Tad Gielow Photography

Mount Rainier National Park In The Rain And Snow

Mount Rainier –National Park In The Rain And Snow

My wife and I were planning a road trip from our home in Los Angeles to Seattle, Washington to spend a few days visiting our daughter.   On my itinerary was a day photographing in Mount Rainier National Park with the goal of visiting Paradise high up the slope of the mountain.  

The day for our trip arrived with some rain and what I hoped might be some snow at Mount Rainer.   I set out early in the morning with Dan, who had signed on for an all day Personal Workshop to learn more about his DSLR camera.  During the two and a half hour drive from Seattle to Mount Rainer we talked about the fundamentals of exposure:

• Aperture - The amount of light to hit the camera sensor.  Its like adjusting the blinds of a window.
• Shutter Speed - The length of time the shutter is open allowing light to hit the sensor.
• ISO - The sensitivity of the sensor.  Sensors have improved greatly over the past few years  and the problem of noise at high ISO setting has been greatly reduced, making ISO much more useful.
• Depth-Of-Field - Using the Aperture to control the sharpness in front of the behind the area of focus.

As we entered the park, we found ourselves in a lush forest of moss covered pine trees and a scattering of other trees showing off their fall colors.  

We slowly drove up a valley looking for interesting areas, we must have stopped at every turn-out because of something fun to explore, like the photographs above and below.  

With the temperature in the low thirties, we would jump out the car, grab the cameras, rain gear, run into the forest, photograph for a while, and then get back to the warmth of the car.

As we drove further up the mountain the light rain gave way to welcome snow, making it much easier to photograph as the snow can be brushed off the camera before it melts.

 

Higher up the mountain we encountered this large field of snow covered rocks that I thought made an interesting abstract image of positive and negative space.

 

One of the most popular places in Mount Rainier National Park is Christine Falls, named after the daughter of P. B. Van Trump who made the first documented ascent of Mount Rainier in 1870.  Years later, in 1888, he guided John Muir to the summit.

A little farther up the road, Dan spotted a lone maple tree in the midst of snow covered pines seen in the photo at the top of the post.  We spent quite a while taking in the surreal scene before we headed up the mountain toward Paradise. During the summer, the Paradise lodge and visitor center are teeming with people there to take in the beautiful alpine meadows and cool mountain air.   With the snow falling, the parking lot was near empty and the lodge was closed for the season, but it was still a gorgeous place to be.

PHOTO TIP:

Photographing in the rain and wet snow can be challenging because one usually needs a extra hand to hold an umbrella over the camera.   A solution is the AquaTech Sport Shield.  It fully covers the camera and lens and has small windows so you can see the lcd window and other key controls.   There is also an sleeve for your right hand to operate the camera while keeping everything dry, even in pouring rain.

Backyard Critters

Backyard Critters

I was working in my backyard over the weekend and I stopped for a few moments to admire the flowers my wife and I had planted in our raised garden beds last year.

This area of our backyard used to be a grass lawn, but roots from four surrounding oak trees had reduced the lawn to just a few patches of grass, so we replaced most of the lawn area with a couple of raised beds and planted some vegetables and flowers. 

The Black Eyed Susans(Rudbeckia hirta) we planted last year were especially abundant and beautiful, so I thought I would grab my camera, tripod and macro lens and have some fun photographing them up close.

The center of Black Eyed Susan flowers are a spiral pattern of florets similar to large sun flowers.  These patterns are found many places in nature and have been described mathematically by a set of Fibonacci sequences.  This mathematical pattern can be found in many many places in nature; the seeds on a sunflower, the spirals of shells, and the curve of a wave. 

Getting even closer to the center of the flower I could see the pollen carrying anthers and the pollen that had been scattered about by bees making their rounds

As I moved around looking at other flowers I noticed a juvenile Praying Mantis(Stagmomantis californica) that was following my every move.  I slowly and carefully moved my tripod around to see how close I could get.   When I got a little to close it scurried underneath the flower to hide.  Again, and more slowy this time I lowered the tripod and was able to capture the wonderful close up portrait at the top of the post

Rise Of The Sierras

Rise Of The Sierras

One of the great things about living in Southern California is the diversity of landscapes that are with just a few hours drive.  One can be enjoying the beach in the morning and be in an alpine meadow at ten thousand feet above sea level by lunch.  The rise of the Sierra Nevada Mountains from the Owens Valley along Highway 395 is an incredible example of this diversity.   The arid Alabama Hills just outside of Lone Pine are at an altitude of just over four thousand feet and then suddenly give way to ten thousand feet of mountains.   The photo at the top of this post shows this contrast.  I was in the Alabama Hills at an altitude a little above four thousand feet, and just eight miles away Lone Pine Peak juts up seven thousand feet to its height of thirteen thousand feet.  Mt Whitney, at over fourteen thousand feet, is hidden behind the cottonwood tree.

