Travel adventures from around the world, including landscape, wildlife and nature photographs.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
Crepuscular rays, Alabama Hills
Here’s another from Alabama hills as the crepuscular rays morphed into stunning uniform lines. I ran around looking for a different foreground and ended up finding a nice set of plants that almost mimicked the patterns in the rays. What an awesome display of light it was.
www.bay-photography.com
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
June Lake Milky Way reflections, Eastern Sierras
Here’s a fun one from June Lake. We were scouting fall
colors in the loop to line something up for a MW shot but were unsuccessful
before it got dark so we ended up here shooting our first MW shots of the trip.
I was planning on stacking the foreground to kill some noise but in one of my
frames I caught what looks to be car headlights shining back out at me so I
ended up using this single foreground frame, stacked with shots of the MW to
reduce noise in the sky and water reflections. The lake was pretty calm, but
the wind ended up picking up later in the night so we definitely got there at
the right time to catch the reflections.
www.bay-photography.com
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Convict Lake fall aspen colors
In an earlier post, I discussed using CPL filters while
shooting fall colors. In this instance I strengthened the amount to cut through
the reflections on the water surface to show the submerged rocks and use them
as my foreground element. I was careful to not over-polarize with my wide angle
to cause uneven hues in the sky. I snapped this just as the sunrise light hit
the tip of Laurel Mountain from behind. The air was a bit hazy and the light was
a lot softer than I normally see here.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/18, 2 sec,
ISO-50
www.bay-photography.com
Monday, November 27, 2017
Foggy Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite National Park
The low clouds formed the perfect framing around
Bridalveil Fall, partially obscuring the tips of the Cathedrals. The mood of
this shot was incredible. Not too long after this, we were engulfed in the fog,
and then the sun rose up over the mountains and broke free from the clouds
adding some surprisingly nice sunrise light over the scene.
Nikon D750, Nikkor
70-200, f/14, ½ sec, ISO-50
www.bay-photography.com
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
June Lake road fall aspens
June Loop was probably the best I’ve seen in all my years
coming here…just look at this guy’s face. The sun was in the perfect position,
giving the scene some back/sidelight to give the trees a nice glow. There were
some nice yellows and greens mixed together.
Nikon D750, Nikkor 70-200, f/8,
1/160 sec, ISO-320.
www.bay-photography.com
Monday, November 20, 2017
Convict Lake Milky Way fall aspens
Here’s a different take at Convict lake at 24mm. This is
a composite as I didn’t come here at night to shoot the MW so I combined my MW
shot from the night prior, with the foreground shot before the sun came up on
the day I headed home. I chose to only frame the fall color and reflections
giving the rest of the frame to the sky. Maybe one of these fall seasons I’ll
come back and get the milk with reflections in the still water.
www.bay-photography.com
www.bay-photography.com
Friday, November 17, 2017
June Lake road golden aspens
I shot this comp years ago and have been wanting to re-shoot it under better conditions. This season I got my chance as the aspens along the loop were amazing. I found a nice spot on the road with interesting foreground patterns both due to the shadows and the road cracks. Hardest part of this shot is playing cat and mouse with the cars zooming down the road.
www.bay-photography.com
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Moonlit McWay, Big Sur CA
I don’t shoot many moonlit night shots but we were here
for keyhole arch so we decided to stop by McWay and shoot this shot as the moon
was positioned to the right of this frame giving the scene some nice
contrasting shadows. I love the spot where you can frame McWay between the
trees. Nikon D750, Nikkor 14-24, f/2.8, 15 sec, ISO-2000
www.bay-photography.com
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
El Matador golden hour seascape, Malibu CA
Man oh man we have been having some good sunsets this
past week. Unfortunately I was only able to get out for one of them. This was
shot this past Friday when my buddy was visiting California
on his road trip. We headed out to El Matador which I usually avoid like the
plague due to how crowded it is. But the clouds were nice and the color from
golden hour through sunset was amazing. While I love the afterburn colors, I am
a huge fan of capturing golden hour shots as you get way more dynamic light
from the sun still above the horizon. Took my boots off to get up in the tide
for this one to ensue I got some nice water movement around the foreground
rock. By sunset, the puffy clouds disappeared and the thick cloud you see near
the horizon morphed into an amazing formation that burned nice and pink. I’ll
show that image down the road. This is a blend of multiple exposures to
properly exposure the scene throughout.
www.bay-photography.com
Monday, November 13, 2017
Alabama hills - Movie road milky way pano
Here is a vertical panorama I made from Alamaba Hills. I wanted to stand at the bottom of the road and compress the whole scene with my 50mm so I shot the foreground road at the latter stages of twilight when it was dark enough for my lantern light to be prominent. I then combined it with a 50mm pano of the Milky Way I shot later that night and composited the two.
www.bay-photography.com
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
McGee Creek - Aspen swirl
I’m always searching for something different. I go to
McGee creek every season looking for something that can provide that unique
edge. We ended up stumbling upon a small rapid that was causing the fallen
leaves to funnel into a pocket and move in a slow continuous circle. I
immediately knew I wanted to capture this movement with a long exposure. I had
to cross a log jam across the creek and the comp ended up being perfect with
some golden aspens and the sun in frame. I stacked my 10 stop ND and CPL in
order to capture this long exposure. The bushes also have motion but it gives
them a dreamier feel and goes with the motion of the foreground leaves so I
ended up liking the effect. Definitely a shot unlike any other I have captured
here so I’m glad I spent the time to make sure I got this one.
www.bay-photography.com
www.bay-photography.com
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Malibu Milky Way, Selfie from Leo Carrillo beach
As we move into November, it means the end of my MW
season until next Mar - April. But looking back, I’ve been able to capture some
great shots this year; both shots I’ve wanted to redo and shots I’ve been
wanting to grab for some time now. I’d call that a successful season for sure,
so here’s a victory pose from a cave I finally conquered early this season :)
Still have plenty of MW shots to edit/show so you’ll still be seeing plenty
before we kick off the 2018 season.
www.bay-photography.com
Friday, November 3, 2017
Silver Lake fall aspens
This place is hard to beat when the colors look like this and the water is this calm. Usually the wind usually seems to pick up once the sun comes up but this day it actually got calmer so we took advantage and shot this scene fully lit. There were tons of fallen leaves on the shore which made for a nice foreground. Focus stacked this to ensure the scene was sharp throughout.
www.bay-photography.com
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Yosemite Falls framed by fog
The fog created the perfect frame around Upper Yosemite
Falls. I was lucky to have my longer lens on at this moment because this scene
would have been gone if I had to switch lenses. Glad I was able to snap some
pics as I caught myself just staring up mesmerized at how the fog was morphing
around the granite walls. Nikon D750, Nikkor 50mm 1.8, f/14, 1/50 sec, ISO-50
www.bay-photography.com
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Fall Milk from Conway Summit
Was after some Fall Milk this past trip and Conway Summit
didn’t disappoint. I usually come later in the month of October and this area
is mostly dead by then. This year there were still some dead spots, but the
majority of the area still had a nice palette of color. I’ve been wanting to
redo these astro shots from here for several years now and since the colors
were good I finally got my chance. The foreground was taken at twilight and the
sky was taken once the stars came out to play. This is the 24mm view, I also
have one at 50mm and will probably work out some selected composite images down
the road.
www.bay-photography.com
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