In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog

Last Night's Reception

by | Aug 29, 2009 | Announcements

The reception for my latest exhibit, called Color, Light, and Form, was held last night at The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Valley. I got to meet some nice people—thanks to all of you who attended. I know many folks couldn’t make it because of the Big Meadow fire; in fact El Portal was being evacuated at the time! El Portal seems safe for the time being, so that’s good news, but the Big Oak Flat Road between Yosemite Valley and Crane Flat is closed, and likely to remain so for at least a few days. You can find more information about the fire on the park service’s web site and the Yosemite Blog.

The Wildflower Season

by | Aug 10, 2009 | Yosemite Photo Conditions

Back on June 15th I wondered whether the unusually wet early-summer weather might provide us with a better-than-average summer wildflower season. In short, the answer turned out to be no. I’d rate the bloom as about average this year. But an average flower year in the Yosemite high country is still very nice! I made the image above—including corn lily, lupine, paintbrush, yampa, cow parsnip, and fireweed—near the Glacier Point Road on August 1st. Let’s hope for a wet winter and an exceptional wildflower season next year.

Color, Light, and Form Exhibit at The Ansel Adams Gallery

by | Aug 1, 2009 | Announcements

My next exhibit at The Ansel Adams Gallery, called Color, Light, and Form, will be on display from August 20th through October 4th. A reception for the artist – yes, that’s me – will be held on Friday, August 28th, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. The Gallery is located next to the Visitor Center in Yosemite Valley. Hope to see you there!

We’re still designing the show, so I don’t know exactly which images will be displayed, but there will be a lot of new work, almost certainly including Late October Aspens, June Lake Loop, above. Let me know if you have a particular favorite, old or new, that you’d like to see.

High Country Lakes

by | Jul 22, 2009 | Yosemite Photo Conditions

The Tioga Road passes several beautiful lakes, including tiny Siesta Lake, Tenaya Lake, and, just outside the park, Tioga and Ellery Lakes. Short hikes can bring you to May Lake, Elizabeth Lake, Dog Lake, Gaylor Lakes, or Granite Lakes. East of Tioga Pass you can hike to Shell and Fantail Lakes, or take a boat taxi across manmade Saddlebag Lake to Greenstone Lake, Steelhead Lake, and all the other bodies that comprise the Twenty Lakes Basin.

Out of this long list, Middle Gaylor is one of my favorites, along with Shell and Fantail. Another great spot is Greenstone Lake, shown above in mid-July 2006, at the east end of the Saddlebag Lake taxi. But all these places provide great photo opportunities, and relief from the summer heat in the lowlands.

Full Moon Night Photography Workshop

by | Jul 9, 2009 | Announcements, Workshops

Monday’s Full Moon Night Photography Workshop proved to be a lot of fun. After dodging mosquitos at Tenaya Lake we headed to Olmsted Point and it’s photogenic collection of junipers—perfect subjects to light up at night. I demonstrated some light-painting techniques using simple flashlights, then the students set off to try it on their own. They took to it like ducks to water! It was fun to see people collaborating. Often two or three people would frame a view of the same tree and take turns handling the flashlights, discussing the results after each exposure. Digital cameras certainly make the learning curve much easier.

This outstanding photograph was made by one of the participants, Kyle Jones. Clearly Kyle is a quick learner and a talented photographer.
We’re planning to do another of these one-day workshops before the summer is over—probably on September 2nd. When the details are worked out it will be posted on The Ansel Adams Gallery’s web site and blog.

Wide-Angle Perspective

by | Jun 27, 2009 | Photography Tips





























In my post from May 22nd (“Tioga Pass is Open”) I talked about how telephoto lenses can flatten perspective and create abstract patterns. Wide-angle lenses are perfect for creating the opposite effect—a sense of depth in a flat, two-dimensional photograph.


Wide-angle lenses make everything look smaller and further away. They also expand space—they make objects look further apart than normal. You can take advantage of this by exaggerating the size difference between foreground and background to create an illusion of depth. You must get close to something in the foreground, as I did with the rock strata in this photo from Zion—otherwise everything will look small and distant. It also helps to include converging lines, like those in the foreground rocks, to create a sense of perspective. Often a vertical orientation works better than horizontal as you can include a bigger sweep of the foreground.

Full Moon Night Photography Workshop

by | Jun 16, 2009 | Announcements, Workshops


There’s still space available in my Full Moon Night Photography Workshop on July 6th.

I’ve been interested in night photography for a long time, and have created a rather surreal body of nighttime images using flash and flashlights to illuminate objects in the dark. If you haven’t seen this work you can view the nighttime portfolio on my web site. The techniques required to make such complex photos take years to master, but this one-day workshop is a good introduction to this fun and creative arena of photography. I haven’t taught many classes on this subject, so this is a rare opportunity to learn some of the essential skills needed to make nighttime photographs. To register or get more information visit The Ansel Adams Gallery’s web site.

Summer Wildflowers

by | Jun 15, 2009 | Yosemite Photo Conditions

Yosemite weather has been unusually cool and wet for the past two or three weeks. It’s not uncommon to see afternoon thunderstorms in the summer, but it is highly unusual for it to rain almost every afternoon for close to three weeks this time of year. It makes me wonder how this moisture will affect the wildflowers. I have to believe it will help them, but since I’ve never seen this much rain before in early June it’s hard to say.

Summer is usually the peak wildflower season in the Yosemite high country. Although early bloomers like shooting stars appear in June, flowers are typically most abundant in July at elevations between 7000 and 9000 feet. Heavy snow the previous winter can push this peak back into August. This past winter brought average snowfall, so I’d usually expect an average amount of flowers with the peak in July, but the cool and wet weather might delay the bloom and maybe, just maybe, make the flowers more abundant than usual.
The photograph above was made near White Wolf in July of 2004 after slightly below average winter snowfall.