morning sun when visitors will take them out for a spin. Only one thought goes through my head as I observe and capture this scene -- "There is nowhere else that I would rather be than standing along this shoreline on this particular morning."
Summer Snow Squall - Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
I have been very slowly going through my entire Lightroom catalogue trying to get the number of photos in it to a more manageable number. There are many trips over the years that I have not really culled through. Along the way, I have identified many photos that allow me to relive each experience and find some photos that I wanted to edit and post. This week, I will be posting some of those photos.
When we plan a trip, we try to visit places during the months May, June, September and October. The crowds are thinned out, the weather is usually not too hot or cold, and many of the seasonal businesses are either just opening up for the summer or have not yet closed for the winter. This works the majority of time, but, once in a while, mother nature has a surprise for you. This was the case when we visited Colorado a few years ago in June. We had spent some time in the western part of the state and the weather was wonderful. The last few days of the trip was going to be in Rocky Mountain National Park before we headed home. We stayed overnight in Vail and found out that there was going to be some snow the next day. We had planned to drive up the west side of the Rockies, over them, and head to Denver. We found out that the road over the Rockies was closed due to the weather. Undeterred, we drove up the east side as far as we could go. Along the way, we stopped to shoot some images that showed the snow over the valley.
Vatican Splendor - Saint Peter's Basilica, The Vatican, Vatican City
Any visit to Rome must include spending time in Vatican City and especially the Vatican Museums. The museums are among the greatest museums in the world and they display centuries of works that include some of the most renowned sculptures and masterpieces of Renaissance art. The lines to get in can oftentimes go on for blocks that take several hours to navigate. When we visited, we had arranged for a special tour and were able to bypass the line. Once inside the museum, the crowds were everywhere. It was very difficult to move and take photos but if you were patient, you could get off a few unobstructed shots.
What was really amazing was the number of galleries (there are 54), each of which had quite a number of sculptures, tapestries, paintings and murals. The Sistine Chapel is the last museum and the only way to see it is to proceed through the other 53 galleries. Talk about a sensory overload!
Every time I looked up, there seemed to be a mural or dome above me. I am pretty sure this is the dome in Dome of Saint Peter's Basilica and it sure is beautiful.
Grand Evening - Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
One of the things I like about social media is that you see a lot of other people's posts and photos. Many times a particular photo will remind you that you still have plenty of unedited photos that are just waiting for you to take a look at them. That is what happened with this photo of the Grand Canyon. I saw someone's terrific photo (I can’t remember whose it was) and realized that I still had plenty of photos that haven't seen the light of day from my trip there in 2012.
Sure enough, I had quite a few that warranted some more attention. The Grand Canyon is a difficult place to shoot. It is so immense that trying to get in as much of the landscape as you can in the composition does not give the place merit. There are exceptions to that, such as a dramatic storm with lightning strikes. The other challenge is that for most of the day, shooting into the canyon can result in very hazy photos. In my opinion, sunrise and sunset are the best times to shoot, as the sun is lower in the sky and the angle of light minimizes the haziness. That results in some great shadows that give definition to the landscape.
This shot was taken near sunset near Yavapai Point. I tried not to compose the full canyon in my field of vision, but rather pick a portion of the view in an effort to emphasize the details of the rocks and, at the same time, give the viewer a sense of scale. Hopefully I succeeded.
Graffiti Underground - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Here is something a bit different from me. Several years ago, I signed up for a day of urban exploration (also known as urbex) to the Eastern State Penitentiary, a mecca for urban photographers. The day started at the Philadelphia's Graffiti Underground, located on an abandoned loading pier jutting out into the Delaware River. It is just a few minutes from the center of the city off of Route 95. I had grown up outside of Philadelphia and lived there for almost forty years and had never heard of it before. The underground is pretty big and is covered with graffiti. It also looks like it has been used extensively by paintballers. It looks like this cement "tase can" was a favorite target. The grit and decay associated with urbex can be seen at the underground as well as the great colors of the graffiti.
Sprague Lake Morning - Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
What a difference a day makes. My first morning in Rocky Mountain National Park, I headed out to Sprague Lake to shoot at sunrise. The weather was overcast and rainy and the results showed it. I ended up with maybe a couple of good shots, but nothing to write home about. This was the second time that I have been to the lake and was shut out (the first time was in 2008). I was determined to get some nice shots at the lake and figured that the third time would be the charm. The next morning I headed back, and this is what greeted me. The light was great, the lake smooth as glass, and the only thing missing were some clouds in the sky. After the previous morning, I could live with that.
