An Old Friend Returns

Has anyone noticed that Yosemite becomes a completely different park with each season? I feel quite fortunate to live close enough that I’m able to enjoy each Yosemite season, and to offer Yosemite workshops in three of four seasons. (Actually, you can probably infer that I live close enough to offer workshops in all four seasons, but I leave summer to the tourists.) Each…

A Different Kind of Cat Herding

With my April Yosemite workshop starting in less than three hours, I was experiencing more than my normal (mild) pre-workshop anxiety. But after 20 years of photo workshops, I’ve accepted that I will always be a little stressed about the unknown until we start: how will this group of strangers connect, and what kind of photography conditions will we have? Guiding a diverse group…

More Than a Pretty Picture

Before exploring for the scene that ultimately delivered the image in my prior blog post, I got my February group set up at what I’ve always felt was the primary view at this location. With Half Dome framed on the left by towering evergreens, on the right by a long diagonal ridge, and the tree-lined Merced River in the foreground, this spot has all…

Who’s Counting?

I get a lot of questions during a photo workshop, but about 80% of them are some version of, “Should I do it this way or that way?”: “Should I shoot this with a wide or telephoto lens?” “Should I shoot this horizontal or vertical?” “Should I include that rock or leave it out?” “Should I polarize this or not?” “Should I freeze or…

Yosemite at its Best

If anyone had told me that my annual Yosemite Horsetail Fall photo workshop would get no opportunity to photograph the molten sunset light on El Capitan; that many of my go-to locations, including Tunnel View, would be inaccessible for the entire workshop; that Half Dome would be shrouded in clouds for all but a few hours; that the park would actually shut down the…

Too Much of a Good Thing

Greetings from Iceland! And no, despite appearances to the contrary, this image is not Iceland (or even Snowland), it’s Yosemite. (Actually, if you know Iceland, the “not Iceland” giveaway would be all the trees.)  People ask me all the time, what’s the best season to be in Yosemite? While I honestly can’t pick a “best” Yosemite season, I can say that each season in Yosemite…

Hidden Treasures

I’m aware that most of the images I share feature familiar subjects and eye-grabbing vistas that (justifiably) attract thousands of daily visitors and inspire millions of photographs—Nature’s celebrities. But that’s not a complete reflection of my personal photographic instincts. There are several reasons the subjects I share skew toward more acclaimed beauty: for example, the relatively close proximity of that beauty to my home…

Plot Twist

One overcast autumn evening in Yosemite, I wandered an isolated trail on the bank of the Merced River with my 100-400 lens, searching for intimate scenes to isolate. Spotting an assortment of colorful leaves clinging to a beautifully textured log, an opportunity materialized in my mind. Though my eyes could see the log and leaves mingling with a reflection of overhanging branches and yellow…

Moon Chasing

Many years ago I stood with a couple of other photographers on Sentinel Bridge in Yosemite. It was a few minutes before sunset and we were waiting, cameras poised, for the moon to ascend from behind Half Dome. As we chatted, a young woman approached and asked no one in particular what we were all waiting for. When I told her about the imminent…

Let’s Get Vertical (Again)

(This seed of today’s blog is a post from many years ago—but the image and its story are brand new.) What’s your orientation? I’ve always questioned the reasoning behind labeling horizontally oriented images, “landscape,” and vertically oriented images, “portrait.” Despite my profession as a landscape (-only) photographer, nearly half of my images use “portrait” orientation. So it concerns me that this arbitrary naming bias…