I photographed this scene several years ago on the Oregon Coast. I do not remember where or when exactly, but it doesn't matter. I love the way the beach, the sky and the sunset light lead your eye off into infinity...hence the title. It just looks like this beach goes on forever.
There is a cabin in British Columbia where I used to go to unwind and practice my photographic skills. It is called "The Gatehouse" and is located on Kootenay Lake, a few miles south Kaslo. The peace and quiet is beyond description and the scenery in the surrounding area is magnificent. The cabin has no TV or telephone. Cell phones don't work. There is a radio that gets one station, the local CBC channel. I seldom turned it on. For relaxation I had some books and my laptop to do some writing. The Internet was out of the question, of course. Life was simplified this week, and I truly loved it.
Late one afternoon, after a day of relaxing and photography, I was sitting on the front porch of the cabin, drinking a glass of wine, snacking on some nuts, and reading a good book. The light turning slightly red as it always does this time of day. My camera was nearby, so I just got up out of the chair, grabbed my camera, and shot this scene.
Then, I put away the camera, sat back down, and continued reading. But, this picture captured everything that this time in Canada meant to me. I can't look at it and not think about how peaceful and simple life was for this all-to-short week.
It occurred to me as I was driving home last Sunday night that I have never displayed any of my wedding photography photos in this blog. Since it is an important part of my life, I thought I would share one with you. This photo of the wedding I did last Sunday is one of several hundred I shot that day. It took place at the Mountain Springs Lodge in Plain, WA...about 15 miles north of Leavenworth. It is a great location to have a wedding as there are wide open spaces and beautiful mountain scenery. The staff there was exceptional and really helped get the wedding off without a hitch.
At the beginning of the day, I didn't know whether I would be shooting an indoor or outdoor wedding as rain and thunderstorms were a strong possibility. But the weather held, and, in fact became quite beautiful.
While I always shoot many close-ups during the ceremony, I couldn't resist including a long shot showing the sky, the flowers and the wedding party. This wedding shoot turned out quite well, photographically speaking and I am sure the happy couple will love their pictures.
I am sure I will be sharing a few more wedding images here and there. I hope you don't mind.
Sometimes, photography is just about being in the right place at the right time. So it was this last Sunday morning. I was at my studio loading up the car with photo equipment to do a wedding up near Leavenworth. As I pulled out, I saw this fire right behind my studio (but not near enough to be a threat). Being a good photographer, I whipped out my camera and began photographing. At first I could not tell what was on fire as the fence was closed. Someone, I presume to be the resident of the property, then opened the fence to reveal this van on fire.
First, it was only the van in flames, then two trees went up as fast as you can imagine, followed by some wires attached to the pole. When these went, they caused an explosion of sparks.
Then, the police arrived, and a few minutes later came the fire trucks. The fire was quickly extinguished and I left for my wedding shoot. For a few minutes, it was a pretty spectacular fire. I am sorry for the person who owns the van, but it was something to see.
When I was a little boy living in San Mateo, I saw a three story, all wood basketball area engulfed in flames. To this day, it still is the most spectacular fire I have ever witnessed. In both cases, no one was hurt which made the fire spectacular. When someone gets hurt in a fire, the fire cannot in all good conscious be called spectacular.
I was traveling down the Oregon Coast a couple of years ago, on my way to California to do two art shows. I chose a more leisurely route as I had my new digital Olympus DSLR camera that I wanted to put to good use. Switching from film to digital is quite a transition, so I wanted to give the camera a good workout in some scenic locations and learn all about its nuances. Spanish Rock is just south of Lincoln City, OR. After arriving in town, I did some scouting to find a good location for the sunset. Spanish Rock was by far the best location, so I had only to hope that the weather and the tide would cooperate.
I checked into my hotel, and an hour or so before dusk, found a nice Chinese restaurant to have dinner and wait for that special witching hour. After dinner, I headed down to my predetermined location, set up my tripod, then shot about 40-50 exposures of the sunset and post-sunset sky. I experimented with different settings during all this and only went back to my room after all the color had left the sky.
