An adrift half-shell on the wave-streaked sand rippling with ribbons of light under a tempestuous sky …

My first post for 2012: this image was shot a few hours ago. I still have some more photos to post from my last Canadian Rockies trip, but since we’ve been getting dramatic sunset skies, I went back to my local beach with my camera. Will resume posting when I find free time.

Happy New Year!

]]> http://www.photofool.com/2012/01/03/adrift-on-ribbons-of-light/feed/ 63 http://www.photofool.com/2011/10/31/storm-clouds-over-herbert-lake/ http://www.photofool.com/2011/10/31/storm-clouds-over-herbert-lake/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:08:00 +0000 photofool http://www.photofool.com/?p=4119

Passing storm over Herbert Lake, Icefields Parkway – Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Woke up on a rainy morning, wanted to stay in bed; but couldn’t go back to sleep, so I put on my rain gears and headed out. I took refuge from the rain staying under the trees on the shore of Herbert Lake. The rain stopped for a while, and Herbert Lake’s surface settled as the morning light broke through just enough to add dramatic colors to the storm clouds passing over the Bow Range. Standing alone in the woods, I thought perhaps I should have stayed on Lake Louise, but I was bored from shooting sunrise there with over a dozen other tripods. On Lake Louise, I felt like a tourist, on this small Herbert Lake a few miles away, I felt like a traveler. The difference between a tourist and a traveler? Not so much in term of semantics, but state of mind. Perhaps G.K. Chesterton said it best, “The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.” On this cold and rainy sunrise, this was what I saw.

Golden sunrise light on Pyramid Mountain – Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

I waited for nearly two hours to get this shot. It wasn’t a spectacular sunrise, but eventually, first light lit up the side of Pyramid Mountain for a few minutes. I love catching first light on mountain peaks mirrored by a perfectly still lake surface.

There is a sense of separation in this composition: the distant cloud formation seems to mimic the rock formation under water, and a piece of driftwood serves as a lone element connecting with the distant trees on the other side of the lake. The ethereal light on the mountain is the force that binds these displaced elements together. As I wrote in my previous post, light is what you see. I hope you see what you seek.

PS: Perhaps this scene looks familiar? It is the same location where I shot Every Man Should Paddle His Own Canoe.

Spent a week in the Canadian Rockies during foliage season and came home with many beautiful photos. Out of seven days there, I was able to photograph one good sunset. The Canadian Rockies have so many beautiful locations that I would love to be able to spend a few weeks there. Between Banff and Jasper, I much prefer the quiet beauty of Jasper. For this evening, I had all Maligne Lake to myself. For hours, our car was the only vehicle in the parking lot.

Will post and write more about my trip. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this image. I captured many different variations of this beautiful sunset over Maligne Lake’s boat house, but like the soft pink clouds in this shot as opposed to later shots that feature intense red skies.

To get a good exposure of the sky and the foreground – including those trees that might have been in deep shadows, I stacked a 2 stops soft edge GND filter and a 2 stops hard edge GND filter. To get extra vertical coverage of the beautiful soft pink sky while maintaining my favorite rocks in the foreground, I took two horizontal exposures at 16mm and combined them in Photoshop. To capture the cloud movements, I lengthen my exposure to five seconds.

Wanting to get some cardio works done, I took my mountain bike out on my favorite trail. At the end of my ride, I caught this spectacular sunset on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific ocean.

Getting the final image required a little works. The setting sun was still too bright and the right side of the frame was in dark shadows. To balance out the extreme contrasts, I ended up stacking two GND filters (3 stops + 2 stops). During post processing, a digital blend and a little dodging were done to bring out some colors on the bluffs and to lighten the upper sky. This is a vertorama composite from two horizontal shots.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places. — Ernest Hemingway

As I mentioned in my previous post about a twilight surfer, I lined up my tripod to make a vertorama, and this image was what I had in mind. I rushed the last shot out because I did not have time to finish processing this image.

Today’s sunset – first time that I saw a nice sky in months! It felt good to be out in the warm summer water and to breathe the fresh ocean air again. It’s been one stressful summer, and I can’t wait for the fall.

I don’t have time to write much since I’m packing for a short trip to San Diego for a friend’s wedding. Have a great weekend.

PS: This is a vertorama composite of two horizontal images shot a few seconds apart using the same exposure settings and focal length.

Men’s curiosity searches past and future
And clings to that dimension …
For most of us, there is only the unattended
Moment, the moment in and out of time,
The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight …

The Dry Salvages — T.S. Eliot

Unusual title for this rather dramatic black and white landscape? As I mentioned in my previous post, I slept for a while on the edge of this lake waiting for the light to come through. Although I wrote that the light never came, I did catch a faint brush of light for a few seconds before darkness returned. After the light disappeared, I left my camera alone for the rest of the morning. I watched the clouds moved across the mountain range and contemplated about my relationship with time and my surroundings. Time is the binding force that keeps me from finding myself as I often get lost in my surroundings… past, future, the moment in and out of time, lost in a shaft of sunlight …

Laurel Mountain basking in the early morning light – Eastern Sierra, California

My regular viewers might recognize this view from Convict Lake in the California’s Eastern Sierra. If not, perhaps you’ve seen the Nature Valley Granola bar TV commercial where this location was used as a backdrop?

Last week, a good friend told me that the snow on the slopes of Mammoth Mountain were still good. Needing a short break, I packed my gears and headed to the hills.

On Saturday morning, I spent over two hours on the lake, waiting for the light to break through, but it never did. I lay on a large boulder and dozed off for a while … birds chipping in the woods, creek water running in the distance, clouds rolling by slowly … it was easy to sleep out there on the lake side.

On Sunday morning, I missed the sunrise by a good half an hour and only managed to get a few decent shots of the mountain face glowing in the morning light. The water was incredibly still, providing crystal clear reflections. I wished that I had gotten out there sooner.