Half Dome and Pacific Dogwood flower

Around May each year the Pacific Dogwood trees bloom in Yosemite National Park.  This image is of Half Dome taken from Ahwahnee Meadow in Yosemite Valley.  Dogwoods were blooming in front of cottages that overlook this meadow, so Bob framed up the shot of Half Dome and then bent a branch of dogwood into the view. The dogwood flower is actually a composite of many smaller flowers combined at the center and large white "leaves" called bracts forming what look like petals around the outside of the central disk.

Bob took two still images with a high definition camcorder.  One shot was of Half Dome in focus with the dogwood flower blurred and the second one was a flash shot with the dogwood blossom in focus and Half Dome blurred.  We then combined those images to produce this final one with everything in focus. The results were better than expected. Because this image was taken with a relatively low resolution camera, we recommend anyone buying this image keep the size at 8x10 or smaller.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story.

Manly Beacon viewed from the south showing its cliff face and the trail leading to Golden Canyon with 2 hikers.

This is Manly Beacon as it appears from the south along the Badlands Trail. This is the first time we hiked the Badlands Trail together, in 2007, and we were impressed by Manly Beacon. Usually this feature is seen from the side when standing at Zabriskie Point, which is to the east. From this perspective, you can clearly see the imposing cliff face and what's also impressive is that the trail to Golden Canyon passes below the cliff, as you can see 2 hikers on the exposed slope to the left in this image. The Red Cathedral feature lies beyond Manly Beacon, you can see part of it at the extreme left. In a way, this cliff face reminds us of Half Dome in Yosemite, except it's made of sedimentary rock instead of granite and isn't nearly as high. From this angle, the outline of Manly Beacon is somewhat similar to Half Dome's outline, when viewed straight on at its cliff face.

This image was made with Rick's 6 megapixel camera, which he has since replaced with a 12 megapixel camera. He took 4 images and merged them to get this final product.This was taken on a very bright day in December. The settings were ISO 50, f8.0, and 1/500sec shutter speed for all 4 images, to make combining them easier.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Double Arch in Arches National Park, Utah, March 20, 2008. First Day of Spring.

Southern Utah is famous for its red sandstone arches and natural bridges. Rick visited Arches National Park for the first time during Spring of 2008. This arch is easy to get to. You can already see it when you park your car. He wanted to stand where he could view both arches clearly, but also see the towering rock formation behind the arches all the way to the top. The weather was cool, but clear, making for excellent lighting.

This image is the result of 6 separate images that have been merged to provide much greater detail. At the time, Rick had a 6 megapixel camera and was regularly using the post-production technique of photo stitching to get more data into the final product. In looking around for other angles, this one seemed like the only one that fully included the rock tower beyond the double arch. One of the lower images had a person standing in it admiring the view, but Rick used the clone stamp tool to remove her from the final image.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Burney Falls and springs at McArthur-Burney Falls State Park

Burney Falls is within the McArthur-Burney Falls State Park in California. Burney Creek splits into 2 streams at the brink to form 2 waterfalls, but the rest of the cliff face oozes spring water in huge amounts. The park is in northeastern California in a volcanic region that includes the Cascades, Modoc Plateau, and Lava Beds National Monument. The water from rain and melting snow percolated through loose volcanic rock and travels sideways after coming to an impervious layer deeper underground.

This image is a composite of 8 separate images taken with a film camera, scanned into the computer, then combined. The separate images were taken in the vertical direction. We were in the park on the Fourth of July. The park was packed with people and parking was a problem. This view was just off the road along a side walk that stops at a viewpoint. The walk continues down to the creek where you can stand in front of the falls across a pool. Some people even took a dip in the water.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story.

Sedona, Arizona's Red Rock Crossing

Sedona, Arizona is famous for its red rock formations. In 2006, we made a side trip to Sedona as part of our travels to see the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River. This image was of Red Rock Crossing.  Oak Creek is in the foreground and Cathedral Rock towers in the background.  These formations show the erosional patterns of sandstone rock formations in a desert environment.  Red Rock Crossing looking at Cathedral Rock is the most photographed spot in Arizona.

