I had the pleasure of journeying back to the Hawaiian Islands in May 2015 for a photoshoot, together with two photographer friends, Eric Emerson and Michael Heathman, both accomplished fine art photographers from California. I have travelled to Hawaiʻi at least twenty times over the last 15 years, a place that I feel very much at home because it reminds me of my original birth island, Sri Lanka, in many ways as it is tropical, with mild yet humid temperatures year round, an easy laid back style of living, and monsoonal rains that are typical of the tropics. A little about Hawaiʻi from Wikipedia: Hawaiʻi is the 50th and most recent US State to join the United States, having joined on August 21, 1959. Hawaiʻi is the only U.S. state located in Oceania and the only one composed entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean. Hawaiʻi is the only U.S. state not located in the Americas. The state does not observe daylight savings time.

The state encompasses nearly the entire volcanic Hawaiʻian archipelago, which comprises hundreds of islands spread over 1,500 miles (2,400 km). At the southeastern end of the archipelago, the eight main islands are—in order from northwest to southeast: Niʻhau, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Lanaʻi, Kahoʻolawe, Maui and the Island of Hawaiʻi. The last is the largest island in the group; it is often called the "Big Island" or "Hawaiʻi Island" to avoid confusion with the state or archipelago. 

The trip this year took us to the Big Island (2 nights) and Maui (8 nights). On the Big Island a goal was to shoot the Milky Way from the look out at Kilauea, with the cauldron ablaze on the ground, compositionally aligned with the Milky Way in the Heavens. In Maui I did not have any specific goals as this was my first visit, and hoped to capture a tropical sunrise and sunset, famous and common in these islands. In this blog post I have included six of my favorite images from the trip, as well as a wider selection in the form of a slideshow in an iMovie embedded below.

'Fire in the Stars' ~ Kilauea ablaze and the Milky Way aglow, the only chance we were given to capture both attractions, on the morning of May 16, 2015 at 4:31 am. It was an inspiring, albeit fleeting moment to witness both before the reddish clouds above the glowing lava in the cauldron moved over to block visibility of the Milky Way. Our attempt to shoot this again the next morning were thwarted by heavy rains, so this was the only shot I managed to sneak away with from this magical sight!

'Kīlauea Sunrise' ~ this was a 5:00 am shot of the glow generated by the lava lake in Kīlauea, a currently active volcano, and the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawaiʻi, and, perhaps the most active volcano on earth. There is something very primal and attractive for us humans to see molten lava, which builds and yet destroys, and is largely uncontrollable by mankind!

'Awakening' ~ sunrise at Koki Beach, just south of Hana on the east coast of Maui. The large red cinder hill to the left is Ka Iwi o Pele, where Hawaiian Mythology tells the bones of Pele were left after a fatal battle with her older sister. In more recent times, this hill now belongs to Oprah, as part of a 105 acre parcel that she bought from Hana Ranch in 2002. Pele, the Fire Goddess, is the goddess of fire, lightning, wind and volcanoes and the creator of the Hawaiian Islands.

'Lion de la Mer' ~ I captured this image in a little cove just south of Hana on the east coast, very close to the house we had rented that we stayed in for four nights. This was my first visit to Maui (haven't been on a Hawaiian island yet that I did not like), and if you look closely you will find the Lion of the Sea!

'Maui Sunset' ~ we have had two evenings of spectacular sunsets, this one being from our first day in Kihei, located in south west Maui (on the horizon, the islands of Lanaʻi to the right, and Molokaʻi in the middle).

'Swept Away' ~ our final sunset on the last day of our visit to Maui, captured at La Perouse Bay or Keoneʻoʻio Bay, which is located south of the town of Wailea.  The bay's Hawaiian name is Keoneʻoʻio. It was later named for the French explorer Captain Jean-Francois de Galaup, compte de La Perouse, who, in 1786, surveyed and mapped the prominent embayment, and is the site of Maui's most recent volcanic activity.

Another item of interest about Hawaiʻi, from Wikipedia ~ The Hawaiian language takes its name from the largest island, Hawaiʻi, where it developed, originally from a Polynesian language of the South Pacific, most likely Marquesan or Tahitian. The island name was first written in English in 1778 by British explorer James Cook and his crew members. The Hawaiian alphabet only uses 12 Roman letters - a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w; five vowels (long and short) and eight consonants, one of them being a glottal stop (ʻ) (called ʻokina in Hawaiian).

Captain James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. Cook made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook was killed in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779. He left a legacy of scientific and geographical knowledge which was to influence his successors well into the 20th century and numerous memorials worldwide have been dedicated to him.

In closing, I am often asked 'what is your favorite Hawaiian island'? It is difficult for me to choose just one (I have visited Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Maui and the Island of Hawaiʻi), as each island is different, has it's own uniqueness and charms. But if I absolutely must choose one from the perspective of a landscape photographer, I would go with Kauaʻi, often referred to as the 'Garden Isle', for good reasons!

Mahalo to these magical island for now, and look forward to my next visit!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IG47zZxglpo

My daughter, Michelle Grenier, invited me to join her on a photo shoot in one of her most favorite areas, Mount Tamalpais State Park. Michelle is an accomplished iPhone photographer, with over 100,000 followers on Instagram. https://instagram.com/michiesharine/.

She also conducts iPhone Photography Workshops and Mt Tamalpais is an area she frequently brings her student to, as discussed in this interview.

http://www.theimageflow.com/2014/10/9-questions-moment-iphone-photographer-michelle-grenier/

So I was honored and very excited to be asked to join her on a personal tour and of an area that she is intimately familiar with on May 2, 2015. This coastal area of Marin County, just north of San Francisco, is renowned for its rolling hills and coastal fog, which provides beautiful and unique opportunities for a photographer. We both had our fingers crossed for the a presence a good marine layer during the sunset, and our wishes were granted in abundance! According to Michelle, we had the best fog conditions that she had ever seen in all of the many times that she had been in the area. So below, you will find a few of the highlights of our evening together, and an iMovie that I created that includes a video that Michelle shot of the fog during the closing minutes of the sunset.

