I Love Photographing in Crappy Weather

• Nature Photography

I have been here to this overlook at Dallas Divide in Colorado many times and it is amazing….and usually crowded in fall.

During my visits the weather has been ‘perfect’ and other times sunny. What I mean is that one time the sky was so clear, it was hot, and it just was not that great compared to this visit when a storm was passing through and even leaving a dusting of snow on the mountains.

I love photographing in crappy weather! Some of my best or maybe favorite images happened when the weather sucked.

When it is overcast or even raining, specular highlights created by the sun give way to diffused highlights from the overcast. Scene contrast is lowered and colors become more vibrant.

Dallas Divide (el. 8,970 feet is a high mountain pass in Colorado located on State Highway 62 about 12 miles west of the town of Ridgway. The pass is a saddle between the San Juan Mountains to the south and the Uncompahgre Plateau to the north and divides the Uncompahgre River watershed from the San Miguel River watershed and Ouray County from San Miguel County. The pass takes its name from Dallas Creek which drains the basin on the north side of Mount Sneffels into the Uncompahgre River. The pass overlooks the Sneffels Range. A toll road was first constructed over Dallas Divide in 1880 linking the town of Dallas near Ridgway with Telluride. In 1890 the Rio Grande Southern Railroad was built over the divide from Ridgway to Telluride.

Fall Color in the Tiny World of Macro

• Nature Photography

Photographing this image made me realize that fall color that we all love and cherish photographing, is not all about trees.

While I was photographing the amazing aspens in Colorado, I found amazing color closer to the ground.

These plant species, as best as I recall, were not more than 5-6″ across from left side the right side and literally were ground cover.

I dont know what they are but it look to me that they were having their own fall color transformation. The icing on the cake so to speak, literally, is that light coating of frost that added the edges and some white sparkles to the leaves.

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Sometimes it is All About Luck

• Nature Photography

Years ago, I taught a workshop in Grand Staircase Escalante NM and when we were done I headed north on Hwy 24 over Boulder Mountain. It was fall and the Dixie NF has some great fall color all over the mountains here.

I was doing the ‘pedal to the metal’ after the workshop as I had places to get to, but when I saw this my first thought was WOW! As I drove past I thought I should stop ASAP even though I wasn’t really expecting to do any shooting. That thought passed in about 4 seconds and I spun the car around at my first opportunity.

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Fall Ablaze

• Nature Photography

In celebration of fall here is another image of Multnomah Falls in Oregon’s Columbia River Gorge from a few years ago. This image was successful as a stock photo, even earning a calendar cover. 

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Simply Fall

• Nature Photography

Fall is in full swing in many areas of the west here and reports I am seeing is it looks pretty good. Two days ago I ventured across Oregon’s Santiam Pass and while the color was great near pass levels, it was barely started in lower elevations at 2000′.  So this is an image from a trip a few years ago, one of my last trips using the 4×5 view camera before selling it all. 

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Writing for Outdoor Publications

• Nature Photography, Outdoor Adventure Photography, Writing

This month I am thrilled, of course, to have a feature article in Outdoor Photographer magazine. It is my second lengthy article in the last year and while I am proud to be published, I thought I would address the idea of writing as an outdoor and nature photographer.

Professional photography is challenging as far as making a living and for many photographers, there is some truth to something I often say: “all money is good money.” While this may not be the same reasoning for all photographers, many are on the constant lookout for new revenue streams.

In my online course:  How to Be a Professional Outdoor and Nature Photographer, I mention in one lecture that writing can be a excellent gateway to more profitable ventures. What does that mean?

Where You Start May Not Be Where You End

• Image Processing, Nature Photography

As you know, half the effort of creating an image happens in post processing. While this is a necessary task it can also be an exciting process of watching an image transform. many times I started out with an idea in mind and in the end, I was nowhere close to what I envisioned. 

This final image is an example of just that. I was up at McKenzie Pass hoping for a normal but great sunset. On the way there I saw the horrible haze of thick smoke from the many forest fires in the NW.  Initially I was disappointed but as I started to look around ideas hit me and I started shooting.

The sun was several hours until it set and was a bright orange ball against the smoky sky. That gave me the idea to shoot one of the dead tree snag in the lava fields with a long lens and get a huge red ball of the sun. The problem was I could not frame that shot due to the shape of the land. I just could not get back far enough.

Incredible Mt. Hood, Oregon

• Nature Photography

I shot this image around 25 years ago on Mt. Hood, Oregon. Back then I shot mostly film with a 4×5 field view camera. I loved working that way!

This was a lucky day. A storm was pounding the west side of the Cascade Mountains and I was shooting up in the Government Camp area. I have been all around this mountain many times but never had I been in these conditions above the clouds.

As I was set up here, the clouds, once hitting the mountainside, would break up and blow across the pass at the base of the mountain as seen here. I would shoot a frame or two, then the clouds would cover the mountain, so I would wait a little longer until there was a break and the mountain was visible.

Who’s the Star?

• Nature Photography

When it comes to outdoor photography, many photographs have a star subject in them. It could be anything in the scene and often it is something that caught your eye.

Sometimes the star of the photo is obvious and other times it is not. When I find a star to photograph I often look for other features in the landscape that support the star and when those work well, you have a well composed image.

But in today’s digital world, composing and capturing the star and the supporting elements, is only half the process to a great photo. The other half of the process is in the digital darkroom. That is where you complete what you started in the field and that is the case here with this image.

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Scott Lake in the Oregon Cascades is a popular viewpoint for nature photographers. I was up there several times over the last month and captured this image on the first visit in July. We are in a terrible drought so the water was very low. That is of course terrible but also a blessing because this rock is right up close to the shoreline as a result of the low water and makes a great foreground element.

The World’s on Fire

• Nature Photography

It seems late in the summer, that the world is on fire. That is probably an exaggeration, but in the Western US where I am, there are wildfires everywhere and the forest fire smoke has been thick as fog lately.

While late summer is not the best time to photograph many of the iconic locations around here, the smoke has made it hardly worthwhile to venture out. But yesterday I hooked up with a photographer visiting from the east coast and I wanted him to see our iconic locations.

So we went anyway to Sparks Lake, our most iconic location around here, and sure enough the smoke was thick. I was not motivated to shoot when I got there but then I started to frame some scenes and realized that while this unfortunate smoke was ruining a scene that I have shot countless times, it was creating a whole new view of the mountain and lake reflection, that I never see or photograph.