Marketplace!

I've uploaded some photos, some of which are shown below, on to a website where photo buyers can browse and purchase individual photos. I don't expect to make more than a few sales each year but, you never know until you try. As soon as there is a link available to these pics, I'll have a big fanfare and post it here.

This first one is an amazing combination of colors and geology of Bryce Canyon. It certainly grabs my attention (as well as the attention of others on another website).

Here's another one that rates very high on the "unreal" scale. The day I get down at the base of those monster hoodoos will result in some unexpectedly amazing shots.

After the website accepts my uploaded images, I'll have to put a price tag on my works of art. Being that my camera isn't a top of the line new model, I can't price myself into that kind of range. However, the pictures WILL grab people's attention and they'll pay a pretty penny for an image that fascinates them.

I'm really not sure if my style of fine art pics will sell on this site called "PhotoShelter". It seems like it might be more of a stock photo/business world photo site. We'll see.

Zionic Bliss, Part III

Here at the intersection of the red cliffs and the white "slickrock", this guy was posing on a pinnacle for his girlfriend and I sniped a shot when they weren't looking. Yeah, you have to open it in a new window really, to see it more clearly. That Saturday in Zion had lots of people on the trails.

Again, here's another cliff and pine tree picture. That pine is probably around 300 years old. Trees just don't get all that big with such short growing seasons. Again, you also see the neverending variety of patterns from the cliff faces.

Up in the the higher elevations, you still have the great patterns and picturesque pines but, the colors and shapes are changed. There is plenty of "wandering" that can safely be done up here, off-trail. Yeah, Mom, I know it's dangerous but, haven't I lived for that most of my life?

This Photoshopped picture with the "Poster Edges" filter applied really brings out the texture on all these Zion cliff photos. I like the little plants hanging down from the overhang. I used my zoom to reach across Refrigerator Canyon and pull this scene in.

Here's another Photoshopped pic using "Poster Edges" to enhance the texture. This picture conjured up a comedy bit with these three trees always bickering over their situation, stuck on a high cliff for decades with each other.

That's it for Zion for a bit. I still have another posting from Bryce to do, too.

Zionic Bliss, Part II

If you haven't read the first part of this story, you'd better scroll down to the previous entry and start from there.

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The rest of you were left up in Refrigerator Canyon to gawk in adoration of nature's most detailed masterpiece, Zion National Park. The terrain in Refrigerator Canyon is so rugged that even the smallest of side canyons can be impassable to humans. The hike is so magical that you think it's almost a part of Lord of the Rings.

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In this picture below, the trail goes switchbacking up to gain the ridge I was standing on. It forks at Scouts Lookout and the lefthand fork goes around the top of the side canyon to the right. The trail has big dropoffs on both sides until it reaches the far end of Refrigerator Canyon in this picture.

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By the way, this picture was enhanced with a Photoshop filter, Poster Edges.

Along the way, you're treated to cliff views with amazing patterns and arrangements.

Here's another Photoshopped cliff picture in Refrigerator Canyon. I'm always drawn to those forlorn, but defiant old pines on the cliffs.

At Scouts Lookout, you can take the "trail" to the top of Angel's Landing, seen below. I chose to go farther up towards the West Rim but had hoped to be able to do it on the way back down (or at least, that's how I planned it on the funky map). There's a narrow fin where the "trail" goes and some rather steep rock before it starts to level out on top.

I decided to zoom in on the scariest part and saw quite a few people going up and coming down. I can definitely compare it to the Half Dome cables in Yosemite. I did see some cables embedded into the rock on part of the route. Next time I come back to Zion, I will come back and do this trail. I really like how this pictures shows the "exposure" part of hiking in Zion.

Next posting will take you up to where the white "slickrock" meets the red cliffs. I took nearly 3.5 gigabytes of pictures on this one day. Lighting was difficult so I did some "bracketing" to see how the camera captures scenes with lots of shadows and sun

Zionic Bliss

The two days in Zion were packed with great shots and almost perfect conditions, given that it IS still mid-March! I had planned on staying another half day but, a little snow storm put the damper on that.

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My plan had me spending a full day in the Kolob Canyons part of Zion. I didn't check this place out the last time I went so a full day of shooting was in order. The funny thing is that, despite how huge this place is and how close it is to Interstate 15, you can't see any of the park from the freeway. I drove right past it and had to backtrack. It's a view-packed 17 mile drive, ending on a high ridge across from a collection of monolithic red cliffs like these below.