To begin, I have included extracts from the official Mount Tamalpais State Park brochure, in order to give you some history and background of the area.

Mt Tamalpais State Park

"Just north of San Francisco's Golden Gate is Mount Tamalpais.  It has redwood groves and oak woodlands with a spectacular view from the 2,571-foot peak. On a clear day, visitors can see the Farallon Islands 25 miles out to sea, the Marin County hills, San Francisco and the bay, hills and cities of the East Bay, and Mount Diablo. On rare occasions, the Sierra Nevada's snow-covered mountains can be seen 150 miles away.

Coastal Miwok Indians lived in the area for thousands of years before Europeans arrived. In 1770, two explorers named the mountain La Sierra de Nuestro Padre de San Francisco, which was later changed to the Miwok word Tamalpais. With the Gold Rush of 1849, San Francisco grew and more people began to use Mount Tamalpais for recreation. Trails were developed and a wagon road was built. Later, a railway was completed and became known as "The Crookedest Railroad in the World." It was abandoned in 1930 after a wildfire damaged the line.

Many people think the 2,571-foot peak is the remnant of an extinct volcano. However, geologists believe that Mount Tamalpais was created due to its location near the San Andreas Fault, one of the world's most active faults. Over time, the mountain has risen from the earth's crust, while erosion has left only solid rock exposed in the highest peaks and ridges."

Earlier in the afternoon we first spent some time walking around the Fire Lookout, built atop the East Peak, that at 2,571 feet provides a spectacular, unencumbered 360 degree view of the San Francisco Bay area. It is also the highest point of the State Park. We then headed down to the West Entrance and began to drive down Highway 1, and this is one of the first images that I captured of the beginning sunset and the marin fog that had rolled in that evening.

My second image was captured a little ways down the road at this point, where the low light and fog filled coastline was beginning to look simply spectacular.

Just about now it began to be clear to me that I was very fortunate to have Michelle as my guide, because there wasn't a great deal of time to 'discover' where to go and when to be there to capture the fog and the setting sun. Since she had been here so many times before Michelle simply knew this area so well, we were always in the right place at the right time!

The fog on this particular evening was driven in by a strong onshore wind, giving us spectacular volumes of glorious white waves of fog that filled the nooks and crannies of this Marin County coastline. Here is a shot of the setting sun shot from a beautiful vantage point that shows the vastness and depth of the marine layer on this beautiful evening.

The image below was shot from a place that Michelle directed me to, telling me to 'come over here, it's a great view'. This has turned out to be one of my top 5 most popular images of all time, and all credit goes to my daughter!

I would like to end this blog post by adding the last image I captured at the end of this amazing evening, a haunting image of the fog intermixed with the coastal pines that are abundant in the rolling terrain of Mt Tamalpais.

And last but not least, I have included a link to an iMovie that includes the images that highlight the evenings photo shoot, as well as a brief video of the rolling streams of fog that was captured by Michelle on an iPhone.

Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/gV31qGZxTMM

Next to Yosemite National Park, Big Sur, on the Central Coast of California holds a very special place in my heart. I have been fortunate to visit this area many times over the last 30 plus years and it never disappoints me with its magnificence and rugged beauty. Recently I was invited to visit the area again by a very special person in my life, three days before my 70th birthday, a journey that allowed me to share with her some of the places that I like to photograph and simply enjoy its breathtaking beauty. I would like to take this opportunity to publish a few of the images shot during this special time, a journey as it turns out that led to a renewed affinity for black and white photography, that goes all the way back to my first introduction into photography by my father in the early 50's in the land of my birth, Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. According to Wikipedia: "Big Sur is a sparsely populated region of the Central Coast of California where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. Although it has no specific boundaries, many definitions of the area include the 90 miles (140 km) of coastline from the Carmel River in Monterey County south to the San Carpoforo Creek in San Luis Obispo County. The name 'Big Sur' is derived from the original Spanish-language 'el sur grande', meaning 'the big south', or from 'el país grande del sur', 'the big country of the south'. This name refers to its location south of the city of Monterey."

It is interesting to note here that I had a hard time getting excited about any of my images that I captured while in Big Sur this time, and felt very uninspired when I got back home and began the process of reviewing and developing various images. That is until I saw a black and white post on a fellow photographers Facebook page and it gave me an idea to look at what an image I had shot in color may look like in black and white, and there it was! It changed the dynamic of everything instantly and I continued to develop these images with my new found inspiration until I was finally excited about what I had captured!

'Maybe black and white is the best medium for landscapes, I don't know.' ~ Fay Godwin (17 February 1931 – 27 May 2005) was a British photographer known for her black and white landscapes of the British countryside and coast.

My Big Sur journey on this day began by stopping off at a spot that is named Soberanes Point, which is a great place to view both the ruggedness and beauty of this coastline. On this particular day we were fortunate to have fairly heavy seas and a cloudy sky to add some drama photographically to these landscapes.

The next stop was a little place that I like to go to just below the parking lot at Rocky Point. Again from here you are able to see the beauty of this coastline and the dramatic Santa Lucia Mountains that rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean.

Further south along the journey was a stop at Bixby Creek Bridge, also known as Bixby Bridge, a magnificent engineering structure that was first opened in 1932, built under budget for $199,861, and is still one of the tallest single span concrete bridges in the world.

Pfeiffer Beach is a hard to find beach at the end of unmarked Sycamore Canyon Road, which is the only paved, ungated road on the west side of Highway One between the Big Sur Post Office and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. This a favorite place for photographers in the month of December and early January when they congregate at this huge rock structure to capture the sunset light that shines through Keyhole Archway.

