Whoa, it seems like yesterday that I wished a Happy New Year… wait. It was yesterday. Ugh, never mind. So many things happened in 2010, the year flew by like monarch butterflies over the state of California and I thoroughly enjoyed the time spent in the field, photographing in the jaw-dropping and awe-inspiring locations in the western US, namely Yosemite National Park, Arches and Canyonlands NP in Utah, the Columbia River Gorge in Oregon and a few lesser known places on the way, but see for yourself.

Without further blah blah, here are my favorite 5 images of the last year.

1. “Granite Reflections” – Yosemite National Park, California

Cathedral Peak majestically towers over Upper Cathedral Lake high in the Sierra and a lesser visited area in the Yosemite National Park, California. Read the story behind the ascent here or by clicking the image above.

2. “Defiance Falls” – Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

The official name of this little known jewel in the Columbia River Gorge is Lancaster Falls, named after Samuel C. Lancaster, an engineer responsible for the construction of much of the original Columbia River Gorge Highway. (Which is an awesome drive by the way!)

3. “Captain’s Point” – Cape Kiwanda, Oregon

A beautiful soft and warm evening light kisses the sandstone formations of Cape Kiwanda on the Oregon coast near Pacific City while the raging surf shapes the ever-changing cliffs.

4. “Rising Dawn” – Convict Lake, California

Stormy rain clouds are pushing over the ridge of Mt. Laurel at Convict Lake, California; lit by the rising sun over the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

5. “Firestorm” – Natural Bridges State Park, California

A rare colorful sunset during the late summer season in California. Usually the beaches in Northern California are covered in a thick marine layer which blankets the coast like an impenetrable coat, suffocating all chances of possible color. With a little luck and a lot of patience, the spectacular sunset eventually happened, accompanied by lit up rain showers.


Last but not least, I want to thank you all for the support throughout the year. I resolve to post more in 2011, spend even more time in the field, explore new places, offer a better experience when browsing and shopping for images on my website (reads: a major upgrade is in the works) and buy more of the Cialis and Rolex watches I am offered every day. Thanks Spammers. I love you too.

That said, enjoy “Laced in Frost”. My last image of the past year taken on December 30th; complete with hoarfrost covered branches, steam rising from the river and a little pink magic; brings 2010 to a worthy end. Here’s to a great Twenty-Eleven y’all!

David

Me and my promises… Sorry it has taken me so long again to update the blog. On the only two day break between the exams, I’ll escape the homogeneity of controlling, financial analysis and marketing to add some new images on here.

Since I was bitten by the photography bug, I’ve been attracted to wildflower images. Living in the mountains, one would think there are plenty of them to find. Well, between the fireweed which basically grows everywhere and sparse buttercups there aren’t many and I’ve always been drawn to images of the Rowena Crest near Portland, Oregon, where every spring fields of balsamroots and lupines burst into bloom.

“Glowing Lupines”

So it was about time to find me some lupines. My own batch of glorious, flowering lupines.

Being tied up with mostly university related work, finding the right moment with all elements cooperating wasn’t easy but after missing out on some great sunsets earlier in the week which I admired from the safety of my desk, I was ready to fight endless hordes of mosquitoes and other biting critters which were all over me like nazguls over the fellowship of the ring.

Despite the ongoing battle I was able to pull off a few frames which I really liked. Fortunately, the lupines were at their peak of blooming before being squashed by heavy rains and hail later in the week. To put the shooting over the top, the sky cooperated also and provided a stunning warm atmosphere.

“Meadow of Dreams”

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Thanks and catch y’all on the flip side.

David

Hello and welcome to a new tale of truly yours. For those who were wondering, I am still alive and I even got out shooting some spring greens over the last few weeks. Spare time to post some extended reports on here was rare though and I’d like to apologize for that. I hope to make it up with some mouth-watering shots straight from hell’s my kitchen.

