05-AUG-2006
Moonrise at Mohonk, New Paltz, New York, 2006
While visiting New York, we stayed for a weekend at a secluded Victorian Resort known as the Mohonk Mountain House. Located in the Hudson Valley just 90 minutes from New York, Mohonk was founded in 1869, and today its 265 rooms sprawl across the crest of Shawangunk Ridge along Mohonk Lake. Looming on a cliff over that lake is a tower, offering hikers a view of numerous neighboring states. I made this image of that tower at the moment the moon drew equal to its cupola, just as the setting sun turned the limestone ridge to a deep reddish gold color. Less than a minute after I made this image, the light faded from the cliff. This image echoes a prime maxim of landscape photography – be there when the light is on the edge, just before it goes away.
09-JUN-2006
Waterfall, Hug Point, Oregon, 2006
Most waterfalls are photographed as waterfalls. I find them more expressive if they can be photographed as part of a landscape. After shooting this one head-on, I soon realized that all I had was a descriptive picture of a waterfall. To make a more expressive image of this subject, I began working the angles, until I was able to create a series of layers, which are essential to any landscape. Layers add a third dimension to an image. We not only have width and height, but can imply depth as well. As I worked on this image from the side, I saw that I could create a flow of small rocks along the bottom of the image that became progressive smaller as they receded into the distance. I also saw the outline of what appeared to be a huge cave just behind the waterfall, and when I used my spot meter on the light water, the cave behind the waterfall became ever darker and more mysterious. The darker the rocks became, the richer the color, which adds still another expressive dimension to this image. Another question I needed to answer here was the amount of blur in the water. The slower the shutter speed, the more silky-smooth the blurred water becomes. Most photographers blur flowing water by shooting from tripods. It gives them complete control over the amount of blur in the water, without risking blurring the surrounding rocks due to camera shake. However, I prefer to always shoot “hand-held.” I like to move when “working” a shot, and I move a lot. I don’t want to have to keep replanting a tripod, leveling it, etc. The technical side of photography tends to sap spontaneity, so I eliminate the use of such encumbrances as tripods, fill flash, and filtration from my approach. Using my image stabilized Leica lens, I can hand hold a shot as slow as ¼ of a second, which is equivalent to about 1/15th of a second exposure time without using image stabilization. Shooting this particular waterfall, I found that the slower exposures gave me too much blur in the water. It just did not look “real” to me – whereas this shot, made at 1/15th of a second, gives just enough blur to imply swiftly moving water. Light plays a huge role in landscape photography. But sometime the light is just not there. Such was the case here. It was a heavily overcast morning, and I had to work in flat light. Yet I was able to draw on heavy shadows to abstract the background, and add a layer of mystery to the image. Shadows are part of any cave-like setting, and I stress them in this image.
The effect of my vantage point is very important here. You can see where I was shooting from in a wideangle view of the whole scene shot by our tour's co-leader Winn Krafton by clicking on the link at bottom. I used a medium focal length to compress background and foreground.
05-APR-2006
Li River, Guilin, China, 2006
When we think of good light for landscapes, we think first of the golden light of morning and evening. Yet expressively rich images of landscapes can also be made on a cloudy day, particularly if the air is misty and the sky overcast. For years I have been looking forward to photographing the spectacular mountain scenery on Guilin’s Li River, yet when that day finally came, the sun was obscured by a bright overcast of clouds. I made the best of what nature gave me, relying on that obscurity to challenge the imagination. This image is my favorite from that day – it evokes mighty scale and the forces of nature at work over the centuries. The sheer limestone cliffs soaring over the river into a misty sky dwarf the four riverboats ahead of us, creating powerful scale incongruity. The mountains are delicately painted in green, and forests flow from their flanks down to the river. My choice of a cloudy white balance setting warms the bright sky with a bronze glow reminiscent of a 19th century painting. I increased the saturation of this glow later in Photoshop to bring the image to what we see here
03-APR-2006
Horsemen, Lijiang, China, 2006
Just as the sun demolished a leaden afternoon by hurling its rays through these broken clouds, these horsemen and a small dog came riding past us – a perfect combination for a striking landscape image. Usually landscapes allow time for contemplation. This one did not. The rays lasted only a few minutes; the horses were in front of us for only a few seconds. I put my camera into its multiple image mode, held the shutter button down, and made six pictures in two bursts. I based exposure on the brightest part of the sky to hold detail in the rays. The horses were underexposed, but I was able to bring them back to this point by using the shadow/highlight option in Photoshop. The image has a timeless feel to it – these riders could have come from another century altogether. It is grandeur of nature that takes center stage here – light like this does not show itself every day.
02-APR-2006
Jade Dragon Mountain, Lijiang, China, 2006
Lijiang’s most famous landmark is this towering 18,360-foot high mountain. Its 13 sharp peaks resemble the back of a dragon. Its snow-covered peak is one of the southernmost glaciers in the world. An early morning storm is just lifting from the summit. Nature made this image for me. Without the clearing storm at the summit, all I would have is another picture of a mountain peak. What I was given, however, was a glimpse of lifting clouds in the warm glow of dawn light. I was able to abstract the lower half of the mountain by shooting through a stand of trees. Their jagged edges rhythmically repeat the jagged peak of the mountain. I owe this image, and indeed all of my Lijiang images to pbase photographers Alister and Allie Benn. (
http://www.pbase.com/alibenn ) Alister took me to this particular vantage point, one he obviously knows well. He told me that this mountain is often fogged in at dawn. I was very grateful to be able to see the peak in this kind of light
08-FEB-2006
Isolation, Zion National Park, Utah, 2006
When shooting landscapes, I look not for a subject, but instead for light that defines a subject. Such was the case here. I saw how the early morning light defined the isolation of this lone Cottonwood tree, and how it gave a sense of scale to vast cliffs that line the valley of Zion Canyon along the route of the Virgin River. I lowered the top edge to remove the top of the cliffs, making them seem to go on forever. The light not only illuminates the delicate branches and leaves of the Cottonwood tree from behind, but it also abstracts the canyon walls, turning them all black, except for one wall that slashes into the valley at a right angle. And that wall plays counterpoint to this tree – two forms of nature, one alive, the other eternal.
