Elizabeth Carmel's Landscape Photography Blog

Thunderstorms & Wildflowers in the Sierra

Summer in the Sierra brings dramatic displays of both thunderstorms and wildflowers. A few weeks ago we had a dramatic storm that started to clear at sunset, leaving a spectacular display of clouds and rainbows. I set up my tripod on a hill near my house to get these shots of rare mammatus clouds and a rainbow at sunset. 

 

Clearing Storm at Sunset, Tahoe Donner

  Thunderstorm at Sunset 

I also visited one of my favorite locations for wildflowers - the Carson Pass area. Even though it was mid- august the flowers were still blooming due to the very cold & snowy early summer. These shots were taken at sunset. I was pleased to get a few shots that worked given that it was extremely windy. Wind and low light are not a good combination for wildflower photography. I had to crank the Hasselblad H4D iso up to 800, and underexpose by a stop, to get down to 1/15 of a second which only worked to stop blowing flowers during the infrequent pauses in the wind. Out of the hundreds of frames only these 2 were really usable due to wind blur. I was not able to get the depth of field I like since I could not shoot at f22  due to the need for a higher shutter speed, so the background is not as sharp as I would like, but it was the best capture possible given the conditions. 

These new images that are unmanipulated, just developed to maximize tonal range in photoshop cs5. Nature can sure put on spectacular shows!

 

Wildflower Meadow at Sunset

 Evening Glow

 

New Black & White Images from Paris

We spent a week in Paris in July. We rented a great little apartment on the left bank that gave us easy access to all the sites. I have edited the collection of images I took from about 500 down to 20 Fine Art Prints of Paris  that have released on my website. I decided to convert all of them to Black & white since I thought  that gave them a more dramatic and timeless feel. In particular, I thought the Eiffel tower was wonderful to photograph when lit up at night (the lights go on for only 5 minutes every hour, starting at 10 PM). We also staked out a spot in front of a view of the Eiffel tower where the tour de France riders would be coming by on their last day. I was pleased to get a shot of the yellow jersey of Contador riding into Paris. All of the statue images were from the Louvre, which still allows photography.

For Black & White conversions I used Nik Silver Efex, with some final touch up of the psd files in Aperture and Photoshop.

Paris is endlessly photogenic, and really overwhelms you with options. All of my shots were taken with the Hasselblad H4D which I used at 800 iso for the handheld images. The night shots of the Eiffel were on a tripod at 100 iso.

 Illuminated Eiffel Tower at Night

New Images from New Mexico

I have completed a portfolio of 8 black and white photographs from New Mexico that are now on my website in a new portfolio titled "New Mexico B&W". I decided these worked best in black & white based on the stong graphic elements with the adobe churches and with the ancient stone dwellings at Bandelier National Park. These images were taken with the Nikon D700 & 14-24 mm Nikon zoom, all handheld. In a departure from my usual MO, I took all of them in blazing daylight (another reason to show them as monochrome images, where the patterns of shadow and light are more dramatic). I added a few touches using Nik Color Efex Pro and Nik Silver Efex. I love the tonal contrast feature in Nik Color Efex, but I usually dial back the effect to less than 50% to avoid making images look overcooked. I hope to visit more cliff dwellings this Autumn on a trip through the southwest, I like how they translate to monochrome. I think it gives them a somewhat timeless & mysterious feel.

HIgh Country Photo Expedition

I just returned from a week in the high country in Kings Canyon National Park. Our base camp was at about 11,300 feet in elevation in the Dusy Basin. My goal was to get some final images for my upcoming book, which I accomplished with no problems. I have alot of info to share here about computer -free image backup and solar powered battery chargers, etc. I will be doing a future detailed post on all this info. I have posted 5 new images from the trip in the High Sierra Portfolio on my website - here is one of my favorites - a rainbow at sunset over the Palisade Range:

New Portfolios of Images from Italy

I have put together 2 new portfolios of my images from Italy. This is just the first group, I will be adding more throughout the months as time permits. All these images were taken with the Nikon d3x. The first portfolio is titled "Tuscany I", and I have put all the images from my previous trip to Tuscany in a portfolio titled "Tuscany II". On this most recent trip I had a chance to spend more time in the scenic Val d'Orcia, where the hill towns of Montepulciano and Pienza are located. The light is constantly changing on the beautiful landscapes in this area; scenes never appear to look the same twice. As with any location photography, the best landscape shots were in the golden hours around sunrise and sunset. I experimented with doing some HDR images using Photomatix in Aperture. I have found that sandwiching images together with Photomatix does not work that well for shots with moving foliage, since it leaves a little halo around the leaves. It works wonderfully if the subject matter is not moving, but alas that rarely happens in landscape photography.

