Pink light on El Capitan at sunset, Yosemite, last Tuesday evening. 50mm, 1/8 sec. at f/11, ISO 100.
We’ve reached the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and this year it actually feels like winter here in the Sierra Nevada. In some recent years the weather has been warm and dry in December – and that’s the way this month began. But last week two separate storms brought over five inches of precipitation to Yosemite Valley.
The first storm was the biggest. It rained hard in the Valley on Monday, but by Tuesday morning rain had changed to snow, eventually piling up about eight inches of white stuff. Our workshop group had to wait out some of that rain on Monday, but then we photographed almost all day Tuesday, with some brief breaks to dry out and warm up.
Aspens and pines in a snowstorm, Inyo NF, California. 141mm, 1/250 sec. at f/16, ISO 1600.
In early October Claudia and I traveled to Utah and Colorado, and on our way we made a brief stop in the eastern Sierra.
Forecasts predicted a cold storm with low snow levels (for early October). That meant we might get to photograph aspens in snow, with autumn color, if we made it over to the eastern Sierra before the storm. So we packed hurriedly, hoping to make it over Tioga Pass before the road closed – which we did, with about 30 minutes to spare.
Sunrise from Tunnel View after a spring snowstorm, Yosemite (2015). In my Landscapes in Lightroom: Advanced Techniques course I show how to subtly enhance the inherent qualities of light in photographs like this.
Also, if you purchase any of my Lightroom courses you’ll be able to attend the live Lightroom processing webinar I’ll be giving on January 8th, and submit images for possible inclusion in this webinar.
Dogwood blossoms and sunset reflections, Yosemite. I used the Color Range and two Brush components in Lightroom’s Masking Panel to select and lighten just the dogwood blossoms in this photograph.
On Saturday, January 8th (10:30 a.m. Pacific Time) I’ll be hosting a live webinar where I’ll pick two or three images from members of our Education Center and show how I would process them in Lightroom – with special emphasis on using the new Masking Panel.
In the early stages of my photography journey I felt limited by what I could do with prints made from my color transparencies (slide film). I saw amazing color prints from people like Chris Burkett and Charlie Cramer, but their processes were extremely time-consuming and difficult to master.
The new Masking Panel is one of the biggest changes to Lightroom since 2012. It’s incredibly powerful and flexible, with better tools for viewing and organizing all your local adjustments, two new AI-powered selection tools (Select Subject and Select Sky), and best of all, the ability to combine selections in almost unlimited ways to create exactly the selection you want.
I’m really excited about all these new capabilities, but there’s a lot to learn, and it takes some getting used to. So I’ve just finished a new three-part video tutorial all about Lightroom’s Masking Panel.
I’ve included Part 1 here for free to help get you up to speed with the Masking Panel. This video will help you navigate the new layout and learn how to use its great new tools for viewing, organizing, and renaming your masks.
The Thanksgiving holiday is always a good time to pause from our daily routines and think about all the things we have to be grateful for.
For me, first and foremost, I’m thankful for my family and friends. I’m happy that our son is doing so well (he’s engaged!), and I’m especially fortunate to have been married to the same wonderful, beautiful woman for over 35 years.
And I’m extremely grateful for all the support I receive from you, my readers. Your comments and emails help make writing this blog fun, and keep me motivated and inspired. Thank you!
Whether or not you celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you all have a lot to be thankful for!
Oak and maples, southern Utah. Wandering down a wash, I came around a bend and immediately noticed this patch of color. But color is never enough by itself; you have to find a way to organize that color into a cohesive composition. Luckily the yellow gambel oak provided a clear focal point to build a composition around. I used a long lens (168mm) to isolate the most interesting parts of the scene, and compress the branches into patterns of color. 168mm, 3 seconds at f/16, ISO 100, focus-stacked with Helicon Focus.
Claudia and I have had a busy autumn. We went to Yellowstone in early September, then made our way to Colorado and Utah in October, and just got back from the Oregon Coast yesterday.
I’ve made a lot of photographs, so it’s been a challenge to edit and process them all, and put them into cohesive groups. But looking back, one group of images that stands out to me is this one, of autumn color in the canyons of southern Utah.
I’m excited to announce that two of my photographs won awards in the inaugural Natural Landscape Photography Awards competition. The photograph above, El Capitan Emerging From Clouds, won first place in the Grand Landscape category. And my image of Stars, Mist, and Three Brothers (below) earned a “Highly Commended” in the Nightscape category.
Congratulations to all the winners and commended images! You can see all the award-winners here and here.
I usually talk about photography as an art form – a way to express yourself and your vision, and to communicate with others through this wonderful medium.
But photographs also have an amazing ability to evoke memories. Sometimes a well-executed image made by someone else will resonate with us because it stirs a memory of a past event in our lives.
Naturally though, photographs from our own lives can be even more powerful in evoking memories from our past. Most of us have had the experience of looking through old family photos, and suddenly having a vivid recollection of an event we hadn’t thought about in years. It doesn’t matter if the images themselves are mediocre; they still have tremendous power to stir recollections.
I’ve been using Lightroom since Adobe released the beta version in 2006. Over the years I’ve learned many shortcuts, and in this video I share some of my favorite tips – things I use all the time to streamline my workflow:
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