Long Time, No See...

Yep, I'm still here. And wow, it sure gets easy to put off posting once you get out of the habit of doing it on a regular basis.. before you know it, one or two months have gone by.
My regular commercial work and now,  running the new gallery, are conspiring to keep me from getting outdoors to shoot, but that should change in September, since my wife and I have booked a week-long trip to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington right after Labor Day... I hope to spend a lot of time photographing the lush, green rain forest and uniquely beautiful beaches up there.  That should certainly generate some interesting new work and will be kind of a fresh subject matter for me, which is always nice.

A couple of weeks ago, my old friend (from art school days, back in the '70's.. a long time!) stopped by here for a few days with his family, while on a north-south tour of California, visiting various family and friends along the way. He teaches art now at a private school in western Massachusetts, where we both grew up, and is a really fine plein-air painter... he works at that a lot during the summers while he is off from teaching. He of course wanted me to show off some of my favorite local scenes so he could take a stab at painting them and on the one session that I hung around while he was working, I couldn't resist to wander up the stream and do some studies with my trusty iPhone while killing time. Of course the quality is not there for any kind of printing, but it's sometimes fun to just shoot carefree with no tripod and no worries about quality... and see what you can see.


Since I don't have any new stuff right now and haven't had the inspiration to dig up and talk about anything already in the can, I thought I'd post a few of these just for a hoot.  All here shot with my phone. Notice the detail in the shadow area of the first one below. The iPhone has a pretty nifty HDR capability built right in; it takes two exposures, then blends them right in-camera and it works quite well... I actually had to tone it down some to make it look natural. I expect most digital cameras will have this feature in the near future.

One More From the Foggy Forest... and Some News.

The third, and probably the last one from this series, at least for now.  Somehow I'm picturing this set of images as large, contemporary stretched-canvas prints, probably soon to be seen on the walls of my new gallery.  Which bring us to the "some news" part...
Ever since we moved here from the city a year ago, it has been a goal to have my own permanent space to show and sell in. (Setting up outdoors at art shows is fun, but LOTS of work and hard to do consistently, while showing in a large gallery among dozens of other artists is less than ideal for sales.)  I didn't want to do this right away last year, because I knew we needed some time to get resettled and there was lots of other work to do on the house, etc., but this spring, the right space, at the right price just kind of popped up. Also, I was lucky enough to find a motivated and talented partner (a sculptor-who only needs floor space, as opposed to my needing only wall space, so that's perfect) to help out and share the expense. It's a fairly small space for now until we see how it goes, but there are neighboring spaces that will be available in the future for expansion if we can make it work. Selling artwork even in the best of times is tricky and with the economy still shaky, there are no guarantees of success, but I am excited to give it a try anyway. Idyllwild is known as a destination for it's galleries and art... and with the busy summer tourist season coming, we should be able to do o.k.
I'll be tied up with planning and setup for the next few weeks, (we want to open for the July 4 weekend), so I may not be posting any new work for a while (probably not SHOOTING any new work for a while either:), but I'll try to keep the blog updated with our progress on this new project.  Stay tuned:) 

And It Gets Thicker...

The second in my "Foggy Forest" grouping.  The soft transition from detailed foreground to the misty background gives it an especially watercolor-like style that I always like to see.  It's really nice to compose under these conditions because the background is so easily abstracted and free of distracting details. Walking past this spot yesterday evening, I noticed that there are quite a few wildflowers blooming now that would have been a nice accent.. too bad I was a few days early.. not likely to get this opportunity again before they are gone, at least for this year.

Foggy Forest Evening

This scene - and a few more similar ones upcoming - have been in my head for literally months now, but obviously it required some very specific conditions: late afternoon light, thick fog, and preferably little or no rain (which makes it very difficult or impossible to shoot, unless you have someone there to hold an umbrella for you).  So, I finally got my opportunity this week and spent a busy hour shooting like crazy out in the foggy, wet forest one early evening after several previous days of rain.  Shooting fog is tricky, because the contrast that you see with your eyes is sometimes so different than what the camera sees; some shots that feel fantastic at the moment don't do anything when you look at them later, but others that didn't seem so dynamic in the field look great when you get to processing them. When you hit it just right, the sense of depth and deep, saturated colors can really work well.  I got a dozen or so pretty good frames in about an hour of work; probably two or three will make it as prints at some point... not a bad day's work.  I have a few more of these in the pipeline.

Granite Swirl

Another from a recently processed batch.. I probably shot this back in early December, I don't recall exactly. This is on film, so no EXIF data.. guess I should get back in the habit of taking notes:)
There are quite a few small waterfalls on the numerous streams in my area, but I've never seen one like this, carved right into solid granite.  I'm especially pleased because I found this one completely on my own.. no one told me about it and I've never seen a picture of it, which is kind of surprising.  I had no idea there was even a stream here, let alone this nice fall, until I pulled over and parked one day to explore some rock formations and noticed sound of the stream. Following the water down a ways, I came across this.  I shot a few variations because the shape is so unique, but this is my favorite so far.. maybe I will post a couple more, to see if one gets more reaction than the others.