This was our first time using a digital camera for most of the images we took during this trip, even though we still felt that film would yield better results.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Bison grazing at the National Bison Range, Montana

The American Bison once sustained the Plains tribes, but their numbers were dramatically reduced by a capaign of extermination. They have a few places where they are holding on, and many tribes have established small herds on their reservations. In Montana, the Federal Government has set aside land for several species of grazing animals, including the bison at the National Bison Range.

This bison is showing his summer fur, where the back half of the body is uncovered to stay cooler. As winter approaches, the entire body will be covered in fur in order to stay warmer. We drove through the National Bison Range in June of 1994 on our way between Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. This image was taken while in the safe confines of our car. We also saw pronghorn and deer.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Coyote posing for the camera in Death Valley National Park

While driving the many miles of roads in Death Valley National Park during a visit in 1993, Rick pulled off the road to double-check the map for his next destination. Along came a coyote probably expecting a hand-out, but when none was forthcoming, it started looking around at the terrain to decide where it wanted to go next. For this photo, Rick didn't even have to get out of the car, it was taken while he was still sitting in the driver's seat through the passenger window.

It always amazes us how hardy animals and plants can be in such harsh enviroments as Death Valley. During the summer, this coyote would probably only come out at night, but this image was taken in April, so he was out during the middle of the day. Unfortunately, these animals seem to have gotten accustomed to the idea of a stopped car meaning free food, but ironically it's how Rick was able to get such an easy photo of this one, even though we never feed wild animals..

Remeber, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Yosemite's Grizzly Giant sequoia

The Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias is at the southern end of Yosemite National Park.  It's a popular tourist destination during the summer and the highlight for many visitors is the Grizzly Giant sequoia tree.  It's 210 feet tall, has a 92-foot basal circumference, and is estimated to be 1800 years old.  The diameter of its lowest branch is bigger, at 6 feet, than the trunks of any of the non-sequoia trees in the grove.

This photo was taken during the winter when visitors must make their way over snow with snowshoes or skis, or, if the snow is firm enough, by hiking.  We merged three images together to show the full height of this massive tree. We've skied out to the Mariposa Grove many times. We've even camped farther up in the grove during the winter, when the Park Service treats it as a wilderness area.

Rick skiing toward the Grizzly Giant, Mariposa Grove, Yosemite.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Lower Yosemite Falls showing a rainbow from the mist

On a camping trip to Yosemite in March of 2010, we were seeking rainbows in the waterfalls and the nearly full moon rising next to Half Dome. It turned out to be a very successful trip. The moon rising next to Half Dome you can see in an earlier post. The morning of that same day, we hiked out to Yosemite Falls from Camp 4 and arrived just in time to see this prominent rainbow, or mistbow, in Lower Yosemite Falls.

Fortunately, there was no wind this morning, so the mist from the falls went straight out from the wall and across the cliff face where the mistbow made its appearance. We were closer to the falls than the bridge and down a little toward Yosemite Creek, so that our view could be looking up enough to include the sky in the image. This image is the result of 2 images being merged together. The bottom image included the rainbow, the second one included the sky and didn't include the rainbow at all. We didn't want to try merging two images with separate parts of the rainbow because it could've presented a greater challenge in making them fit together seamlessly. This image has been cropped into a square shape.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

The Slot, narrow canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the largest state park in California. It's east of San Diego and is made up of many different sections with the town of Borrego Springs somewhat in the middle of  everything. One of the interesting natural features in the park is called The Slot. It's a very narrow canyon made up of dried mud, sand and gravel. In some places, you almost have to turn sideways or duck down to pass through. The drive to get to this feature involved a short segment of dirt road off of Highway 78. Once you get to the canyon, you have to hike to the upper end and carefully work your way down to the bottom on loose gravel and sand.

The day Rick was here, the sky was a bit cloudy with alternating sunshine throughout the day. The canyon generally runs east-west, so the afternoon sun lit up the vertical ridges of the canyon. While Rick was hiking the canyon, some GPS runners came up the canyon trying to mark the canyon with their GPS units so it could be accurately shown on the map. After they got beyond the narrowest part of the canyon to the wider section, they planned to turn around and head back down.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!

