The Photographic Aspect

Red Rock Fix

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:09:00 +0000

Our original plan for last weekend was a camping trip to Sedona, but some work stuff came up and forced a change in the schedule. Probably we'll head out that way sometime in June and expand it into a longer trip. There is a particular ruin up towards Arches that I have been wanting to shoot, and my wife wants to go to Arches, so we'll see if we can make it that far next trip.
In the meantime, I'm revisiting a few more favorites from last Fall in southern Utah. Another one here of amazing red rock goodness from Snow Canyon... shot with my Mamiya on 6x7 medium format Velvia.

More from JT

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:19:00 +0000

Another quick study from a few weeks ago out in Joshua Tree. The big rocks near the right of the frame in the distance are a very popular spot for rock climbers.. you can usually find a bunch of them up there on the weekends. Guessing they're approx. 80' high. Not for me, but fun to watch:)
Two really great camera phone apps that I have been using recently are Camera Awesome! by the folks that run SmugMug (it's free), and KitCAM, which is very similar and costs only about $1.00 (basically free). Besides adding a kit full of shooting utilities, both come with a very good selection of useful presets for processing and framing right in the camera... and then quick export links to update to your various on-line accounts, or your regular camera roll, for later processing or storage on your computer. The in-camera processing maintains the original exposure also, so you're not damaging anything by playing around with the more creative processing possibilities.

Evening Light-JT

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 00:21:00 +0000

Another "phoneography" example from my most recent afternoon out in Joshua Tree. Once again, a little over the top on the contrast and color compared to normal taste, but guess I'm just enjoying that look right now, for a change. My nice, convenient clouds from earlier had dissipated, but I found another way to occupy the sky:)

More on "Phoneography"

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 00:19:00 +0000

I drove out to Joshua Tree last weekend, specifically to reshoot this scene that I had made some quick studies of last year. I've been waiting for the right day, weather-wise, combined with the free time, but it never seemed to work out so I finally decided to just get in the car and go, win or lose. Didn't have high hopes when I left.. you can usually control the time of day, but not the sky, and that was crucial to my vision of the shot. The sky was way too clear and blue when I left, but by the time I arrived, these perfect high, thin clouds had thankfully appeared and not only did I get the shot I had in mind, but a few other good ones, as well, over the course of the afternoon.

This stands as another example of "phoneography".. shot and processed entirely on my phone's cam, (which explains the blow-out in the clouds, but that is from the uber-contrast of the processing, not the original exposure). All I did on the computer was down-size it for posting here.

This is likely not my ultimate, finished version; I'll go with the more conventional version in this particular case because I want to print it, but while I had my regular Nikon setup on the tripod, I simply pulled my iPhone out of my pocket and shot hand-held from the same vantage point. I kind of like this over-the-top interpretation, though. It's a great way to change up your process, experiment and most of all have fun, as opposed to always doing it the technically "correct" way.

Check out the kid sitting on top of the rock:)

New Tools and New Ways of Seeing

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:41:00 +0000

I love wide format for landscapes. Not necessarily just super-wide panoramas, although those can be fun. Since I don't have a real panoramic-format camera (there are some), the two normal techniques I use are a 6 x12 roll film back that fits on my 4x5 field cam, or the usual digital method of shooting multiple overlapping frames from a tripod and stitching them together later. Make that I "didn't" have a real panoramic camera, because the iPhone's new pano capture feature is the real deal. Considering that you not only don't need a tripod, but you are shooting hand held with the camera in motion, the results can be pretty remarkable.
It's all instantly and seamlessly patched together... and best of all, you're actually shooting in vertical format, which flips the full 3264 pixel WIDTH of the camera over to the VERTICAL... and then you can extend the horizontal as far as you want. ( I kind of have trouble twisting my body enough to fill the entire possible frame:) You don't need to utilize the entire possible width of the panorama.. you can stop anywhere that looks good and end up with a file resolution that rivals many dslr's. This one, before I cropped some of it off, came out to over 30" wide at 300 dpi! That's some printable stuff, folks.. and the grainy, soft, low dynamic range pics that you would have expected, even a couple years ago, are history due to advances in the technology.
I'll have some more to say about how much I have been using my phone cam in place of a standard dslr recently, and why.

More Red Rock Textures

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 00:54:00 +0000

Another from my last stop in Utah, just after the heavy rains. Love the complex, layered textures of the red rock accented by this neat little reflecting pool. I made quite a few shots with this uniquely-shaped white rock mountain on the horizon.. that impressed me right away a perfect eye-catching element for the background.

