Landscape
Pursuit of the Firefall
I remember the first time that I saw an image of the Last light on Horsetail Falls, Yosemite by Galen Rowell. In 1973 he was one of the first photographers to capture this iconic image. My sister and I were on one our road trips along the Eastern Sierras and we stopped in Bishop, CA for the night. We wandered around town and found Mountain Light Gallery and went in. The gallery images were breathtaking and inspiring to me. Galen Rowell described his style of photography as “a continuing pursuit in which the art becomes the adventure, and vice-versa.” I was hooked! Because he was ‘local’, it meant that some of his locations were attainable to me as well. These were adventures that I could pursue and hope to mimic some of his artistry as well. But a funny thing happened along the way in this pursuit of the shot; I found that being “present” in my environment meant so much more than just getting the shot.
‘Yes’ I’m a lemming that travels to Yosemite during February to get the ultimate shot of the Firefall. I park and wait for hours for that ten minute window when the setting sun sets and starts to illuminate Horsetail Falls. I also talk with other photographers and listen to their stories of their ‘first time’ seeing the mountain go from golden yellow to an intense lava red in a stream of glory. My follow photographers and site seers alike commiserate and then become awestruck by this phenomenon. I’ve been disappointed when the weather conditions didn’t cooperate. I’ve scouted different angles and vantage points and was vexed many times. And yet, this is my adventure and I find that each time I enjoy it so much. Maybe, my photo will inspire others to seek out their own adventures. Who knows…
What’s in store for 2017?
Happy New Year!
Past few months (year) I felt like I lost some of my creativity or maybe more to the point it went into hibernation. I let my daily work life take over and it became mundane. Get up early, go to work, fix this, file that, eat, sleep, look forward to the weekend. BLAHHH! Then this past summer I created a few side projects for myself and I started making time for photography. I re-discovered that my creativity is exactly what I need on a daily basis. And I have to, ‘I get to’ – make time for it; just like I have to make time for lunch or dinner. Sometimes, there’s a plan and sometimes it happens on a whim but I gotta do it. Photography makes me happy, it makes others happy, seriously, just how did I forget how much fun being creative is?
I started reading articles by David duChemin about finding your vision. I’m on week 8, 9? and the articles are inspiring and has me thinking about my craft. He talks about concepts and studying other artists and i’m enthralled with each article. There are points that stick out better than others, like “What do you love enough to spend your short life, or your limited free time, photographing?”. That’s easy, nature, the mountains, the forest, hiking, dogs, flowers, rivers, the Milky Way (stars, not the candy bar), flowing water… oops, maybe it isn’t that easy to narrow your focus afterall.
One suggestion from duChemin is to to take fewer photos or more specific, “…consider making fewer final photographs. I want you to consider demanding more from each final frame and being choosier about what you show to the world.“. I take hundreds of photos, probably closer to a few 1000 within a year. So this year I will be “choosier” with my final product. The first article in the series recommends looking through the last year of my ‘work’ and added some questions to ask myself as I work through this process. “What commonalities do you see in the work? What themes repeat themselves? Which images do you love? Why?” Here are a dozen that I chose for this first post of the new year.
The obvious theme here is nature and California landscapes (if you recognize some of the locations). I honestly have to say that I enjoy all of these shots. So much so that these are featured in my annual calendar. But, for me what made these special was the adventure to get these photos. Some of these adventures were on a whim, some were planned out, google searched potential locations and a few were simple walks along places I’ve been to hundreds of times. I’m gonna work on ‘conveying the adventure’ part, more on that later.
I look forward to 2017 and what it holds in photos, in adventures and reigniting my creativity.My goal, publish something weekly, so 52 weeks of cool imagery that I hope inspires you as much as it did me. Oh and for the following weeks, less writing, it’s really not my forte.
thanks for stopping by!
Kats
Hike a Ridge-line
“April showers bring May flowers”. Showers in the high country mean snow and what better way to take in the views than a hike along the ridge-line.
Monument and Mystery Valley
Last day in Monument Valley and we took a guided tour of Mystery Valley.
Monument Valley Tribal Park
We had arrived late to Monument Valley Tribal Park but in time to catch the setting sun illuminating the mesas and give the sandstone some added pop. The week before we arrived, the valley had 16″ of snow. While most of it had melted, there was still some areas with snow on it and it added some interesting contrast to the photos.
Owachomo Bridge and US-261
We spent a afternoon at Natural Bridges National Park. Owachomo Bridge was already in shadow but it didn’t make this bridge any less spectacular than the previous two we visited earlier. This was however, the easiest to get to from the Rim Overlook. It was late and we needed to get to Monument Valley before night fall. This meant a ‘shortcut’ down US 261 also known as the Moki Dugway. A seemingly nice country road until the pavement ends and for 3 miles or so it turns into a steep, twisty dirt road with views of the Valley of the Gods and the Goosenecks.
Natural Bridges, Utah
Canyonlands – Utah
First day in the Canyonlands area. Spend the entire day hiking all over buttes and mesas! We scrambled on slickrock and scree and found amazing views and historical finds around every bend.
Exploring Arches National Park
Stayed in Moab, Utah a few days and was able to explore Arches National Park. Amazing sandstone carved arches and landscape. We also found some petroglyphs on our hike.
Bisti Wilderness, New Mexico
Finally made it to the Bisti Wilderness in New Mexico. An area in the North Western part of the state. After finding the parking lot and hopping a few cattle fences the landscape changed dramatically after about a 3/4 of a mile.
- ← Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 11
- Next →
Snapshots by Kats 