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.

Click through on the photo to view a larger image and other photos from Wine Country.  Prints are available via the Buy button.

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.

This is most likely the last Fall Color update for the year.  As I was leaving Lee Vining this afternoon, the wind was blowing hard and a storm front was moving over Yosemite.  I suspect that the few remaining large clusters of Fall Foliage in the Eastern Sierra will have been pretty heavily stripped by morning.  And Rumor is that another storm system may move through tomorrow.  On the upside, for those of you who follow my tweets, I did decide to turn right and head back to Mono Lake.

As the storm front moved in, these wonderful clouds and patchy light moved over the lake.  So, I had to head back to the Visitor’s Center and capture a few photos of the moment.  Lucky thing I did too.  This delay resulted in my passing over 120 at the perfect time to witness one of the most amazing sunsets I have ever seen.  It lasted for about 10 minutes and just as it started I drove by an overlook where I could witness the entire show (watch for these photos over the next few days).  Had I not gone back to Mono Lake, I would have missed this show entirely!  (Thanks to the Mrs. for urging me to turn right..)  It pays to be lucky (and have the camera ready when the luck strikes)!

On to the last fall color update for the Easter Sierra, here were the locations that I was able to visit today:

Rock Creek:  Lower Rock Creek had nice colors up to Iris Meadow camp ground.  Further up only one grove near of Aspen that had some green and any color was right near the entrance to Big Meadow campground.  Everything higher up than Big Meadow was stripped bare by the wind.  There was still a few nice spots to capture Rock Creek surrounded in yellow Aspen.

McGee Creek:  Lower McGee appeared to be just past prime, thought still plenty of yellow. Upper McGee Creek
was well past prime. Trees up past the trail head have started to loose considerable leaves.

Convict Lake: While there still are some yellows left, they are past prime and the wind is quickly stripping the leaves off up around the lake.

Lee Vining: Lee Vining Creek Trail is largely brown or barren from the recent winds. Unsure how many leaves will remain after today’s wind storm.  The Lee Vining Canyon (beneath Tioga Pass Road) still had nice stands of Yellow and one amazing stand of Orange and Yellow fades just past the Mobile Station heading up to the pass.  Unsure how these will fare with the winds.  A few other scattered stands of color around Lee Vining.

Lundy Canyon: Lots of color, some trees even green still!  But the big windstorm that was coming through in late afternoon will likely leave only 40% of the leaves by morning.

Virginia Lake Road:  About 60% of leaves left on the large grove of Aspen just north of Conway Summit. Those are the only leaves you  will find as higher up and at Virginia Lake all the leaves have been  stripped by the wind.  There was a few nice groves of Aspen about 1/3 of the way up the road where all the fallen leaves were still on the ground and creating nice back lighting on barren trees.

My gut is telling me that depending on the possible storm on Monday and how bad the wind was the rest of this evening, there is probably only a week left of patches of substantial in the Eastern Sierras.

Watch for some photos from this weekend’s trip over the coming days.

After a last minute decision on Friday night, and verifying that the passes were open, I was up at 4:30 am this morning and driving off the the Eastern Sierras for one more fall trip.  This time with the Mrs. as a much needed weekend detox for both of us.

Earlier this week we had the first winter storm of the season.  For us in the Bay Area this mean lots of rain and strong winds (enough of both for me to find a few leaks around some of our windows…).  For the Sierra Nevadas, it meant snow above 8000 feet elevation.  As we were driving through Yosemite this morning, just as we passed the 8000 foot elevation sign we started seeing snow on the side of the road.  Some places the snow was still 6 inches thick.  All this snow meant that the falls were running again.  As we drove along 120 toward Tioga Pass, a few new waterfalls appears that I had never seen before (because I have never driven up there in the spring time).  It was quite a treat to see the waterfalls and the snow caped ridges.  And my wife thought it was quite a treat to see me wearing shorts in 55 degree weather taking pictures (I didn’t expect to stop till we got through Yosemite and on the eastern side where it was supposed to be 80 degrees…so I was planning ahead!  :-)  ).

As you descend down Tioga Pass Road to Lee Vining, there are some nice bright yellow groves of Aspen along Poole Power Plant Road.  The stream there is running swiftly with the recent rain/snow so I wasn’t able to cross to get a picture of a specific grove I spotted.  Maybe tomorrow…

June Lake Loop has nice stands of Yellow and Orange higher up the hill sides.  There are plenty of nice yellow groves right near Silver Lake Resort (which closes on Monday). The photo on the right was taken a few years back near Silver Lake Resort.  I’m realizing that we were there much later in October that year as there were no boats along the shore, today this spot was lined with row boats and it just didn’t quite feel the same…

We also did a drive into Mammoth and saw very little color except on the slopes close to and facing 395.  Up near Twin Lakes and Lake Mary there was plenty of snow on the ground still and a few of the ski runs on Mammoth Mountain were actually open.  The road past the main ski lifts up on highway 203 was closed down for the rest of year.