SkyWatch: Pools in the Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:12:00 +0000

I think I mentioned before that driving out to this site was through a torrential rain that let up, luckily, just as I was arriving. As a result, I had quite a few opportunities to use these many temporary reflecting pools as an unusual subject matter out here in the petrified red sand dunes. I wanted to use my grad ND filter to knock down the sky, but it kept spitting rain off and on and getting all over the filter, so I had to stick with just a lens hood to somewhat keep water spots off the lens, and then try to catch the moments when the sky was less bright. Shooting with film, I lost a number of frames to bad exposure because of that, but that's the way it goes sometimes. The multi-tiered erosion almost makes this look like a deliberately landscaped pool, don't you think?

Orange Swirl - Snow Canyon

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:12:00 +0000

This is a view from up on the petrified dunes, as seen from a distance in my last post's panorama. After the heavy rain, I had lots of nice little reflecting pools of water to work with, which was a rare treat in a normally bone dry location such as this. Challenging though to balance the sky, constantly changing from dark to very bright, with the rocky foreground.. especially shooting with film and a manual light meter. For those of you who have only ever worked with a high tech digital camera, working with a low-tech (or in this case, "no-tech") camera is a considerably slower experience, and in the situations of constantly changing light, you have to really be on your toes. Have to be aware of the smaller dynamic range too, but when you get it right.. wow. This one is a full frame scan of a glorious sheet of 4x5 Velvia. To me at least, no digital photo will ever be as satisfying as getting one of these babies back from the processor.

Nothing Better...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 22:41:00 +0000

What could be better than a location where you can spend the whole day in a limited area, easily walk around with your gear anywhere you want to go and not even begin to run out of great subject matter?
This is a new location for me.. and I'm keepin' it secret (well, if someone asks, I'll tell). It was raining so hard on my way here, that I was sure the whole day would be a washout, but it luckily started to lighten up just after I arrived in the late morning. For this scene, I was waiting between rain showers and sticking close to the car, so I pulled out my digital cam and tripod and shot 17 vertical frames, which were later stitched into this panorama. It creates a good overview of the site, whereas most of my other samples are more detail oriented, so this is a good one to start with. The mid ground area, at this distance, might be mistaken for red sand dunes... and it is in a way, but the dunes are actually petrified into solid rock. Unbelievable texture and color...really, really good for climbing around and shooting lots of different compositions, which I did for the remainder of the day after the rain finally quit.

Bare Trees

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:14:00 +0000

I've captured this grove of aspens in full color several times in other years, but I was surprised with how interesting they still are, just standing there naked... I think it makes for a really interesting effect in this shot. Normally, to get this view, I would have been standing on a rock with cold water rushing all around, but the stream was running really low this year, so I was able to move around freely without worrying about where to step, allowing some different perspectives. My main concern was working quickly between rain showers. The black volcanic rocks, being rather dry this time with no flowing water, were not as attractive as usual, so I let the trees be the main feature.

Aspens and Lava Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:28:00 +0000

This area east of Cedar Breaks is one of the most remarkable I have seen anywhere in the Southwest... huge lava flows all around with thousands of aspens growing up right out of the piled rocks. In the Fall, it's one of the most unique places I could imagine to enjoy the beautiful foliage. I was fighting the on-and-off rain showers for several days this year and it got frustrating at the time, but the atmosphere in the results that I did manage to get in between the sprinkles were well worth it. Couldn't have asked for a more perfect sky even if I had painted it myself. A lot of spots were already bare of leaves, but I found enough remaining here and there to make it very worthwhile.
Getting into some of my film stuff now.. this was shot on 6x7 format Fuji Velvia 100.

Head in the Clouds

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:43:00 +0000

A view from the top rim of Cedar Breaks, at 10,500ft. elevation.
Can't see it of course, but the wind was howling and spitting rain, trying to change over to snow, which it did later in the day, so I was only able to grab a few quick shots of it this year. I always make a point to stop by this spot when heading down to the east side of the mountain to my favorite foliage area. I ran into a blizzard here on October 1 several years ago, so considering I arrived mid-October this year, it was not too bad I guess. You can see that the bottom of the cloud layer was at almost exactly the same level as the rim, obscuring the sky, but leaving the view of the multi-colored formations unhindered. Be sure to click on the image for the full size view of this one.

