Category Archives: landscape

Shiprock

shiprock

I’ll admit it. I shot this out of a moving car window. Sometimes you do what you gotta do.

High, high winds — supposedly a system pushed inland by hurricane Norbert — were blowing in the Four Corners area when my group of journalists were taken to Shiprock for a picnic lunch. Along the way, Shiprock would come and go through clouds of blowing dust and I decided to shoot a series of shots through the window just to see what I could get. I bumped up the ISO to 200 and shot at around 1/1500 of a second to eliminate the bouncing motion of the van. This is one of those shots. I crunched the contrast to make up for what was lost to the dust in the air. In other shots, I’m having trouble seeing the rock at all.

When we made our stop for lunch, I hopped out of the van and grabbed a few “real” shots. Gusts of wind around 65 mph made it difficult to stand, let alone keep a scene framed with a telephoto lens. I’m happy with several of those images but I think I prefer this shot with the rock in cloud shadow for its mood.

Back to business

Banff, Alberta, Canada

With the move more or less behind us it’s time to get back to business. Today that meant catching up on some stock submissions that had been accumulating in my outbox. This shot of Vermillion Lakes near Banff, Canada, among many others will soon be available for licensing through Robert Harding World Imagery. I’m still backlogged in my post-processing but it feels good to be moving forward. I have two weeks before my travel schedule picks up again. We’ll see how much progress I can make before then.

Kentucky elk herd

Kentucky elk herd

I’m finding that I actually have more time to post when I’m on the road these days. Now that I’m back from Kentucky, I’m divided between work, painting the new house and office, packing, and preparing the old house for sale. It will all be worth it in the end, though. I look forward to having home and office under one roof again.

So, as I prepare to spend the day painting ceilings at the new place, I’ll leave you with one more shot from the elk herd that has been reintroduced on reclaimed mining land in Kentucky. This was a little later in the morning than the last shot I posted and the light was warming up a little (aided a bit here by Photoshop). Still, the fog just wouldn’t burn off. While others complained about the “bad light” I was having a blast finding ways to make the muted colors and subdued contrast work to my favor. Hopefully I succeeded a little but I know I came away with more shots than the folks who thought it was too bad to even take their lens caps off.

Two from the road

Waffle HouseMickey D's

Here are a couple of grab shots I found after finishing up with my morning shoots in Louisville, Kentucky. The Waffle House was somewhere inbetween Louisville and Lexington, across the street from where I was stocking up on peanut butter M&Ms. I tried to give it a little bit of a faded Ektachrome look in Photoshop. The McDonalds arches are peeking over the roof of the building next door to my hotel tonight — like it’s about to move in on the Waffle House’s territory.

Leaving Myrtle Beach

Brookgreen Gardens

It seems like I just arrived in Myrtle Beach and it’s already time to leave. Tomorrow morning I’ll be catching a flight home. Today, however, was a full day of touring with a great stop at Brookgreen Gardens where I snapped this frame. Soon after the skies opened up for an afternoon thunderstorm but I think the overcast skies actually made this shot work better.

Myrtle Beach has been great. I’ll try and post more photos when I get a chance but I know the next few days/weeks will be devoted to trying to get the new house/office ready for occupancy. I’ll post as often as possible but, even though travel will be scarce for a bit, it’s going to be a busy summer.

Thanks to all who made this trip and meeting of the SATW Freelance Council such a success! I enjoyed meeting all of the new faces as well as catching up with old friends. See you all next time!

Coming and going

Bay City, Michigan

I flew back from Michigan on Saturday, spent Sunday mowing both the old house’s and new house’s lawns as well as doing a few other chores, and am now back at the airport to fly to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, today (Monday). Hopefully internet connections will be more bountiful on this trip and I’ll be able to post a few images.

The photo above is from our last day in Bay City, Michigan. The stormy sky seen here cleared up for a great boat ride out to Charity Island where we were fed a fantastic meal of fish and steak grilled outdoors next to an old lighthouse and stunning views of the lake. These excursions can be booked by the general public and are well worth it. Possibly the best steak I’ve had in a decade or more.

Crunch time

View from Mt. Magazine

Sorry for my absence this week but it’s been hectic to say the least. I’ll (hopefully) appease you with another weather shot from our stay on Mt. Magazine in Arkansas last weekend.

While we were away, the sellers lowered the price on the house we had had our eye on. We already knew about the lower price and were supposed to take another look inside as soon as we got back in town but now the whole world (okay, maybe an overstatement) knew about it and we were worried that someone would put in an offer before we had the chance.

Anyway, long-story-short, we got home and saw the house again on Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon we were putting in an offer and by Wednesday we had ourselves a deal. Things still hinge on the results of a few inspections — Friday’s sewer scoping was lots of fun — but it’s looking good. It’s great news but it has made a busy week even busier.

Still haven’t had a chance to even look through the Arkansas shoot yet. Once I do, I’ll post a few more here.

Storms moving in

lodge lanterns

trees in fog

All during dinner I was watching the weather outside the windows of the dining room of the Mount Magazine Lodge as the clouds descended. Storms are moving past to the north and tornados have been spotted in the area of Ozark, Arkansas. It looks like the most severe weather will miss us but it’s still a bit rough out there. I’d just about given up on getting any twilight shots tonight when the mist cleared just enough to show the trees across the road from the lodge. I grabbed the camera and ran outside for a few last shots of the day. Some of my favorites as it turns out. The low clouds were blowing through very fast and the visibility would rapidly come and go. I thought about going back inside for the tripod but noticed the trees were rocking back and forth so it really wouldn’t have helped. I cranked up the ISO as far as I dared and did the best I could hand-held.