Wet and Dry Spring, Orange Spring Mound

Mists, curves and wet and dry textures from a geothermal feature in the Mammoth Hot Springs area of Yellowstone National Park. This particular feature was a delight to work in a variety of lighting conditions, I shot it at least four, perhaps five times, each time with wonderfully different results.

Update on Sunday Photo Group Dates

There was an error in the site section here on the Sunday Photo Group which made it appear that there would not be a meeting in July. This was in error.

We will be meeting at least in July, August and September on the usual "last Sundays", which are July 26, August 30, and September 27. My apologies for any confusion.

Shoreline, Grand Prismatic Spring

Yellowstone's fantastic Grand Prismatic Spring, the largest such spring in the United States, during a moment the mists cleared sufficiently to see it, the day was quite cold and there was little wind.

The range of colors here are caused by temperature gradients, to quote Wikipedia, "The bacteria produce colors ranging from green to red; the amount of color in the microbial mats depends on the ratio of chlorophyll to carotenoids and on the temperature of the water which favors one bacterium over another"  Well okay then!

Throwback Thursday: Clearning Storm, Alabama Hills

Ten years and a few weeks ago, I got rained out of sunrise from a passing storm in the Eastern Sierra's wonderful Alabama Hills, my resulting plans for capturing the sunrise through one of the area's several rock arches was a bust. On my way back to the car, however, the light began to break with astonishing speed, and crazy-wonderful mixed light popped the spring landscape. Once again, I'm reminded of just how important it is to put yourself out there in difficult weather.
 

Liminal Seasonality

Winter is coming, even as autumn continues to provide color, fog gives way to snow, a waterfall, and trees. This is definitely another image that benefits from being seen big, the scale of the waterfall and trees are hard to take in in a web thumbnail.

The trickiest big in post processing was a hot spot on one of the cliffs on the left, it still needs a tiny bit of additional tweaking, but I've worked to preserve the feel of the real light without having a less interesting part of the image take on an undue importance. Details matter.

Snags in Mist

Working with fog, steam and mist is always a fascinating and challenging task, from moment to moment the amount of mist in any given part of a location changes, affecting the relationship between foreground and background, changing the saturation and tones. I often feel that I have to let go of my desire to hunt the perfect moment, and instead fish for it, trying a number of variations and images over time and using my virtual light box to complete the selection of the optimal frame. 

Of course, careful post-processing is also an issue. Color balance is going to matter mightily in an image like this, here, I've captured the warm/cool contrast that I felt in the situation--a warmer white balance would have created a differently beautiful image, but (to my eye) a less interesting one. A little work to ensure the delicate tonal shifts in the marbled orange highlights were captured also required a bit of nuance with the Lightroom development controls, I continue to remain grateful to Charlie Cramer for his insights into strategies for LR highlight control, they were, as they so often are, key to getting this image where I personally wanted it to be.

One Foggy Morning, Yellowstone

Incredible soft light one morning at Yellowstone.

I'm struck with two thoughts about photography here. The first is this: Frequently I find that I respond to visual styles that relate in some way to more classical art forms. (What media would you use to paint this scene? I'm not a painter, but I know my own answer to that.) To what extent is that we've been trained to admire particular looks, and to what extent are we more hard-wired to appreciate certain features of an image. We know from eye tracking studies that there are some fairly deeply hard-wired things about the way people see images, and also some which are clearly learned. But which is which, and to what extent?

Second, not every image is going to be the image I set out to create on a particular day. Often I get excited about trying to add to an existing body of work. Weather doesn't always cooperate, and you can respond to that by not bothering to "hunt" the images that you're not looking for, or you can respond to that by gathering the images that come along. I'm sure I engage in a fair bit of both practices, probably leaning toward the former, but I'm glad I put off the hunt that day to capture this unexpected moment of beauty.

Spring Patterns II, Yellowstone

A small, gentle waterfall runs a maze of terrace formations at Palette Spring in Yellowstone. Gentle colors, a bit of pink light in the sky, and just enough steam and spray all combine nicely here.
 