I just love those soothing red colors, the incredible textures and the endless varieties of shapes and sizes.

The second day had me on an expedition to get up on top of the cliffs. This scene below greeted me as I entered the park. The last time I was here, I didn't have my nice Fuji with the 10X optical zoom. I'm now able to get an infinite amount of better pictures with this camera and Zion is so full of scenes like these.

This is what I saw looking up from the bottom of the trail. Carved right out of sheer cliffs, in places, the trail winds its way up, amongst the cottonwoods, cactus, oaks, junipers and pines.

Nope, there's not too many railings on this trail. All these switchbacks get you into the the dramatically narrow Refrigerator Canyon. We'll continue the journey next time as I reach Scouts Lookout, atop a 1000 foot cliff.

The Big Trip!

I've been hinting for months that I would be going to Zion this winter. Well, after several setbacks and personal issues, I'm on the road and in Utah tonight. I really need to do some computer storage management for all the photos coming in or already stored, in compressed RAW format, of course. The compressed RAW files, like the old print film, need to be "processed" before you can share or print them. Converting the RAW files expands the file sizes from 6.6 megs up to 17 megs. I can always copy some pictures on to a DVD disk and free up some space.

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This evening, I uploaded 225 Bryce Canyon pictures and a few dozen Nevada pics I took along the way. This is an example what you'll find along US Highway 50 in Nevada, also known as the lonliest highway in America. Below is a "shoe tree" out in the middle of nowhere. I've seen four other of these trees where people hang their shoes as a personal show of conquest.

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Here's a pic of the Great Basin National Park, but from the west side of this massive Nevada mountain range near the eastern border with Utah.

In Bryce Canyon this morning, the weather was a mixed bag with clouds and sun coming and going. I couldn't get down close to the hoodoos so I had to depend on my powerful zoom to get us all there. There's so many nooks and crannies, surely chock-full with picturesque discoveries like the one below.

Just this one valley below would be an entire day's shooting for me. This just means that I'll have to come back and take a little backpacking trip.

This last one is very much like an abstract. That 10X zoom gets me to a lot of places that my old film camera never could. Getting this picture meant braving 45 mph winds at 9000 feet above sea level. I'm happy with what I've seen of today's shots, so far.

Beautiful Downtown....Mountain Ranch?!?

In looking at real estate in the area of Mountain Ranch, CA, I found a few historical exclamation points clustered in the tiny community that is not on a major highway in the Mother Lode country. This cool truck was parked on the street and it looks could you could still drive it.

Notice the rusty old siren above the license plate.

Right close by is the old Mountain Ranch Post Office.

And right next door is the OLDER Mountain Ranch Post Office.

Everyone loves a cool old red firetruck! Need to dust that thing off, once in a while!

Family pics!

After a visit in San Diego with family members, mourning the loss of our treasured Uncle Ron, I decided to scan and post some family pictures from the now-distant past. If any family members would like a high resolution digital file sent to them, just drop me a line and I can send a CD or email it to you, depending on the size you'd like.

This picture below is of my brother Dave and his daughter Julie fishing on the Napa River. When we were kids, we used to play around this very area, as we lived in the neighborhood at the time. Julie sure looks intent on catching "da big one". She's all grown up now and married, while Dave lives back in "Nawth Cair-lina".

Here's an action photo of brothers Dave and Ken on a camping trip near Lassen National Park. Notice how skinny they were back then (Weren't we all?!?) Hidden behind Ken is our longtime pal, Chris, who often was an accomplice in our misdeeds.

Here's a few nieces and nephews from our family camping trip to Silverfork Campground on the Eldorado National Forest. This pic of Ashley (Ashley's blog is at: http://www.ashinthecity.com/ ), Isaac and Julie marching around the campground brings back great memories of that trip. I'm still looking for the rest of those trip's photos, buried somewhere in a slide box.

Here's a group picture of all my brothers and some of the nieces and nephews. Yep, the family tree has tons more branches, these days.