Just north of the structure above is this beach that is always an interesting photographic opportunity, particularly on any day with a cloudy sky and a significant swell running in the ocean.

Continuing the drive south on Highway 1 for about 12 miles you arrive at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. The park is named after Julia Pfeiffer Burns, a respected resident and rancher in the Big Sur region in the early 20th century, who lived in the area for much of her life until her death in 1928. The 3,762-acre (1,522 ha) park was established in 1962.

A main feature of the park is McWay Falls, which drops over a cliff of 80 feet (24 m) into the Pacific Ocean. This waterfall is one of only two in the region that are close enough to the ocean to be referred to as "tidefalls". The source of the waterfall is McWay Creek and is one of the few waterfalls that empties directly into the ocean.

Typically, as a photographer, this is as as far as I go along Highway 1 and the Big Sur coastline. These are just a few of the places that I stop to photograph along the way. I chose 7 images for this blog for several reasons - 7 has always been my 'lucky number', I was born on the 7th of April, and I just turned 70 this year!

Enjoy!

I began this tradition last year, and hereby publish my 2014 Top Twelve Photographs, albeit I am running a little behind this year. I hope that it is a case of better late than never! This idea is based on a quote by the great Ansel Adams, that guides me everytime I am out on a photo shoot. I remind myself, I am looking for just a few shots that will be exceptional. I do not need to keep on shooting. Look for the extraordinary instead - I completely agree with him and its inherent and practical wisdom. “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” ~ Ansel Adams

2014 was an extraordinary year for me, both personally and photographically, with the clear highlight being a trip to Sri Lanka, the country of my birth. It had a profound effect on me, rekindled my youth and drew me closer to my roots. It was extraordinary to walk amongst my earliest memories of this lifetime, in a magnificent land and its beautiful, kind, gentle and happy people. Some memories were extremely clear and some not so much, as would be expected after an absence of 55 years. However, what has never left me is the crystal clear memories, odors and tastes of the exotic foods of this country. The foods that clearly mean 'home' to me in every sense of the word. It was literarily like being the proverbial kid in the candy shop, but much more satiated and excited to relive and experience again all the culinary delights of these foods that are so unique to the island of Ceylon, or Sri Lanka as it is now called.

I also got to travel to Iceland for the first time, the Land of Fire and Ice. From the Tropics to the Arctic (close)  in the span of 7 months! A beautiful, albeit barren land that is home to over 130 volcanos (with some 30 active), and over 300 waterfalls. Also, Iceland is a glaciated country. Approximately 11% of  Iceland’s total area of roughly 100.000 square km (38, 610 square miles) is covered by glaciers. The largest ice caps in Iceland are located in the southern and central highlands.

In addition to my tropics to pole overseas sojourns, I had the good fortune to shoot in Death Valley National Park, Mono Lake, Bodie Historic State Park, the magnificent California central coastline of Big Sur, and 5 trips to my magnificent 'Granite Cathedral',  aka Yosemite National Park.

I ended the year with a collection of some 14,079 images, captured from January 17, through December 31. I have changed the selection process on how the Top 12 images were selected this year, hopefully for what I consider to be sound reasons. Last year the selection process and ranking of the images were determined very simply by counting the number of Likes received on my Facebook page for each post. This year, while the number of Likes played a major factor, I also wanted the collection to be a fair representation of the various and diverse photoshoot sites.

So again this year I will count them down starting with number 12, and say something about each image, as well as provide some basic EXIF data.

#12 'Way Out' ~ This is known as Keyhole Arch, Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California (also referred to as the Pfeiffer Beach Archway). This phenomena of the setting sun shining through the archway in this particular rock formation occurs only in December and the first two weeks of January of the year. A clear horizon line is necessary for the setting sun's 'light' to turn an amber color and 'glow' with the spray created by waves breaking through the archway. Shooting space is somewhat limited in this area, and it would be most comfortable with no more than 12 photographers and their tripods. This was shot on the last day of the year with a crowd of about 45 people on the beach on a day that I had hope would be devoid of people, being that it was New Year's Eve!

December 31, 2014 Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California ~ exposure 1/13 sec @ f/11; 16-35 mm lens at 21 mm; ISO 100

#11 'Celestial Playground' ~ I drove up to Tunnel View on this particular evening, 41 minutes before sunset and this was my first shot. It is standard operating procedure for me entering the Park to drive up to Tunnel View first. It provides a photographer an unobstructed view of Yosemite Valley and what weather elements are present and where. Sometimes the elements come together to produce an image like this one, where the light, the clouds and the monumental granite structures of Yosemite make it look like someone up there really knew what they were doing, and more importantly they were having a lot of fun:-) It is always fortuitous and humbling at the same time to see Mother Nature working so beautifully!

 December 13, 2014 Tunnel View, Yosemite N P, California ~ exposure 1/20 sec @ f/11; 16-35 mm lens at 35 mm; ISO 100

#10 'A Faraway Land' ~ This is the mountain range Vestrahorn, in Stokksnes, southern Iceland. The Black Sand Dunes in the foreground are held together by beautiful growths of grass, and the mountain range is like none other that I have seen. Truly a faraway land, that is uniquely Iceland. In the 12 days that I spent in this magical country it rained on 9, making photography an extreme challenge but well worth the effort! On this particular day we had just about the best weather conditions and lighting available to us during the whole trip, with long periods of no rain and cloud cover that enhanced any landscape shot.

