Lane Peak, Tatoosh Range, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington

#MountainMonday  by +Michael Russell

ѱ 
Tree 1 / Revisited IR. 

Series: One, two, tree

I realise I've a taken fair few images of this tree my magic tree  As it's fairly near me I try and visit it at least once a week, if nothing more than to just get away from it all for a little while. 
I think deep down i'd like to believe that one day it may start growing again :)

#treetuesday  | +Christina Lawrie +Shannon S. Myers 
#HawkeasFriends  
#plusphotoextract  | +Jarek Klimek 
#photography   #walesuk  

For my 1st #earlyphotos entry I shared the first image I made which I thought was memorable. This is the second one, made two days later on the same outing. I was leading on the North Face of Tour Ronde, which was also a significant step forward for me in terms of ice-climbing difficulty. I managed to grab only a few shots. With all this snow/ice, using auto-exposure I underexposed the image, so the slide was less than perfect, but that's an easy digital fix !

Also #mountainmonday curated by +Michael Russell

from: http://www.terragalleria.com/mountain/mountain.alpinism.html

In Colorado, our mostly flat Pawnee grasslands show off sunsets much like the  ocean on the coasts.  On this evening in May we were chasing a full moon but after incredible storm chasing, a sunset like this followed by endless lightning-- the "Super Moon" had some serious competition.   ;-)))

Image Notes:  Single -1 EV RAW file processed in LR 4.1.  I also did an HDR version and there honestly was no comparison, single exposure was the way to go.

#Photography   #Sunset   #Landscape   #PlusPhotoExtract   #Colorado  

Hey!  Circle this lady!

So some of you might not have +Rachel Tine in your circles yet, and that's an understandable error, since she's only been active on G+ for about a month - mainly at my urging.  But it's an entirely forgivable and correctable error - head on over to her page, check out her awesome work, and show her some circle love.  She's not only my lovely and wonderful girlfriend, but also my frequent partner in crime, visiting the awesome spaces I shoot too - so she has a totally different take on them for you to enjoy.  So what are you waiting for?  Get off this post and go take a look at her work.

Getting Wet Under The Pier
I am honored to have done an interview and be the featured photographer on TIA International Photography's Blog today. Being a night shooter, I found a lot of Tosin's work very intriguing and inspiring. Tosin is the owner and photographer of TIA. After a few exchanges over facebook I ended up doing an interview for his blog. It will be the first interview I have done on my photography, so it was interesting to talk about my photos and experiences. Tosin, who I actually met up with a month back in San Francisco to go shoot, when he visited, is one of the nicest guys and an awesome photographer.  It was a pleasure, only though we got fogged in on our shoot. I am humbled about all of the nice things he has said about me in his interview.

About this photo below. One of the questions he asked was about my favorite photo. This was the one I choose and you can read about it in the interview here:  http://blog.tia-international-photography.com/2012/07/09/feature-photographer-interview-toby-harriman/

Hope everyone is having a great start for the week. :)
http://photography.poreo.com/photoblog/bw-toned/yellow-rattle-2/

epipactis palustris

We Are Home

When the sun glitters over the horizon
And the warmth of twilight is aglow
When anchors have been dropped
And tethered tied to safe ground
We are home

When waters ebb with outgoing tides
And sails dropped to no longer catch the wind
When stillness sits beneath your feet
And comfort of what we know is around
We are home

We are home, we are safe and at rest.

Good morning G+ :) 

I am in the process of showing 30 of my earliest photos that I made from way back in 2006 with my 8mp Canon Rebel (350) when I started doing photography. I will share what I learned.  #earlyphotos    #landscape    #seascape  
  
"The cobblestones" , Garrapata State Park, California

When I was just starting out, I learned the most by looking at paintings made by the old masters, and less so by looking photo books. So I was more into studying paintings than photos while I learned photography. I wrote an ebook (link below) which describes my process. 

The Story

Here is my first attempt back in 2006 to photograph this spectacular beach. It is made up of ankle-breaking slippery granite cobblestones, They roll around after each passing wave and can be so noisy that it can be difficult to hear another person speak when the surf is really pounding.

The first problem I discovered is how and where to set up the tripod. The tide was high and the surf was big. There is a cliff right behind where I set up the tripod for this photo. So it is very important to set up an escape route in case the inevitable rogue wave hits. In this circumstance, running behind the camera and to the left is a sure route to eternal doom! But a quick jump across the stream and to the right is a way out. But it is a hazardous exit because the water is moving fast and the stones are slippery. So vigilance is the key. You must get out early when the first signs of trouble begin to brew.

The other problem you face here when setting up the tripod is that there are no level places to place the legs. The legs slip off of the rocks and into irregular crevases where they get lodged. It is difficult to extricate yourself if the legs get stuck, which can also get you into trouble when a big wave comes.

It is easier to set the tripod into a good place when the stones are dry, but if you want to get a good dynamic image, you have to get in close. And that means dealing with the slippery wet round cobbles.

The sky was not spectacular so I only included a bit of it and instead focused on the fading light striking the cliffs. I used a long exposure to isolate each stone on the beach. Shorter exposures tend to be more chaotic and the rocks can be lost in the surf. Always look to enhance the best parts of a photo when you can!

Resources

I wrote a 325 page eBook that describes exactly how I went about learning photography starting in 2006. I did not learn the usual way. I have studied the great masters of painting and hope to find that light in the real world.

http://www.patricksmithphotography.com/books.html

For everything else, go to my website:

http://www.patricksmithphotography.com


Other stuff

My pictures are featured on the front page of California Governor, Jerry Brown's website http://gov.ca.gov

A great weather mashup map of the world with local temperatures, weather and nice popups. See where it is hot and not! (Must wait for slow commercials first, but worth it!)
http://www.wunderground.com/wundermap/
Google Earth
http://earth.google.com/

Simply the best way to scout out locations that there is. You can see sun angles and pre-visualize light under lots of different conditions. Sometimes you can actually pre-compose your shots! This has saved me many thousands of vertical feet of climbing by avoiding spots with blocked views etc.

Satellite imagery (choose 'National' for a local US region or use your fave website)
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/?wfo=mtr

Tide charting and preditions: (chose your area in US, other countries have similar websites)
http://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/tide_predictions.shtml?gid=235

Wave Heights (I choose 'North Pacific from Global')
http://polar.ncep.noaa.gov/waves/index2.shtml

Or Here:
http://www.opc.ncep.noaa.gov/shtml/RP1bw.gif

Photos of every inch of the California coastline from a small plane. Excellent for close in detailed views.

http://www.californiacoastline.org/

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Shepherd awaits you...