Rainy Aspens

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 18:32:00 +0000

I still have more Valley of Fire stuff to go over later, but I feel like moving the subject on up to "color country" in Utah for a while, since that was the original objective of my trip.
I was a little behind the curve as far as the foliage in the higher elevations that I prefer this year, but the lower areas were still great and this area below a small lake that I really love is always beautiful, no matter what stage of the season. This image here is one of my favorites from the whole trip.. I've been trying to get that "perfect" aspen image for years and this might be as close as I ever get. I normally don't judge new work so quickly, but this one just hit me right away so I already have it framed and hanging in the Gallery.
It's just an easy quarter mile walk to get into this spot, but it was raining so I was debating to skip the location this year...ended up thinking that since I had come all this way, I had to give it a try. I had to walk around holding both camera and umbrella together in one hand for half an hour, and kept busy constantly wiping drops off the lens, but I did catch some nice atmospheric shots, including this one... so glad I did it. You just never know where the good ones are going to come from. I normally go for maximum depth of field, but in this case the soft focus colors in the background just seem to compliment the crispness of the foreground trees really nicely. Maybe I should try some hand-held work more often:)

SkyWatch: Twilight Panorama

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 19:29:00 +0000

More from the Valley of Fire in Nevada: I spent the late afternoon shooting out in the area of the formations that you can see in the center of this view.. This was well after sunset and I was actually heading out to find a place to stay when I saw this gorgeous twilight sky out of the corner of my eye and just had to pull over and try to shoot a quick panorama. Luckily I left my digital camera on it's tripod across the back seat of the car, rather than put it all away in the pack (I've learned NOT to do that:), so I was able to run out and make 5 vertical shots at 15 seconds each, which I have stitched together here.
Visit the SkyWatch home page each weekend for more great skies from all over the world.

A Different Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 21:08:00 +0000

I headed out to this very popular formation known as "The Wave" about an hour before sunset, only to find a dozen or more people already there (many of them from Europe.. there are no secrets anymore!), all looking for the same shot, so it was hard to set up without getting in someone's way, or someone getting in mine. As often happens, I ended up waiting for everyone else to head home as it got close to sundown and then started looking around for a non-standard view that might capture it in an equally interesting, but fresh perspective. I find this one much preferable to the views I shot from the "standard" spot anyway.. and, as a bonus, I later got some very nice golden hour scenes along the one mile trail back up to the road.

Nature's Hidden Artwork

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:34:00 +0000

Digging around in the nooks, crannies and caves at Valley of Fire on this day revealed a lot of remarkable images carved into the sandstone by eons of wind and rain. It's kind of the best option, given the bright mid-day sun, to stay in the shaded areas and try to find the bright light reflecting into the shade, as opposed to shining in directly, which creates burned out hot-spots and looks like crap. The reflected light however, creates these subtle and beautiful shades that bring out the hidden forms. Almost endless abstract possibilities here. This one in particular seems very pictorial.. I see it as a group of trees formed forever into the red rock walls of the cave. The favorite so far of my shots in this spot.

Valley of Fire: Beautiful Erosion

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 18:39:00 +0000

In one particular area of the VOF, there are these several square miles of eroded red sandstone, with literally tens of thousands, maybe millions, of small caves and hollows to explore. I spent one whole day rooting around in here, shooting the beautiful abstract forms formed by wind and water gradually eating away at the sandstone.

Fall Expedition: Nevada and Utah

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 18:03:00 +0000

Down the Road into the Valley of Fire - October 2012.

Fall is always my favorite time of year for photography, followed closely by Winter. A lot of the places I like to photograph are just too dang hot in the Summer and somehow I can't get too excited about the plain blue skies and bright light that we have here in the southwest during the hot season.
On that note, I just got back from my (almost) annual "Fall Color Tour", so time to fire up the blog with some new work. This year, besides my usual, favorite foliage area, I scouted up a couple of new locations that I have never worked before and they turned out to be the real highlights of the trip.
The aspens in the higher elevations of the Cedar Breaks area where I always go had pretty much dropped all their leaves, since I was about a week behind the schedule I originally intended, but that's o.k... Fall is not just about foliage; it's the light and atmosphere of the season and there are lots of possible subjects if you think about it that way.

My first stop was at Valley of Fire in Nevada. I can't count the times I have passed this place on my way up north.. partly because it is so hot much of the year and I had no idea it could be such a beautiful place, judging from the dry, flat, gray desert that you drive through most of the way to get here. I liked it so much that I spent an extra day and will definitely be going back often.
I've got a lot of raw material to go through and much of it is on film, which I haven't even sent out for processing yet, so it'll take a few weeks to work on everything and get it presentable... in the meantime I'll start with a few digital images that came out pretty good as-is.
This first shot is a general scenic view at Valley of Fire, shot in the late afternoon sun and I actually had to DE-saturate the colors a bit to make it believable:)

Warm Light on Big Sur

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 23:40:00 +0000

Wanting to print some new greeting cards for the gallery; I am going through some old folders and getting kind of nostalgic for the ocean, since I haven't done much down there recently. This evening scene is from Big Sur, just south of Carmel, a few years ago. Found a nice outcropping here where I could get some cool views back towards the cliffs. Right down behind where I was standing, is a tiny beach where you can get an iconic shot of a pair of off-shore sea stacks that I have seen done many, many times. Kind of hairy to get down there though and someone was already there, so I had to try something different.
This is one of those spots where you don't want to forget where your feet are while shooting, or you might have an unpleasant surprise:)

