Dance of the Veils, Tunnel View, Yosemite Sony a7R V Sony 24-105 f/4 G ISO 100 f/10 1/10 second Let’s hear it for ACTUAL intelligence I love all the genuine eclipse photos popping up on social media—almost as much as I DESPISE all the fake eclipse photos. Though we’ve had to deal with a glut of fabricated photos since the introduction of computers and digital capture to photography (all the way back before the turn of the 21st Century), the advent of artificial intelligence, combined with insatiable social media consumption, has put the bogus image problem on steroids. Despite being downrigh ..read more

Icewater, Kvernufoss, Iceland Sony a7R V Sony 24-105 f/4 G ISO 50 f/18 1/4 second Do I need to tell you it was brutally cold this afternoon? Of course not, and I doubt anyone really wants to hear it anyway. I also probably don’t need to tell you that this scene was spectacularly beautiful. And unfortunately, these two facts are often inexorably intertwined. Because as nice as it is to stroll up to a scene in shorts and flip-flops and discover the image of my dreams just waiting for me, the majority of my most memorable images required some degree of suffering. That suffering can take many fo ..read more

Solar Return, Total Solar Eclipse, Central Idaho (August 21, 2017) Sony a7RII Sony 100-400 GM ISO 100 f/16 1/6 second Warning: What follows will not be a comprehensive eclipse how-to, but for eclipse viewers, it might be worth reading anyway I’m getting a lot of questions about next week’s (April 8, 2024) total solar eclipse. In addition the standard “how-to” questions, many have asked if I plan to write a blog about how to photograph it. My response has been that, having photographed exactly one total solar eclipse in my life, I’m far from qualified to portray myself as an eclipse expert. B ..read more

Frosted, Cathedral Rocks from El Capitan Bridge, Yosemite Sony a7R V Sony 24-105 f/4 G ISO 100 f/13 1/10 second We were in the midst of a beautiful Yosemite Tunnel View clearing storm when I told my group it was time to pull up stakes and move on. Some thought they’d misheard, others thought I was joking. Since we’d only started the previous afternoon, I hadn’t even really had a chance to gain the group’s trust. When one or two in the group hesitated, I assured everyone it’s like ripping off a Band-Aid, that it will only hurt for a minute and they’ll soon be glad they did it. Many factors go ..read more

Twilight on Ice, Glacier Lagoon, Iceland ony α1 Sony 16-35 f/2.8 GM ISO 100 f/11 1 second True story: I once had a Yosemite workshop participant meter an El Capitan reflection scene, put her Nikon D4 in continuous-frame mode, then press the shutter and spray in a 180 degree (10 FPS) arc until the image buffer filled. Unable to contain my dismay, I asked her what she was doing and she just shrugged and said (with a smile), “It’s Yosemite—there’s sure to be something good in there.” While I couldn’t really argue, I’m guessing she wasn’t seeing a lot of growth as a landscape photographer. Thank ..read more

Northern Lights and Big Dipper, Vik, Iceland Sony a7R V Sony 14mm f/1.8 GM ISO 3200 f/2 8 seconds Even without the northern lights, there’s enough stuff to photograph in Iceland to more than fill a 10-day winter workshop. But I’d be lying if I said the prime goal of every person who signs up for an Iceland winter photo workshop isn’t the northern lights. And Don Smith and I do our best to fulfill these aurora dreams, but that of course isn’t completely under our control. (Full disclosure: our motives aren’t entirely unselfish because we get as thrilled about the aurora as anyone, and would g ..read more

Sunrise Gem, Diamond Beach, Iceland Sony a7R V Sony 12-24 GM 1/13 second F/22 ISO 50 A funny thing happened to me on the way to this image. And when I say “on the way,” I don’t mean taking the picture, I mean after it was safely loaded onto my computer and fully processed, it seems that someone (who wishes to remain anonymous), accidentally overwrote it with a completely different image. Oops. Establishing a backup mindset Overwriting an image is an easy thing to do; without a backup, it’s lost forever. In this case still had the raw file, but I’d have lost all the time and effort I’d put in ..read more

Moonrise, Half Dome, Yosemite Sony α1 Sony 200-600 G ISO 200 f/8 1/50 second Given an especially intense workshop schedule to start my year, the only Yosemite workshop I originally planned for February was my annual Horsetail Fall workshop. But in early 2023 I plotted the 2024 February full moon and saw that it would appear above Yosemite Valley, directly behind Half Dome (viewed from Tunnel View), at exactly sunset on Friday, February 23. Hmmm… Checking my 2024 schedule, I noted that the year’s workshop fun started on January 22 with five days in Death Valley, followed by just a two-day bre ..read more

Winter Twilight, Vestrahorn, Iceland Sony a7R V Sony 12-24 GM 1/8 second F/11 ISO 200 This day started with one of the most disturbing experiences of my photo workshop life, so finishing with a sunset like this was comforting relief for the entire group. But first let me wind the clock all the way back to our short drive to Diamond Beach for this morning’s sunrise. In February Iceland’s sunrise comes at around 10 a.m., but with the high latitude also comes extremely long twilight hours, so stomachs full of breakfast, we were on the road for the 10-minute drive to the beach at 8:30. It was st ..read more

Golden Touch, El Capitan and Horsetail Fall, Yosemite Sony a7R V Sony 24-105 f/4 G ISO 64 f/10 1/10 second I was planning to just write a brief Horsetail Fall update following last week’s workshop, but before I get into that, I want to say a few words about bad photographer behavior. I witness it quite a bit in my many travels, but a couple of recent experiences returned it to the front of my mind. The first instance occurred in Iceland, where Don Smith and I, along with our tour guides Albert Dros and Vincenzo Mazza (look them up), guided our group to a beautiful, and slightly off the beate ..read more