Posts tagged ‘National Parks’

Aug 25

Alaska, Day 12

The rain continued off and on through day 12 in Kantishna, but that didn’t stop us from hiking a bit. In the morning, we went to Blueberry Hill, near Wonder Lake. We tasted wild blueberries and low-bush cranberries along the way

View of Wonder Lake (and behind the clouds, Mount McKinley) from Blueberry Hill

As you can see, it was overcast. We hiked in mist and the occasional rainshower. The cloud ceiling was only a few hundred feet.

In the afternoon, we hiked to the cabin of Fannie Quigley, a woman and local legend who lived in Kantishna from 1906 (before the park) until her death in 1944.

We also hiked a couple hundred extra yards to get to the official end of the road at the air strip. Here’s proof…

Next up, a long day of travel from Kantishna back to Anchorage. More to come.

Aug 24

Alaska, Day 11

I’m catching up after being off the grid in the Denali backcountry.

After the great weather in Talkeetna, the rain came again.

Storm approaching Eielson Visitor Center

We took a bus to the Denali Backcountry Lodge, at the end of the park road, 92 miles from the entrance. It was a six-hour bus ride, which included stops when we saw wildlife. Our driver/guide pretty much talked non-stop for that six hours, describing scenery, animal behavior, park history, and anything else relevant for our trip.

Along the way, we saw Dall Sheep, Moose, Caribou, Grizzly Bear, Gyrfalcons, and WIllow Ptarmigan, to name a few.

More to come tomorrow, as I continue catching up.

May 20

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Hawaii, Day Seven

It’s hard to believe that tomorrow, I’ll have been here a week already. On the day after tomorrow, I will start home.

I have several images I want to show you, and I was also struggling with which inspiring word to use for today’s post. I finally chose two images to fit with the word “power”.

This morning, we went on a boat tour with Lava Ocean Adventures along the southern coast of the Big Island. There’s no lava flowing into the ocean right now, so I don’t have any dramatic photos of that.

I did manage to get this photo of a dolphin who swam near our boat for a few minutes. Seeing this image, I am reminded of the word “power”.

Most of the rest of our day was spent in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. We ended the day at the Jaggar Museum overlook, photographing the inner caldera and the glow of the hot lava in the steam clouds. This image also reminds me of “power”. The lava here stays in the caldera, and does not flow out to the ocean.

More adventures tomorrow. See you then.

Sep 4

July in Boston

I made a trip to Boston a few weeks ago, to visit some professors and other customers. (And a few friends.)

One evening, I was stuck in traffic, inching along next to Boston’s Museum of Science. I decided to stop in for one very photography-related reason… because it was so heavily influenced by photographer, mountaineer, and cartographer Bradford Washburn, director of the museum for over 40 years.

If you look for it, you can find a small exhibit at the museum about Brad and Barbara Washburn. I recommend finding it.

I also had the pleasure of being in Lowell, Massachusetts for one day of the Lowell Folk Festival. Wow, this was a great event, and I wish I could have stayed for the whole weekend. I heard several great bands, including The Steep Canyon Rangers, Plena Libre, The Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, Bua, and others.

Here’s a photo of the main stage at the Lowell National Historical Park, with the Steep Canyon Rangers playing.

They shut down several square blocks of downtown, and have a variety of stages with music going constantly. And the food! Lots of tents with a wide variety of good food. If you’re near Lowell in late July, I highly recommend experiencing the festival.

Mar 16

A Weekend in Denver

After leaving New Mexico, I went up to Colorado and enjoyed catching up with several friends. My first night, I captured this great sunset with the Denver skyline from my hotel room balcony.

My friend Micaela took me snowshoeing for the first time. We went up to Bear Lake, in Rocky Mountain National Park, and we had a wonderful time with a couple of feet of fresh powder in some places.

Despite her best efforts with snowballs, she did not cause me to trip over my own snowshoes and fall down.

Dec 15

Tucson, Day 2

As a musician, I’ve been trained, in the moments leading up to a performance, to relax—to calm myself, and peacefully contemplate what I’m about to do. It puts me into the right mindset, by clearing everything else out of my head. And then when I’m ready, I can execute the way all the rehearsals taught me to perform.

And so it needs to be with photography. I know my cameras; I can handle most of the photographic situations I’ll be in. But if my mind is still back home, thinking about work or other chores, I won’t be ready to make the photographs I know I can make.

Even in nature photography, there’s a lot to think about—what’s going to happen next? When’s the sun going to set? Which way is the wind blowing? What time does this park lock its gate? What’s the hyperfocal distance for this shot?

Today, in the Rincon Mountain District of Saguaro National Park, I had to just say, “Stop!”

I was standing next to a 30-foot-tall Saguaro, and listening.

The wind was blowing hard. I stopped to listen to the wind flowing through the needles of the Saguaro. Wow. I bet a lot of people go through life never hearing that sound. Let’s listen a little bit more, to the birds, and the squirrels…

A whole lot of nature photography is being patient. It’s waiting for the right light. It’s waiting for a shadow to move. Or a cloud.

And sometimes, the right light doesn’t happen. Sometimes, the cloud doesn’t show up in the right spot. That’s part of nature photography.

But if my mind is open, I will still enjoy what I’m doing. I can listen for the wind. I can watch and listen for the animals around me.

