Sunrise Fisherman on Napa River

Last Saturday I got up while it was still dark to journey to Napa Valley for a day of photography.  Arriving before Dawn, I was able to photograph sunrise along the Napa River.  The morning fog was still lingering and I spotted this sole fisherman casting into the Napa River. The early morning solitude of this image is overwhelming.

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Yosemite Sunset Fire Storm

Last night, on the drive back from the Eastern Sierras via Highway 120 through Yosemite, my wife and I witnessed one of the most spectacular sunsets.  A low elevation storm front that was approaching Yosemite was back lite by the setting sun dipping below a higher bank of clouds.  This resulted in what we have best described as the Sunset Fire Storm you see above.

We were very fortunate to witness this special show of mother natures.  It started just before we drove past a view point on the highway where we had an largely uninterrupted view.  Had we been a few minutes faster or a few minutes slower, we would have largely missed the show as that particular view point is the only place along this section of highway that isn’t under the canopy of pine trees.  I take back all the things I said about those two deer and the 8 point buck that crossed the road in front of use earlier and slowed down our drive…they could have been the left hand of mother nature guiding us to the right point in time to see what the right hand was cooking up!

Click through on the above photo to view a larger version and the full Yosemite portfolio.  I’ll work on posting a larger set of these Sunset Fire Storm images through the week.

Blue Angels over San Francisco

This weekend is Fleet Week here in San Francisco, which means the Blue Angels are in town.  The above photograph was taken in 2005 during Fleet week.  If you’re in the Bay Area, check out the Fleet Week schedule, the Blue Angles will be flying around 3-4pm.  A few great places to photograph the Blue Angels from are:

• Golden Gate Bridge, South Tower: The Angels use this tower to line up for their runs…
• The Presidio’s Inspiration Point
• The Park and Hills of Fort Mason
• The Spit at Aquatic Park

Just remember to get to your photography spot of choice early as the crowds always build and and it is difficult sometimes ot photograph over people.  Zoom lenses tend to work better for photographing the Angels.  And having your camera set to burst shooting mode will help you capture the action (just bring a large memory card).

This Sunday Morning Short was filmed at Sol Duc Falls in the Olympic National Park.  Located South of Lake Crescent, Sol Duc Falls is a short hike of about one mile from the trail head at the end of the 14 mile long paved access road.  The trail to Sol Duc Falls is meanders through Olympic’s lowland forest, past ferns and small side valleys.

Sunrise at North Lake I

Just as sunrise was about to reach the edge of the far side of the lake, the wind picked up a and shifted direction to blow directly at me.  This, along with the longer shutter speed, gives this photo the wonderful pulling you in affect that I love.  While usually foreground interest items help to pull you into a photo, sometimes the subtlety of a wind modified reflection can do the same.

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Photographers at North Lake I (2009)

Not quite sure what it is, the innate sense of curiosity about the behind the scenes, or just the anti-lemming in me.  When I’m in a crowd and everyone is looking right, I’ll glance left just to see what is going on over there.  So last weekend when everyone was setting up and waiting to take the (nearly) exact same shot of sunrise over Bishop Creek’s North Lake, I had to spin my camera around and photograph the photographers.  Honestly, for this photo I heard a loud rustling to my right and I was curious what was breaking the early morning silence.  The sound of photographers jostling for an angle…

Backlit Yellow Aspen Leaf

When I saw this photo for the first time in my post processing the first thing that jumped out at me was the tear drop shaped flare in the top center of the image.  Luckily, I didn’t dismiss this photo immediately because of that flare, like I usually would.  Rather, I thought back to a George Barr’s thoughts about No Need to Avoid Flaws.  I like that little lens flare in the photo.  Am I strange for liking that?  (I hope not, as this morning I took an iPhone photo that had a huge lens flare in it and I really like the effect there as well!)

Tonight I had time to work on processing some of photos from this past weekend’s trip to Bishop, California (see map) area to capture the fall foliage. As an addendum to my previous Eastern Sierra Fall Color Updates, here are some highlights:

Autumn Foliage Below Tioga Pass II

Mid-Day at Rock Creek Lake in Autumn

Aspen Rainbow II at Rock Creek Lake

Middle Afternoon Autumn Foliage at Lake Sabrina

Early Morning Alpenglow on North Lake I

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San Francisco's Twin Peaks and Sutro Tower

Another Photo from my ridge top perch.  The tallest hill(s) in San Francisco is generally referred to as Twin Peaks.  What makes them hard to miss is Sutro Tower, the broadcast tower that sites atop of them.  On nights like this, the western part of San Francisco will be socked in with fog while the eastern half of the city enjoys a fog free evening (sometimes lasting all night).  As you can see, the fog was just creeping over Twin Peaks at sunset the day I took this photo.

Zooming into the image at full resolution again reveals some surprises.  First how clear the air was and how patient I was to get the focus as sharp as possible (the lens setup I was using did not have auto focus available).  Notice the wires visible on Sutro Tower:

Sutro Tower Full Resolution

Also how the shadows of the bay can hold some hidden surprises.  On the wider image above the bay looks dark and empty.  But upon closer inspection there is actually a cruise ship docked along the bay beneath Sutro Tower:

Full Resolution of Cruise Ship

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Fog Rolls into San Francisco at Sunset

Last night I hiked up to the same ridgeline again to capture San Francisco at sunset.  This time I wasn’t alone. Local photographer Chris Chin joined me and was kind enough to not only haul up his 100-400mm lens and 1.4 extender but share the use of both.  The above shot is similar to the previous one that I posted two days ago, just taken before the sun sank behind the horizon…and much closer.

With San Francisco just over 20 miles away, I had to use the extender to achieve 560 mm of reach to pull in this image.  Even more amazing to me is that the above image’s color is as captured by the camera, no boosting or over saturating of the orange…I couldn’t improve on mother nature.

At full resolution, you can actually make out the windows in some of the buildings in downtown San Francisco.  Which is doubly impressive considering all the marine vapor between me and San Francisco as well as the wind that was buffeting the camera as I took this shot.  See the 1:1 resolution screen capture below:

Full Resolution Crop

Prints of the original image can be purchased by clicking through on the photo and clicking the buy button.