Robinson Twins "twin selfie" at the Lewis River in southern Yellowstone, with Lewis Falls in the distance.

We entered Yellowstone from the south in August, 2015 and stopped at the Lewis River, where a bridge crosses over. In the distance, the highest waterfall on the river is Lewis Falls, south of Lewis Lake, from which the river drains. Lots of people stop here as essentially the first really scenic pull out along the road when coming in from the south. At least, it's the first waterfall you'll encounter when entering from the south end of the park.

Rick held his Canon PowerShot SX530 at the end of a selfie stick to take this picture. This camera is light enough that the selfie stick can hold it. This trip was the first time we decided to try getting what we call "twin selfies" with any camera. The picture was taken at ISO 200, f/8, 1/640 sec.

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

Le Trois Teton - Grand, Middle, and South Teton as seen from Hurricane Pass, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

In Grand Teton National Park, most visitors view the Teton Range from the east and look westward. In 1999, Bob and Rick backpacked nearly the length of the Teton Range on the west side. Along the way, we viewed the highest of the Teton Range: Grand, Middle, and South Teton to our east. Along this route, we crossed over Hurricane Pass in the afternoon and had the range illuminated from the west as we looked eastward.This trip took 5 days and we covered around 55 miles, ending at the Jackson Hole Resort and taking the tram down to the valley.

It's not just a picture, 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.

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.