California

Laguna Beach, California Sunset Photos

I’ve become a beach bum. If you know me, you might be surprised to read that statement, as I have been like the living embodiment of Cartman when it comes to the hippie lifestyle (don’t let them fool you: beach bums are a subset of the hippie movement). However, unlike your typical beach bum who […]

Aliens Playing Under the Full Moon at Death Valley’s Racetrack Playa?

Are there extraterrestrials living among us on earth? What do they do? These are the type of questions humans have debated for ages, and after a weekend at Death Valley National Park, I believe I am ready to solve them. Speculate no more, as aliens are playful creatures who, it turns out, live in the […]

Death Valley National Park Trip Report – Part 2

Picking up from where we left off in Part 1 of my Death Valley National Park Trip Report, this photo above is probably not what you’d expect to see in Death Valley. The Inn at Furnace Creek would be an anomaly in any National Park, but it’s the ultimate contrast in Death Valley. The land […]

Death Valley National Park Trip Report – Part 1

This trip report cover my recent overnight trip to Death Valley National Park, which included stops at the Mesquite Dunes, Furnace Creek, Badwater Basin, and other places around Death Valley National Park in California. I almost didn’t do a trip report on this visit to Death Valley, as I missed a lot of key experiences […]

Pacific Coast Highway Trip Report – Part 2

Part 1 of my Pacific Coast Highway Trip Report left off with a nail-biting shootout with a squad of FBI agents, and left readers wondering whether our heroes would escape in a blaze of glory. Okay, that’s not quite what happened, but on our way up from Shark Fin Cove, we were stopped by two […]

Pacific Coast Highway Trip Report – Part 1

Calling this a Pacific Coast Highway Trip Report is sort of a misnomer. Although we started in Orange County, California and headed north on PCH to north of Big Sur, we also veered off to head to Yosemite following our adventures on the coast. In any case, I thought it’d be fun to share photos […]

California Beaches: Laguna’s Pearl Street Beach

Continuing my series of the best beaches in California is Pearl Street Beach in Laguna Beach. This post contains photos of Pearl Street Beach, tips for finding it, and some info about the beach. Pearl Street Beach is a small spot with reefs comprising both the north and south rims of the beach. I previously […]

Including People in Landscape Photography

In this post, I cover the value of including people in natural landscape photos, and share an example of an “environmental self portrait” taken on the California Coast. In this post, I want to spend a little time talking about why I think landscape photographers are making a mistake by not–from time to time–including people […]

Tips for Photographing Moonscapes

In this post, I’m going to offer tips for photographing a moonscape (night landscape illuminated by the moon) and post-processing tricks for making these scenes pop. At night, a full moon can be used as a light source in a similar way as the sun during the day, except with less light. There’s some science […]

First Snow in Yosemite Part 2 – The Sunrise Chase

Picking up where we left off in the first part of “First Snow in Yosemite,” we were set-up just off the edge of the road in Yosemite National Park shooting over the Merced River and Cathedral Rocks when the clouds began to clear. Bill and I quickly headed back to Tunnel View for what was […]