So how do you capture the magnificence, vastness and the wonder of the Grand Canyon? The answer is that you don't. The best that you can do is to capture a small slice of the canyon and hope that a little of it's beauty comes through your image. There are two times to best photograph the park: sunrise and sunset. When the sun is near the horizon, it's light casts long shadows and adds great definition and depth to the canyon walls. Any other time, photographs seem flat with little or no definition because the sun is higher in the sky thus casting very shallow shadows. This image was taken just before sunset from Yavapai Point on the South Rim of the canyon. The sun cast a great golden glow onto the rocks creating terrific long shadows in the canyon itself. While many shoot into a rising or setting sun, my tendency is to shoot away from the sun to capture the great warm tones on the surrounding scenery.
Sunset on Lake Powell
The Glen Canyon Recreational Area is located adjacent to Page, Arizona. The area is named after Glen Canyon which was carved by the Colorado River in the shadows of the Vermilion Cliffs. Lake Powell, a reservoir, was created by the Glen Canyon Dam. In fact, if it were not for the building of the dam, Page would not exist as a town. Lake Powell is the second largest man-made reservoir in water capacity in the United States. It starts in Page, Arizona at the Glen Canyon Dam and extends to the Bullfrog Marina in southeastern Utah, 186 miles away. It has a shoreline of almost 2,000 miles. The lake is a favorite destination of vacationers who rent houseboats (pictured here in the image) during the summer months.
We had arrived in Page earlier in the day and wanted to scope out the Wahweap Marina where we were scheduled to take a 5-hour round-trip cruise to Rainbow Bridge early the next day. The setting sun cast beautiful light on the rugged mountains in the distance.
Keyhole Beauty
Back from an excellent vacation touring the American Southwest. Visited many spots in Arizona and New Mexico, many of them for the first time. While this wasn't a photography trip, I still managed to take a boatload of photos. We had great weather although a bit hotter than expected. I typically don't edit my photos right away as I am often disappointed with my shots because they don't seem to match the beauty I saw. I will be making an exception to that "rule" this week. My last post, "Go West, Young Man" was from my favorite place in the Southwest, Monument Valley. It was taken in 2005 on a hiking and photography trip with my son. It was there that my photography passion was rekindled. It is only fitting that my first post from my trip is from Monument Valley. This image is of a hole in Submarine Rock toward the back of the park. The only way to visit it is to hire a Navajo Guide (I used Simpson's Trailhandler Tours - Highly Recommended). I am not sure exactly what the hole is called. It is sometimes referred to as Keyhole Arch or Pottery Arch which is interesting as it is obviously not an arch. Whatever it's name, the view through the hole shows the beauty of the valley and it's structures lit by the setting sun.
Go West, Young Man
"Go West, Young Man" is a quote attributed to Horace Greeley in an editorial published in 1865. Living on the east coast all of my life, I have been attracted to the west ever since my first trip there. I am very happy to report that tomorrow, I am headed to Arizona and New Mexico for the next two weeks. While it is not specifically a photography trip, you can bet I will return with quite a lot of images. In selecting an image for today's post, I decided to pick my favorite place in the Southwest, Monument Valley. This is a view of the valley that I took on a guided tour with a Navajo guide (the only way to see Monument Valley off of the public road). It was the trip that re-ignited my photography passion in 2005. I am really psyched that I will be hiring another guide on this trip to capture the wonderful scenery and colors of the park.
I will not be posting to my blog during this trip, so I will see you when I return. Look forward to catching up with you all when I get back.
The Boat Workshop
Sometimes when you plan a vacation or photography trip, you are always at the mercy of one uncontrollable event: weather. We were spending a week in Maine with friends and we were headed from Camden to Newcastle. We had hoped to spend most of the day taking in the scenery and atmosphere of the Boothbay Peninsula. The weather forecast was for a constant rain all day. So what to do when this happens? Visit a museum to take in the history of the area. This led us to the the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath. Being on the east coast of the United States, boatbuilding was a key industry in the economic history of the state. The museum has many exhibits throughout the main building and also has many outbuildings where the boats were (and still are) built. One of the cooler outbuildings was the boat workshop. All of the old tools were on display as well as boats that were built there. I took this shot of the workshop wall with the windows overlooking the river outside. Since tripods were not allowed in the museum, I shot a 7-shot hand held bracket.
