Standing Like a Rock
The sea stacks at El Matador State Park make for interesting foreground subjects and I had a fun time there with the waves coming in to complement the scene. Some of the stack are actually pretty tall but the wide angle lens distorts and does not do them justice in my opinion.
Sunset at El Matador II
It is fun to slow down the camera shutter speed and capture the different patterns as the waves strike the rocks. Of course, you also need to be careful about water splashes as it only takes a few drops of water on the lens to ruin the capture. It is quite often that I have come back from a similar shoot only to find the images messed up simply because in my excitement, I forgot to wipe the lens clean.
Sunset at El Matador III
Another composition from an evening at El Matador State Park in California. Also got blessed with some nice color in the skies.
Sand Temples at Mono Lake
You might call these God's own sand castles. Naturally occurring near springs on the floor of an inland salt water sea three times the strength of the ocean, these extraordinarily intricate sand and mineral formations are truly awe-inspiring to behold.
Joshua Trees, Death Valley National Park, CA
Another Milky Way taken somewhere on the outskirts of Death Valley National Park. The two areas of glow are due to light pollution from Las Vegas and Los Angeles!
Aguereberry Point, Death Valley National Park, CA
The Glow
A beautiful sunset at Bandon Beach
Witness to the Night Skies
Still going through my hard drive from 2013 and continuing to find some cool stuff to process. This pano was taken at Patriarch Grove in the White Mountains (Eastern Sierras)
Leaning Towards Heaven
It was a special experience to spend the night at Patriarch Grove in the White Mountains and be among these amazing Bristlecone Pine trees.
The Little Giant
As I was working through my Eastern Sierras folder from 2013, I found this Bristlecone Pine Milky Way image that got neglected for some reason. My guess is that the bigger giants there had received all the attention and so this one never got processed. Anyhow, I believe this tree deserves to be presented and has every right to be in my portfolio of images.
His Majesty
This amazing Bristlecone Pinecone tree is an inhabitant of the Patriarch Grove in the White Mountains. It is a great place of peace and solitude among these ancient trees especially in the summer months as the area is at an elevation of 9000-12000ft above sea level.
Bristlecone Pine Swirl
My son and I had a wonderful experience in the Bristlecone Pine forests of the White Mountains a few years ago. During that trip, I had experimented with star trails but had completely forgotten about the images until recently, I decided to clean up my hard drive. I was about to delete the files but then decided to give them a try and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome. So, this is my first attempt at star trails.
Convict Lake Course
When I arrived at Convict lake for a Milky Way shoot I was surprised by the number of people lined up to take pictures. The crowd continued to get bigger as the night progressed but everyone was very supportive about letting other people in. While there, I met a new MW photographer standing besides me who had been out the previous night and had been unable to located the MW. So, a short tutorial on MW photography ensued about MW location, camera settings and manual focusing. To my pleasant surprise he picked up the information quickly and by the end of the shoot had great images showing up on his camera LCD. I walked away feeling good that night knowing that I had good images to process and that my brief guidance had jump started a budding MW photographer's journey
Redwood Rhodos
This is a handheld shot taken at a slow shutter speed in the Redwood Forests, California. The sun was peeking in and out of the clouds and there was no time to setup a tripod.
Eureka Dunes, Death Valley National Park
