In the Moment:
Michael Frye's Landscape Photography Blog
by Michael Frye | Jan 28, 2014 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Sunbeams and mist along the Merced River, Yosemite
For many places in California, 2013 was the driest year on record. And so far this winter (our usual rainy season) has brought almost no precipitation. January has brought a procession of sunny days, with temperatures in the 60s or even low 70s at my house at 2700 feet in the Sierra foothills. It’s pleasant weather, but weird, and a little scary, as it seems like it will never rain again.
But finally the forecast is calling for rain and higher-elevation snow this week. It’s not supposed to be a big storm, but we’ll take what we can get. The main pulse of this system is due to arrive Thursday, but showers might linger into Friday or even Saturday. Snow levels are expected to stay at around 7,000 feet on Thursday, but may drop to 4,000 feet on Saturday, so it’s possible, though not likely, that Yosemite Valley could get a dusting of snow.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 26, 2014 | Light and Weather, Travels and Stories
Sunbeams and fog in a Sacramento Valley orchard, California
The last few winters I’ve spent some time in California’s San Joaquin Valley photographing migrating birds – mostly snow geese, Ross’s geese, and sandhill cranes. Last week Claudia and I ventured further north, into the Sacramento Valley (the northern half of California’s Great Central Valley), exploring some of the backroads and wildlife refuges there.
One morning, while driving an obscure little road in the Sacramento Valley, Claudia and I stumbled upon an orchard filled with fog. As far as we could tell there was no other fog within 50 miles, because there’s very little moisture anywhere, but for some reason this one spot had fog – possibly because the trees had been watered recently, creating moisture that condensed in the cool morning air.
Seeing the sunbeams cutting through the mist underneath the trees, I grabbed my camera and tripod, and quickly framed a few compositions, one of which is shown above. Within five minutes the fog had burned off, leaving us with yet another clear, warm, dry January day.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 19, 2014 | Yosemite Photo Conditions
Moonrise from Tunnel View, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
During my Landscapes in the Digital Darkroom workshop last week for The Ansel Adams Gallery we photographed two moonrises, including this one on Tuesday from Tunnel View. The moon appeared right over Cloud’s Rest, between Half Dome and El Capitan, just before sunset – a spectacular sight. I’ve included two versions here: a black-and-white image just as the moon climbed into view (below), and a color version when the moon rose a little higher (above).
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by Michael Frye | Jan 14, 2014 | Announcements
We had a great response to the PhotoPills giveaway, with nearly 300 people putting their names into the hat. We assigned each person who entered a number, and used a random number generator to select the five winners. And the winners are…
John (email starts with jwtrone)
Mike Lynch
Dk Tanaka
Howard Snyder
Susan Markovic
Congratulations to the winners! You’ll each receive an email shortly from Claudia with a code for downloading a free copy of PhotoPills. And if you didn’t get lucky this time, the app is only $9.99, and well worth the price.
Thanks to all of you who participated, and good luck with your moon photos!
— Michael Frye
by Michael Frye | Jan 12, 2014 | Announcements
Moonrise, Sierra foothills, Mariposa Country, CA, USA
In my December post Moonstruck I talked about the two best apps for figuring out sun and moon positions: PhotoPills and The Photographer’s Ephemeris.
I’ve relied on The Photographer’s Ephemeris for many years; it’s a great tool. PhotoPills is newer, but as I’ve become more familiar with it I’ve used it more and more. PhotoPills has a couple of very useful extra features, like it’s Augmented Reality mode, which allows you to superimpose the future path of the sun, moon, or other celestial object over a live picture (on your iPhone) of the scene in front of you. Even better, if you want to photograph the sun or moon lined up with a certain object – a building, or a mountain, for example – you can search for the times when that will happen, and see a list of results which includes moon phases, and the days when your desired alignment corresponds with the “magic” hour.
