Today is Presidents Day and I can think of no better photo to post than this one of Mount Rushmore. Compare the achievements of these great presidents to the ones we have had to endure over the recent past. None of them will be featured in any monuments.
Turret Arch - Arches National Park, Utah
The sandstone formations in the American Southwest are second to none. There are so many unusual rocks that each of them have their own special names. Nowhere is this more true than in Arches National Park. There are over 2,000 natural sandstone arches within the park. While there are some memorable ones, Turret Arch is one of the more unusually shaped ones. The arch got its name as its right "tower" resembles a castle's turret. I particularly like the great color contrast between the orange sandstone and the deep blue sky that is typical of the southwest.
Guard Tower - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
I have posted quite a number of interior urbex photos of Eastern State Penitentiary, but there are some terrific subjects from the outside too. I wish that I could tell you that I found this guard tower on purpose, but the fact is that I stumbled upon it by pure luck. I was setting up for a bracket for a long cell block photo and my camera wouldn't fire. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what was wrong, and I was getting an error message blinking. I took the camera and tripod outside so I could see better what was going on. It turned out that the lens wasn't communicating with the camera. After taking the lens off and putting it back on, all was well. I looked up, and this was the scene that was in front of me. Better lucky than good.
Last Dollar Ranch - Ridgeway, Colorado
One of the stops that Rick Louie took us to on his Colorado Fall Photo Tour was the entrance gate to the legendary Last Dollar Ranch. The ranch, which is privately owned, has appeared on numerous television shows. It has also been the setting for commercials for Marlboro and Budweiser. After a long history, the ranch was donated to the American Farmland Trust in 1994. The ranch includes nine fully restored buildings and is set near the Sneffels Mountain Range.
When we got to the gate, the skies were getting ominous looking. As we were shooting, a woman drove up, got out of her truck, and gave us a dirty look that said, "You should leave here." Without a further word, she got back in her car and sped away. We continued to shoot the area in hopes of getting some decent sunset shots.
Office Spiral - Manhattan, New York
After a long day of walking and shooting on the streets of Manhattan, we headed toward the Path station near the Freedom Tower. It was a foggy day, and I got some great photos of the tower. While the others continued shooting, I walked around and spotted this building across the plaza. I thought that the way the building was lit, along with the spiral staircase, was very cool looking. I wanted to get someone walking down the stairs and after a few minutes, I got my wish.
Mirror - Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado
What a difference a day makes. My first morning in Rocky Mountain National Park, I headed out to Sprague Lake to shoot at sunrise. The weather was overcast and rainy and the results showed it. I ended up with maybe a couple of good shots, but nothing to write home about. This was the second time that I have been to the lake and was shut out (the first time was in 2008). I was determined to get some nice shots at the lake and figured that the third time would be the charm. The next morning I headed back, and this is what greeted me. The light was great, the lake smooth as glass, and the only thing missing were some clouds in the sky. After the previous morning, I could live with that.
Redwood - Sequoia National Park, California
One of the hardest subjects for me to shoot are the towering redwoods found in California. There are many challenges in shooting these beautiful trees. The first challenge is dealing with a high dynamic range (the difference in light from the darkest part of the photo to the brightest part). Often the sun doesn't reach the ground, causing the bottom of the tree to be in darkness. That contrasts greatly with the bright sky and sunlight on the leaves at the top of the tree. Until they make cameras that have the dynamic range of our eyes, this will always be a challenge.
Another challenge is getting the whole tree in the photo without it looking like it is leaning back. Usually, the forest is pretty dense, and there is no room to back up to get it in the frame. Using a wide-angle lens can get the tree into the frame, but it often looks like it is leaning backwards. Of course, if I had a very specialized lens (tilt-shift), I could stop that from happening, but I don't have one in my arsenal.
In any case, I do the best that I can with what I have, and hope that some creative editing will minimize these challenges. I think this redwood from Sequoia National Park came out pretty good.
What About the Blue Nozzle? - Brooklyn, New York
A quick post for today. I took this photo on a scouting trip with my son for his New York Film Academy short film. I had to chuckle when I saw these brightly covered nozzles on a building in Brooklyn. There were hard to miss placards for the green and pink nozzles and I wondered what the blue nozzle was for and why it didn't have a placard.
