A visit to the Tetons of Wyoming
Back in June, my family and I had a family trip to Jackson, Wyoming. There were some mornings where I would head out to catch an early sunrise (sunrise was around 5:45am that time of the year there!) for a little photography. One photogenic spot on the outskirts of Jackson is the wetlands of the National Elk Refuge. I was able to catch a couple of unique scenes in the fog here.
Although I had been to Grand Teton National Park before, this was my first time to do any photography here. Being my first time to photograph here, I had to experience a few of the photo hot spots. One of these is at Schwabacher Landing, along the banks of the Snake River.
Another great spot along the Snake River with a view of the Teton Range is at Oxbow Bend.
Another famous overlook is the Snake River Overlook (seen in black and white below). This was the location of one of the photos created by Ansel Adams back in 1942. The trees have grown since Ansel made his iconic photograph. For this reason, you can not see the entire winding bend of the Snake River anymore. However, it still is a nice location. The now taller evergreen trees were lit in front of the shaded Snake River bottom. This made for a nice contrast for a black and white photo. The famous Ansel Adams black and white photograph was a horizontal orientation. My take for the time I was here was for a vertical scene.
In case you haven't noticed yet, I tend to shoot more verticals than most photographers. I will leave you with one other vertical photograph. This scene doesn't get photographed as regularly as the above images. However, I did find this unique scene of willows and a lone small evergreen tree with the Tetons as a backdrop.
My favorite images from Arkansas this spring
Over Memorial Day weekend, my house in Rogers was hit by a tornado. Thankfully, the house itself only has minor roof and siding damage but the majority of the trees in our yard were damaged or completely uprooted. As the cleanup continues, it's been messy and inconvenient but I'm thankful we were not injured and our home didn't sustain more damage. Not everyone in Benton County was this lucky. After 4 1/2 days with no electricity and over a week with no internet, I'm finally starting to get back to a more normal routine. Now we can take a look back at some of my favorite images in Arkansas this spring.
In early April, I spent a few days in the Little Rock area, including nearby Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Pinnacle Mountain is my favorite shaped mountain in Arkansas and it is the most recognizable mountain in Central Arkansas. It has an almost perfect conical shape to it and ever since my childhood it has reminded me of a tiny Mount Fuji in Japan. At just over 1,000 feet above sea level, it is not a tall mountain but it is one of the more challenging climbs in the state, especially from the east side. On this approach, it is sometimes more of a boulder scramble than a hiking trail. Climbing over these boulders from the east approach reminds me a bit of climbing a final part of a 14er in Colorado (without the altitude, of course!). My favorite view of the mountain from inside the state park is from the fishing pond (seen above). However, I also stumbled upon a view of Pinnacle Mountain that most people never see. The picture below is from a residential neighborhood in far west Little Rock.
I also flew the drone around for some aerial images of the Little Maumelle River with Pinnacle Mountain in the distance.
One of the best more urban landscapes during the peak springtime bloom is at The Old Mill Park in North Little Rock. This mill is featured in opening credits in the 1939 classic film Gone With The Wind.
As the spring bloom moved north in the Ozarks of north Arkansas, I then focused on the middle section of the Buffalo River between Tyler Bend and Wollum. One of the my favorite views of this section of the Buffalo is Peter Cave Bluff.
Here you get both an open view of the river looking toward Point Peter Mountain, but you also have twisted cedar trees.
Photographing in spring wouldn't be complete without a trip to a few waterfalls. One of the more popular waterfalls is Falling Water Falls. This is the largest waterfall in the state that you can actually drive to. While I have seen the waterfall from this side, this time around I thought I would hike in from the other side to get a different perspective.
I also joined up with one of my mentors, Tim Ernst, to photograph some waterfalls on private property in Newton County. With the fog and high water flow after a hard rain, the conditions were about perfect on this early May morning.