How to Win a Free Copy of PhotoPills:
This app is normally only $9.99, but Rafael Pons at PhotoPills has generously offered to give away five copies of this app to my readers. To have a chance to win, just post a comment below saying you’re interested. There’s one catch: you must own an iPhone or iPod Touch! PhotoPills is only available for the iPhone so far. (A universal app formatted for the iPad is in the works, but not available yet.) You have until midnight tomorrow (Monday, January 13th) Pacific time to post a comment and have a chance to win.
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by Michael Frye | Jan 9, 2014 | Announcements
Saguaro cacti at night, Saguaro NP, AZ, USA
Last month Jim Harmer at Improve Photography interviewed me for his popular podcast, and that interview is now live. You can listen to the podcast directly on Jim’s site, or find it in iTunes.
One of the topics we discussed is creative ruts, and how to get out of them. I told the story of how I got out of such a rut in the early ’90s by experimenting with different subjects, techniques, and equipment. I used flash for the first time, which led me to trying flash at night, and eventually to my series of colorful, surreal, nighttime landscapes. The photograph above is perhaps the most recognizable image from that series, but you can see more examples here. (If you click on the thumbnails you’ll find descriptions of how each photograph was made.)
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by Michael Frye | Jan 8, 2014 | Announcements
One of my top ten images: Snowy black oaks, late autumn, Yosemite NP, CA, USA
Part of the reason for putting together my top ten photographs of the year was to submit the collection to Jim Goldstein’s blog project – a collection featuring the top images of 2013 from a wide range of photographers. He had a tremendous response this year, with over 300 submissions. If you’re looking for some inspiration, or just want to see some beautiful photography, this is a great list to peruse. I haven’t seen everything yet, so this is by no means a comprehensive selection, but here are some entries that caught my eye and feature some excellent work:
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by Michael Frye | Jan 4, 2014 | Announcements
The votes are all in and counted, and here are my top ten photographs of 2013!
We had truly an amazing response this year: 396 people looked through my initial selection of 49 images and posted their picks here on the blog, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and by email. A big thank you to everyone who took the time to look through these photographs and voice your opinions! I also really appreciate all the kind words expressed along with the votes. I wish I could respond to every comment, but please know that I’ve read them all and am very grateful for all your support. And last but not least, many thanks to my wonderful assistant Claudia who tallied all those votes!
To express our gratitude to all of you we’ve decided to give away another print to one of the voters. We assigned each person who voted a number, and used a random number generator to pick the recipient. And the winner is… Judy Heiser! Judy will receive a signed, numbered, matted 16×20 print of her choice from among the 49 original selections. Congratulations Judy!
So here’s the list of the ten images which received the most picks, and the number of votes they each received:
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by Michael Frye | Jan 3, 2014 | Announcements
41. Mist, sunlight, and a California black oak, Yosemite
Just a reminder that if you want to vote for your favorite images of mine from 2013 the deadline is midnight tonight, Pacific time. And to all of you who have already voted – thank you very much!
— Michael Frye
by Michael Frye | Jan 1, 2014 | Announcements
Happy New Year! I hope you’ve recovered from your New Year’s Eve celebrations. 😉
Like champagne, Times Square, and Auld Lang Syne, it’s become a New Year’s tradition on this blog to pick out my best images from the past year, and once again I’m inviting you to help make these difficult choices. I’ve posted 49 of my best photographs from 2013 below, in chronological order. After you look through these please post a comment listing your ten favorites. (Click on the images to see them larger.) Once the votes are in I’ll put the top ten on this blog, and submit the finalists to Jim Goldstein’s blog project, where he’ll be showcasing the best images of the year from over 100 photographers. The voting deadline is Friday, January 3rd, at midnight Pacific time.
As always, I reserve the right to override the votes if one of my favorites gets panned. But I have yet to exercise this power — the last three years I went with the votes because, well, we’re all better at judging other people’s photographs than our own.
Thanks for your input — I appreciate your help!
—Michael Frye
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