Impressive from Every Angle - Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming
One of the classic images of Devils Tower seen in famous movies is the one from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I have always wanted to see this with my own eyes, and decided that we would visit Devils Tower on our way back home on our cross country trip. It was a little out of the way for our final destination for the day (Badlands National Park) but I was glad that I did it.
Devils Tower is quite a large formation that sticks out of the landscape and it is surrounded by plains. Despite that, you can't get a good glimpse of it until you are almost there. The wind was blowing so hard that I had to hold onto my tripod to keep it from blowing over. There isn't a bad angle to shoot the tower from, as the flat land that surrounds it makes it stand out. The main difference in the views are the foreground. Looking at it from the east, there are fields of grass. This composition looking south towards the tower shows a more rugged foreground with hills and trees. No matter how you look at it, Devils Tower is well worth a side trip.
What to Shoot When it Rains - Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming
No matter how much time and effort we spend when planning a trip, whether it be a vacation or a photo tour, a major factor in the trip's success is the weather. This can be frustrating as sometimes these trips take lots of travel time and cost lots of money to get to. As a photographer, I know how the weather can impact your shooting. Sometimes it is clouds that block the scene you want to shoot at either sunrise or sunset. Other times it is a rain storm that gets you and your equipment soaked. I used to complain about it, but that doesn't change anything but your attitude. Now when the weather takes a turn for the worse, I simply look for other things to shoot. So when this happened to me in Grand Teton National Park, I headed under the cover of the trees and started to shoot the branches of an evergreen with some cool looking pine cones. No, it is not majestic like the nearby Rocky Mountains, but it sure beats feeling sorry for myself.
Parkway View - Banff National Park, Alberta
I have posted a number of images from the Icefields Parkway and every one is different from the last. That is because the parkway is about 140 miles long, parallels the Canadian Rockies, and passes by some of the most pristine mountain lakes anywhere.. There is no one image that can really convey the full beauty of the road. The parkway consistently appears on most top 10 lists of most spectacular roads in the world, including National Geographic. I wanted to post a photo that truly puts the road into perspective of its surroundings, and I hope this one does. This was taken from an overlook on the parkway looking south toward Banff. The road leads the eye down the middle of the valley and shows how the Rockies tower above it. This is one of the reasons that I keep wanting to go back there.
Nubble from the Boat - York, Maine
Nubble Light (aka Cape Neddick Lighthouse) is one of the most picturesque and photographed lighthouses on the Maine Coast. Located about an hour and a half north of Boston, visitors flock to this lighthouse. The light actually sits on a small island only a hundred yards offshore. There is a nice sized parking lot that accommodates visitors, although in peak season, parking is challenging. Almost everyone who visits walks away with a photo that shows the front of the light and island. I wanted to get a different view, so I took a cruise out of Perkins Cove that headed south to the island before heading back to port. While a boat cannot circle the island fully, I was able to get this shot looking north that cannot be achieved from land.
Place to Relax - Hilton Head, South Carolina
With all of the traveling that I do, sometimes people assume that I have been everywhere. There are plenty of places that I have yet to visit and the saying, "So many places, so little time." definitely applies to me. While most of my bucket list places are out west, I was able to check off Hilton Head a couple of years ago. We stayed at a Disney resort on the island (yes, it was a little weird staying at Disney with no amusement parks around) and we found it to be a great place to relax. Located about an hour north of Savannah and two hours south of Charleston (both were bucket list destinations), Hilton Head is a great place as a center of operations. Coupled with golf, fishing and beach, I can see why it is a prime vacation destination.
Cruising Upper Waterton Lake - Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park is a World Heritage site that is the union of the American and Canadian national parks. There is a way to visit both parks on the same day without hopping in a car and crossing the border. If you are staying in the Waterton Townsite, you can take a two-hour boat trip on Upper Waterton Lake, and travel south to Goat Lick, Montana. There you can get off the boat and scout around for a half-hour before heading back. Surprisingly, passengers do not have to go through US Customs as long as they get back on the boat. Along the way, you get some terrific views of the Rocky Mountains with their towering cliffs and rugged snow-capped peaks. Waterfalls can also be seen from the boat. The only problem for photographers is that the cruise leaves at 10:00am, so getting the great early morning light is near impossible. The day we took this cruise, the weather wasn't the greatest, but the scenery made up for that.
