I was fortunate enough to have an image selected for the cover of the upcoming issue of Bay Nature magazine. I shot this turkey vulture in soft diffused morning light out at Pescadero State Beach. Once I saw him, I dropped to my knees in the sand and slowly started making my way toward him, every few feet stopping to get a safety shot. Finally I was close enough to frame him in a portrait, and was able to get several head poses. It turned out that he was in no hurry to leave, so after I got the shots I wanted, I crept away from him so as not to disturb him.
While not the prettiest bird, when caught in the right light, you can bring out their feather detail as seen here. In bright sunlight, their dark feathers are usually rendered to an inky black, so it was nice to see some of the lightness of the feathers come through in this kind of light.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, grab a copy. It is a great magazine and will introduce you to new places around the bay.
One morning on last fall’s trip to the island of Kauai, I woke before dawn and drove out to Hanalei Bay to capture day break with the backdrop of the dramatic green cliffs to the south, with a long exposure of moving waves in the foreground. Usually with long exposure shots, I like to feature a non-moving object somewhere in the foreground to act as sort of a sharp, visual anchor. Juxtaposed against smooth flowing forms of movement, these anchors can help keep the viewer centered in reality. However, in this case there was nothing along the beach to help me, so I used the line between water and sand to lead the viewers eye into the photo.
Compounding the difficulty of this shot was the fact that my tripod was placed in soft sand (usually I try to find some kind of rock, but again none was available), and every 30 seconds or so the legs would start sinking into the sand. That kept my exposures about half what they normally would have been in this light (around 15 seconds), and not all of my shots were usable, because every once in a while a larger wave would undercut the tripod legs, resulting in a blurry photo.
But in this light (pre-dawn), all of the subtle color differences of the cliffs came out, showing the complex contours of the mountains. This was only possible with low contrast light, giving me full control over localized contrast in post. Once I was fairly sure I achieved my desired shot, I made to way onto the pier and waited for the sun to rise, providing high contrast side lighting to the cliffs.
Green mountains covered with waterfalls rise from the shores of Hanalei Bay, catching the first rays of sunlight, Kauaii
This is a very different photo, at a much shorter shutter speed (as I had plenty of light after sunrise). Here I used a telephoto to make the largest mountain the star of the show. Here we see sail boats lined up along the beach in this tropical paradise. If you look closely enough, you can see one of the hundreds of waterfalls making its way through the clefts in the mountainside.
Soon it was time to pack it in, head into town, and enjoy a coffee with my wife. Truly a great way to spend vacation!
I am a little late this year, but finally, here are my favorite images from the previous 12 months. This year I only had one major photography focused trip to the northern California coast, capturing the delicate rhododendrons amongst the fog of the coastal redwoods. I also had a truncated attempt at the John Muir Trail (got completely rained out after only three days) and a wonderful trip to Kauai to celebrate ten years with my beautiful wife.
Photos from all of these trips plus a wide variety of birds made my top 40 list this year. Please enjoy the gallery below. For best viewing (especially if viewing on a mobile device), please click on the following photo:
Click the photo above to see the top picks from 2013!
Or, just enjoy the gallery here on the page. To view larger photos in the embedded gallery below, be sure to click the icon in the lower right corner to enter full screen mode.
On my recent trip up the California coast to the redwoods, I had an opportunity to pop up into Oregon to visit Harris State Beach, home of a very interesting sea arch. The arch is carved into a rock wall just offshore, with plenty of interesting boulders along the beach, giving enterprising photographers many options for compositions. As the sun was setting, I settled for a more centered approach to my composition, centering the arch directly above a centered rock. Usually I avoid such centering, choosing instead to lead the viewer’s eye out of one of the lower corners, but in this case I think it works. Simple, yet strong.
The sun sets behind offshore sea stacks, Harris Beach State Park
After settling on a composition I was happy with, I had a few minutes to run north in order to catch the sun as it set behind a large sea stack. In order to get into a position where the sun would set behind the rock, I scrambled up onto another rock and perched precariously at the top, while trying to give my tripod enough room. Let’s just say that I was relieved when I got the shot and could climb back down, by body and camera gear still in tact.
Large flat rocks lead through the rising tide to a dark sea arch in a rock wall, Harris State Beach
After the sun dropped below the horizon, I went back to the sea arch and really explored the foreground rocks. I fell in love with these ones, but from their vantage point, you could not see all the way through the arch. In this case, I chose to crop the top of the photo, as the rock wall really wasn’t that interesting and instead focus the photo on the foreground rocks themselves. The low light allowed for a slow shutter speed, turning the rushing waves into a calm mist.
The sun sets behind a bank of offshore clouds, silhouetting the sea stacks at Harris State Beach, Oregon
The parking area at Harris Beach offers commanding views down onto the beach below, and just before I left, I spent some time with the very last of the sunset light. Here there was a nice stream forming an s-curve into the photo. Overall I found this a pretty photogenic beach, and I know I’ll be back in the future, especially to shoot that arch in different types of light.