On this day trip, my wife and I had wanted to go up to Whitney Portal, but the road was closed for winter.  We decided to checkout the area around Lone Pine Campground and found this beautiful spot just before the creek goes under the road.

I moved around the area to get some different angles and perspectives of the creek.  The use of  tripod is crucial because of the desire to use fairly long shutter speeds, over one second.  I chose a longer shutter speed based on the experience gained photographing a waterfall at numerous shutter speeds a number of months ago. The previous post Water Fall Test shows the results.

When I got home and imported the days work into Aperture, I found I really liked the lower left area of the photo above.   The beauty of a digital workflow allows one to create copies of photo make artistic alterations.   In this case I cropped into an area the slow water movement around some rocks. 

Camping Trip To Joshua Tree National Park, Part 1

Camping Trip To Joshua Tree National Park, Part 1

I had been looking forward to this weekend as it has been many years since I have camped out in Joshua Tree National Park.   My brother-in-law and I arrived at the park visitor center on Friday afternoon with hopes that we were early enough to get a campsite for two nights, but unfortunately, all were taken.  Our choices were limited to some Bureau Of Land Management open space outside of the park boundaries, a hotel in town, or take a short hike from one of the backcountry parking lots and camp out.  Since both of us have a lot of backpacking experience, we were comfortable with the last choice if needed.  We set off into the park and stopped at the Hidden Valley picnic area to cook a great dinner of chicken quesadillas and then went up to Keys View for the sunset.  From Keys View there are views to the west of Palm Springs, Mount San Jacinto, Mount San Gorgonio; and to the south one can see the Salton Sea.  While enjoying the view I walked around the area looking for a Joshua Tree or something else that would make a nice foreground element to the coming sunset.   After about ten minutes of searching I returned to main lookout area and a nice Joshua Tree that would provide some framing for the sunset.  Knowing that the tree would to silhouette when exposing for the sunset so I set up the flash unit to try and get some detail in the tree.  

A few minutes later the sun was once again visible between the two layers of clouds, so I switched to my 400mm lens to get closer

After the beautiful sunset we drove through a couple of campgrounds on the off chance someone had left.   Unfortunately everything was full, so we made our way over the Desert Queen Mine trailhead, grabbed just what we needed for the night; sleeping bags, tent and pads, hiked out under the star filled sky for a while and enjoyed a very quiet nights sleep in the backcountry.

Saturday became a day of hiking and enjoying the sights.  First we took in the Barker Dam area and with the air so still the half full lake was perfect for reflections.

In the afternoon we hiked the two miles to the Lost Horse Mine, for forty years prior to 1931, this mine produced significant amounts of gold and silver until an earthquake damaged and shifted the mine shaft and the once plentiful spring water almost completely dried up.  These titbits of information came from a Ranger at a campfire presentation at Jumbo Rocks campground.

More on the trip in Part 2, coming soon.

Years of Sunsets At Point Mugu

Years of Sunsets At Point Mugu

One of my favorite places to photograph is the rocky sea shore area adjacent to Point Mugu State Park, California. Every so often the weather is just right with offshore breezes that push the usual foggy marine layer twenty miles out making the Channel Islands visible from the shoreline. This combined with some high clouds can make for dramatic sunsets.   My most recent trip did not start out promising because the fog was thick as I drove along Pacific Coast Highway from Malibu towards Camarillo.

With the fog hiding the islands I thought I would try a spot above the fog that I had found a couple of years ago.  What I found was that the fog was moving south away from my location leaving a clear view of the islands. The photo at the beginning of the post shows Anacapa Island a little of Santa Cruz Island. I switched from a 80-400mm(set at about 200mm) lens to a 18-200mm and set it at about 20mm to bring out the gorgeous colors of the sky.

For the next photo, the tide was coming in providing some nice crashing waves, but the sun was overpowering the sky. I used a rock outcropping to block the full sun along with two graduated neutral density filters so that the foreground rocks would not go completely black. A two stop soft edge and three stop hard edge were combined and rotated at an angle along the rock line.

On this day there were very few clouds so I concentrated on using the interesting rock formations as a foreground element. Again, I used five stops worth of graduated neutral density filters, set right at the horizon, in order to bring out details in the foreground rocks.

 

Sometimes the marine layer is offshore and blocks the Channel Islands from view. I looked for a opportunity make the ocean more prominent. Once again, the use of graduated neutral density filters set at the horizon allows more light for the foreground waves and water while darkening the sky to provide a better overall balance of light.

I will keep going out the Point Mugu, even if the photographic possibilities are slim, because one never knows what will happen and just getting out to the fresh salt air is so relaxing and uplifting.