September 16, 2014 ~Vestrahorn, Stokksnes, Iceland ~ exposure 1/50 sec @ f/11; 16-35 mm lens at 24 mm; ISO 250

#9 'Are You Experienced' ~ "When you photograph people in color you photograph their clothes. When you photograph people in black and white, you photograph their souls!" ~ Ted Grant (considered Canada's premier living photographer). This photograph of a street beggar was shot just outside the cave temples in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, March 26, 2014. The man was just getting set up as we walked past this particular entrance to the Dambulla Cave Temple, and I was hoping that he would still be there when we returned. Sometimes I wished that I could speak the local languages as it would be fascinating to be able to communicate with an individual like this about his experiences and journeys in life. It is one of my favorite images from my journey back to the home of my birth. The photographing of 'experienced' men and women is the only other subject matter other than landscapes that interests me as a photographer.

March 26, 2014~Dambulla, Sri Lanka ~ exposure 1/125 sec @ f/4.0; 24-105 mm lens at 67 mm; ISO 250

#8 'Mono Shipwreck Sunrise' ~ 5:50 AM, Mono Lake South Tufas, a Sunday morning's sunrise produced these beautiful muted colors that I was able to capture with my full frame sensor camera. The large resultant file allowed me to develop and display these subtle colors, which were the highlight of that morning's sunrise. This prominent tufa formation is commonly referred to as 'The Shipwreck' by photographers, and provides an otherworldly feel to me in any Mono Lake sunrise. We are fortunate as people that there have been heroic efforts made over the years to protect and keep Mono Lake alive. There is no telling the endless destruction that would have occurred without these monumental efforts, and what damage would have been done to this beautiful area and the fascinating ecosystem that is Mono Lake.

July 25, 2014 ~Mono Lake, California ~ exposure 1/3 sec @ f/16; 16-35 mm lens at 23 mm; ISO 100

 #7 'Shadows and Light' ~ Early morning sunrise in the Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley creates these beautiful shadows and light. The low morning light highlights the windswept patterns of the sand, an opportunity for a photographer that lasts 10-15 minutes at the most. Therefore, it requires one to be able to imagine and predict what the light would do to the sand, get in position with a camera mounted on a tripod to begin shooting when the light comes over the distant hills. I try and stay away from the usual areas that are trafficked heavily by tourists and photographers in these beautiful dunes because of the footprints that the hundreds of people leave behind every day. I am also afraid of heights, and the main dunes area are several hundreds of feet high in some areas. Over the years I have discovered this marvellous spot, where very few people if any go and leaves me without footprints to shoot to my heart's delight!

 February 22, 2014~Death Valley, California ~ 1/20 sec @ f/11; 24-105 mm lens at 40 mm; ISO 100

#6 'Goodbye Sunset'~ On my last day in Sri Lanka I arranged to stop in Negombo one last time to shoot the sunset before I was driven to the airport to catch my red eye flight home, at 1:30 am on April 11. It looked like there would be no sunset worth shooting until this color appeared a full 40 minutes after the sun had actually set. I love these catamarans, which are abundant in Negombo, and are a fond symbol of my childhood and my father the fisherman, and author of stories about the people and fishing folks of Sri Lanka's estuaries. Negombo is a fishing town that was an important area to the family on my mother's side. Her parents were married here. She was born here, together with her other 5 siblings, and my parents were married in Negombo, all in an Anglican church that still here today.

 April 10, 2014 ~Negombo, Sri Lanka ~ exposure 1.0 sec @ f/11; 16-35 mm lens at 17 mm; ISO 100

#5 'Stairway to Heaven'~ One of my most interesting Milky Way shots, that I purposely lined up with the Methodist Church in the town of Bodie, California, now a ghost town and state park. This image is from a Saturday night's shoot captured during a workshop headed up by Jeff Sullivan. Together with his partner Lori Hibbett, they run the best photographic workshops that gives you access to a night's shoot until 1:00 AM in the Park, and you come back at 6:00 AM to get access to photograph the interiors of a number of buildings, none available to the general park visitors - highly recommend the experience!

 August 30, 2014 ~Bodie Historical State Park, CA ~ 15.0 sec @ f/2.8; 16-35 mm lens at 16 mm; ISO 6400

#4 'Fall Reflections' ~ One of my favorite places to shoot in Yosemite is this location on South Side Drive in the Valley. I come here to capture images of El Capitan and the beautiful Three Brothers. As a photographer I have learned to 'always look behind' me when I am shooting, which allowed me to see these colorful reflections of Cathedral Rocks and the Cathedral Spires. Fall is a magical time in this magical land! The spectacular sky as seen in this image is one of my favorites in Yosemite and completely changes any landscape shot as it adds so much interest to the composition as well as the reflections, common in the fall as the water levels of the Merced are low and still, creating a mirror like effect that are perfect for reflections!

 October 31, 2014 Yosemite N P, California ~ exposure 0.5 sec @ f/16; 16-35 mm lens at 16 mm; ISO 100

#3 'Half Dome 'N Pink' ~ Sunset at Housekeeping Bend on the Merced River the day after Thanksgiving, a fabulous way to end the day with my youngest son's first visit to Yosemite NP. While the Park had mega tourist crowds on the day, there was only one other photographer at this location with us. Never been here when the color of the clouds in the sky matched the alpine glow on Half Dome, and add to that the remnant fall colors, just a beautiful sight to see! We really are fortunate to be alive as 'mankind' on this magnificent planet - I wish and hope that we all would do more to look after it as a people!

  November 28, 2014 Yosemite N P, CA ~ exposure 10.0 sec @ f/11; 16-35 mm lens at 16 mm; ISO 200

#2 'Abstract in Blue'~ This is Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon, my favorite place in Iceland, that is fed by a large glacier that meanders down to the lagoon from the distant mountains. These beautiful, pastel colored chunks of glacier break off and end up in the lagoon. They then break up to even smaller pieces and flow out to the nearby ocean, and black sand beach. This is what drew me to Iceland, having never seen anything like this in my life before. The abstract created in this photograph, with the glaciers, the mountains in the background in these beautiful pastel colors, are omnipresent in the lagoon and is simply a delight to be here and shoot till your heart's content! On this particular morning I was fortunate to be at the lagoon almost by myself, as I had left the other 12 or so photographers in our workshop in another location to join me at a later time. Without exaggeration, I walked up and down the shoreline of the lagoon stunned by the beauty of the ice, the pastel colors and the distant mountains and the massive glacier that fed into this body of water. The utterance of OMG was repeated over and over again, in awe and appreciation of this stunning and beautiful location. I will be back someday for sure!

