Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872, is the world's first national park, spanning over 2 million acres across Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Its rich history is etched into its rugged terrain, shaped by volcanic activity over millions of years.

For photographers, Yellowstone is a paradise of diverse landscapes and wildlife. Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley offer incredible wildlife opportunities, with sightings of bison, elk, grizzly bears, wolves, and more against stunning backdrops.

The park's geothermal features, including Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, and Fountain Paint Pots, provide surreal scenes of bubbling mud pots, vibrant hot springs, and towering geysers. These features showcase the Earth's raw power and beauty, captivating photographers with every click of the shutter.

Yellowstone is a place where nature's grandeur unfolds at every turn, offering endless opportunities for photographers to explore and capture its wonders.

Mt. Laguna Astrophotography

Lately I've been exploring the world of Astrophotography.  This weekend, we decided to head up to the SDSU Observatory on Mt. Laguna which is about 1 hr east of downtown San Diego.  Using a combination of Clear Dark Skies (to track the cloud cover), Dark Sky.com (to find a Bortle 4 or less area), and my Photo Pills app I was able to predict perfect conditions for the Milky Way on top of Mt. Laguna.  The apps didn't lie! Conditions were absolutely perfect...new moon, little to no wind, clear skies and low 70's.  When we got to the parking lot there was one other car with the license plate "SD Dude".  We knew we'd be in good company.  When we got up to the observatory there was a very nice couple sitting out under the stars and listening to the band "Stars of the Lid" which only added to the already surreal atmosphere...the dude abides.  We got some great shots including a Pano of the Observatory with my Rokinon 14mm lens and a time lapse of a tree on the horizon with the milky way rising behind it.  I have a feeling I will be going on many more of these adventures in the near future!

Exploring Sunset Cliffs

In the town of Ocean Beach, CA there is a stretch of coast line where the cliffs fall into the Pacific.    As the coastline erodes away it leaves behind jagged rocks, caves and secret beaches.  I went down today in search of a sea cave I had seen pictures depicting. Conditions have to be just right...a low tide that corresponds with a clear sky and sun overhead. To get there, you have to scale the cliffs just north of the cave down to a beach.  Then you must adventure through the waves and rocks in through the mouth of the cave.  Needless to say I'm glad I have the insurance plan on my camera.  Luckily, everything went according to plan!  I've also included some long exposures I took while I was there.  Definitely a place I need to go back to explore some more!

Sunset at Windansea Beach

Sometimes I forget that one of the premier surf breaks in San Diego is a short walk from our house in La Jolla.  This evening, I decided to head down to the beach to catch some of the action.  Here are some of my favorite shots!

The San Diego Zoo Safari Park

It was great catching up with some old friends last week in San Diego.  One of the highlights of their visit was a trip to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park!  This was the perfect opportunity to play around with my new Canon 70-200L f/2.8 II lens.  Some of "the mountains" of the day included a behind the scenes tour at Lion Camp, a meet and greet with Cliff the Tawny Frogmouth, and front row seats for the Cheetah run!  Now if I could just find some time to make it to South Africa for a real safari...

Super Bloom in Anza Borrego State Park

Last week I adventured into the deserts of Southern California to Anza Borrego State Park, about 2 hours east of San Diego. Winter rains brought the once arid desert landscape to life with what's called a Super Bloom. The typically sleepy town of Borrego Springs was transformed by the spring flowers into a booming metropolis.  (well kind of...)  While I wasn't able to have the fields all to myself, I was able to capture a few images in the midday light.  Enjoy!

An Afternoon in Joshua Tree National Park

Yesterday I took my first trip to Joshua Tree National Park.  I can't believe I lived here for 5 years in Southern California and didn't visit but that's another story for another day.  We had a good friend in town visiting from Chicago. When we turned on the weather channel yesterday morning, the headline literally read "California: Dought to DELUGE".  As they were predicting rainfall up to 1" per hour, we quickly devised a new plan to escape the storm.  Checking the weather report for Joshua Tree, rain was not predicted until after sunset so we packed up the car and headed inland.  The drive is actually quite enjoyable and a pit stop in Temecula on the way proved fruitful finding a new favorite lunch spot at The Goat & Vine.  We arrived at the park around 2 pm and the clouds were already filling in. The wind gusts were incredible, ripping through the desert.  We hit the highlights stopping in Hidden Valley, Jumbo Rocks and White Tank.  These are some of my favorite B&W captures from the day.

Scripps Pier in the Fog

On Thursday a thick dense fog set into La Jolla.  I thought it would be interesting to head down to the Scripps Pier and try and capture some images of the pier disappearing into the abyss.  These are a couple of images I captured.  The first is an HDR merge of 5 images shot underneath the pier.  The second is a single image captured at 1/20 sec f/7.1 at 24mm with a Lee polarizing filter edited in Silver Efex Pro.

Scripps Pier - La Jolla, CA

Scripps Pier - La Jolla, CA

Scripps Pier - La Jolla, CA

Scripps Pier - La Jolla, CA

Long Exposures at Hospitals Reef ("the Potholes")

One of my favorite places to shoot in La Jolla is the potholes at Hospitals Reef.  You certainly are not alone as everyone from the town wanders down to soak in the sunset.  Typically you may have a dozen other photographers around wading through the tide pools with you. Tonight I decided to play around with one of my new filters from Lee the Big Stopper.  This one was a 7 minute exposure at f7.1 ISO 100.  It allowed me to really blur the incoming clouds and water around the rocks.  Enjoy!

La Jolla, CA

La Jolla, CA

Oceanside Pier

Yesterday I drove up to Orange County to pick up the latest stasis release from Bottle Logic, Byzantine Vision.  If you haven't heard of Bottle Logic before I highly recommend checking them out.  It was overcast and drizzling the whole ride up, however on the ride home the clouds parted so I stopped off in Oceanside to check out the Pier and capture this image.

Oceanside, CA

Oceanside, CA