We didn’t have much time to run up to Bishop Creek today and I plan on catching sunrise tomorrow outside of Bishop versus up at Bishop Creek, I don’t think there would be much color left up there after the storms.  However, there is still plenty of snow left in the Sierra Peaks so I’m hopeful for some nice photographs in the morning.  There is even a few small patches left in the White Mountains, which I was able to capture tonight at sunset.

Tomorrow is the drive home and as I head North I’ll try to drive down most of the main valleys where the color lives.  So look for another report tomorrow night (time and energy permitting) once I get back home.

And watch for a few more photographs from this trip over the next week or two.

During my recent upgrade of my MBP, I somehow lost the color profiles for my monitors (as far as I know, that’s all I lost… ).  As I went through the process of creating new color profiles with my Eye-One Display 2, I happened to take a screen shot of the graphical profile that Eye-One Match software gives you once it has created the new profile.  As I compared the two side by side, it was amazing to see the difference between my two monitors (see below).

Color Gamut for MacBook Pro 15 inch Screen

Color Gamut of NEC 2690WUXi

Back in February I upgraded my old CRT to the NEC MultiSync LCD monitor.  So while I’m working in my home office, I have the NEC setup as my primary monitor with the MBP’s screen being used as a second monitor sitting off the side.  (This setup is extremely useful in Photoshop to keep my tools pallets visible and in Lightroom to always have a larger view of any photo I select in the library.)  The reason I selected this NEC monitor was for the wider color gamut (more colors that it could display), which is represented by the black triangle in the color gamut graph on the right.  So all of my photo editing occurs on the NEC monitor so I have the most accurate representation of the colors in the photo.

Not only is the NEC monitor showing more colors, but also displays them more accurately.  The graph on the left displays the shifting that occurs on each monitor within each major color of the spectrum (Red, Green, Blue).  When the monitor has no shifting, the line is straight as in the NEC graph. When the lines bow, as in the Apple screen, the colors are not being displayed accurately by default. Luckily, this is where the color profile comes into play to correct the monitor’s display tendencies and keeping it as accurate as possible.  This is also why you should update your color profile with a colorimeter at least weekly if not every time you work on photos; in general the older the monitor the more frequently you should do this.

It still surprises me how many photographers rave about the quality of the screens on the MacBook Pro laptops.  Sure they are great screens for a laptop, but they don’t show that much of the color gamut (even the Apple external monitors don’t display that much of the color gamut — try asking someone at the apple store and see if they can even tell you the percentage of the aRGB gamut that the monitors display…). To really highlight the difference, the composite graph below is the color gamut of the MacBook Pro 15 inch screen (smaller black triangle) with the NEC 2690WUXi LCD monitor (larger black triangle).

Color Gamut Comparison

As you can see, my NEC monitor shows considerably more shades of green, red, and blue and significantly more shades of yellow, orange, and magenta.  I noticed this right away when I installed the monitor based upon the abstract background image I was using on my desktop, there was more detail in the orange shading within the image.  And, since I use the NEC as my primary monitor for doing all most all my work while in the home office (hard to give up the large screen…) I really noticed the difference once I started visiting photographers’ websites.  One rather prolific photographer on twitter (who shall remain nameless) had a website with a green background that became so bright and hard to read on the NEC that I question whether this photographer had ever used a wide color gamut monitor.

The lesson to be learned here is don’t short your photographs by using a poor quality monitor.

If you are doing any printing from your digital dark room on a high quality printer or marketing your photos for stock/print publications, make sure you have an adequate monitor to know how the colors will look.

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.

Click through on the photo above to see all Eastern Sierra photos and buy prints.

Summer is gone and we are into fall…oh how the time flies. Continuing my quarterly tradition, below are the top 20 websites that directed traffic to my site over the past quarter.  I like to highlight them as a way of saying thank you.  This quarter there is a bunch of new non-photographic sites on the list due to my portrait project.  Please take a moment to check out these great sites!

And if you want to see yourself on this list, add a link to my site and we’ll see how many visitors follow that link over the next three months.

(Rankings from last quarter, if they made the top 20, appear in parentheses after each site.)

latoga photography Top Referring Sites from 2009 Q3

1. calphoto.com
2. 1001noisycameras.com
3. sierravisionsstock.com
4. yellow-bricks.com
5. jmg-galleries.com (1)
6. calnature.blogspot.com
7. luminous-exposure.blogspot.com
8. dailyhypervisor.com
9. conrey.org
10. vsphere-land.com
11. grafphoto.com (2)
    
12. virtuallifestyle.nl
13. recapturephoto.com (4)
    
14. rwongphoto.com (13)
    
15. slingload.blogspot.com (5)
    
16. yyapp.com (7)
    
17. gdanmitchell.com
18. onehorsestudio.com
19. sierraimpressions.blogspot.com
20. acrossthesouthwest.net (16)
    

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…