Some of you might wonder what’s the deal with me shooting food now. To cut the long story short, when the landscape and sky are rather dull, and quite frankly, they were pretty much all time this year, it’s great to have something to shoot in or around the house. While spring flowers like tulips and ranunculus have there fixed position in my yearly things to do in spring list, it’s always nice to venture out into a new field of photography. May it be the challenge of some sort, with its own limitations and a way to broaden one’s horizon or simply the fact to learn a new technique for a certain style of shooting which you can adapt to other fields of photography.

Fennel Orange Salad with cucumber, red onion and pear.

For me, it was kind of both. While cooking is nothing new to me, cooking for photos certainly is. I am not a professional food stylist my any means nor do I spill a gallon of motor oil over the salad to make it look, well, tasty. It’s rather the fact how you put the food on the plate. When cooking for friends, I take great care about how the food looks on the table. While you might think that is nothing different for photos, you err. Making food look good on the plate alone is one thing, making it look good in the photos you take is a different kettle of fish.

Beef, lettuce hearts, ripe mango, red onion rings, Parmesan cheese and mango garlic mayo between sesame and black cumin seed bun.

I am sure some professional food stylists and photographers will laugh at my approach but what do I care? Being a landscape photographer at heart, I tried to bring the basic principles of composition onto the plate, all spiced up by some high key treatment. These concepts, of course, are leading lines, some kind of foreground element that pulls the viewer into the scene and the rule of thirds. You can find these concepts perfectly illustrated and adapted to landscape photography in the article “Understanding Composition” at the Aperture Academy website which I highly recommend.

That being said, I hope you feel somewhat satiated and remember to try something new and challenging when the light isn’t just right and if you like, share your experiments here on the blog.

I’ll be back with flowers and waterfall pictures next week. Please excuse me while I plan my 3 month US trip this summer. California watch out! LOL

David

P.S. I also played around with the new possibilities of CSS3 and jQuery to add to my website later. Head over to the new and improved contact form and let me know what you think. It features my take at the iPhone unlock slider, which ironically doesn’t work on the iPhone itself yet but I am working on it.

Welcome to my world. Dark, muddy and bland.

This is what the spring here in the mountains looks like these days. I am not a whiner but it is quite depressing to see great spring photography from other parts of the world and you are only surrounded by uniform brown tone. Very soon I hope the spring flowers will pop here too and bring the color back to our daily lives.

Spring is also the time when the ferns are at their best. So every minute I have to spare I will be on the hunt of flowers and ferns at streams with good flow and maybe one or the other waterfall. To stay in the loop, you should follow me on twitter where all updates and photos are announced first.

“Sensual Curves”

Canon Rebel XSi with EF Canon 70-200mm f/4L @ 188mm, 1/160s, f/16, iso 400

But what’s with the title and all the jabber about spring? Alright, to stay mostly on topic, here are some pictures I wanted to share with you. Since the weather in my part of the world was not quite as spectacular awesome nice okay-ish for great photography, I opted for some more complex and abstract compositions of well known subjects; to show them in a new and somewhat unique perspective.

“Crystals”

Canon Rebel XSi with Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L @ 200mm, 1/800s, f/5.6, iso 400

The intention was to get in close, to bring out fine detail that often remains undiscovered in the grand landscapes but offers quite some interest. Whether it’s the striking snow drift that only reveals its fine structure under a certain lighting, ice crystals that form on a row of conifers or a strong pine tree that is struggling in a snow storm which brought a deep layer of fine snow.

“Tree of Life”

Canon Rebel XSi with Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L @ 200mm, 1/8s, f/22, iso 100

I decided to leave these pictures quite large to maximize viewing pleasure. Please allow the site to load completely to really discover the fine detail in these shots. I hope to have the website updated with all new shots over the Easter weekend; as well as fixed a few minor glitches. Thanks for reading and viewing and Happy Easter to you all!

See you around.

