A Means to Wander

You've probably noticed that I'm prone to ignoring this blog for as long as I see fit.  That doesn't bother me, hopefully, it does not bother you as well.
In the beginning of the year, I had a head cold that was the worst I've experienced in three years.  That sacked my creative productivity for nearly three weeks.  Since then, I've been very busy in the studio doing a lot of printing and matting and framing.
It isn't easy to print, yesterday I only worked up one image.  Yikes, lots of time goes by and at the end there's only one image!  That's OK, because it's a very good image that can be handled, felt and experienced with more than just the eyes.
Guess that's why ignoring the blog doesn't bother me.  I know that I'm working and doing stuff and in the end what you get to see will be better because of it.  As an artist (not a salesman, politician, or charlatan) I rely on your trust and patience to allow me to create at my own pace.  I rely on this, but have I earned it?  There's probably some work left to do on that.
I'll make some tea and get started.  I think better when I walk and I know of a nice little path close-by.  Have a pleasant day, talk to you again soon-ish.

Morning in the Valley

I spent a week trying to post this panorama from Death Valley in a way that would allow you to enjoy all the rocky detail.  Well, as you can see it's just postage stamp size.  Seems sadly dainty considering the print would be 12x36 inches.
Ho-hum...
The best option I found uses Flash technology, and that's not an option as far as I'm concerned.  If any of you have some ideas about better ways to present panos on the web, shoot me a comment.
Otherwise, enjoy!
Click thorough and enjoy the largest size I can post to this blog.  Or click the thumbnail to go to the original size.

Turtle Eats Your Lunch

Today's photograph is more of a personal reaction to the amount of work piling up in the studio.  There is a lot of stuff on my plate and I'm chewing through it, but at a pace that can only be measured in geologic terms.  Click through for a better understanding.

Somekind of Yucca

In honour of the strangeness and randomness of luck, I'm posting the following image!

Have a pleasant and interesting weekend.

Skittering in the Subway, ZIon NP

Let's go back to Zion...  We're going back to Zion... We're going back to Zion...

I didn't take a lot of photos in the park.  Honestly, I was completely burned out from working too much and, well, I wanted a vacation.

Off to the backcountry office to see what could be had.   After not too little convincing; that...

Middle Gyre

Lining up shots of the spinning night sky is difficult.  You might be thinking... really? don't you just find someplace dark and point the camera up?  Yes, of course, that's how it starts.  Once I get that far, I'll start taking 30 second test shots until I find a position I can use.  You have to watch out for trees and bushes and giant rocks creeping into the frame.  If I'm anywhere near a road, I'll wait for a car to pass and take a few shots to see what the headlights cause.  Then you have to check the spill from the campfire, and headlamps of those who wander from the fire.  All of this in 30 second chunks.  That's a long time to stand in the dark and wait.
Once I find a spot that's good for the 30's, I'll pop off a 4 minute exposure so I can see how the trails will line up.  If it's good, I set the timer and sit down by the fire until the battery dies or I run out of wood.
Trails like the one in this post, exhibiting the parabolic effect at opposite corners are usually too chaotic for most people.  I understand that, you are looking at a 160 degree view of the sky after all.  That's a lot to take in!
But I really like shooting them, so I thought using a static star image as a block for the viewer to stand on might help calm things down.  To my eye it's works, but is also problematic.  Maybe it looks too much like a million comets on a collision course.  Meh, any start is a good start.
For those of you who're keeping track, this is one 30 second exposure and about twenty 4 minute exposures.  You're looking west from one of my favorite campsites near Canyonlands NP.  An arm of the Milky Way is responsible for the large cluster of trails right of center.  The curvature of the Earth is evident in the parabolic gesture.  Storms and wind raised dust levels in the lower atmosphere and gave that orange gradient to the lower frame.  Finally, further evidence that mankind might be out of alignment with the universe is present as light trails of airplanes travel almost perpendicular to the beautiful continuity.

Thanks

I figured if anyone was reading at this blog on Thanksgiving, they might be in need of a visual escape.  Feel free to sit in a corner and stare at this image for as long as it takes.  Maybe you'll eventually de-stress and swim away in you're own oceanic pool.  Whatever you're up to today, thanks for taking a minute to peek into my little fish bowl.
Cheers!

A Glimpse of Zion

A quick snap-shot taken during a walk in Zion National Park.  If you've not been there, I certainly recommend going.  If you're not into crowds, however, you'll need to brace yourself a bit.  Getting past the pavement is difficult.  I'm not kidding.  We actually stopped a ranger and asked if there are any unpaved trails in the main shuttle area.  Her answer was a bit disconcerting.
How do you find wilderness and connect with nature if you are unable to leave civilization?  How do you make a decent unique photograph of an area overrun with tourists and photographers?  The answer to both questions is often multi-layered, as layered as the desert itself.
After a few days of digging around and trying to push out of the bottleneck, we became completely lost in the possibilities of this place.  We will be going back to Zion, but not because of anything we did while we were there.  Because of the things we might do, because of the stories we made up about what's around the next bend.  That's the closest I've come to describing what "hope" feels like.  Any place that allows this kind of mental transformation in a curmudgeon like myself, is worth putting on the short list of places to return.

