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  1. M

    RSS Photographing Forests

    Dogwood and giant sequoia in the fog, Sierra Nevada, California. Fog is a wonderful complement to forest scenes; here, some ephemeral fog lasted just long enough for me to capture this image. 70mm, polarizer, 0.7 seconds at f/16, ISO 100. People seem to love trees and forests. I know I do...
  2. M

    RSS Balance and Tension

    Spring colors, Mariposa County, California. 78mm; seven focus-stacked frames blended with Helicon Focus; each frame was 1/8 sec. at f/16, ISO 250. I hope you’re all staying safe and not going too stir-crazy. I’m sure, like most of us, you’re anxious to be able to get out and photograph again...
  3. M

    RSS How to Get Everything in Focus

    Sun rising over a field of lupines, Redwood NP, California. The focal length was 16mm, and the closest objects to the camera were the flowers at the very bottom of the frame, about two feet from the lens. I used my hyperfocal-distance shortcut to find the optimum focus distance, by doubling the...
  4. M

    RSS Developing a Solid Field Routine

    Sunbeams from Tunnel View, spring, Yosemite. Having a solid, well-practiced field routine helps me to calmly capture fleeting moments of light like this. 40mm, three auto-bracketed bracketed exposures at f/11, ISO 100. Do you have a consistent field routine? Do you go through the same steps...
  5. M

    RSS Storm Over the San Joaquin Valley

    Late-afternoon light in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Most of the photographs I made this afternoon didn’t include a foreground. But I saw this rock outcrop, and kept it in mind for the right opportunity. That opportunity came when the sun slid underneath the clouds and highlighted the jagged...
  6. M

    RSS Soft Images in a Harsh Landscape

    Sand dunes at dusk, Death Valley Sand dunes present an incredible array of shapes, forms, and textures, which makes them highly photogenic. When I first started photographing dunes I was fascinated by those abstract patterns, especially with low-angle light raking across them. And I still am...
  7. M

    RSS How to Keep Your Photography Eye Sharp While Stuck at Home

    Huntington Gardens – an irresistible pattern! Captured with my iPhone, like all the photos in this post. I had planned to write this post before the whole coronavirus lockdown. After all, even in “normal” times, many photographers only pick up their cameras when they’re traveling, or taking a...
  8. M

    RSS A Storm Brewing

    Rainbow over badlands, Death Valley Claudia and I just got back from two trips to Death Valley. That journey started with a workshop I taught for Visionary Wild, with co-leader Jerry Dodrill. Although Jerry and I didn’t know each other well beforehand, it turns out that we have similar...
  9. M

    RSS It’s All About the Light

    Sunset in a San Joaquin Valley marsh. We’ve had some beautiful sunsets this winter in that other valley – the Central Valley of California – where the wide horizons can showcase the colorful skies. I made this exposure about 45 minutes after sunset. By then it was so dark that my eyes could...
  10. M

    Out of Yosemite Conference

    Moon rising next to Half Dome, Yosemite The Out of Yosemite conference was so much fun. Exhausting, but well worth it. It was an honor to teach alongside John Sexton, Alan Ross, Charlie Cramer, Bill Neill, Charlotte Gibb, Franka Gabler, Alex Noriega, Colleen Miniuk, Matt Payne, Jack Curran...
  11. M

    RSS Half Dome by Moonlight

    Half Dome and the Merced River by moonlight, Yosemite We had a long stretch of rather dry weather here in central California, with just a few light showers here and there. But last week we finally got a decent storm. A cold front created a brief – but intense – period of precipitation on...
  12. M

    RSS Crystal Patterns

    Ice and reflections, Yosemite. The gold color comes from reflections of sunlit cliffs, while I used a polarizing filter to bring out the prism effects in the ice. 168mm, 3 seconds at f/16, ISO 320; focus-stacked and blended with Helicon Focus. I love photographing ice. It’s highly photogenic...
  13. M

    Another Yosemite Sunrise

    Half Dome and El Capitan during a clearing storm, Yosemite We’ve seen a pretty active weather pattern here in California since late November. There haven’t been any big storms, but rather a series of smaller systems. Each dose of precipitation brings a chance to photograph a clearing storm –...
  14. M

    Winter Arrives in Yosemite

    Snowy night along the Merced River, Yosemite. 20mm, 20 seconds at f/2.5, ISO 6400. I’m not sure who decided that the winter solstice should be the first official day of winter, but I think that official designation is rather absurd. Winter has definitely arrived in many parts of the country...
  15. M

    RSS Nighttime Exhibit at The Ansel Adams Gallery

    Clearing storm by moonlight from Tunnel View, Yosemite NP, CA, USA I’m pleased to announce that Kirk Keeler and I will have an exhibit of nighttime photographs at The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite from June 30th to August 17th. Called “Yosemite at Night,” the show will offer a different...
  16. M

    Misty Yosemite Valley

    Sunrise from Tunnel View, Yosemite. On this morning the satellite images showed lots of high clouds, but I hoped there might be a gap to the east, allowing the sun to shine through and light the underside of the clouds. And I hoped for mist on the valley floor. That was asking for a lot, but...
  17. M

    Snow in Yosemite Valley: Part 2

    Snow-covered oaks reflected in the Merced River, Yosemite NP, CA, USA On that snowy day I wrote about in my previous post the sun came out quickly, so our first stop was a spot near El Capitan that was still in the shade. I was looking for reflections, but then the sun hit the oaks across...
  18. M

    Snow in Yosemite Valley

    Stormy skies over the valley, Yosemite, Sunday evening We’ve had one storm after another here in the Sierra Nevada. Two more storms came through this past weekend, back to back. They were cold systems, so it snowed in Yosemite Valley, with about five inches on Friday night, and another eight...
  19. M

    Misty Morning in Yosemite Valley

    Misty sunrise, Half Dome and the Merced River, Yosemite. This was a very contrasty scene, so I bracketed five exposures, each two stops apart, and blended them with Lightroom’s HDR Merge. The settings, for what they’re worth: 16mm, various shutter speeds at f/11, ISO 100. I don’t like getting...
  20. M

    RSS Milky Way over Yosemite Valley

    Milky Way over Yosemite Valley. Four frames stitched together with Lightroom’s Panorama Merge. Each frame was 30 seconds at f/2.5, ISO 6400. Sometime around the middle of April a small weather system passed through our area, dropping about half an inch of precipitation on Yosemite Valley. In...


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