Mesquite Dunes - Death Valley National Park, California
Death Valley is part of the largest desert in North America, the Mojave Desert. Of course, when one thinks of the desert, one of the first things they picture are sand dunes. The one thing that surprised me about my visit to the valley was, while there were dunes, the majority of the park (at least the parts that I saw) was more valley floor and mountains. Fortunately, down a few miles from our hotel, the Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes were waiting for us to explore. Arriving at the parking lot for the dunes about an hour before sunrise, we trudged out toward the dunes in the distance with our flashlights and head lamps. Along the way, the clouds began to put on a light show, before the sun peeked above the horizon (we were lucky enough to have clouds most of the week, which is most unusual for Death Valley). I shot a number of photos of the clouds, but my heart was waiting for the sun to light up the landscape and the dunes to the west. As you can see in this photo, the sun did its job and delivered amazing soft light that exceeded my expectations. My main subject was the big dune in the background, which is the highest point in Mesquite Flats. A great start to an amazing morning.
Walkway - Navajo Bridge, Lees Ferry, Arizona
On one of our vacations a few years ago, we flew into Phoenix to travel around the American Southwest for a few weeks. Leaving the Grand Canyon, we headed toward Page, Arizona, exploring parts of the southwest that we hadn’t seen before. One of the places we wanted to see on this leg of the trip was Vermilion Cliffs National Monument. It was everything we hoped it would be. After leaving there, we stopped on the western side of the Navajo Bridge. While the bridge was nice, I became enamored by the play of light and shadow as we headed toward the bridge.
Cliff Walk - Newport, Rhode Island
Many visitors to Newport go there for the magnificent mansions, the great restaurants, and active boating and sailing. It is a very popular destination during the non-winter months and can attract large crowds. My favorite thing to do when I go there is to take a pre-dawn walk along the 3.5-mile Cliff Walk. This public access trail leaves from Bailey's Beach and gives a terrific view of the surrounding water. A bonus is that the walk goes along the back of many of the huge mansions, showing a different perspective of them. The first half of the walk is paved and the second half is uneven and rocky. I captured this photo soon after I started from the beach. It pictures McAuley Hall on the campus of Salve Regina University. I can just imagine the students lying on the grass taking in the beautiful scenery.
Lake Powell Marina - Page, Arizona
The Glen Canyon Recreational Area is located adjacent to Page, Arizona. The area is named after Glen Canyon, which was carved by the Colorado River in the shadows of the Vermilion Cliffs. Lake Powell, a reservoir, was created by the Glen Canyon Dam. In fact, if it were not for the building of the dam, Page would not exist as a town. Lake Powell is the second largest man-made reservoir in water capacity in the United States. It starts in Page, Arizona at the Glen Canyon Dam and extends to the Bullfrog Marina in southeastern Utah, 186 miles away. It has a shoreline of almost 2,000 miles. The lake is a favorite destination of vacationers who rent houseboats (pictured here in the image) during the summer months.
We had arrived in Page earlier in the day and wanted to scope out the Wahweap Marina where we were scheduled to take a 5-hour round-trip cruise to Rainbow Bridge National Monument, early the next day. The setting sun cast beautiful light on the rugged rock formations in the distance.
Mystical Morning - Mono Lake, Lee Vining, California
Mono Lake is located in the town of Lee Vining at the eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park. It is part of the region known as the Eastern Sierras, which is home to more than 2,000 mountain lakes. Mono Lake is unique among the lakes due to the interesting formations that rise from the bottom of the lake. The lake is a large shallow lake that has no outlet, causing high levels of salts to accumulate which make the water alkaline. Over time, tufas (columns of limestone deposits) were formed and became visible when the lake's water levels became shallow. The tufas have become a terrific photographic subject and we were fortunate to photograph them with clouds in the sky. As can be seen in this photograph, the tufas began to glow from the soft light of the morning sun. As we watched the fog on the opposite shore and the clouds in the distance. the scene felt mystical.
Glacier Bay Beauty - Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Want to put your feet up and see some of the most beautiful coastline that Alaska has to offer? My answer would be to hop on a cruise ship that sails into Glacier Bay. On my quest to visit as many National Parks that I can, I made sure that I hit two of them on my last Alaskan Cruise (Denali and Glacier Bay) that couldn't be more different than each other.