I got lucky that night with tides and weather. This was my favorite shot as I caught the sun just dipping into the water, some great colors in the sky, yet still managed to capture some detail in the rock. It was shot in RAW mode, then post-processed in Photoshop. Because of the huge range from light to shadow, I could not have captured all the detail in this picture had it been shot in JPG, as is done by most digital cameras.
Good Chinese food and a great ocean sunset...what else could you want out of life?
It was a very special day for me...my first time ever wandering through the ancient forum in Rome. This was the very center of western civilization 2,000 years ago. Some of history's most famous and infamous persons walked these very paths. And here I was, at last, in the heart of the Roman Empire. Of all the eras of history, it was the Romans that have fascinated me the most. Even as a child, I wanted to learn more about them. Being educated in a Catholic school, I wanted to learn more about these ancient people who were, as we were taught, the enemies and murderers of Jesus Christ. I knew there was more to them than what I was being taught...and there most definitely was.
I read the life stories of Julius Caesar, and Augustus, and many others...the writings of Suetonius and Marcus Auraleus, and countless historical accounts of the that era. I even read the three volumes of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (very depressing) and tried to understand how civilization fell from the high water mark of the Roman Empire to the barely civilized Dark Ages.
So, indeed I was standing in the one place I wanted to visit for most of my life. And what a day it was! The light was amazing, as was the sky. I saw the remnants the Roman Senate, the temple of Vesta, the Arch of Constantine, and the supposed burial site of Caesar's ashes, where flowers are still placed anonymously almost every day. I shall never forget this day.
This photo shows the remnants of the Temple of Saturn. The partially intact pediment above the columns reads, "Senatus Populusque Romanus incendio consumptum restituit.", ("The Senate and People of Rome restored what fire had consumed")
One day soon, I hope to return. More pictures of Rome in the future.
This image was photographed a few years ago up in near Grand Coulee Dam. I was up there on business and as I came out of an office and headed for my car, I was greeted with this amazing sunset. Fortunately I had my camera with me. If there is one positive benefits to forest fire season, is that smoke from these giant fires can provide some amazing sunsets. And that is what happened here. The sun is a red ball and the clouds and sky reflected some amazing red light. At first I wasn't crazy about shooting through power lines (most photographers hate them when they are in a picture), but then I realized I was near the dam, so power lines are an important part of life up there and, frankly, the picture would not have been all that good without them.
The picture's title comes from three sources...first the obvious power lines, then the immense power that emanates from the sun, and finally then the power of the massive forest fires that can spread smoke so very far.
This original was shot on 35mm slide film, then scanned into my computer. Very little extra work was needed.
Talk about color!! No need for Photoshop here. What you see are the real colors of La Placita Village in Tucson, AZ. Located in Tucson's Old Town, just on the other side of the Interstate from downtown Tucson and the University of Arizona, this little village has several small shops and restaurants, and the Tucson Visitor Center. From here you can take several walking tours to see historic old Tucson with its many fabulous old mansions, the Tucson Museum of Art, and the Tucson Convention Center, to name just a few. Tucson was one of those rare cities that I fell in love with immediately. It is just a special place and I was fortunate to spend 6 days there in January. There are many opportunities for photography all over the area...just ask Ansel Adams. It was a favorite destination of his and a huge number of his original prints are housed in the Center for Creative Photography, located on the northern edge of the U of A campus. I heartily recommend a trip to this city if you can.
Yes...it gets hot in the summer, but is cooler than Phoenix or Yuma. It sits at a higher elevation and is surrounded by mountains and has extremely low humidity. And the sunsets are magnificent! There is a special glow in the day light that reminds me so much of Italy.
I will have more images from Tucson as time goes by.
We spent almost 3 days in Zion National Park in Southern Utah. Not nearly enough time, to say the least. It was Thanksgiving week in 2007. We had a hotel less than 1/2 mile from the entrance, so getting in and out of the park, especially at sunrise and sunset, was quite easy.
It was late autumn in the park and we had just missed the full majesty of autumn by maybe a week. Still I captured several very good images, as you will see over the course of time.
The temperature on this day was around 70 degrees. In two days we would be in sub-zero temperatures as we left Zion headed for Bryce Canyon. But this was a beautiful day for photography. As you can see, this image has many different colors, which is why I like it so much. To me, Zion is the Yosemite of the desert...high bare rock mountains that you are at part of as you traverse the valley below. You get so many different views as you walk or drive down the main road...you can hardly wait to see what is around the next bend.