Strawberry Creek Gorge

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:09:00 +0000

A.K.A. locally as "The Grotto".
This is one of those "right in my back yard, but missed it" locations. Strawberry Creek emerges out of the ground high up on Mt. San Jacinto and then winds its way down gently all through the village of Idyllwild. I know the area pretty well by now, but there is one section of town that I haven't explored, because it is occupied by the large campus of Idyllwild Arts prep school ( a well known private high school that teaches performing arts, music and visual art at a very high level to talented kids from all over the world).
As it turns out, right behind the school property is where the creek exits town on its way down to the flatlands far below, and also where it enters a large, deep and steep gorge. Quite impressive... and the perfect place to spend hours enjoying the stream and the granite formations that have been carved into smooth, sweeping shapes over thousands of years by the flowing water.
Right now, in the midst of the dry season, the stream is barely trickling through here, but there are still some small pools of cool water to be seen and the lack of flow makes it easier and safer to wander around, I'm sure. Don't know how I just now found about this.. apparently it's well known by the long-time locals and, of course, the students at the school. It's supposed to be off-limits to them because of the danger, but what kid could resist, when it's right there, right?
I recently took one exploratory hike just to find it, and then the other day, went back to spend an hour or two doing some quick abstract studies. What a great location... hundreds of potential subjects all in a contained area... and if you go at the right time, you won't be bothered by anybody. This image and a few to come, were done in the mid-day summer sun, so not really ideal conditions... but by thinking in monochrome, which adds to the abstraction, I can usually make a few shots work.

Gnarls Barkley

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 17:59:00 +0000

A closeup view showing the gnarly, abstract growth pattern of the Engelmann Oaks growing all over thousands of acres at Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve. This species is now found only in far southwest California; this area near Murrieta and one other east of San Diego are the only two remaining large stands.
The colors around here are rather bland in the summer but can be really nice in the fall, especially in the right weather. In this particular view, I wanted to concentrate on the complicated texture of the limbs, so I felt that monochrome would be the best approach.

Layer Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:35:00 +0000

Next up in my series from Santa Rosa Plateau: this scene caught caught my attention because of the many different horizontal layers of textures and colors that seem to stack up when shot through a mild telephoto lens. Even the sky contributed. Most of this area is rolling hills, interspersed with thick groves of oak trees, so this shot of a single tree on a flat plain is kind of atypical for the area. This is looking out to the west, past the vernal pools that I mentioned couple of posts back.

Santa Rosa Plateau 3 - California Poppies

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 03:53:00 +0000

This is probably the only flower shot that I have ever posted here.. but it happens to fit in with the subject of this series about the Santa Rosa Plateau Nature Reserve. In the spring, these California poppies appear in abundance in the fields between the oak groves, along with some other various wildflowers, making for a real pretty nature walk through the thousands of acres of trees and grass.

Santa Rosa Plateau 2 - Vernal Pool

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 19:38:00 +0000

Vernal pools are small ponds that form, not from natural springs or a stream/river flow, but the collection of winter rains or snow melt and are usually at their highest point in the spring ("vernal" meaning spring). There are some fairly large ones in this ecological reserve area, but if you go anytime other than late winter/early spring, they are likely to be dry, as was the case last time I was here. Then, it becomes a big, dry bed of cracked mud and no life. This image is from a couple of years ago, when it was pretty full and teeming with life. No fish here, but amphibians and some other creatures have adapted to the temporary but protected nature of the environment, like this little guy that I caught swimming in the reeds. (Sorry, I don't know the species).

Santa Rosa Plateau

noreply@blogger.com (Mark Alan Meader) — Thu, 31 May 2012 05:13:00 +0000

I just realized that out of all the locations I have written about, I've so far passed over this one, which is pretty much right in my back yard (well, 60 miles from home, but this is California).. and I have a number of interesting images that I have made here over the past few years.
The Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve is a 9000 acre area about half way between Mt. San Jacinto where I live and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Many thousands of people pass by here every day on the major north-south freeway, I-15, just a few miles to the east and probably don't even know about this place... I didn't myself until a couple of years ago.
As you can see, it's a beautiful, wide open area of rolling hills, grass and oak groves; in the spring when it's green, as in this shot, it reminds you more of the English countryside than southern California. The Englemann Oaks that grow here are unique to southern California and northern Baja Mexico... and are great subject matter for photography, both in color and monochrome. I thought I'd start a series with this wide-open shot as a scene setter.