As a person who has spent a lifetime exploring California’s High Sierra Nevada, I have seen a lot of rugged, alpine scenes. “My” mountains typically require me to climb to near or above 10,000′ to see scenes like this. But here in Scotland, on the Isle of Skye specifically, the mountains rise from essentially sea level. While the peaks are all below 4000′, they nonetheless present the same alpine scenery I find among the highest peaks in the Sierra.
Continue reading Mountains, Morning Light
We had finished dawn photography of nearby formations on this October morning at Arches National Park. As I was working that subject I kept noticing this remarkable bit of cliff, also in the direct morning sunlight. The larger formation of which it is a part did not offer me any obvious photographic subject, so I switched to a long lens and zeroed in on the colors and textures of this small portion of the scene.
Continue reading Cliff Face in Morning Light
Near the end of October last year, while returning from a fall color visit to the Western Sierra Nevada, I decided to make a stop at a Central Valley location where I have photographed migratory birds in the past. I wasn’t expecting to find the winter birds that I usually see there, but I was surprised to find large numbers of other birds that usually diminish at this spot later in the season. Among them were large groups of great egrets.
Continue reading Egret and Chick, Evening
I took me a while to figure out this location in Utah, along the edge of Boulder Mountain. Years ago we drove through here in the spring, and I was astonished by the huge aspen groves. I resolved to return in the autumn, and a few years later we did —timing our visit to synchronize with peak of California’s Eastern Sierra aspen color. It turns out that the color change earlier in Utah, and by the time we arrived the groves were past their peak.
Continue reading Boulder Mountain Aspens, Evening