In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog

Horsetail Fall Season

Horsetail Fall at sunset

If you’re hoping to photograph Horsetail Fall this February, here’s a post from last year that outlines some of the basics about the timing and best locations. You’ll also find an article on my web site with a detailed description of the factors that go into determining the best dates to photograph this phenomenon.

Since every astronomy program seems to disagree with every other one, it’s hard to figure out exactly what the best dates are each year, but it appears that the window of best light will be a little later this February, from about the 12th to 22nd. Good luck!

Top Ten Images of 2010

The polls are closed, the votes are in, and here are the winners—as chosen by you, the readers.

The response went far beyond my expectations. Over 100 people chimed in with their picks, and Claudia had to create a spreadsheet to keep track of them all! My heartfelt thanks to all of you who voiced your opinions. I really appreciate your taking the time to help me make these difficult choices. (Click here to see all 46 original nominees.)

Although I reserved the right to override theses votes, in the end I decided that the collective wisdom was greater than mine, especially with so many people chiming in. Here’s a list of the ten images which received the most picks, and the number of votes they each received:

  1. Image #3, Winter sunrise from Tunnel View, 69 votes
  2. Image #11, Redbud reflection II, 64 votes
  3. Image #13, Horsetail Fall by moonlight, 64 votes
  4. Image #9, Painted Hills in the Temblor Range (vertical), 45 votes
  5. Image #18, Middle Gaylor Lake at sunset, 45 votes
  6. Image #32, First light on Three Brothers (second version), 45 votes
  7. Image #5, Gray pines after a snowstorm, 44 votes
  8. Image #19, Sunrise, North Peak and Greenstone Lake, 42 votes
  9. Image #40, Swirling mist, El Capitan Meadow, 39 votes
  10. Image #42, Ice sculptures and Wildcat Fall, 39 votes

(more…)

One More Day to Vote

I’ll be posting my ten best photographs from 2010 tomorrow, but there’s still time to make your voice heard and help me make the selection. View the top 46 here, then just add a comment and list your favorites.

Many thanks to everyone who’s already chimed in. The response has been tremendous, and almost 100 people have voted. I really appreciate all of you taking the time to do this—you’re the best! And special thanks to those who went to the trouble of giving detailed explanations about their choices—that’s very helpful.

White Balance for Landscape Photographs – Part 3: A Special Problem

White Balance for Landscape Photographs – Part 3: A Special Problem from Michael Frye on Vimeo.

Here’s the third part of my video series on white balance, where I present solutions to a common problem in landscape photographs—finding the right white balance when mixing low-angle sunlight with blue sky.

If you haven’t seen them already, here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.

To see this video clearly, be sure that “HD” is on (the letters “HD” should be white instead of gray; if not, click on them), and click the “expand” icon just to the right of “HD.”

Hope you find this helpful; I look forward to hearing your comments! And if you like the video, please share the link.

2010: My Best Images

Winter sunrise from Tunnel View, February 7th, 2010

Winter sunrise from Tunnel View, February 7th, 2010

Update, Friday, January 7th:

This afternoon I counted the votes and listed the top ten images in another post. I still welcome hearing about your picks—they just won’t count toward picking the top ten. Thanks for your participation everyone!

As I mentioned in my last entry, Dan Mitchell had a great idea: he posted about 50 of his best photographs from 2010, and asked his blog readers to help him pick out the best ones. Dan has some beautiful work, and you can see the final results here.

I liked this idea so much I thought I would, uh, borrow it—with Dan’s permission of course. So I’ve set up a page with 46 of my best images from 2010, and I’m asking for help in picking out the top ten. After you look through them you can post a comment with your favorites. Once I’ve narrowed it down I’ll post the top ten on this blog, and submit the finalists to Jim Goldstein’s blog project, where once again he’ll be showcasing the ten best images of the year from over 100 photographers.

The judging for the my final ten will be more like Dancing With the Stars than America Idol. That means that unlike Idol, where only the viewer’s votes count, the judge—me—gets a say too, so if one of my favorites gets panned by everyone else I may still include it. But as one of my photographer friends, Clinton Smith, once said, we don’t get to pick our best images—the world does. So your votes will carry a lot of weight.

So have at it! And thanks for your participation—I really appreciate your taking the time to give me your thoughts about these photographs. Here’s the link to those 46 images again.