national park – Page 15

May 1, 2011December 1, 2022

Distorting Reality

When I first started studying photography, I learned about the effects that various focal lengths had on a scene. Wide angle lenses give prominence to closer subjects while shrinking distant features into tiny objects. On the other hand, telephoto lenses compress a scene, making subjects that are far apart appear next to each other, and fooling the eye with scale. It wasn’t until I started experimenting with many different focal lengths that I really understood what this meant. Here are two examples from opposite ends of the focal length spectrum.

Mt. St. Helens from the lahar or ash flow that destroyed the Toutle River Valley in the eruption of 1980, Mt. St. Helens National Monument

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The image above was captured at the 35mm film equivalent of a 16mm focal length. Here, the foreground rocks and flowers are rendered quite large, while the massive volcano of Mt. St. Helen’s is shrunken into the background. The wide angle emphasizes the distance between the foreground and the horizon, seeming to stretch them apart.

A view of a Palo Alto home includes the city of San Mateo in the midground and San Francisco in the background. The view is compressed using a long telephoto lens. — A view of a Palo Alto home includes the city of Redwood Shores in the midground and San Francisco in the background. The view is compressed using a long telephoto lens.

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The photo above shows the opposite effect. It was captured at the 35mm film equivalent of a whopping 1280mm. I took the photo in Palo Alto, CA, about a quarter of a mile from the house in the foreground. The buildings of Redwood Shores (Oracle headquarters) appear as if they are directly behind the house, when in fact they are 15 miles away. At the top of the photo can be seen the buildings of downtown San Francisco, which is 40 miles from the house. The extreme telephoto squashes this distance between subjects so that they appear stacked on top of each other. This same effect has been seen in countless photos of the moon rising from behind buildings or a giant sun rising over an African landscape.

October 13, 2010January 14, 2013

Upcoming publication – Backpacker Magazine

The following image will appear in the November 2010 issue of Backpacker Magazine. It was taken on a quiet August morning last year, a little after sunrise. Summit Lake features two campgrounds and is centrally located along the main road through Lassen Volcanic National Park. It also serves as a trail head to some solitary back country hiking.

Mt. Lassen peeks above the treeline along the shore of Summit Lake

September 13, 2010January 14, 2013

Mt Lassen From Lake Helen (Photo of the week)

Mt. Lassen is reflected in Lake Helen after a morning snow shower, Lassen National Park, California

This week’s shot was taken on my way out of Lassen Volcanic National Park after a failed attempt at a solo backpacking trip. After trying to wait out the rain in the morning, I finally gave up and headed back home after my long drive only the night before. The rain was strong, and the dark clouds foreshadowed the wicked thunderstorm to come.

However, just as I was passing Lake Helen on the main road through the park, the rain stopped and I decided to take advantage of this brief respite. I parked my car by the lake and jumped out with my gear, hoping to make a few quick exposures before the storm started in again. I had the lake to myself, and I didn’t see a single car pass on the road while I was shooting. Although I knew the temperature had dropped the night before, I was surprised to see fresh snow on the top of the mountain. That was my second fresh snow of the summer, the first being at Crater Lake in July.

This shot is actually a combination to two images – a technique I’ve been using successfully for a couple of years. Traditional photographic technique would have required I use a graduated neutral density filter, in order to darken the exposure of the sky so as not to blow it out when I exposed for the foreground. Shooting digitally from a tripod allows me to create this effect later on the computer using two exposures instead of one. This saves the weight of the extra filters out in the field, and frees me up aesthetically.

First, I expose for the foreground light, and capture the frame as if the entire scene was lit evenly. This will result in an image where the sky (and in this case mountain top) is completely blown out and appears white in the photograph. Next (without moving the camera or tripod), I expose for the sky, rendering the foreground very dark, if not black. I later combine both images as separate layers of the same file in Photoshop, using layer masking and the gradient tool to blend them together, getting the best exposure for the sky and the foreground.

Soon after I got out of my car, it started raining again, and I knew it was time to leave. I’m glad I got this opportunity to shoot this area during a break in the storm – the rain could have easily let up somewhere else (or not at all), and I would have driven out of the park without another shot.

September 8, 2010January 14, 2013

Mt. Lassen Reflection (Photo of the week)

Mt. Lassen is reflected in Manzanita Lake at sunset, Lassen National Park, California

A couple of weeks ago, I drove up to Lassen National Park for a quick solo overnight backpacking trip. I could tell that wilderness camping in the park was not very common by the raised eyebrows from the ranger when I asked for a permit. “Oh. Did you hear about the weather?” she asked.

Uh oh, I thought. That is never a good sign. She went on to tell me that the temperature was expected to drop by 30 degrees and a thunderstorm was moving in, with rain expected by 11 AM of my first day. I decided to give it a go anyway, and see how bad the weather would get. Before setting up camp at the trail head, I drove north to Manzanita Lake for sunset, where I took this week’s photo.

Luckily, I was blessed with great weather that evening, and had a pleasant hike around the lake capturing different views of the mountain reflected in the deep blue water. Mt. Lassen is probably most photogenic from the north, so this lake is a (very) popular spot for campers. I was happy to see some snow still clinging to the north-facing slopes.

After sunset, I drove south to the trail head, set up camp, and was soon asleep. The rain started at 5 AM and picked up from there. I packed up in the rain, tried to wait out the storm in the car, and finally gave up around 8:30. It turned out to be a good decision, because it rained continuously for the next couple of days. With low, fog-like clouds over much of the landscape, photography was rendered pointless. The handful of photos I took at Manzanita Lake turned out to be the bright spot (literally) of my trip. Overall, the trip was not what I was planning, but it is hard to be disappointed with such a beautiful scene.