National Park System

A stormy morning at Joshua Tree

by Kurt October 7, 2010 in California, Desert, Joshua Tree 0 comments

The scene above is one of my favorites from my recent trip to Joshua Tree. The sun had just broken over the top of the thunderstorm line that had produced the lightning show a few hours earlier. The rain left a nice low level fog amongst the joshua tree forest ahead.

Here you can see the ground level fog. The backlight did not last long. As we got closer the sun dipped behind the clouds. We were on our way out at this point. The sun would emerge a short time later but the light had turned harsh. The previous morning was a different experience.

Taken at the Boy Scout Trail head where we began our journey, these three pictures show the storm that would shortly hammer us.

On this backpacking trip we encountered few wild animals. During one rest stop I looked over and spotted this tarantula walking across the southern slopes of Quail Mountain. I am not sure if it was looking for food or if it was a male looking for a mate (and its doom).

Our expedition was to summit Quail Mountain, which is the high point in the Little San Bernardino Mountains and also the high point in the park.

As a landscape photographer, I find a place like Joshua Tree can be very challenging to shoot. The cloudless skies we have in southern California can sometimes make things a bit dull. On this trip however the skies played nice. Clouds tend to make what might be an interesting photograph an exceptional one.

Lightning and Star Trails in Joshua Tree National Park

by Kurt October 4, 2010 in Desert, Joshua Tree, Night 3 comments

I have now visited Joshua Tree National Park twice. Contrary to what one might expect from the desert, both visits (February and October) have involved rain and lightning. I just yesterday returned from this second trip to Joshua Tree, and ahead of the other pictures I thought these deserved their own post. I have always wanted to shoot lightning pictures. I have never had the opportunity to do so from a safe distance. As luck would have it, yesterday morning afforded me the opportunity I had long waited for. I was on a backpacking trip to summit Quail Mountain, the highest peak in the Little San Bernardino Mountains. Starting around 4am, a huge light show played out to our east. I just had my 5D Mark II, 24-105mm lens and a tiny Gorillapod Focus (with the ballhead X). A rock outcrop provided a high platform for this setup so I could get a good view of the action from camp. I kept the camera close enough that I could keep an eye on it from my tent, and run out and fetch it if it started to rain, which it did twice.

Thunderstorm and Star Trails at Joshua Tree

Wow! That’s what I thought when this exposure finished. I decided that I would pretty much spend the rest of the morning taking pictures instead of sleeping. Who needs sleep when you’ve got this going on?

As the storm moved north it got closer to us. The lightning became more and more visible. The storm was so electrically active that there was almost a strike or cloud to cloud bolt every second, with a faint distant roar of thunder. It was really quite a show.

Here the sun was beginning to rise on the distant horizon. The horizon was 99% blocked by the storm except for a brief time where I could see a little red on the left.

In this last one the lightning almost seems to wrap around a cylinder of rain. All in all I’m ecstatic about my first ever lightning pictures. What an amazing trip this was!

Finally, here is a star trail picture I took earlier in the evening when the skies were clear.

Which lightning picture is your favorite? Let me know in the comments please!

Sequoia National Park

by Kurt September 24, 2010 in Sequoia 1 comment

I love trees. I love big, massive trees even more. And it’s a bonus if my entire life will amount to less than 2% of it’s lifespan. To stand in the presence of such living things is humbling. And the giant sequoia trees are truly majestic in their immense presence on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The General Sherman Tree. The largest tree on Earth.

Sequoia National Park is home to the General Sherman tree, which is the single largest tree on Earth measured by the sheer volume of its trunk. I do assert that “General Sherman” is a horrible name for such a tree, given Sherman’s role in the Indian Wars, but I digress. The tree is an awe-inspiring sight. A sign indicates you are proportionally the same standing before this tree as a mouse is standing before a 6 foot tall human.

The Sun flares through a hole in a Sequoia

Sequoias are just magnificent trees. They are truly an American tree, and should have been made our national tree along with other redwoods.