I have also put together a portfolio of images that are more retouched and stylized (Stylized Italy). For this collection I used a series of filters in Nik Color Efex Pro. I also experimented with the Lucis pro filter but then discovered that the Tonal Contrast in Nik Color Efex does almost the same thing without bleaching out the color. These images were taken throughout Italy, and include some from Rome and Amalfi. I will be adding more shots to this portfolio when I get around to processing my images from Pompeii, which truly is the singular most impressive historic ruin I have ever visited. This is a must see for everyone, and photographers will be especially delighted with the wonderful compositions that are everywhere among the ruins.

 

International Photography Awards 2008

I was thrilled that my series on the Pacific Coast won a 2nd place award in the profeesional photographer 'Waterscapes" Category of the 2008 International Photography Awards. There are many great photographs to look at in the list of winners, you can check them out at:
http://photoawards.com/08/contests/2008winners.asp

I also really enjoyed the series that won 2nd place in the landscapes category:
JOSEF HOFLEHNER - 2nd place - entry 52327 - Title: Niagara Falls - WELS, AT - you can see his work by clicking on the link in the winners list. I enjoy seeing a new interpretation of a place that has been photographed alot, in this case Niagra Falls. 

Sierra Wildflowers are in Bloom / High Sierra Expedition

The wildflower bloom here in the Tahoe Sierra is in full swing. Despite the smoke & haze from all the wildfires the wildflowers seem to be doing very well this year. Maybe the hazy skies are prolonging the lives of the fragile blossoms for a little longer, sparing them the worst of the harsh mountain sun. The fire haze has made this a very difficult season for sweeping landscape vistas, but has actually made the macro and detail shots a little easier thanks to the filtered sunlight. This shot of Squaw creek, near Squaw Valley  was taken on a smoky evening when ash was falling from the sky!  I will be working on photographs from other high country locations over the next month.

My major expedition this summer will be a trip for 1 week into the high country of Sequoia near Mt. Whitney. I will have more details on this trip in a future post, but at this time I can share that it will be a fully supported pack mule trip to the very highest reaches of the Sierra, and also include a complete solar charging station for all the photo & computer gear.  A variety of artists will be going, including invited writers & painters from around the country. I was pleased to be invited as the landscape photographer. This will be an unprecedented opportunity for me to work at remote locations and high elevations that are difficult to reach without a supported expedition.

I will be posting more of my wildflower discoveries here as I capture them. Many readers have probably heard about the new 50 megapixel Hasselblad that was introduced - the megapixel arms race continues!

Ansel Adams Gallery Blog / Flickr

There was an article on the Ansel Adams gallery on the front page of the New York Times a few days ago. I also discovered the new blog from the gallery staff, which is a great way for photographers to stay in touch with what is happening in Yosemite.

I also finally started uploading images to my Flickr account. If blog readers are interested in being a contact on Flickr, you can access my images & info via the Flickr bar to the left. I have just uploaded some of my poppy images, but will be adding more later. There is a great plug in for Aperture that makes it easy to upload any image via the Export menu.

Off to Maui

We are off to Maui for a week, so I hope to have some new Hawaii images to share when I return. We hope to have a chance to visit with our friend Randy Braun while we are there.

A recent interview has been posted at the website Photography Sites, so you can check that out for some additional info on my work.

Aloha!

New Wildflower Images

I have completed a selection of 9 images from my recent photo shoot in the Sierra Foothills using the new Nikon D3 and the 14-24 zoom. It was mildly windy so I used the D3 at iso 400 to 600 and shot with a small aperture to maximize depth of field. Using the high iso I was able to get shutter speeds of over 1/200 second, enough to stop the blur of wind movement and still maintain depth of field. I love the wide angle 14mm - all of the close up shots were taken at the widest angle possible. I was able to get very close to the poppies and still get a large range of view to make dramatic images. I am very pleased with the image quality from this system. While it cannot even begin to compare with the detail of the H3D, I was able to get shots that would not have been possible with the H3D due to the wide angle and need for fast shutter speeds with small aperture.
Here is a link to the images on my web site: http://www.elizabethcarmel.com/#a=0&at=0&mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=0&p=7

I only spotted one rattlesnake, laying across the trail on my way back. I'm glad one did not surprise me while I was crawling around in the poppies! I almost stepped on one a few years back in a similar area, so I keep an eye and ear out for them when I am in areas like this in the Sierra foothills.