Photographic meanderings

Horsetail Falls by Moonlight, 2011
For those who can’t make it to Yosemite, there’s an alternative. On May 3, 2012, at about 3 AM local time, the moon will be transiting the correct azimuth at an elevation of about 8 degrees. While the color may not be optimal, it will light the falls. I suspect a careful choice of white balance will give the image a warm orange color. Me, I opted to convert this image to monochrome.

Edited to add: Michael Frye was the one to do the initial legwork to photograph Horsetail by moonlight. Read his account and see his image here.

Horsetail Falls, February 22, 2012

Yes, I’d say this was worth the drive from Ellington, MO, and the trek in to the valley from Oakhurst, CA.

Mighty Oak, Oakhurst, CA.

3 time zones, 6 states, and 1700+ miles and I am safe and sound in the Sierra Nevada. First night out at Horsetail falls wasn’t all that great, but last night it was spectacular. Over the next few days I’ll be photographing the falls, and maybe I’ll take a trip to the coast to see the ocean! Be sure to follow me on Twitter for updates. @Edie_Howe.

Final image in the series of reflections on the Merced River, Yosemite. Captured November 4, 2007.

Third in a series of four images of reflections on the Merced River in Yosemite. Captured November 4, 2007.

Michael Frye has hit another one out of the park with his latest eBook, “Exposure for Outdoor Photography”, published by Craft & Vision in PDF format. This guide takes you through the “Exposure Triangle” of aperture, shutter speed and ISO of digital photography, and opens up the mystery of the histogram. He gives a wonderful explanation of Ansel Adams’ zone system, too, and tops it off with a generous selection of examples. As always, his photographs take this out of the textbook realm and puts it in the art book region.

There’s lots more in this guide, too–metering modes, exposure modes, and he even touches on multiple exposures for HDR images.

Michael remains one of my favorite photography instructors. He is a clear writer, provides solid information, and treats his readers with respect.

The file is available now for download for $5. For the next 5 days, however, you can get “Exposure for Outdoor Photography” for $4 if you use the code EXPOSURE4 at checkout. Craft And Vision. has wonderful eBooks, and should you want want 5 books, you can save 20% by entering the code EXPOSURE20.

Disclosure: Any sales that are made as the result of clicking on the above links provides me with a percentage of the profit. Michael Frye is a friend of mine, and a professional with many years experience photographing Yosemite. As always, I would not recommend this guide if I weren’t impressed with the quality of it. “No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced”.*

*I stole that from the sigline of an online friend of mine. Thanks, Rich!

Second of four images created November 4, 2007, of reflections on the Merced River in Yosemite.

To all my good friends, I am heading to Yosemite for a visit! I’ll be arriving on Sunday, and staying with my good friend and sister of another mother, Christine Loberg. I’ll be staying until the end of the first week of March.

Of course I’ll be found at the El Cap Picnic Area most evenings, and I’ll be the one sitting in a bright red folding chair by my tripod. Do feel free to come up and introduce yourself.

During the next few weeks, posting will be rather light. But it should be new material, instead of the recycled images I’ve been posting lately.

Be Safe, Have Fun, and If You Don’t Breathe, You’ll Die!

Andy Nixon asked on his blog when to convert an image to black and white. My answer in a nutshell is “when should I leave an image in color?”

Some images are canonically color. Except when they aren’t. This image of Horsetail Falls was taken on March 12th, 2007, long after the traditional timeframe of the third week of February. The light was there, but the color wasn’t. That made the choice to convert to monochrome pretty easy.

One thing I’ve found is that images of the Belt of Venus really should stay in color. The variations of zones in color are just too subtle to make a good black and white.