And here's your's truly, back in the early 90's, tossing a rock into the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne. Notice how slim and trim I was back then, when I was working my butt off salvaging lots of bug-killed trees at work. I've used this photo in flirty chat rooms and it never failed to excite the gals. Then the picture went AWOL for many years and I just rediscovered it. I was on a backpacking trip with my longtime friend Euell, who always brings me great luck in photography. I picked up this 100 pound rock and told him, "Take the friggin' picture, already!!"

Mo' Yo Pics

Here's a long-lost gem I delved up from deep in my dusty slides boxes. That day at Glacier Point, I climbed over the wall (to keep the tourists in) and found some spots for some different photos, like this one.

Even the generic in Yosemite Valley is sublime. Except for those 4 cars I digitally erased from this picture below. The lighting and shadows in this picture remind me of Ansel Adams' work.

Illilouette Falls seems to be a shy waterfall, turned away from the John Muir Trail and tucked away. This gem is readily accessible from Glacier Point but it is an uphill hike back to your car. Some people hike past the falls, over Panorama Cliff to Nevada Falls and then back down the Mist Trail to Yosemite Valley. It's a moderate hike, mostly downhill. Three waterfalls and Half Dome, all for the same price!

Back in the early 90's, I went on a small plane flight from Placerville to northern Yosemite, including Hetchy Hetchy. This view of the rugged and remote part of northern Yosemite needed some manipulation in scanning to sharpen and adjust the colors, as this pic was taken through the planes window. Rarely do people visit this part of the park.

I could not pass up this crowded turnout at the east entrance of Wawona tunnel. The light was so good and the air so clear that I was compelled to capture this vista despite the crowd of tourists. You can also compare this picture to others on this blog which were taken in the winter time.

Enjoy!

Scan-O-Mania!

Here's a picture that I was able to "recover", using the digital photo tools I have at my disposal. This Kodachrome slide was way underexposed and was completely unusable. I adjusted the scan controls and played with all the enhancement settings and came up with this very nice photo from my snow camping trip on Glacier Point back in the 90's.

Here's another nice reflection shot that was uncropped from the original slide. This was my attempt at "fine art" but, I've found better examples in some of the other Grant Lake photos. I know that my "eye" is more tuned and more experienced now and I'm enjoying the rediscovery of my old pictures.

This next shot was from a Backcountry Ski Club trip to the Bishop Pass area of Kings Canyon National Park. This is true wilderness, where man only comes as a visitor and Mother Nature has no problem in telling you when it's time to leave. This National Park is as rugged and remote as any other in America. Not many humans have ever been to this spot!

During a drought winter, back in the early 90's, I wandered up the Yosemite Falls trail and did a little off-trail exploring in the area between the Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls. I love the browns and the textures of the rocks. Someday I'll get down into that "inner gorge".

Finally, we have yet another Grant Lake picture. I'm not completely happy with how the scan came out. The picture lost some of that great "golden hour" light that was in the original Kodachrome slide. This picture also seems to have great opportunities for cropping out some more great pics.

Staying Busy

Winter is here and I was able to take this break from snow shoveling to take a few pics around the homestead. I knew right away that this one would be a good shot. It's better to have some clouds in the sky, rather than having that deep oversaturated blue dominating.

Here's an old picture I scanned from up near the White Mountains Bristlecone pine forest. It was the next morning after a stormy afternoon and evenng the day before. The view stretched from Yosemite to Mount Whitney (and beyond!).

This next one is one of my all-time classics. Blessed with the perfect light, I took what might be a perfect picture. In scanning the Kodachrome slide, I was able to very closely approach the brilliance of the original.

Here is the best view of the Half Dome cables. Like pilgrims "climbing the ladder to heaven", climbing Half Dome is a spiritual experience for all who succeed. Some falter when they first see the way you have to go to get to the top. I'll admit to being intimidated when I first stood at the bottom. You do, literally, have to "hang on for dear life".

Finally we have a smoke-enhanced sunset over the 12,000+ foot Mount Conness, taken from near Glen Aulin, on the Tuolumne River. While my fellow campers declined to come and see the sunset with me, my 5 minute walk was well worth it.

My Uncle

This picture will always remind me of my Uncle Ron, who passed away rather abruptly after the smoke from the San Diego fires irritated a previously hidden lung cancer. Whenever he came around, my brothers and I knew we were in for some outdoor fun. Death did not cheat him and he lived his life to the fullest. He leaves behind a wealth of stories and memories that will be passed on as legend in our family. After seeing all his children, all grown up now, I know that I want all of us to be as close as we were last week. The love felt great, even amongst all of the sadness. Your love will always be with us, Uncle Ron.