The big difference between Zion and the Grand Canyon (and even Bryce Canyon) is that you are at the bottom of the park... whereas the other two are viewed primarily from the top. Of course, in all three parks you can go up or down as you please.
As a side note, if you are 62 or older, you can get a free lifetime pass to all the National Parks and Monuments for a one-time payment of $10. Being that the regular park entrance fee for Zion is $25 (same for Yosemite), this pass is one of the greatest bargains available today. And, if one person in the car has this pass, everyone in the car gets in free.
This is one of my digital paintings done from an original photograph I took in 2006. I found this old truck in a combination auto graveyard/repair shop/museum annex in the little town of Hunters, WA, near Lake Roosevelt, south of Kettle Falls. There were some interesting old vehicles, and I took pictures of lots of them. But this old truck was my favorite. The colors you see are genuine, but perhaps enhanced just a bit. I first did some preliminary work in Photoshop, then painted it by hand using Corel Painter and my Wacom Graphics Tablet. Then, back into Photoshop for some final minor adjustments. I like the painting very much, especially when printed on canvas...and it is a good seller, although it has only been available for one year.
About a year later, I was back in Hunters just passing through. This old truck was still there, although it's condition had deteriorated quite a bit. The roof on the passenger's side was caved in and the colors had faded. I am glad I captured it when I did.
At one art show last year, a fellow thought the truck might not be a Ford, but rather another make whose name I can't remember. I am not an expert on old cars and trucks, so he could be right. But, even if he is, I don't think I will change the name.
This is one of my favorite black and white images. I took this shot a few years ago in the hills east of Walla Walla, just wandering around looking for good photos. It was in September, as I remember, and autumn foliage had not really started yet. This is a good image with the strong clouds in the sky and the road leading off into the distance with a slight curve that gives the picture more depth. In some ways, it is the classic composition that photographers look for. Without a doubt, it is a much stronger picture in black and white than color. Often, I seem to have an interesting battle with myself as to whether an image is better in color or B&W.
The image was actually shot using a 35 mm camera on color slide film. I scanned the image into Photoshop and proceeded to change it into a black and while image. Then, I used two different color filters (digital) to process the image, one color for the sky and another for the ground, each in a separate process.
Now, in the old days, using black and white film, I would have used a red or orange filter on the lens to give me a richer sky. Different color filters affect the shades of gray in black and white film. But a red filter might not have helped the ground. Using two separate color filters in the computer gave me the gray tones I wanted.
I think Ansel Adams would have liked this image.
This is definitely not the most picturesque photo of the Sedona, AZ area, but I like it. I had been out shooting for two days in and around Sedona. After a while, all the red rock formations begin to look alike and I started "looking down" as I invariably do. At this point I was looking to photograph some interesting-looking cactus plants or old tree trunk with a red rock formation in the background. While walking around, I came upon this deer skeleton and decided to include him and some nearby cactus in the foreground. It may not rank high on my list of pictures, but you must admit it has some artistic value.
Sedona is such an interesting place and I enjoyed seeing it for the first time last November. People of the "New Age" consider it a Vortex...meaning energy from the universe is being focused in this one place. That's why when you drive around town, you see a plethora of stores offering various New Age products and services. Even some hotels and spas offer a "New Age Experience." New Age or not, Sedona is very commercialized, to say the least...kind of like our Leavenworth.
My impressions of the area is this is what Yosemite, or Zion, or other National Parks would look like if they weren't protected by the National Park Service. Most of the roads I explored to get into the back country all dead-ended at some hotel or spa. There are some dirt roads here and there, which are nice, but there is a great deal of private property that you are prohibited from entering. Still worth seeing for its "Red Rock Beauty."
It was the Monday before Thanksgiving and we had driven most of the day from Yuma to Las Vegas. It was a planned one-night stay as we were headed the next morning for Zion National Park. We booked a very nice room in advance at the Flamingo Hotel, right in the center of the Las Vegas strip. As it was getting toward dusk after we checked in...and since we are not gamblers, we decided to walk around a bit as see Vegas as I had not been there in a few years. Several of the hotels we saw had been built since my last visit. I grabbed my Nikon D200 camera to see what I could shoot at night. I took no flash and no tripod, so I was tempting fate to see how far I could push the VR lens (anti-shake) just by hand-holding it.