L C Smith & Corona
This image is from an antique store somewhere in New Hampshire. The store owner was nice enough to allow us in to photograph whatever we wanted. While there were so many possible subjects, I was attracted to this old Smith Corona typewriter. I tried to research how old the typewriter was, but I was unable to find out anything about it. I would have contacted the store owner but I don't even remember the store name or the town I was in. Anyway, it amazes me what our parents and grandparents had to do before the advent of computers, word processing software, iPhones and iPads.
The Fishing Pier
One of the best places to spend the summer is the Jersey shore (don't in any way attribute the Jersey shore to the reality show). Every year, thousands of people from the surrounding area (South Jersey, Philadelphia, New York and Delaware) head to Wildwood, NJ. Wildwood's beach is arguably one of the best beaches in NJ with it's two mile boardwalk. The crowds were sleeping in on this early summer morning so I had the beach to myself along with my nephew. I really liked the lines of this fishing pier and shot off a couple of brackets.
Trail of Birches
Just a quick post today. This image was taken at the beginning of a trail in Jasper National Park. It was my first time to the park and we had terrible weather for our 3 day stay as it rained pretty much the whole time we were there. In a brief moment of no rain, I spotted this birch grove and wanted to walk along it for a while. As soon as we started out, it began to rain again and this is as far as we got before heading back to the car.
Breaking Through
Earlier this week, I posted an image of Mt McKinley Lodge's cupola. After having breakfast, I headed to Byers Lake in Denali State Park with a small group of other guests at the lodge. While the adjacent national park of the same name is world famous, I discovered that Denali State Park was well worth a visit. I might even venture to say that it is the best state park I have ever been to. The lake was about 20 minutes away from our lodge and is accessible from the Parks Highway that connects Anchorage and Fairbanks. The park is undeveloped wilderness with the exception of the two day-use areas, three campgrounds, and two trailheads, one of which leads to Byers Lake.
Alberta Morning
I know that I have been posting a lot of images from Alberta but I can't help it! I just love the Canadian Rockies and it's surrounding lakes and towns. I would probably go to Banff every year if my wife said it was okay. Okay, now that I have warned you, today's image is of Cascade Mountain from the town of Banff. It was very early in the morning, shortly after sunrise. The town was pretty deserted, especially for a summer morning. I am sure that it is very hard to shoot a bad photo when the subject is so magnificent, the light so nice and soft and the weather being just about perfect. Just another day in paradise (at least to me).
Looking Up
I always am surprised what other photographers see when shooting the same subject. I always seem to say to myself, "I didn't see that." This simple question has trained me to continue to work a subject from as many angles and perspectives as I can think of. I try to shoot high and low; left and right; and close and far. Depending on the subject, I always make sure I look up. On our trip to Alaska last year, we stayed at a wonderful lodge in the wilderness, The McKinley Lodge. I wanted to photograph the lodge and realized that the only way to shoot it was to get up before dawn as it was crowded throughout the day and night. I was able to get some great shots of the lodge and it's enormous windows looking out at the famous mountain. As I was finishing up, I started to look up at the ceiling and discovered this great view of the lodge's cupola and it's light. It is probably my favorite image of the lodge and was not even on my list of shots before I started to shoot.
Stamen
Just a quick post and run today. I took this photo while walking around our neighborhood with my wife and dog, Jack. I don't normally take my camera when walking around our home but, for some reason, I picked it up before the walk. I must have subconsciously wanted to shoot a flower macro (not my normal type of shot) but I am glad I did.
Got Milk?
