While it can be enticing if not blinding over time to chase golden hour light I’ve come to savor the moments I can explore a foggy landscape. While photographers will often use depth of field and lighting (ex. rim lighting, naturally occurring spot lighting, back lighting, etc.) to place an added emphasis of focus on a subject fog provides a naturally occurring means of doing the same thing. Fog both obscures a
One of my favorite techniques to tame the chaotic beauty of the ocean into a smooth surreal scene is to take long exposures. Earlier in the year I decided to buy and test the Singh-Ray 10 Stop Mor-Slo filter. One of the big features I liked about this filter over the Lee Big Stopper filter is that it was actually available and Singh-Ray makes an amazingly high quality product that produces minimal color cast. I was
Last Spring I decided to hike up Yosemite Falls Trail to spend the better part of an evening photographing Upper Yosemite Falls to capture a moonbow, star trails and a time-lapse. As you might imagine I was the only person nutty enough to try this and the only living creature I saw for much of the evening was a couple of raccoons. Hiking up to this spot with 2 sets of cameras and tripods seemed like it made good sen
This weekend I went back to look through older footage of Glacier National Park as I worked on a long standing personal project. While much of what I was working on in the field at the time centered on the iconic views of Glacier National Park, I was happy to see that I also captured the subtle beauty of the park as well. Sometimes simple aerial or atmospheric perspective can transform a well known view into somethin
One of the most amazing sights often overlooked on dark nights is the Milky Way. Tired, road weary and focusing on the road ahead its easy for travelers to miss out on the the scene above them at night. On a recent trip to Yosemite National Park I made a conscious effort to stop the car every so often when driving to survey the night sky above me. It wasn’t an easy thing to do due to a good amount of sleep de
A visit to the Monterey coastline just south of San Francisco, California never fails to inspire. Recently I decided to use this location to test some camera bodies (Hasselblad H5D, Nikon D800 and Canon 5D Mark III) and squeezed in a little extra time to try out a new Singh-Ray Mor-Slo 10-stop filter. While I didn’t have time to stack filters and experiment further I was very happy with the outcome. Gear aside
This weekend I went out with some new gear to test, namely the Hasselblad H5D medium format DSLR and Hasselblad 300mm f/4.5 lens via BorrowLenses.com. The location of choice was Asilomar State Beach. The H5D has roughly twice the resolution as my Canon 5D Mark II with a whopping 40 megapixels per image. I had been curious to find out if Hasselblad’s reputation was hype or not. To cut to the chase I’ll te
Last week I took the opportunity to photograph several amazing sights in Yosemite National Park ranging from night & astro landscapes, moonbows and blooming Dogwoods. The later is what captured my eye by day. This is the first time I’ve seen Dogwoods in optimal conditions. In the past I’ve always seen them after a storm or a little too late in the season. One thing I can say after seeing Dogwoods in p