It turns out the Nikon did a great job...admittedly some pictures did not turn out, but many did and I will show more of my night shots of Vegas in the future. This is the replica of the tower that sits in St. Mark's Square in the real Venice and marks the entrance to the Venetian Hotel. It was interesting to see the inside of the Venetian with its gondolas and simulated canals of Venice, but I still prefer the real one. Interestingly, there is a Guggenheim Museum both in the real Venice and at this hotel. At this one, we were able to see a fabulous exhibition of early modern paintings.
Oh, by the way, I did place a bet on the Monday Night Football game and won $10. Don't tell the IRS.
This sketch of Big Ben with Westminster Abbey in the foreground took four years to get right. After taking the photograph in London, I knew I wanted to turn it into one of my paintings. I painted it over and over again, never being satisfied with the outcome. Every time I would learn a new technique or get a new software painting program, I would try a new version....never getting it right to my eye. The tree on the left continued to cause problems, but it was an element I wanted to keep in the picture.
I did another painting of it a year ago, using Corel's Painter software and I sort of liked it, but decided to sit on it and look at it occasionally to see if I would like it better over time. I do this a great deal with all my work. In this case, I forgot about it for almost a year.
A month ago I pulled it up again and after staring at it for a little while, then doing a test print, I thought it was the best it was ever going to get, but I still didn't want to exhibit it. Then I thought about taking it as it was and turning it into a black a white sketch.
Now, I love doing digital black and white sketches of some of my work, but, to be honest, they are not good sellers. Sketches are just never as popular as paintings. But, for this work, I thought the latest version of this painting would be more interesting if turned into a b&w sketch. So, I took the painting and worked it and worked it until I had good sketch.
Personally, I like it a great deal, although I have no hopes of it ever being a best seller. Frankly, I don't much care as I am happy with it now and I can finally put this problem to bed, so to speak. An artist who wants to make a living selling his pictures almost always has to balance what the public wants to spend its money on versus what makes him or her happy.
I will let you in on another secret...I have works that I just hate that sell fairly well and others that I love that almost never sell. Then, there is the happy medium where a work I like does sell well.
Now, I love the European train system. It's fast, efficient, and fun to ride. We had purchased our round-trip tickets in a newly installed ticket booth in Asti. The machine gives you a choice of languages, takes your credit card, then issues a ticket with your car # and assigned seating. No more standing in lines and hoping the clerk speaks English.
When the time nears for you to get to your train, the first thing you do is check the station's big board to see what binario (track #) your train is coming in on. You then head to your binario, luggage in hand and wait for your train. In Bologna, we did just that. The board said our Eurostar train would leave from track #1 at 7:00 PM, which means that it would probably pull into the station at either 6:57 or 6:58. We knew we were in car #1, just behind the engine, so we moved pretty far down the platform. At 6:58 a Eurostar train pulled into the station at our platform. It was a very long train and we found we had not gone far enough on the platform. No problem. On these trains, you get on the train as quickly as possible as they do leave on time. We had to move through several cars before we got to our car.
In car #1, we found an Italian gentlemen sitting in one of our seats. When we tried to tell him he was in our seat, we discovered his English was not as good as ours. So we did the best we could to tell him he was in our seat, not that it mattered much as the car was nowhere near full. By now, the train is moving out of the station. The gentlemen pulled out his ticket to show us that he was in the right seat...and he was. It was then that he pointed out that his ticket said he was going to Milan while were headed for Asti. One of us was on the wrong train, and since he had been on this train for some time, it was pretty clear it was us.
He told us where to find the chief conductor to report our problem and I remembered where his little office was as we passed it on the way to car #1. We headed back down the train with a sense of dread in our hearts that we were headed for the wrong location, many, many miles from where we wanted to go. We found the conductor and tried to explain to him what had happened. His English was worse than the man in car #1 so, it was difficult. We explained to him that we had done everything right and that his train had pulled into the wrong platform, but he was sure that couldn't be true. He got on his cell phone to make a call to God-knows-who to see what to do, but couldn't get a signal. At this point, I must admit that I was feeling a little desperate.
