Notes To My Mother

It is a real treat to get up before there is enough light to see where you are going, find the location you want to observe, and sit quietly as the morning reveals itself.  This image over McDonald Lake was taken around 5 am.  The lake was still, the air fresh, birds chirping and very little human activity.  A good time to gather your thoughts. Waiting for the sun as it just begins to peak over the cliffs in the background, there are but a few seconds to capture the star bursts.  A small aperture and a tripod helps to capture them.  This is a two for one starburst with the reflection in the water.  In the foreground is a driftwood with colorful rocks under water. This image was taken the night before the previous images, over Lake McDonald with the peaks in the background.  Some brave and hearty souls get on the High Line Trail and then branch off and go up and over that ridge.  On the other side is east Glacier.  If you go to the east side t...

 In 2017 I visited Glacier with my son in law, Francisco.  We spent three days together and then met up with a photography workshop led by Andy Cook, of Rocky Mountain Reflections and photographed for another five days.  This year I met up with eight good photography buddies three days before the workshop then joined Andy Cook for another five days.  We were all completely exhausted by the time we did our last evening shoot after 8 days of hiking in the park. On our first morning, I looked out my window at 5:30 am and the sky was on fire!  I grabbed my camera and tripod and ran for the shore of Lake McDonald.  We were staying, as before, in Apgar on the west end of the lake.  I caught the above scene and within a few minutes the colors faded.  I later talked with a ranger and he said it was unusual to experience such intense sunrises here, so I felt very lucky. Later that same morning we made our way to the Hidden Lake and Mount Reynolds overlook....

Cliff-Side Delights This is one of those years where super blooms are being spotted all over California.  But it doesn't take a super bloom year to have great flower discoveries on the North Coast.  These images were taken in 2021 in the middle of the drought and the pandemic.   With a little exploring you will find flowers on many of the cliffs.  These seaside daisies are pretty easy to find and they are often found right on the edge of a cliff making a great foreground object for you photographers. Just be very careful as with all of the rain we have had the cliffs will be especially vulnerable this year.  Stay back a safe distance and enjoy.   All of these images were taken in early June. You will find that some locations are in constant change so that what you see one week will be dramatically different a week later.   This is especially true at Stump Beach where you can walk on the trail and view gorgeous ocean scenes as well as an ...

  Dallas Creek Road I have not spent enough time in Colorado.  It has such amazing beauty.  The one place I did spend some time was in the San Juan Mountains.  I was there about 10 days, first with a group of photographers and then with my wife, Jan.  The scene above is on Dallas Creek Road.  I had been there a few days earlier with the group of photographers but the sky was boring and the snow was missing.  One morning, after the photographers had left Jan and I were staying in Ouray.  It snowed! I was up before dawn and headed for this location.  In the dark I missed the turn off and did a bit of frantic wandering until I finally found the road.  I knew this location with fall color, snow on the mountains and a dramatic cloudy sky could be an exceptional scene to photograph.  That is Mt Sneffles in the background and Dallas Creek in the foreground right.     This is a closer look at the scene on the left of the prev...

A couple of friends and I decided we would like to have some pictures of the full moon setting over the Grand Canyon.  We found a full moon date that was workable for all of us, scheduled our flights, booked our rooms and rented a car and met up at the airport in Phoenix.  We stayed in Tusayan making it easy to get to the canyon before fist light.  Most of the year, there are places to the west of the village that you cannot drive your car, requiring transport by the park bus system.  But in winter months those roads are open to passenger cars making getting around a breeze.  Shooting a setting moon requires good timing.  If you are there too early the canyon will be too dark.  If you are late the moon will have disappeared below the horizon.  On this day our timing was good, but notice the band of clouds just below the moon.  Within minutes it obscured the moon.  Good photography involves being at the right place at the right time and a...

If you are looking for wildflowers and would like to avoid the crowds I would like to share with you a location my good friend, Will Bakx, and I found in 2016. Like 2023, 2016 was anticipated to be a good year for a super bloom. We didn't want the crowds at the more popular places so we headed for the foothills east of Fresno, California. Not having a particular destination in mind for our photography expedition, we just wandered for awhile, finding patches of blooms here and there but nothing like a super bloom. In a moment of inspiration we approached the mailman on his rural delivery. He know just the place and gave us directions. Pine Flat Lake was our new destination and what a delight it turned out to be. We were on a road that traverses the north side of the lake. With the first scene of flowers our jaws dropped with excitement. Then we would turn the corner and another even more beautiful scene would unfold. We stayed that night in Clovis and were up early the next...

