Mike Osborne's Water, Granite and Light book on Yosemite Waterfalls

Legendary photographer and retired Yosemite park Ranger, Mike Osborne, is set to release an updated version of his book on Yosemite waterfalls entitled "Granite, Water and Light: The Waterfalls of Yosemite Valley" set to release in April. The book is already available for pre-order and should be on every Yosemite photographers list of books to have. I purchased a copy of the original book that I found used on Amazon.

I had the pleasure of shooting with Mike Osborne while on Michael Frye's workshop shooting fall colors in Yosemite and Mono Lake. Just an incredible man - and he likes abstract rock images similar to mine! He told some amazing stories of being about and around in Yosemite.

Cheers,
John

A few additional awards from the Palo Alto Camera Club

Wednesday evening, we held the final photo competition for this year at the Palo Alto Camera club. We had prints and digital competition. Quite an array of images including many with fog in them! I guess the weather has been quite foggy in the morning.

I am always amazed at the array of images. I submitted 3 images and 1 took a second place award, 1 took a third place award and then the image my wife hated- got blasted by the judge (I was trying to be a little TOO creative). Taking risks and trying new things is part of the creative process! I will continue to push the edge and try new things... in the mean time.... I should have listened to my wife! I will listen to my wife. I will listen to my wife. I will listen to my wife :-) I should have seen it as fate when I caught my three year old drawing on my freshly printed image (the one my wife didn't like) that was sitting in our other room! Hmmm... did she put him up to it?!?! I will never know! I am just happy to have done so well with my other two images!

The two images I entered that placed were: 2nd place, Winter Storm over Mono Lake at Sunset that is at the top of the blog and I received a 3rd place award for one of my new images that is debuting at the Rok Bistro restaurant as a new image in my series "Rockscapes in the Valley of Fire" - "Sunset at Rainbow Vista in the Valley of Fire" .

It was a fun evening with quite a few amazing image - the Palo Alto Camera club has an AMAZING group of talent and strength of images - I am happy just to participate and share!
Enjoy! John

Yosemite and Mono Lake Fall colors

Just wanted to share a few images from my recent trip to Mono Lake and Yosemite in early October. It was 90 degrees the first few days and then an early snow dropped 6 inches of snow! The fall colors together with a fresh snow was a nice surprise!

I am partial to water, sunsets, moons and reflections and will go out of my way to chase these.

The "Painterly Aspens in Snow" was a new technique that a friend of mine uses quite often and I thought I would try - free hand panning (one of those few times the camera is off of the tripod!). I have quite a few images that DIDN'T turn out - this will take some time to perfect. I am VERY eager to see this printed on canvas.

The "Storm over Mono Lake" image was captured on a day with 1-2 foot waves that created this salt-brine foam around the edge of the lake - the 20-30 mph winds and sub-30 degree weather presented some challenges for this shot. I opted for a long exposure (4 second) to smooth out the waves to give a really mystical and different look of Mono Lake.

Critique, Comments and feedback are appreciated. Let me know which images you like the best!

Thanks,
John

"Reflections in the Eastern Sierra"

"Sunset at Tenaya Lake", Yosemite National Park - Tioga Pass

"Early Snow and Fall Colors in Yosemite"

"Painterly Fall Aspens in Snow" Yosemite National Park

"Storm at Sunset over Mono Lake"

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Back from Yosemite and Mono Lake in Fall

I just spent 5 days shooting up in Yosemite and Mono Lake looking for Fall Colors. I will post pictures shortly! The fall colors are running a little lake this year. On top of that, it was 90 degrees when I left Sunnyvale and a cold front came through dumping 6 inches of snow in the mono lake area and drove temperatures down to a high of 30! It was a little cold. Why was I up there? I was talking a workshop from Michael Frye through the Ansel Adams gallery in Yosemite. It was a fantastic course with both shooting and lightroom/photoshop instruction. I picked up quite a few new things and really appreciated the 1-1 instruction from Michael and his two other assistants, Robert and retired park ranger Mike Osbourne. More stories from that later after I get the pictures posted!

Enjoy!
John