Presence

Hello my loyal and very patient readers.  Figured I'd check in and post something pretty for the weekend. I hope these crepuscular rays find you enjoying the tail end of autumn.  I think it's time to start feeding the blog regular updates again.  As always, no promises, but I have piles of beautiful photographs to share and I'm frothing at the bit to show them off.
Today's post is something of an anomaly...  I printed it before sharing.  Yep, you're reading that correctly!  Prints are soon to be available.  Lot's of work to do in the studio, so you go enjoy the weekend and I'll see you again shortly.

The Milky Way at Molas Pass

I don't usually rely on my camera's LCD for much.  It is very convenient to verify some basic information but other wise it's not good for much.  Here's why:

After a long drive to get to camp, we were focused on setting up the ten and having a suitable place to get some rest for the next few days.  Photography wasn't really on the menu for the evening, but no clouds and lots of stars are never guaranteed, so the camera went up and did some work while we worked on camp.  I set the intervalometer so I could walk away and have the camera continue clicking and maybe I'd end up with a nice star trail photograph in the end.  About an hour later I came back to stop the timer and pack up the camera.
Checking the screen to satisfy my curiosity, I saw the large dead tree in the foreground and it completely ruined the treeline silouhette.  Before getting the axe, I showed the LCD to the group who all agreed that the dead tree needed to be cut down to get clean shot the following night.
I'm sure glad we didn't try to do it right then and there!  Another lesson, the following night we were under thick clouds with no hope for stars.
I'm still out on the road, but the blog should start to fill in soon.  Thanks for checking up on me periodically.

Ant Ranch

On a recent hike in the Colorado high country, we came across this active ant ranch.  The little insects are aphids munching on the plant, the ants are herding and protecting them.  While out on a routine patrol of the herd, this ant is receiving it's paycheck.  Aphid poop, essentially sugar water sometimes referred to as "honeydew", is the currency on this ranch.  You can see that the ant is using an antenna to comb the drop from the backside of the aphid.  Nature is a fantastic place!

Morning at Medicine Bow Curve

About a month ago we began a journey by getting a very early start out of Fort Collins with the intent of catching the sunrise and wildflowers at the high point along Trail Ridge road in Rocky Mountain National Park.  A large cloud back on the Eastern horizon made for a drab beginning of the day.  However, as we began the drive down the other side of the mountain, a little pink started showing in the clouds overhead.  Luckily, I still had the camera attached to the tripod and we were right near a large pullout.

In this photograph, you can see the Never Summer Mountains (which is my favourite name for a mountain range) in the background and the headwaters of the Cache La Poudre River, which are hidden in the middle ground valley framed by the pine forest.  I worked to find a composition that showed the gleaming ribbon of the stream, but most of what I found lacked the stronger compositional lines of this framing.

I know it's been a long time since I've posted, and the next update may be just as far away.  I'm making some changes in the way I handle my photographs and blog posts.  The delayed posts is the bad news, but the good news is that I have begun to produce my own prints.  This means that images like the one in today's blog post are available as prints in limited or open run editions.

Hope you all are having a fantastic summer!

Sprague Grasses

After spending an hour and a half working the view of Hallett posted several times recently.  I finally closed the tripod and went for a walk.  I love the colour of the sun through these grasses, and at the time I was annoyed by the little waves.  However after seeing this, I think nature was just being helpful and I should be more patient.

Bloom Cluster

I think it's choke cherry.  Feel free to correct me in the comments.

Hallett from Sprague

The morning show.  It's never the same, this time the snow was on fire!  Going to be a bit slow around here over the coming weeks.  I'll be able to trickle some stuff through, but certainly not a regular clip.  There's a lot of wilderness that's only accessible a few months out of the year, so I gotta go now.  Don't worry, I'll have a bunch of stuff to share after my return.  In the meantime, do forget to get out of whatever building you're in periodically.  It's a beautiful day, right now, where ever you are.  Cheers!

The Tyndall Massiff

Let's name some mountains (L to R):  Taylor Peak, Otis Peak, Hallett Peak, Flattop Mountain as seen from Sprague Lake.  You can also see Tyndall Glacier between Hallett and Flattop.  It's called a "glacier because that's where it was, but the snow in this photo is only lingering and by late summer it is usually gone.   The brown trees are the result of beetle kill.  One day while I was hiking I came to the realization that soon our fantastic pine forests may not smell like pine forests.  To be in places like this or look at these photos, I am often left confused by very mixed feelings.

Ferns Around the Millstone

When I saw these millstones all around the property in Brandywine, PA, I shot hundreds of compositions in less than an hour.  Eventually, I started thinking about the history of the stones.  They are made from granite, used to grind stuff, and they wear out.  What happens to all the granite that used to be part of the stone? Obviously, it went into whatever was being ground.  Hmm... not so tasty, but ferns... baby ferns can be delicious.

Pearl Play - Full Quality

The full quality slideshow is posted and ready for view.  I told you last week that I'd leave a link in the original post, but las week was so... annoying, I wanted to sever all connections with it.  Click on this link, give it a couple of seconds to load, and most of all enjoy.

Elk Fawn

It has been a banner week here.  I'm fried, it's Friday.

Look!  A baby elk!

Pearl Play

Went out with a friend last week to shoot something different.  Today is the deadline we set for sharing the photos.  In keeping with the "different" theme, I made a slideshow to share with my readers.  There isn't a soundtrack, so you can even watch it at work!

Seems like Blogger thinks all the work I put into making a nice mp4 video at 720p with good colour and sharp images was a waste of time and converted it to Flash.  Flash videos suck, see above.  I'm not responsible for that mess.  When I get access to my server again, I'll post a link to the full quality version.