America’s Newest National Park – Pinnacles

America’s Newest National Park – Pinnacles

This California Chaparral park is full of lichen covered boulders and high coastal mountain range views!! Some geologist say it’s the other half of the Santa Monica Mountains split into two different ranges long ago by the San Andreas and other faults. I’ve only been to the east side and found it very impressive from a landscape photographer’s point of view. Caves, canyons and high trails into a wilderness setting is what you’ll find there, check it out!! Park site

Pinnacles National Park is located 1 hour east of Monterey, 2 hours south of the San Francisco Bay Area and 4 hours north of the Los Angeles area on hwy 146, near hwy 101. There are two entrances to the park on the East and West Sides of the park. You may drive through King City to get to the other side of the park.

See more of images of the wonderful California Chaparral by clicking here.

New Arch in the Mojave Desert

A small arch in Red Rock Canyon State Park, California. This small overlooks the Mojave Desert from the cliffs above the desert floor. A clearing storm brings soft light to the El Paso Mountain Range in the background. This was only a little over an hour drive from the Northern Los Angeles area. There are plenty of arches that haven’t been photographed yet, so for the curious keep exploring.. .

See it larger here.

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Composing for the Edges

While composing this photograph I had to imagine the merged files together as one because the 2×6 or 4×6, etc box of the viewfinder didn’t fit the format I was looking for. When we create panoramics we have to use our imagination and establishing the borders or edges of the frame are probably one of the most important parts of doing this. Here I took note on where there were dark areas around the bright waterfall so as the image is viewed there is more of flow downward without distractions along the edges of the frame. Any bright water on the edges would of pulled the eye towards it and disrupted the path and flow of where the water leads the eye through the scene. Here I chose to have an exit at the bottom where the water comes out of the frame. You can compose differently and keep the eye in the frame by keeping the white water away from the edges, this doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t want to have any bright water near the frame just keep conscious thought of where you place it. Conscious thought is what composition is all about. Have you ever felt you placed all elements of frame exactly where they needed to be?

We can create typical images of scenes such as this one but another thing to keep in mind is has it been done this way? If so fine take the picture then move on to the next scene while looking for something different.

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Backpacking in Kings Canyon under the Milky Way.

Had a little teamwork on this one, Christina had her headlamp set up in the perfect spot with out knowing it! She was feeling the altitude on this trip so I had to carry a little more then I expected to keep her moving along. With the strong winds out I thought Christina might of wanted to turn around but she toughed it out and I’m glad! I came to shoot the alpen glow but think I like the night view more then the day stuff. This little old tent is about 10 years old and this may be it’s last photo. Too bad we don’t get the trade ins on tents or customer loyalty discounts!! It certainly lasted a lot longer then I though they would have, it was less then a 100 bucks and all I could afford at the time. I’ll get a lighter one next time!

It was a cool trip, meaning on the cold side. We didn’t jump into any of the mountain lakes or broke much of sweat because there was a constant breeze to keep our temps cool while hiking. Christina saw her first yellow bellied marmot and thought it would make a great friend for her pet dog to play with, that would be funny, a giant chihuahua playing w/ a marmot! We pitched the tent up next to the tallest boulder to block the wind, it’s blurring parts of the tent in this shot but it was stretched out pretty far with guy lines so you can’t really see much blur in it all unless you look closely. This was just a random unplanned shot where I knew I could use the 3 different layers make the scene work and fill the frame with interesting subject matter.

The Sierra has been pretty cloudless this late spring and early summer season. I love to frequent the places I shoot to get know the weather that isn’t the same every year. Some years we have almost cloudless summers and some we get more then the usual fair of afternoon thunder storms. I love going light with out a tent but haven’t been caught in a rain, hail or thunder storm with out a tent, but maybe someday I’ll get pelted to no end by baseball sized hail!!

Have you ever been caught without a tent while backpacking?

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Workshop info: Scenic Photo Workshops
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Half Dome’s North Face

Half Dome is no doubt the most heavily photographed icon in Yosemite Valley. It can be seen from so many vantage points through out the national park. This particular view is photographed very often and has a popular pull out parking called Olmstead Point. You’ll find many photographers and families shooting portraits up there. For us landscape photographers wanting the good light we can get a great view of Half Dome’s North Face from here. In this photograph it’s late light in the afternoon hitting the face of the icon with enough mixture of light and shadows to give it a three dimensional effect. Olmstead Point is located off highway 120 also known as the Tioga Pass road, it’s high elevation makes it’s easy access only available in the very late, early fall and summer months. In the winter you’ll need to snowshoe or cross country ski to access it, there is at least on company out there that will help you if you’re coming up from the bottom of the Tioga Pass on the East Side of the Sierra during winter.

Website: Portfolio
Workshop info: Scenic Photo Workshops
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Free Nature Photography Presentation

I’ll be making a presentation which is free and open to the public.

Saturday, October 15 at 1:30 pm at the Visitor Center for the Santa Monica Mountains Nat’l Recreation Area (Thousand Oaks, CA).

The lecture and photo critique will be held next door to the visitor center.
Directions

This presentation will be on creating dramatic landscape photography.

This presentation will help you focus and better connect with nature while in field with your camera.

This presentation will help you blend art into your photography.

This presentation will provoke thoughts and help you become a more creative photographer.

Stop by and show your support for landscape photography as art in Los Angeles.

Please bring your camera for a shoot afterwards!

Join me for an exciting afternoon!

