Moon Over Balanced Rock, Arches National Park, Utah.
Are you planning a spring photography trip to some U.S. national parks? Where should you go? Which parks will provide the best photographic opportunities ?
Double Arch at Night, Arches National Park. Click for a larger version.
Bob, my brother-in-law, and I were in the Double Arch/Windows area at Arches National Park. As we made our way down the trail we saw two red lights in the distance. It was our guess it was the red lights on the back of two cameras, glowing in the darkness during long time exposures.
John Muir
John Muir was born April 21, 1838. He had a profound influence on how Americans viewed our wild lands and his influence led to the establishment of many of our National Parks and other protected lands. He was nicknamed The Father of our National Parks. This is National Parks week. Go explore somewhere this week, or make plans to visit sometime this year.
Here are photos from some of my favorite National Parks (and one state park) along with quotes from John Muir.
The tripod is at the camera location for the four camera GPS test in the previous article. Buddhist Temple, Keller Texas.
Over a period of time Google Earth records multiple satellite images of the same area. You can cycle through those images. You would think the same identical GPS coordinates would show up on the same location in the images as you go back through time, but that is not the case.
Wat Buddharatanaram. Buddhist in Temple, Keller Texas
I was taking pictures at the Buddhist Temple in Keller Texas (one of my favorite photo locations when I am in Keller) when it occurred to me I had four GPS equipped cameras with me. So it was time to do my first test of four GPS enabled cameras in the same location.
April, Oliver, and one very wobbly legged calf. This is a screen capture from the live feed video. Like countless other people this morning, I watched live feed video of the birth. Fascinating.
April the Giraffe, another live feed video link.
THINGS TO KNOW:
April is 15 – her 4th calf
April has never lost a calf nor had a stillborn
Oliver is 5 – his 1st calf
Screen Capture, April the Giraffe.
Posted at 8:56 am EDT, April 15. Two front hooves and part of the legs are out. Here’s the live feed video:
http://www.10tv.com/article/watch-live-april-giraffe-prepares-give-birth-ny-zoo-updated
Come spend a fun and exciting weekend learning how to take your nature photography to the next level. It is September 22-24 in beautiful Rocky Mountain National Park. Now is the time to sign up.
Great Egret. Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Fremont, California.
When I posted this photo on one of my Facebook pages, a friend posted this comment:
“I LOVE this egret photo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look at the right wing trailing in the water. How DO you capture these?!”
That is an excellent question.
Total Immersion Nature Photography Workshop
OSU – Mansfield Ohio
May 6, 2016 – 9:00 am to 8:00 pm
I am excited. My nature photography workshop in Ohio is next month.
Come spend a fun, exciting, action-packed day learning how to take your photography to the next level. In the intensive classroom explorations you will learn the steps that make the difference between ordinary snapshots and extraordinary images. Minutes later you will be practicing those steps with your own camera. Learn the secrets of the pros and apply their tips and techniques to create your own eye-popping images.
Ansel Adams at work in Yosemite Valley.
The transcript of the PBS documentary Ansel Adams: American Experience.
This is a much earlier date for this workshop than in prior years. We are only seven weeks away and this workshop is filling up fast. Register now and come spend a fun and exciting weekend learning how to take your nature photography to the next level. The weekend is May 26-28, 2017 at Park of the Pines on beautiful Lake Charlevoix in northern Michigan with an optional all day field trip to Michigan’s U.P. on Monday, May 29.
California Poppies
There are times when iPhones can take great photos. Lots of light and the need for a semi-wide angle lens are ideal.
DSLR (left) vs iPhone (right)
Every once in a while I am asked if smartphones are replacing DSLRs. The answer varies with the photographer but for many photographers the answer is no. This pair of photos says it all. There are still some things smartphones just can’t do, at least not right now.
The last issue of Popular Photography, March/April 2017.
This is a sad day. After 80 years of publication Popular Photography magazine is closing. The March/April issue that arrived in my mailbox will be the last. No new content will be added to the PopPhoto.com web site after March 10.
Anoush, tone mapped
Ansel Adams often said “The negative is similar to a musician’s score, and the print to the performance of that score.” Over a period of years he would take the same negative and print it in several different ways, giving the negative a new and different performance.
Legendary Brooklyn based photographer George Pitts passed Saturday, March 4, 2017 after a prolonged illness. While he was not famous with the general public, he was an icon in the photography world and much loved by those who worked with him. He was the founding Director of Photography at Vibe magazine. He was an assistant professor of photography at Parsons School of Design, and be became the Directory of Photography at Life magazine in 2004. His work appeared in The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Vice, The Paris Review, and other publications.
Underwater Photographer of the Year 2017: Dancing Octopus by Gabriel Barathieu
This is the grand prize winning photo.
“The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak” by Albert Bierstadt
That’s right, you can download works of art to your hearts content and use them any way you want from personal projects to commercial work for sale. If you want to put a photo of your great aunt Harriet in a Bierstadt painting and sell it on the internet, feel free.
Every NYT front page since 1852 from Josh Begley on Vimeo.
The first front page photograph appeared in 1910 and the first color photograph in 1997.
Ansel Adams
1936 was a turning point in the life and career of Ansel Adams. It was also a time of emotional crisis.
Posted Feb. 25, 2017. Updated Dec. 14, 2017.
Ansel Adams, Grand Canyon, animated gif.
You can create an animated gif online without needing any special software on your computer. The site is GifCreator and it is free to use. Such a deal! I used it to create the above animated gif for an article I wrote a couple of days ago.
Ansel Adams at the Piano II , Carmel, 1982
Ansel Adams is arguably the best known American landscape photographer. Not so well known is that he was a talented and classically trained concert pianist. Were it not for some interesting and seemingly random events in his life he could have spent his life on the concert stage.
Posted Feb. 24, 2017. Updated Dec. 15, 2017.
Snowy Owl
It is not too late to photography Snowy Owls in the far northern United States.
Portrait of Ansel Adams at Point Lobos by Martha Casanave
Ansel Adams, Grand Canyon, before and after 30 seconds of digital processing.
Thanks to the U.S. National Archives, you to can work with Ansel Adams own negatives in your digital darkroom.
Ansel Adams, Grand Canyon National Park
The U.S. National Archives decided to make available over 200 of the high resolution public domain photos taken by Ansel Adams. You can download them here.
Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the Range of Light.
Marc Silber interviews Michael Adams, son of Ansel Adams, in Ansel’s home and workroom/darkroom. They discuss Adams’ book Yosemite and the Range of Light. “The Range of Light” is the phrase John Muir used to describe the Sierra Nevada. Some video footage of Ansel Adams is included. Watch and learn.
Ansel Adams: Half Dome, Merced River, Winter. © Ansel Adams Publishing rights Trust
I have no idea when I was first entranced by the photos of Ansel Adams. There is a wonderful, luminous quality to his work. Small wonder he is America’s best known landscape photographer. Collections of his work would make a worthy addition to any photographer’s library. This is also the time of year that Ansel Adams calendars pop up like snowstorms.