Half Dome and Clouds Rest in a winter alpenglow light from Washburn Point, Yosemite

We've traveled the Glacier Point Road during its winter closure more than 20 times on cross-country skis, sometimes even snow camping near a source of water along the way. The distance from Badger Pass ski area to Glacier Point is about 10.5 miles. We've done the whole 21 miles out and back several times, including the occasion when we got this shot of Half Dome as the sun was setting.

We spent some time in the valley before heading up to Badger Pass, so the skiing portion of our trip started a bit later than it should have. Bob doesn't get to Yosemite as often as Rick does, so on this trip, he insisted on skiing all the way to Glacier Point, even if it meant skiing out in the dark. During moonlit nights, the trip isn't that bad, since you're skiing along a road and the snow makes the moonlight much brighter. We reached Glacier Point while there was still daylight. On the way back, we were passing Washburn Point and were struck by the overarching pink glow of the sky by the low sun. During the summer, you can park at Washburn Point and get a view of Half Dome, Clouds Rest, Vernal and Nevada Falls, and part of Tenaya Canyon and Yosemite Valley. For this image, we used the trees to frame Half Dome and Clouds Rest.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Sunset over Southern Idaho volcanic butte

Sunset at one of southern Idaho's volcanic buttes, probably Middle Butte, as seen from Highways 20 and 26.  Southern Idaho's Snake River Plain is an area of fairly recent volcanic activity, including the Craters of the Moon National Monument, which we have visited many times.  The scene in this photo is east of the monument between the town of Arco and the city of Idaho Falls.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story.

Castle Geyser and rainbow

Castle Geyser is in the same geyser basin as the world-famous Old Faithful Geyser, the Upper Geyser Basin, in Yellowstone National Park.  Its eruptions are among those that the Park Service can predict and they post those predictions at the Old Faithful Visitor Center and on an informational plaque in front of the geyser itself.

Castle Geyser typically erupts every 10-12 hours with a 20 minute hot water phase reaching up to 90 feet in height followed by a steam phase lasting from 30 to 40 minutes.  This photo was taken during the steam phase of Castle's eruption and a light wind was blowing water droplets from the steam column to the right where they formed this rainbow.

Remember, it's not just a photograph, it's a story.

Yosemite's winter landscape from the "real" Tunnel View

Maybe this could be called "The Real Tunnel View" of Yosemite Valley.

Many visitors to Yosemite Valley arrive by driving Highway 41 through the south entrance and pass through the famous Wawona Tunnel. In February of 2011, we went skiing at the Badger Pass ski area and the Glacier Point Road. After skiing, we paid a visit to the valley and were immediately struck (not physically... mentally) by the icycles hanging from the rim of the tunnel. So we pulled off into the Tunnel View parking area, and, when traffic permitted, we walked back into the tunnel to fire off several photos of the view of the valley with the end of the tunnel and its icycles included in the images. To the left is El Capitan, with icycles pointing down at it. To the right are the Cathedral Rocks, with another icycles marking the high point, sort of. Just left of center is Half Dome and Clouds Rest, which, true to its name, very often has clouds enveloping it, as is the case here.

Remember, it's not just a photo, it's a story.

Indian Rock Arch, Yosemite.

Another view of Indian Rock Arch in Yosemite National Park around sunset.  See the description below.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Mount Lassen and the Chaos Crags during the Reading Fire, August 2012

 Mount Lassen is a volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range. It was the last volcano to erupt in California, in 1914 through 1917. During our visit in August, 2012, there was a forest fire northeast of Mount Lassen near a feature called the Chaos Crags. It became known as the Reading Fire. The road through the park was closed, but we still could get in at the southern end and loop around outside the park to get to the north end. While camping near the north end of the park we took our canoe and kayak out onto Manzanita Lake.We paddled from the south end to the north looking for a variety of angles to photograph the scenery around us.