Total Eclipse Over ArkansasEver since the last total eclipse that went across the country in 2017, I have been thinking about where I wanted to be on April 8, 2024. After scouting out a few possibilities in the Ouachita National Forest, the Ozark National Forest and Petit Jean State Park. In the end, I decided to settle in on my piece of quiet property in Newton County...instead of dealing with crowds and traffic along the Interstate 40 corridor. I looked for potential subjects to incorporate into the landscape, such as tall pine trees that stood out in a field. However, one problem is the sun is high in the sky during the eclipse (about 60 degrees above the horizon). When you have to point the camera so high in the sky, you have to contort your tripod (or your body!) into strange angles to view. Another problem is when so close to a foreground subject, such as a tree, is that the sun is going to look like a tiny speck. I already did something similar during the annual eclipse back in October over New Mexico. I have been getting a little more into time lapse photography. I decided to only use one camera pointed toward the horizon to capture a time lapse with more time to enjoy the actual eclipse with my own eyes. When the moon's shadow travels at nearly 1,500 mph, there is not a lot of time soak it all in and this allowed me more time to enjoy the show and less time fiddling with tripods and awkward camera angles.
There were scattered high, thin cirrus clouds streaming in. That could also be just enough to cause the sun to be fuzzy and lack detail. That was one potential drawback to zooming in to only the sun (though many Arkansas photographers were able to successfully do this). One potential upside was the motion in clouds in this time lapse, as you can see in the video above. Had the sky been completely sunny, a time lapse would be less interesting. Toward the start of the video, you will see a few birds flying (as black splotches) and that seemed to disappear as it became dark and they stopped flying. Despite a lot of hype, I do believe a total solar eclipse is an incredible experience. I would recommend you see it once in your life. The key is to be in the path of totality. 90% totality will not give you 90% of the experience and many people do not seem to understand that. The next total solar eclipse in the U.S. will be in August 2044. A visit to the Texas Hill Country
This week, I made a brief trip to the Texas Hill Country, west of Austin. Late March or early April is typically the best time to visit this area for flower photography, with bluebonnets being the most prolific wildflowers in this part of the state. My first stop is the appropriately named Bluebonnet House in Marble Falls.
To the west of Marble Falls is the small town of Llano. Llano is a great base to look for wildflower scenes. You can find bluebonnets along almost every country road in each direction from Llano. Here are a couple of some of my favorite scenes within an hour of Llano.
I also hiked a couple of trails at Colorado Bend State Park, between Llano and Lampasses. We generally don't think as Texas as a state with waterfalls, but there is a pretty scenic spring fed waterfall going down a taverntine cliff. I arrived at Gorman Falls with some interesting side light. I generally prefer waterfalls in overcast conditions that are evenly lit, but I felt like this was interesting moment that was captured.
Annual Solar Eclipse in New Mexico
I generally do not do a lot of heavy photoshop with my photography. About 90% of my images are mostly processed or entirely processed in Lightroom. However, one exception where a significant amount of Photoshop was necessary to create this composite image of the solar eclipse that occurred back on October 14th over Cabezon Peak in New Mexico. Cabezon Peak is located about 40 miles northwest of Albuquerque. I was looking for a prominent natural feature near the path of eclipse that wouldn't have a lot people. I opted for this ancient volcanic plug that almost looks like a miniature version of Devils Tower in Wyoming. Roughly 40 to 50 people were car camped near the trailhead that was beneath the base of the peak. Most of them stayed near the bottom or decided to climb the steep peak for the timing of the eclipse. I chose to hike the length of the trail that wrapped around to the north side of the peak, followed by a short off trail excursion to this vantage point. I thought I might be the only one crazy enough with this idea but I did see a fellow photographer about a 100 yards away from where I decided to plant my tripods for the eclipse. After our shooting, we chatted for a few minutes and I joked with him that great mind thinks alike! From this vantage point, looking to the south and southeast, I was able to incorporate the eclipsing sun that was beginning to arc over the peak. I had to guess where the sun would approximately be during the height of the eclipse at 10:35am. This can be a bit of a challenge when it is your first time to a location. Ideally, I would have liked to be here the day before the event to know for sure where I should stand. However, I made a pretty good estimate of where I wanted to be in relation to the peak. By 10:35 in the morning, the sun is pretty high in the sky and it can be a challenge to incorporate the sun with something intriguing in the landscape. The above image is a composite of 8 images. One for the wider landscape that includes Cabezon Peak and 7 close up images of the sun at different phases during the eclipse. For example, here is a close up of the sun at the height of the eclipse viewed with through a solar filter on the lens of my camera.
The 7 phases of the eclipse where then stitched together onto a single image. Both the picture taking and the post processing was good practice for the upcoming total eclipse that will take place on April 8th of this year. That path of that eclipse will go from Texas to Michigan while passing through my home state of Arkansas. Hopefully, the weather will be clear enough to fully view and photograph this! |