We entered into the bay through the Icy Straits very early in the morning, The park is pretty big, measuring almost 3.3 million acres. To put that in perspective, it’s namesake to the south, Glacier National Park in Montana, is only a third of its size. You would expect that given its size and name there would be quite a few glaciers in the park and there are -- 29 of them. Over half of them are tidewater glaciers (glaciers that extend into the ocean) and, of those, nine of them actually terminate in the bay itself.
I shot this image just after we entered the waters of the National Park. I was sitting on our balcony with my feet up on the small table, wine glass readily available and camera in my lap. Probably the easiest I have ever worked for an image.
Sunrise Beauty - Owens Valley, California
As the sun rises from the east, the Eastern Sierras take on a glow that all but guarantees a good day of shooting. Our group of photographers was headed to one of the many gorgeous mountain lakes that can be found almost anywhere in the area. As we were driving down the highway, we couldn’t resist pulling over to capture some shots of the unnamed mountain (at least to me) as it started to glow in the morning sun. I am not 100% where we were, but I think we were somewhere in Owens Valley. This beginning to our day exceeded our expectations during the ensuing hours.
Colorful Flower - Longwood Gardens, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania
I don’t normally shoot photos of flowers, but when I visit Longwood Gardens it is not easy to leave without some photos. This botanical garden is one of the premier horticultural display gardens in the United States. It consists of over 1,077 acres, and it has extensive indoor and outdoor gardens that contain over 4,600 different types of plants and trees, as well as fountains. It is a very popular destination averaging over 1 million visitors a year.
Simplicity - Palouse, Washington
The Palouse contains wonderful vistas of rolling landscapes from the tops of hills that are characteristic of the area. From these viewpoints, you can see many of the farms, barns, crops, grain elevators and other farm-related equipment both near and far. There is another view that I love there too. It is the close up view that shows the Palouse in its simplicity. Standing close to the crops at eye level, you get a better feel of what the Palouse is all about. It shows the hard work that the farmers have to perform to get their crops to market. It looks pretty during the growing season when I shot this scene, with all of the beautiful patterns that can be found throughout this fertile area. What it doesn’t show is the hard work the farmers do when the ground is nothing but dirt and there is dust everywhere as they drive up and down the rolling hills planting their crops.
What a View - Glacier National Park, Montana
There are times that you see a great view and it is very difficult to get the shot. As a photographer, it can be quite frustrating to see a view that you just have to capture but are unable to stop and do so. For those of you who have been on the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park, you know what I mean. The road is the only paved road in the park, and it stretches 50 miles from the west entrance to the east entrance while crossing the Continental Divide. The road is particularly narrow with two lanes and there are very few pullouts to park along the way. The pullouts are quite small and are full most summer months. The only place along the road that you can actually park is at Logan Pass, as long as you get there before 10am. After that, there are few spots left. There are so many hiking trails as well as the Visitor Center that you can spend hours there and not be bored at all. As you would expect from a Rocky Mountain Range, the views like this one are spectacular.
Distortion - Anchorage, Alaska
Whenever I visit a new city, I make it a point to try to get out before sunrise to capture photos before the city wakes up for business. This is a ritual that I try to do whenever I travel. About ten years ago, we flew into Anchorage for a one night stay before an Alaskan cruise. We were only in town for a night and had a bus ride scheduled the next day to take us to McKinley Lodge. True to form, I was up hours before the bus was scheduled to leave and headed out to explore. The morning was glorious and the streets were deserted. The sun provided for some of the best reflections that I had seen in quite a while. Being a junkie for reflections no matter where I see them, I shot away and before I knew it, I had to get back to the hotel to get the bus. I particularly like this photo as it has some great distortion of the building across the street.
Glowing Barn - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
One of the most photographed barns in the world, the Thomas Moulton Barn, probably has seen more visitors before and during sunrise than any other. The visitors are almost always photographers. Located on Mormon Row, the barn waits quietly in the dark as photographers create a semicircle around the front of the barn. The photographers lay in wait and hope that there are no clouds blocking the sun as it rises from the east. They are also hoping that clouds are not hiding the wondrous peaks of the Teton Range behind the barn. As the sun begins to rise, the area becomes a bit brighter until it clears the mountains in the east. That is when the barn door begins to glow a beautiful orange color. Once it does, all you hear are the clicking of cameras. That lasts for about five minutes before the glow on the front of the barn fades. Once it does, the photographers move on and the barn sits there waiting for the next sunrise. Visitors that visit after sunrise don’t realize what they missed.