Many people, when they hear the name Methuselah, think of the Biblical figure that lived for 969 years. Others such as dendrochronlogists, paleoclimatologists, arborcultrists, or tree lovers would point to a specific Great Basin Bristlecone Pine that resides in the White Mountains in the eastern Sierras. Whichever camp you belong, Methuselah, the tree, is the oldest…
Mud Flats
A year ago, just prior to our visit to Death Valley, I saw a photo by a prominent landscape photographer that inspired me. It was a photo of interesting mud flats with mountains in the background. These mud flats had fascinating geometrical shapes, knitted together in a mosaic that resembled a complex jigsaw puzzle. I…
Third time’s a charm!
Sometimes landscape photography is easy, but more often than not, it is road of discovery. Death Valley National Park offers many intriguing sights, one of which is the beauty of Badwater Basin. You have likely seen photos of it, a valley floor of hexagonal crystalline structures as vast as the eye can see. We had read…
The Many Faces of Tree
About a year ago, I was searching for a personal photography project to work on. I chose trees. Not just any tree, but solo trees that had interesting branches and twigs. I didn’t care what time of day or what kind of lighting conditions. I wasn’t that specific. Like many New Year’s resolutions, I let…
Role Reversal
If you have followed our photography travels at all, you know that the best time (and our favorite time) for landscape photography is late in the day or early morning, called the golden hours. White Sands National Monument has been on our photography bucket list for a few years, ever since we photographed our first…
Trust Your Gut!
Just like in most things, sometimes you do best when you trust your gut. Here’s my story: We’ve been up since 4:45am and driving for over 8 hours through winding mountain roads, and finally, we arrived at Badlands National Park. It is hot with not a cloud in the sky. Somehow, 96 degrees here in…
We Discovered a New Animal Species
A goal of our visit to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Custer, and Badlands is to photograph critters. Whenever we visit places such as these we start our animal hunt, trying to add as many species as possible to our trophy case (aka, photo collection) . It’s not good enough to just see a species, we…
Castles in the Sky
Our tour of Yellowstone included a visit to Mammoth Springs. I had thought that all the geyser basins and hot springs in Yellowstone were similar [see Jeff’s post, “Old Faithful“], just with different shapes and some color variations. How wrong I was! As we drove into the town of Mammoth Springs, I saw a mountain…
Old Faithful
We visited the Old Faithful area of Yellowstone National Park with the intent of photographing a famous spring, a famous pool, and a famous geyser. The Grand Prismatic, Morning Glory, and Old Faithful were in our sights. Oh well, one out of three ain’t bad. The best time to photograph these geothermic phenomena is in…
Tetons: Puzzle Perfect?
As a child, I loved puzzles. It didn’t matter what type of puzzle (a wooden cube, a plastic maze, entwined metal pieces or a jigsaw puzzle), I was always thrilled to receive one as a gift. It was my goal to figure it out as soon as possible, even if that meant staring a pieces…