Son of New Scans!

I've been VERY busy in scanning some of my very best Kodachrome slides for inclusion into my Yosemite portfolio book project. I spent the last two days searching through my files, slide boxes and even the loose slides gathering dust in slide projector carousel boxes. You don't quite yet get to see the best of those because I had these others ready to go first.

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Yosemite's Budd Lake is in the High Sierra and nestled right at the base of the awe-inspiring Cathedral Peak. I fully intend to spend the night there and capture the beauty of the "Golden Hours". This is a perfect example of a "cirque lake", where a glacier had "ground its heel" and scooped out a depression then melted and formed a lake.

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While I do have successes in scanning, like the above shot, I also need more practice in using Photoshop Elements and the Nikon Scan programs. It's definitely an interesting task to revisit old places and recapture the scenes better than you did 20 years ago. This picture below lost a little bit of that warm yellow evening light that is in the original slide.

Here's another tough photo to manipulate. These contrasty scenes, like Upper Yosemite Falls, always fooled my camera and I into under-exposing the darker areas. Snow and white granite reflect more light and the camera sensors automatically adjust for those bright highlights. Ideally, one has to go into manual exposure mode and over-expose those bright features so the the blues and greens aren't so unnaturally dark.

Here's a "properly worshipful" view of Giant Sequoias that I didn't have to "fiddle" with to get it to look right. What is really interesting about these groves is that trees of other species often reach their maximum sizes in futile competition with the beastly Giant Sequioas.

This slide came out quite well, as I used the Levels controls and set the white balance by clicking on the climbers white shirt. Suddenly, the greens were enhanced and the blue sky looked more realistic, instead of like deep space. In the high-res scan, you can zoom in on those dozen or so people at the bottom of Half Dome's cable ladder. On the descent, my polarizing filter popped out of my cracked Tokina lens and bounced at least 80 feet to the bottom of the cable ladder. Except for a dent in the outer ring, the glass filter was undamaged.

New Yosemite scans!

To flesh out my new Mpix ( www.mpix.com ) book to use as a Yosemite portfolio, I scanned these old Kodachrome slides recently. It's really cool to be able to go back to those trips and, basically, re-compose many of those old shots.

This one below came out pretty well, without too much scanning trouble. I didn't crop this one of Yosemite's Natural Arch.

I was intrigued whether I could crop and improve on this interesting "rainbow" shot of Yosemite Falls from Glacier Point. I still need to be more skilled at sharpening these kinds of pictures without overdoing it. It just might work better as a black and white photo.

This shot, from Stanford Point on a skiing trip, took a lot of fiddling and I'm still not satisfied with the results. I was able to tone down a bluish cast and do some sharpening but, I'd be happy if the picture looked exactly like the original. More practice is needed to sort through all the jam-packed features of my Nikon scanner.

On the other hand, this pic came out looking almost exactly like the original. I still think this pic also has a bluish cast and could benefit from greener greens. I love the glacial polish and juniper trees are one of my few favorites. The Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne is a deep V-shaped canyon that was home to the Sierra Nevada's longest glacier, over 40 miles long at its largest during the Ice Ages.

I stumbled across this slide and looked for a way to crop a great picture out of the original. That afternoon and early evening had terrific light and Grant Lake was obviously perfectly glassy.

Happy Holidays!

Could this be where Santa's secret new base is hidden? Due to global warming, the North Pole just doesn't have the snow and ice that it used to. I do like the look of this pic that puts the mighty Mt. Shasta above it all.

Too bad this mountain is filled with crevasses and avalanche paths. This picture is sure to make expert skiers salivate and drool. Been there and done that. I would be willing to do it again, except to make it all the way to the top. This isn't the "regular route" that most people take. I have to say that climbing with crampons (ice spikes for your mountaineering boots) and ice axe is a lot of fun! It's the coming back down that is scarier, with gravity pushing you down faster than you should go.

I'm going to try and stay busy this winter, with lots of plans on the table. For now, I'm just going to try and have a good time with relatives, cherishing each others company, now more than ever.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!