Palm Canyons: from the Outside In

Before I post a few better ones that were shot along the cool shady stream flowing under these palms at Andreas Canyon, I thought this might be an interesting view to set up the general feel of the area. It can be an extremely hot and rugged place in the summer, but very pleasant right now, through the winter and into early Spring.
Some of you who read regularly have seen my recent posts of green forest and snow around where I live... this may seem like a very distant world in comparison, but in reality it is only a 50 mile drive, and only that far because I have to drive down and then part way around the mountain to get here.  Just out of curiosity, I fired up Google Earth and used the measuring tool to check the distance from where I live to this spot in a direct line: just 12 miles!

Desert Oasis

Winter seems to have taken a serious break up here on the mountain, so I decided to drive down to the desert on Saturday for some exploring and shooting, while moderate winter temperatures are still in effect.

Right in Palm Springs, but tucked up against the foot of San Jacinto, is a large network of beautiful canyons that still belong to the Cahuilla Indians, who used to live in these oases... and you can easily see why. Crystal clear streams flow down from the mountain, nourishing huge palm groves that in turn provide a habitat for many other plants and critters, and formerly the native people that used to live here. It's a truly beautiful and unique environment, surrounded by harsh, arid desert.  Underneath these shady palm groves and along the streams is a cool, lush world that you wouldn't expect to find in this otherwise hard and desolate looking area.

This is a view of Palm Canyon, the longest of the several canyons... there are interconnected hiking trails all over the area and I only had time to explore one of the smaller side canyons, so I will have to get back here soon. I shot this in the early evening light from a parking area at the top of the trail just before leaving for the day.

I'll have a few more from this spot as well as some other older stuff coming up, at least until we get some photo-worthy conditions up here in the mountains.

Winter Oaks with Mistletoe

This is a reference shot (done on my iPhone!) from 2 weekends ago.  Locating new subjects is a never ending job, so when I have a free afternoon and I don't have a specific location in mind to work, I like to drive around checking out new roads, or hike a bit at spots that I normally pass by, just to see what I can see.  Usually it's mid-day and the light is not interesting, or the weather is not right... but I'm not concerned about all that, because I know I can come back at a better time.  If a new spot seems to have potential, I just take some quick reference shots as a kind of visual notebook, or "photographic sketch", if you will.
I was strolling around this clearing and thinking that there was not much of interest here, until the sweet light just before sunset lit up these bare oak trees and the background, making it suddenly magical.  For some reason, the clumps of mistletoe in the trees really make the scene for me... makes them look like they were somehow deliberately decorated.  Kind of wish I had been prepared to shoot it properly, because the combination of clouds and light was so perfect, but I can get to this spot in a few minutes next time the conditions and my time permit... and I'll know what time to be there and exactly where to set up to get what I want.
If you click on the image to look at the expanded version, you'll see that the sky is a little noisy and the detail in the grassy area is not the best, but I have to say the the new iPhone 4's 5mp camera is pretty impressive for what it is, with built-in HDR processing and geo-tagging... and on top of that, it shoots HD video!  I think the detail in the branches of the tree is quite nice, at least for a device that fits easily into your pocket and does about a hundred other useful things besides taking pictures:) 

Sky Watch: Shocking Yellow

An especially vivid horizon on this evening back in mid-December.  I've been trying to explore the numerous forest service roads that wander for miles through the back country around town, most of which I have never been on at all, looking for new and photogenic locations. They are mostly pretty rough even in the dry season, but now after the snow and rain I will have to give it up until spring. I was mainly admiring the granite boulder formations in this particular spot, but as it got late and the sun lit up the clouds on the western horizon, I was fortunate to catch several minutes of spectacular color.
The little speck of reflection in the distance that looks like a puddle, is actually a large reservoir (4.5 miles long by 2 miles wide), 50 miles distant. I'm also nearly 5000' above it here, so we can see a LONG way from any open view point.

Check out the SkyWatch homepage every weekend for more great sky images from all around the world.

SkyWatch: Winter Wonderland and Clearing Storm

I very nearly made the mistake of going out for a walk the other day without any photo gear.. the weather had just barely let up after snowing all day and it was still gray and dark when I left the house. Luckily I relented and grabbed my SLR, because 10 minutes later, the local fog had lifted and I had a few minutes to capture some spectacular light on the dissipating clouds far below.

