A handheld shot of the crescent moon, taken while exercising some new(ish) gear…
EXIF:
Olympus E-M1II, M.Zuiko 300mm lens / MC-14 teleconverter
f/5.6, 420mm, 1/250 sec, ISO 1250
To the craters of the moon…
Category Archives: Nature
Looking down the canyon
A fisheye view of Echo Canyon in Zion National Park, seen from under “Weeping Rock:”
This scene, BTW, is just a taste of the attractions in Zion. The place can get a bit crowded during the summer, but a shuttle bus service runs up and down the canyon, and many impressive sights are just a short hike away from a shuttle stop.
EXIF:
Olympus E-M1
Olympus M.Zuiko 8mm Fisheye lens
f/22, 1/100 sec, ISO 200
Going out on patrol
A quick shot of (wild)life from Florida’s Myakka River State Park, as an alligator heads out into the lake, looking for lunch:
I took this shot from a tour boat the park runs — I’d absolutely recommend it if you’re ever in the “neighborhood” (but get there early, tickets for the boats tend to sell out early in the day).
EXIF:
Olympus E-M1II
Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8 lens
MC-14 teleconverter
f/7.1, 210mm, 1/1600 sec, ISO 200
The promise of spring
Apple blossoms herald the end of winter in Colorado.
A quick shot in my back yard with an Olympus E-M1II, and an M.Zuiko 60mm macro lens. EXIF: f/5.0, ISO 320, 1/125 sec
Navajo Mountain
An interesting view, taken from high above Glen Canyon while on a flight home from L.A.:
Star trails and Perseids
The Perseid meteor shower had its peak a few days ago (late August 12 / early August 13 in North America), and since I both live in an urban area (bright night skies) and had cloudy weather that night, missed out on what must have been a good show.
But as luck would have it, we own a small bit of land in southern Colorado’s San Juan Mountains — a dark sky sort of place — and I’d already planned on traveling down for the weekend to do some maintenance work. So, I thought I should try to capture some lagging Perseids the night of the 13th / 14th — here’s my first shot from the series:
The feeling of falling
For your weekend relaxation — a view of Montmorency Falls, near Quebec City, Quebec, Canada:
As waterfalls go, Montmorency is both photogenic and easy to get to, if you’re in the neighborhood (it’s a relatively short jaunt off a nearby highway). Some thoughts, though, should you be planning a trip to Quebec City: Continue reading
Bouquet of colors
We recently took a family trip to Montreal and Boston — so along with other things, it gave me a chance to put Olympus’ (relatively recent) “Live Composite” mode to work on Boston’s Independence Day fireworks.
For those of you unfamiliar with this, “Live Composite” is a feature of their OM-D cameras that allows you to do something like a long exposure — but without the usual risk that brings of overexposing parts of the image. You set up your exposure settings, start “Live Comp,” then it only updates a part of the image if it has become brighter than before — so you wind up collecting sort of a “high water mark” for each pixel / color.
It’s easier to use than I’ve described it, as for the results, you can see for yourself:
This was my first real experience with Live Composite — I’ll definitely be writing more about it in the coming weeks…
Moraine Park
Looking to the west in Rocky Mountain National Park…
This shot looks up Moraine Park (a glacier-cut valley) to the continental divide. The peaks here are relatively low — only getting up to a bit over 12,000 feet above sea level (Colorado has many “14ers,” 14,000 foot tall mountains, further south).
Scenes from a Colorado overflight
We recently did a bit of family travel — on our way from Denver to Phoenix, we were fortunate enough to have relatively clear skies and a late afternoon flight. Perfect for some aerial twilight photography of various spots in Colorado and the four corners region of the U.S.
First up for you, Colorado Springs (top of frame) seen over the snow covered Rampart Reservoir, not far west of town.
Colorado Springs is one of those places I normally see while driving through (in this case, on I-25) — from that perspective, the mountains form a wall to the west of the city. But from above, the fact that the mountains are essentially a (tall) rumpled plateau is much more evident.