08-FEB-2006
Riverside Walk, Zion National Park, Utah, 2006
A lone figure passes under the deeply etched, richly colored sandstone walls that rise on both sides of the Virgin River. The figure gives this landscape its focal point and a sense of scale. I conceived the idea first, and structured my image within the frame long before this man appeared. I used a new camera, a Leica D-Lux 2, to make this photo. It offers a 28mm focal length in a 16:9 aspect ratio, similar in frame shape to the screen of a high definition TV set. This proportion was ideally suited to my idea. I wanted an image based on two triangles, meeting along a diagonal line through the middle of the frame. I stood behind the slope of a hill, which I used to fill half the frame. It begins at the upper left hand corner of the fame, and leads down to a paved trail that comes into the image from behind the hill, and leaves the frame at the lower right hand corner. The hill and trail gave me one of my triangles. The other triangle fills the upper right side of the image. It is dominated by the vast, richly colored, deeply carved sandstone cliffs, and fronted by backlit cottonwood trees along the Virgin River. All I needed was a human figure to enter my frame, and when this man did, I caught him just as he was turning to admire the view.
07-SEP-2005
The Slap, Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia, 2005
Veliki Slap, the "big waterfall," dominates one end of Plitvice Lakes National Park. Its cascades were smashing into the ground only a few yards from where I was standing. I tried to make a landscape photograph that would be primeval in nature, comparing the gentle cascades and surrounding plants in the foreground to a thundering tapestry of natural power of “The Slap” in the background. I exposed for that background, and then recovered the important detail, such as the light shimmering on the small cascades in the shadowy foreground, later in Photoshop.
04-MAY-2005
Liquid Gold, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Arizona, 2005
Oak Creek, along with it namesake, Oak Creek Canyon, is one of the most photographed sights in the American West. Yet it is difficult to express the essence of it, largely because it is often shrouded in flat light. The day’s warmest light, blocked by the canyon’s towering walls at both dawn and dusk, often never makes it all the way down to the waters of the creek itself. However, for this particular image, I was able to incorporate the golden light of dawn as it hit the canyon wall, by catching its reflection in the creek’s rippling water. I abstract the creek itself, shooting only an incongruously narrow channel of gilded water threading its way between the boulders that line the creek bed. Less has truly become more here.
I intend this golden reflection to work in metaphorical, rather than descriptive, terms. We are looking here at water, a resource ultimately as precious to man as the metaphorical gold that seems to drift upon its ripples. Fresh water is a dwindling resource, and I symbolize its potential scarcity by squeezing it as tightly as I can between those ancient boulders.
26-JAN-2005
Tad Fane Falls, Pakxong, Laos, 2005
In the far south of Laos, we visited spectacular Tad Fane Falls, a pair of waterfalls plunging 800 feet into a forest gorge. The sheer drop of water is so breathtaking that Tad Fane would be among the most popular waterfalls in the world if not hidden in a remote section of Laos. The light and color in the surrounding foliage brings the image to life. I also found two thin tall trees that seemed to mimic the narrow twin cascades of water, and moved my vantage point so that the two trees separate the two falls. This greatly improves the structure of my wideangle composition. When I first photographed these twin falls without the trees between them, I produced a visually beautiful yet static picture post card image, crippled by the abundant amount of negative space nature had placed between the cascades. Inserting the twin trees between the cascades, I not only create rhythmic repetition, but I also tripled yet narrowed the overall amount of negative space, energizing the picture. Each of the three narrow strips of negative space adds vertical tension to the image. I also framed the falls both top and bottom in foliage to shift perspective and give an illusion of depth. (The mid-flow crater in the right hand cascade was particularly impressive. I made a close-up image of that crater with my long lens, in back and white. You can see it in my black and white gallery by clicking on the thumbnail below:
On the Plains of Old Bagan, Myanmar, 2005
We climbed to the top of a ruined temple at dusk to look out over what was left of Old Bagan. When the forces of the Mongol Golden Horde, led by Kublai Khan, overwhelmed Bagan in 1287, there were 13,000 temples here. The ruins of 2,000 of them still stand on the plains of Bagan, which today is both a farming community and an archaeological zone. The two come together in this landscape image. Where agriculture ends, archaeology begins. It creates a striking contrast in zones, and that is what makes this a strong landscape. I devote three quarters of my frame to the rows of crops in the field below us. Each row leads to a ruined temple on the horizon. The image is designed to flow both horizontally and vertically. We see a huge farm and enjoy a panoramic view of at least 25 ruined temples in the distance, yet the eye also is drawn vertically to the temples by each row of crops. Evening light also plays an important role here, producing the rich, deep colors and powerful shadows.
15-OCT-2004
Fiery Dawn Over Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California, 2004
I walked to a meadow in the dark, put my camera on a tripod, and waited for the sun to light up the sky behind Half Dome. I never expected to see, let alone photograph, a sight such as this. Obviously this vividly incongruous display of dawn light itself becomes the subject matter for this landscape. Half Dome, perhaps the most famous of Yosemite’s landmarks, provides the context. Light and color express the essence of this landscape, by creating stylized fire in the sky as a metaphor for creation. Yet my perspective is critical as well. By aligning the edge of those abstracted trees in the foreground with the fiery clouds, and comparing the scene to those the three huge slopes at right, I bring both the illusion of depth and a sense of scale to the scene.