Slickrock and Shadow

Wild Montana Increasingly seen these days, multiple-exposure photographs show off greater dynamic range of light and dark in a single scene.  The "old school" method was to use gradient neutral density filters.  I have those and they work well if the horizon is perfectly level. The "new school" method is to take multiple exposures and then blend them together manually in photoshop. There is also another method, which I'd call the "school dropout" method which uses an HDR program to create an automatic blend of these photos which the computer finds beautiful.  I own the most up-to-date HDR program and it does not create natural-looking shots. So, for this shot, I used the "new school" photoshop blending, relying heavily on the lightest shot to give this work a gorgeous luminance.  

Mustard in Bloom I have mentioned luck before as a photographic asset.  Luck gives you the unexpected ray of light, dramatic shadow, picturesque cloud or rainbow.  In this case, luck gave me a field of mustard.  Instead of traveling the usual route from Montana to Utah, I took a scenic route past Mesa Falls.  Just south of that, I came upon this gorgeous field of mustard flowers.  They were at peak bloom and covered the horizon. With luck, you have to drop what you had planned and take the opportunity.  I stopped the car and spent several minutes wandering the skirts of this field, photographing the immense field and sky, trying to take in the beauty of the many.  

Lupine Wildflowers and small Montana Cabin at sunset  I visit southwest Montana each year for one week.  Each years looks different depending on how much rain/snow they've had and how early/late in the summer I go.  This lonely cabin sits in a big valley and I've taken to shooting it each year.  Sometimes I try sunset, others at sunrise, others with different lenses, etc -- I want to get something NEW each year.  That's the challenge:  to get a quality shot that isn't a copy of prior years. This year the lupine wildflowers were out in force.  That's very exciting!  The last 5 minutes of direct sunlight shone on these flowers as the day ended.  I'd actually found this bunch of flowers an hour earlier as the best bunch in the area.  I'd picked a few stray grass blades out.  When I returned with a few minutes of dying light, I was so happy to find a perfect bouquet. This is the first time I've written about this 8-year projec...

Montana Bloom:  This photo obeys several landscape photography rules. Lupine wildflowers were in bloom last month in Montana.  Patches of purple mixed in with the green grassland, coloring the charming land.  How to capture this beauty?  I decided to go back to the "rules" of landscape photography and see what happened.  Here are a few of the rules I followed: 1.  Foreground interest.  The flower is the obvious choice here.  The challenge comes in how to include this flower and everything else.  A wide-angle lens positioned just above the highest petals allows the viewer to get a whiff of lupine but still see the wider landscape above. 2.  S-curve.  The S-curve is used mostly in figure photography, particularly the female form.  This same curve can be used when it appear in landscape.  The lovely stream makes such a curve and connects the foreground to the background, helping me obey two photography rules. 3. ...

Headshot portraits are out of this world with the Canon 85mm f/1.2 L lens Portrait photography is an opportunity that every serious photographer will face at one point or another.  Friends and family know how serious I am about photography and ask about getting their photos taken.  This is always a wonderful opportunity and I look at it as a very enjoyable service.  I also hope to do the best possible and provide a professional portrait as good as anything they could obtain anywhere. The gear and style of shooting is very different from landscape photography.  Instead of methodically setting up a heavy tripod in the silence of the wilderness, I find myself talking and shooting quickly so that the subject does not become overly tired from posing.  Instead of wide-angle lenses with very small apertures and long shudder speeds, long telephoto lenses with wide apertures and very short shudder speeds are used.  There is no time for a tripod. Late in 201...

Secret Waterfall, Zion National Park Keeping secrets is fun if you know that your secret is highly desired by others.  I discovered a secret waterfall in Zion National Park and it is so much fun and such a wonderful find, that I have to post something about it.  However I will keep its location a secret.  What I will share is how beautiful it is.  I want to share the beauties of nature and how I can best capture it with photography. This particular waterfall was reached after hiking several hours.  There is no trail.  There is no trail head.  It was simply a rumor.  I can say that along the way I saw several small fish in the stream, climbed over multiple boulders, crisscrossed from side to side of the water countless times.  The journey was mostly enjoyable. As I was approaching the end of this hike, I saw the split waterfalls noted above.  My heart leapt with excitement.  I spent a couple of hours here taking a lot of photogr...