About this time, 5 other people came into the car from the opposite direction and walked direct to the conductor's office. One of them was a very well dressed Italian gentleman who spoke very fluent English. It turns out that he and the other 4 people had done the same thing as us. There were 7 of us on the wrong train...and to make things worse, this train was non-stop to Milan.
At this point our new Italian friend took over negotiations with the conductor. Eventually, the conductor told us to take any empty seat and await the outcome.
We had no idea what was going to happen. We had our next day all planned and wanted to get back to our Italian home near Asti. We also knew that we didn't want to spend our night in a Milan hotel. We were also a bit worried about our auto as we had left it in a hotel parking lot, telling them what time we would be back. It was an unpleasant feeling, heading toward a strange town in a strange country at 120 miles per hour, not knowing where you were or what would happen.
After some time, our new Italian friend found us and said everything was all worked out. This train would make an unscheduled stop at Piacenza to let us out. Our train to Asti was 10 minutes behind us and we could board it in Piacenza...and, as it turns out, our new friend lived in Piacenza and it was his final destination anyway. He was worried that he would have to back-track all the way from Milan to get back home, so his problem was also solved. But there was one small catch...when the train stopped, we could only get off at one particular door in one particular car. No other doors would open on the train. Needless-to-say we headed for that car and took a seat right by the door.
True to the conductor's plan, the train pulled into Piacenza, the train stopped, the correct door opened, and we all got out as fast as possible. The door quickly closed and the Milan-bound train headed out into the night. We in-turn headed into the terminal to see what track our train would come in on...and it turned out it was the same one the Milan train had let us off. Exactly as predicted, our train pulled in 10 minutes later and we boarded. I asked five different people if I was on the right train and they all answered affirmatively. Even our assigned seats were empty. We sat down and breathed a deep sigh of relief, then started laughing at our great train adventure in Italy.
The bottom line as to why we got on the wrong train was the Milan train was running an hour late, which put our train about 10 minutes late as they were both riding the same track for much of the way. It was pure coincidence that the Milan train pulled into Bologna exactly when ours was supposed to...and that it was a Eurostar train and used the same platform as ours. What impressed me the most was that the Italian train folks worked so hard to solve our problem. The picture here show Susan sitting on the train from Venice to Bologna, obviously unaware of the great snafu that was about to come.
It was going to be a beautiful day in northwestern Italy when we boarded a pre-dawn train in Asti to travel east...clear across the top of the country to Venice. It was a five hour ride on one Italy's fastest trains, a Eurostar, including a one hour layover to change trains in Bologna. But, before we even got that far, the weather changed and in started raining. By the time we got to Venice, it was coming down in buckets and it never let up the entire day. This was sad as I was taking Susan for her first ever visit to this magical city and I wanted it to be special. I had been there before and was anxious to share its magic with with her.
After arriving, we took a vaporato (the Venetian version of a bus) slowly down the Grand Canal, then around the back side of the city to its most famous destination, Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square). I was worried that the heavy rains would cause the piazza to flood, as happens so many times during the year. But, that day, the floods never materialized. From St. Marks, we wandered in and about Venice's maze of tiny streets, across canal bridges, not worrying about getting lost as there are plenty of signs to help get you around.
The good thing about a rainy day in Venice is the city is nearly empty of tourists. You can wander at will without people, get into any ristorante with no waiting and enjoy a quiet meal. You can also take lots of pictures without people in them.
In my wanderings that day, I came upon a parking area that many of Venice's gondolas use to tie up for the night. But, on this stormy day, few gondolas ever left port as tourists aren't inclined to take a gondola ride in a torrential downpour. This was nice for me as I took several interesting pictures of the parked gondolas, of which this is one. If you look closely, you can see the rain drops on the water and on the highly polished bows.
But even in the rain, the city never loses its magic. Venice is one of my top five cities in the world and is worth many visits.
Silver Falls State Park is about 25 miles east of Salem Oregon. It is nestled in the lower elevation of Oregon's Cascade Mountains in a temperate rain forest. I have been there five times and have yet to see the sun. Never-the-less, rainforest atmosphere makes for some spectacular easy hiking.
