“Scenes” Article Archive

Waterfalls are harder to come by than I would've thought. I've been on many hikes where waterfalls exist, except they're always dry when I get there. The best hiking weather, warm and dry near the end of the summer, is not the best weather for waterfalls. Read the rest of this entry »

Last year I went to the Grand Canyon. The plan was to stay for several days, hike, and take pictures. Everything went according to plan.

Some impressive statistics about the Grand Canyon from Our National Parks, a book by Reader's Digest:

• To travel from end to end means a river journey of 277 twisting miles.
• The distance between walls varies from 18 miles to less than 1/2 mile.
• In the central section, the canyon averages a mile deep — 4,700 feet from the South Rim and 5,700 feet from the North Rim.
• If you were to walk from rim to rim, you would pass through at least 4 of the continent's 7 life zones, the equivalent of a trek from the Mexican desert to the Canadian woods.
• Along the walls of the Grand Canyon, some 2,000,000,000 years of the Earth's history have been laid bare by the driving, abrasive force of the Colorado River.
• The Colorado River carried an average of 400,000 tons of silt per day through the canyon. That's the same as 80,000 five-ton dump trucks!

Read the rest of this entry »

Taking an aerial photo through the window of a commercial airplane usually results in a pretty low quality image. Which is why I was surprised that a few of my shots turned out so well. Speaking strictly from a technical perspective, of course. Read the rest of this entry »

A full moon looks bright to the naked eye, but to a camera it's actually a dark object. I say that from the perspective of requiring a shutter speed that is too slow to allow for hand holding of a camera with a zoom lens. Because of this, a tripod is necessary. Read the rest of this entry »

Every photographer has taken a sunset photo. And why not? There are few opportunities to capture a naturally occurring scene with colors that are richer or more dramatic. The trick is to find something unique in a sunset to add a little extra interest. Read the rest of this entry »

Landscape photos are surprisingly tricky to take. There's something that happens inside your head that makes looking at the real landscape enjoyable, but that something is usually not in the photo. Read the rest of this entry »