Our trip to Sequoia was not all about flora. We did see our share of fauna there as well, including a couple of deer and no less than 6 different black bears.

Black bear in the Giant Forest from close range

This black bear was right in the middle of the tourist-centric Giant Forest. Just a couple hundred feet from the General Sherman tree. It looked to be somewhat juvenile, and was foraging for insects in various logs while a crowd of people acted as bear paparazzi just 15 feet away.

Since it was a nice day, we headed up Moro Rock to check out the view from its granite dome. From Moro Rock we could see Little Baldy, a nearby peak we would summit later that day.

Fellow Hikers on the summit of Little Blady

The trek up Little Baldy was nice. It’s not a long hike and the scenic rewards are well worth it. It’s nice away from the much more touristy areas like Moro Rock. Looking at Big Baldy from here, I thought that next time I should have climbed to the top of that as well. Big Baldy is a similar hike in length as Little Baldy. I’ll save that for a future trip.

Sequoia is not all trees and mountains. It actually has a large number of caves as well. One of these caves has been partially made accessible to park visitors by guided tour. This allows everyone to get a taste of what it is like to explore such places. It was a nice trip by flashlight.

Finally, one last look at the General Sherman tree. This picture was taken with the Canon Tilt/Shift 24mm lens which allows fine control over the focal plane. This is what has made the in focus area in this picture to be shifted. Many of the pictures I took on this trip were with this incredibly sharp lens, though most did not utilize the special talents that this lens offers. I look forward to returning to this magical park. I am once again made to be incredibly grateful that we have the National Park System.

Anacapa Island Adventure

by Kurt April 11, 2010 in Channel Islands, National Park System 5 comments

Yesterday I was supposed to spend the night on Anacapa Island, which is one of the islands making up Channel Islands National Park. This was very exciting since it was a new National Park that I had not yet visited and it was also my first time on any of the islands off the west coast. However, due to a series of unfortunate events we were unable to stay. Because we spent time setting up camp and were expecting to stay much longer, our time shooting photographs was tragically short during our stay on the island. Nevertheless I was able to bring back some keepers for sure, and our return to the mainland also provided some local opportunities for some fantastic images that will be in the next blog update.

This is probably the most famous spot on the island, and a shot is pretty much obligatory. Despite my haste I’m really happy with this one. It’s a beautiful spot and I hope to come back and explore it further. I could literally spend all day looking at this view.

The lighthouse on Anacapa as seen from our approaching boat. The coloring of the cliffs with bird droppings, plants and rock was very interesting.

Just prior to leaving we took the boat around to the famous Arch Rock and around the corner to visit some sea lions. While we were there I spotted this string of pelicans approaching and managed to capture them right over Arch Rock.

The only permanent residents of this island are Pacific Gulls. There are thousands of them. They are really everywhere on the island, and they make nest there in the spring. We were a little early for that but we did see some Gulls paired up here and there. Their sounds are inescapable on every part of the island. Normally I don’t think to shoot pictures of gulls but here they just ham it up for the camera.

Along one of the trails was this set of wings. It was as if they were interchangeable parts and these spares were left on the ground. Oddly the rest of the bird was nowhere to be found. I wonder what befell the poor bird to have this happen.

Perched on the 100 foot cliff edge, this gull leans forward to take off and escape the approaching photographer.

On our voyage to the island we went around this huge cargo ship. It had this huge bow wave on the front, though it’s bulbous bow left little wake.

Finally, here is a Pelican that glided past our boat. I’m always fascinated the ability of these huge birds to glide just a few feet above the sea.

A few from Joshua Tree National Park

by Kurt February 25, 2010 in Desert, Joshua Tree, National Park System, Riverside County 0 comments

During my time in southern California, I have often wanted to go to Joshua Tree National Park. Often I have been deterred by the summer heat, but just somehow never managed to go out there. Finally, thanks to the WTC I was able to visit this park for the first time and brought back a few pics. With a huge storm hitting Los Angeles, I knew the weather would be interesting and it did allow for some dramatic skies. Here are a few from the trip.