Archive for the Landscape Category

Almond Reflections

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After all the rain we’ve had you almost need galoshes to get into the orchards. However it did provide the opportunity for this shot. I liked how the dirty water actually changed the color of the blossoms in the reflection.

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Dave

Spring tree

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It is raining a lot these days and most people in California are happy about it. In between rain storms are great photo opportunities because the mix of clouds and sunshine creates a challenging and interesting light and background situation. I created this image using a 15mm super wide angle lens on a full frame sensor camera. I was basically laying on the ground in the creek bed to get as much sky as possible and to block the houses out that are standing in the background. You have the feeling of a country image which was shot in the middle of Merced on my (almost) daily exercise walk.

Enjoy and happy photographing!

Lonely Flower

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When you first view this photograph you think, well it’s an out of focus shot of the sea. Then your eye catches that little flower in the lower right and jumps around a little bit. I thought about adding a cloud or two to add some tension but decided to keep the photograph as is. I used a slow shutter speed and larger f-stop to keep the foreground in focus and the background recognizable. This was actually the only flower I could see in the area.

F22 @1/20sec, 30mm, ISO 200

Empty Bottle in Rahilly Park

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Rahilly Park in Merced, CA is my favorite photographic subject. I love this little park where I do my almost daily exercise walk. Since I am the kind of photographer that always looks out for beauty and interesting subjects I closed my eyes on the garbage that unfortunately is all over this park. This month I finally decided to photograph and to document it. I am happy to report that I met one retired gentlemen who walks the park every morning with an empty trash bag and picks up a lot of garbage.

I did not like the first round of images. I had to rethink and made some adjustments in my photographic vision. Finally I came up with images that speak to me and I will consider myself a happy man if I could make just one person stop throwing garbage into our beautiful parks!

Camera setting: 15mm focal length, f20, 1/160sec., ISO 400

Sunset- Point Lobos State Park

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Point Lobos is a wonderful State Park for photography, hiking and enjoying the ocean. Earlier in the day the waves were very high and the beach/ocean access was restricted. I was lucky enough to be able to set up my tripod right at the point where access was stopped. With the grey foggy sky I wasn’t sure what the sunset would be like. After about a 40 minute wait ………..

1/8sec at 56mm, f16, ISO200, tripod mounted, graduated neutral density filter, remote trigger, polarizing filter and I think the kitchen sink.

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Dave

Mono chrome sunset

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I took this photo a couple of months back at Lake Yosemite. The sunset was behind and to my left. The light was so strong that it turned the usually dominant fall colors to an almost mono-chrome color. F11, 1/50 sec., 35mm.

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Dave

Bridge to …..

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When you go to Yosemite you seldom find areas such as the bridges to yourself. Though a few people had passed this way before me I had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery and take thisĀ  photograph.

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Dave

A bench and a tree in the fog

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This is one of my favorite images of 2010 so far. Like yesterday’s image, it is a very simple image. There is just a tree and a bench. The fog hides the houses in the background. The composition of the two creates the beauty of the image. Harald Mante says in his book the Photograph, that one point in an image dominates the picture and that two points create tension. The tension is supported by the fact that the bench is a “man made thing” and the tree is “planted and alive.”

For me this image is a representation of the last two hundred years of history. Since the industrial revolution we put man-made things into the foreground and how many times have we put nature into the background. I hope we will learn to create harmony between the two of them.

Enjoy the image and who knows it may inspire you to think or/and to photograph

No Ducks but……

I wasn’t able to take the day off to photograph so in the late afternoon I went to the Merced Wildlife Refuge hoping to get some waterfowl photographs. Very few ducks but being a lover of landscapes I still considered the shoot a success.

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Looking South, 1/30 sec, f7.1, 130mm, ISO200, tripod mounted

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Looking West, 1/100sec, f7.1, 170mm, ISO200, tripod mounted

Keep clicking,

Dave

Beautiful Central California Coast part 05

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The waves in front of the Point Sur were just magnificent. The strong wind was creating a white crown on each wave.

Enjoy and have a great week-end!