Snowed In At Yosemite National Park

First of all, please accept my apologies for neglected my blog for a few months.  Since my last post, my daughter got married, I shot like a crazy man during the Summer,  added an online class to my curriculum, made another trip to Europe and a quick trip up the Oregon Coast, and I’m just now sitting down to catch my breath during the Christmas break.  Finding time to upload content to this blog has become more of a challenge lately, but I’m hoping to do better in 2020.

I had originally planned to get a post up after shooting during back to back to back snow storms in Yosemite last February, so I guess I’m about a year behind.  Snow in on the Yosemite Valley floor has been increasingly rare for the past 10 years or so, and more rare still have been longer weekends when I can get away from the college and shoot.  So when everything lined up and I saw “heavy snow” in the forecast for Yosemite on a day when I could actually drive up and be there, I was off like a shot.  It’s all a bit foggy now, but I must have driven

A Stormy Day In The Alabama Hills

Last Monday I headed up to the Alabama Hills to try out some time-lapse with some stormy skies.  This was my first official attempt at time-lapse after experimenting a bit over the past few weeks. I have been heavily influenced by both Michael Shainblum and Michael Oblinski, and while this attempt isn’t remotely close to what these guys are posting, it was definitely fun to see what I could come up with as a first effort.  I’ve also been watching a ton of storm chasing videos lately and even though this was a weenie storm compared to what they are getting in the midwest, at least it was SOMETHING as we typically don’t see anything like this in North Orange County in the Summer months.

Secondly, I’ve never used Adobe Premiere before, and so I had quite a bit of fun combining footage from my GoPro and iPhone in addition to the time-lapse footage from my D750. I’m hoping to post more video content onto my youtube channel in the near future.

A Look Back At 2018

I’m a day or two late with this as I was camping out near Lake Powell over the last couple of days with overnight lows hovering around 12 degrees.  Here’s a look back at the photos I took or edited in 2018.  Looking forward to more photography in 2019!

The Many Faces Of Badwater Basin

I saw my first photos of Badwater Basin many years ago.  The vast, white hexagons spreading out to the horizon instantly grabbed my attention as I couldn’t tell if I was looking at ice, snow or sand.  It turned out to be none of those as I was actually looking at salt.  Couple that with the fact that badwater basin is the second lowest point in the Western Hemisphere and I couldn’t wait to get out there with my camera.

Yosemite’s Horsetail Fall Parking Is Now By Permit Only (2018)

When Galen Rowell took his now infamous shot of the Horsetail Fall effect in February of 1973 there may have been a few people around gazing at the falls, but it was primarily Galen and a single Ranger who were standing in just the right spot.  Last year, literally thousands of people

A Look Back At 2017

I meant to post this yesterday, but it looked like we might get some great light in Death Valley so my buddy Eric and I spent New Year’s Eve driving like maniacs down to Cottonball Basin to catch the sunset.  After a year of crazy trips and long hours driving though the Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, the Eastern Sierras, the California Coast and five countries in Europe, here is a look back.  All of these shots were either taken or processed in 2017.  If you are reading this, thank you so much for visiting my blog!  A very Happy New Year to you!  Looking forward to 2018!

Epic Spring Runoff In Yosemite Valley Creates Rare Opportunities For Photographers

A couple of weeks ago I was catching up on a pile of work on my computer when I came across an LA Times story describing how the Merced River was approaching flood stage due to the heavy run off from the record breaking snowfall earlier in the year.  A few hours later I was headed out of my driveway at 2 AM to make a stop at the Alabama Hills for a quick sunrise shot before heading across to Yosemite via the 14, 58 and 99.  By mid afternoon,

Winter Storms Have Created Rare Photographic Conditions In Yosemite

After several years of drought here in California, we are finally having a true rainy season this year.  Over the past few weeks, a series of storms rolled through our state providing much needed water for our reservoirs and snow in our local mountains and the Sierras.  All of this extra moisture has caused some problems for the park rangers in Yosemite who had to close the park twice in one month due to flooding concerns as well as rockslides due to the heavy rainfall.  Having to deal with tire cables, road closures and delays on my two recent trips to Yosemite were definitely a  pain, but the opportunities that were waiting for me when I arrived were just too good to pass up.