Fall Colors Of Canyon De Chelly Workshop 2010

Fall Colors Of Canyon De Chelly Workshop 2010

I just got home after leading my first photography workshop in one of my favorite places in the southwestern United States, Canyon De Chelly National Monument in Arizona. On the two day drive from Los Angeles it looked like weather was going to present a challenge as it rained most of the way.

The rain was very heavy when we arrived in Chinle, Arizona, which created waterfalls everywhere as the water flowed from the mesa into the canyon.

With all the rain, access to the Canyon by vehicle was not possible, so the workshop schedule needed to change significantly. We spent two days visiting and exploring the numerous overlooks into the Canyon, which we had almost to ourselves because there are so few visitors at this time of year.

 

I made the two photos above in the morning from the White House Ruins overlook, the top one looking northwest and down canyon back toward the town of Chinle, and the next one looking easterly and up canyon.

 

The following afternoon we made our way over the Mummy Cave overlook and hiked along the rim of the canyon to an area I had found while exploring years before.   The spot is a shear cliff of about five hundred feet where the river and trees snake along the canyon floor.

The heavy cloud cover opened up in a few spots providing some stunning sunlight to illuminate the cottonwood trees.

As sunset neared we ventured over to the Antelope Ruin overlook where we were treated to the magnificent sunset shown at the top of the post.

The weather cleared enough on the third day allowing us to take a great hike down an old trail, called Bear Trail, into Canyon Del Muerto.  We were the only people in the canyon along with a couple of families tending to their fields and except for the birds and the occasional breeze rustling the trees, the canyon was silent.

We stopped for lunch at the home of our guides, Jon and Lupita McClanahan. I met Jon and Lupita over ten years ago and they have become great friends through the many visits I have made to their home in the Canyon.  On their land are some wonderful petroglyphs that I have been trying to photograph for years.   With the numerous clouds providing some nice diffuse light I was able to capture one of my favorite pieces of rock art depicting people ascend the nearby Yeibeichai trail.

After lunch we continued our hike and with the river flowing nicely, we took off our shoes, rolled up our pant legs, and enjoyed a long walk in the water. Along the way we stopped to photograph some gorgeous pictographs.

Carizzo Plain Wildflowers

Carizzo Plain Wildflowers

I had seen the Carizzo Plain National Monument on a map a number of months ago and was surprised by its size and the fact that I had never heard of it and the wonderful wildflowers that come each spring. With the recent amount of rain in Southern California, I thought it might be a good day to go there and check out the wildflowers and what I saw was just unbelievable. Above is a close up of a Hillside Daisy(Monolopia Major)

In this section of the park I could have walked out a half mile and would still be completely surrounded by Hillside Daisys for a half mile all around.

Besides a shear size of the fields, getting close up was just as incredible. I laid down on my stomach with my Nikon 105mm Micro lens and photographed this Owls Clover(Castilleja) at about five inches away and limited the depth of field so everything behind the flower went very fuzzy.

Smaller than the Hillside Daisy, these Goldfields (Lasthenia californica) are quite small, only about an inch across.  There were large patches of these flowers in the eastern side of the Monument while the Hillside Daisy was mostly on the western side.

Down in the southern part of the Monument is Travers Ranch where there are a number of 1930‘s era farm implements. I found an old seeder with this weathered and peeling plywood that created a interesting pattern.

Flowers And Depth Of Field

Flowers And Depth Of Field

I was working in the front yard earlier today and found this flower that had just opened up in the warmth of the day.  I have yet to identify it, do you know what type it is?  

Anyway, I grabbed my camera and tripod, a necessity, and thought I would experiment with depth-of-field to get some variations in sharpness.  Photographing in ones own backyard is an invaluble way to get to know your equipmment, in this case a Nikon 105mm f2.8 Micro lens.   I set up so that the lens was about three inches from the flower and carefully focused on carpel in the very center of the flower. 

With the aperture set f/10 there is less than 1/2 an inch of DOF which throws the anthers out of focus as well as the petals.  I liked how the lack of sharpness in the petals brings your eye right to the center. 

 

Stopping down to f/13 the anthers are much sharper sharpness while the petals are still soft enough to bring the view to the center.

At f/20, there is more sharpness to the petals, although those on the left side are softer indicating that the film plane was not quite parallel to the flower.

 

For this photo I changed lenses to my Nikon 18-200 3.5-5.6 and backed up about 7 ft away and set the zoom at 200mm.  At  f/10, almost everything is sharp. 

Conclusions:  Depth Of Field can be tricky to control, but it also provides numerous artistic possibilities for the same subject matter.  Also, be sure to use that Depth of Field preview if its available on your camera.