In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog

From Eclipse to Aspens

Autumn afternoon in the mountains near Telluride, CO, USA

Autumn afternoon in the mountains near Telluride, Colorado, yesterday afternoon

I had planned to go to the Alabama Hills or Death Valley for last Sunday’s lunar eclipse, but high clouds streamed in from the Pacific and threatened to block the view. So at the last minute Claudia and I decided to go further south, toward clear skies that were visible on satellite photos. We ended up in Joshua Tree National Park – along with many, many other people who seemed to think this was a good place to view the eclipse.

They were right of course – it was a great place. And the skies cooperated for the most part. I captured a sequence that I think will work, but I haven’t had a chance to process it yet, because the next morning we started driving to Colorado. We loved our autumn visit last year, and just had to go back. Colorado welcomed us with some nice clouds on our first afternoon; I’ve included one image from that evening above.

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Off the Beaten Path Exhibit at the G2 Gallery

Curious deer, Yosemite NP, CA, USA

Curious deer, Yosemite NP, CA, USA

I just sent my prints to the G2 Gallery in Venice, California, for their upcoming exhibit, “Off the Beaten Path: Views From Yosemite.” This looks like a wonderful show, with photographs by Alan Ross, Robin Black, Art Wolfe, Franka Gabler, Ian Shive, Clyde Butcher, Marc Muench, and many others. They chose two of my Yosemite wildlife images for the exhibit, Curious Deer, and Coyote in Snow. The show runs from September 29th to November 15th. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it to the reception on October 3rd, but I’m sure I’ll be missing a fun event. If you’re in southern California I hope you’ll have a chance to check out the show or attend the reception. You can find more information and see some photographs from the exhibit here.

— Michael Frye

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This Sunday’s Lunar Eclipse

Lunar eclipse sequence, April 14th and 15th, 2014, Trona Pinnacles, CA, USA

Lunar eclipse sequence, April 14th and 15th, 2014, Trona Pinnacles, CA, USA

We’re going to get another chance to photograph a lunar eclipse this Sunday evening in North America and South America (or early Monday morning in Europe and Africa).

This eclipse also coincides with the moon’s perigee, meaning that the moon will be at its closest point to the earth during its orbit, and will look bigger than usual. The media is going to make a big deal about this “supermoon,” but the moon will only look seven percent larger than average, a difference that won’t be readily apparent to the naked eye, much less in photographs.

However, every total lunar eclipse is special – a spectacular event to view and photograph. And unlike the last one in April, this one will feature a long total eclipse phase.

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Early Fall Color Report

Quaking aspens, autumn, Lee Vining Canyon, Inyo NF, CA, USA

Quaking aspens, Lee Vining Canyon, October 24, 2003

Claudia and I just returned from our annual trip to the Millpond Music Festival and (as Joe Craven puts it) “consciousness-raising event.” We had a wonderful time, as usual. The festival may or may not have raised my consciousness, but it sure was relaxing and fun.

Since the festival takes place in Bishop, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, the trip gives me a chance to check on the early fall color over there. Every year, it seems, some early-changing leaves lead to online predictions that the aspens will turn early. This year I’ve also heard a lot of speculation about the effect the drought will have on the autumn color, and even seen a few actual reports of aspens turning brown and dropping their leaves early.

Driving down to Bishop last Friday, the color didn’t look early at all. There were some yellow and lime-green aspens at the mouth of Warren Canyon (along Highway 120 in upper Lee Vining Canyon), and some lime-green trees on Parker Bench, but everything else looked dark green. Warren Canyon and Parker Bench are both high-elevation, early-changing locations, so that all looked pretty typical for this time of year.

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Bodie at Night

Wagon wheel behind the Dechambeau Hotel, Bodie State Historic Park, CA, USA

Wagon wheel behind the Dechambeau Hotel, Bodie. I loved this wagon wheel poking out of the ground, and worked with one of our participants, Jeff, to light this scene. We started with an exposure for the sky, then lit the wagon wheel, getting close with a flashlight outfitted with a homemade snoot to try to light only the rim and spokes. Then Jeff lit the shed on the right from two different angles, and I lit the two-story buildings from both sides.

As promised, here are a few photos from the nighttime sessions during our recent Bodie, Inside and Out workshop.

The lighting for each of these photographs was rather complex, and required blending several exposures together. In each case I started with a frame for the sky (my standard pinpoint-star exposure: 15 seconds at f/2.8, 6400 ISO), then used separate frames (at lower ISOs and smaller apertures) to light different aspects of the scene. As I’ve described before, the individual exposures were blended together in Photoshop using the Lighten blending mode, and sometimes adding layer masks to hide stray light.

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