David

… or what to do on a cold day before year’s end.

Dear Mr. Blog,
I’d like to apologize for having neglected you so long. You have been a wonderful friend in these hard times and I hope our friendship will continue despite my poor interest in you. lol Okay folks, just trying to be funny but here is a short wrap up of how the past year ended for me. I did not realize until now that I have not written anything about my tour through the city of Dresden with David Bank from London and Matthias from Berlin.

“Dresden at Dusk”

Canon Rebel XSi with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 11mm, 8s, f/11, iso 100

David (the other one – not me!) was nice enough to drop by for a day worth of shooting in my current living room, so to speak. Being an architect by day and a photographer by night (or rather the hour before and after sunset, which is often referred to as Blue Hour, but more on that later.); his portfolio is filled with stunning cityscapes from all over the world. Names of cities that make every avid traveler’s heart beat twice as fast: Beijing, London, Madrid, San Francisco, Paris, Chicago, Shanghai, New York and Hong Kong to name just a few. You can check out his fantastic work on his flickr stream as his website is currently in a redesign state.

Alright, now let’s get serious about the photos and the blue hour. Our little group met at what is easily defined as Dresden’s icon: the Frauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). The light was just shifting to an overcast gray but fortunately David and Matthias were able to grab some of the finest light of the day before I arrived to meet up with them. After a brief overview of what I had in mind regarding places to shoot, we made our way to the IT faculty of the TU Dresden which I thought would be an interesting subject for us to shoot. Luckily, we were able to get in and the architect in our group appreciated the contemporary design quite a bit. Yes, even the bathrooms are lime green. No, I didn’t get a shot from this very place but others sure did.

“The Green Chamber”

Canon Rebel XSi with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 11mm, 0.8s, f/10, iso 100

After exploring the building it was about time to get back into the historic city center, rushing past my beloved Starbucks and through masses of tourists which always seem to be there. In the coldest days, in the rainiest and even at 3 in the morning but that’s another story. We made it to Bruehl’s Terrace which should be the main spot for the evening, just in time for the beginning of the blue hour. (See the first picture of this post.) The blue hour is the magical transition from day to night and vice versa, after the sun has set or before the sun is about to rise and the sky is dyed in a steel blue curtain. For us photographers, this is the perfect time of the day to shoot cityscapes but don’t get me wrong, we also appreciate a nice sunset (which is just about to happen as I type this) or sunrise.

“Gold and Black” (… and a blue hour sky.)

Canon Rebel XSi with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 12mm, 8s, f/13, iso 100

The blue hour, also known as twilight or l’heure bleue, makes up for stunning city photography experiences. You can get elements in one shot that seem to be impossible at other times of the day. One of the major aspects of a great composition can be light trails from cars or trams passing by. You can create a sense of motion and these light trails can also be used as lines to lead the eye of the viewer through the scene.

“Passing By”

Canon Rebel XSi with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 @ 12mm, 10s, f/10, iso 100

Such as in the shot above. I studied scene for quite a while before setting up for the shot and therefore knowing exactly where the street car would pass and where the lights of it would be. I composed it to have the majestic church sitting two-thirds horizontally, the golden glowing tower of the Dresden castle on the one-third axis vertically and the right face of the church on the two-thirds axis while the cars and tram passing are in some sort of “C”-shape to create impact. I have chosen a longer exposure than it would be necessary by adding a circular polarizer to the front of my lens to get longer light trails and to blur the detail of the cars completely to create this see-through appearance and therefore not to lose any detail in the historic architecture.

After we covered all the major sights of the city center, it was time for the last spot for the day. The view towards the city made famous by Bernardo Bellotto, better know as Canaletto, a Venetian painter from the 18th century. Night set and we were in desperate need of food and a cool one to call it a day.

See you next time with some more winterly shots to complete the winter wrap up. I promise that it won’t be too long.

Until then, happy shooting and never stop exploring.

David