September 17, 2014 Jökulsárlón, Iceland ~ exposure 0.8 sec @ f/11; 70-200 mm lens at 113 mm; ISO 100

#1 'Wild Nights' ~ Made my day when I was notified in October that this image of mine was being considered as a finalist (1 of 30) in the 2014 Outdoor Photographer’s 'Vistas Photo Contest'! The background story to this shot was that I was on my way to the gym on the evening of May 20, 2014 when I noticed the potential for a 'good sunset' at a go to location, so I returned home to pick up my camera equipment and raced to where I needed to be. This magnificent rain cloud developed into an amazing umbrella shape over a lone oak tree, and I made a quick decision that the only way I could capture the magnitude of the scene was to shoot six vertical images that I could stitch into a panorama in Photoshop. I opened my copy of the February 2015 edition of the Magazine on December 28, to find that it had received an Honorable Mention in the final judging, and it is printed on Page 50 (see link below) ~ my first publication in a national photography magazine of renown, and a late Christmas present! Feeling grateful and a great way to end the year! http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/locations/international/op-2014-vistas-winners.html?start=2#.VJ-VgsBA

May 20, 2014 El Dorado Hills, California

There you have it, my second annual Top 12 Photographs for 2014. I am extremely happy with my accomplishments this year, learned a great deal and traveled extensively, both abroad and within California. I have numerous journeys set up this year, including a 10 day trip to Hawaii (the Big Island and Maui), 21 day journey back again to the country of my birth Sri Lanka, and a full month's trip to Australia, also know as 'my second home'. My planned itinerary should put me in interesting places to hopefully allow me to have another creative and successful photographic year.

And in conclusion, I owe a great deal of gratitude to the many, many people who support my photography by purchasing my images in print form, as well as the hundreds of Likes and Comments that so many people take the time to stop by and leave on my Facebook page at  http://facebook.com/djgrenier .

Enjoy the rest of 2015!

I submitted an image (uncropped version below) into the 2014 Vistas photo competition in the prestigious Outdoor Photographer magazine earlier this year. I was on my way to the gym on the evening of May 20, 2014 when I noticed the potential for a 'good sunset' at a go to location, so I returned home to pick up my camera equipment and raced to where I needed to be. This magnificent rain cloud developed into an amazing umbrella shape over a lone oak tree, and I made a quick decision that the only way I could capture the magnitude of the scene was to shoot six vertical images that I could stitch into a panorama in Photoshop. In early October 2014 I was notified by the Magazine that my entry, titled 'Wild Nights', had been chosen as a Top 30 Entry, which was thrilling for me as it seemed like an acknowledgement and validation of my art and photographic skills.

On December 28, 2014  I opened my copy of the February 2015 edition of the Magazine to find that it had received an Honorable Mention in the final judging, and it is printed on Page 50 (see link below) ~ late Christmas present! Feeling grateful!

Here is the link to the article published in the magazine. You can also click on the image above for more detail, as well as the printed page copy below to read the article.

http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/locations/international/op-2014-vistas-winners.html?start=2#.VJ-VgsBA

I dedicate this post to my father, J.A.R. Grenier, and wish him a Happy Father's Day!

Grenier-2-Edit-Edit-Edit

My father, John Alfred Ronald Grenier, or 'Ronnie', as his family and friends called him, was born on 19 November 1912, in Kegalle (about 50 miles east of Colombo), and was raised and grew up in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka. He was a gentle man with an outlook on life heavily influenced by the philosophies of the East that left him with a keen sense of humour, and an unsophisticated and easy-going outlook towards life and its various complexities. He was an avid line fisherman, or “Angler” to use his term, and loved the ocean, its fish, and especially the fishing folk of Ceylon.

He also had a talent for story telling and spent a great deal of his time writing about these two loves. A number of his short stories and articles on fishing were published in the 'Ceylon Sunday Observer'. He also had two books published in Ceylon, the first in the mid-fifties, and the second in the early sixties. Due to his own couldn't-care-less attitude about money and, I am told, an unscrupulous publisher, my father received no compensation whatsoever for his two published books, 'Tales of Fish and People of the Ceylon Estuaries' (a ‘how-to catch fish’ and several short stories), 1954, and 'Isle of Eden' (21 short stories), 1961 - the original book covers are shown below. My father ended his life by drowning, under tragic circumstances, on 29 July 1988. He was 75 years old.

IOEFront

In 1997, in order to honor my father and give him the recognition he so richly deserves as a writer, I decided to embark upon a project to republish his book of short stories, 'Isle of Eden', by painstakingly scanning each of the 116 pages of the original book, from the only copy that I am aware that still exists today. After several futile attempts to find a publisher of my liking that would do the book justice, as well as being sidetracked by life’s demands and limitations on my time having to hold down a full-time job, I gave up the search but not the dream or the original intent. Fast-forward to March 2014, I found myself on a journey back to the ‘home of my birth’, Sri Lanka, a full fifty-five long over-due years after the departure from the country that was then known as Ceylon.

I am still processing the many facets of my journey back to Sri Lanka. It has had a profound effect on me and brought back memories of my beginnings, and reminded me of where it all began. It has also rekindled my original goal of honoring my father, and I have now begun the process again of looking for a publisher. This time I am searching for someone to work with and publish the book in Sri Lanka. I am pleased to say that I am encouraged by my initial efforts and have my fingers crossed that this time I can actually accomplish my original goal - honor my father and have his book made available to readers in Sri Lanka, Australia and eventually in the USA.