This image was taken while sitting in a canoe and involved capturing 3 images and using the computer to combine them. This process is referred to as stitching or merging. You have to make sure that about 10 to 20 percent of the edges of each shot overlap and that the camera settings are similar, then the computer can find the parts and put them together seamlessly. Mount Lassen is at the right, the Chaos Crags are at the center, and the smoke from the Reading Fire is at the upper left.  This image is best printed at about a 2 to 1 ratio, so an 8 x 16 inch page would work best.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Death Valley's Manly Beacon, often incorrectly called Zabriskie Point

This Death Valley feature is often incorrectly named, even among photographers, who should know better. You reach this feature by driving Highway 190 east from Furnace Creek, or west from the junction with Highway 127 into the park and reach it before Furnace Creek. The sign along the road tells you that you're turning off at Zabriskie Point, so many people assume that after they climb to the top of a hill with stone fencing around it that they're looking out at Zabriskie Point. Actually, that hill is Zabriskie Point and the feature on the horizon is called Manly Beacon. It's named after an early Death Valley explorer named Horace Manly. I've even seen posters with this feature in the photo and it's labeled Zabriskie Point, even though the point isn't in the photo, but instead it's showing the "Beacon". We hope to clear up this confusion.

Richard has been to Death Valley about 30 times, but we both feel there's a lot more to see. This is the largest National Park in the 48 states and has about 1000 miles of paved and dirt roads, not to mention the trails for hiking. This image of Manly Beacon was captured in January 2012. We hiked from the parking area to the top of the hill, Zabriskie Point, then came down hill a little bit from the top toward the badlands, so that Manly Beacon would be a little more prominent in the view and there would be a little more sky in the frame.There's actually a trail that goes by the shoulder of Manly Beacon and we did hike that trail, which crosses over into Golden Canyon. This trail forms a loop with Gower Gulch, the next canyon to the south, and we've done that hike a couple of times already.

Normally the sun around noon is not the best for taking photos, but since this was in January, the sun is naturally at a lower angle, making shadows a little longer and more noticeable. This one was taken around 1 PM.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Indian Rock Arch in Yosemite, with Half Dome under the arch

Unfortunately, the maps for Yosemite don't indicate that this feature is a rare granite arch. Utah is rightly famous for its sandstone arches and natural bridges, since sandstone is an excellent material for forming these types of features. Granite is a much harder rock and is much less likely to form an arch, but the Sierra Nevada does have a few, including this one in Yosemite. The feature is identified on the maps and the trail sign as Indian Rock, but nowhere does it say that this feature is an arch.

Robert has been interested in natural rock spans ever since he volunteered in Natural Bridges National Monument right after graduating from college. We've looked for natural rock spans to photograph and explore since then. About 10 years ago, we were instant messaging online and he asked if there was an arch in Yosemite because he found soneone's online account of traveling to the arch in Yosemite. We were both surprised, since neither one of us knew Yosemite had such a feature. After reading the account of other people's hikes to see the arch, we decided we had to go see it ourselves.

The hike starts at Porcupine Flat and heads south for about 3 miles or so, before climbing up to a ridgeline, where the arch is the highest point. On our first trip, we backpacked in and camped near the arch. We've now been there at least 5 times, including a trip where we carried an extension ladder to the arch to try different angles to photograph it. Other hikers looked a bit surprised when they saw us carrying that ladder, so we just told them it was for a photography project, and they seemed to accept that explanation, especially since it was true.

The ladder still didn't give us the angle we hoped for, so eventually, after trying several angles and techniques, we tried backing away from the arch to the north and holding up a tripod with the camera at the top and setting the timer. Because the cameras are digital, we could look at the results immediately after trying a shot, and then adjust accordingly. Our goal was to not only capture the arch from one support to the other, but also have a clear view of Half Dome under the arch, with enough sky to differentiate the two features.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Point Reyes Lighthouse lit up at dusk

Our first backpacking trip was in Point Reyes National Seashore along the coast north of San Francisco, California.  The centerpiece of this National Park Service unit is the historic Point Reyes Lighthouse, constructed at the very end of the point stretching about 10 miles out into the Pacific Ocean. Once a month from spring to fall, the park leads visitors on hikes to light the historic lighthouse. It was also on our first time out to see the lighthouse that we saw a gray whale for the first time. It was in the surf approaching Point Reyes Beach in water shallow enough that we could see the entire animal.