Today's image is from a small farm in Sutton, Vermont. After shooting the Vermont countryside from the farm, I was walking back to my car and I spotted this milk sign on a weathered side of a barn. I was taken with it's color against the weathered wall with it's bright red color. For whatever reason, I immediately thought of the Got Milk? advertising campaign which is probably better than the "Drink Milk" sign.
Better Look for Cover
While there are many beautiful countries in the world, my favorite has to be Italy. It may be my favorite because my mother's parents were from Italy but it also could be for the food and the countryside. For whatever reason, I have always wanted to visit Portofino. On our Mediterranean cruise, our first stop was this wonderful fishing village on the Italian Riviera. When we got to the village, it was raining and we were not able to walk around. We headed on our tour to Genoa and hoped that when we returned to Portofino, the weather would cooperate. When we got back to Portofino, the sun was shining for a short while but when I looked out toward our cruise ship, I saw the darkest clouds that I had seen in a while. The juxoposition of the sunlit village contrasted with the dark skies just called to me to shoot a photo. I knew that I had just a little time before the storm would come leaving me little time to run for cover.
Merced Light
The Merced River is a 145-mile tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada to the central valley of California. The most famous section of the river is where it travels through the renowned Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park. The Merced drops over the Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls and passes into the valley, where it flows in the pine forests that fill the valley floor. Visitors to Yosemite Valley can go almost anywhere along the Merced's banks and see the famous granite cliffs and formations. This image shows one of the most famous formations, El Capitan. It was early morning and the light started to bathe the formation and the opposite bank. It's no wonder that the Yosemite Valley is one of the most visited national parks in the US.
Rugged
Last week I posted the shoreline of Bow Lake located on the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park. Today we travel further north on the parkway to Upper Waterfowl Lake. The lake is easily accessible from the parkway and is surrounded by the awe inspiring mountains of the continental divide including the rugged Mount Chephren that is shown in the photo. The mountain was originally named Pyramid Mountain but was renamed after a Egyptian pharaoh when it conflicted with the identically named Pyramid Mountain in Jasper National Park.
Blackberry Falls Revisited
Been a busy few weeks for me. Those who know me well know that I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. Bruce started his new tour in late March and I have been able to see him in Boston, Madison Square Garden and, most recently, Albany. Each show was almost 3 hours long with no breaks - not bad for a 62 year old. Anyway, heading back from Albany, Carol and I stopped at Blackberry Falls to see if they were running again (last time I went, they were closed for work). Thankfully they had reopened and while the light wasn't great, it was good to see the falls running again.
Wild Horses
I've previously posted images of one of my favorite train rides, namely the Durango-Silverton Train that travels the rugged San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado. The trip has everything from mountains to streams to gorges to valleys. One of my favorite recollections though was this group of wild horses that were just beginning to gallop as the train rolled past. Given the movement of the train and the moving subject, I was just hoping to get one decent shot of them before we sped by them. All of my shots were pretty bad except for this one. All things considered, I am pretty happy with this one shot.
Bow Lake Morning
Today we head back to the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park, Alberta. There are so many lakes that can be explored along the road that if you stopped and explored each one, it would take days to drive the 140 miles. One lake that must be explored is Bow Lake. It is a relatively small lake at about 1.25 square miles so it can explored in a short time. It is home of the Crowfoot Glacier and the old quaint lodge, the Num-Ti-Jah Lodge. As can be seen in this image, there is a decent gravel path that borders part of of the lake. The road is only about 30 yards from this spot and the rising sun cast beautiful light through the trees onto the lake.
Flow
This image was taken a couple of years ago somewhere on Route 9 in southern Vermont. I had decided to take the day to drive to Vermont to catch some foliage shots. Unfortunately, I had missed the peak of the foliage season in Vermont and, although I shot a number of images, I simply wasn't feeling it. I thought I saw an opening from the road where there was a decent shot, but as I climbed down, I realized that the scene was not what I had thought. While climbing down the ravine, this stream and it's rocks had some great light shining on it which greatly enhanced it's color. Sometimes you just get lucky finding a subject you weren't expecting.