Wildflower Sunset A nearby location I have wanted to visit for a long time was the Red Mountain.  This is a landmark around St. George, Utah.  This spring we had prolific wildflowers.  After several days of storms, I hope to visit as the clouds were clearing.  I found a patch of wildflowers just at the right time, just before sunset.

The Nautilus, a wonderful sandstone formation Up a short wash from the Paria River is an interesting white sandstone formation known as the Nautilus.  It is so named because of the curve it has back on itself.  It is very much like a seashell in shape and color, simply expanded in size.  Having never been here before, I arrived late in the day.  Light was disappearing quickly.  I took several compositions using my tripod for long exposures.  What really amazes me is the white sandstone.  This is very unique and stands apart from the orange/red tones of nearly everything else.  Sweeping lines drawing you in.  You can actually walk into this structure, go around the corner and up to the top.  Another wonderful discovery inside the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument!

Paria Sundial on a beautiful day I know there is a lot of potential to discover new amazing rock formations in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.  Much of this land is relatively undiscovered and difficult to reach.  The West Clark bench sits north of the famous Coyote Buttes of Arizona.  The Arizona-Utah border and the Buckskin slot canyon separate these 2 formations.  Brain rocks and amazing colors are present in both locations. On my first visit to the West Clark bench, I was exploring randomly.  There is no trail.  Wandering around the sandstone cliffs and formations is the only way to go from one place to another.  I came across this unique formation which reminded me of a sundial.  The curve in the capstone as well as the curve rock gathered at the base caught my attention.  I took several photographs of this formation but I could not be satisfied.  Landscape orientation did not include the beautiful sky for th...

Gordon Smith, Utah Photographer -- hiking in the desert and sandstone While wandering around the West Clark bench, I found a unique rock formation.  The skies were not particularly good for a dramatic shot but I thought this formation was interesting nonetheless.  I decided it might make a good environmental self-portrait.  The self-portrait is something most artists do at one point or another.  Some people are very famous for doing several self-portraits.  It is a way to experiment artistically.  In this case, there was not much to experiment with.  My legs were tired after hiking about 10 miles.  I set up my camera and stood next to this wonderful formation and a Gordon Smith self-portrait was born.

Pine Glade Lake at Sunset (wonderful scene from the Everglades National Park) Everglades National Park is unlike any place I have ever visited before.  Much of this national park is a wide slow moving river.  It goes so slowly, it is imperceptible.  Miles and miles of soggy land never dry out.  It is like a continual flood.  I had great desires to visit this national park during my recent trip to Florida.  It is well known for amazing birdlife as well as unique scenery.  I did not have extensive time to see everything.  Instead I was hoping enjoy one full day. I started at Pineland for sunrise.  I heard this was a good location.  After driving around the entire day, I saw that there were many places that would be good for sunrise, several of them better than Pineland.  Wisdom comes with experience.  Skies were cloudless at sunrise which made this disappointing. Immediately after sunrise, I drove to Anhinga trail.  T...

Cannons of Fort Zachary Taylor Fort Zachary Taylor is located on the far west side of Key West.  This is extremely accessible (much more so than the Dry Tortugas National Park which requires a date to visit).  You can visit in a couple of hours and then spend more time enjoying the beautiful Florida Keys.  The scenery is similar to what you find at Dry Tortugas.  Ancient canons, very fine brickwork, rusty colored fort walls are all available for the light to play with. Wandering the corridors, I found many fascinating angles of light and shadows to photograph.  This is an excellent place for landscape photography.  This would also be an excellent place for a photo shoot with a model. A couple of things are strongly recommended.  In order to get the best light on the canons, I do not recommend coming in the morning.  Instead, just after noon.  In the morning direct sunlight will be shining into these corridors and the contrast is too ...

Geiger Beach:  Pretty but not much of a beach To get off the beaten path in the Florida Keys, I took a trip to Geiger Beach.  This is a small drive off the main overseas highway.  It is located near the military base on Boca Chica Key.  Here you will find free spirits, some beautiful trees and pleasant water.  Sand is not very common here. I visited this beach on a February afternoon.  The weather was beautiful.  I was hoping to hike farther along the beach and find some isolation, solitude and a beautiful photographic location for sunset.  Here you do find all of those things but they do not come with a beach.  The trail is very simple at first but after you reach the first estuary, the trail becomes overgrown with trees and vines.  You just walked past the best easily accessible areas. You can continue going but there isn't any beach reward further down.  Also, you will wade up to your knees in mud in order to cross the e...