Website: Portfolio
Workshop info: Scenic Photo Workshops
Private or small group workshop info: Learn.
Steve’s Photo Tips and How To Page
Steve’s Landscape Photographer Tools Page

The Power of Subject

During my Death Valley Eastern Sierra Experience Workshop I was taking some candid shots of the participants while they were in their moments of shooting the light at it’s peak. In the first image the arch is the main subject and in the second image it’s the photographer and what he is doing. I noticed the 2nd image to be even more powerful then the first and with a little bit of patience I was able to capture both images.

Website: Portfolio
Workshop info: Scenic Photo Workshops
Private or small group workshop info: Learn.
Steve’s Photo Tips and How To Page
Steve’s Landscape Photographer Tools Page

My 2010 Best Photographs

2010 was a great year for landscape photography, we experienced a fantastic wildflower bloom in California. Here are a few of my best from the year, I wish I could pull a few more off the hard drive! Have a great year everyone!!

Light painted petroglyphs in the Owens Valley near Bishop, Eastern Sierra

Alpen glow breaks through the clouds in the Eastern Sierra’s North Lake on a cold autumn morning.

Burney Falls in Northern California is constantly fed by a natural spring.

A wild lenticular cloud formation slowly grows and moves across the Northern Mojave Desert.

Early dawn light creeps across the flooded salt flats of Death Valley.

Dangle your toes off of Toroweap’s 3,000 foot cliff overlooking the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park.

Wild mountain lillies bloom in an open meadow in Northern California’s Cascade Range.

Tiles of Earth sculpted by wind, water and sand in one of Death Valley’s dune fields.

Pines catching thier first light on old rolling dunes in Lassen Volcanic National Park.

Friends paddle through a Colorado River cave in the Mojave Desert. I really miss this moment.

Wildflowers bloom under Mt Shasta in a wild fire recovery area.

A view through an arch in the Alabama HIlls displays a rainbow against rainy skies.

A nocturnal alignment of earth and space in Joshua Tree National Park.

One of the largest wildflower blooms I have ever seen occured in California’s Central Valley. Only 80 miles from Los Angeles.

You Will Eat Me No More
Death Valley National Park

The Mojave Desert Tortoise is the largest reptile of the Mojave Desert. They walk on ground that can get over a 130 degrees. They avoid the heat in their giant burroughs where it is about 40 degrees cooler and hibernate there durning the winter. They can live for a year without water or maybe even 2 years without water.

In certain areas of the Mojave the average number of tortoises per square mile in the 1920′s was 100, now in the same areas there are less then a dozen per square mile. A host of animals depend on their large burroughs for homes. The Mojave Desert Tortoise is an endangered species because it’s population has dwindled in recent years. In order for it to be removed from the endangered species list it’s population must grow and be sustained for 25 years.

This series is part of a yearly tradition that Jim Goldstein has started where he posts a blog with links to many other yearly collections from other photographers. See them all here http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2011/01/12/best-photos-of-2010/. Here are my 2009′s collection http://stevesieren.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/landscape-photography-my-best-of-2009/

Website: Portfolio
Workshop info: Scenic Photo Workshops
Private or small group workshop info: Learn.
Steve’s Photo Tips and How To Page
Steve’s Landscape Photographer Tools Page

Wild and Scenic Kern River South Fork

I’ve never been here before, this designated scenic and wild river drains the Southern Sierra and is a lot closer then the rest of the Sierra. I backpacked here with Christina and we were the only souls around besides two beavers wacking their tails in the swift moving water. We didn’t even know they were there until after it sounded like someone threw a rock in the water while we were filling our camelbaks. Dam beavers had us looking around for a few seconds!

A few back lit clouds hovered over the right spot at sunrise. The oddly clumped grass islands caught my eye the day before so I returned at the following morning. Too much brush to get through for most of the river but that’s why they call it wild and scenic. This is a 4 shot panoramic stitch with 3 bracketed shots for the dynamic range which meant a lot of work in the post processing. Sometimes for the photographer the experience is hard to convey in just one photograph.

Joshua Tree’s Cacti Bloom

For a short period of time the harsh extremes of the desert do not and exist and life florishes. If you drive into Joshua Tree’s south entrance you can’t miss the painterly scene along interstate 10. A painter must have painted the desert yellow, the brittle brush line both sides of the highways at points. At a 65 mile per hour glance I could make out beavertails blooming along with ocotillos and some arizona lupine here and there.
You can see all the brittle brush here in the background behind me here . I just met Jon Cornforth the current Outdoor Photography Magazine cover shot photographer earlier this week. Pretty hospitable guy, he was nice enough to share his I-phone shot. Hopefully I can meet up with him again after I get back from Northwestern Nevada. The photo shown was taken just outside the park’s south entrance.

Here are a few of the blooming cacti and yucca from the past couple of visits to Joshua Tree. They are all blooming now so it would a great time to stop by, especially if you’re conveniently located on the east side of Los Angeles. If you happen to smell a skunk while you’re out there it might just possibly be the breeze and the smell of an abundance of wildflowers.

I found these in both the Mojave and Sonoran sections of the park.

I found these mojave mounds at the foot of boulder piles in the main northern section of the park.

The joshua trees are in full bloom right now. This one is just at it’s beginning stage but you’ll find many in full bloom.

The beavertail cacti can grow to the size of a large ice chest with mutliple flowers on them.

The mojave yucca, whew! In my own opinion these can be some of the most beautiful yucca blooms around.

This should give a photographer plenty to capture in Joshua Tree besides just boulders and joshua trees. If you still need more just remember the park is made of mountains, washes, tanks and palm oasis. Get creative and come up with something you didn’t think you would leave with.