But the main attractions of the park are the 10 different waterfalls of varying sizes. The highest, and most known is South Falls (177 ft. drop), which is a short walk from the park's main parking lot. From there, you can take a 6 or an 8 mile hike up the Canyon Trail and see most, if not all the falls (five of which are over 100 ft.) You can also drive along the main park road and see a couple of them from roadside pullouts.
The trail ends at Upper North Falls, which is probably my personal favorite. It is a level half mile walk from the North Falls parking lot along the river till you reach the falls. Upper North Falls only drops 65 feet, but it is a still quite spectacular, as you can see from the picture.
This photo also illustrates the technique I briefly discussed in my last blog...you see a foreground, a middle ground and a background. Your eye goes right to the falls because of its brightness, but then you pull back to see the bush in the foreground, then the pools at the bottom of the falls, and then back to the falls again.
I had to use a tripod for this shot as you need a 1/2 to 1 second exposure to give the falls the dreamy, flowing look. Because waterfalls generate their own breeze and the shutter speed is slow, you can see some movement in the trees and the bush on the ground. I personally like seeing some movement as it makes the image more alive. If you haven't been to this park, I hope you can do so some day.
The city of Cannon Beach is one of my most favorites on the Oregon Coast. It is a bit touristy, I admit, but it is still fun to wander around this lovely city. Just north of Cannon Beach is Ecola State Park, an Oregon State Park that offers both beach front and rain forest scenery. Well worth a visit. In June 2007, Susan and I were attending her family reunion at a beachfront home in nearby Seaside. Near dusk, we got into our car and headed for Ecola Park to see the sunset. This picture is one that I captured that evening. By this time, the sun had gone below the horizon and the sky and clouds were lit pink for just a few precious moments before night actually fell.
The scene is looking southward toward Cannon Beach. You can see the famous "Haystack Rock" off in the distance. I used my current backup camera, the Olympus E-300 DSLR on a tripod. I admit to a few enhancements here, mainly a vignette effect, but the sky is pretty much as we saw it that night.
I love the trees in the foreground as it gives the picture a greater depth. For the most part, good scenic shots should contain a foreground, a middle ground, and a background, so that the eye can move gently through the scene. As you look at my images in this blog, you will see this theme repeated throughout. It is, in a way, the photographer telling you a story.
This has become one of my favorite images. Reflection Lake lies inside Mt. Rainier National Park. If you have been there, you know how it got its name. From the lake shore, you have an unobstructed view of Mt. Rainier, and, if the wind isn't blowing and you have the right light, you can take a picture of the entire mountain reflected in the water. I have done that as have millions of other people. But, in this image, rather than making the mountain the focus of the image, I let a stream of sunlight coming through the trees and highlighting the red-leafed flowers be the main subject. Mt. Rainier, in this case, is only a secondary element of the picture. Your eye goes right to the red flowers, then the trees. It is only after a few seconds that you come to realize that Mt. Rainier is also in the picture.
This is my way of seeing Reflection Lake, a different way than most photographers would approach this scene. It is part of technique that I nicknamed "Looking Down." It means instead of just focusing on the big scene or panorama, try to also focus on the small things that make up only a part of the whole. You would be surprised what you can find when you make a conscious effort to look. Like the Grand Canyon photo I shared a few days ago, Mt. Rainier is only a bit player...important, yes, but only in a supporting cast role.
About 90 miles north of Yuma, at the intersection of Interstate 10 and US 95, is a small town in the middle of nowhere called Quartzite. We were on our way from Yuma to Las Vegas and stopped here to take a break and get a cold drink. Across the street from the fast food joint was a large outdoor rock and gem store. I grabbed my camera and headed over to see what might be there. Well, there was a lot to photograph. One of the old timers who looked like prototype desert rat saw me and my camera and came over to talk. He took me on a tour of the joint, including some areas not open to the public. He showed me the best rocks and semi-precious gems in the place, including a large selection of petrified rocks . I took lots of photos, but, for some reason, this one is one of my favorites.
I went back there in January of 2008 and took even more pictures, most of which I haven't had a chance to work on. On that trip, I explored Quartzite even more and someday soon will write about this quirky little town which can only be labeled as fun, but definitely way out of the norm.