The lighthouse was first operated in 1870, and was built after a level spot was blasted with dynamite, about 300 feet from the top of the cliff. It uses a rotating Fresnel lens that concentrated the center light source into 24 beams such that someone in a ship off-shore would see a flash every 5 seconds. Each lighthouse has its own distinct flash pattern, so a ship's captain would be able to identify which lighthouse he's seeing.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Fin Dome reflected in Dollar Lake, Kings Canyon National Park

In July, 2012, we backpacked a well-known loop trail in Kings Canyon National Park. The loop is called the Rae Lakes Loop. It starts and ends at Roads End, which is where California Highway 180 ends, inside Kings Canyon. The loop can be taken clockwise or counter-clockwise. We decided to go clockwise, going into Paradise Valley for the first day, joining the John Muir Trail on the second day to reach the Rae Lakes, continuing over Glen Pass and starting down Bubbs Creek the third day, then back to Roads End on the fourth day.

On the first day, we spent quite a bit of time photographing Mist Falls, so we didn't get as far along the trail as we were planning. That also effected the next day's plans, and we didn't reach the Rae Lakes on the second day, but settled for camping alongside the much smaller Dollar Lake. It turns out that camping at Dollar Lake was one of those serendipitous moments. The next morning, while we prepared breakfast, we started looking at Fin Dome, the very prominent granite feature on the horizon north of us. Hoping to find a good photographic angle on the dome, we found that it was being reflected in the lake's water, which is how we got the image above. After we packed and started hiking toward the Rae Lakes, Fin Dome remained a prominent feature along the trail for most of that day, but the reflected view of it in the lake was the best view we had.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Half Dome and a nearly full moon rising in the notch, Yosemite

Ansel Adams had a classic Half Dome with a nearly full moon shot that he took in 1960. He was a master at bringing out the details in a photographs bright parts, called highlights, and the dark parts, called shadows. The parts of a picture that are between the highlights and shadows are called midtones. Ansel Adams' shot was also done as a vertical, with just the edge of the north side cliff showing along the edge of the frame.

Having been to the top of Half Dome 3 times, we wanted to a get a similar shot, but with one improvement. Before climbing up the cables to the top of Half Dome, you have to go over a smaller feature referred to as the Sub Dome, then you drop into a saddle to arrive at the base of the cables. From Ahwahnee Meadow, you can see the Sub Dome to the left of Half Dome and the saddle between them forms a notch. We've thought for some time that a potentially better Half Dome and moon shot would have the moon rising up out of the notch. In March of 2010, we went to Yosemite with rainbows in Yosemite Falls and moon next to Half Dome shots in mind. It was on that trip that we captured the image above, which was done as a horizontal shot. It turns out that we were standing in almost the same spot in Ahwahnee Meadow where Ansel Adams stood when he took his photo in 1960.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story.

Yosemite Falls double moonbow

If you arrive in Yosemite in spring and early summer and around the time of the full moon, you might want to hike to Yosemite Falls and view a moonbow, or lunar rainbow or a waterfall mistbow. A moonbow is a rainbow caused by moon light, rather than direct sunlight. When viewing this phenomenon, your own eyes can't see the color of the spectrum showing through the mist of the water, but when you take a long exposure, 20 to 30 seconds, with your camera, the colors appear in the final image. The night of the full moon is the brightest, but up to 2 days before or after the night of the full moon will also work.

To work on this image, we went on the night of the full moon and lower Yosemite Falls was very crowded with photographers. A lot of people know about this event now. Many saw some good results. But this image was captured the night after the full moon. Rick went back the next night and almost had the place to himself, and the double moonbow was already showing as soon as he arrived. To make sure people viewing this image can tell that it was taken at night, we included some of the sky with stars showing at the top of the frame. 

One of the great challenges of taking this sort of image is that you need the mist from the falls in order to get the moonbow, but then if the mist reaches high enough, it can make the rest of the image look fuzzy. There's also a very good chance that you'll get wet during the process of capturing the image. Including stars in the sky helps convince people that the image was taken at night, but a very long exposure can allow enough time for the Earth's rotation to cause the stars to become streaks.

You can get predictions for this year's (2013) best moonbow viewing dates and times from the Texas State University's Astronomy Department's web site. The direct link to this year's moonbow in lower Yosemite Falls is at: uweb.txstate.edu/~do01/moonbows2013loweryosemitefall.html.

Remember, it's not just a picture, it's a story!