Glorious - Manhattan, New York
This past September, I joined fellow photographers Rick Louie and Chris Nitz on their trip to New York City before we were to meet up with the NxNW crew on Boston. This was Chris's first visit to NYC, so of course we had to show him some of our favorite places. I hadn't been back to St Patrick's near 30 Rock since 2008 and I was excited to shoot there again, as it is a magnificent church. When we walked in, we were in for a surprise, as there was scaffolding everywhere to be seen. Seems like St. Patrick's has been under restoration since 2012 and is not scheduled to be completed until December of this year, at an estimated cost of $175 million.
I still wanted to post an image of the inside of the church without scaffolding, so I dug out an old image and processed it as you see here. I can't wait to revisit there after the restoration is completed, as I am curious to see what it will look like.
Glacier Wildflowers - Glacier National Park, Montana
Logan Pass is a must stop destination for anyone visiting Glacier NP. It lies on the Continental Divide of the Rocky Mountains and is the highest point on the Going- to-the-Sun Road at almost 6,700 feet. It is unusual to see wildflowers in the middle of August (when this was taken), but the summer season was a short one in 2014. The road to Logan Pass was opened in mid-July and closed in late September, so the growing season was quite short due to the snow melt. This vantage point is near the Visitors Center and is the beginning of the Hidden Lake Trail that takes you past Reynolds Mountain. The hike to Hidden Lake is on a boardwalk with some decent elevation change, but it is so worth it for the view.
The Road - Colorado River Scenic Byway, Moab, Utah
This is a photo that I might not have taken a couple of years ago. Fortunately, in the past few years, I have been able to connect with other photographers that I have known for years online. Shooting with other photographers can't help but change your personal perspective, especially when you love their work. This particular shot is a tribute to my friend Jeff Clow. Before shooting with Jeff, I didn't shoot many road shots nor did I shoot much black and white. It is now part of my repertoire. I know he has picked up a few ideas from me too, especially when there are puddles around. Thanks Jeff.
Out for a Hike - Bloomfield, Connecticut
Being a landscape and travel photographer, I am often in front of some pretty impressive subjects. I sometimes forget that there is beauty in all corners of the world even if they are not prime destinations. Case in point. I hike around a reservoir that is pretty close to my home. It is a 3-mile hike with a good portion of it being a tree-lined dirt road. I try to bring my camera with me on these hikes, as there are times when the light and shadow paint such a photogenic picture. I shot this photo on one of those hikes and it is a favorite of mine. Don't forget your camera wherever you go. You just might run into a place where the scene is screaming "shoot me."
Awaiting Canoe - Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta
I like going through my Lightroom library and looking at some old stuff that I have shot over the years. Sometimes I come upon one that takes me back in time like this one did. Back in 2006, we hit most of the national parks, from Glacier in Montana to Jasper, Alberta. What a great trip it was. One of the places we stopped at was Waterton Lakes National Park. This little gem of a park abuts Glacier and is a wonderful place to explore. It doesn't get nearly the number of visitors as Glacier or the parks to the north, but it should. We seemed to have the park pretty much to ourselves. When we drove up to Cameron Lake (pictured here), there was no one in sight except for a couple of canoes on the lake. This canoe was just sitting there waiting for someone to take it out for a spin.
Temple of Poseidon - Cape Sounion, Greece
I am a lover of architecture and there is no better place to see some of the really old structures than Europe. After visiting the Acropolis in Athens, we decided to get outside of the bustling activity of the city and took a bus to Cape Sounion to visit the ruins of the Temple of Poseidon. Along the way to the cape, we passed some stunning coastal views as well as many great beaches. Pulling up to the entrance of the temple, it was obvious why the temple was built on this site. The ruins are situated on top of a rocky hill, where views of the beautiful Aegean Sea are visible in almost every direction.
The Temple of Poseidon was built around 440 BC and these columns are all that remain. According to Greek legend, Cape Sounion is where Aegeus, king of Athens, leapt to his death off the cliff, thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea.