Slickrock and Shadow

The Baths of Virgin Gorda The Baths are a national park of the British Virgin Islands.  Boulders as large as houses are stacked up on the beach, sometimes sitting atop one another.  An amphibious trail snakes under, around and over these boulders from the main beach to Devil's Bay on the southern tip of Virgin Gorda island.  This is a wonderful place to enjoy a unique natural beauty.  I took plenty of photos here but I spent more time swimming, snorkeling and lazily watching the water.  Remember to enjoy the moment. Devil's Bay, Virgin Gorda Fantastic snorkel awaits at the Baths Dawn at the Baths

Sandy Cay as seen from the water Sandy Cay is a national park of the British Virgin Islands.  A visit here is highly recommended.  The islands is a tropical paradise with beautiful sandy beaches and a wonderful trail circling the island.  The trail is not long at all but highly pleasant. On the same island, cactus and palm trees co-exist.   You'll start by landing your watercraft (in our case a kayak) on the beach.  Then walk around the beach to the right where you'll discover a trail leading through the trees.  After a few hundred feet, the trail climbs onto rockier and higher ground.  Here the cactus thrive and you'll have a splendid view back toward the beach.  Keep circling around the trail and you'll drop back into the forest canopy.  Finally, you return to the beach.  Total time:  20-40 minutes.  Memories:  priceless. When you land with your kayak or dinghy, this is what you see. Looking back to the beach...

Sandy Spit, British Virgin Islands (as seen from Green Cay) Few people are lucky enough to visit the British Virgin Islands once.  Even fewer go twice.  Just such an opportunity came to me because of a family member who is passionate about sailing.  He invited me and a few others.  That makes more fun and we divide the cost of the ship.  But I digress. My first visit to Sandy Spit in 2008 was remarkable.  Here's this tiny piece of beach surrounded by water everywhere.  What could be more beautiful than that?  Taking a photo of this beauty should be easy right?  Wrong.  From the level of a sailboat or the beach itself, you cannot see the island's other side.  You can't see how small and cute it is.  My photos from 2008 disappointed me. A higher vantage point is needed to show this island in its' best light.  I did some advance research this time.  I checked out surrounding islands and their heights.  Coul...

Cooper Island Sunset Sunsets:  They're pretty, they're peaceful and you want to remember them.  For many people sunset is their favorite time of day.  We all love to gaze into the dimming sky to see colors that make their debut and disappear 10 minutes later. From a photographer's standpoint, sunsets present some technical challenges.  The dim light requires larger apertures or a longer shutter speed.  The extreme differences in contrast are another problem.  You cannot naturally have the bright sunset and a dark sailboat each shown in detail.  You must choose which you want to photograph (specifically, which will you expose for).  For most of us, the sky is the star of the show and we should expose for that. An automatic camera will expose for the whole scene.  In this case, that won't work and you'll lose details in the sky.  I set my camera on manual exposure, take a test shot and check my histogram.  You can also enable...

Bikini and Sailboat:  Postcard-Perfect Photo from Sandy Cay, British Virgin Islands I would like to step back from vacation location information and focus on what makes a good photograph.  Everyone would like their vacation photographs to capture how beautiful that beach is or how clear and blue are the waters.  So many times vacation photographs fall short.  I see this all the time as friends will share their pictures with words such as "It looks so much better in real life" or "You had to be there."  Although nothing is as good as being there, I like my photographs to come very close. Sandy Cay is a national park in the British Virgin Islands.  This small island was donated by the Rockefeller family and is an absolute treasure to visit.  You truly get a sense of Paradise found.  That is what I was hoping to convey in this photograph.  I isolated a lone sailboat with a beautiful woman walking into the water.  These 2 are balanced...

Entering Buckskin Gulch Buckskin Gulch is so spectacular.  Much better than I anticipated and a very rich area for photography.  Here share photos which all have trees as a common theme.I was quite surprised to find so many beautiful green trees and buckskin.  The narrows do not allow any of these to grow but there are small portions throughout buckskin gulch where the canyon becomes wider and allows enough sand and sunlight for this small oasis to thrive. Rolled Up Mud Buckskin Gulch Around the Next Bend

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, has the Beach Beach in the World!  (no exaggeration) Jost Van Dyke has several places to visit and to anchor for the night.  By far, the most beautiful on the island (and perhaps all the BVI) is White Bay.  Two amazing beaches stretch for miles separated by a small rocky prominence.  Sailboats come and go.  Sections of the beach are empty, virgin.  Others have lively bars and restaurants.  Here you can sink your toes in the sand and know that there is no better place in the world.  From a photography standpoint, the surrounding green hills and colorful boats are like icing on the cake.  These provide more photo subjects to mix into the beautiful beach scene.  In the photo above, I tried to capture these elements.  I crouched low on the sand and photographed some incoming waves.  In one corner I positioned the lovely red sailboat and in the other I included some palm trees:  Snapshot of para...

Loblolly Bay has a place for you Anegada is the favorite of all the British Virgin Islands for many people.  Here you get away from any hustle and bustle of life even more than in the lower BVI.  Being extremely flat and surrounded by a protective coral reef, Anegada has marvelous beaches.  Cow Wreck is my favorite for being alone.  Loblolly Bay can be all yours if you arrive before noon.  That's what I did and found an empty swath of white sand and turquoise waters.  Loblolly is also known for excellent snorkeling.  For this photograph, I hoped to capture a piece of paradise.  I also wished to make it inviting, like it was just waiting for you to come.  I moved the bench slightly, so as to be in the shade of the umbrella and composed the shot with a sweeping bay and beach in the background.  I was careful to get low enough to separate the umbrella from the horizon, putting it up with the clouds. 

Cow Wreck Beach, Anegada, British Virgin Islands Sporting an atrocious name, Cow Wreck Beach doesn't attrack many visitors.  On the north shore of the northern-most British Virgin Island, this beach is hard to reach.  Most visitors take a plane, a sailboat and then some ground transportation to sink their toes into powder-soft white sand.  Of all the beaches in the world, this is one of the most beautiful and lonely.  If you ever get to Anegada, be sure to visit Cow Wreck.  It's much less crowded than Loblolly bay and truly gives you an "at-the-end-of-the-earth" feeling . . . and that's a good thing.

Paria Mud Cracks:  when the mud is moist, these are extremely slippery! It had rained the previous week.  The mud was still moist and very slippery.  This is what I hoped for:  dramatic puzzle-piece mud cracks leading through the canyon floor. In composing this photograph, I wanted the cracks to take center stage.  I wanted them to lead to another interesting photography subject as well.  I found a very shallow pool and a rock standing in front of a dark wall.  I tried several compositions with a 16-35 mm lens but I was not satisfied.  I switched to a 17 mm tilt shift lens and took several pictures, shifting the lens up and down in order to have a very good view of the mud cracks at my feet.  These were stitched together in Photoshop.  Black-and-white processing seemed appropriate for this dramatic subject.

Face Canyon Narrows Face Canyon is a beautiful location in the southern portion of Lake Powell, also known as Glen Canyon recreation area.  Before the Glen Canyon dam was completed, these narrow slot canyons were much like Buckskin Gulch or Antelope Canyon.  As water has filled the canyon, these narrows have become very unique indeed!  Although the walls of the canyon are close enough to permit touching both sides at the same time, the water is profoundly deep.  This is not something that can be waded. I discovered this particular branch of Face Canyon while traveling in a kayak.  I made 4 visits to this location.  On my 2nd visit I attempted to wedge my tripod against the wall so that I could take a photograph.  The walls are too steep, too slippery.  On my last attempt I realize that is photos would have to be taken handheld.  This is difficult to do when you are sitting in a kayak and a slight breeze is blowing in the canyon.  ...

Emerald Pool at Norris Geyser Basin Yellowstone has too many nooks to explore in a lifetime.  Having visited Norris Geyser basin occasionally over the last 30 years, I've always wanted to explore what they labeled "back basin."  This is a longer trek than the "porcelain basin" to the right.  The first think you reach is the beautiful Emerald Pool.  Though lacking the green emerald color, the light wonderful blues make it a highlight. Next comes the highest geyser in the world, Steamboat Springs.  I wasn't shooting off for me so I worked my way down the ramp to the lower basin.  I liked the view back up towards Steamboat and shot the following picture when the cloud came into the right position. Hot Drainage below Steamboat Geyser Then several lovely pools followed.  Echinus is the largest and the most red/orange.  Several in the shades of green and blue come here and there. Echinus Geyser is really a pool Abstract detail shot a...

Crested Pool in the Old Faithful area Yellowstone Park is filled with natural wonders.  On my recent trip to the park, I saw 2 beautiful pools into beautiful locations.  Yellowstone Park is known for wonderful colors and fragile beauty. Crested Pool is not far from Old Faithful.  As one of the first attractions you will find as you are walking away from the lodge, adjacent to Castle geyser.  What makes this cool so lovely it is the thin eggshell white crests that surrounds the water.  Surrounding that is a wonderful orange matte in the shape of an amoeba.  In the distance, the fire hole river and some climbing mountains give wonderful setting. Farther north in the park, and Norris geyser basin, Emerald Pool is on the way to Steamboat geyser.  I usually think of emeralds as green but this is a very lovely turquoise color instead.  The colors can change over the years.  When it was named, I assume it had a green color.  (For anoth...

Bursting Bubbles Occasionally we see proof that mother nature has a wonderful sense of humor.  One location which always makes me smile, laugh and giggle is the Artists Paint Pots in Yellowstone National Park.  Not only are bubbles popping right and left.  The mud is thick and spews out in all directions.  Silly sounds of popping, bubbling, guggling and more surround visitors.  And the smells . . . sulfur is unmistakable.