Category Archives: Landscape Photography

Survival

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“Struggling for Life”

These two trees struggling for life caught my attention while I was doing some long exposure photography.  My interest quickly focused on them.  I walked around to get the best perspective I could find.  I focused on keeping the angle of the trees leaning to the center, maintaining a separation between the small sea stack and the cliff, and eliminating some distracting rocks and dirt on the right edge.  I blended two images together to achieve a tonal range between the sky and the cliff.  I did a little dodging on the tree trunks and a little burning in the sky to get the contrast I was looking for.

I am getting better at taking my time to look around before becoming engrossed in shooting.

 

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Gazing Into the Sky

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Face Rock – Bandon, Oregon

I looked and looked and looked.  I could not see the face that this rock was named after.  It was a dark, cloudy morning.  The sun broke through for a moment and lit up the side of the rock.  There was the face.

Can you see it.  Hint, it is looking up at the right corner of the image.

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Practice & Experiment

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Second Beach, La Push, WA

I took a special trip to the Washington Coast to experiment and practice long exposure photography. My first day of practice resulted in a disappointing set of images with many, many, pure white and pure black frames.  I am thankful tor digital photography!  I knew the steps I needed to take.  However, my excitement took over and I made multiple mistakes.  Toward the end I started to engrain the process into my sequence of shooting.  The next morning, I slowed down and did much better.  This image is from that morning.  I have a lot more of experimenting and practicing to do.

 

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Smoky Mountains National Park

In the Rainforest

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Hanging Moss – Hoh River Rainforest

It was mid morning on a bright sunny, hot, dry day.  The summer has been one of the driest in history.  It was not a typical rainforest day.  It was still a beautiful exhibition of nature.  I spent a lot of time looking around to find an area that had filtered light without glaring bright spots.  This is one that I found.

I processed the image to try to capture the feeling I had:  filtered rays of sunshine highlighting background trees, interesting moss shapes in the shadows speckled with sunlight, a soft feeling of the soft moss.

I must go back after a good drenching rain.

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“Beartooth”

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Beartooth Peak

The sharp peak is “Beartooth.”  It does look like a sharp tooth. I can imagine the size of the bear that would have this peak as a tooth!

As I observe the wonder of nature that surrounds me, I like to let my imagination run loose. Here, I tried to place myself in the footsteps of our Native Americans and the lore that they created to attempt to explain the life around them.  I could spend hours just sitting, seeing, and letting my mind explore.  When I do so, I tend to drive the people around me a little crazy.  Most of my creative work is done when I am by myself.

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Experimenting with Moods

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Pilot Peak

I am focusing on trying to create various moods with my black and white images.  This image of Pilot Peak was shot in midday light.  I added contrast along with dodging and burning to get this “late evening” mood.

The image below is processed with a B&W conversion with just a little contrast and brightness adjustment.  It captures more of the detail, but lacks feeling (my perspective).

What is your preference?

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Symmetry

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Beartooth Lake

One of the most beautiful scenic drives that I have been on is the Beartooth Highway from Cook City, Wyoming to Red Lodge, Montana. On the way up to the summit, I saw a small opening through the trees with a beautiful lake peeking between them.  I found a turnout and walked a short distance to see this beautiful scene.  The lake was smooth as glass, the sky was blue, and the snow beamed out its radiance.  Symmetry of the bluff reflecting in the lake was perfect.  It was mid-day, so the colors were muted.  But is was perfect for black and white.

Someday, I will be back for an early morning or late afternoon shot of the warm sun reflecting off the bluff into the lake.

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Mt. St. Helens, Life Renewal

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Mt. St. Helens – 27 years after

Nature is magical!  It renews itself.  Out of a devastated landscape, life emerges.  I wish I had taken photographs when Karen and I visited the devastated mountain twenty plus yeas ago.  Everything was grey and brown, mud and ash.  It reminded me of what I thought the moon’s landscape was like.

Now, life is emerging everywhere.  The reds, oranges, yellows, and purples of the wildflowers scattered about breathe life into the landscape.  The greens below are young trees that have sprouted from seeds that have been brought to the surface by the small ground animals that survived the blast underground and from returning birds dropping seeds from above.  Life is a miracle!  My spirits lifted as I looked down over the valley below.  My imagination looked forward to picture a natural forest that will return in the centuries to come.

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