It has been foggy in the mornings and I wanted to see if I could get above the fog by going up Pine Flat Road. I want to shoot the Lyrid Meteor Shower Thursday and I thought that road might get me above the fog where we would have a clear view. But on the way up through the fog I was so taken by the light that I had to stop and shoot. This tree brought me to a stop as the light was almost making it glow.  This was close to the upper limit of the fog and the light was coming through nicely.  You can actually play with the light by going to higher or lower elevations, the fog will lighten or darken. Aside from the atmosphere fog provides, it also evens out the light so that you do not have to deal with the high contrast between lights and darks. I found these flowers growing around the dead wood with the foggy background intriguing. When I got to the top of the mountain I was indeed above the fog and in full sunlight. To shoot these poppies I shaded them by sp...

Buddies are priceless. I have a good buddy, Jerry Huffaker. He rides his bike around Sonoma County traversing a innumerable back roads. He is also a budding photographer so he has been noticing certain things on his rides. Like wild flowers. Today he treated me to an excursion with our cameras, to one of the roads on which he has been enjoying wild flowers for the past few years. Our first stop was this little farm located along the road with a sweet patch of California Poppies in their pasture. We had to shoot through the fence to get some images and wished we had access to get in closer to the flowers. This was taken with a Sony 55-210mm lens at a 114mm 35mm equivalent focal length. Driving a bit farther down the road we came to wild flowers growing between the road and the vineyards.  This was taken with a wide angle lens at a 35mm equivalent 15mm. We spent the rest of our time shooting these flowers, experimenting with different apertures, lenses, fo...

We were in search of wild flowers and word on the internet was the Paso Robles area was in full bloom. So we loaded up and headed south. You might think that wild flowers would be easy to find, after all they are bright and showy and hopefully right along the road where they cannot be missed. We had seen pictures of them, carpets of yellow and white flowers, blues, orange, white. All lounging next to each other in wonderful arrays of color. As we discovered on this trip they are not everywhere. As we drove to the area where we heard they were blooming there were no wildflowers in sight. None. It wasn’t until we found our way to the exact spot where Shell Creek Road and Highway 58 meet,  that we final found carpets of color.  This is where the reports of an excellent bloom directed searchers to go.  And it was true, this was the place were the flowers were.   Unfortunately, as pretty as these flowers were, we missed the real bloom. It turns out that ...

I have been to Bowling Ball Beach three times. The first time I went it must have been high tide because there were no bowling ball to be seen anywhere. The next time I went a buddy and I researched when to be there and discovered it was to be a low tide, preferably a minus tide. So we timed a low tide with sunset and made our way to the beach. The bowling balls were so high up out of the water they were not worth photographing – they are not pretty at all when they are completely dry. So we did some more research, now having a little more insight into the situation. The best tide level to photograph the bowling balls is between a 1.5 to 3 level tide, preferably receding. Now timing this to happen at just the right time to take advantage of the golden hour and blue hour is no easy fete. And of course it would be best to be a week day so there aren’t so many tourists. And throw in a few clouds for some interest in the sky. Not asking much, just a confluence of ab...

We were just getting ready to lower the two man kayak into the Estero Americano when I glanced up and saw the color beginning to form on the eastern horizon. Drop everything and grab your camera! The light will be very fleeting and if you are not ready, camera, tripod, settings - all ready to go - chances are you will miss the splendor. This light had just come on and it was gone within five or six minutes at the most. But what a great beginning to our first adventure down the Estero Americano! Paddling down this narrow waterway you are treated to a unique perspective on the ranches in the area. It of course is very quiet with only the sounds of nature and an occasional cow bleating.  And then you come across these unusual sights that make you wonder just what was here fifty or a hundred years ago. Like this fence sticking out over the estero, as if it were a fence to nowhere. Yet it must have served a definite purpose back in the day before the wa...