Pearl Geyser

The bleached ground surrounding Pearl Geyser in the Norris Basin of Yellowstone National Park contrasts with the intense colors of the spring on this cloudy and windless day. The rendering of the surrounding ground is really key to how this image reads, a hint of cool, and some work to preserve highlight contrast are essential here to getting the feel of that day accurate to my memory.

This is going to take some delicacy in printing, which I always find a challenge and a delight. Even very subtle differences in the warmth of the paper used (if the borders are exposed) or the mat paper used will throw the feel of this image. 

It was fortunate for two reasons that there was little breeze, not only was the water still, but my QR plate had come loose, and while the camera wasn't about to fall off, it wasn't firmly held, either, mirror lockup and a long timer delay got me a crisp result despite suboptimal stabilization. And of course, while I'd normally keep a hex wrench in my backpack, I'd travelled by air, and had to pack the tiny hex wrench separately to avoid TSA confiscation. (Yes, they do this.)

Quiet Dawn, Fishing Cone, Yellowstone

I'm not sure what factors led to the surprisingly pastel-like range of hues in this particular dawn sky, but they complement the quiet nature of the morning and this geothermal cone nicely.

This is your irregular reminder....

...sometimes you're simply handed an image that could be seen as more or less a cliche, and it's entirely okay to shoot it when you do. Not every image has to break new ground to have value or joy, some things are simple, and beautiful, and timeless. There's a temptation in some to skip images that are too easy. Don't do that. Sure, go ahead, and figure out how to add something, to do something new with it, but don't skip pressing the shutter in the meantime.

Oh, this is from Norway in 2011, taken at the very end of a very long day at the end of two very long working trips. And unlike yesterday's image, this is a fair representation of the colors*, in particular, the incredible inky plums near the top of the image.

*Your monitor may vary: display color varies widely between machines.

Alpenglow, Glacier, 2004

One of the fun things about the "Print a Day" challenge that I was talking about this weekend is that it provides an excellent incentive to go dig through the archives. Of course, most things that have been sitting in the archives for over a decade probably are there for a reason, but you do, occasionally, across some surprises.

Now, those surprises might e images that are probably "should have been portfolio images then", but were missed. Or they could be images that were "close, but no cigar", decent images that for whatever reason didn't/don't quite sing the way you'd like. In a few cases, they're images that I wasn't good enough, or the tools weren't good enough, for me to see the potential in at the time. 

In any case, this is definitely "close to the bar" in either case. It has great color and some interesting textures and okay framing. In some ways, it's straight down the middle of the sorts of images I was creating reflecting my love of the Galen Rowell look.

In 2004, if anything, I probably thought this was a bit too much on the "sledgehammer of color" spectrum, and while tastes have change, I won't complain if you feel that's still the case. I have some mixed feelings about it myself. But as an example of the style, this is an image I'm really glad I got to see one more time. It's given me quite a bit to think about, and that's part of why I selected this. 

Sunset Panorama, Black Point

The last colors of sunset, this image in my mind is a good example of how dominant reading direction affects how we look at images, a topic I cover in greater detail in my book The Tuesday Composition. Do leave the comfort of Facebook to go look at this image at a reasonable resolution on the web site itself. Detail matters!

The Print Every Day Challenge

Last week, I restarted my old "Print Every Day" challenge, which is a practice I've found to really drive my photography in a number of ways. The challenge is simple, every day, take an image from my enormous set of digital negatives, and make a print from it. I try and make it look good, but I do stop short of the multiple round trips I often give a print for my portfolio.

First, this has really built my digital imaging habits and skills. For example, I noot only know which pair of sliders give me the most bang-per buck in terms of recovering highlight deal, but my fingers know it too, it's past the point where I have to think about why it works, instead, I notice low-detail highlights (such as those that were first present to the left of the tree in the image above) and which knobs to work through.