On this Father's Day 2014, I would like thank my father for his insight and his efforts to capture the spirit of the people of Sri Lanka, that are the essence of the stories of his books. My father was a very special man and had a significant influence in my life, for which I am eternally grateful. I am certain his love for the people of Sri Lanka has somehow influenced me  and I think it shows in my recent portraits of people during my visit, two examples shown below. My only single regret is that I did not have the opportunity to get to know him more closely, unfortunately, because our time together was prematurely cut short.

Dad, wherever you are, I wish you well and hope you have found peace of mind - I will always love you and thank you for all you did!

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Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Yosemite National Park, to me, has always been a place of wonder, a place to get back in touch with nature, a place of awe at the sight of the most magnificent granite structures that dominate the Yosemite Valley, a place that reminds you of the presence of a Supreme Being, and as a result, a place that I like to call 'The Granite Cathedral'! In this blog I would like to highlight a couple of phenomena that occurs in Yosemite National Park annually, that makes this place even more special - 'The Horsetail Falls Phenomena' and 'The Yosemite Falls Moonbow'. While the moonbow is not specifically unique to Yosemite, as it does occur in other places in the world (Victoria Falls, Africa, Big Island, Hawaii, the cloud forest in Costa Rica, etc.), the 'Horsetail Falls Phenomena is truly one of a kind to Yosemite. They both require several conditions to be present on any given day for it to occur and be seen, each at specific times of the year, and when these conditions do occur they result in simply wondrous sights that I have been fortunate to witness and capture with a DSLR camera.

'Horsetail Falls Phenomena'

For a few weeks in February, if the water is flowing in Horsetail Fall, and there are no clouds in the western sky, photographers and park visitors gather in the waning evening light for an amazing natural display.  The Horsetail Fall phenomenon appears when the angle of the setting sun sets the waterfall ablaze with reds and oranges, like a fire was falling down the cliffs on the shoulder of El Capitan. The first image above was shot from a location on South Side Drive, and the one below it from the El Capitan picnic area on North Side Drive in Yosemite Valley.

The Yosemite Falls Moonbow

The image of 'The Yosemite Falls Moonbow' above, also know as a lunar rainbow, was shot at 10:45 pm, 14 May, 2014, at Lower Yosemite Falls. It occurs at night, around the full moon, during the months of April, May and June. The conditions required for this phenomena to occur are a clear sky, enough wind at the bottom of the falls to create the necessary mist, and of course enough water to come over the falls to create the required mist. Some years are better than others, and some days around the full moon are also better than others. As with most landscape photography, a certain element of luck is required, but the more you research, plan ahead and work hard, the 'luckier' one seems to get!

Enjoy!

This blog is inspired by a poem by Lord Byron, ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage', and I have taken the liberty to quote below the few stanzas that are most inspirational to me on a personal basis, and relative to my experiences as a photographer in particular. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more

'Blue and Gold'

‘Lord George Gordon Byron [1788-1824], commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement, he is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential. He travelled all over Europe especially in Italy where he lived for 7 years and then joined the Greek War of Independence fighting the Ottoman Empire, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died one year later at age 36 from a fever contracted while in Missolonghi in Greece. Often described as the most flamboyant and notorious of the major Romantics, Byron was celebrated in life for aristocratic excesses, including huge debts, numerous love affairs with both sexes, rumors of a scandalous incestuous liaison with his half-sister, and self-imposed exile.’ ~ Wikipedia

Growing up in the tropical paradise of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) I have always had a deep connection and admiration for Nature. There is something both calming and exciting about being in Nature, and I began my photographic journey at an early age with my Dad’s camera shooting amongst the beauties of the estuaries and jungles of Ceylon. To this day, one of my earliest memories is of looking down into the viewfinder of a Roliflex camera and composing an image of an ocean scene, and placing a Banyon tree off to the side in the foreground, and thinking to myself how much I loved doing this! Then going into my father’s crudely put together darkroom in our modest home, developing the film, creating a proof sheet of the twelve shot roll, and eventually printing a copy of that scene using an enlarger, placing a paper in a tray of chemicals and watching the print gradually appear of the scene I had shot was pure magic to me.

Over the last four weeks of this year, I have placed myself in Nature on three occasions, where I was reminded just how magical and awe inspiring it can be to witness the never-ending facets and changes this pursuit provides. As a photographer, I feel that being there at these moments allows me to capture a ‘sketch’ of what I am witnessing. My job on these occasions is to compose, focus and correctly expose the image that I bring back home with me, that I then take into my ‘digital darkroom’ to develop into an image that best represents what I witnessed in the field into a fine art product.

Sometimes I go out to various locations with a certain image in mind that I would like to create, hoping that Mother Nature will cooperate and provide on a particular morning or evening. I have found that this typically leads to disappointment. What is more effective is to go to a location with an open mind, with the attitude that I will create with and enjoy what Mother Nature decides to provide on any particular day. So here are some highlights of what I brought back with me from the three locations I visited recently, Death Valley National Park, Yosemite National Park and the Big Sur coastline along Highway One, south of Monterey, California. Enjoy!

'Shadows and Light'

Early morning light on the Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California

'Yosemite Sunrise'

An especially beautiful sunrise from Tunnel View, Yosemite National Park, California

'Paradise Found'

After numerous visits to this beautiful spot I was fortunate to find this beautiful sunset at McWay Falls, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, California

Happy New Year to all my family and friends. It is my sincere wish that 2014 brings you Peace and Happiness! I would like to thank everyone that have supported my photography through the years by buying my prints or taking the time to Comment or Like posts on my Facebook page - thank you! 2013 was an interesting year for me personally and creatively. I began the year having to deal with the loss of every piece of photographic equipment that I owned, having had it all stolen from my vehicle in SoCal in December, 2012. As it turned out eventually, it was a blessing in disguise because it gave me a chance to replace/upgrade all of my equipment with items that I really wanted, and make choices from experience and use in the field, rather than from hearsay or magazine articles.