For most of you, the radio call sign of KJAZ probably doesn't ring any bells. But, for me, having grown up in the San Francisco Bay Area, KJAZ was a monument, as much a part of our scene as the Golden Gate Bridge. From 1959 until it went off the air in 1994, KJAZ was was hailed as "The greatest jazz station in the world" by the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Ahmad Jamal, Carmen McRae, Tony Bennett, Stan Getz, Bill Cosby and Herbie Hancock. For much of that time, I couldn't hear it as I lived in Sacramento and San Jose, just out of reach of their signal. But whenever I was in reach, the radio was turned on and its wonderful music poured forth. Now, KJAZ is back, not as a radio station or a poor imitation using the same call sign, but as an Internet radio station playing recorded tapes of the actual KJAZ programming from the true heyday of jazz music. What a special joy it is for me to hear the music and the familiar voices of the KJAZ disc jockeys from that era. It has been said you can't go home again...but I come close when I hear the music of KJAZ coming out through my computer speakers.
I don't expect you will have the same nostalgic feeling if you listen to it, but if you like good jazz, click on this link, sit back and enjoy what you hear. Like all radio stations, you won't love all the music they play. I definitely don't. But if you listen long enough, you will get the feel that special era when jazz ruled the airwaves over San Francisco and the greatest jazz musicians played in the jazz nightclubs in North Beach, like Basin Street West, The Blackhawk, and The Jazz Workshop. When I was old enough, I got to see so many great jazz artists live in these small, intimate clubs...artists like Dave Brubeck, Vince Guaraldi, Cal Tjader, Miles Davis, Jon Hendricks, Ahmad Jamal, George Shearing, Carmen McCrea, and yes, even Big Mama Willie May Thornton.
It was a special time.
In a sense, I grew up in Yosemite. From about age 3 on, my parents took me there nearly every summer..for the first few years in Yosemite Valley, then later, up in the "High Country." As a young adult, I went there many times and even spent part of a honeymoon in the valley. I don't remember how young I was when I first became aware of the photos of Ansel Adams, the one photographer who is so closely associated with Yosemite. To this day, he is still one my great "heroes of photography." In early May of 2007, Susan and I met up with my brother and 3 other friends for a four day stay in Yosemite. It was my first visit in over 30 years. It was a wonderful four days...reacquainting myself with those wonderful sights, sounds and smells that are so deeply burned into my being. The winter of '06 and '07 saw record snowfall in the high Sierras. As a result, the waterfalls were running 25% higher than normal. It was a glorious spring.
Yosemite Falls is arguably the valley's most famous waterfall and has been photographed a gazillion times. I too made many pictures of it on this trip and felt the spray of its waters when I got close. For this picture, I was on the other side of valley wandering off the beaten path a bit when I came upon this large puddle of water that was probably gone within a week of my visit. The photographic opportunity was just too good to pass up.
I decided to go with a black and white image, probably because the photos of Ansel Adams were so much in my head on this trip (I also, of course, visited the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Village 3-4 times). These days I find myself really drawn back to black and white photography. It was what I learned on in back in the 60's when I took up photography in college. Like going back to Yosemite after all these years, black and white photography is a strong part of my roots.
I will have more pictures from this trip in the future, both color and black and white.
Back in November of 2007, we spent our first night ever in the State of Arizona in the city of Williams, about 60 miles due south of the south Rim of the Grand Canyon. We got up before dawn and drove to the canyon. As a tourist, I was really looking forward to seeing it. But, as a photographer, I was not all that excited.
In the autumn of 2005, I had just completed a weekend art show in Leavenworth. As I was too tired to drive home that night, I spent the night up there, then arose early before sunrise to head home. I was halfway between Quincy and Ephrata when dawn broke revealing this incredible sunrise. I stopped near an irrigation canal and began taking pictures. Fortunately, I had my tripod with me so I was able to handle the very low light situation. After taking several pictures, I just sat back and enjoy the view. When you see a sunrise like this, you're just glad to have a camera by by your side. Very little post processing was done to the image except to lighten the canal water just slightly. I normally would have used a graduated neutral density filter to accommodate the vast light difference between the ground and the sky, but I didn't have one with me. I hope you like it.