Second, this drives me to go back and look through the archives. There are a lot of good images there, and a few great ones, that have never been shown, and some of those are going to get shared with you, and some of them may be the seeds for new groups of works, exhibitions, and so on. 

Third, it's a great way to make sure that my brain  never gets too far from the photography itself. The day to day work--say, putting together class notes--can be a lot of fun, but it isn't making photographs. That's the point, and one I don't want to get past.

Fourth, it's simply fun. Leaving the prints out in a place in my home where I can walk past them, reconsider them over the next days, takes me back to the experiences that led to those photographs, and gives me joy

Of course, many people don't have their own photo printers, but I'm increasingly convinced that serious photographers should have some way of making small prints at home. $1000 for an Epson 3880 may sound expensive, but the cost of it, including paper and ink, comes down to about $4/18x12 over a few years of expected lifetime of a printer like that, which is competitive to Costco, and doesn't require driving. Moreover, you will make more prints, and you will improve your photography and printing skills.

So, the gauntlet is thrown down, do you accept the Print Every Day Challenge? If so, leave a comment!

Textures, Orange Spring Mound

A study in texture, subtle color, and light. 

Yellowstone's Orange Spring Mound is a popular location for photographers working the Mammoth Hot Springs area at the north of the park, but it's a very difficult spot to get a clean composition. This particular shot was "pretty good" as I first shot it, but working to get a slightly higher viewpoint than my tripod would normally allow, and using just the slightest bit of manual perspective correction in post, allowed me to bring this composition up to a place I was truly happy with it.

Fire and Sky, Yellowstone

Patterns of mineral-colored rock impersonate a river of lava here, with a thin glaze of water reflecting the sky. One technical aspect of this image was working with my angle of view and a polarizing filter to carefully balance to what extent and how we see the rock, and to what extent instead we see the reflection of the sky. 

I'm considering retitling this image "The Four Elements", as each is represented either directly, by reflection, or by impersonation.

Spring Patterns I, Yellowstone

Simple, elegant patterns accumulated from the deposits of minerals from nearby Grand Prismatic Spring. The area just downhill from the main spring was glorious that day, and I spent over an hour working to find abstractions of the patterns that had a pleasing energy and rhythm. I think it was worth the trouble.

And I already know that this would make a terrific metal print.

July 26: Quick Take: Organizing and finding your images in Lightroom

I will be giving a short introductory workshop on organizing/locating images in Lightroom. 

Organizing and finding your images in Lightroom Digital cameras make it possible to rapidly thousands of images but how do you find the ones that really matter a few years later? Look at the tools Adobe Lightroom provides for organizing your images using folders and keywords. Learn to apply tools for different needs, from the beginning weekend shooter to the semipro who is looking to start selling images via stock photography. 

This workshop is part of the Quick Take series, a sequence of short, introductory classes on individual technical topics. These are often held on evenings following PhotoCentral's free Sunday Photo Group, allowing photographers to easily schedule both in a given day.

PhotoCentral's fee is $125 for residents, $10 more for non-residents of the district. You don't need to bring anything to class (except what you might want to bring to take notes.)  The workshop will be 5:30-8:30pm at PhotoCentral's conference room, at 1099 E St. in Hayward, upstairs.

Sign up now, registration is open at PhotoCentral. If this is your first time taking a class with PhotoCentral please be advised that you'll need to contact them via phone to set up an account first. Call 510-881-6721 for more information.

Morning Light near Oxbow Bend

A frosty morning near Oxbow Bend in Grand Tetons National Park, unusually pink morning light (an effect I saw in the area on several mornings) adds a painterly quality (e.g., Bierstadt) to the lifting mists over the river here. I've been playing with prints of this image and the details really add here, you'll never find the pair of bird silhouettes at this resolution, I'd wager.

Also subtle, but still interesting, I love the nuances of cool color in the shaded, frosty foreground.

Seeing how to extract the interest here was key in making this image really come together. The sky itself was relatively dull, and the more famous takes on the Bend, at this point, were getting less flattering light, using a telephoto here allowed me to focus in on the magic.