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.” ~ Ansel Adams

I ended the year with a collection of some 10,850 images, captured from January 10, through December 25. When I am out on a photo shoot I usually have a modest goal of coming home 'with a couple of significant photographs'. That is based on the Ansel Adams quote above, as well as my experience from various photo shoots over the years. It keeps me calm and grounded verses being manic about what I need to get done on any given day's shoot.

So, this blog is a summary of my most significant images of 2013. The decision to make these selections, and the order of the final 12 photographs is determined by the number of Likes I have received from posts on my Facebook page http://facebook.com/djgrenier I will count them down from number 12 (with the # of Likes) and say something about each image, as well as provide some basic EXIF data.

#12 'Three Brothers Sunrise' (53 Likes)~ this is an image of the Three Brothers, a rock formation in Yosemite Valley, California. It is located just east of El Capitan and consists of Eagle Peak (the uppermost "brother"), and Middle and Lower Brothers. John Muir,  a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, and early advocate of preservation of wilderness in the United States, considered the view from Eagle Peak to be the most beautiful view of Yosemite Valley available.

November 16, 2013, Yosemite National Park, CA, Exposure 0.6 sec at f/11; focal length 25 mm; ISO 100

#11 'Against All Odds' (54 Likes) ~ this is an image from a fall photo shoot in Sedona. Shot early morning on our last day at Slide Rock Park, I was looking for something different to what all the other photographers were shooting and found this beautiful little waterfall. It was difficult to get to but the lone fall leaf, perilously surviving the rushing water, caught my eye and I created a composition around the theme of fall and survival.

October 17, 2013, Slide Rock Park, Sedona, Arizona, Exposure 1/8 sec at f/11; focal length 55 mm; ISO 100

#10 'Sand Dune Art' (55 Likes) ~ an image from my trip to Death Valley in November. Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it is the lowest, hottest and driest area in North America. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the point of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet (86 m) below sea level. Death Valley's Furnace Creek holds the record for the highest reliably reported air temperature in the world, 134 °F (56.7 °C) on July 10, 1913.

November 14, 2013, Mesquite Dunes, Death Valley National Park, California, Exposure 1/15 sec at f/11; focal length 45 mm; ISO 100

#9 'Lake Fire' (58 Likes) ~ I drove up to South Lake Tahoe on a July evening, chasing clouds I began to notice in the afternoon near my home, about ninety minutes away. Went straight to my favorite spot in Emerald Bay, hoping that the clouds would cooperate for the evening's sunset at 8:30 pm. Cooperate it did and how - the most colorful and spectacular sunset I have ever seen in Emerald Bay!

July 10, 2013, Emerald Bay, South Lake Tahoe, CA, Exposure 0.3 sec @ f/11; focal length 18 mm;  ISO 100

#8 'Fall In Yosemite' (58 Likes) ~ Fall in Yosemite is a special time of the year, for brilliant colors and beautiful reflections. It is clearly one of my favorite seasons to visit this incredibly beautiful valley. Captured this image at a not so well know spot that provides for fall colors and reflections on the Merced River, together with the subtle low light of the morning's sunrise.

November 16, 2013, Yosemite National Park, CA, Exposure 1/50 sec at f/11; focal length 24 mm; ISO 100

#7 'Heaven's Gate' (59 Likes) ~ this particular evening in August, I started out on my way to the gym when, from out of my garage I noticed interesting clouds in the sky. Thinking to my self this could be a good sunset, I grabbed my camera and tripod and headed out to one of my local go-to locations. Just got there in time, maybe even a few minutes late, to witness this amazingly colorful, OMG sunset!

August 18, 2013, El Dorado Hills, California, Exposure 1/6 sec at f/11; focal length 24 mm; ISO 100

#6 'Seeing Double' (69 Likes) ~ I decided to join a group of friends who wanted to shoot the Milky Way at Wright's Lake, Kyburz, on an evening in early September. We arrived at this location just as the sun was setting before we planned to move to a different location for the Milky Way shoot. The light on the mountains in this alpine setting caught my eye, with the reflection on the lake making for a classical image.

September 6, 2013, Wrights Lake, Kyburz, CA, Exposure 0.5 sec at f/11; focal length 16 mm; ISO 100

#5 'Half Dome Full Moon' (71 Likes) ~ I went to Yosemite in November with two goals; shoot the fall colors and capture the rising full moon near Half Dome from Tunnel View. There were about 30 photographers lined up at the viewing wall on that evening, lots of talk and discussion, each one with their own guess/prediction as to where the moon would rise and at what time. Then, all of a sudden there it was, and all the chatter stopped, replaced by a palpable quiet as we each began the process of capturing what we had waited patiently for so long!

November 16, 2013, Yosemite National Park, CA, Exposure 1/5 sec at f/11; focal length 228 mm; ISO 100

#4 'Fall Brilliance' (78 Likes) ~ this is one of my favorite images from of my November fall photo shoot in Yosemite. Fall is a time that reflections in the still waters of the Merced River are the most brilliant. When you add fall colors to the iconic monuments of Yosemite, it is hard to find a more beautiful time of year to visit this magical place. Spent about an hour at this location, first arriving in the morning when there was very little light and a bald white sky, to this image when the sunrise lit up the fall colors and a beautiful sky provided a brilliant image of reflections and colors - just doesn't get much better than this!

November 16, 2013, Yosemite National Park, CA, Exposure 1/40 sec at f/11; focal length 24 mm; ISO 100

#3 'Contentment' (79 Likes) ~ captured this image from The Gates of the Valley, also known as Valley View. From here you see El Capitan (left) and Cathedral Rocks and Bridalveil Falls (right), no falls due to an unusual dry winter. I have been to Yosemite several times over the last few years and this is one of the finest images I have been privileged to create, with the remnant fall colors and these magnificent granite structures ~ leaves me feeling very satiated, grateful and content as an artist.