This was shot from a forestry road that runs around the town just below our house. Someone had amazingly driven their truck up the road earlier, providing me a couple of nice tracks through the deep snow to walk on, otherwise I probably wouldn't have bothered to hike to this spot.. one of the few nearby that offers a view out through the dense trees to the lower elevations. That's the luck element, I guess.. I have gone out many days looking specifically for light and clouds that look like this, and come up empty, then this day unexpectedly, it's right there and I just had to be ready.

That is actually not the sun you see shining THROUGH the cloud, but a bright reflection ON the cloud, as the sun in this scene was way off to the left and just a few minutes from setting... the resulting touch of orange/yellow against the soft blues is really important to the scene, don't you think? A painter would know that and simply add it in; for a photographer it's a more elusive thing, but that's the fun and the challenge of landscape photography.

Check out the SkyWatch homepage every weekend for more great sky images from all around the world.

Going with the Flow

Last week was 6 straight days of pouring rain here in the mountains of southern California ...a grand total of 11" from Thursday through Wednesday. Although I like snow, I'm kind of glad that this storm was a warm one and we missed out on the white stuff (at least at this elevation)... otherwise it would have been a truly epic snow storm and would have made life pretty difficult around here for a while.
All that rain (and snow on the high peaks) is now flowing down the mountain and making for some really pretty and refreshing scenes along the rivers and creeks that were showing barely a trickle just a couple of weeks ago. It's really fun to explore up here with waterfall after waterfall....  the roar of the water acts like white noise, blocking out the rest of the world so you can really concentrate on your work... you just have to remember to think about where your feet are too, while standing on a rock in the middle of a rushing stream:) You can click for a larger view on this one.
I'm planning to be out in Joshua Tree before the end of this week... (actually I have several more nice ones from my last session out there in October that I haven't even shown yet).  The weather is ever-unpredictable around these parts in the winter, so you really do have to "go with the flow" and be willing to change your plans.

Cold Blue Cold

Another manzanita bush; but this one ended up a bit "under the weather":)...
Yeah, it can be uncomfortable to get up early in the morning after a snowy night, or stand around trying to frame and shoot while your hands are freezing, but fresh snow is such a great subject for minimal, stark, white-on-white images. Something I've been wanting to work on for a long time, but just wasn't in the right place.  Cloudy days are ideal, so you have more flexibility of time to work... and, color or monochrome seem to work equally well. This shot looked fine in pure monochrome, but I decided to leave it in color for now; I think it feels right with the cold blue cast in the shadows to emphasize the feeling.
This will be the first winter in many years that I am actually living where it snows, so I am hoping to put together a nice, unified folio of winter images this season.

Skywatch-Snowy Peaks

Yes folks, this view is less than one mile from my house.. of course it's not always quite so dramatic as this, which I caught right after a winter storm. (Please click for the detailed view).  This is a section of Tahquiz Peak, one of the lesser peaks on Mt. San Jacinto where we live.  The large, tooth-shaped outcropping in the foreground is known as Lily Rock... it has a 1000' sheer face (on what would be the left side of this view) and is known as one of the best rock climbs in the west. Just a few weeks ago, some climbers had to be rescued from near the top after getting caught in a sudden nasty turn of the weather... they were very lucky that highly skilled people were available and willing to save their butts.  If any of you are into rock climbing, you can read some more about it here.
The main part of Idyllwild sits in a kind of valley out of view at the bottom of this shot... we live about 4 miles past the main village and 1000' higher up in a separate little settlement... and most every day get to drive past several spots where you can see across the valley to these peaks.  Looking in the other direction, we can see almost to the ocean on a clear day.
Check out the SkyWatch homepage every weekend for more great sky images from all around the world.

Manzanita in the Snow

No, I'm not quite done with the autumn stuff yet, but it'll keep for a bit.  We're well into the winter season up here in the mountains and I've been kind of slow getting started on taking advantage of this new environment's opportunities.  I figured it's about time to get out and capture some of the beautiful local scenery.. winter is probably the most attractive season, photographically speaking, in this area.
Manzanita bushes are everywhere up here and they are an especially interesting subject with their intricate branching and contrasting bark that grows away from the wood over much of the tree.. this one has more bark coverage than most.  They stay green all winter and produce thousands of small red berries, thus the name which means "little apple" in Spanish.
I found this almost perfectly shaped one growing among some lichen-covered rocks and snow. There are also some evergreen oaks in the background there, contributing to the green-ness. We were showing some visiting friends around the area and for some reason I just decided to grab my old Nikon D70 that I haven't used for years, and throw a lens on it for walking around.  On close inspection, the quality of this image is really awful compared to what I'm used to.. I guess technology really HAS improved a lot over the last 6-7 years.  I plan to go back to this spot on a similar day and get it on film, or at least a decent digital capture when I get a chance.