Category Archives: landscape

Treasure hunters

digging for diamonds

The predicted severe weather held off long enough for a great afternoon at Crater of Diamonds State Park near Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Their website calls it, “the only diamond-producing site in the world open to the public”. You can pay a small fee and use either your own or rented equipment to become a treasure hunter for a day. Or, as in the case of several of the people we talked to, become “professional” diamond miners: these folks dig day after day for years, supplementing their income with their finds.

UPDATE: I had a few more free minutes this morning so I thought I’d add a couple more shots from Crater of Diamonds. First, people wet-screening for gems. Second, Dennis — one of the “regulars” who has been quite successful with his efforts. Not only in finding diamonds but also in finding a bride, which he calls his “real Arkansas gem”.

panning for diamonds

diamond hunter

Homage

AppomattoxWatched “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” last night and was awestruck by some of the film’s imagery. It’s not at all what you would consider a typical western and it’s not something to watch if you’re interested in historical accuracy (Alberta, Canada, and the Canadian Rockies serve as the backdrop for scenes that took place in Missouri and Kentucky, if that gives you a hint) but it sure is purty. So purty that I felt compelled to make my own little homage to the movie’s warm, yet desaturated, color palette.

I grabbed this shot at Appomattox Courthouse where Lee surrendered to Grant, effectively putting an end to the American Civil War. Seemed an appropriate photo. I didn’t quite get the feel of the film but, hey, I only had a few minutes available. If you want to see the real deal, rent the movie. Just make sure you have a full evening ahead of you. It’s a long one.

Distant Fire

Missouri River

Here’s a shot from a quick trip up to Atchison this weekend. As you can see, Spring is not yet here. But it’s not far off. The budding trees are a reminder of just how fast this year is flying by.

Within the last couple of weeks the calendar has begun to fill up with work. Some hard work — other work that’s almost more like play. It’s going to be crazy around here for the next few weeks… okay, maybe months… but I’ll try and keep the posts coming as often as possible. Buckle up and bear with me…

Peyto Lake Panorama

Peyto Lake

I returned from Canada late Saturday night and jumped right back into work on Sunday. Today I finally had enough of a breather to start the post-processing from this trip. The shot above is a pano created with the Photo Merge command in Photoshop from eight separate shots I took at Peyto Lake. I shot them vertically from left to right, handheld, with a fair amount of overlap between frames. What I ended up with is a 70+ megapixel image that has detail that’s hard to believe. I am so spoiled by Photo Merge. This would have been hours of work to manually fit these images together.

More Canada photos to come as I work my way through the files. It’s almost like taking the trip twice — although I’d much rather be there in person again. What a great location and great people. I hope to get back soon.

Snowshoeing at Lake Louise

Lake Louise

SnowshoeingGrabbed a few shots of Lake Louise this morning with some fog coming off of the ice. There was a patch of open water at the lake’s outlet that provided another nice opportunity for a reflection. The fog came up almost instantaneously and only remained for 15 minutes or so but it was beautiful while it lasted.

Afterward it was time to do some snowshoeing and grab a few shots of local outdoorsman Paul Sylvestre. I particularly liked this shot that I grabbed blind from a low angle as he walked past. “Kinneared”, if you will. I held the camera right down to the snow and panned with him as he went by, moving into his shadow as he passed to get him backlit. I ended up with several variations that I really like and I appreciate Paul’s choice of clothing for the day. It really popped against the snow and sky.

Vermillion Lakes, Banff

Vermillion Lakes, Banff

Most of yesterday the weather was not kind to this photographer but perseverance paid off and just before sunset the clouds finally started to break up and the sun peeked through for a great evening shoot at Vermillion Lakes. I don’t use my Nikkor 10.5 fisheye all that much but I like the effect here. It looks like you’re on top of the world. I have to say, though… looking at that foreground ice now… I’m wondering how it supported my weight.

Huh.

Mount Rundle, BanffThe spot was perfect as it allowed for several shooting opportunities. Nearby hot springs had kept this body of water open and the stillness made for perfect reflections of the nearby mountains — including Mount Rundle shown at the right. Ice around the edge of the lake provided a good surface to shoot from as well as some nice leading lines and foreground elements. in other areas patches of golden reeds broke the surface of the water giving some nice warm color and a very different look than shots that were dominated by the ice. In the end I was able to grab lots of different images that don’t all look like they were shot in the same place or on the same evening. A very versatile location. What a great way to end a day.

A quick word of thanks to Bob for stopping by and leaving a comment yesterday. It’s always great to hear from you. Hope to see you again one day soon.

Why photographers are late

Moon over Banff

Still having a great time here in Banff on the pre-tour to the Society of American Travel Writer’s Freelance Council conference. Although it says “writers” in the name, there are many photographer members — myself included. This morning a vanload of us were on our way to breakfast when one of the photographers spotted the full moon setting behind these two mountains. The driver was strongly encouraged to stop the vehicle and he politely complied (it is Canada after all).

Insert sound of shutters tripping madly.

A few minutes later, the moon was gone and we made our way to breakfast. A terrific plate of smoked salmon scrambled eggs for me. And we weren’t really THAT late…

Orion over Lake Johnson, Banff

Orion over Johnson Lake, Banff

I arrived in Banff in Alberta, Canada yesterday afternoon to beautiful, clear skies and temps in the 30s (F). Much better than the below-freezing temps and ice storms I left back home.

I took this shot of the constellation of Orion on a moonlit hike on frozen Lake Johnson last evening. I haven’t done a lot of night photography and was surprised by how much difficulty I had focussing (time exposures can mislead — it was much darker out than it appears in the photo). I had to switch to manual focus because it was too dark for the autofocus to lock. Knocking the focus all the way to infinity didn’t result in sharp images, however. I needed to “pull back from the edge” a bit and stop down to use the depth of field to widen my in-focus area. It still seemed hit or miss at times (cold and increasingly numb fingers — and brain — might have also been contributing) but I managed to get a few reasonably sharp images.

Another photographer I was with, Michael DeFreitas, suggested using a fluorescent white balance — something he had learn on shoots in the Antarctic. I have to admit, it did give fairly clean whites and nice rich blues in such dim light. Thanks, Michael. I look forward to getting these back to the big screen in the office to see what detail and color I can pull out of them.

Coastline

Nova Scotia

Today I’m posting a photo that’s been a favorite of mine for quite a while. For me, “favorite” shots are not the shots that I think are my “best” but sometimes they are just photos that put me back in a place I love. This is one of those. I took it a few years ago near Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

I don’t typically do a lot of post-processing on my photos. For the most part I want the image to look as much like the scene that I saw as possible. Occasionally, however, I like for a photo to “feel” more like the actual scene than it may have looked in person. You follow me?

In this case, it was a dreary, grey, foggy day (my favorite!). The photo, as recorded, seemed to hold very little color information. It felt dead. When I opened it up in Adobe Camera Raw I decided to push the saturation a bit to see what happened. I was amazed to see all kinds of color coming out of the image. With just a little tweak to the white balance and contrast, I had an image very close to what you see here. I think the only other thing I did was to add a heavier gradation to the sky to hold the image in a bit.

What I ended up with is a photo that looks more like I remember that place feeling than the straight shot did. Did the scene look exactly like this? No. But there is a kind of sadness to parts of Nova Scotia. Especially if you know some of the history. It feels to me like an echo of the people who suffered there in the past. Probably all in my mind but there it is. And this photo seems to convey a little of that feeling – at least for me. Whether it’s one of your favorites I guess depends on what you bring to it.