Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona is arguably the finest slot canyon in the American southwest and certainly one of the most photographed. Although beautiful to witness with the naked eye, these jewels of the desert really shine when a long exposure reveals the view our retinas can’t perceive – the subtle shades and hues of the sunlight as it plays on the wind and water sculpted sandstone. 

Unlike most landscape photography, which benefits from the warm light of dawn or dusk, slot canyons are best photographed mid-day when the greatest amount of light penetrates the steep and narrow canyon walls.  This image was made with a 24mm wide angle lens and a 30 second exposure - no artificial lighting was used.

Contrary to popular belief lightning can strike the same place twice as shown in this timed exposure in the Ajo Mountains of Arizona. Although there are devices available for capturing lightning images, I find that composing a shot and then making a timed exposure of one to three minutes in sync with the rhythm of the strikes works just as well.

This image was made with a 300mm lens at a distance of about ten miles. While heading back from a day of shooting at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, I noticed the storm in the distance just after sunset and was surprised by the consistency of the strikes on the ridge. Shooting lightning can be dangerous (a tripod makes a good lightning rod!), but the conditions were perfect on this evening with clear skies above me and the long lens bringing the drama safely into view. The challenging part was actually framing the image in complete darkness using only the light from the strikes to compose. After opening the shutter, I watched and waited as mother nature created her elaborate light painting.

Here’s another image from our recent Southern California wildflower trip made near Gorman in the Angeles National Forest. It was fun to experiment with slow shutter motion blurs (a good creative outlet when the wind is blowing!) and the variety of colors made for some very impressionistic images.

I often praise the benefits of digital photography when compared to the old days of film, but one area where the digital world falls short is the constant need for power. People often ask how I manage this obstacle when traveling in the wilderness. The answer is the sun!

In addition to taking along a good supply of fully charged lithium-ion batteries I have a solar panel that rolls up into a small tube and cranks out a powerful 14 watts. That’s enough juice to power a laptop or sat phone and will even charge batteries on overcast days. So between that and several large capacity CF cards the sky really is the limit to shooting in the backcountry.

Climbing in the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite National Park is a magical experience. The domes and spires in this part of the High Sierra stretch as far as the eye can see and the crisp, clear alpine air at over 10,000 feet is a refreshing alternative to the often crowded Yosemite Valley. It was here that  John Muir spent his summers, and from these lofty summits he named it the Range of Light.

This image was taken on Matthes Crest, a popular route that traverses a spectacular knife-edged ridge and provides a unique alpine experience. My favorite climbing lens is the Nikkor 16mm, which has a wide field of view, provides maximum depth of field, and is very compact making it easy to climb with. Photographing climbs is always a challenge as vantage points are limited and safety always comes first. But great shots have a way of presenting themselves and capturing these images is often just a matter of living in the moment.

Light painting is a photographic technique where artificial light is combined with ambient light (typically at dusk or after dark) to enhance the features of a foreground subject and add a sense of mystery. It is often used on Indian ruins, unique rock formations, or trees to enhance the dramatic qualities already present in the scene.

This image of an ancient Bristlecone Pine in the Patriarch Grove in California’s White Mountains was made at dusk when the stars were just starting to shine and the sky still held some color. A Maglite flashlight with a directional snout and an amber gel was used to paint the tree during the 2 minute exposure, and a wide-angle 17mm lens allowed me to fill the frame with the large tree and still include plenty of sky.

These images are fun to create because, as Forrest Gump would say, “you never really know what you’re gonna get”. Fortunately with the advent of digital the wait is considerably shorter than the old days of film and any mistakes can be corrected before leaving the scene.

At first glance the desert can seem like a barren desolate place, void of life and beauty. But upon closer inspection it often reveals itself as a delicate world of endless variety and complexity, especially in the spring after a good winter like the one we’re having now.

This image of a natural garden in Plum Canyon in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park was taken with a Nikkor 180mm lens to isolate the scene and emphasize the colors of the cholla and wildflowers. The late afternoon backlight completed the picture by accentuating the detail of the cactus needles and setting them apart from the other elements as if to say, “look, but don’t touch”.

Exploring the balance between these contrasting worlds of beauty and danger is what makes the desert so fascinating. Visually it’s not as accessable as an alpine meadow or tropical rain forest, but for those willing to take a closer look the rewards are often just as great.

HDR (or High Dynamic Range) is an increasingly popular process of combining digital files to create an image that more closely resembles what the eye sees. It’s used primarily when the contrast in a scene exceeds the latitude of what the film or sensor is able to capture in a single shot.

Depending on the amount of contrast in the scene a series of up to 7 identical brackets one stop apart are combined, which represent all of the tonal value from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights. This image of False Kiva in Canyonlands National Park is very close to what I saw that evening, but the extreme contrast would have made it nothing more than a vision in my mind’s eye if not for HDR.

Photographic purists may balk at the use of such digital wizardry, but in fact it is not unlike the dodging and burning that Ansel Adams used countless times in the darkroom to achieve his magical prints. As he put it, “the negative is the score, and the print is the performance”. I concur, and feel that any photographic process which helps render a natural scene as it was witnessed is acceptable as long as it does not deceive the viewer or alter the truth.

Backcountry skiing opens up a whole new world of travel, sport and photographic possibilities. Locations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, which are often crowded and require permits long in advance during the rest of the year, are quiet and pristine during the winter months. Temperatures can drop to -20 degrees Fahrenheit so proper equipment is a must, but the reward is experiencing your own private ski bowls and perfect mountain landscapes.

This image was made at Treasure Lakes under Mount Abbott in the Rock Creek basin, one of the highest concentrations of 14,000 foot peaks in the Sierra. A 24mm lens filled the frame with the majestic peaks giving the skier a sense of place, while the Li-Ion batteries and compact flash cards performed flawlessly in the cold temperatures - a far cry from the old days of brittle film and fading button cells.

The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, which stretches from San Francisco to Cambria California, is the largest preserve in the nation and one of the richest marine environments in the world. Migrating grey whales, sea otters and elephant seals are just some of the protected wildlife that can be experienced along this magnificent stretch of coastline.

This image was made at Sand Dollar Beach on the Big Sur coast in Los Padres National Forest. It is one of the most rugged and scenic areas on the Pacific and a favorite location for photographers, surfers and beach combers alike.  A 17mm wide angle lens was used to frame the half-mile cove and Santa Lucia Mountains beyond, and a split neutral density filter balanced the exposure between the sunset and flowers.