November 16, 2013, Yosemite National Park, CA, Exposure 1/40 sec at f/11; focal length 16 mm; ISO 125

#2 'Into the Mystic' (87 Likes) ~ This image won 'Image of the Night' at the local Sierra Camera Club's Travel Singles Competition in November, out of 56 images submitted that particular night. I have never submitted images in this category before and this was my first experience at street photography, in the Brisbane Queen Street Mall, Australia. I asked this man permission to photograph him, but I was so intimidated/introverted I only released the shutter twice, apparently just enough to come away with this haunting image!

October 7, 2013, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Exp. 1/200 sec at f/5.6; focal length 105 mm; ISO 100

And the Most Significant and Popular Photograph of 2013!

#1 'El Cap's Magical Light' (88 Likes) ~ After it had snowed for most of the night on December 6, 2013 in Yosemite I drove into the Park in the early morning the next day. I was not allowed to go up to Tunnel View because they had not finished plowing the snow in that area and this is the first sight I had of the majestic El Capitan, which is amazingly beautiful with early light and low clouds. Located on the north side of Yosemite Valley, near its western end, this granite monolith extends about 3,000 feet (900 m) from base to summit along its tallest face, and is one of the world's favorite challenges for rock climbers.

December 7, 2013, Yosemite National Park, CA, Exposure 1/30 sec at f/11; focal length 28 mm; ISO 100

There you have it, my first annual top 12 list of significant photographs in a year. I am very happy with my accomplishments this year, learned a great deal and have numerous journeys set up in the year 2014, including a 21 day journey back to the country of my birth Sri Lanka. My planned itinerary should put me in interesting places to hopefully allow me to have another  creative and successful photographic year.

And as we all say goodbye to this year and look forward to the next, let's take a few moments to be grateful for our family and friends, and all that we have accomplished, as well as all that we have earned and been given in this life.

Enjoy 2014!

I am sometimes asked by friends and family why their photographs don’t look like mine. My answer usually includes an Ansel Adams quote, ‘You don’t take a photograph, you make it’. The 'making' of a photograph begins in the field. A good photograph should be a well composed, tack sharp and correctly exposed digital (preferably RAW) file, or a negative as they used in a bygone era. There are volumes of information available that teaches a photographer how to use a digital camera and ‘make’ a good original digital file.

This blog is about what I did to ’make’ a specific photograph of mine, 'Into the Mystic'. I wanted to show you my original file, and briefly describe the various post development steps that I used to ‘make’ the final photograph, that turned out to be one of my most popular images! Post development takes lots of time, creativity and skill, a vital and necessary step to 'making' a photograph.

Ansel Adams also said, ‘Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships’. Dodging and burning were terms used in photography for a technique used during the printing process to manipulate the exposure of a selected area(s) on a photographic print, deviating from the rest of the image's exposure. In a darkroom print from a film negative, dodging decreases the exposure for areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter, while burning increases the exposure to areas of the print that should be darker. Today, there are hundreds of software tools available to a photographer to develop a photograph and ‘take care of mistakes God made in tonal relationships’, as well as the mistakes of us mere mortals!

During my last annual visit to Australia I set out one day to try my hand at ‘street photography’. I wanted to walk down the Queen Street Mall, downtown Brisbane, and photograph people that I saw that captivated my interest. Most of my photographic experiences over the last several years have been based around landscapes. I feel intimidated and a little introverted to go up to someone I do not know on the street and take their photograph, not from a far but up close with their full knowledge.

So it’s this fear and the desire to overcome these negative feelings that motivated me to set out on a train bound for Central Brisbane on October 7, 2013. After photographing a couple of street musicians, mostly from a far, I stumbled upon, what I thought was ‘the most interesting man in the world’. I wanted to photograph this man from close up, so I walked up to him and somewhat timidly asked if I could take his photograph, to which he graciously said yes! Still being intimidated and apprehensive, I only managed to squeeze off two images, both shown below.

I thanked him and said ‘You have a very interesting face’, and he joyously burst out laughing as I walked away. I wish now that I had stopped, sat next to him and engaged in a conversation. When I looked at the images I had shot in my view finder I was not that pleased but was just too inexperienced, apprehensive, etc. etc. to go back and ask for his permission again.

When I got home I uploaded the original  RAW files into the software that I primarily use for my post development work, Adobe Lightroom, I was disappointed with what I had captured and went through the typical 'if only I had done this and then that, etc.' They just looked dull and uninteresting to me, but fortunately they were tack sharp and fairly well exposed. I decided that I would develop the closer up image, on the right above, because what interested me the most was his head and face, and that omnipotent mass of white hair. What began to develop in my creative mind was a real close up of his face and eyes; 'the eyes are the windows to the soul'.  I then felt that what I wanted to create would just be more striking and dramatic in black and white.

   

So, I simply looked at the image in Lightroom in black and white, left. I then processed it further by cropping out some of the background and refined it more using the NIK plug-in for Lightroom, 'Silver Efex Pro 2'. This software provides a lot more tools to allow a user to fine tune a black and white image globally as well as in specific areas, right. Finally, I felt I was on the road to creating an image that captured the feelings I had when I first stumbled upon this man. Again, I was drawn to those eyes and that massive amounts of silver hair, and thought the best way to emphasize these points of interest was to crop the image in tight. This was then my final adjustment and the final image is shown below.

And so that is how I stumbled upon and made 'Into the Mystic', from two images that I did not care for to begin with and turned into one of my favorites! After all, it is not how you begin sometimes but how you end that matters!

“You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.” ~ Ansel Adams