Okay, I’m ready again. Ready to take another photograph. My mind is clear again.

Dec 14

Saguaro National Park

I’m in Arizona this week.

In the days leading up to this trip, I was stressing about projects left undone at work and at home. I wasn’t sure how easily I would shift my focus to photography.

I visited the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park this afternoon. I just did a quick drive-through around sunset, to get a better idea of what I want to try tomorrow.

Once I got out into the desert, watching the sunset, I knew I was mentally prepared for the photography. The challenges back home are well taken care of (for which I am grateful!), allowing me to settle into the nature around me.

Here’s one of my infrared shots from today.

Look for more over the next week.

Jul 9

Summer Trip Day Eleven, Crater Lake National Park

I had planned to get up early (like about 2 or 3 AM) and drive to Crater Lake for some night and dawn photography. I put out some warm clothes, set the alarm, and went to sleep. When the alarm went off, I talked myself out of getting up, and into a few more hours sleep.

I had originally planned to stay near Bend tonight, but instead, am staying south so that I could spend all day at Crater Lake. It was a good decision.

Soon after arriving, I decided to sign up for a boat ride. I had a choice between a two hour boat ride that toured the lake, or a five hour boat ride that included a three hour stop on Wizard Island, a cinder cone rising out of the lake. I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to five hours, but I went ahead and signed up for the Wizard Island trip. I’m glad I did. I hiked to the summit—relentlessly uphill; there doesn’t seem to be any flat ground on the island.

Here I am with my scruffy beard at the top of Wizard Island. (Click on any image to enlarge.) Yes, the water really is that blue. It is the deepest lake in the United States (seventh deepest in the world), and is among the clearest lakes in the world.

To get to the boat landing, you hike down the Cleetwood Trail, which means you get to hike back up the trail when you return. It’s about a mile long and descends 700 feet to the lake. This is also about the same distance and elevation change of the Wizard Island summit trail. So I did about four miles today, in 50-60 degree temperatures, at 6000-7000 feet elevation.

Even without the stop on Wizard Island, I would have found the boat tour interesting. We got to see a different perspective on the caldera, and I learned more about the lake than I had known before.

The infrared images below and at the beginning of this post are of the Phantom Ship, a rock formation in the lake. (The image at the start of this post was inspired by an Ansel Adams photo in Yosemite.)

Sep 15

Salt Lake City Trip

Last week, I was in Utah for work, presenting at a military/aerospace trade show. I arrived in Salt Lake City early afternoon on Saturday. It was too early to go to the hotel, so as I am wont to do, I drove into the mountains for a hike. I drove to the ski town of Alta for an “easy” hike to Cecret Lake.

“Easy” is relative. The hike was at about 9000 feet elevation, and was a 1.5 mile hike with a 420 foot elevation gain. I took two SLR camera bodies, and some extra camera gear that I forgot to unload before I started on the trail.

It was a good, but slow, acclimitization hike. Here’s an infrared shot on the way up…

Here’s a view of Cecret Lake with a few other hikers on the far shore.

After this shakedown hike, I drove back to Salt Lake City to the downtown Marriott hotel where my co-workers (about 25 to 30 people) were staying. The hotel was right across from the Salt Palace Convention Center, and a block away from Temple Square.

Next to the Salt Palace is the Maurice Abravanel concert hall. I was fascinated by the 30-foot-tall glass sculpture in the lobby created for the 2002 Olympics.

Sunday, September 7
As a classical musician, it’s a treat for me to visit the regular music performances at Temple Square. Every Sunday morning (since 1929), the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (and on this Sunday, with the Orchestra at Temple Square) records a half hour TV and Radio broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word. Here’s a photo from the rehearsal just before air time.

Besides the broadcast, I skipped lunch at the trade show on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and went back to the Tabernacle for the half-hour noon organ recitals. The juxtaposition of the music and the military trade show was quite interesting.

Here’s a photo of the Mormon Temple just outside the Tabernacle.

Sunday afternoon, I drove down to visit Timpanogos Cave National Monument. To visit the cave, you have to hike from about 5700 feet elevation at the visitor’s center to 6700 feet at the cave entrance. This seemed easier than the Saturday hike—I guess because of the lower elevation and 24 hours of acclimitization. Here’s a view from the shelter at the cave entrance, looking across the valley.

And here’s one of my less blurry shots from inside the cave…

Before I left the area, I kept heading east through the National Forest and walked around Cascade Springs…

And here are a couple of panoramas from the Cascade Springs area in the Uinta National Forest. The first one is visible light, and the second one is a negative infrared photo. (Click to enlarge each.)

And then it was back to the hotel to meet up with several others for dinner at Red Rock Brewing Company.

Mar 10

San Antonio Trip

Yesterday, I traveled down to San Antonio with one of my best friends for a photography expedition. Our goal was to just explore and play. I took my infrared Nikon D200 (converted by LifePixel) and my visible light (unmodified) Nikon D300.

We visited several of the missions that are part of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. Here’s an infrared tree portrait from Mission San Juan Capistrano.

We also visited the San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden, which had completed a major renovation the day before.

One of my favorite photos is this one looking straight up at the ceiling of the pagoda.

Conservation Photography and Other Photo Adventures